We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joy King a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Joy, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
The need for seeing what’s next, living life without regrets complied with not being a quitter is where I get my resilience from. Plus if I quit now, I’ll be homeless as this is my only source of income!
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
In 2017 I began operating a food tour company in Birmingham to highlight the local restaurant community. Our mode of transportation was a party bus. Most food tours are walking tours, but having a bus would allow me to visit all of my restaurant partners throughout metro Birmingham. The concept came when a bus company asked what could I do with their party bus to bring notoriety to it. I had a food TV show so it made sense to merge the 2. fast forward 6 years later, I own 4 buses and one of which a Sprinter Van I bought from the company who got me started as they went out of business. I had no idea what to do with a Sprinter Van, but little did I know celebrities prefer them and I have a number on there for ground transportation to airport pick ups and drop offs. 2 of the other buses are luxury party buses and 1 is a custom made luxury cigar bus. I had to have something for the fellas! At the end of 2021, I signed up to be a Travel Agent so I can expand my company to offer travel, distillery, civil rights and cigar tours.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
My relationships with the local restaurant community was key, otherwise I’d just be taking people to the club on the bus. I heard bus repairs were expensive but that is relative. I wish they could have given me some examples because they are very expensive. My advice to others is to save a min of $10K for repairs. I saw someone else said $30K and they got no arguments from me. I used to be a lot nicer and believe the customer is always right. Nope, they ain’t!!! So now I set the tone for the tour so they can get in line in the beginning, so they don’t hear me cussin!
Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?
My ideal client is someone who wants to have fun in a safe space, but know if they go too far they will risk it all & realize it’s not worth it. Everyone likes to have fun, but there’s a line, that’s who I want to book my buses or take my tours.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ComedienneJoy.com
- Instagram: DineBhamJoy
- Facebook: Eat Drink Ride Food Tours
Image Credits
Melissa Newton
