Q1 Life Update + Pad See Ew!

Hi Everyone,

I’ve had this item in the to-do list since February 3rd and I’ve kept it at the corner of my computer screen for 2 months. The discipline to take to not X out a sticky note is indescribable with words. But in the end, what appears on the to-do list doesn’t matter as much as doing it. Happy to say I’m now 2/3 done here.

I want to start with a Hello, hope all is well!

I’ll give you a (1) quick update on my life then (2) dive into an essay I wrote about providing a backstory behind a video about Pad See Ew Noodles (linked at end).

Updates

1. After that recent January Birch shoot I did another 3-4 freelance wedding content shoots for Sara Greenberg. My favorite part of the role with Sara was getting close with the bride and groom Behind the Scenes for the biggest moment in their lives. Very touching and a lot of chills. And Sara - she’s a 10/10 planner. I’m not kidding.

• Favorite Boss I ever had (it’s freelance not full time but still applies). We just vibed

• Does amazing work for her clients, who all rave about her

• If you or someone you know is getting married hit her up (@fyparties).

Also I made the video below!

fyparties

8,123 followers

View more on Instagram

2. In February, I went to Puerto Rico and fulfilled a personal long-term to-do list item of visiting a Cacao Farm. Was one of those if not now, when moments. Great experience, and I’m still eating the Cacao powder daily! And the Cacao fruit could be my favorite fruit on this planet — like not the bean but the fruit around it.

3. Started to edit my Japan videos after a year of waiting lol. I got the BIZ class video out, but unfortunately had to hit the pause button for an unexpected reason. I left my hard drive in a bag that went to Florida for a few weeks and finally got it back on Sunday. I’m just busy with other work at the moment so that’ll resume later on

4. I moved to Williamsburg a few weeks ago. GREAT environment change for me. It’s weird I took the opposite approach to when I moved to Denver. Then in 2023, it was an instantaneous move and figure it out. Like I booked a 1 way ticket with a bag and gave myself a 6 night stay in an AirBNB with a requirement to have signed a lease by night 7. It worked. This time though it was waiting for 10 months to make the move, then finally pulling the trigger. Learned this strategy from Naval Ravikant in the Almanack (great read - thanks to SY for the rec). We’ll see how this ages but thus far, great fit.

5. I’m probably missing stuff but if you want to see some tasty food I ate in the past few months check out my IG story right now. Nothing out of the ordinary. THEN FINISH READING.

   And now…

Pad See Ew Noodles!

Backstory: I have a weird amount of experience in Door to Door Sales.

Think hundreds of tradeshow vendors just introducing myself, ~80 (?) olive oil producers in 6 different countries (over half not knowing English), hundreds of shops across long island for my olive oil in ’22/23, and more recently hitting every single business in towns pitching video services

But this time’s a bit different.

So it’s weird, you’d think selling a physical product that requires a business to outlay cash upfront would be the most difficult?

Just wait.

Last week after applying to content jobs for 4 hours and hearing crickets (TMI but let’s face facts some of you could silently relate), I figured out my focus levels are off. I focus hard at one thing for a short period of time and rapidly adjust my focus to another thing, and similar to the economic issue with the tariffs (picking 100 battles at once and fighting them all — this is not a political view), I was picking way too many battles to fight. Some may call this ADHD, but I think ADHD is overprescribed. It was lack of confidence and conviction in my actions.

One thing others in my life notice is that I can make changes / adjust really, really quickly. Fortunately, on March 31st, I met a guy that ran a local Italian joint named the Ainslee in Williamsburg. Wildly optimistic individual - his name is Micah (sidenote he gave me a Burrata on the house last night — incredible!).

I have told myself for months I need to improve the people I surround myself with, but frankly telling myself that and actually doing that are 2 different things. I got a bit lucky here finding someone to take an hour, mid-shift, to sit down and hear out your whole story. It’s a move I respect on so many levels, and sure maybe the optimism was far stretched, but it gave me the confidence that hey: people need your help. Go f*cking do something about it.

That night I decided to refocus and choose 1 principle to win whatever game I’m playing: It’s more important to show than tell.

It clicked there. I have a passion for food, I can make good video content around food, but most of my “experience” of late has either been low quality videos around olive oil or higher quality videos about random businesses such as landscaping, insurance, and weddings (I’m thankful for all of those experiences and to this day continue to take freelance work in these industries). But no matter how good those videos get, it’s a continual version of beating around my personal artistic bush.

I had this thought of only using videos I get paid for to build out my portfolio, but what I’ve found is these videos often undermine my skillset, as certain voices and ideas are naturally suppressed to keep the client happy. Maybe this is right, maybe this is wrong, but the philosophy here you’re getting paid to add specific value, put your head down, do your job, and do it well and eliminate distractions. The creative piece is often the distraction.

So the adjustment is taking that creative energy and applying it to new video content. Sure I can capture low hanging fruit and do olive oil videos again. While I’ll still sporadically sprinkle them in (last night I randomly came up with 3 video concepts by accident that will be released soon), it’s not helping me move forward at the moment since I’m not at the production facility, rather in NYC.

Instead, given my location, I want to show people how food is prepared, manufactured, mixed, or whatever you may call it. I know restaurants, coffee shops, breweries, and brands want to show BTS and how it’s made, so I figured to start by simply pitching restaurants on collaborative videos at no cost. I make video in exchange for being able to make the video. Seems like a no brainer, right?

Well on April 1st I got after it and went door, to door, to door. And very quickly, I realized I had 1 big issue: I had no prior kitchen videos. As Alex Hormozi says, start with offering what you do for free since the business owner has to pay with their time + trust that I won’t f*ck them over.

Everyone kept asking me for a portfolio and I’d show my portfolio of olive oil at trader joe’s videos or wedding videos, but what restaurant owner needs to see a wedding video for validation?

I’m not kidding, after 2 hours and about 15 businesses down, I was almost ready to throw in the imaginary towel, head back up to my apartment, and “rethink things,” but I fortunately stopped by this random Indian Takeout Place outside my apartment (more on that in another essay) who said to come back in 2 hours since the owner may be interested. When he said 2 hours, I figured to make use of those 2 hours and pitch away. And that’s where I started hitting paydirt (if you consider a “maybe” to a free video paydirt).

To be upfront, the first business I visited in that 2 hour span was this place A Thai. They had a sign outside the restaurant that claimed “Best Pad See Ew” and I went right to the owner and told them something along the lines of — prove to me you have the best Pad See Ew and let me make a video showcasing it! I ended up getting their number and coordinated an ad lib shoot for the following day. And honestly I had such a fun time filming and eating that dish. Sure there are things I’d improve about the video but that’s always the case on these videos. The one thing I’ll say is I really want to show everything and sometimes have to compromise to work with the restaurant. Ideally I could have shown how the sauce was made but it was a secret the restaurant wasn’t looking to share!

Here’s the final result

Final Thoughts

The Mantra moving forward is simple: Do, Improve.

Once a project is done, it’s out there, and move forward (though I still have a mini addiction to checking the stats, it’s such a fun game to play, but I’m working on it).

The Pad See Ew is only the tip of the iceberg. More stories coming. I’m really liking this restaurant path. Only time will tell if it turns into a career, passion project, or a little side quest for fun. No matter what, I’m having a great time with it and post the videos to IG, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. Feel free to give them a watch!

And one promise I’ll make: you’ll hear from me sooner than 3 months from now.

-Jack

PS If you read this far, thank you. One quick favor if you’re thinking, instead of texting me or replying to the email, if possible leave a comment here letting me know your thoughts!