Original subtitles

Hey guys, my name is Carlos Castillo.

I'm the co-founder of Carlitos Barbecue

Taqueria and Carlitos Tequileria.

Today I'm going to

share Un Chín sobre mí

So my early beginning, like many of us

who started in the hospitality industry,

you start at the bottom.

I started in 2008 and I was a dishwasher

for two years through college.

And I learned a lot of things in this

specific station because it

requires a lot of grid,

it requires a lot of commitment.

And I always just focus on being the best

man and just learning.

So whether I was the best dishwasher,

whether as I grew, became the best cook.

My goal was always to learn

and be the best that I could.

Beautiful, beautiful.

So then from here, you spend time in the

dishwasher, you met some people and

we have built what,

where are you right now?

Where's the stage of the company?

Yeah.

So we have a, we started

with a food truck in 2017.

Then we opened our

first brick and mortar 2018.

That's in Paramus inside

garden state Plaza mall.

Then we opened up a

beer garden in Jersey city.

And then we opened at

Newark airport terminal A.

This is our latest project.

It's less than a month old.

And in about six or seven months, we'll

complete our next location, which will

be another Carlitos Tequilidía in north

Arlington, New Jersey.

Beautiful.

Let's see this place still.

So it's important who you do this with.

Talk to me a little bit about it.

I agree with you.

It's very important

who you do business with.

Um, it's really important that you have a

team that understands

that we're going to,

you're going to be facing challenges.

And, you know, imagine having two bags.

One has problems that you know, exist.

They've always existed.

You put them aside, but you

know, you got to tackle those.

Those are ones that

you should be able to.

And then you have a bag that it's

actually complicated,

more complicated issues.

So you want to make sure that you have a

team that can really, you want to be,

um, in when it comes to

solving those problems.

So I have two business partners.

Fernando Campo from Colombia, immigrant

and Martín Molina from Argentina.

He's also an immigrant like myself.

I'm from Honduras and we've come together

with different skill sets, uh, to be able

to attack, um, the challenges that come

up and we have fun doing it.

Many times we have a big issues and we

resolve them, go have a beer together.

So it really feels like you have a team

and it's really important for any

organization to have those people.

Immigrants.

i,m an immigrant?

Immigrants.

We get the job done.

So anything else you

want to say to Un Chín?

Oh, a little bit more.

Of course.

Look, man, I think, uh,

if you have goals

and you have the passion, um, make

sure, really important, never lose hope

of what you're trying to do.

That's really, really powerful.

Try to have an impact

in your communities.

Um, don't be scared of hard work.

All the good stuff requires hard work.

So don't, don't be scared of that.

Um, there are many people who are not

smarter than you who are doing amazing

things because they have courage.

They have some grid and nobody starts off

any project knowing all the things.

We certainly didn't.

We want to see Latinos prosper.

We want to show people what we really are

about and our hard work ethic and that

we want to be able to, to

inspire and support each other.

I'm inspired.

I'm telling you now that this is one of

the things that I enjoy the most about

this project Un Chín is

meeting people like you.

Thank you.

It makes me feel humble and motivates me.

And I hope that everybody

else is doing Un Chín like that.

So talk to me after thinking about having

your place how do you get to manifest this place

how does that happen.

You know there's a lot of a lot of

requirements i think the first thing is stay

positive work hard i'm gonna be very open

minded to learning new things

challenges of to be curious.

Talk to people who have done it i'm and do

not be scared of doing the work because all

good things require a lot of work this is.

Early beginnings were a food truck was a lot of

sacrifices involved but we learned a ton.

That gives you confidence so as you start

doing smaller tasks smaller tasks you get to

build get to feel prideful.

And then you're gonna learn a lot of lessons

along the way i mean i wish there were some

things that i knew before becoming an

entrepreneur you really gotta become a

problem solver problem so yeah so i like to

think of myself as the chief

problem solver of the company.

And you want to build a good team that that

can help you solve those problems because

they're gonna come up but that's what

business is all about that's the definition

of an entrepreneur

you're gonna solve problems.

Okay beautiful and is that something that

you know in the school because i know that

you weren't to hospitalist to.

No you don't learn that in school man you

know i'm thinking school you learn the

fundamentals you learn skills that are

really important they should be aware of.

But you're not really gonna encounter

problems there i don't know at that moment

your problem might be like have a lot of

homework and things like that.

But it's not until you're in it and you're

feeling pressure of things not going how you

planned an entrepreneur when you first start

you only see the upside.

Yeah right you see the upside you're like so

energetic you want to

share that with everybody but.

You're gonna come across those problems and

that's when you the way you solve them who

you solve them with that's when you truly

become to start a

business person entrepreneur.

what's in the future so we're doing our

fifth location we're working on that now

it's going to be another Carlito's

tequileria okay and this one is going to be

north Arlington New Jersey.

After that we are going to continue the path

of becoming a regional brand for the fast

casual concept main which is Carlito's

barbecue taqueria and we will then go

national that's our plan we're working on

the infrastructure for that to happen so.

We don't want to lose quality we want to

make sure that we we can create the proper

systems so that we continue to grow properly

and we want to be able to

share with the whole country.

Who we are what our flavors are where they

come from and for people to be proud and

also for other people to save men this is a

Latino national brand I can do that too.

I love the fact the name is Carlito's it

feels like you know for me is a is like the

way you call your son right I don't know if

that's what it comes from Carlito's right but

I also know that the DNA you want that

feeling in your your spaces right.

Yes you know Carlito's is an endearment term

yeah I would say if you're Latino you

probably know Carlito's we want you to feel

that we want you to feel comfortable we want

you to say I can trust that brand.

It's Latino and it's someone who you feel

some love towards otherwise you wouldn't

call them Carlito's so we want to be able to

to provide that type of hospitality where

you feel like you know these people.

You know that's a good way to feel amazing

when you come here we wanna have some

dialogue that really represent hospitality

well we have many folks who come and take a

picture in front of the sign because their

son is named Carlito's beautiful beautiful.

And so anything else you wanna say to a

little bit more of course look man I think

you if you have goals.

And you have the passion make sure really

important never lose hope of what you're

trying to do that's really really powerful

try to have an impact in your communities.

Don't be scared of hard work all the good

stuff requires hard work so

don't don't be scared of that.

There are many people who are not smarter

than you who are doing amazing things

because they have courage they have some

grit and nobody starts off any project

knowing all the things we certainly didn't.

I went to school for that but there are many

things that you don't you don't get taught

surround yourselves with good people.

And you know we wish you all the best we

wanna see Latinos prosper we wanna show

people what we really are about and our hard

work ethic and that we wanna be able to.

To inspire and support each other i'm a spy

i'm telling you now that this is.

One of the things that I enjoy the most

about this project going to change as many

people like you thank you it makes me feel

humble and motivates me and I hope that

everybody else is doing change like that.

When the ceiling is when the ceiling is.