From Losing Everything to Building a Beloved Brand - Ken’s Kettle Corn NYC Story

This is the Beyond the Story podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now, Sebastian Rusk Ken, welcome to the show. Hello, Sebastian. Thank you for having me. Hey, thanks for taking some time out of your day to hang out with me. I sure do appreciate it. I know we connected through the great Dan Martell's elite coaching. Lost for words here. That's rare for me. Community. There we go. Working on our big words today. So always great to connect with a fellow elite member. And I know we're doing some work with Kyle and his team over at OnSpark as well. So the world continues to get smaller and smaller, but great to see you. Great to connect with you. Thank you very much for having me, Sebastian. How long Yeah, I'm a newbie. Uh, but it feels like I've been in it for like five years. Good. How, how much, uh, you know, there, there's so So absolutely. Absolutely. Well, you know, Ken, I love telling people stories on this show. Um, and yours is no different, but for context purposes, I always like going back, to the beginning of the story for a few minutes just to help people better understand exactly where this all started, what the starting point was. So take a few minutes and bring us back to the beginning, wherever that is for you and what really brought you into present day with what you're currently doing with Awesome. So the beginning for me is growing up as a kid. I grew up with a single mother. She struggled to make ends meet, and we moved around a lot. And I was always the new kid. I was always the outsider, always struggling to fit in. And as a teenager, I struggled with drugs and alcohol. And then I was given the opportunity to go to rehab and I was reluctant, but I had no choice. It was either that or be homeless. So I decided to go, you know, to put my best foot forward. And that was the first time that I had ever done that. And it changed my life. It gave me life tools. I got my high school diploma and it guided me to go to continuing ed. And that's where I chose to go into culinary. Um, I had, uh, as a teenager, I was delivering newspapers and then I worked in a deli washing pots and I hated it. So I started, um, cooking because I liked that better than washing pots. So that was the beginning of my culinary. So when I chose, um, So when it was time for me to choose a career path and I knew culinary, I went into that and I went into a technical school. And I was the only I was like the adult. I was a couple years older than the high school kids. They used to get bussed in so I would stay after class when the students were bussed back to their schools and I would help the instructor clean up and he took me under his wing. He was my mentor and he's like he was like you gotta go to. You gotta go to college for this. This isn't the end for you. So he helped and I was like, well, how am I going to do that? I, you know, I barely completed high school. Um, he's like, follow me. I'm going to show you the way. So go get the free financial aid, uh, packet, um, apply to these schools and let's go. So I followed him. I got accepted into the schools. Um, I got financial aid and there I was in college. And saying, how did I get here? It was just so awesome. And I was like, I got a second chance. I'm going to make the best of it. And that's what I did. I connected with the professors. I got a 3.65 GPA. I graduated with it. And then I took that, and I went into the career force in New York City. I got a job at the St. Regis Hotel. And that was another success for me. So here I am. I made it. So I was cooking for 500 people every day. Um, and it was right around the time of the dot.com. Um, and I invested into the stock market and as a result, I was given margin. I was given $35,000 in margin. I didn't even have a thousand dollars in my bank and I put it all in the stock market and we all know how that went. It crashed and I was in debt over my head. So I took a second job. I was working, um, I was working as a cater waiter at night and I was cooking in the daytime and that gave me the entrepreneurial bug. Uh, I'm going to start my own business, my own catering company, but I had no business experience and no business education. So I was like, where am I going to start? And a friend of mine had suggested kettle corn. And that's where my kettle corn journey started. I started researching it. I found a tent, a kettle. I bought a van. I did street fairs in New York City, and people started following me around. And at that time, kettle corn wasn't as well known as it is today. So it was really cool getting that start. And the first two years were awesome. And then my truck was stolen. And all the equipment, everything inside, it was all gone. And I still was in debt. And I, you know, and I came to a crossroads like, is this it? Should I pack it in? Should I go bankrupt? And it took me took me a couple weeks to like go through that grief cycle. And then I was like, I'm going all in. And I borrowed against my credit cards, I maxed them out, I got a, I got a used van and a used tent and a used kettle and I started again. And all our followers kept following us around the city and it started to build. And I'm And then I got my big break, Bryant Park. Bryant Park is an event. It's 74 days. It's right in the middle of Manhattan. And it's for the holiday season. So you got Halloween and Thanksgiving and then Christmas. And that just, that changed everything for me. And so I was still going to work at the St. Regis Hotel, and I was still working, doing kettle corn. And I came to a turning point in 2010, and I decided to go all in with, with kettle corn. And, um, and I still had Bryant Park and the street fairs and people were following us and, you know, we were growing. And then, um, after about six years with Brian park, they decided not to invite us back again. And, um, I didn't know if I would be able to make it with, with having a seasonal kettle corn business. And so I. So I looked at what I needed to do. And I thought about opening up a store, a popcorn store in Manhattan. And I hit brick wall after brick wall and obstacle after obstacle. And then I watched the movie. with, Great movie truck. Great movie. Thanks for Miami too. And he was my inspiration, that movie. So, and then I just, yeah, that movie gets you believing you can do anything. Yeah. Yeah, totally. And I just followed it. I went with it. I said, I'm going and you know, I've had been through adversity before. So here I go. I'm like going to suit up and show up. And that's what I did. And I went through the, you know, I went through the whole process of you know, where to build the food truck and how I was going to build it and where I was going to get it from. And and I did a Kickstarter campaign and we raised twenty five thousand. And and that's how the food truck that's how I changed my business model from being a tent on the streets in New York to having a food truck. And we did that for a few years. And we you know, we started building more of a following and people were following us around. And and it was it was great. And then Covid happened. and everything closed and New York City closed. And I took the food truck home. I live upstate New York. So I took the truck out of the garage so I didn't have to pay rent for the time I was there. And I took the truck home upstate New York and just like sheltering in place during that time, not knowing what would happen next. And I was looking around and finally what had opened up like the essential businesses. So we were able to like connect with Albany County and get a spot on a rail trail outside. And that's how we started Upstate New York. So the whole business at that point was now operating online and at the rail trail. And so things started opening up in New York about a year later, but I had already set my roots in Albany, so I let go of everything in New York. That was a big decision for me. Our followers are still asking when we're going to come back. But we still have an online store and we ship to them. So we built the second truck and then now we built the third truck. And, you know, there's been ups and downs along the way, you know, besides my truck getting stolen and COVID. And, you know, we're at the point now, you know, I I found Dan Martell because I wanted to grow my business because I found myself being stuck. Like I was working harder, but not growing. Although I had more trucks, you know, financially, like those numbers weren't coming up and I hit a ceiling. And Dan spoke to me, you know, he spoke to me on, you know, all the, everything that he was doing on YouTube and Instagram. And I was like, I gotta link up. And I followed him and I got linked up with the elite coaching. And that's where I'm at today. I'm struggling a little bit with that there's the five daily non negotiables. So we have to review our goals three times a day, we have to work out for 45 minutes a day, we have to post content, three stories, every day. And we have to do opens. I think 10 opens every day. And I struggle with all that and reading 10 pages. And the funny thing is I hated reading, but now I like reading, but I'm still struggling with the other stuff. So, you know, and we got an EA, like it was, We were told that's the start of the replacement ladder, get an EA. So we're onboarding our EA and that's all new to us. And yeah, and I'm stuck in the daily operations of the business still. And, um, yeah, so, uh, I guess where I'm at another struggle point here, um, and trying to push through it and, and get to another win, another success. So that's where right now you have three trucks. I have three trucks. One truck we do all the production on, the other two, they're like satellite vehicles. They sell what we produce on the production truck. Cool. Very cool. And is everything in upstate New York now? Is there anything left Yes. So we have hotel accounts in the city. The Park Terrace Hotel, Hotel Indigo, and the Renaissance, where Other than the fact that it smells so fucking good. You can, I mean, it, it, it lures you in like, it's like, where is that coming from? I want to, yeah. I Yeah, that's right. You could see it. You could smell it. You could taste it. We hit everybody with samples. We have over 15 plus flavors, What's the, and we'll be sure to include that in, in, uh, in the show notes. So those of you listening here, grab yourself a kettle corn. If you don't like kettle corn, you're a What's the most sweet. We have flavors ranging from sweet to savory to spicy. If you don't like it sweet, we have salt and vinegar and pizza and- What's the most popular? White cheddar. The most popular is the kettle corn, Yup. But we have this cheddar coated caramel that Well, you may have to send me some samples so I can eat them on the podcast. I don't know if I can talk and eat kettle corn at the same time, but I'm sold. Um, so, uh, I def, I definitely will do that and take you up on it. I appreciate that. So, um, here we are almost, oh, we end of March. This is the last day of March time we're recording this episode. My goodness. Where did I'm excited about in 2026. I like what Dan says about building the machine that runs the machine, because right now I'm stuck in the operations and it's a lot, it's a lot to shoulder. I grew, I thought having three trucks would generate all this income, but it's actually more responsibility. So I'm trying to follow Dan's frameworks. So I can, how he mentions about having a life, I forget how he says it, he calls it like an empire, building an empire is having, and I forget how. I'm struggling with the words for that, but I want what he said about an empire, a business that runs itself, where I could create, where I could just be, I could grow and create and add value and not be stuck in that day-to-day problems. struggling So, you know, being able to get out there and buy back your time and go through the replacement ladder and get all that. I mean, that's the goal of, uh, that's, that's, that's at its core dance teaching. So the very fact that you're fully immersed in it, interested in it, open to it, it's going to happen. It's not a Matter of when, yes. Thank you. Thank you for reminding Absolutely. Hey, listen, that's what we're here to do. Remind each other of who we are every now and then we, we, uh, we lose sight for a, for, for a hot minute here, but you've clearly created something tangible, something that people like, something that's had some state, some sustainability, even though you've really gone through the challenges of owning a business and being an entrepreneur. This is, Already, you know, this is all part of the process. There's always going to be something that happens, something that takes place. It's it's not how we react to it. It's how we respond to it. And that's exactly what you've done. So keep up the great work with that. And it's been great to get to know you and finally connect with you here from the community. Look forward to checking out your product as well to tell everybody I know about it. I mean, lift as you climb is my motto. We're all in this thing together. figuring this whole thing called life out. But it's great to connect with you and learn what you've built here. I'm really inspired by Final thoughts is if you're an entrepreneur starting out, just keep pushing, keep going forward, do the next right thing, and you're gonna get there. That's how Create value for others. Absolutely. Where do you have that opportunity to create value for others? And that's, for me, that's purposeful living. That's what makes it all worth it, getting up in the day, not doing my daily to-dos and my tasks, but how did I You got it, my brother. Until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story podcast. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. We sure do appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, launchlab.com studios.