Justin McCullough [00:01] – What do you do when it's your turn to lead? Well, that's a great question. The Vision, Values and Velocity podcast is all about a better way of thinking and how to get you where you are now to where you want to be as quickly, confidently, and intentionally as possible so you can make an impact at work, home, and life. Hey, this is Justin McCullough and this is my show. And thank you for being here. My goal here on this podcast is give you the encouragement, clarity, and confidence to tackle whatever your next big thing is, whether that's leading a team or running a business or taking on that big new project. And you know what? I'm confident that stories like this is going to be helpful and useful to you. So let's take a look today at Jae Kilm.

Justin McCullough [00:44] – He's the founder and owner of Cilantro Barbecue in Austin, Texas. Listen and pay attention to some of his leadership traits. You'll see vision and values definitely in here, some vulnerability and some really good stuff. I recorded this at the Small Business Festival, and as a result, I've got some really good content from the founders panel where he spoke a little bit before our interview. And we'll just jump right into that after the founders panel. So anyway, take notes and listen up close, and I hope you enjoy.

Woman [01:19] – For lunch. So go ahead and introduce yourself so everybody knows.

Jae Kim [01:22] – Thank you for pitching that. Hi, my name is Jae. I'm the founder and owner at Cilantro Barbecue. I started my business in 2010 out of maxing out my credit cards and savings from one truck. I started with one truck and we have five physical locations today. Fleet of food trucks, a full catering department that does over a million dollars in sales, and we're growing here in Austin. We became known for the original kimchi fries. If I got to talk about this story a lot. Love to. Thanks for having me here. Great panelists here. So I'm excited to be here. Thank you.

Woman [02:02] – He's amazing. Everybody's like, woohoo. Your food's great. And unfortunately, success is never like this. And so I'm gonna ask one question to all of you. We'll start with Jae. What do you wish you knew or had done differently at the beginning when you first started?

Jae Kim [02:18] – I wouldn't change anything for the world because for the past seven years, the experiences that I gained, the challenges that I had shaped me who I am today and shape how the Cilantro is growing today. It's so important for us to have core values. And the core values is something that all of our employees and Myself believe in. And I have 200 people. It's so hard to navigate those 200 people in one direction today. And the core values came out of all the challenges and struggles that we faced for the past seven years. And those challenging moments shaped what we believe in and how we create our company in the next 10, 20 years. So I wouldn't change for the world. Those experiences for me really helped me grow as a founder, as a leader of my organization.

Jae Kim [03:16] – So one thing, if I were to change, would be that, you know, I used to work 15, 18 hours a day when I first started the business. And those are some hard moments. And I wish that I had some mentors to guide me. Now I have mentors who's done it to guide me through the way as I grow the company. But I wish that I had that.

Woman [03:43] – I love this. What year did you come up with those company core values? Because a lot of people are like, when do It? Do I do it before we start?

Jae Kim [03:50] – Yeah. I think the thing is that for me, were very flexible in the core values we knew. We recently came up with core values that solidified for us for the next five years. But that doesn't mean that it won't change next year if we feel that something we missed. So it continued to evolve for us. But there were some things, core things that really stayed with us were One was trust. We treat others as if how we want to be treated. And we create win, win four, win situation. Win for the customers, win for our people, win for the company, win for the community. So when we create relationships with our customers and we may run into situations where we cannot solve, we come to our core values and try to solve what is right for the for us.

Jae Kim [04:46] – So some of those things and be you being yourself. I think it's very important. We have a very diverse company today and they all come from different backgrounds. So for us, being themselves and hiring people who are being themselves is so important for us.

Woman [05:03] – Don't you want to make and eat at his place more? Because he just said that, like, if he cares about the community that much, you're like, oh, wow, this is amazing. I want to eat there. He was even asking because Madison eats all of you, this question as we're going through and I didn't give you a heads up on this at all, so this is going to be great. Ready? What was your pivotal moment? Because the book really changed him and I love asking, what was that thing, that piece of advice, that thing that really shifted things and the way that you work start with you.

Jae Kim [05:34] – I've had many moments like that, which. And it continues to happen every single day. But there was a moment where Director of Operations Ryan, he's been with me almost from day one. And as we were growing, the type of leader that I was—I was instilling fear into my staff. So whenever I walked into a restaurant, what was happening was our staff was trying to hide things from me instead of exposing what was happening wrong. And I didn't notice it because I thought I was great. But one day Ryan told me that, hey, Ryan, you have no idea that your impression makes a huge difference in how staff views our company. You have that much influence in our staff that if you come in with that type of expression or impression, they're not going to be happy about it.

Jae Kim [06:44] – They're going to think that Cilantro is going under the ground just because you're having that type of day. So what I started doing was before I got into a store, I smiled before I got into my office, before I got into the restaurant, I started smiling. And I just kept my smile all throughout. From the moment that I walked in to the moment that I walked out. And that changed. It started changing. It didn't happen overnight, but that started changing the way staff felt about me. The core staff that I had knew how I worked, they gave me an instant respect. But then the new staff that were working with me didn't know who I was, who I am. So that impression was so vital point I think, in my career as a CEO, to tell our staff, hey, I'm here for you.

Jae Kim [07:43] – I'm here to serve you. I'm here to provide all the resources that you need, and I'm going to do it with a smile. And I'm here to help. I'm willing to do anything that you're not willing to do so that I can be a server for you, so that you can serve our customers. And over time, within a period of time, that kind of change. And they started telling me all the problems, which they started telling me, hey, this is wrong. And what that created for us was really transparency with myself, the managers and the staff. So now we all share the challenges and problems and what's good, what's bad. So now we have an organization that's transparent, which means that I can communicate with our staff a lot more faster and be effective.

Woman [08:29] – That's an amazing story, especially to see for a long period of time, how did you keep going in every day, even when things were crappy?

Jae Kim [08:35] – Yeah. It's hard work. That part is not easy. I think that what I've established was with our staff, they don't know what's going on in the day to day organization or the big picture. The vision that I have for the company. So our mission, core values and vision really was. It's flipped. So what we do is on day to day basis, we're going to practice our core values and our mission every single day. And in time they're going to see what we're talking about when we talk about our vision. Right. So it's a challenging part, but that's what makes who we are as Cilantro and people, customers come to our restaurants because of why, not because of like what we serve. Right. So, you know, that's how we differentiate ourselves every single day and we strive to do that.

Woman [09:33] – See, everything he says, you just want to keep eating only there, right? So Olivia, what was your pivotal moments that you. But if there's something that really you use all the time right now that's been really helpful, or a book or something like that.

Jae Kim [09:48] – I think the best thing is your gut. First of all, I think that's why I started my business out of a feeling. And I've had two businesses prior which failed. And every time I got out of those businesses, I asked myself like, I could have, I should have, I would have. And with Cilantro, I didn't want that to happen. So I did it. Every time I thought about something, I just put it into an action. And so I think that your gut first of all is the best asset that you could have, which everybody has. I'm reading a book called Start with Why and that's been really helpful for me and my organization because we're asking ourselves like, why are we doing this? Why do I feel this way?

Jae Kim [10:44] – And really going into, deeper into the whys and figuring out the challenges that we face on a day to day basis to improve our business.

Woman [10:55] – So impressive that he had two failed businesses beforehand and did it anyway the third time. That's really impressive. I have one quick follow up for you and I know it has to be quick. How the heck do you go with your gut? Because it's something that comes up over and over for millionaires that I interview. And I was like, well, how? I don't use mine very much. So how do you actually do? You ask it. What do you actually do?

Jae Kim [11:15] – Sometimes I go eff it. But other times, again, like just asking myself why? And I think you mentioned right people. I think that right people becomes your sounding board, and right people really look out for the best interest of the movement that you're making and that they may have different ideas and feelings about certain situations. And one of the situations that we had was recent. Couple days ago, there was a UT stand stabbing, and our truck was right in the middle of that action. And it was really hard for us as an organization, and there were multiple ways that we could have handled it. I had my ways of wanting to handle certain things, and we had other staff that wanted to handle it in a different way. And we came together based on our experiences and how we felt about the situation.

Jae Kim [12:12] – I think we handled it really well. So, you know, relying on those people, the right people, is very important for our organization, too.

Woman [12:20] – It's so inspiring to hear the resilience.

Justin McCullough [12:24] – Hi, I'm Justin McCullough, and we're at Small Business Festival, and I've got Jae with me. We're going to talk a bit about his business. Jae, why don't you tell me a little bit about who you are and what you do.

Jae Kim [12:32] – My name is Jae Kim. I'm the founder and server at Cilantro Barbecue here in Austin, Texas. I started my business out of a food truck seven years ago, and today we have five physical locations, fleet of food trucks, and a full catering service.

Justin McCullough [12:48] – Great. So we're actually passionate about small business here at Smart Business. And one of the things I picked up on earlier was your passion and a little bit about your values and your culture for your business. I was wondering if we could maybe talk a little bit about sort of the values that are driving your organization today.

Jae Kim [13:02] – The core values are so important for us because as we grow a number of sizes from two staff to 10 to 50 to 200 staff, which we have today, the communication between myself and somebody, a staff who's washing dishes, we don't get to interact a lot. So we have to find common grounds that really kind of connects us together. And those are core values. One of them is trust and just treating others how you want to be treated. You know, that's so important for us. And creating just four win situations. One's for customers. Customers always have to win, but also our people have to win, and the company has to win. And the community, that which we're in, all have to win.

Jae Kim [13:55] – And when we have conflicts or when we have run into some challenges and problems, we always go back to core values and see how do we create a situation where everybody's winning. So those are what keeps us together as a company and really helps us to grow in the next five to ten years.

Justin McCullough [14:14] – That's excellent. So you've grown a lot in the last few years. So maybe if we could take, if we could go back in time a little bit to when you first started, tell us a little bit about your journey, how you grew and where values were sort of all those milestones in the decisions you were making.

Jae Kim [14:28] – I started really with nothing. I took out my savings and maxed out my credit card just to survive for six months. So I would say the core values is like not giving up, perseverance and.

Justin McCullough [14:42] – Yeah.

Jae Kim [14:42] – And just being persistent and just like work and just survive. So my first six months was the toughest times that I've had, but it was most valuable time also that I had. I was working 15, 18 hour days and hard work and not giving up. Being persistent was instilled in me and the staff. So then that story was told to the other staff members that kept joining us and they thought that it was completely okay to sacrifice their time and hours to contribute to something that was bigger than they were. And I think that's why we were able to grow so fast in a short period of time.

Justin McCullough [15:23] – Yep. And why don't you tell us a little bit about that growth and some of those milestones over what period of time?

Jae Kim [15:28] – It's just funny how it seems so long, but yet it's so short. There's so many instances and so many situations where I think that we could have run out of business because I've taken out multiple, you know, taken out multiple times, maxing out my credit cards. And a credit card company would call me and say, hey, J.R. Is everything okay? Like, do you. We have insurances available for you? Right. I mean, those are some situations that I've had. But what we did was really just being diligent in our finances and really think about our people first. I was the last person who was getting paid. I wanted to make sure that our staff was getting paid first and they felt the comfort that they're able to feed their family. I have a staff named Julia who started with me from day one.

Jae Kim [16:18] – Single mom, two kids, two small kids. And I thought about them first before paying myself because I knew that if I took care of her, she would take care of me. So those are some situations that we ran into in the beginning of the stages where it made us who we are today.

Justin McCullough [16:34] – Yep. So how about telling us a little bit about maybe how you started to get to some level of scale with the fleet of trucks and you're talking a lot about the journey from a financial point of view. So why don't you maybe talk to us a little bit about some of those bigger decisions with capital purchases and things like that.

Jae Kim [16:51] – Yeah, it was all in. You know, there were a lot of. You know, when I first started, there was no banks that wanted to loan out money. Especially being in a restaurant business, it's just hard to find resources. I didn't want to go to my family members or friends, and that was the last thing I wanted to do. So I told myself, you know what, if I'm young, if I fail, I'll go back to my mom's house. And it was like the last option that I had. But I took a faith and I just went all in multiple times. And I believed in what we’re doing. I believed in the people, and the people believed in me.

Jae Kim [17:33] – I think that's what was so important for me, is that there were multiple times that I wanted to give up, and I've even looked for an option to sell my company at a smaller scale. But people said, you know, that we have customers out there. They're raving about Cilantro and they love us. And, you know, I'm so blinded by that. I didn't see that was happening. But, you know, next thing you know, we have customers who just love us and embrace us. They want us to be in this community. And, you know, we're Korean barbecue inspired, fast casual. So not a lot of people are familiar with Korean barbecue and kimchi. That's why I’ve created the original kimchi fries, out of desperation, to hide the kimchi under the fries. They became nationally known today.

Jae Kim [18:21] – But those are some of the moments that really people are able to connect with those stories, that desperation stories that we're here today, and we're able to grow, keep on growing.

Justin McCullough [18:33] – That is great. So as we close this out, I'm curious for all those that are really wanting to inspire the kind of growth you've had and really to paint a compelling vision for their audience and for their. Not only their customers, but their employees. What would you recommend to those folks on vision casting and having them believe in you like you've shared with us today?

Jae Kim [18:52] – I think one of the things that I share, I have so many things to learn still, but one of the things that they see in me is that me being persistent and not giving up. I've had multiple businesses before that failed, and every time I got out of those businesses, I said, I could have, I should have, I would have done that if I still have that business. And with Cilantro, I never did that and I encouraged myself to do it and make mistakes and, you know, don't tell yourself I could have, should have, would have, actually do it and see what the result's going to be like. So those values are instilled in our staff and myself and they're able to see that.

Jae Kim [19:38] – So any entrepreneurs out there that are aspiring to grow, I say be persistent and don't do things that you're going to say, I could have, should have, actually do them and see what the result is.

Justin McCullough [19:54] – So for those that are still watching, where can they find out more about Cilantro and yourself?

Jae Kim [19:59] – Social media.

Jae Kim [19:59] – That's the easiest.

Jae Kim [20:01] – Cilantro. On Instagram, you can go to cilantrobbq.com and check out our schedules, locations, and be engaged with us on Twitter. We do a lot of fun stuff. So @cilantrobbq. Wow.

Justin McCullough [20:31] – So what a great talk and interview and I hope you learned a lot. You know, I picked up several things. First, I just got to tell you that the kimchi fries are actually really good out of myself. And I definitely recommend next time you're in Austin that you go to Cilantro BBQ and get the original kimchi fries. But, you know, one of the things that really stick out to me as seeing an entrepreneur, and it's one of the things I really love about talking to entrepreneurs is, you know, there's a lot of failure. And the two failed businesses that he had, you know, really are a part of his. His journey and what it is that he's experienced over time and how he brought that to this business, the challenges and stuff that he faced before.

Justin McCullough [21:09] – And I love that he said in previous businesses he had the shoulda, coulda, wouldas. And in this business, he decided, you know what, everything I think about, I'm going to act on it. And that's a real key insight right there, is to not regret it later that you didn't act on it, but to instead go ahead and just move forward on the things that you're thinking about. Don't be passive, right? Don't sit around and hedge on it. If you think about it and you think it's something that's important and it's causing you some heartburn or whatever else, act on it, move fast. So that really got my attention.

Justin McCullough [21:44] – The four wins, you know, a win for the customer, the people that work in the organization, the company itself, the business itself, as well as the community that's got to Be a great recipe right there. To always true. Back to the four wins. I love that he called out values around being you, transparency and perseverance. You know, one of the things that really got my attention is he talked about how whenever he was walking through the company or different locations, people would see the look on his face and stuff and just think it was bad news. And then he started to change and smile and talk more and all that. And then what he found as a result of that was growth and. And more communication, more people confiding in him and talking to him and resolving issues in the organization.

Justin McCullough [22:45] – And I think that says a lot for what it is to be connected with people and to be approachable and to be involved and engaged and not be in your own world. And I think Jae really shared some insights around that, and I think you should do the same. The last thing that really got my attention that I want to really make note of was, you know, he said that if you practice the daily. If you have a daily practice around the core values and you look at the mission every single day, that's going to be impactful for how you do your job and how you run the business. And then over time, the vision will become more clear.

Justin McCullough [22:57] – And that's kind of a little bit of a paradigm shift because a lot of folks really focus on the vision and not so much on values. And so I really love how he called that out as a daily practice around the values. I gotta ask, you know, are you practicing daily values? And if your organization doesn't have it and that's possible, what can you do to bring it forward? Maybe you can start in your team with some values. And of course, if you can't even start there, why don't you start with yourself? What if you had some core values that you thought about every day that you would bring to what you do and how you do it in your team, in your business, whatever else. And so anyway, that really sticks out to me.

Justin McCullough [23:33] – I was glad to be a part of that experience. And I want to thank Jae Kim for allowing me to do the interview. And I want to thank Matthew Pollard, who created Small Business Festival, who allowed me to use this audio. And you know what? I'd like to thank the Breakmaster Cylinder for theme music for my podcast. You know, he's a really interesting crazy girl or guy or whatever. I don't know. He's the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder. So you can find him on the web. Brake Master Cylinder. BMC is often what they call him. He's he's the kind of guy that, like, makes podcast music, game music, and all this other kind of stuff. It's really cool. And I definitely would like you to check him out if you're interested in having some custom music.

Justin McCullough [24:15] – But anyway, so this was a great experience and a great show, and I hope you took some notes. You can go to justinmccullough.com or visionvaluesvelocity.com and pick a cup of comp and pick up a conversation there with me. Or you can find me on Twitter @mccJustin. Hey, let's talk some more sometime. Send me an email or just say hello. I like to talk to you guys. Thank you so much. Talk to you later.

Jae Kim [24:37] – Bye.