The Need for Recalibration

At the beginning of Q2 2025, I made the decision to go all in on food content. What I didn’t anticipate is May and June being top months for my video business. Some of you may be thinking “sure amazing! go Jack” and others thinking “conceited kid needs a slice of humble pie.”

Then, most importantly, there’s me. How do I think of it?

It’s hard to describe. In some aspects, it’s been great. I finally reinvested in new equipment, brought on a full-time editor, and found effective business models that work in times where I seek additional income.

But in other aspects, the more troubling realization is while the pay is there, I don’t see myself doing it for decades. Not to say that this is a problem. It’s not.

The problem is I set aside all my food-video endeavors in pursuit of income. I’m not mad about it… but I realize I operate better as an all in guy — especially when launching something from scratch.

So it makes sense I went all in food content in April. As proof, my revenue for the month of April was $100, my lowest recorded revenue since I started the olive oil brand. I couldn’t care less as I saw it as an investment in myself and knew I had enough runway.

Funny enough May and June comes and what happens is I start to deviate off that path and get to a point in the middle of this month where I started to become conflicted. I keep telling myself: “make YouTube videos…script / film / edit / deliver” — but then a mountain of client work piles up, new equipment comes in, and distractions threw me off.

The only way I know how to properly combat this cycle (that would 100% lead to burnout if uninterrupted) is extremism. It’s not “let’s release a video a week for restaurants in the city.” NO. I’m not moving into the 100 degree city in the summer to do that. Save that for October if need be.

As you know over the past few weeks I’ve thought about and recently committed to a ~30 day road trip across the Eastern part of the US filming Behind the Scenes Food Content. The extremist tendency is dropping everything and molding my life into the identity of a food videomaker. That’s the most responsible thing I can do for myself over the long term. As Tim Ferris says, what’s the worst that could happen?

Year 4

As I was walking this morning from LifeTime Penn (in NYC) to the Javitz Center, I realized that this is the 4th Year in a Row I’ve attended the Fancy Food Show. That really puts things into perspective. Sure it’s not year 35 like some of you reading this but for me that’s enough proof of dedicated effort.

Yet as funny as it sounds, even this year, you’d think I have it down pat, know exactly what to expect, and sure I planned things out quite well.

But the absolutely incredibly amazing conversations I had with farmers, brand owners, and other attendees on Day 1 brought my mindset right where it needs to be. I realize I NEED to be telling stories about food, not just the trials and tribulations of my everyday life as a 26 year old.

I’m immensely more talented in helping a $50M Spice Company’s founder who has visited 100 countries in a Year than a $5bn Crypto Company looking to change how payments are made. Yes I have the Wall Street Backgorund, I know money, and so on and so forth. But people, you don’t understan dI”ve really put time into food. I get what people in this industry need. And I haven’t even come close to reaching my potential.

I’m very grateful to have this show in my life. It even brings back some old relationships I forgot existed, especially after skipping Expo West this year.

And if you’re still reading, I want to relate this back to you. How could YOU recalibrate yourself? How could you motivate yourself to go all-in?

My Tip is to change your environment. Throw yourself off. Wake up in a different city or different country. Put your phone away for a day. Spend the extra $300 on the front row seat. Do something out of the ordinary and the results may come to show.

The Fancy Food Show represents a familiar but distinct environment from everything I’ve been doing in 2025.

I can’t wait for the next 2 days.

-Jack