Speaker 1: Wind Down with Janet Kramer and I'm Heeart Radio podcast.
Speaker 2: I want to introduce you to On the Job and
Speaker 2: host Avery Thompson. Avery shares stories of people making changes
Speaker 2: in their professional and personal lives. Whether it's a successful
Speaker 2: athlete transitioning into a new career off the field, a
Speaker 2: fly fishing tour guide trying to introduce a new segment
Speaker 2: of folks to the joys of the outdoors, or a
Speaker 2: stadium beer and hot dog hawker who doubles as a
Speaker 2: CEO of a red hot startup. We'll find out what
Speaker 2: drives them and what lies ahead. These are heartfelt stories
Speaker 2: of people finding their lives. Work on the Job is
Speaker 2: brought to you by Express Employment Professionals. This week, Avery
Speaker 2: talks to a hot dog hawker who helped pave the
Speaker 2: way to launching a startup.
Speaker 3: Welcome to on the Job. We're going up to the
Speaker 3: Windy City to speak with Jonah Fialka, who somehow manages
Speaker 3: to be both the CEO of a startup and a
Speaker 3: successful and increasingly famous hawker of food and drinks at
Speaker 3: Wrigley Field each game day, a few hours before the
Speaker 3: Chicago Cubs trot onto the baseball diamond, Jonah Fialgo starts
Speaker 3: getting ready for work because it's on his way there
Speaker 3: exposed to the elements that Jonah decides what he's going
Speaker 3: to sell that day.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. It's like while I'm walking over, and then
Speaker 4: once I get into the room and see how many
Speaker 4: vendors are there that day, and then when I get
Speaker 4: to the table and see how many other vendors have
Speaker 4: signed up for the same product in that section. But
Speaker 4: it generally will happen on my walkover, and I do
Speaker 4: live in Rigneyville, so it's like a ten minute walkton
Speaker 4: stadium and then it's off into the stadium to get
Speaker 4: selling right after the pick.
Speaker 3: Jonah is a food and beverage vendor at Wrigley Field,
Speaker 3: one of those guys that goes up and down the aisles,
Speaker 3: or as he describes a job.
Speaker 4: I think the official term is hawker seat vendor is
Speaker 4: another way to describe it. But generally, I say, I
Speaker 4: carry beer and hot dogs around the stadium and yell
Speaker 4: very loudly and make a fool out of myself at
Speaker 4: Cups games.
Speaker 3: And since I know you're curious to hear what that
Speaker 3: sounds like, let's just get it out of the way. Actually,
Speaker 3: hang on, let me find some free baseball sounds to
Speaker 3: set the stage. Okay, here we go.
Speaker 4: But for hot dogs, it's something along the lines of
Speaker 4: eat dogs, Eat dogs. For beer, it'll be something like, Hey,
Speaker 4: beer man, buy but light who's ready beer? Hey, I
Speaker 4: skolled beer man.
Speaker 3: If you can't already hear the passion and dedication Jonah
Speaker 3: has for hawking in his voice. You could also take
Speaker 3: a look at his social media presence because he's become
Speaker 3: quite popular on numerous platforms for giving people an inside
Speaker 3: look into the world of professional hot dog banding.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I've been making videos about my job at Wrigley
Speaker 4: for just over a year now. I came into last
Speaker 4: season with the idea of highlighting some of my fellow
Speaker 4: vendors and kind of providing a day in the life
Speaker 4: of what a vendor does and a job that I'm
Speaker 4: so passionate about. It's been really fun to share that
Speaker 4: on social media, and people have been really receptive of it.
Speaker 4: It's a unique job and everyone knows what a vendor is,
Speaker 4: but it's been fun to provide a behind the scenes
Speaker 4: look and there's just so much history behind it and
Speaker 4: creating content around my job and around the Cubs and
Speaker 4: Wriggleyfield has been that it made last season the most
Speaker 4: fun year vending, and I'm looking forward to what twenty
Speaker 4: twenty four has in store from a content perspective as well.
Speaker 3: Belong with being a veteran hot dog vendor at Wrigley
Speaker 3: Field for the past decade, Jonah Fialco has for the
Speaker 3: last two years added ceo to his list of job titles.
Speaker 4: I'm a big pajama worker unless I have important meetings.
Speaker 3: And what's the business that the sweatpant's wearing CEO is running.
Speaker 3: It's called bracketology and it's I'll just let Jonah explain it.
Speaker 4: We provide fantasy foot all style games and your college
Speaker 4: basketball bracket style games, but for reality television shows. So
Speaker 4: we do four different game types that we offer across
Speaker 4: ten different reality television shows.
Speaker 3: Now, Jonah credits his vending career with helping him develop
Speaker 3: into the businessman he's become.
Speaker 4: For sure, it has. I think there are so many
Speaker 4: transferable skills that I've learned vending at Wrigley over the
Speaker 4: past decade that have translated to running my own company.
Speaker 4: I have no fear of rejection, no fear of making
Speaker 4: a fool out of myself than asking people for things.
Speaker 4: There have been so many things that have been helpful
Speaker 4: from a professional standpoint that I've gotten from my job
Speaker 4: at Wrigley that I use on a day to day
Speaker 4: basis as a CEO.
Speaker 3: Bracketology CEO says he has no intention of quitting his
Speaker 3: hot dog vending gig anytime soon.
Speaker 4: Like I said, I really think that as long long
Speaker 4: as I'm living in Chicago and physically able, I will
Speaker 4: do this as long as I can.
Speaker 3: From the job I'm Avery Thompson.
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