Meet Julio Rodriguez

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Julio Rodriguez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Julio below.

Julio, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

Stepping into the world of a marketing agency, I quickly discovered that my true purpose lay not just in creativity, but in the compelling story the numbers tell. It was an unexpected, yet profound, realization: I fell in love with the data—the elegant mathematics of growth. Watching how our collective knowledge, meticulous strategies, and campaigns built with genuine purpose could translate directly into tangible business growth was exhilarating. Every successful project provided a dose of deep satisfaction, cementing my conviction. The more I delved, learned, and witnessed the powerful results of our work—how we genuinely helped businesses thrive and created something of lasting impact—the clearer my path became. This isn’t just a job; it is the vital, impactful work I want to dedicate my life to: helping businesses realize their full potential and making a measurable, meaningful difference.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

It’s a genuine pleasure to connect with your readers. I’m the founder of Spoons Agency, a marketing firm dedicated exclusively to the restaurant industry. My journey into this niche isn’t just professional; it’s deeply personal, spanning two decades of immersion in the hospitality world, starting when I was just 14 years old. After spending a decade mastering the intricacies of marketing within major agency environments and eventually serving as Marketing Director for large restaurant franchises, I saw a clear, unmet need: restaurant owners deserved specialized, impactful guidance. That realization was the spark that ignited Spoons Agency.

What I find most exciting—and, frankly, special—about what we do is the ability to walk alongside an owner who is struggling and help them realize the growth they’ve always dreamed of. There’s a profound satisfaction in translating our deep industry knowledge and strategic marketing into tangible results: more customers through the door, fuller tables, and a thriving business. We don’t just run campaigns; we create marketing with impact. When a local eatery or an ambitious new concept sees transformative success because of the purposeful campaigns we craft, that is the most rewarding feeling.

Our brand is built on two pillars: specialization and success. Our focus on restaurants is our superpower; we understand the seasonal shifts, the operational challenges, and the unique connection food has with culture and community in a way a general agency simply cannot.

I’m incredibly proud to share that, a few short years after launching, Spoons Agency is rapidly expanding. We now actively manage over 20 clients and have established two key locations to serve our growing clientele: our founding base in Miami and our newest location in Austin, Texas. This expansion allows us to bring our highly successful, data-driven strategies to even more restaurateurs, ensuring that we continue running successful campaigns and helping businesses grow exactly the way they envisioned.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Looking back over my journey—from the early days in agencies to founding Spoons Agency—three distinct areas of competency proved absolutely critical, shaping not only my professional trajectory but also the success of our clients.

1. The Power of Analytical Empathy (The Skill)
This is the ability to not only understand the data (analyzing market trends, campaign performance, and customer acquisition costs) but to couple it with deep emotional understanding of the client’s position. For me, that meant truly feeling the struggle of a restaurant owner trying to fill tables.

Advice for Early Professionals: Don’t just learn to read spreadsheets; learn to connect the numbers to the human impact. Dedicate time to deeply understanding the operations of your client’s business, shadowing them if possible. Develop strong proficiency in platforms like Google Analytics, CRM systems, and financial models, but always ask: “What does this number mean for the person running the business?”

2. Relentless Commitment to Niche Mastery (The Knowledge)
General knowledge is a starting point, but deep, sustained expertise in a specific niche—in my case, the restaurant industry—was the key differentiator. This allowed us to anticipate challenges, speak the client’s language instantly, and deliver strategies that were fundamentally more insightful and effective than those of generalist agencies.

Advice for Early Professionals: Identify the single industry, channel, or skill set that genuinely excites you and commit to becoming the most knowledgeable person in the room on that topic. Read trade publications, attend specialized conferences, and network exclusively within that industry. Your goal should be to stop being a marketer for the industry, and start being a professional from the industry who happens to do marketing.

3. The Courage to Translate Vision into Action (The Quality)
After 10 years of learning and seeing results, the most impactful quality was the courage to take the leap and transform my vision for specialized restaurant marketing into the reality of Spoons Agency. It involves resilience, decisiveness, and the willingness to accept calculated risk.

Advice for Early Professionals: Practice decisive action in your current role. Don’t wait for permission to own a project or solve a problem. Seek out opportunities where the outcome depends entirely on your initiative. Develop a habit of creating clear, measurable plans, and then executing them without excessive hesitation. This develops the internal confidence necessary to eventually launch your own ambitious projects or leadership endeavors.

Tell us what your ideal client would be like?

Our ten years in the industry, culminating in the founding of Spoons Agency, have refined our understanding of who we can help the most. Our ideal client is more than just a restaurant; they are a partner who shares our core philosophy regarding growth and impact.

The most successful clients possess four key characteristics:

1. Visionary Ambition with Operational Integrity
Our ideal client isn’t satisfied with the status quo. They possess a clear, compelling vision for growth—whether it’s scaling to multiple locations, increasing their market share, or establishing themselves as a local culinary landmark. Crucially, this ambition is supported by solid operational integrity: they deliver a fantastic product and a consistent, high-quality customer experience. We handle the marketing, but they must deliver on the promise.

2. Data-Curious and Growth-Oriented
While they rely on us for the technical expertise, our ideal partners are genuinely curious about the performance data. They understand that marketing is an investment, not just an expense, and are committed to understanding key metrics like customer acquisition cost (CAC) and lifetime value (LTV). They view our campaigns through a lens of growth and return on investment.

3. Open to Strategic Collaboration
We succeed best when we function as an extension of the client’s team, not merely an outside vendor. An ideal client is open to candid feedback on their menu, pricing, or customer experience if our data suggests it’s necessary for marketing success. They value our specialized expertise and are willing to pivot based on strategic recommendations, fostering a true collaborative environment.

4. Focused on Long-Term Impact
Our campaigns are designed for sustainable success, moving beyond short-term fixes. The perfect client seeks a long-term partnership dedicated to building lasting brand equity, loyal customer bases, and enduring market relevance, rather than chasing fleeting, one-off promotions.

In essence, our ideal client is an ambitious restaurant owner who is proud of their product, operationally sound, and ready to treat specialized marketing as the critical, measurable engine for their next phase of growth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.spoons.agency
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julioroodrig/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/spoons-agency/

Image Credits

Juan Lugo – @fotolugo