We were lucky to catch up with Sam Atherton recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sam, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
This is 100% something I’m still working on. It took me a long time to turn Neko Taiyaki from a small nugget of a dream to a reality because I was scared, comfortable, and not confident that I’d be able to make it work. After some gentle, and then not-so-gentle pushing from my partner, I was finally able to build my confidence and turn my dream into a fully functioning business.
Leading up to my first event, I wasn’t really sure if people were going to like my stuffed waffles. I had tested my recipe out with friends and family, but that’s not really a great litmus test for a successful product. After our first event and we had a ton of rave reviews, I knew that we had something special
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Hello everyone! My name is Sam Atherton, and I’m the owner of Neko Taiyaki, a food pop-up/soon-to-be food truck in West Michigan. We serve Japanese fish-shaped stuffed waffles that are filled with various sweet or savory fillings.
My journey started back in 2018. I was living in New York City working at a fast paced graphic design studio, and I was feeling all of the pressure start to snap me. So I took a chance on myself and completely switched careers and continents and moved to Japan to teach English for a year. I had initially gone over there to follow my love for video games and anime, but after a year I really fell in love with Japanese culture and food. I learned very quickly that there is so much more than just sushi or ramen. After my year teaching, I wanted to move back to bring back taiyaki, stuffed waffles, to Michigan.
After years of sitting on this idea, it finally came to fruition in 2023. We started doing various pop ups around the city, and are now quickly working towards building out a full food truck so we can serve more people around Michigan.
You can find us on Instagram at @NekoTaiyaki_GR or www.Neko-Taiyaki.com for news on our upcoming events on where to find us.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I think the 3 most important qualities are rashness, creativity, and the ability to find a mentor.
Rashness is a bit of a funny one, because you don’t want to put the cart before the horse and fail, but when I was first starting I was so worried about making a mistake, or not doing something correctly that I just ended up not doing certain things or taking chances on myself. It took a long time for me to accept the “ask for forgiveness, not permission” path when forming my business because otherwise I would have never made it past Step 1.
I feel like creativity is important because branding is everything. I’m lucky to have a background in graphic design, so I am able to save some money when designing, and I know what I’m looking for. Before we started we did a lot of research on other local food trucks, and found that a lot of them had good food, but their branding wasn’t recognizable or captivating at all. From the beginning I realized it was important to build a strong brand that served great food, and it has worked out very well for us so far.
When I first started I had absolutely 0 business knowledge. So I dove into finding help. There are a ton of resources out there for small businesses, and people are more than willing to help you get off your feet. Take a class on how to write a business plan, go to a networking event for entrepreneurs, do something to connect with other people and you’ll find that opportunities throw themselves at you.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
I think for me right now the number one obstacle is fear. As of right now, I have my very comfortable full time job that pays all of the bills, but I’m really unhappy with my position. Owning Neko has finally let me be happy for the first time in a long time, but it’s a huge scary commitment to leave my safety net behind. It’s still something that I’m working on and weighing the pros and cons, but when the time is right, I know I’ll be able to make the leap.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.neko-taiyaki.com
- Instagram: @NekoTaiyaki_GR
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nekotaiyakigr
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smatherton/
Image Credits
Larsh Collective – https://larshcollective.com/
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
