Sharing Some Tools

I stepped in this month to Host Our local Live Your Legend Meetup of creatives in Austin, Texas, and I shared some tools there that could help other people with their personal projects. 

This month's meeting had 3 people show up. We had Roy Hughes​, Kaylyn Morgan​, and myself. Both Roy and Kaylin are in the app building business and have a few apps in the app store.

A short list below.

1. For book launch, you can use www.booklaunch.io
    
2. For writing your book, you can use www.pressbooks.com, or www.scrivener.com
    
3. To edit your book, you can use www.grammarly.com
   
   
4. To sell your products right out of your website, you can use www.gumroad.com
   
   
5. To promote your work by sharing it on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites, you can use www.sumome.com
   
   
6. To collect emails/sign ups on your website, to create a contact form that can be placed anywhere on your site, or check your site's heat maps so you know where folks are clicking the most, check out www.sumome.com
   
   
7. To create an automated series of emails that go out when someone signs up on your website, check out www.gumroad.com and www.mailchimp.com.
   
   
8. To sign online documents if you were to hire someone for a freelance gig or sign a document with a client check out www.docusign.com or www.rightsignature.com
   
   
9. To sell packages or products and still get the contact information of folks who buy from you, use www.gumroad.com. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and others do not give your that information.

After this we also took sometime to fine tune our thoughts on what our messages are for each of our projects and make it connect with the right people.

Individually, Roy is a musician and currently has songs on Soundcloud you can check out here: https://soundcloud.com/royestel

Kaylyn has a blog she co-runs with her daughter, a new mom, about the experience of new moms. You can check it out at www.mrsweetie.com and she is also fine-tuning her message for her lead blog “Awesome at any age.” It's focused on health and wellness.

As you already know, I am working on my upcoming book on how to start a small project right in your neighborhood that involves you learning from folks in your neighborhood who are already doing something you'd like to learn about. 

Thanks, everybody, and all the best.

PS: If you know of other tools that we could use, please let us know in the comments.

7 Things I learned From Writing My First Book

1. Begin With The End In Mind---Use A Book Cover, in 3D

When I set out to write the book/guide, I began with an outline of my potential reader's thought-flow. This thought-flow is simply what I expect readers to ask upon picking up the book. Obviously, their first encounter with the book will be with its cover and the title. Since the title is actually a call to action, it's grabby and the word “backyard” also makes it personal since virtually everyone has a backyard and can take advantage of this opportunity.

So upon picking up the book, readers will like to know what this backyard opportunity is. This is where I talk about my experience with my project, which I did right in my local community, which is my backyard if you will. The next question I think might come up is whether this project is for them and what can they get out of it, the benefits of it. So next I wrote out a short chapter on the benefits of doing a project and who exactly it's for. Based on that thought-flow, I began writing out the chapters: Introduction, the benefits, and etc.

2. Use An Outline For Chapters

I used an outline, or sorts, to write draw out a road map of where the book should go in content. Take a look here of what I wrote, in the beginning:

Table Of Contents

1. Introduction 
    
2. List
   
   
3. Who Is This For?
   
   
4. What Are The Benefits?
   
   
5. Getting Started
   
   
6. Nuts & Bolts
   
   
7. My Lessons And Why Other People Could And Should Do It
   
   
8. Technicals---how to introduce yourself, set an appointment, emails, follow-ups, interview, interview structure, survey, etc
   
   
9. My Daily Log
   
   
10. What All Of This Means
    
    
11. Why I need your help for review---If you would like to read the whole book and help me with feedback, send me an email here: acouplethings70@gmail.com.

With this rough outline, I I now have a map in mind and can simply follow it. I like to write with a finish line in my head, and seeing the table of contents laid out like that tells me the book is already finished. All I have to do now is flesh it out with value, the contents.

Update: The outline has since changed a bit, and rightly so, because you remember things to add to it and change to make it better, but the basic outline is what got me started. 

3. Write A Little Everyday

I'm sure you have heard of the saying that a little bit goes a long way, or a bite at a time eats an elephant. I applied the same thing to writing my book. I took each chapter, sat down and wrote it out . I didn't do this perfectly in the beginning, but I simply poured out my thoughts on to the paper and stepped back. 

At this point I am not worrying about how good my writing is, all that matters is that I have something sensible on paper. With that done, I set the ball rolling---I know I have a rough chapter down. In a few hours or the next day, I sit and rewrite it to make it clearer in language and add things I forgot or missed on the first write. This is how all of my chapters came together.

4. Always Think About How To Improve

Another thing I found useful during this whole process was thinking throughout the day about how to improve the content. I go throughout the day thinking about how readers will think of the book , and if I am answering all of their questions. I actually put myself in their shoes, and ask if I would get value out of reading my own book. If my mind says no, then I ask what I can do to correct that. 

 

Questions like this help:

1. Is my writing clear enough?
2. Can it be easily understood?
3. Am I using too many unclear words---I like to write with simple language that many people can understand.

This bring me directly to my next lesson: Take something to write with wherever you go.

5. Carry & Pen and Paper/Notepad With You At All Times

This lesson is not only for writers, but for all creative people. Why? You never know when an idea could hit. I know ideas could hit when I sit to write, but when I am out and about, when going about daily things, my mind takes in many things and with me thinking about my book, I come up with things that I could add or take out of my book. This is how I came up with the idea of launching my book in packages.

I came across this idea from reading a Nathan Barry post about the power of packages, and I found it clever. Nathan talks about how he himself heard it from Chris Guilleabeau, and applied in the sales of his products---the App Design Handbook, Designing Web Applications, and Authority.

But without thinking constantly about how to present my book or how to package, I may not have remembered that. And by carrying something to write with I was able to make a note to myself to do that when I get back home to my laptop.

6. Share Your Ideas With Others

Besides thinking and writing things down throughout the day, I also took the opportunity share my book with others. I would meet random people at the Starbucks where I usually go to write or at The Barnes & Noble Bookstore and discuss different things with them about my book.

How do I do this? If I notice someone reading a book or working on something similar, I would simply would introduce myself and ask a few minutes of them to help me think through something. 

An example was my meeting with a lawyer at the Barnes and Noble Bookstore a few weeks ago. We sat across from each other, and after a few minutes of working on my book,  I had a question about the cover I wanted to use.

I show him a picture of it on my laptop, and after sharing his thoughts with me on the cover, he pointed out a small issue with my title.

Initially,  I wrote the title so: Get To Know, Your Backyard Opportunity. I wrote it this way to mean "Get To Know," as a noun that meant your backyard opportunity. Obviously this didn't make sense. He pointed that out, and I took away the comma. 

See? Little things like that could change a whole lot. But I wouldn't have known if I didn't take the initiative to get this opinion on the cover I was working on.

        

       7. Learn From Others

This goes back to checking out Nathan Barry's Sales page on his website. I wanted to see how someone else had gone about theirs and learn from it. Not copy, but simply figure out the reasoning behind it, and see if  I can apply some of it to my own.

Keep in mind, though some people may claim original rights to an idea, no idea really is new. Ideas get recycled over and over again throughout time, and show up in a different guise as a new one. 

This is what the great book meant in the book of Ecclesiastes when it said this: There's nothing new under the sun. 

Okay, Go To The Next Shop

How To Announce A Project Change To Followers

Again, let's take a quick break from my current project to share an excerpt from my upcoming book, "Get To Know Your Backyard Opportunity."

Life happens, and we all have to make changes as we go, but when you are doing a public project and have followers, you will have to share the changes you are making with your audience. This is how I went about mine during my project. Look forward to the launch of the book soon. 

Enjoy.

.........

 

Change: 30 to 21

With Day 4 done, week 1 is in the bag. But change is needed.


I have to alter the project a bit. I will be altering the project from 30 days to 21. So officially, it's now a 21 day project.


My original intention was for a hard end on December 17. To get in 30 days of work---including meeting owners, setting appointments, and delivering values---interviews, copywriting, and others--- by that date, I will have to work 6 days a week within 5 weeks to meet my deadline.


But thinking it over carefully after week 1, I will be better off with a 21 day project that still meets the deadline and delivers better value to owners, which is and should the main reason for the project.


Let's take a look at the calendar for the next two months.


It just shows all the days I have marked for meeting owners and delivering values. I have purposely left some days off for personal time, days off to rest, and to make time for prepping for appointments and gathering requirements.

 The project will be over by the 12th of December, as marked on the calendar, and the 13th, 14th, are days to warm down and to unwind.


The 15th and 16th will be days to call up and thank owners for their time and reception, and you all for coming along. But also will be time for turning in my report and to pen down my reflections on it all.


So here, below, is a short list of my reasons.


1. Saturdays are mostly often rest days for owners, and I'd like to take a few of mine, too, to pace myself and avoid burnout.


3. Prepping materials and values to deliver at the appointments, and to prepare them very well.


4. Factor in Thanksgiving weekend.


5. Time for other gigs.

6. Time to write my weekly reviews.


Thanks for listening, and see you all on Monday, the 17th, for Day 5, when I meet with "Oh Boy! Print Shop" and "Aces Jiu Jitsu Club." for my first interviews.

Have a good weekend, you all.

Peace.

You can do the same with yours. Just don't make too many changes, though. If you are in school, you can explain why your school schedule may clash with project days, and why you will be doing the project on non-school days. Your reasons should be reasonable, they should make sense, if you will.

This eases people in to the change, and keeps them from thinking you are flimsy, and can't be taken seriously. Believe me, if you give good and genuine reasons, people will understand. We are all humans, things happen, and almost nothing goes according to plan. Even my recent project in New York City which didn't go as planned required a change, and I announced the change on my blog and gave reasons why.

Learn this skill now, and it will pay off going forward for all other changes to projects/ plans you make in the future which involves other people.

The Mr. Cassette Interview

My interview with Jeff Bender of Mr. Cassette, an audio and video services company in Austin, Texas. Mr. Jeff Bender, who owns the company took some time to share his story with me, starting from how the business began from 1958 to now. 

He shares the story of ownership change that ended up leaving the business in his hands. Jeff's a man passionate about records, music editing, sounds,  and file conversions. 

Here's a short description of what he does, from his website:

"Whether it's recording and pressing records in the 60's, or building a custom BluRay today, Mr. Cassette has been providing the highest quality audio and video services for over 53 years.

We specialize in all old and new media conversions, duplication of many formats including CD's and DVD's, and film transfer using some of the best machines available..."

In the interview details we delve into different topics:

1. How he joined the company and later bought it

2. The resurgence of old cassettes

3. His passion for conversion and sound editing

4. His relationship with customers

5. What he enjoys the most about the business

6. New developments in sound quality and others.

Take a listen.

Building Community

Again, let's take a quick break from my current project to share an excerpt from my upcoming book, "Get To Know Your Backyard Opportunity."

This chapter is about the use of projects like the one I do in helping to build community. Look forward to the launch of the book soon. 

Enjoy.

.........

  
Building Community

I have listed a number of benefits to do something like this [my interview projects], but the chief of them all is building relationships and connecting people. When I say this, it's not only for the relationships you build for yourself but the relationships you could build among others. And if you build relationships among people you are actually building community, your community.

And in this case, When I say among others, I mean the relationships among the business owners you interview for your project. Since they all reside in your local community, connecting them with each other goes a long way towards building your own local community. Let me explain how.

When I started my project, I had no idea of the kind of local business owners that were in my local community, and never thought I'd get to know some of them. Not only did I learn from them and add value to their businesses and my blog, but at the end of my project I sought to add value to my community as well.

At the end of my project, I put together a list of all the owners I had interviewed and shared their information with each one of them. In a sense, I introduced each of them to each other. That way they will all, in a sense, get to know each other.

Why? This not only builds the community of Austin, Texas, through building relationships withing a very important component of the city, the merchants of the city, but each owner though avowedly in business to sell a product or render a service could be a customer to another business owner, in a different setting. So they are sellers in one setting, and are buyers in another.

For example, one of the owners I talked to, Rob Almaguer of Oh Boy! Print Shop, could be in need of a hosting space for a t-shirt demonstration/promotional event, and that space could easily be supplied by Mr. Matt Lacy of Cafe Java, who has a nice restaurant space that could host a 2 hour t-shirt event in Austin. If this need arises for Rob's business, and Rob reaches out to any of them for a quote on using their space it will not be a first meeting between them. Having been connected by me through my project, the conversation and bargaining could be friendlier, easier, and possibly discounts could be for the sake of strengthening a relationship instead of making a profit. Rob, a business owner, is now a client of a restaurant owner.

Yet who knows? Mr. Matt Lacey could need t-shirts printed for an in-store event he may be hosting next time, or simply to give his employees a new look, and you know what could happen, or who he could call.

In another setting, Mr. Rehan of Silver Grill Cafe could be looking for a gym that could help someone his knows get fit and that's when Carey Kepler of Crossfit Central would come into play. But without knowing each other beforehand or that Crossfit even exists, Mr. Rehan is highly unlikely to think of Crossfit Central, though they all do business in the same local community.

Actually, in a real example, Mr. Rehan and I had a conversation lately of how he would like to somehow improve the décor of his restaurant. Speaking of interior decoration, he would definitely need the help of an interior designer. I told him of Tina Son, whom I knew was an interior designer from my interview with her husband, Steve Riad of Tomo Sushi. Both owners had businesses in the same strip mall, and didn't know this.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying they must by all means help each other or do business with each other, but having these relationships and knowing these possibilities exist go a long way in solving problems and building community. So knowing they are both busy and most likely would likely to n, I decided to somehow connect them.

In that same way, if you happen to do your own local interviewing project, you could be their connector, and help build your community this way by starting relationships.

For how I actually went about this, including emails, PDFs, and and how to seek permission, please look forward to the book's launch. It will be available on this blog, and from time to time before it's launch, I will share bits and pieces of it. Thanks for coming along.

An Interview: Nothing Bundt Cakes

Having completed, and posted my interview with Leif Johnson of The Nothing BundtCakes Franchise bakery in the Arboretum area in Austin, Texas, I want to highlight the interview itself and a few lessons from the conversation.

Nothing Bundt Cakes was actually started by Dena Tripp and Debbie Schwetz. Originally a sided project to entertain friends and family, it soon took off and is now a nationwide franchise opportunity for most.

This is the opportunity Leif and Caitlin saw in Las Vegas, and took it up after working in the corporate world for a while. Leif's story of how he came in contact with the opportunity is itself funny: A referral gift to one of the franchises.

And Leif goes into the details of that story, and a number of things like starting a franchise in it's early stages, the difficulties of running a franchise, hiring, what makes them special, and a few others.

I will not take it all away---Enjoy.

A Day In The Field

So I went out to prospect for the current project on Monday, February 29th.  Here's a list the shops I stopped at and the results of my interactions with each of them.

1. Mama Fu's

I made my first stop at Mama Fu's on Jollyville road. Mama Fu's has been in business for 9 years, and the assistant I spoke to wanted me to check their website for the management's email address, after learning of my purpose---an opportunity to meet the owner and ask his participation in my interview project.  

From her response, I got the sense it might not fall into my criteria of small businesses---independent and locally owned. I simply nodded, thanked the young lady, and left.


2. Brick Oven

At Brick Oven,  I spoke to Donnie, the owner, who was genial and open to hearing me out. After learning of my project, he asked me to follow up in two weeks since he recently signed a deal to have someone else take care of his restaurant's public relations. The deal, as he made clear, covers all affairs relating to public communication---blogging, social media, and email systems, and others. 

"Get back to me in two weeks, and see where I am with this new deal," he told me. I completely understood, and appreciated his honesty and openness. On to Great Harvest.


3. Great Harvest Bread Co.

Great Harvest is one of my favorite places to visit in Austin---you always get a free slice of their favorite bakes, and the folks who work there are friendly. Great harvest is a is chain of bakery shops who specialize in baking whole grain, muffin, cinnamon rolls, and smoothies. Their bread and muffin are made with Montana wheat. 

A review by one customer (credit Google): 

 

This time I spoke to Marty, a gentleman, who shared a few things he knew of the business and this particular store---it's the first to open up for business below the Mason-Dixon line, and in Austin, there are two shops---one north and the other south. Marty also works their Farmers market efforts besides working the north Austin store. 

To get an interview, Marty gave me the phone number for their south Austin, where  a manager could be reached to possibly set something up. But I did get a sample of sour bread and butter before leaving. Thanks, Great Harvest. 


4. Trulucks

Trulucks seemed like a high class restaurant tucked away in the corner of Research Boulevard and Great Hills. I have noticed it a few times, but have never walked in. A giant crab was embossed across it's front doors, giving a hint of a seafood bent to their offering. It always looked inviting with lights wrapped around some stout trees that seemed to surround it, giving it a woody and green tucking. 

I had to wait outside a bit upon finding the door locked. I stood and wondered why a restaurant would have its doors locked in the afternoon. But within seconds of my thought, a car drove up, parking in one of the slots right in front of the restaurant. A man with a package in hand walked up to the door, smiled at me, knocked a few times to draw the attention of folks inside, and waved to signal his seemingly familiar presence. 

"I deliver to them, and it's always like this," he told me, assuring me it's the fare with this restaurant. This restaurant may be exclusive to a select kind of clientele, thinking of it now, and true enough the website confirmed it when I checked online later. Well, we both walked in. He handed over the package, signed a receipt, and left. 

I introduced myself to the young lady behind the welcome bar and shared the purpose of my stop. 

"You would have to speak to the general manager, who doesn't live in Austin." I immediately knew I was in "corporately owned" territory. I took a card, however, thanked her and left, but not before going through my purpose again with a tall gentleman who may have been watching my interactions with the young lady, and wanted to find out exactly I was there.  


5. Promise Pizza

Promise pizza had a banner slapped to the right of it's front doors announcing it's new ownership. A friendly young lady welcomed me and asked how she could help, after walking in. I asked to speak to the owner, and followed that with who I am---a writer, a blogger, doing a project profiling small business owners in Austin, Texas. 

She took a few minutes to walk to the back of the shop to inform the owner. As I could see and tell, the owner seemed tied up with business in the back, but waved me over after learning of my purpose. 

We went over what I do, and how I could be useful to him.  Unsure of who I was and exactly how my project or blog could help him, he took my blog's URL and promised to follow up with me if he found a match, in value trade, between us. Before we parted ways, though, he made me aware he has only recently took over the ownership of the shop, and has been running it for 4 months. 

I'll have to wait a few days and see if he follows up. Yet this happens often with my projects, where you do not hear back, and have to move on to find the next willing owner, which was my next stop.


6. Nothing Bundt Cakes

I walked in to find a lady in a conversation with a customer over an order, it seemed. I waited patiently for the conversation to be over before introducing myself and my project. Nothing Bundt Cakes is a franchise owned by a friendly husband and wife team, Leif and Kathleen, I learned later.

After hearing of my project, Kathleen asked me to speak to her husband, whom she called over from the back of the shop. Leif arrived to hear me restate my purpose, and agreed to do a quick interview on Wednesday, March 4th, for a 20-30 minute interview. 

We set it up tentatively at 12pm, and agreed on a meeting place nearby. Glad, I thanked Kathleen and Leif and left.

8. Jersey Mike's Subs--Jersey Mike's corporately owned, I learned upon asking, shortening my stop there. 

A short day being today,  I quickly wrapped up things for the day, and headed to Best Buy to redeem a $50.00 Best Buy gift card I had from last year but had not gotten around to using it. I wanted to spend it on something useful before it expires. 

I made a few rounds inside the Best Buy shop in the neighborhood, and came away with a 7 inch quad core tablet, and called it a day.

I will be posting more updates on the project as I go. 

How To Confirm An Interview Appointment (Via Email)

Let's take a quick detour from my current project and talk about a skill: Firming up an appointment:

This post is an excerpt from my upcoming guide/book on how to start a small business project in your local community. I recently completed a similar project that involved me interviewing small business owners in my local town, Austin, Texas. Over 21 days, I interviewed 10 small business owners, profiling them: their stories, starting challenges, their passions, and their counsel for other would be owners.

This post details how I confirmed one of my interview appointments with one of the owners. Small business owners have a lot on their plate, so understanding how to make things easy on them goes a long way in making it easy to work with them, more so if they don't have a prior relationship with you.


It could help you in your own personal projects. You can use the idea and template in your own way to similar effect. The principles I stress here are these: respect, thoughtfulness, clarity, and ease of response.

First, I start with the assumption that you have an agreement in word ( verbal) to do an interview ( or meeting, in your case), and would like to firm it up.

With the appointment set, it's not over. This is life, and things can come up at anytime, or memory could fail people, by forgetting about the appointment. So I call or email the day before to confirm. At other times, I again call the day before as a final confirmation. I do this as a back up.

Below is an example of an email I sent out during the project to confirm an interview. Names and personal information deleted for privacy.

Hello [Sir],

This is Kingston. As part of my 21-day project of profiling small business owners in Austin, we set tomorrow, Tuesday, the 9th, at 11am for a 30 minute interview. [Thanks for taking the time.]

We will make the audio of high quality by recording in a quiet area, unless you would prefer your restaurant's sounds in the background. Some interviews are livelier that way, with the background sounds, like the one I did with Steve Riad of Tomodachi Sushi in his restaurant. Please let me know what works for you.

You can also take a look at my blog here: Myblog.

Also, please let me know if we can confirm before I head out tomorrow. Again, I have added the interview format below to help you gather your thoughts and help make the session useful to all.

Thanks again, and see you in the morning.

Kingston Temanu
A Couple Things for Owners
The 21-Day Project

The Structure

30---35 minutes overall:

30 seconds: Introduce myself, the project, the owner, and how I came to know the owner.

3-4 minutes:

1. Please share a little about your restaurant---what you guys do, where you are based, and what makes you unique in the marketplace.

3-4 minutes: 

 
2. What is the essence of your story---How did you get started? What got you into the restaurant business? What are your thoughts overall of your journey as a business owner.

3-4 minutes:

3. What did you do to grow from the beginning? What were some of the early challenges, and how did you handle them?

3-4 minutes:

4. Share your cookbook---What has been the principles, personal skills, and collaborations that you use in your business.

3-4 minutes:

5. What are your current goals, why, and how will they be useful to folks interested in Thai Cuisine, both current and potential?

3-4 minutes

6. Do you have any new deals/announcements, opinions to correct, and dishes to release?

3-4 minutes:

7. What has been the most challenging part of running your own business? What has been the most rewarding?

Wrap up:

 

What would you tell folks who are looking to start their own thing?

Is there anything else you would like to share that we didn't cover? Close and thanks.

….........................................................

So you notice how it talks about my project in the beginning sentence, and in the next sentence it offers an example of an interview I did previously. This is important as it gives the owner a chance to see an example of what this is all about.

The owner does not know much about you, so it's important to give him as much information to assure him he has nothing to worry about.

This is my approach, yet there are many others. What are yours? Share in the comments below, anonymous is fine too---the value is in the lesson.

A Minimum Viable Product

An example of a presentation of an offer for a small business owner to build a core group of customers through email.

This is just bare bones minimum, and I welcome feedback on how to improve it. Thanks.

Win-win

A quick note on win-win trades.

Like it says on my 'About Me' page,  I like to learn a lot about things that I am interested in. One of the things that I get excited about is trade.

When I say trade,  I mean everything that can be exchanged for something, in terms of value. And if you follow my blog closely, you probably know  I like trade in terms of win-win, where everyone comes away from the bargain with what they want, or what they find valuable. 

This is what Creative Market did brilliantly with it's trade with the creators that sell on their platform. Creatives don't always get their money's worth for the products the make. The term 'starving artist' is often a tag for most creative folks. 

So Creative Market's 70% is not only good, but the copywriting goes on to honor the hard work that goes into creating things for sale, and calls the product's "amazing." Who wouldn't want to put their creations on such a platform?

What's more? Creative Market goes on to make clear it will take it's 30% share of the sale to even cover credit card processing fees and help with marketing. That's a win-win.

I just wanted to quickly shine some light on that. I know thoughtful minds out there will also appreciate it.

Plaudits for thoughtful copy-writing, a generous split, and going the extra mile for the creator of products. Kudos, Creative Market.

Push Carts

During the project, I talked to a few push cart operators in New York City about their businesses, and their thoughts of their jobs. Let me quickly share that. 

1. Operator: Mohammed
Location: Central Park & 5th Avenue.

Story: Mohammed is originally from Egypt, and works the push-cart on an occasional basis. 

Difficulties: the elements: The weather as we all know it is not always pleasant outside, and working a push cart definitely exposes you to all the elements: cold winters, hot summers, and shaky spring and fall. The work by it's nature leaves the operator outside for a long period of the day, and over time, that takes a toll.

Currently, though Mohammed works the push cart for his owner, who is not physically present with him, but whom he obviously makes his accounting to. I asked him what he will do if he had the opportunity to work the cart on his own ( In other words, if he was the owner). 

His response? I wouldn't find him on the streets. He'll choose a different occupation. So this led to my next obvious question: For what he would like to do? A chauffeur position with one of the hotels in Manhattan, where he gets to put on nice clothes, meet nice people ( as he describes it) and be indoors or inside a car almost all the time, away from the elements, was his preferred kind of work.

A better pay will come in handy, too, he added to provide for his 2 kids and wife. And speaking of his family, this is also a driving reason for working the pushcart in the elements to provide for his family.

2. Operator: Rita.

Location: Central Park and 5th Avenue:
  Story: Rita's a young lady in her early twenties ( it seemed to me) and operates a push cart for www.wafelsanddinges.com, a Belgian pastry and beverage company. 

"Two years," she said, when I asked how long she has been doing this. This made me ask a related question, as  I thought of her youth and how easily a part-time college course seemed to easily fit into her life. Rita speaks Persian, Russian, and English, and was out of school for now, having enrolled in the past. I didn't ask why, as it seemed too personal a question, and she had customers to attend to.

Wafels and Dinges serves folks in the Central Park and 5th Avenue desserts, Belgian Waffles, coffees, tea & hot chocolate.

For what she enjoys the most: She talked about her joy of chatting with tourists who come to central park from all over the world, and serving them with whatever they will like to desired of their offerings.


3. Operator: Kalzang

Kalzang, whom I talked to a few minutes before Mohammed and Rita, shared with me his difficulty with conversing with American shoppers, though he had an easier time with foreigners. He found the accent of most Americans a little too "slippery" to keep track of. But this is understandable for him, who hailed from a nation outside the states and not quite used to the unique pronunciation of English words by most Americans.

Also, I tried to find out how he found the job, or where to find such an employment. From what he shared, there seemed a network of sorts that he knew of that brings folks like him into contact with push cart owners. And since he didn't own the truck, he often finds himself out of work for periods at a time, and was back to work now after being rehired by another push cart owner after his last.

Kalzang, like the others, also enjoyed chatting with his customers and serving them with whatever pleased them out of what he sold. 
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I did talk to a few other push cart operators in the Central Park neighborhood, and they had similar thoughts to share. Alex, whom  I spoke to first on 60th and Columbus, shared his appreciation for his good positioning and the opportunity this job offers him to interact with customers of all kinds; and Abdul, an Egyptian, who would definitely choose a different location for the kind of traffic he gets if he owned the cart, but had no complaints now and seemed to joyfully serve his customers.

Yet what's the point in doing these quick interviews with these operators?

Well, first, they work in a different environment than most, who most likely work indoors in an office in a company or elsewhere. These push cart operators have to directly interact with customers of all kinds under different conditions, serve them well, and make a living. I wanted to understand that. 

Two, though I did not expect this, I also found myself motivated to work harder on my projects, realizing how these guys simply got on with their work and found a way to put food on the table though they may not have the best of situations ( it seemed to me, at least). It got me stirred to look at my circumstances, and strive harder. 

All in all, it gave me a quick look into a world I have walked past often when I found myself in Manhattan, and now had a better appreciation for their work and lives.