Erik Oberholtzer co-founded Tender Greens in 2006 in Culver City, California, a fine-casual restaurant concept with 24 locations and growing. Himself a chef, Erik manages a growing team of talent along with some exciting new brands. He is the founder of the Tender Greens Sustainable Life Project, a program aimed to assist at-risk youth develop new skills and career intentions through structured culinary training and farm exposure. Co-founder of P. Balistreri Salumi Company, the first of more chef legacy companies he has helped incubate and bring to market through Tender Greens. Erik did his undergraduate degree in Psychology at Temple University in Pennsylvania and Culinary Arts at Johnson & Wales in Providence, Rhode Island.
Here are a few things we talked about in this episode:
- Michelle introduces Erik.
- Erik describes how he and his partners still needed half a million dollars after exhausting his friends and family for investing.
- Institutional investors were just not the way to go for Tender Greens and Erik shares why.
- The partners of Tender Greens knew they were in this for the long haul and that any time you “skin your knees” you need to get back up and work harder.
- Erik shares why selling yourself and your business can have a profound impact on your life.
- You can turn any ‘NO’ into a joke or a punchline.
- Erik shares how their network helped them meet their goals in business.
- For every YES, Erik and his partners experienced 10 NO’s.
- Erik talks about his supportive network of family and friends and how it helped him through the tough times.
- Erik tells the story of trying to work with the James Beard Foundation and how they may have gotten a NO, but it ended up in a far better way.
- Erik shares what he’d say to his younger self.
Erik has even more to share! Check-out our latest blog post for all the details on how and why to grow your network.
For more about building rapport and relationships that work for you check out my free guide, Make Relationships Real Again.
Connect with Erik:
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P.S. Don’t forget to check-out Erik’s blog post. In it we share how Erik’s supportive network helped to make his dreams a reality.
