Interview #8 Julie Jacobs - The Joy of Elevated Comfort Food!

Rick D Barron (00:14.641)

Hi everyone, I'm Rick Baron, your host, and welcome to my podcast, That's Life, I Swear. 

My guest today is Julie Jacobs, a culinary innovator who has transformed her rural upbringing into a very impressive career. She will share her passion for food from memory sparked on Hickory Lane, where homemade butter and fresh ingredients inspired her love for cooking. 

Now she's known for blending French techniques with California's seasonal produce, to create what's called elevated comfort food. Beyond the kitchen, Julie expanded into holistic nutrition and launched Single Serve Co. during COVID-19, helping small coffee businesses succeed. 

As a founder of Hickory Lane Catering, her vision has expanded into the San Francisco Bay Area, Lake Tahoe, and Southern California. Now, Julie has a great motto that I love, flowers grow from manure. 

Please join me as we explore her journey, flavors and resilience. 

Julie, welcome to the show. It's so good to have you here. 

I think what the audience doesn't know is that I had the pleasure of meeting you when you catered my birthday party and that was great. I mean, the food was fabulous, I got to tell you. 

Julie (01:20.268)

Thank you. Glad to be here.

Rick D Barron (01:43.523)

But for the benefit of the audience, could you give us a little high-level overview of your background and kind of where you are today?

Julie (01:56.997)

So, I moved around a lot as a kid, so I was introduced to lot of different types of cuisine. I think that's kind of where my journey in that area started, was just being introduced to so many different things, and I'm a curious person by nature. So, I think that by having those opportunities, I was always in the kitchen. 

I was always trying new things. And then fast forward into married life after college, I had premature twins. And because of the way I was raised, I was around a lot of people that kind of looked to food as medicine. So that was a natural inclination of mine is to kind of delve back into the food and see what I could do to help them to thrive.

And then fast forward another 15 years and the marriage doesn't work out and suddenly I have to reenter the workforce. And very hard for women in that situation to reenter a workforce when you haven't really been in a job for 15 years. I was in human resources before I had kids, but I was, I didn't keep my fingers in it too deep and wasn't really hirable to a lot of companies. 

Rick D Barron (03:26.673)

That's an interesting story. So, yeah, I can understand, you know, the trials and tribulations you must have gone through during that process. know, out of all that though, I think you grew to become a much stronger individual. And I think you had no choice but to stay and become strong. 

Now let's kind of start at kind of the beginning of what I know thus far about your story and what you shared with me when I first met you and maybe you can expand on it. I believe you started a Single Serve Co; I think was that before or after COVID-19.

Julie (04:07.86)

I was a partner in a CBD coffee company, Cold Brew Coffee was our product and we had CBD. We were right on the beginning edge of the CBD movement and we had pretty good traction going in. That was my first investment after my divorce and it took off well, but then COVID hit and we just didn't have enough traction to make that happen. 

So, we folded, but I was left with this understanding that there are a lot of other small companies like ours out there that were struggling. We had invested in some equipment to make single serve pods like the kind that go in Keurig machines and that kind of got my wheels spinning in that direction because we weren't able to outsource that because we didn't have enough volume. 

So, I started a low MOQ project to help local coffee companies, not even local, but just small coffee companies, to be able to enter that market. And that was kind of the brainchild. Did all of the, you know, did all of, crunched the numbers to make sure it would be profitable, and just kind of got going on it. And that was at the, that was just as things were starting to reopen. So, the end of 2020.

But we had another shutdown not long after that. So, I think we're going to get more into the challenges of that with some of your next questions. But yeah, that's kind of how it started with that, was just the wanting to help other small companies that were still making a go of it to enter a market that they previously couldn't.

Rick D Barron (06:02.257)

Sure. I mean, what did you learn a lot about what did you learn from that period in your life with starting this Single Serve Co, if you will? I'm sure there was a lot of things that you never would have learned had you not fallen into that by happenstance, so to speak.

Julie (06:21.908)

So, one of the things that I kept thinking about was I worked for a company called Avery Dennison for 12 years right out of college. The founder, Mr. Avery, he started his business during the Great Depression. He borrowed money from his girlfriend to start it. And today it's Fortune 500 Company. And it was fabulous company to work for and to get that base level training. And I just kept thinking of him.

Julie (07:19.128)

So, I just, think I use that as inspiration, but I also, you know, I, I also use other things, other background information that I had, like opening a location. I was, we had built our own home, so I was familiar with the permitting process, building out things. It was a little bit different in the commercial zone, but not that much different. everything takes much longer during COVID. 

They still hadn't completely opened, so I knew that I had a really long period of time that I was gonna have to wait till we were fully functioning. And I learned about that too. Like sometimes you just gotta go ahead and get, you know, ask for, what is the phrase? 

Ask for, sorry, and move the words, ask for forgiveness instead of permission, and if you get slapped on the hand, you get slapped on the hand. But it's all, you know, never with a nefarious intent, right? It's always to do good.

Rick D Barron (08:06.873)

forgiveness. Yeah. Right.

Julie (08:24.804)

We just, I just kept plowing ahead. I was lucky to have some friends that were willing to step in and partner with me. And the biggest challenge we faced was the sales, just getting to the right audience. And as I've learned, you don't have a business unless you have sales. And I mean, that's a lot of people think, well, no, no kidding. But you'd be surprised how many people launch a business and think that it'll just come to them. And I think I was that naive in the beginning also, but I'm not anymore.

Rick D Barron (09:00.369)

Well, no, I mean, I mean, we're going to get in more in depth of your career, but I think just this episode of your life had to have been a real eye-opener. But what you have described, you're an individual that, okay, what do I do? Well, let me figure this out in 10 seconds. Okay, we're going in this direction. And you just, as you say, you just dive into it because you don't have time to sit there and waddle about, poor me. 

It's like either I paddle the boat in this direction or we're just going to spin in circles. So, I think you showed, at least in that time period, that you just described a lot of resilience, a lot of oomph that, hey, I'm going to get out of this. I'm going to scrape my knees. But you know what? I'm probably going to learn a lot, which I think you just described along the way. Now from the Single Serve Co, you didn't branch off, I think, into the place where you open what was called The Kitchen. think that was in June of 2020. Is that correct?

Julie (10:07.896)

We did open, actually, my birthday is May 31st and that was the day we were granted our permit, so it was a wonderful birthday present. When I leased the space for the packaging business, there was, we had to have a commercial kitchen to do the packaging, and there was a walk-in cafe space. 

This is a bit of a segue, but it's a very beautiful story and inspiration is that this particular space had been owned by a man who had a small coffee company in Simi Valley, California. 

His kids had gone to school with my kids. I did not know him personally, but I used to go in there for coffee. And he was actually a victim of one of the shootings in the local area in Thousand Oaks. He was a bouncer at a bar and he passed away, unfortunately. 

And when I saw that that space was what was for lease, just felt like, the right thing to do because his coffee company was called Renegade and he, you know, he was trying to be out there doing something different than everyone else and he had a really delicious product. So that was like, I get chills just thinking about it. It was very, for me, it was very special to be able to reopen that space and try to do justice to what he had been trying to do. And so, it was just a little takeaway space. 

There were plans to open. had another, it was kind of a, it was in a mini mall and we had several different spaces, and so eventually we were going to open a lounge as well.

But again, when it takes nine months to get a place open and you're working away and you're spending money on the rent every month, it's really hard to get the right traction. so unfortunately, the cafe only lasted about six to eight months before I had to shut it down. 

Just because of the location, it was never really a great foot traffic area. But in those six to eight months, we got a ton of new customers who were purchasing our products online and that kind of led to the next evolution, which I think we're going to talk about next.

Rick D Barron (12:29.283)

Okay. Before we jump ahead here, in reading part of your story in a magazine article, you met a person named Chris Bailay? Bailay. Now, was he part of the Single Serve?

Julie (12:40.802)

Balay. Mm-hmm. Chris Balay. We found Chris, he was the original brewer of our cold brew coffee when I was with Baked Coffee, the CBD coffee company. He, very talented, he had developed his own techniques. 

Very, just really smart guy and he was one of the ones I mentioned earlier that stepped in and was helping me. He was my operations manager in the cafe. He really helped me do a lot of research on the packaging, just figuring out like how much time it's gonna take to do things and stuff like that. 

When we did open the cafe that summer, we participated in the Anaheim Coffee Fest, which is a national cold brew and coffee festival. And we actually got third place in the cold brew competition. So that was pretty cool and kind of justified all the work that we had been doing. And you know, we really collaborated on that. My former business partner had located these wonderful coffee beans in Costa Rica from the Tarazoo region. 

And that makes just such a wonderful and unique cold brew. And then we also had to do one that was kind of a specialty item. So, we actually brewed vanilla beans along with the coffee beans and with the Ethiopian coffee, which is a higher sugar content. So, it's almost like a dessert coffee without any added sugar. It was really delicious.

Rick D Barron (14:29.243)

So, before we move ahead here, mean, what you've just said thus far has been pretty amazing. You get caught up in the COVID-19 with Single Serve and then you start The Kitchen and almost, I think you said about six months later, you had a shutdown. Now, just in between that time period, I mean, you have, I think, established yourself, you're pretty resilient, but you're just...hit the road or hit the wall where you said, why am I doing this? Can I keep going?

Julie (15:03.572)

Constantly. It's a daily thing, especially on a slow day, you know, like the first few days you hardly get any traffic into the cafe, you haven't made any sales for the packaging, and you're like, no, what have I done? And then, you know, the bank account's going down, and you know, you're looking at the last of your alimony, and you're just like, what am I gonna do? I had...an angel who helped me out happened to be my ex-mother-in-law.

Rick D Barron (15:37.306)

Wow.

Julie (15:38.05)

Which I will say and she'll laugh if she hears this. She and I had a very tumultuous relationship when I was married, but one thing she did was really stand by me. she, you I turned to my ex-family for some financial assistance because of COVID and the pandemic and just, you know, struggling and things just not going the way that, you know, you expect them to. And she came through for me. 

She gave me what she could and even as she gave it to me, I said, it's probably not gonna be enough. But let's give it a try. And she tried to help me do sales. She would volunteer in the cafe. She would come and just clean up, you know. And if you know her, she loves to be involved. She loves to be of service. And she's a very unique and, you meet her and she will ask you a hundred questions about yourself. She's also a very curious person.

So, I could not be more thankful and what a great way to have a repaired relationship with someone, you know, that you always struggled with. So, I'm super thankful for her. But as it turned out, it was not enough. We were just too deep, you know, having those nine months of paying rent without, you know, without the sales to support it, it took too much of a toll.

Rick D Barron (16:53.679)

That's a beautiful story.

Julie (17:12.01)

And yeah, so I had to look or I had to start looking around for other options like where was I gonna live because where I was living, I couldn't afford to keep living.

So where do you pivot to? I had started doing farm markets, which are great in the summer, but once you head into the winter, not so much. Those Christmas rush crowds, not great at farmers markets. Where we were located, no Christmas rush crowds. It really, you know, this again is that manure I'm talking about. Like you learn and...

You know, you just take it. You just try to learn from it and try not to become bitter about it and just keep moving forward and say, pivot, what am I gonna do next? That replay of the Friends episode with them moving the couch was constantly in my head. Pivot! Right?

Rick D Barron (18:10.161)

Well, I'm sure your former mother-in-law saw in you someone that had the tenacity that, you know, she's going to make it. So, I don't think she ever felt that this money was going to be ill spent. You know, she'll make it happen.

Julie (18:26.804)

No, and she, you know, and I always said I would pay her back, but she frankly said, I don't want you to pay me back, it's a gift. And she, you know, she's just like, I just want you to do well. And she did, she believed in what I was doing. She wanted me to come out of everything okay. And she's still one of my biggest cheerleaders, you know, she's helped me immensely over the last, how long has it been now? Four or five years, so yeah.

Rick D Barron (18:56.714)

Well, just in, again, in what you've described from the very beginning, you've come across various interesting people that have really impacted your life, your guidance, decision-making, and had faith in you. And I think you had faith in yourself to have just gone through that period of your life to where I now, we kind of jump into this where you, I think you rebranded the restaurant to what is now known as Hickory Lane Catering. So, I think that is something I'm sure a lot of people would like to understand what was the genesis of this rebranding and how this all unfolded. Maybe you can walk us through that.

Julie (19:47.338)

Okay, so I've been a part of the swim community for a long time. My daughter was a competitive swimmer. She swims in college now. Go Wasps. And she, when we would go to the meets, there's always a coffee vendor there. People drink a lot of coffee at swim meets, because you're there from six in the morning till six at night for two to three days. Sitting around waiting for that one event. You know, so. It's a huge coffee, mecca over there, and I happen to know, a few people on the board at one of the meets up in Santa Clarita and so they brought us in as a coffee vendor for a few of their meets and from there I started making more connections and started doing more swim meets. 

And in that period of time, I had also moved down to Orange County because I had an offering from a friend to stay in his mother's home because she was in care. They needed someone in the house to help look after it, and it was doing me a huge favor and saving me money. And I needed to kind of move into a new area anyway. I think getting out of where I'd been the last 25 years was a good thing for me. And as I started doing these swim meets, people were like, can you also do food? 

And I was like...yeah, of course I can do food. And that's something we haven't really touched on yet is that I've been cooking and serving food my whole life. I was raised by a pastor and his wife and we did church potlucks and you know all kinds of things. So, I was used to preparing food for large quantities of people for it was just a no-brainer. 

And I love to cook so I just I already had the permits to do all of that, so I just started adding food to the menu and started realizing I could make a lot more money with food than with coffee and I got a lot more joy out of it as well. I still am very appreciative to coffee. I still have coffee on my menu. I still have my coffee connections, but it just felt like a light, like the world got a little brighter when I started doing that.

Rick D Barron (22:07.973)

Yeah.

Julie (22:22.258)

And so, I made some...I made some attempts to get into some shared kitchens so that I would be able to have my permits to do the food and just kind of was off and running at that point. So that started in like August of 22, I think. I'm sorry, I'm bad with the dates. And then by the end of the year, I just felt like it was time to rebrand and relaunch myself as a caterer rather than a coffee company. And so that's what I did.

Rick D Barron (22:59.407)

So, the Hickory Lane label came from where again?

Julie (23:02.88)

So, when I was little, I lived in a little town called Jonesboro, and my dad built a house on Hickory Lane. We lived there. And then he built another house two doors down on Hickory Lane, a little bit bigger house. And it was right on outskirts of town at the time. Lots of fields to run around and play in. Everybody had huge lots and gardens. And we would go fishing. 

There was a farm at the end of our road and there was a pond where he kept it stocked with perch, and so we'd go fishing. used to go river fishing with my dad to catch trout, some bass sometimes. He was also an avid hunter. And, you know, we, as a minister, ministers don't make a lot of money. He was very frugal. That's how he was able to build. And when I say build his own house, we all helped. We all worked on it. 

And, you know, I can remember some of my earliest memories are sitting on his lap looking at the blueprints of the house that we were building. you know, like I mentioned earlier, I built a house with my ex-husband as a result of that. And so that was just, you know, it was a really, like, all my memories of living there are happy ones, just kinda little kid running around barefoot, doing whatever they want, you know? 

But it was all centered around food, like gardening and helping my mom can things, which I hated. Like a lot of that stuff when I was little, I felt like, you know, we were just her workforce, but isn't it ironic how much I love that stuff today?

So, and then my parents also traveled a lot because of church, and so we were left with other families. And so, we got to learn how they did things. That's where the butter in the jar came from. It was two ladies that, it was a mother and daughter that lived together. One was 80 and one was 60. And they made their own butter and we'd all take turns shaking the jar until it became butter. 

So, and my sister was like, I don't want to do it. And I was like, I want to do it. So, and my sister, she's a good cook, but it's not her passion. So, I just think it was very telling from a young age that I was the one in the kitchen being like, how do you do this? And how do you do that? So yeah.

Rick D Barron (25:28.241)

So going into the business of catering, that can't be an easy task because what I imagine there's so much competition out there and you have to kind of separate yourself as someone is very unique and special to hopefully gain more traction as you said, to keep the customers coming in. When you started the catering business did you find yourself, okay, I know what to do.

Or did you learn as you were going? How did that unfold?

Julie (26:02.166)

Totally learn as I'm going, never say no, we'll figure it out, you know, because typically you're not going and booking a job and showing up the next day, you usually have some time, so...I would, you know, can you do this? Of course. And then I would figure it out, right? 

But again, having all that variety in my background of different cuisines, taking on different projects. I don't think I mentioned yet, I used to do a lot of wedding coordination and things like that as favors to friends as my kids were being raised. Again, part of being, you know, raised within a church. My dad did a lot of weddings. We did a lot of funerals.

You know, it was just part of what I was familiar with. I have a large extended family, so Thanksgivings were typically 40 to 60 people. We threw huge parties at our home, 80 to 100 people all the time. And so, I had done all of this before, just not for money. So was learning how to do it affordably was the key. 

And to figure out along the way what made the most sense, could you like things that I you know the details that you put in what are important to keep versus what people don't care about so don't do it you know things like that and it's I think in any business you do that you learn as you go you learn how to become and I'm an efficiency person one of my jobs when I worked at Avery Denison was helping to make things more efficient and so that just comes naturally to me so I think that aptitude has really helped me to build this business successfully. 

And so, I think I just have the, just happen to have that right trifecta of qualities that help with that. So yeah, I would just say never say no, and figure it out, figure it out, you know, can't show up and not know. you gotta be confident that you can figure it out, and if you can't, you gotta come clean and make a net, always have a plan B, right? 

And there have been bad events, like in the beginning, it was real, like I would come away a lot of times feeling like I didn't do a great job. They'd be happy, but I wasn't happy, like I knew it could be better. As I've gone along and I've introduced more staff and things have gotten a little bit easier and more like you know on you know like we know what we're doing it's I feel a lot better about it but I'm always the worst critic of my food like it's all it's like that could have tasted better you know it's very rare that I'll be like that was perfect it's happened maybe twice

Rick D Barron (28:56.721)

So, you said earlier when you were learning and you say, well, I'll figure it out. But I think you also made mention about how there are things that you learn to do and not to do in terms of the catering business. What are some of those tangents that come to mind?

Julie (29:19.636)

So, your average job, I'm gonna give away some of my secrets, your average job is more about budget than having really premium ingredients. When you're feeding 250 people at a college, a pasta bar, they don't care if the pasta is freshly made, they don't care if you stewed your sauce for three days, they want it to be affordable.

I learned how to find products that are less expensive but still up to par with what you want to represent your company. Some of those you stumble on by accident, some of them you do with purpose because you know that you are not going to have the time that equates to what you're getting paid to do.

So, on my menu there's different tiers. So, I have like my, what I call even like my private chef seasonal menus that are, you are gonna get that fresh pasta, you are gonna get the sauce that I spent three days making, you are gonna get organic, are, you know, pastured meats. And then you have like the regular tier. And like if they are specific about something,

I will definitely deliver it, but most people aren't and so you still You know you can still build flavors with like I'll buy like Jard sauce but add to it so that it has my touch on it You know but that way I don't have to spend time in the kitchen cooking something especially since I don't have a restaurant I'm renting space so time is money and so when you go in you really have to make the most of your time. And so yeah, that's kind of what you have to do to make it profitable. And I haven't had anyone complain.

Rick D Barron (31:20.367)

You know, like when you can't.

Right. I'm sorry to interrupt. I remember when you came to do the catering for my birthday party, you know, I was mingling with my guests and you were bringing in, you know, bags and other components. I didn't really see how much or what it was that you actually brought in. And the kitchen counter was blank. And I come in like maybe, I don't think it was 20, 30 minutes later and it was just a smorgasbord of food. thought,

Julie (31:42.22)

Mm-hmm.

Julie (31:52.689)

Hehehehehe

Rick D Barron (31:53.125)

How did you do this? So, I mean, I don't want you to give away your secrets. I'm sure there's so much planning to make that unfold that when you see it, it's like, wow, I mean, this was like almost like magic, at least for me, because the food, and I'm not saying it's because we're doing this podcast, but a lot of my friends loved the food. Everything that you made, the sliders were just great.

Julie (32:02.295)

Yes.

Rick D Barron (32:21.361)

I mean, they were gone before I even had one. I did. I did get one. did. 

Let me ask this question. Now you talk about elevated comfort food. What does that entail? What is that all about?

Julie (32:36.184)

So, my goal, no matter which cuisine you choose for my menu, and as you know, there are a lot, those items that I chose are food that I think are...are things that the average person eats in those cultures that bring them comfort, right? Food is, the kitchen is the hearth of the home, right? 

It's love, its connection, it's where the family comes together, we bring our friends together over food, and it's a comforting experience. So, my idea is not just to have that food, but to kinda introduce something a little bit different.

So, remember we did the beet chips with the walnut and the crema on it, and it also has capers. And people look at it and go, what? Bye.

What was the result, right? I don't even like beets, but this is delicious, right? I love that. That's like that is exactly what I live for. That is exactly what I've done my job if that happens and it gives me such joy when that happens. And I think that stems from when I was little. 

I was a very picky eater and my mom was very strict about making me finish my food and so, you know, she just wanted me to be healthy. I'm not bashing on my mom, but when I became a mom, I wanted to do things a little bit differently. I didn't want my kids to have that negative experience. And so, it was always about trying to find ways to get them to eat healthy things and still enjoy it. And the only rule we had was just take a bite. If you don't like it, don't eat it. I'm never gonna make someone eat something they don't like.

But also, try it again in six months, because our taste buds are always changing, And, you know, I think...

My kids have a pretty diverse palette. We were able to take them to Michelin star restaurants when they were six, seven years old and eat what we were eating because they weren't afraid of food. And the more diverse your palette is, the healthier you will be because you're getting a wide range of nutrients instead of just eating the same old things. They like chicken nuggets too, but, you know, but they'd also clear out a plate of oysters really fast.

Rick D Barron (35:25.774)

Absolutely. I love oysters myself. Now, you talk about French culinary techniques. Why French culinary? What was the draw to that?

Julie (35:37.976)

Okay, so, the French way of cooking, I was a huge Julia Child fan, and the French way of cooking to me is the foundation. It is what, I talked about efficiency earlier, I thrive on that, I have to have things orderly in the kitchen in order to be successful, and that's how the French technique works. 

You have your mise en place, where you put everything out ahead of time, you go through your processes, you have your techniques that you build, you build layers, right? So, you start with your base. Sauces are very important. Your proteins, your seasoning, there's steps that you use in order to build those flavors. That way, as you build, you taste. And when it tastes good, you're done. 

That you see a lot of, I don't know if you ever watch any of these cooking shows, but they're always telling them less is more, right? Sometimes they just dump everything in and it becomes a disaster because they're not tasting as they're building those layers.

So, when I say French technique, that's what I'm talking about. And then you can apply that to any style of food. So that's, and because we live in California, we have this bounty, you know, that is unbelievable. And it's just a natural marrying of being able to provide, definitely a farm to table type of cook. I'm always looking for what's in season. Not only does it taste better, but it's healthier as well.

Rick D Barron (37:13.382)

This is really a science, isn't it? To pull all this together, yeah.

Julie (37:16.5)

It is. Food is a science. Definitely. Isn't that interesting how you can take something that is very scientific, but it really strikes emotions as well. So, it's to me, it's like, it's like I said, I'm a very diverse person, and so it really feeds all those aptitudes that I crave.

Rick D Barron (37:41.253)

Now, back when I introduced you, called out about this motto, flowers grow from manure. Where did that come from? I love it.

Julie (37:50.432)

I was trying to remember. I read it somewhere. I really should look it up because I definitely read it somewhere, probably in like one of Oprah's book club books or something. I don't know. I definitely did not make that up. I read it somewhere and I should give credit to the person who did, but it's perfect for me because we used to plant everything in manure.

Rick D Barron (38:31.489)

Absolutely. Now, your understanding of holistic nutrition has helped you cater to clients with diverse dietary needs. Can you expand on what that means to the audience? That's a very interesting item.

Julie (38:48.532)

So, in this day and age, people are much more aware of what triggers their, like inflammation in their body, allergies. Food allergy tests have become very common, and some people kind of laugh at it, but having had the background I have, having, I have an autoimmune condition called Hashimoto's, which affects your thyroid. My daughter has an autoimmune condition, which she has, and so I have a problem in which taking the standard pharmaceuticals, my body just does not cope with it very well, so I've had to find alternative methods to help treat myself.

It's always about food. You know, I have delved into that for a long time. I was raised around that, so it was not a, you know, unnatural transition. So, when I started doing the full-service catering, that was something I knew I could bring to the table that not all chefs are gonna be knowledgeable in. I will say I think more and more are becoming more knowledgeable just out of necessity, but I think I'm ahead of the game there. 

I've done so many vegan weddings, gluten-free vegan weddings. Or, you know, we have six vegetarians. What can you do for them? that's my goal is never to make anyone feel like they were an afterthought. I never want someone to feel like, here's your vegetarian. Here's some cheese and vegetables. that. You know, I just, would never do that to someone. I want them to feel like they were a part of the moment just like everyone else. So, I really work hard to consult with my clients to find out what those needs are. Allergies, I mean I'm doing a wedding in a couple weeks where there are, I think we've got like 12 different allergies that we're working with. And it's okay.

It's just what we do. You want them to walk away from that event going, wow, that was really good, you know, and not, I'm still hungry. I need to go home and eat. So, it happens.

Rick D Barron (41:12.805)

Well, I think your clients appreciate the fact that you want to dive into what their needs are, you know, even to show a genuine concern. You know, if I was to create this type of dish, would everyone be receptive to it? Or there's some people are going to say, you know, I can't really eat that. So, it sounds like you really do your homework before you pull out the skillet and then start diving into preparing. I think.

Julie (41:40.15)

Yes.

Rick D Barron (41:43.697)

I would imagine in many cases that helps you be a lot more successful than if you said, now I'll just figure it out.

Julie (41:51.266)

I think I do get people just because of that. And the other part of that is I don't do a huge upcharge for things like that. Depending on what they're ordering, sometimes I don't change the pricing at all. So, because I think I've been doing it long enough that I've learned how to work around it, and it doesn't really always mean that things will be more expensive.

So, I just, think it's a huge marketing scam the way that you go into a lot of restaurants and they charge you so much more for something, excuse me, for something that's gluten free versus not, you know, or vegan versus not. So, I just, I think I just have a different perspective on it than a lot of people.

Rick D Barron (42:39.793)

So, let's talk about how you have been expanding. mean, you're in Southern California, you're in Lake Tahoe, you're in the San Francisco Bay Area. How did all of that unfold? I mean, what was the first place you went to? Was it San Francisco or how did it all begin?

Julie (42:54.666)

I was living in Southern California. I had moved down to Orange County, so that's where my first kitchen was. was in a town called Fullerton. And then I was getting a lot of requests out in Temecula, Palm Desert area, and there was a venue that wanted to work with me out that way, but they needed me to have a kitchen in their county. 

So, I went in search of that, and so I found this great kitchen, I've ma- this is the one that I've maintained in Southern California. It's in Redlands called the Cooking Block. Shared kitchen, great guy that runs it. Really love their facility. and then I moved back up to the Los Angeles County area, so I moved into a kitchen in Canoga Park. So, at that point I had three shared kitchens that I was working out of.

Well, my parents live in Gardnerville, Nevada, which is the Reno Tahoe area, and they're getting older and I feel like I need to check in on them more. So, I just was like, this would be a good excuse to bombard them every once in a while. So, I started marketing myself in that area. 

I, you know, I, I don't market myself there very much, but we, do have access to a kitchen there, so when I do get a gig there, I will go and do it. And then last June, I reconnected with some friends in this area. I graduated high school in San Jose.

Julie (44:40.606)

I was feeling like it was time for another change for myself personally. I'd been in LA since college. My kids are no longer in that area. It just... I needed a fresh start. And so that was purely personal reasons I started marketing myself here.

Extrude kitchens here are everywhere, way more than in Southern California, so that was easy. And yeah, here I am. So, I actually moved here, I'm still getting settled, but I was afraid at first that the work wasn't gonna come, but it has picked up quickly, so I'm very happy about that. 

Rick D Barron (45:15.375)

Well.

Rick D Barron (45:30.609)

It's almost like, be careful what you wish for.

Julie (45:32.714)

Yeah, the only downside is the person that I was training to take over for me in Southern California so I wouldn't have to go down there as much has not turned out to be as talented as I had hoped. I don't wanna say, that doesn't sound right, but you know what I mean, it just didn't work out.

The skill set was just not where I thought it was. That was, you know, that was a mistake on my part. Probably in my rush to move on, you know, just wanting it to work out. Sometimes you do that. So, I'm still traveling back and forth because there's no real, I have, I have staff that helped me prep and help me and they can do events without me. But the real cooking, you know, and that I still have to go down there for. So, I'm still in search of somebody that can kind of take over the head chef position down there. 

Rick D Barron (46:30.085)

Yeah, I was kind of under the impression you had to go to all those places yourself, but it sounds like you've built a team that gives you the ability to juggle several balls at one time.

Julie (46:42.381)

Yeah. It's great. I have a very loyal and supportive team of people down there, which I can't say enough good things about. you know, it's taken, you know, to build up that kind of team in only two years is pretty amazing. I feel really fortunate to have that and to have people I can trust to take on those things. I'm just missing that one person. 

And ideally, and I might be jumping ahead, ideally, I would like to have a person like that in every location so that I can head into retirement as I go along. It's kind of the 10-year plan, is to be able to have someone that can take the lead, and then I'm still kind of managing the business and dealing with customer relationships and things like that. Because the actual work is very hard. It's very hard on your body, and I don't think when I'm in my mid-60s I'll be interested in hefting boxes of food in and out.

Rick D Barron (47:50.037)

So, are you going to want to, I mean, don't want to ask, yeah, it's going to give any secrets away, but for futures, do you see yourself going beyond the San Francisco Bay area, Lake Tahoe and Southern California? I mean, have other ideas kind of popped in your head like, hey, let's put one over here too.

Julie (48:07.74)

Well, my sister lives up in the Seattle area. So, so that's an idea sometimes. I know Seattle, sorry, sorry Seattle, but I just don't really like their food. I've only been to a couple restaurants up there that I thought were good, so I don't know if they would like me.

I don't know if our palates agree, but that's kinda, you know, I think about things like that because it's like, where do I need to be? So, I'm open to it. I love to travel. I love it. Like, if I could, I even had the idea of being, because I mark it through an app called Thumbtack, and I'm like, what if I open up Thumbtack in the West and go live there for three months and prebook jobs, you know what I mean?

So, that's always an idea. Because I'm finding it's not hard to get into kitchens. You can, it doesn't take very long at all to get legal. and some people, and maybe I shouldn't say this out loud, lot of people don't even care if you're legal, but I care. Because I don't ever want somebody to, especially if it's a commercial event, I would never want to jeopardize that. And I care. Like, I want people to know that I'm legitimate. 

But... you know, somebody said, come out here and cook for this event, you know, we're gonna have a month-long event, come and do this, I'd jump all over it. So, I just, I love to go to new places. So, I, you know, it's whatever pops up and where the opportunities are. Like I said earlier, never say no. So.

Rick D Barron (49:50.897)

Well, with everything you've been learning about culinary foods and maybe culinary trends, do you see anything that's evolving that tells you, maybe I'm going to take a curve here and try this type of culinary cooking.

Julie (50:06.474)

So, I have a couple ideas. One is the after effects of COVID. A lot of people are still without smell and taste, or they've been muted, or they come and go.

And one of my thoughts was, know, we feast with other senses as well. With our eyes watching somebody prepare a meal in front of us and the sounds and the vision and how beautiful the colors are, that can also be a very satisfying experience. 

So that's one of the things I kind of want to keep my eye on and give thought to, because if we get another round of COVID or anything, like it that affects those kinds of senses, I think that might be more in demand. 

There are also things you can do holistically to help trigger reopening those pathways, because I lost my smell and my taste when I had COVID, which, you know, that was with the coffee business, and that's not a good thing. So, I went to an acupuncturist and she did some specialized treatments on me and I got it back. But I will say there are times when I'm not 100 % confident that it's all there like it used to be, which as a chef is devastating, you know? 

And that's why I rely on a staff to taste for me if I'm feeling like I'm having... you kind of know when you're having one of those days. So, I'm always like... and luckily you can cook from memory also, just like exercise. You can... you have muscle memory for cooking. I don't think it's muscle memory, but you have a feeling for it, not just a taste and a smell. 

But that said, if you know there's holistic things you can do to help, and I was like it'd be cool like if there's like a group of people that are having that trouble regaining. could do a meal for them and do those holistic treatments as part of the experience of the meal to help bring their smell and taste back. That would be really cool. 

Rick D Barron (52:18.306)

That's great.

Julie (52:24.202)

The other area is with regards to the legalization of psilocybin and marijuana. Think we have to be careful about that. It's not for everybody. But it fascinates me. When we were in the CBD business, I learned a lot. And there's definitely some opportunity there from a holistic point of view, but it also scares me a little bit because I think it can be abused very easily, but it's pretty fascinating. So those are the two areas I'm interested in.

Rick D Barron (52:53.489)

Right, Boy, that's great. Boy, I'd love to see your whiteboard. You're always thinking here. I had two other questions and they kind of go together somewhat. But let me ask the first one. 

Rick D Barron (53:18.981)

You started off when you got hit with COVID-19 in the coffee business and then you started The Kitchen, and then you now moved into your own catering business over that time period. And from what you've been sharing with us, you covered so many, tangibles of running a business, you know, not being afraid. 

What did you learn in terms of what it takes to run a business? Whether it's from this learning the coffee business per se, to running a kitchen even though it was only six months, but now even now into the catering business. What have you learned from, let's say, what are you like the top three things you learned during that time period?

Julie (54:04.542)

Know how you're gonna sell, find your sales channel first. That was the huge mistake in the early part of my entrepreneurship was just not having the income. So, when the catering, I instantly had the income, I had demand. And as I mentioned earlier, I've used an app called Thumbtack that was recommended to me by a friend who started his business that way, and it just took off. 

And I've tried other marketing platforms and not as good. So, shout out to Thumbtack for helping us grow. I'm open to other options, but that is hands down the best thing so far that I've come across. And I'm always trying other options. So, know your sales. 

The second is know your weaknesses and your strengths. Know, take on, know, do the things that you're good at, but when you're not good at something, find someone to help you, who is good at it.

Don't try to do it if you're not good at it. You can learn from that person and maybe become good at it, but it's just going to frustrate you and you're going to feel awful about it. that's number two. And number three is, do research and get advice from people, but always stay true to yourself.

They're not you. What might be right for someone else may not be right for you. So, take it in, weigh it, and then, you know, move ahead. Early on, I think I just was so naive and not really knowing enough that I just would listen to everybody, and I felt like I was just bouncing off the walls in different directions, and at a certain point I had to go, wait a minute.

This is something that you know, there are things you know that you can do. Focus on that and the rest will follow along. And stay true to yourself, follow your instinct. That's, you know. And last, be prepared to work hard. You can't, none of this is gonna come easy. And you're gonna fail, but that's okay, because you learn. Failures are lessons. 

But you gotta work hard. You can't just skate by. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. So, yeah, don't give up.

Rick D Barron (56:44.393)

No, those are all good, all good points. So, let's take the flip side of that coin. And you talked about the business end of it. But again, kind of going back to the beginning of your journey to where you are today. What did you learn about yourself?

Julie (57:02.868)

I am resilient as F. I am a very resilient person. I have been knocked down, criticized, threatened, accused, and you just gotta keep going. I mean, and you can't believe that stuff. If people are saying negative things to you, it's their own issues that they're fighting against, you know? 

And try to deal with that with love and kindness, which I don't always succeed. But, you just gotta believe in yourself, and you're, you know, you gotta know what your journey is about. And I, you know, I have, it's been brutal at times, but I'm a stubborn person, and I just keep, you know, get up and keep going. So... Yeah.

Rick D Barron (58:00.005)

Well, that's about all you can do because when you know you are running a business and it's you that's kind of, that it is giving the guidance, how to, and getting your team together. 

Because I think, you know, your team will always look to you saying, okay, Julie, how do you want us to make this, you know, event happen? What are your thoughts? And they'll, they'll deliver for you. But I think they will learn from you because your experience from what you've shared with us.

I would say very enlightening to no end. I think that seriously, I really think you ought to write a book about this. I mean, yeah, well, no, but still I think people need to hear from, know, and don't take this the wrong way from someone who really isn't, you know, on all the magazines and cookbooks, if you will, but someone who has been through the various ups and downs and sounds like you've been through a lot of them. 

But yet people probably want to know, well, how in the world did she stay so resilient and get through all this? And I think those are tangibles. I think people would love to read and look at. It's just a thought, but I think from what I've heard from you today, it's a remarkable story and you're a very remarkable woman. 

Many people would just give up, say, look, you know, I tried it, I just can't do it. But your mindset was saying, yeah, I hit the hurdle, but you know what? Maybe if I try it this way, it might work. My God, it did, you know? And you, like you say, you learn from your failures. And as you said, failures are lessons. And I think a lot of people don't see it that way. 

Julie (01:00:02.304)

Mm-hmm. It doesn't always feel that way. Right? I think we all have.

Rick D Barron (01:00:07.033)

Well, no, I'll give you that. I've been there, my God. So, we've covered. Go ahead. I'm sorry. You were going to say something.

Julie (01:00:19.36)

I was just gonna say, you know, sometimes you have no choice though. You know, I don't wanna portray myself as this hero because sometimes you just gotta keep going because you don't have any other options. And there's a lot of that too. 

So, but I’m a stubborn person, and I think I also like a challenge. I've always, my mom would always say, you never do things the easy way. I was always like circumventing everything, trying to find my own path. So, I think that's, you know, it's indicative of my character. So, it's not for everyone, and I understand that fully.

Rick D Barron (01:00:57.775)

Yeah, no, that's well said. So, we've covered a lot of material in this discussion, you know, a lot of good insights, I think, for people who would love to go into your line of work or anything in general that they would have to start their own business. I think you've shared some very key insights as to how one has to gut it out and learn from the mistakes. 

Like you said, some people are cut out to do it. Others are, come on, give me more. I'm ready to take it on. So, all that said, what would be some of your closing thoughts you want to leave the audience today with what you have shared with us?

Julie (01:01:46.786)

I would just say do what you love. Try to spend your time. If you have to or want to start your own business, choose something that you really enjoy and try to figure out how to monetize it. It's not always easy and recognize that there is hardly any job on the planet that everyone loves doing all the time. There are many days where I'm like, I don't want to cook again. But then I do.

You know, that's the difference. You might get sick of something, but is it something that you'll always come back to? And so, when you're thinking about that from a business idea, think about those things in your life. What do you always come back to? Even if you have to take a break from it. Because if you have that passion, that's what's going to keep you going.

The other thing is, and I'm not trying to do a hard sale or anything, but I also, as a side project, do business consulting, and I help new businesses get off the ground, help manage them for efficiencies, like I've mentioned so much, that's important. I do training, you know, I that HR background. So, if anyone needs help, I'm here to help them. I have a couple clients that I work with that are new businesses that help manage them and get them going and make

And they're both doing really well now, so I'm proud of that. I did that while I was raising my kids also. I helped, like, my daughter's dance teacher gets her business off the ground, things like that. So, I love to help. I love to serve. There's, you know, that it's just like feeding people. It's such a good feeling when you see someone be successful. And to, I'm also working with some people. 

I'm on the very outskirts of it, so I don't want to say too much, but they're starting a foundation for women that are like me that had to reenter the workforce after being gone or out a long time or having been laid off from a job they had for a long time. It happens a lot. You know, I applied to over 150 jobs on Indeed and only got two interviews. That's terrible. Someone's like, is your resume good? I'm like, I was in HR. I think it's good.

Julie (01:04:08.276)

And he says it's good. My friends in HR say it's good. It's just that they don't want me because I haven't been doing, they don't know where to put me. So, I really love the idea of this foundation because there's a need for it. And it's not just about helping women make money. It's about helping them feel good about themselves again, helping them feel empowered.

And I mentioned it to a friend and he said, I think there's men in that situation too. And I said, absolutely, it's not just women. That's just what I know, you know what I mean? So, I just think, especially having gone through the pandemic, our economy's all over the place. There are a lot of unknowns and people are scared. And anything that can be done to help make people feel confident and feel like they have a good future ahead of them, I want a part of that.

So, I'm looking forward to seeing where that goes and how I'm going to be involved and looking forward to telling you about it once it's launched. So that's kind of where I am.

Rick D Barron (01:05:13.105)

That's great. Well, Julie, good for you. Julie, I want to thank you for your generosity in sharing your journey with where you have been and where you're going. And I think what you have expanded on.

I think a lot of people are going to take that and see that as a guide for them. So again, I want to thank you for the time. 

And that said, for further information regarding this interview, please visit my website, which you can find on Apple Podcasts. As always, I thank you for the privilege of you listening and your interest. Be sure to subscribe here or wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss an episode. And we'll see you soon.