Shane Murphy (00:01.784)

Welcome back everybody today we have Scott Porter with us he is the founder and CEO of San Diablo Artisan Churros. I'm pretty confident as well that you'll be hard pressed to find anyone who has eaten as many tacos as Scott. He is a big taco lover and he has been an amazing resource for branding and for marketing throughout the years.

Not only in his Truro business, but in several other business ventures that he's been in through the years. So Scott, I am super excited to have you on today. Thanks for joining us and sharing your story.

Scott Porter (00:37.373)

Thanks, it's great to be with you Shane. Thanks so much for having me.

Shane Murphy (00:41.57)

Yeah, you bet. Maybe before we dive into too many details, can you start by sharing a little bit more of your background and some of the origin story of San Diablo churros?

Scott Porter (00:55.593)

Sure, sure. So I've had a pretty unconventional career path that has led me to the land of churros. So I have been, I've run a couple of nursing homes in Southern California for several years, which is where I got my introduction to and became completely obsessed

customer and brand experience, creating one that really fuels creating evangelists for your company, really builds a brand that is beloved in your community and with your target audience. And one of your best tools to market, as well as have and create a very

powerful strategic advantage over any of your competition as well. And so that in the nursing home of all places is where that became, we developed a system and a framework to be able to establish like a thriving, thriving brand. And so I worked in the nursing home business. I also worked in home health and senior healthcare as well.

I did management consulting out of a firm in Washington DC now called Gartner. Then some friends and I started the first all you can fly membership airline out of Southern California called Surf Air. From nursing homes to airlines, obviously next career move is churros, right? To gourmet.

Shane Murphy (02:43.266)

Yeah, what do you mean that's not conventional? Isn't that the normal path of how people get into the tarot business?

Scott Porter (02:48.735)

And so the churro business came about from my travels and I was a missionary for two years in Mexico and then I went back after I had served as a missionary to live in Mexico City and work and do an internship. That's where I had my first fresh filled churros in this like amazing, know, eclectic bohemian air part of

the town that's basically like the street food capital of Mexico in Coyoacan. And so I had these amazing churros there. thought it would be irresponsible not to bring these churros back to America. Given that like most of the churros that I'd ever had in America were really mediocre at best. They smell always good. And you always think that they're gonna be delicious and you try them and I found myself

wanting a different churro experience, especially knowing that it was possible from my travels in Mexico. So it was an idea in the back of my head, like much that happens with when we travel, we have really delicious food and we think, gosh, I want to have this back at home. And so about eight years ago was the right time to bring this idea to life. And so I decided to launch this gourmet artisan churro company.

And we did it at Cornbellies, which is this harvest festival in Utah. And we were there for about six weeks and used it to launch into an events -based business. So catering at weddings, parties, corporate events, we do unlimited mini churros at these sorts of events. And then have since added a food truck, fairs, festivals. We're now at the Delta Center for our third season.

and excited for the hockey team to get there as well, which will give our hockey fans some deep fried happiness there too. We're at RSL Stadium and BYU football. We've been at the U for their football as well. And we're at Splash Summit Water Park in Utah County. so that was, you know, we've been doing that for nine year or eight years. And into the pandemic, we...

Scott Porter (05:11.857)

added this other component of, you know, that really was in alignment with our mission, which is to fill lives with happiness and just do it one churro at a time and create these amazing memories for people. And so we decided to productize our churro, our unique churro experience into what we call the churro fiesta in a box, which is the at home churro making kit.

And so that was really our answer and our innovation that came out of the pandemic time. yeah, and so we've been doing those two things since. And this year we are embarking on a new innovation for us and a new business opportunity in the frozen churro space. we are, we'll be, look for us in your grocer's freezer for San Diablo churros

All you do is throw them in the air fryer and you have fresh hot filled churros in just a couple of minutes. And we're doing that in the grocer's freezer, but then also looking to supply restaurants and food service with a more upscale premium type of churro. So we're really excited, but that's kind of a broad overview of what we're doing and where we're headed with San Diablo.

Shane Murphy (06:37.302)

love that, that's fantastic. that is a super fun story of how you got to the churro space. I absolutely love that. Now you've accomplished something that many people dream of. You mentioned like all these different stadiums and event centers that you're in. And a lot of people dream of having their food product in those types of spaces. How did you, tell us your story

getting access to like getting into the stadiums, getting into the Delta Center and RSL stadiums. How did that actually play out and happen for

Scott Porter (07:13.107)

man, we are very persistent. I think that's part of our San Diablo DNA in our business. we, know, most of those opportunities happen with a tasting, with the right people that are making those decisions, whether it's a third party concession company that is running the operations, which is the case in the Delta Center.

and at RSL as well. BYU also has, they're not with an outsourced catering or concession company, but in all of those instances, as well as Splash Summit and others that are coming up for us, it's all about just winning them over with your product and them being able to see that product not only be desirable to their fan base and their customer base,

but also to fit into the mix of what else they are offering at the particular sporting venue. So for us, it was all about just getting that initial tasting. And luckily, we say that the best marketing that we can do for our churros is to just get our churros in people's mouths. And so just have people be able to taste the difference between what they already associate with churros.

and the difference that this crispy outside, soft and gooey inside can be for the filled churros. And then of course, the cinnamon sugar and you add all of these real kind of gourmet components. We freshly grind our cinnamon so that it has a more robust flavor. Our dough is a pata choux dough for all the bakers out there. So it's a cooked dough.

that does require a lot of attention when we're making it from scratch, which is flour, butter, water, eggs, salt, and Mexican manila. So all of those elements create our product that is like a desirable and upscale version of what people are used to. And so when we do the tastings, I remember,

Scott Porter (09:30.771)

doing those tastings for every one of those scenarios. And you're going up against other people that are vying for those spots. And you're also hoping that the chefs and the managers and the people that hold that decision -making ability, that they really do love your churros and they can see it fitting in with their food mix.

Yeah, I mean some of them were a long time in the making and some happened very quickly, but I think the patience and persistence and just getting in to have that opportunity are the biggest things.

Shane Murphy (10:17.378)

Did you search out those opportunities and find those third party concessions companies or did you have outreach where they were reaching out to you as part of this mix to say, we're essentially auditioning for different tastes at these events?

Scott Porter (10:33.779)

Yeah.

In all of these instances, we track them down and sometimes we had to wait a year or two or more for an opening or an opportunity to become available. BYU, for example, holds an open tasting event and so you sign up for it and then you go through the process. At the Delta Center, we had to wait for an opening to come up and then did the tasting at different brands that they

considering. yeah, in all those cases though, we were very much tracking down that opportunity with them and making sure that we were talking with the right person to be able to get in and do that tasting to get our foot in the door.

Shane Murphy (11:24.216)

Yeah, I think that really just highlights the persistence that you mentioned is in the San Diablo DNA. I came across San Diablo churros about seven years ago. So you were probably about like a year or so in to this at the time. And I remember talking to you and hearing you talk about all the different things that you were trying to do

Scott Porter (11:30.399)

Yes.

Shane Murphy (11:51.384)

build the brand, get it off the ground and expand the awareness. I know you've tried so many different things through the years. Maybe can you share one or two of your favorite marketing strategies that you've seen really work for you through the years? And I mean, if you have one or two fails that would be fun to talk about, we can talk about those as well. But would love to hear some of your experiences

what you tried that really worked.

Scott Porter (12:23.741)

Hmm. Yeah, it's that wow, that's there's so much there and so much learning and so many things that that Haven't worked and things that have worked as well. So lots of mistakes along the way and Yes, I Just as a kind of like a overview of the interesting challenges that we have with our business is that on the event side of

the business, we're very locally based and focused. And so our marketing strategies are very tied to the events that we're doing and driving people there and being part of the community. So that's very much a part of one of our strategies. And then when we're selling online and direct to consumer our kits for corporate gifts, like that's very much

marketing strategy that is national in scope and that isn't necessarily tied to any particular geographic area per se, but needs to have applicability across any geographic area in the country. so, and now that we're entering into the frozen churro space, there's a completely different strategy here because a lot of that sometimes is directly to like B2B.

and then also building a brand that people would recognize when they go into the grocer's freezer. So that one's very consumer focused, also national in scope. And so there's like an interesting balance that we have in our marketing strategies of hyper local and then also wide national. And so.

And we're still in the middle of learning what exactly that balance is and how to go about telling that same message and not losing some of our fans in a message that doesn't necessarily apply to them and just being relevant in those different types of scenarios. And so some things that have

Scott Porter (14:42.419)

very successful for us on the local side. So we also are super unique from many food businesses in that we don't necessarily have a set place that we are driving traffic to like most brick and mortar restaurants do. so people are following us, but also they are just coming across us at events. And so

over the years we've learned that churros do exceptionally well as an impulse buy where there's lots and lots of traffic and you're like grabbed in that moment by that deep fried smell, the cinnamon sugar. And you're like, I didn't know I needed a churro, but I have to have a churro now. And so people will stand in line for 45 minutes. so having, being in the right places,

where there is high traffic and those right scenarios where people are looking for that sweet indulgence. So being, I think just like being physically in the right spots, the fairs and festivals that get a lot of traffic and a lot of exposure. And then we've done, we've trained our team and do a lot to say, because one of the most common questions we get at events are where are you guys located? Everyone wants

We want to put each other into a geographical space somewhere on the map. And our answer always is, well, we go where the party is. Do you have any event coming up that we can help cater for you and bring some deep fried happiness to your special event? we use that integrated marketing idea of using our existing events to be able to get new events.

So we always have our contact information there. We're encouraging our team to pass along those contacts and leads to our catering team to be able to get another event coming out of it. And so that's something that's been very helpful. The other is reviews and ratings.

Scott Porter (17:05.343)

and contact information. so big shout out to Ovation. We were their first client. They're now a really huge tech company here in Utah. And we use their platform to be able to do three things that basically every restaurant wants, which is you want to be able to be in touch with your people. So you need contact information.

and everyone signs up to enter to win a free Churro catering event. And so when they sign up to win, we get their contact information and then we ask them to leave us a review. And then we also get their satisfaction score in the moment. And so it's those three things that are so important for anyone in the food business. So it's driven us to get thousands of reviews.

We have tens of thousands of people on our contact list now that we send emails to, we keep in touch with over text as well. so that's been, Ovation has been a huge driver for us, especially on the local side of our business. Some other things have been super helpful, strong relationships with influencers.

and having influencers both try and love our product locally and encourage people to continue to purchase it. And we've also seen it nationally as well when we've had influencers make Arturo's at home. Then everyone sees how fun it is to do, how easy it is, and they're like, I wanna have that memory too. And so that has been very successful for us.

Shane Murphy (18:43.488)

fascinating.

Scott Porter (18:52.359)

and supporting them in their events as well. Two other quick things come to mind that have been helpful for us. One, especially on the local side, every year we host a charity event called Churros for Change. And this has been an important part of our ethos at San Diablo is always being a part of the community and adding value and giving back to a community that has given us so much. And so that's one of the ways that we get back. It's a Tuesday after Thanksgiving.

And that's been an important part of our DNA and being really heavily involved in supporting the community. And the last thing I would mention is just organic social media. We've done some really fun out there campaigns with churros that have allowed us to go like over the top. Some of our most recent ones

We tracked down Charles Barkley when he was here for the NBA All -Star Week, and he's obsessed with churros. And so it was our mission throughout the week to try and see how we could get him some churros. And we did it. And he had our churros and loved them and mentioned them like a couple of weekends after that on Inside the NBA, which is really fun. Another thing that

Shane Murphy (20:11.759)

Now for a second, I'd love to that that sounds like a fascinating tale. How did how did you track him down through that process?

Scott Porter (20:20.157)

Well, this is kind of like the organic social media campaigns that we've done have kind of really fallen into this category of what has been called news hacking. it's like a news thing is happening right now. So how do we like insert ourselves into that story? So we knew Charles Barkley was coming for the NBA All -Star

We just decided, we just had people follow us on our journey throughout the week as we're literally tracking him down and trying to get his attention. so everyone was rooting for us that we'd be able to do it. And so then finally we were able to track him down, got his assistant some churros, and then they texted us back afterward. We didn't actually get to see him eat the churros, but we know it happened because he referenced it multiple times after.

on the air inside the NBA weeks after the All -Star weekend. So it was really fun and it was a fun way to keep our people engaged. And I still get people coming up to me with comments like, they're so happy that we got Charles Barkley churros. So that's one example. The other even larger, like more viral thing that happened with us was when Costco discontinued their

Shane Murphy (21:22.158)

That's amazing.

Scott Porter (21:45.407)

And we held, we kind of really got into it, right? So we went over the top. I started calling all the Costco's on, you know, we did, this was all through social media reels and stuff, but I would call Costco's all over the country to see if they were out of churros and pretended to be a churro obsessed person. That was like, I can't believe Costco's doing this. What about my churro needs sort of thing.

And like asking them if they still had churros and we were like making sure that, you know, we're so sad that this is happening, but you know, what, if you still want a Costco churro, here's where you can go to get one. So then ultimately that led us to then when all of the churros were gone across Costco's in the United States, we decided to hold a memorial service.

in honor of the Costco churro. And so in the shadow of the Costco, we invited people to wear black and we had an altar there and there were candles and we were just allowing people to express their feelings of sadness and longing for that Costco churro and then also just to be there for them in their time of need.

in their time of churro need, right? And so we posted this whole like RIP Costco churro memorial service and it went really viral. It was really fun. It was about half a million views there of that memorial service. So just having fun with this idea that, you know, everyone loves churros and we're just kind of a part of the...

this big churro family that we belong to. so it was a blast. had a lot of fun with that. So there's

Shane Murphy (23:50.286)

I love how much you put your personality into all of this. This is very much like Scott Porter, this is you, you are an over the top guy, you like to have fun, and that's become part of the brand. And I think so many restaurateurs can learn from that, that you can lean into the fun and the absurd and just have a blast.

and involve the community in the process. And that builds this really strong foundation of a brand that people keep coming back to. So very well done. That's awesome.

Scott Porter (24:26.663)

Yeah. Well, that's all part of, I mean, I'm obsessed with the experience that we create and making sure that, you know, anyone can sling churros, anyone can make churros, but what is it about the San Diablo churro experience that makes it special that people long for, keep coming back to, tell all of their friends about, you know, how do we create

those little things, the attention to detail that make it something special and not normal. That's definitely something that's really, really important to us and we wanna do everything that we can to make sure that all of our team is also delivering on that type of experience as well. so, yeah,

That's one of the biggest, again, it just goes back to what I was saying before, the experience that you create this humanized, fun, whatever fits with your brand, this fun, sophisticated, gourmet, but also really kind of playful brand is what we want to communicate and everything. mean, even our name, San Diablo, means Saint Devil or Holy Devil, and so we kind

have a playoff of this. It's like the angel and the devil on your shoulder that are like tempting you to eat this indulgent treat. And we just have fun with that. It's not, yeah, it's like those elements are embedded into our menu even. We have a secret menu with spicy cinnamon sugars that we put on top if you want. And just

It's just when we give shout outs internally to our team members for great things that they've done or ways that they've helped, we call those halos. Like those are our shout outs or we called halos, you know. When we drop in the businesses to do to see if they want to bring us in for their catering, we call those angel drops because we're dropping in and and as little churro angels giving them little pieces of happiness. So we say

Scott Porter (26:52.859)

Our churros are heaven -sent and wicked good. And so it kind of has this duality, the beauty and the duality, so it's fun.

Shane Murphy (27:03.512)

That's awesome. Scott, this has been so much fun diving into all of this. How do the listeners learn more about San Diablo wherever they are in the country?

Scott Porter (27:14.431)

Sure, yeah, I mean, you can always go to our website, sandiablochurros .com, and Sandiablochurros is also our handle on all social media. So Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, Sandiablochurros. And then you'll see, you'll just follow along with our story and become a part of it, because if you love churros, then you're part of our family too, so.

Shane Murphy (27:43.128)

love that and anywhere in the world someone can go and get a at -home kit make those look out in your grocery stores for San Diablo's frozen churro kits and participate wherever you are in the world so Scott thank you for joining us and sharing your experiences with us

Scott Porter (27:52.735)

I'll see

Scott Porter (28:00.297)

Thanks so much, Shane. It's been great. I appreciate it.