One day I was on a business trip to Chicago. 

Below my hotel window, I saw a little business with a GIANT line. "Must be the grand opening" I thought. So I went to my meetings and lunch without another thought. That afternoon I looked out my window and the line was wrapped around the block.

It got me curious, so the next day I looked down and the line was there again. dozens of people waiting in line, for what?? After work, I went over and stood in that very same line for an hour and a half. 

I struck up a conversation with the manager and found out that they had a line every day for their little popcorn shop and were making over 4 million dollars a year!

My ears perked up, I asked him a million questions, then rushed home and started to research.

Garrets is now a household name, but this story wasn't unique. There were literally dozens of small, mom and pop operators doing this across the country. I researched in depth and found companies like Double Good, PopInsanity, Garretts and Candyland and was immediately HOOKED.

Why?

1. They had shocklingly successful businesses generating tons of revenue (Hell yea for revenue!).
2. The competition was fragmented and weak. With no national competitors, each area had a few mom and pop shops raking in serious dough with just average popcorn.
3. They had incredible freedom-based lifestyles. I had talked with a few other “successful entrepreneurs” in other industries who were “successful” in terms of revenue…but their entire lives were spent working and they had no time for anything else (one even bragged that he missed his niece’s birth). What’s the fun in that?  They weren’t “rich” in the traditional sense but they got to do what they wanted every day and go where they please. That’s my definition of rich (Total time + location freedom).
   
   

I knew I HAD to get involved.

I had absolutely no idea what I was doing (starting from complete scratch with no experience and no plan) and spent months trying to “figure it out”. 

Finally, I bought some SUPER USED equipment and set up a pop-up tent at an event to take the plunge. 

The total cost was just under $3200, BUT my little pop up did over $1200 in revenue during the first day and I was OVER the moon.

I couldn’t believe it. I was so freaking excited as people were paying to eat my delicious popcorn and giving glowing reviews.

It went so well I decided to open a store.

(By the way, this part is totally optional .There are pros and cons to each method. You certainly don't have to have a permanent location to be successful. You can just keep things simple, stick with a single popcorn tent and make fantastic money.)

Back to the story...

We worked hard on that first shop and when we finally opened the doors....nobody came.

That's right. Crickets.

 I struggled for months to figure out the problem.

I wanted to be a successful popcorn maker too with lines around the block. What had I done wrong?

So, like a crazy person…I obsessed.

After hundreds of hours of research, I got in my car and visited dozens of popcorn shops all across the country. 

I grilled owners to tap into their best tips, secrets, and methods. 

Took the best of what I learned and implemented, tweaked, tested and put my own spin on it.

Sort of like a mad scientist (of Popcorn).

That year, our busiest day was $12,541.

It worked.

My sales took off. I finally started to stack some cash. I realized that getting more customers was all about:

• Making your popcorn and packaging unique (to command a premium price)
• Understanding the Science of Selling (to increase cart size)
• Establishing yourself as the perfect solution to someone’s problem. 

To see how far we've come in December 2017 and that same-store generated over $90,000 in retail sales plus over $200,000 in corporate Christmas orders.