What's The Matter With Me? Podcast

What's The Matter With Me? Podcast


#30: Disabled entrepreneur

January 26, 2018

What's The Matter With Me? Podcast Episode 30
My name is John, I'm 38 years old, husband and father of two, small business owner, radio DJ, podcaster, and I have multiple sclerosis.  I made this podcast to share what I'm going through.
Disabled entrepreneur
Episode 30 of the What's The Matter With Me? podcast revolves around promoting my brand at a trade show as a disabled entrepreneur with MS.
It was really fun and a major step forward for my business. Check out the episode for more.

Transcript:

Welcome to the What's The Matter With Me? Podcast Episode 30: "Disabled Entrepreneur." My name is John. I'm 38 years old, husband and father of two, small business owner, radio DJ, podcaster. And I have MS. I made this podcast to share what I'm going through.

Recap last episode. I was talking about shoelaces, and some listeners wrote me back on the What's The Matter With Me? Podcast Facebook page. That was cool. Thanks for hitting me up. I'm going to check out your suggestions. And then steroids. I took my MS drug Rituxan, and I had to take steroids. We had a little discussion about MS drug fatality risk. I talked about that I was going to the Winter Fancy Food Show. We'll talk about it in a minute. It was cool. And then I played episode 3, the throwback episode. Check whatsthematterwithme.org.

I went to the Winter Fancy Food Show yesterday. It was a massive deal for Hoppin Hot Sauce first and foremost. But it was a big physical challenge for me as a person with MS. I had a lot of anxiety about it, leading up to it. I was also just doing a lot of work, so it was pretty stressful. I'm glad it's over. I'm still decompressing. It was just yesterday. In fact, I'm kind of still in work mode. I'm sending invoices and filing stuff and getting ready to reach out again. So I guess it never ends, but Winter Fancy Food Show was great. We were set up in a row of young entrepreneurs. The guy on the right to me made a bunch of different kinds of hummus and interesting … he was Persian, interesting Persian products.

The partners on the other side were a man and a woman, and they made cookies out of tofu production secondary stream products. Which means stuff that's usually a byproduct or a throwaway product. They used … they made it into flour, like some residue from soybean into flour. They wanted to make tortillas and all kinds of other bread products. But they make at this time cookies. That was cool to be next to them.

There were a lot of attendees walking by, thousands, throughout the day. We were in between Moscone North and South, kind of at the entrance of the hall in this kind of corridor, outside the elevator. Anyway, it had lots of people. It was a good location, because many people passed by and you could get them to sample the products. And so I'm a natural hawker. I'm like, "Hey, you." Make eyes at people. They love me. I say stupid things. I'm great if you like a stupid hawker. I'm bad if you're, like, wanting a highbrow afternoon. I'm not going to give it to you. I'm like to people … I'm like, "Hey, you know. I think you should probably try Hoppin Hot Sauce. It'll change you."

I just say … I think other people don't say weird enough stuff, or they say boring thing. "Would you like to try?" I didn't want to do that. I mean, how could I say that? I'm not that kind of guy. "Would you like to try a sample? Sample?" No, no. No. I'm just like, "Hoppin Hot Sauce will change you." You know what I mean? If I don't get them the first time, I'll just be a little firmer. I didn't hector or harangue anyone. I made a note beforehand, "Do not harass anyone walking by the way you know that you are just liable to do. No potshots. Highbrow only. Keep it clean." Yeah, I did it. It was good.

There were some folks there, though. You know what I mean? A big old conference in San Francisco has some people looking of some type of way at the conference. It is great. There was a guy with crabs on his pants.