The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex - From $65K Job to a $20M Hibachi Empire: Eddie’s Unstoppable Rise

Episode Date: February 15, 2025

🔥 What happens when you ditch a $65K tech job to build a $20M business? In this episode of The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex, we dive into the insane success story of Eddy The Rock Star, the mastermind behind a nationwide hibachi catering and food truck empire.Eddy breaks down: ✅ How he walked away from a safe career to chase something bigger ✅ The social media marketing hacks that skyrocketed his business ✅ How he turned a single food truck into a multi-million dollar brand ✅ The mindset shift that took him from employee to unstoppable entrepreneurThis episode is packed with high-level strategies, marketing secrets, and the motivation you need to take control of your own success. 🚀 If you're ready to break out of the 9-5 and build something massive, this is a must-listen!🔔 Subscribe, drop a review, and share this with someone who needs to hear it!CHECK OUT EDDY: https://www.instagram.com/eddytherockstar/?hl=en“Your Network is your NETWORTH!”Make sure to add me on all SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS:Instagram: https://jo.my/paulalex2024Facebook: https://jo.my/fbpaulalex2024Youtube: https://jo.my/ytpaulalex2024Linkedin: https://jo.my/inpaulalex2024Looking for a secondary source of income or want to become an entrepreneur?Check out one of my companies below to see if we can help you:www.ATMTogether.comwww.CashSwipe.comFREE Copy of my book “Blue to Digital Gold - The New American Dream”www.officialPaulAlex.com

Welcome to the Level Up Podcast. I'm your host, Paul Alex. I went from being a cop to an eight-figure entrepreneur that helps average people like you and me make money every single day. I created this podcast to help you get motivated and to crush your goals. Let's win together.

Remember, I have your six. Get ready to level up right now. Hey guys, and welcome back to the Level Up Podcast. This is Paul Alex, and today I have a special guest. He's actually one of my good friends, Eddie. And Eddie is a 24 year old entrepreneur that just hit over $20 million in revenue. And it's gonna surprise you from what? Guys we're talking about catering, we're talking about food trucks and a specialty niche that

no one is doing in the online space or that I've heard of do this much money in revenue from this business. Hibachi guys. So get ready. Here is Eddie. Eddie, what's up my man? What's up guys? How you doing? Eddie, the rock star here. It's been an honor to come to this podcast. Thank you for inviting me, Paul. And yeah, we should get started. Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I'm 24 years old. I came to the States in 2016, which makes it a little over nine years now.

And I started here as a student. I came here as an exchange student, but there is a program called Flex. I was a student in high school. And then I had a dream to become a software engineer and You know how they come from humble beginnings and like it coming from Asian culture is like you always have to be at the top You always have that cousin that's always like getting those degrees doing all this and that and I wanted to kind of come here to pursue my dream my American dream which I

Thought it would be software engineering, but I didn't realize that my life would turn to this right now, what I have going on, because I thought I was in college and doing this and that. And right now I'm totally like different and I'm in business now and I thought that I would be doing a lot of things differently, but now I'm here. So Eddie, let's go ahead and let's break it down

for the audience right here, guys. Eddie, he is a savage when it comes to business, guys. Look, Eddie came to the States, the United States only nine years ago, okay? Nine years ago, and now he's a multimillionaire. Are you the bloodline breaker in your family? I'm the bloodline breaker. That's what I'm talking about, man.

Hey, hey, hey, that's what it's about guys. Generational wealth. Going ahead and breaking it down and being that one leader that goes ahead and changes how your family is gonna go for years to come. So Eddie, where exactly did you immigrate from? Where did you migrate? Yeah, so my country is a very small country of six million people in Central Asia. It's called Kyrgyzstan. It's right next to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, all those Asian countries. They're a little different than the normal Asian countries that you might think of like China, Korea, and Japan. So it's a little different. It's like our country is like 94% mountains and like we're totally different.

We're closer to the Caucasus than the actual like. So it's like a rural area. Yeah, it is, yeah. That's amazing. And did you speak English coming into the United States? I spoke, I broke in English. I knew a lot of the grammar because we would go to like English schools,

like we would take all those classes, but like, no, I didn't speak any English. Like, not like this. Wow, that's amazing, man. And man and then okay so you came nine years ago with the dream of becoming a software engineer. Did you always want to be a software engineer when you were a kid? Well that's the thing when I was a kid I was always like thinking of all these guys like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and I always wanted to be like like them some reason. And then software

engineering is one of the paths that I wanted to take because like I'm good in studying, I was good in school, I was always an A, like straight A kid, and I thought that would be the path for me. And that's why I wanted to do something in the field of engineering. But then a little bit later when I came here, I realized that software engineering is the path to go for me and that's why I chose it. So then how much influence did your parents have on your decision of coming to America and then actually pursuing that? Well it was, well my parents definitely had a lot of influence but it was my grandma, my mom's mom that had like because she

lives here and then she lived here for a long time and then she would come visit and then when I was little I grew up with her since I was what five or six years old so I always like would miss her and then she would come visit every summer and I was always like hey I wanted to go with you to the states and but I didn't know what it was like what it meant to go to the states because like everybody would say oh go to America go to America I didn't know what it was, like what it meant to go to the States, because like everybody would say, oh, go to America, go to America. I thought it was the same thing just around the corner. I didn't realize it was so far from family.

And in 2015, my grandma came down. I was like, okay, I'm gonna take you to school. You're gonna come with me. And then next thing you know, I started doing all those exams, TOEFL, all those exams. And then I started, like I passed them with like flying honors, and next year I was already here.

I was in Houston, Texas. I lived there most of my American life, and that's how it all started. My grandma was the number one influence that I had to come here. I love that, man, because when we met, that man, because you know, when we met, and if you guys don't know, we met actually through a mentorship.

One of our mentors is Andy Elliott. He's one of the best sales coaches in the industry right now. And we met at one of the after parties after the conference. And then we got to know each other, you know? And you know, I'm all about synergy, right? Energy and good people and people that like know and they're the best at what they do, guys. So when I met Eddie, I was so impressed.

I was so impressed because look, just think about your story, dude, how powerful it is. You were from another country. Your grandma that came from the States came and inspired you and gave you the vision and was just like, Eddie, you can do so much more. You're a smart kid, right? Otherwise, if your grandma didn't have that influence on you, what do you think you'd be doing

back in your country, dude? Well, I would probably still be there because if it wasn't for my grandma, like forcing, like literally forcing my parents to let me go, I would probably be there. But I do think that I would still be doing some very good things there because I I always had the vision of you know succeeding. I was always like around that and

One of the biggest factors of me having that mindset was my uncle He was always in the business and like doing this and that and it's my mom's younger brother and I spent a lot of time with my grandma and my grandma would come stay at my uncle's house and I would always see him on like business calls, business meetings. At one point he used to own the biggest company that would manufacture suits like in Kyrgyzstan and it like my country huge. And it's like having that as your first mentor, uncle Alex and having him like that, that influence was huge on me because I always had that,

I would say the entrepreneurship mindset, but I didn't realize that until I came here because all I had in my mind was study, study, study, get a degree, get a job, and just go to the office, do this and that. And there's nothing wrong with that. But now that I came here, I've saw a lot of people doing a lot of different things.

It's like, here in America is like land of opportunities, capitalism is great, and everybody can succeed because we don't have that back home. And like a lot of people don't realize that. People that are born here, people that live here, they don't realize how lucky they are to have that. For us, it's like a dream just to come to America, make a few bucks and then go back home. But now that I'm here making a little more than a few bucks and like I want to be here, I want to grow

here in America, I want to have my kids here to experience all this and to go through this all again because I want wanna help some people like me because there's a lot of people coming in here with the similar background that I have and a lot of immigrants are very smart and bright but they don't have that person to show them, hey look, I did this, you can do this too. Because let's be real, people coming in here,

they only have like school degree, like they always wanna be like engineers and this and that, but there's a lot more than that because you can also use the degree to kind of capitalize on like a lot of different markets. So I would say that we're a little off topic now, but Monkol was one of the biggest influences in having this mindset for me.

I love that, man. I love that. So you leveraged not only your wits, but your smarts. And then, okay, let's get to the point of your story. So you go to college, you get your degree. What happened next? Like where was the transition where you were like, you know what, I'm gonna try entrepreneurship.

Yeah. So the story is actually very wild because while I was in my junior year in college at the University of Houston, like I was always like a part-time server, part-time chef. And at one point, you know, COVID happened. And when I was a server, the restaurant kind of closed down for a month.

But being in Texas, like we reopened back like right away, like different states and we were doing like to go orders and they were down a chef and I kind of seen everything on how to cook and I like to cook myself and I was like, okay, Japanese food is kind of easy to cook on a grill. I just have to learn all the sauces and stuff. So I went into a train and after a week, next thing you know, I started becoming a chef, like as a sous chef to the head chef that we had at the location. And I was working part time and with COVID there, my school was online, so I started working full time.

And next thing you know, it's like I'm already cooking up. I became a really good chef, which I didn't think, because I had no idea that I would be a chef like that. And Eddie, before we get deeper into the story, what year was this? It was right when COVID happened. So it's 2019, 2020, yeah. Okay, 2019, 2020, man.

I remember COVID, you know, I was coming back from Egypt with a good friend. And I remember my mom calling me and she, I'm on the plane, dude, coming to California. She's like, me whole. She's like, hurry up. There's a virus. They're about to shut down, you know, uh, everybody coming into the United States. I didn't believe it. And then no shit in you dude. Two days as I get into the States, boom they shut the borders bro and I was like whoa what happened bro? You know and it changed the world. Yeah right. So let me ask you man, how hard is it to be a chef? Well it is. Because it's an art right? It is an art definitely. Yeah it's definitely hard to be a chef but if you know your stuff, if you're doing everything, because like, you don't have to invent anything, because everything's already been like, invented, and you just have to follow the procedures and keep everything clean. And well, it's also like, I would say it's hard, but it's also easy. Like, so it's like, from which perspective you look at,

if you're already a chef, if you know what you're doing, then it's easy and it's your lifestyle. And that's how I started. So, but if you're not a chef, I was like, oh, I can never be a chef. It's hard. You have to learn all these things, but no, anybody can become a chef with proper training. Wow.

How much are chefs making right now? Just based on your experience. Yeah. Well, the chefs at restaurants, they're not making much for sure. It's like, and I'm basing all this on like, hibachi chefs, because I'm not sure what the other chefs are making. But hibachi chefs are making about four to five to six grand, depending where they are. If they're in California, they're making seven, eight grand. But this is a month. This is a month. And, and this is the chefs that work at restaurants. And they're very seasonal because

This is the chefs that work at restaurants and they're very seasonal because restaurants are very seasonal and they get laid out when it comes like to January. That's it. Nobody has a job. Only the head chefs stay. But with us, it's like our chefs, we are we always in season. Well, we are in and I'm sure we'll get into it a little later. But we're in 33 cities right now. And if it's not a good season in one city, it's definitely a great season in another.

So we always have those opportunities for our chefs and our chefs are making anywhere from minimum of five, six grand to 12, 15 grand a month if you're a head chef and that's a lot. I love that. I love that, man. I would like to call your business concept a floating asset.

Floating asset. Use that. Okay. It's a floating asset opportunity guys, let's go. Okay, cool. So you went ahead and you started as a chef and then what happened next? So I started as a chef and while I was in school,

I was like, you know, always trying to juggle both school and my full-time job but then I realized that you know there's a lot of opportunities and becoming a chef and I can do my own thing but I quite didn't have the idea yet because like I always wanted to have somebody like something like a restaurant but like I knew that it's not profitable if you like don't know your stuff. And I was just a chef. And then it comes to my senior year, I graduate. And I was still like looking for a job

as a computer scientist. And I was looking at it and I found a job as a software developer during tests. I got the job, it was like 65 grand a year. And I was like, okay, I made it. But then I- So let me ask you, Eddie. You get hired for that job at $65,000 after you graduated,

and what do you think? You're like, dude, this is a lot of money. Yeah, that's what I thought. It's like, this is a lot of money. But then I get my first paycheck, all the taxes, social security, Medicare. I get, this is not much I'm making the same thing at a restaurant. I was like, okay, what am I doing next? And then I was like, okay

I have to do something and then at the same time The restaurant that I used to work for they started doing catering events like private events Like the chef would bring a grill to your house do those events? I was like, okay, that sounds fun and they started doing in a couple cities they started doing in Houston, Austin and in Dallas I was like that's very interesting you can definitely scale that and I started like learning more about it how they do it and I transitioned from a restaurant to becoming a private chef and I realized that this could be scaled to every city in America how come nobody's's doing it? And the company that I used to work for, they were owned by two Chinese guys.

And I came to them, I was like, okay guys, I'm gonna help you do this. Let's grow together. I can grow this. And they just laughed at me like, you're only 22, 23 years old. Are you coming at us like saying all this, all that, and that, okay.

And I told them, okay, give me a couple months. I'm gonna show you. So I grew, I moved to Austin, I quit my job. I moved to Austin, my job, software engineering job. And then I moved to Austin. I opened up, like the location was already there, but they weren't doing much. And I started doing all the marketing

and I was always had interest in like Instagram marketing, Facebook, TikTok marketing. And at that time, the social media was like the ads were doing a lot better than now, but. Oh yeah. Yeah, because that was a gold rush, dude. I mean, you're talking about like during COVID and even like a couple of years after COVID,

everybody got so used to being at home, watching their phone and all that jazz. Yeah. Having a chef come to your house, it was huge because nobody goes to restaurants at home watching their phone and all that jazz. Yeah, and having a chef come to your house was huge because nobody goes to restaurants at that time and we would wear masks like six feet, all that stuff. But the best part was the cooking was outdoors. So like there was like zero scare of catching COVID or whatever and I started doing that and we quickly grew to a team of ten people and I was like okay let me expand to those other cities that you have was okay no we already have

partners there I was like I'm not a partner I'm just trying to help you guys grow and they started like shutting me down it's like okay we know what we're doing and they started copying what I do and opening up in new different cities I was like okay let me become a partner. We're gonna grow together. And next thing you know, they were like, no, you're not gonna become a partner, you're just a chef. And then I was kind of sad at that time.

I didn't know what to do because I had some money to start my own company. Like I said, my uncle, Alex, that was in my country, he also was here doing a lot of his businesses here as well. And then I came to him and was like, hey, what should I do? He was like, you should start your own thing. I can fund this.

And I was like, okay, cool. And then we should to the limit. That's what I'm talking about, dude. I gave my guys one to two months of like notice that I'm leaving I'm gonna do one thing I warned them I'm gonna start this I'm gonna be your competitor and they started laughing I was like okay cool. Dude so you actually told your bosses. Yeah. You're like hey bro you don't want to make me a partner so I got an investor I'm about to start a company against you and I'm letting you know a month or two ahead.

Yeah, that's what I told them clearly. That's what I said and they didn't take me seriously. Yeah. They didn't think you could do it. They didn't think I could do it. They didn't think I could become their partner. Dude, were they hating? No, like.

They were cool, but they were like passive aggressive? They were passive aggressive and they were like in their 40s and 50s. So they had a different mindset than me. Of course. And but like they owned like a couple of restaurants. So they were like pretty well off and that company was just like extra source of income.

They didn't even want to invest. And the main factor was the investment part. They didn't want to invest to open in like many different states because they thought it was too risky with COVID and stuff like that. And, but I had like, COVID was the single best thing that ever happened to this business,

because this business model wouldn't exist without COVID, because there was no such thing as a private hibachi event before COVID. And like Japanese food is a staple in America, and I has been here for about 70 years, and like everybody knows of Benihana, everybody knows of hibachi tricks. We all love it bro, we all love Japanese food, trust me. Yeah so it's definitely a good thing for the business and next thing you

know I moved to Phoenix, I moved to Arizona and the reason I moved to Arizona because they were already big in Texas so I wasn't gonna compete with them in Texas. I moved into Arizona, Arizona I started why Arizona out of every state because it was warm like it was like year-round city and like even during the summer you can cook like just fine and just as long as you're out the Sun for sure yeah but Arizona was it's also one of the biggest cities by population in America is like fifth or something and That was one of the factors It was either that or a LA and a delay was a little too risky because of the regulations at that time

And so we started California Arizona was a perfect middle Texas and California. It's like if I moved to Arizona and I felt like I was in Texas still, which was great. I started there with a couple of my guys. Some of the guys that I hired for the company, they used to work for them still. And then once I opened my company, they were like, I want to come work for you. I was like, okay, I'm going to pay you a little more because you're coming in from the beginning

and you're gonna be like minority partners in some cities if you save up some money. But at that time, there's like no company. It's like, it's just me and a couple of guys just like starting this. We just have all those permits and LLC. That's it, that's all I have to my name. And, you know, I had a good chunk of investment money

and I started with about 50 to 60 grand, which was a lot of money for catering. And I ended up using a lot of it just to get big in Arizona. I partnered up with the biggest influencers there. So you spent majority of the budget, the 50, $60,000 you had on marketing. On marketing.

That's what I'm talking about. Marketing solves everything, dude. Everything. Everything. I always tell people these three things, Eddie. Look, the three main pillars you guys need in any business, it doesn't matter what people do, okay? You can be in real estate, you can be a plumber,

you can be a electrician, which is big right now. Those businesses, they're huge right now because all the bloomers are leaving, right? So you need new operators Are you college kids out there to go ahead and take over those business? But here's the thing majority of those boomers dude remember your ex partners or your ex bosses They're boomers. Yeah, they didn't think hey, dude Let's pivot to social media and market the shit out of our business and then expand, dude. Everybody has a phone.

Everybody has a phone. You know, you can get in front of people, but you gotta be smart. Dude, that was a great move, bro. That was solid. Yep, and that was the best thing that I've ever done because if you look at it, that was a big risk because if it doesn't pay off, I'm out of money.

Yeah. And, but the good thing is I had a backup. I had my uncle, like, I'm gonna give you more if it doesn't pay off, I'm out of money. Yeah. And but the good thing is I had a backup. I had my uncle like, I'm gonna give you more if it doesn't work out. Yeah. And but he told me to make it work. It was like he literally told me, -"You gotta work or you gotta work." -"You gotta work, yes." And next thing you know, we started partnering with all those companies.

We started hiring a lot more chefs. And in the next couple months, we opened up in Texas because we realized right away we can just open up. If the business is not going well we can always close down it's like and it takes like about four weeks to get all the papers done which is easy for catering it's a lot different than having a restaurant because we don't have a brick-and-mortar location and basically we opened up in like in less than five months we opened up in 10- 15 cities and in five states and we

started growing from there and they saw like my ex bosses, they saw the growth that we had and they started investing in their business, like in their catering. They hired some young kid and to do that, it was probably their like relative or something. I never seen the guy. To do the marketing. To do the marketing, to expand, to hire chefs. But a lot of their chefs were from restaurants. It's like, when you just get started, the main problem with the Hibachi catering service is

you don't have a constant flow of parties, of events, so your chefs don't get paid. And those chefs would work at restaurants and then call in sick when they have events. But it wasn't sustainable at all. What our chefs, I hire anybody, but most of our chefs were younger guys, a little older than me a couple years.

They were hungry. Yeah, they were hungry, they were all working, and they were all immigrants. And they always wanted to come here and they started as chefs at restaurants. Like the first 15 chefs, they were like full-time restaurant chefs. And I told them if you come work for me, believe me, we're gonna make a lot. So and I would pay their salary from my own pocket. Like even if they don't have events, I would still pay them. Yeah, and took care of your people. Yeah, I took care of my people. they took care of me and that's how we were able to compete with everybody else with them because those guys my ex company was a lot bigger at that time and

they had a lot more chefs and uh now we have a lot more chefs than them they're also in a couple cities and uh but we are in over 30 cities right now, 15 states, and we open August of 2023, and it's a little over a year now. So, Eddie, let me stop you right there before we keep going ahead, because this is exciting stuff, dude. This is very inspiring, especially, you know,

I know a lot of my friends, a lot of my family members, I know a lot of my network is gonna watch this they're gonna be like dude We need to meet Eddie Eddie the rock star. Yeah, but not dude. So, okay How many employees did you have? Before you hit your first meal Before I had my first or when you hit that one mill like how many Operators did you have with you? About 20 to 25. Dude, that's amazing.

20 to 25. That's amazing. I like to call that lean and mean. Lean and mean, yeah. Which is good, that's how you're built. And one thing that I could relate to you, bro, is that you build a culture, you build a vision,

and you lead by example. You took care of your people, even though there was no income coming in. Majority of new business owners, you know, they get the million dollars and everybody's like, oh my God, million dollars. What a lot of the younger business owners do nowadays, they end up taking the profit

and spending it on stupid shit, right? And that's how you run out of business the fastest way guys. Don't do that. And reinvest in your business, like Eddie, okay? And then you can scale up to 20 million so okay cool all right so you went ahead you had uh you're inspiring these uh these operators and you're making them minority partners how does that look like let's so let's say you know um i see you on instagram okay and? And I'm like, hey dude, I just graduated

from culinary school, I'm hungry, I'm young, I'm like 20, 21, I wanna be a minority operator. How would that look like? So it looks a lot different now than it used to back then because we were just getting started, we didn't even have a structure, like we were just getting started. And right now that we already have the structure,

we already have everything, it's a lot harder to become that partner in the company. And most of the partners that are becoming partners now are the chefs that are used to work with us for a long time. Since the beginning. But what it looks like is they can work for me and they show that they can handle the pressure, they can handle being a team leader, sharing the vision. It's definitely a must because in the company we have the culture of, we work for the vision, we don't work for money. We look at it, we look at the end goal and money is just a side effect of doing things right. And that's how we look at it we look at the end goal and money is just a side effect of doing things right and that's how

we look at it but some people coming in they only want to make you know it quick cash and then just go do their own thing which is okay they always also make me money by like working but those guys that are that end up staying and and um becoming, they definitely have to share the vision as like we're a growing company, it's our second year now, second full year. And now that we are kind of established and we have that social media presence, we have the presence in the catering industry,

because nobody else does this like this. There's a lot of different companies that do you know, do similar things, but they don't take it seriously like us because I know those guys that started those companies and they're doing pretty well for themselves. They're making money, but their chefs are not making money. Their company is not growing.

It's not gonna be sustainable for a long time. Whereas, of course, in my company, I'm making money, but so is everybody else. Everybody else is getting the share that they work for and I think that's the best part about the culture that we have is everybody's growing and if they want to invest money in the company, they open up a new city. For example, if you just graduated from a culinary school, you're coming in like, okay, I don't want to come work for you. You work for me for a few months, you show that you actually mean it.

And then you want to become a partner. Then we have the talks of like opening up the city. For example, we're not in like Seattle. You want to move to Seattle and have our franchise there. Right now it comes with a food truck. In any new city we open, it comes with a food truck. So you invest a certain amount of money. The most that I allow my partners to become, to get is like 30%. But the minimum is like you can get as little as five, 10% and just work. But

it's going to be worth it if you go like a little more. And every city is priced a little different because of the market research of nearby cities. For example, we weren't in Vegas for a long time, but we were in LA, we were in Phoenix, we were in Salt Lake City. And then Vegas was like booming. We like, our chefs would drive from Phoenix to Vegas for events. So we opened up Vegas. And one of the chefs that would actually like drive five hours for an event, he

wouldn't even ask for gas money because he wanted to become partner there and I was like no you can't do that dude and I would still pay for gas but it's like he would do it from like from his heart like he was like I don't want to help the company grow. It's passion. Yeah it's passionate and I was like okay you want to become partner. He didn't even say anything and I actually was the one to offer him that I was like you already go in there a okay, you want to become partner? He didn't even say anything to you. And I actually was the one to offer him that I was like, you already go in there a lot, but you want to become partners? Okay, let's do it. And he had a lot of family members, young hungry guys that wanted to make some money.

And they came in for training. And a couple months of training, they started becoming chefs. And now Vegas is one of our biggest locations. I love that. Yeah, dude. I mean, Vegas is such a hub because you have like a lot of tourists in there I mean, we're just talking about the click funnels of that Russell Brunson There's gonna be literally like over 10,000 marketers their business owners all that stuff and all these people they all make money, right? So at the end of dates, it's a big big big area to go ahead and invest you. You have a look you have a any anybody in Miami? We have a lot of people in Miami. Miami is also one of our

biggest locations because of all the tourism, all the batch parties, Key West. Yeah and not only Miami we're in Sarasota, we're in Key West, we're in Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, so we're, we just took over Florida. I love that. I love that. Okay. So, all right. So you went ahead, your business is now booming. Okay. What are you focusing on now, dude? I know that when we talked to at Andy's event, you were like, Hey dude, you know, I'm thinking of getting into food trucks and then start building them and like, you know, putting them out there. So talk about that right now.

You transitioned from Habachi and now you're just stacking more businesses. So let's talk about the food truck industry. Yeah, so we're going to Andy's Advance is like, and also going to default for a PBD. One of the best things that he talked about that stood out with me was just adding on to your business. I'm not sure if you were there,

but he had a diagram of all his businesses. They're all connected. They all bring some kind of profit to one another. And I realized I can do the same thing. And having restaurants is good, but it's not very profitable right now but having food trucks is like you generate almost the same revenue by not having the same investment so I thought about it and last year we started our first food truck in Phoenix

last year in April and it wasn't very well at the beginning because it was hard, like we didn't know what to do. And it was very hot as well in Phoenix. And so we started and then after a few months, we kind of like knew what to do. We kind of caught the hang of it and we started like doing a lot of sales. Our like first real month with about 50, 60 grand, we thought it was really nice. And we net about 30% of that. No restaurant nets 30% of their revenue. Dude, no. Restaurants are usually what, like underneath 10%? Underneath 10%, yeah. One to 10% is like the net that they get from the revenue.

And it's very sad because- You work hard. Yeah, you work hard. You invest a lot of money and you get less than 10%. And it's like, like okay it's bullshit. But food trucks was one of the best things that we ever thought of and then we opened up in Dallas and we kind of slowed down on that because we didn't know like how it would work out and it started working out great and now we're in February and we have eight trucks now. We have two in Phoenix, two in Dallas, we have Austin, Orlando, Miami,

Houston, and opening up a lot more and rolling out at least one or two food trucks a month to come with those cities because we already have a lot of existing cities that need food trucks and getting into that was huge and that revenue that I had $20 million was solely from catering. It was from private events and now looking into this year, private events, it's also going to be good. It's also going to do a lot of revenue but food trucks definitely going to add a lot. Yeah, it's definitely going to grow like that. What are you projecting? We're projecting. Well, it all depends on how many we have more

but from what we have right now we're at least going to double in revenue this year. I love that. So you're looking at a 40-50 million dollar year. Which is huge for us because we're only like second year in business and we're still learning a lot and I can't wait to like our third or fourth year because by the time we're gonna be the sharks in the business. Right now we're baby sharks. We're learning, we're learning from everybody, taking in all the advice.

But right now I'm only 24, I'm gonna turn 25 in a couple months. It's like, what is next for us? Because when we go to all these events, everybody's a lot older than me. And they're at least in their 30s, like early 40s. And they're at least in their 30s, like early 40s. And they already made it in life.

And everybody is like already successful at that period of time. But I still have 15 years on those guys. And so I still have a lot of room to go. No, you have a lot of room to grow, dude. And you're just gonna grow and grow and grow. And you're gonna be massive, dude. Like I can't even see, I can't even see your guys' business demolishing Benihana.

Yeah. I mean, let's be real, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. It's time, it's time. But okay, so let me ask you, so for investors or anybody watching right now, let's say they're like, dude, this is super inspiring, I wanna work with Eddie the Box Star.

Like, is the investment to invest in one of your franchises, I know you talked shortly about like the hibachi business, but is the food truck business a different investment? Yes, it's totally different. So if you invest in a food truck, we have a couple of different investment options. If you wanna become a silent investor, just invest your money, park your money in a food truck,

and do that, that's also good. But we also have investment opportunities investor, just, you know, just invest your money, park your money in a food truck and do that. That's also good. But we also have investment opportunities for chefs that want to come work and own their food truck. And they would own some share of that franchise. And we would all share the profit and but we would be helping with all the marketing with all the paperwork and everything who would be the one to take care of that is like a turnkey business. Basically, you come in and you invest your money, but you have to know, you have to go through rigorous training. You have to, because working in a restaurant and working in a food truck is totally different.

It's very similar in a lot of ways, but there's a lot of factors they need taken and food trucks are a lot harder to run than a restaurant. And there's a lot of regulations they have to follow because once you get caught with not following the regulations, you get shot down. You can not open under the same identity in that city anymore. And that's why you have to, if you do decide to work with somebody like that, because there's a lot of different opportunities for investment in different companies other than us, but you have to choose to work with the right people that know what they're doing. And the ones that take care of all the compliance part, it's huge. Because once we grow to this amount, it's like, because we grew very quickly.

It was literally like vertical growth and we didn't take care of a lot of things and we made our mistakes, but the best part about it is we learned from them now that a lot of things we're doing is like totally different and we're always looking for new partners, new, like even if you don't have money, you can come work for us, make money, and then become a partner. So it's like-

I love that. I love that. That's a massive opportunity, man. I mean, you know, the fact that you're giving someone who doesn't know anything about business an opportunity to come work with you, learn from you, which to be honest guys, I think that is the biggest key takeaway here

if you're listening on Apple, Spotify, or you're watching this on YouTube. The biggest key takeaway is, it's not the money when you initially start a business, it's actually the mental assets that you consume. Just like you said, dude, you guys are baby sharks, you guys are consuming everybody from the different entrepreneurs and networks

that you're in right now, everybody that's like my age or in their 40s, and dude, you're gonna be a beast. I mean, you're already a beast, but like we're talking about nine figures, like killing the game, bro. So I don't know if it's okay if we could talk about like, what would be the range for like a silent investor?

Is that something that we could talk about? Yeah, for sure, we can definitely talk about that. Okay, so somebody right now, let's say somebody is doing good money. They're like, dude, I wanna park my money somewhere where it grows and with somebody like you who knows what they're doing What would a sign investor invest investment look like for a food truck? Yeah, so we do a lot of different investments and starting from a 50 grand and up and we even had some silent investors that invested

seven figures in the business and they're generating passive cashflow which is good for them because they're already succeeding in life and they're not worried about this but if you believe in the company, if you believe in like what you invest in, you're definitely like, we have a lot of opportunities. So something basic we'll be looking at is about,, we have a lot of opportunities. So something basic

we'll be looking at is about, let's say $100,000. You invest $100,000, you can expect 10 to 15% of that a year while still having that equity in the business. And, but as of right now, we're like shifting to, it's like we have a lot of cashflow and we don't really need silent investors unless it's somebody that can bring value to the company. My man. Yeah, so that's what we're shifting towards to because you have to. Yeah, because our biggest problem right now

is the people to run the businesses, to run the food trucks, to run all the cities. And that's been the biggest struggle, having the right personnel, having the right people that can do that. So, and if you having the right personnel, having the right people that can do that. So, and if you have the money, it's good. But if you also wanna come make money,

cause like you're gonna make a lot more if you're like, if you're actually active in the business. Exactly, you're gonna make a lot more, you're gonna learn a lot. And I would say the biggest takeaway for all the investors that I have is the mind, like the mindset shift because they're coming in, like a lot of the chefs, they don't know much about business. They don't even

know how to cook, but that's good. That means you can learn. It's never too late. And it's easier. It's easier to learn than have somebody that came from an existing business that probably didn't know what they were doing or probably failed and they bring those bad habits. They absorb everything fresh right because they're the experts. Dude that's awesome dude. You know we might have to talk about this. But no I totally get it and you know in business man I mean this is for me like having able to employ you know gratefully over 200 people in the past four years is that, one thing that I learned is it's hard to find people that are passionate.

You want to be able to find and groom people and basically make them a copy of you. Exactly, that's what we want. And have the same heart, culture, drive, passion, because at the end of the day, what grows a business is conviction, dude. Conviction, you know? You gotta be like, we're the best.

And we're like, but nobody knows you, but we're still the best, right? And that's just the way it goes, dude. Conviction, you know? You gotta be like, we're the best. And we're like, but nobody knows you, but we're still the best, right? And that's just the way it goes, dude. So let me ask you, man. Okay, so Hibachi to food trucks, catering. And I know you were like, dude, I'm starting to invest in real estate. So why, and like, you got all these booming business, bro.

Why real estate? Because it's all it's also connected to my business to catering to the food trucks. Yeah let's talk about it. And I always want to like if I put my money in something and if I put my time into something I want to make sure that it benefits my other businesses as well. So like I said we have over 100 people working for me right now and they need housing. So it's basically like they pay rent, but they don't pay rent in a way like if the house is like $2,000, they pay only some part of it.

It's like another way of like, of me like giving back to my people and they save money, but also make me money, which is good. And like, by owning those houses, I can like eliminate a lot of the costs that I already have. For example, if I would rent a house, if they would rent a house, like a five bedroom house for five people,

it would be like $3,000 in Arizona. But if I would own the property, the monthly payment would be half that and that would save them all the money. Like nobody can find a house for like a $1,500, like a five bedroom house, which also has all the nice things and the features, but it's like, how do you say?

It helps my business because it also grows and it saves them money. So it's like integrating all that into the hibachi business because all of our chefs need housing in different states. And my goal is to have at least one house in 33 cities that are already in because they're already making money. They're paying rent anyway. So why not just own those houses

and just own the property just like McDonald's, is like, you know what they're doing, it's like they're making all the money from real estate, from all those guys. Because they're renting it out to the franchisees. Exactly, and that's what we can do, that's what I'm trying to do right now. I'm investing in five cities right now,

I own five houses, one here in Fort Lauderdale, and which is good, and like, and it's also going up in value and hopefully it's gonna keep doing that. But I'm not very, my focus is in the catering and in hibachi, whereas buying a house was very simple, but also I'm not trying to go heavy in the housing business just yet, because I don't wanna make sure that my focus stays

where it's at right now and we keep growing because that's the main source of revenue. And that's a smart move, man, because with a lot of beginner entrepreneurs, dude, I've legit ever since joining the digital space back in 2020 myself, I've talked to hundreds of thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs, clients, my network, great entrepreneurs like you, dude.

And the number one thing, the number one mistake that I see with beginner entrepreneurs, which you're pretty squared away, like you're very knowledgeable, bro, is the fact that you are focusing on your main source of income. Majority of people, once they get a little bit of money, they end up going ahead and diversifying

and then forgetting that they need to focus on the main bread and butter. You know, it happened to me last year, dude. I was running two eight figure companies. I was running a high six figure company. And dude, I was lost in the sauce, bro. Like I was depressed. I was like, why am I getting older?

I was just like, damn, bro. Like I was depressed. I was like, why am I getting older? I was just like, damn, like what's going on, right? But in the outside, right? In social media world, everybody, my friends are like, oh, this guy's super successful. He's able to handle it, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I'm like, dude, no, like, no, dude, this is like, I feel like shit.

So it's great, dude. You're investing in real estate, but you're doing it to help your team, which is phenomenal. Because I know now that you're doing it to help your team, which is phenomenal because I know now that you're helping them with housing. One of the biggest needle movers for me back in 2021, actually my first two employees that I had hired for one of my eight figure companies, I told him, I was like, I had a penthouse in San Diego. I was like, Hey guys, like I got five

bedrooms. Like why don't you just come stay with me? And they were like, okay. So those guys, they ended up being the best, best employees I've ever had, dude. One of them helped me grow the two eight figure businesses and now is traveling the world. Like he's in Africa, he's gonna go to Dubai, he's gonna go ahead and travel to Columbia, but now he's building his own business. And he's just like, dude, like, this is amazing.

Thank you. And then the other guy, he started a sales agency and he was like, he came from Vietnam. He was 20 years old. Now he's 24, but he's like my, my, like my CRO, my chief revenue officer, one of my companies. And he's going ham, dude. He's living life.

And that's what it's about, dude. It's all about your people. Your people, man. You got to invest in your people, the culture, everything. I love that man. So cool. So you're investing in real estate, but it's not to go ahead and make rental income. It's more to help your business by providing that to your employees. Exactly. And like, I'm not like really looking for that revenue from, because it's not much. It's like, it's more about having those people stay somewhere nice, having those people with no problems from like landlords and stuff like that.

Like I would be their landlord, but I'm not making any money from them. They're just making minimum payments to the house which is good for me, but also good for them. So it's good for everybody to win-win. And that's where I strive for. And like you said, I'm not looking to like diversify what I do right now because

I don't see a point in that. I see the vision that I have for the company is at least a hundred million dollars. And we're trying to like, you know, grow it to a point like that. And talking with a PBD and he has a guy, his name is Aaron and he's a very smart guy. He's a little older than me and but I talked to him a lot and there's like the vision that those guys have it's and it's also at the LA group I Bryson is my guy he they have that vision for my company it's like I didn't have that vision I mean that's a lot I met them because like I was thinking if it can do 20 million, which is great, that's it.

That's like the ceiling for me. But no, right now it's not even, it's not even the bottom anymore because yeah, it's like we have a lot of room to grow and like if we do everything right, it's gonna be a hundred million dollar company in a couple of years. Brother, you know, majority of business,

new businesses, majority of them, they end up failing within like one to three years dude dude you you are outlier you you like defeated the odds and like all the haters your previous you know bosses that were like nah like you're just a chef bro you just went ahh boom like you're like you know get out of here you know I'm dominating and that's awesome now that you told us your secrets, bro, you gave us the secret sauce. Let's talk to our audience, man. So anybody watching this right now,

I mean, you're a young guy, dude. You came nine years ago, bro. So when you were like, what, 15? I was 15, 16 years old. Yeah, dude, 15, 16 years old. And you came in there, you're like, dude, I'm gonna go to college. I'm gonna basically live the old school American dream.

That's why I like to call it the old school American dream. That's why I like to call it. Old school American dream. But you're living the new American dream, bro. You know, you're your boss, you're young, you're killing it. And you have that vision of creating a nine figure business. And you're doing your game into it by now. Figure out the doors. Well, what more do you want?

So for anybody watching right now that is possibly like, let's say in high school, college, they're trying to figure out their life, maybe they're in a rut, you know? What type of advice would you give them about going and starting a business? Like what would be some key takeaways that really helped you? I would say the number one thing is like, you have to be able to work for somebody

if you wanna be your boss. Like if you wanna become the boss, you have to be able to work under somebody. That's one of the best things that I was able to experience because becoming an employee is like, you know, people look at it like, all the young kids right now, like they don't want to work for somebody. They want to have their own business,

but then they don't realize it's like, if you're an employee, you work from nine to five, but if you're a business owner, you work 24 seven. It's hard. So people still have that illusion of like, they think that being an entrepreneur is easy, but no, it's easy in some ways. You have your own schedule and stuff,

but it doesn't mean that you have no schedule. It means you just make your own schedule, but it's a lot more stacked. It's like, you have to be able to manage. You have to, if I had to give one advice to somebody, it would be to have a mentor. It would like, that was... It would make things easier.

It literally makes things easier for you. It's like, why would you wanna have all those, like have the learning curve, like two or three years, do all the mistakes when there's somebody that's already made those mistakes and can teach you, like show you the way. It's like like right now, if like somebody is getting started in catering,

it's like I didn't have anybody to learn like in that niche, but then I did it myself and it's good. But as somebody that's like starting, if they fail, they might lose motivation. They might not have enough cash to keep going. And there can be a lot of factors. And when you have a mentor you know that that guy is gonna show you the way.

He's not gonna do it for you. There are no means he's not gonna do it for you but he's gonna show you the right way and I think like it's very like under like it's very underrated. It's like you also need a lot of like training in sales also. It's like 100 you also need a lot of training in sales also. It's like- 100% Sales is everything. Sales is everything. It's like, you and me talking right now,

I'm selling myself to you. It's like, literally like, the number one skill that you should have is like sales. You have to get good in sales. You have to be a good leader, show, you have to lead by example, and you just have to get started. Honestly, like, too many people are just waiting

for the right opportunity, for the right- Perfectionist. Yeah, exactly. You just have to get started. Honestly, like too many people are just waiting for the right opportunity for the right. Perfectionists. Yeah, exactly. You just have to get started. You have to fail. And like, if I fail right now, I'm still only 24. If I fail in five years, I'm only 29. And like, you can still succeed.

It's like, why not just stack up all the experience, all the, cause like failure is good for you. It's like, that's how you learn exactly. They don't teach that in school. In school it's like, if you fail, you get an F and you're not encouraged to fail. But in real life, you should fail. You should fail as many times as you can

to like, to learn from those mistakes and like succeed. And I think that's one of the main key takeaways that I've learned from a lot of different entrepreneurs that I talked to to from my mentors. You just have to start, you just have to start somewhere. You just have to start in perfect action. Exactly. Don't be a perfectionist, work on your time management.

I mean, dude, you're preaching to the crowd right now, dude. Like seriously. All right, cool, man. So talk to our audience right here, let them know, give them some words of encouragement, motivation from a 24-year-old multi-millionaire that came to this country nine years ago, and give them that sauce bro. All right, so like I said, I came here nine years ago, I'm only 24 now, I spoke zero English when I came here, and I was able to make it in life,

was able to make it in the new American dream. That means anybody can do it, you can do it too. All you have to do is just keep your mind like be focused on what you're doing. Like don't get distracted by all the social media right now and stuff like that. There's a new study that came out that was 82 hours of distraction every week. It's like more than a full-time job. And like Patrick Badaud has a video on that. It's like this year of 2025 is a year of surprises

and a year of distraction. There's gonna be so many things that will take away from you, from your path. But you have to be dialed in, you have to get into the monk mode, whatever you're doing, you can be in school, get into studying, you can be in like, starting your own business, you just have to get dialed in,

you have to pay for those mentorships, you have to get into the sales trainings and you have to succeed. Like you have to do whatever it takes. Like it doesn't matter if you're just getting started or if you have some money. If you have some money, it's good. You can invest all that in yourself

because the best money you can invest in will be in yourself and self growth, self improvement is the name of the game right now. It's if you're young, if you're under 30 years old, you can, there's so many people to learn from and I would suggest you start doing that now. Don't wait for the right opportunity, don't wait for the right right moment the time is now and it's like Dana White said it's so easy to succeed in today's age because everybody's so lazy everybody is like doing on like I don't know

on Instagram YouTube whatever TikTok but if you're dial in for six months to a year you you'll be surprised how your life can change and I think that advice can apply to anybody if you're dial in for six months to a year, you'll be surprised how your life can change. And I think that advice can apply to anybody if you're already successful too. If you're making seven, eight figures, if you dial in for six months, you can make nine figures. It's like, it's that compound. But the effect that you have on your life is like,

if you focus in, if you dial in, it's same with me right now. I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't party, I don't go out, I don't use social media. I'm just dialing in on my business and that's it. I think that's the secret sauce is just keep working, keep grinding, there's no secret. Like some people are looking for the secret way to do this,

one way to do it, but no, you just have to get started. You just have to do things, don't think too much. Just have to go ahead and do this, one way to do it. But no, you just have to get started. You just have to do things. Don't think too much. Just have to go ahead and do it. Keep failing. And that's, you have to carve your way to success. And that's your path. And everybody has a different story. So make your own story, write your own story.

And that's why I'm here. I wanna, like, if you're looking for somebody to learn from, I'm always here. I'm young and you can learn from me. I'm not going to charge you anything. We can be friends, this and that, because I met a lot of guys at like the NDA LA Advanced. Young guys are my age, but they're not where they want to be in life. So we just, you know, I show them the way. I kind of, they have, everybody has their own path, but if you have good mentors,

you're definitely going to get there. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. You just dropped a couple of things on there, bro. So where can the people find you dude? Um, IG, YouTube, like all social media platforms. Where do you want to direct them? Yeah. So if you're looking directly for me, you can find me on Instagram at Eddie the rock star. But if you're looking directly for me, you can find me on Instagram at Eddie the Rockstar. But if you're looking to work for us,

if you're looking to work for Rockstar Hibachi, that's literally Instagram at Rockstar Hibachi. You can DM us there. You can file a form on our website, rockstarhibachi.com. Anything. If you have any other questions with like catering or whatever you want to get started, and if you want to work for me or would it be anything else just DM me on Instagram at Eddie the Rockstar and I'm your guy.

There, there you guys have it guys. Eddie the Rockstar founder and CEO of Rockstar Hibachi guys. 24 years young, multi-millionaire, came to this country just nine years ago. Man, what an inspiring story. I highly recommend that you guys share this with your family, friends, anybody that you care about because this will set anyone on fire. I'm pumped right now. I'm pumped right now.

This was a solid, solid interview podcast with Eddie guys. Make sure to check us out on Spotify and Apple and on YouTube. This is the level of Podcast with Paul Alex. We'll catch you on the next time. Let's go. Thanks for listening up to the Level Up Podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to share with a family, friend, and everyone, you know, who's ready to level up.

Leave a five star review on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and wherever you tune in. It really helps spreading the word. And don't forget to check out officialpaulalex.com for more episodes and resources to kick start your journey. Let's level up together.