Speaker 1: Welcome to On the Job. On today's episode, we're headed
Speaker 1: up to Chicago to speak with Jonah Fialco, a professional
Speaker 1: hot dog vendor at the Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field. Or no, wait,
Speaker 1: we're talking with Jona Fialko, the CEO of a tech
Speaker 1: and entertainment company. Or better yet, today on the Job,
Speaker 1: We're going up to the Windy City to speak with
Speaker 1: Jonah Fialka, who somehow manages to be both the CEO
Speaker 1: of a startup and a successful and increasingly famous hawker
Speaker 1: of food and drinks at Wrigley Field each game day,
Speaker 1: a few hours before the Chicago Cubs trot onto the
Speaker 1: baseball diamond, Jonah Fialco starts getting ready for work like
Speaker 1: an athlete himself. He eats well, hydrates, then puts on
Speaker 1: some sneakers before heading out on foot to the stadium
Speaker 1: because it's on his way there exposed to the elements
Speaker 1: that Jonah decides what he's going to sell that day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. It's like while I'm walking over, and then
Speaker 2: once I get into the room and see how many
Speaker 2: vendors are there that day, and then when I get
Speaker 2: to the table and see how many other vendors have
Speaker 2: signed up for the same product in that section, but
Speaker 2: it generally will happen on my walkover, and I do
Speaker 2: live in Rigbyville, so it's like a ten minute walk
Speaker 2: toon stadium and then it's off into the stadium to
Speaker 2: get selling right after the pick.
Speaker 1: Jonah is a food and beverage vendor at Wrigley Field,
Speaker 1: one of those guys that goes up and down the aisles,
Speaker 1: or as he describes a job.
Speaker 2: I think the official term is hawker seat vendor is
Speaker 2: another way to describe it. But generally I say, I
Speaker 2: carry beer and hot dogs around the stadium and yell
Speaker 2: very loudly and make a fool out of myself. That
Speaker 2: comes James.
Speaker 1: And since I know you're curious to hear what that
Speaker 1: sounds like, let's just get it out of the way. Actually,
Speaker 1: hang on, let me find some free baseball sounds to
Speaker 1: set the stage. Okay, here we go.
Speaker 2: But for hot dogs, it's something along the lines of
Speaker 2: eat dogs, eat dogs. For beer, it'll be something like, hey,
Speaker 2: beer man, but but light who's ready beer?
Speaker 1: Hey?
Speaker 2: I scoll beer man?
Speaker 1: Impressive right, Well, that's because Joan has been fine tuning
Speaker 1: his calls ever since he took the job back in
Speaker 1: his senior year of high school.
Speaker 2: So generally we'll try to make a noise before I
Speaker 2: tell someone what I'm selling to get their attention, so
Speaker 2: that E will break the sound barrier, will make people
Speaker 2: look at me, and then they're paying attention when I
Speaker 2: say hot dogs. So it varies by products, but it's
Speaker 2: been fun to watch the evolution of it as I
Speaker 2: have continued to sell at the stadium over the past decade.
Speaker 1: I've been to Wrigley Field. I feel like that's an
Speaker 1: intimidating first day of work, facing all those people big time.
Speaker 2: I still remember it. I was selling soda in the
Speaker 2: upper deck. I was eighteen years old, and there were
Speaker 2: thousands of fans up there, and I maybe said one
Speaker 2: word the entire time. I kind of just walked around
Speaker 2: holding a bottle of I think it was a bottle
Speaker 2: of sprite through the catwalk between the three hundreds and
Speaker 2: the four hundreds up there, hoping that someone would call
Speaker 2: me over to them. And it took a little adjusting
Speaker 2: for the first few homestands to start to yell out
Speaker 2: your product. But ten years down the line, I have
Speaker 2: no fear. I actually think that summer was really impactful
Speaker 2: because it really eliminated any fear I had of public speaking.
Speaker 2: And then I took a public speaking class my freshman
Speaker 2: year at Illinois, and it was the easiest thing in
Speaker 2: the world. I can give a speech in front of
Speaker 2: a class of fifteen if I can sell bottles of
Speaker 2: soda to ten thousand people in the stands.
Speaker 1: Did you see an up to in sales once you
Speaker 1: got a little more assertive?
Speaker 2: For sure? Yeah, most definitely. And then once you start
Speaker 2: to your call is kind of like an art and
Speaker 2: once you start to hone in on that and have
Speaker 2: something repeatable that's successful, you for sure will see an
Speaker 2: increase in sales. I just have no fear anymore trying
Speaker 2: to sell products during the game.
Speaker 1: There's almost no aspect of the job the Jonah doesn't
Speaker 1: analyze always trying to find some way that he can
Speaker 1: improve as a hawker exactly.
Speaker 2: I do put a lot of thought, especially in the draft,
Speaker 2: where you're picking your assignment each game. So we will
Speaker 2: line up in seniority order every game about an hour
Speaker 2: before the game starts, and there's a list of products
Speaker 2: and sections, and people will start with the guys that
Speaker 2: have been there for sixty years. They start at the
Speaker 2: very front. They sell the same thing every game they
Speaker 2: sell be here in the lower seating bowl. But I still,
Speaker 2: even though I've been there for ten years, I'd say
Speaker 2: I'm still like seventy percent back in the line. So
Speaker 2: I need to come in. I don't know what's going
Speaker 2: to be available for me on a game by game basis,
Speaker 2: so I come in with a strategy. I have an
Speaker 2: Excel spreadsheet where I track the weather, the game time,
Speaker 2: what projected attendance is going to be, and then I
Speaker 2: also look at every forecast, which way the wind is blowing,
Speaker 2: and I kind of use all that to strategize my
Speaker 2: choice for the day. And once I get up to
Speaker 2: the table, I have like fifteen seconds to make my choice,
Speaker 2: and most of the time I think I do a
Speaker 2: good job picking the right product. But there's definitely days
Speaker 2: where even last night, I probably should have sold hot
Speaker 2: dogs because it was thirty five degrees and the wind
Speaker 2: was blowing in I ended up selling beer. But there
Speaker 2: are there are definitely some days when you kind of
Speaker 2: hit yourself for picking the wrong thing. But that's the
Speaker 2: nature of a season. When there's eighty one games, you're
Speaker 2: not going to pick a perfect product every time, and.
Speaker 1: Of course this being Chicago, wind plays a huge factor.
Speaker 2: Wind direction is everything. If if you come to Wrigley
Speaker 2: and you are not looking at the forecast and which
Speaker 2: way the wind is blowing, you could have drastically different
Speaker 2: comfortability levels. So when the wind is blowing in, it
Speaker 2: gets really cold underneath the two hundred level and in
Speaker 2: the upper deck, and if the wind is blowing out
Speaker 2: it can feel ten degrees warmer. So I will generally
Speaker 2: factor that in, especially in the early and late months
Speaker 2: of the year, even if it's fifty five or sixty degrees,
Speaker 2: if there's fifteen mile an hour winds blowing in, people
Speaker 2: aren't going to come to the stadium dressed for that,
Speaker 2: and they are going to be cold, And that's when
Speaker 2: I will try to sell hot dogs or hot chocolate.
Speaker 1: If you can't already hear the passion and dedication Jonah
Speaker 1: has for hawking in his voice, you could also take
Speaker 1: a look at his social media presence because he's become
Speaker 1: quite popular on numerous platforms for giving people an inside
Speaker 1: look into the world of professional hot dog vending.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've been making videos about my job at Wrigley
Speaker 2: for just over a year now. I can into last
Speaker 2: season with the idea of highlighting some of my fellow
Speaker 2: vendors and kind of providing a day in the life
Speaker 2: of what a vendor does and a job that I'm
Speaker 2: so passionate about. It's been really fun to share that
Speaker 2: on social media, and people have been really receptive of it.
Speaker 2: It's a unique job and everyone knows what a vendor is,
Speaker 2: but it's been fun to provide a behind the scenes
Speaker 2: look and there's just so much history behind it, and
Speaker 2: creating content around my job and around the Cubs and
Speaker 2: Rignyfield has been It made last season the most fun
Speaker 2: year vending, and I'm looking forward to what twenty twenty
Speaker 2: four has in store from a content perspective as well.
Speaker 1: But saying people have been receptive might be an understatement.
Speaker 2: I think I'm a micro influencer within a three block
Speaker 2: radius in Chicago. It's been so much fun. I always
Speaker 2: appreciate meeting the people behind the comments and the shares,
Speaker 2: and it's always fun to take pictures with people. I
Speaker 2: had someone last Mother's Day asked me for a cameo
Speaker 2: style video of me doing my hot dog call that
Speaker 2: they could send to their mom, who was a fan
Speaker 2: of my content, and it's always crazy to me, like
Speaker 2: I'll get recognized outside of the Wrigleyville area if I'm,
Speaker 2: you know, at a bar or I got recognized at Lollapalooza.
Speaker 2: I even I was at an Oakland A's game with
Speaker 2: my dad in California and as we were walking out,
Speaker 2: there were some people behind me doing my hot dog call.
Speaker 2: So it's been it's been so much fun. I have
Speaker 2: been a diehard Cubs fan my whole life, and I
Speaker 2: worked with the Cubs marketing team on our national Hot
Speaker 2: Dog Day promotion with Vienna Beef last summer. They invited
Speaker 2: me as a content creator to their suite at the
Speaker 2: end of the year. So it's just been an incredible
Speaker 2: joy and I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to
Speaker 2: share my experience in the stories and have the support
Speaker 2: from the Cubs and a concessionaire I'm employed with.
Speaker 1: But as thrilled as Jonah is with the vending job,
Speaker 1: it's by no means the only thing he's got going
Speaker 1: on these days between games. Jonah went to college at
Speaker 1: the University of Illinois and after graduating, held down a
Speaker 1: full time job in sports market all the while hawking.
Speaker 1: Yet as busy as he was in those years and
Speaker 1: genuinely happy to be working both in the stadium and
Speaker 1: in his chosen career field, Jonah still had more he
Speaker 1: wanted to accomplish. So when we come back from the break,
Speaker 1: we'll talk with Jonah Fialco, the CEO.
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Speaker 1: We're back with Jonah Fialco, who, along with being a
Speaker 1: veteran hot dog vendor at Wrigley Field for the past decade,
Speaker 1: has for the last two years added CEO to his
Speaker 1: list of job titles.
Speaker 2: And I always told myself that if I had the
Speaker 2: opportunity to start a company, that I would take that leap.
Speaker 2: And at the time I was twenty five, could still
Speaker 2: be on my parents' health insurance, so it was kind
Speaker 2: of a no brainer.
Speaker 1: But don't go imagining that Jonahs traded in as sneakers
Speaker 1: and athletic wear for wingtips in a business suit.
Speaker 2: I'm a big pajama worker unless I have important meetings,
Speaker 2: but yeah, I generally just be comfortable. I'll rock a
Speaker 2: backwards hat usually like I'm wearing right now, sweater, nice sweatpants.
Speaker 2: I'm sitting at the desk a lot, especially on non
Speaker 2: game days, so just making sure that we're staying comfy.
Speaker 2: Not a huge dress code person. Fun fact, actually, I'm
Speaker 2: twenty seven and I still don't know how to tie
Speaker 2: a tie. So that's another goal that I could work on.
Speaker 2: I used to have a tie in college that I
Speaker 2: would just loosen and retighten that my dad tied for
Speaker 2: me when I was a freshman. So maybe someday I
Speaker 2: will I'll learned to tie a tie as well, but
Speaker 2: for now, I'm going to stick in my comfy clothes.
Speaker 1: And what's the business that the sweatpants wearing CEO is running.
Speaker 1: It's called bracketology, and it's I'll just let Jonah explain it.
Speaker 2: Of course. So we provide fantasy football style games and
Speaker 2: your college basketball bracket style games, but for reality television shows.
Speaker 2: So we do four different game types that we offer
Speaker 2: across ten different reality television shows. Now you can play
Speaker 2: fantasy games for the Bachelor franchise shows, Survivor, Big Brother,
Speaker 2: their recalls Drag Race, and it works very similar lead
Speaker 2: to fantasy football. You create a league with your friends,
Speaker 2: your family, your coworkers, and then you make your picks
Speaker 2: each week. We have four different game types as I mentioned,
Speaker 2: We've got a bracket style game where you watch the
Speaker 2: first episode, make your first impressions of all the contestants,
Speaker 2: and then pick who you think is going to get
Speaker 2: eliminated at each elimination ceremony all the way down to
Speaker 2: the finals your bracket locks at the beginning of episode two.
Speaker 2: Then we have a couple weekly pick them style games
Speaker 2: where you're choosing who you think will get eliminated that week.
Speaker 2: And then our most fun and engaging and popular game
Speaker 2: type is the one that's similar to fantasy football, where
Speaker 2: you draft a team of contestants each week, and then
Speaker 2: depending on what they do and say during the episode,
Speaker 2: based on a list of rules that we set at
Speaker 2: the beginning of the season, that's how your team gains
Speaker 2: or loses points. So, for example, for The Bachelor, if
Speaker 2: a contestant is seen eating on camera, or kisses the
Speaker 2: lead or says the word connection. Those are all ways
Speaker 2: that your contestant can earn points. If they get accused
Speaker 2: of being there for the wrong reasons, that could be
Speaker 2: some way that they would lose points. And that's how
Speaker 2: you play during the season. It's totally free to play.
Speaker 2: We don't there's no gambling on the platform. But it's
Speaker 2: been really fun to provide a medium for reality TV
Speaker 2: fans to be able to connect more deeply with their
Speaker 2: friends and other fans of the show.
Speaker 1: But if you're anything like me, you might be wondering
Speaker 1: who does the scoring for each episode.
Speaker 2: I literally sit in front of the TV with an
Speaker 2: Excel spreadsheet and our list of rules, and I'm tracking
Speaker 2: every action that happens from each contestant during the episode,
Speaker 2: and I post the scores a couple hours after the
Speaker 2: episode is done airing, and then you can come back
Speaker 2: in and we've got some scoring recaps that you can
Speaker 2: look over. And that's how you play during the season.
Speaker 1: So it's pretty labor intensive for you. You've got to
Speaker 1: sit there for every episode.
Speaker 2: But yet it is definitely labor intensive. Eventually we'll start
Speaker 2: to continue to scale. There's only so much reality TV
Speaker 2: I can watch each week, but for now it's me
Speaker 2: and my trust the Excel spreadsheet on a regular basis.
Speaker 2: Right now, we just had The Bachelor end, but it
Speaker 2: was Monday, Bachelor, Wednesday, Survivor, Amazing Race, Friday RuPaul's Drag Race,
Speaker 2: so there's definitely some seasonality to it as well.
Speaker 1: Do you ever make a wrong call? Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've gotten much better at it, though we used
Speaker 2: to back in the day. Get a lot of support emails,
Speaker 2: being like, at minute seventeen of The Bachelor, just said
Speaker 2: the word connection, but I don't see that reflected in
Speaker 2: the scoring recap. Can you please review the episode and
Speaker 2: make sure the points are accurate. People are playing for
Speaker 2: money on the side with their friends, so they care
Speaker 2: about it a lot. People also care about it just
Speaker 2: from a bragging right standpoint. But since I've been the
Speaker 2: one that has been doing all the scoring for the
Speaker 2: past year and a half or so, I've gotten really
Speaker 2: good at scoring and have been pretty accurate so far,
Speaker 2: so those emails are few and far between. Now I
Speaker 2: also play myself, so it is important that I am
Speaker 2: accurate with the scoring, and we're very anti spoiler as well.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of integrity that goes into the reality
Speaker 2: TV fantasy games.
Speaker 1: And while Bracketology is still a scrappy startup, as Jonah
Speaker 1: calls it, the company is finding an audience in a
Speaker 1: crowded industry.
Speaker 2: We brought Caitlin on full time, so now there's two
Speaker 2: of us working on at full time, and we just
Speaker 2: launched a mobile application a couple months ago and have
Speaker 2: seen fifty thousand plus downloads in the first two months.
Speaker 2: And it's been really exciting to watch Bracketology grow and
Speaker 2: start to legitimize itself over the past few years.
Speaker 1: So while Jonah might not look like the traditional CEO,
Speaker 1: he is certainly dedicated to his business, working tirelessly and
Speaker 1: for the first few years not even making a penny.
Speaker 2: Correct. Yeah, I actually didn't pay myself from the startup
Speaker 2: for two years. I just started paying myself a small
Speaker 2: salary and did.
Speaker 1: The hot dog vending act as sort of a stop
Speaker 1: gap at that time to bring in some money where
Speaker 1: you weren't getting it in those first couple of years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. So I had never before relied on vending
Speaker 2: as my primary income. It was always a good side hustle,
Speaker 2: but the beauty of running your own company is that
Speaker 2: you have the flexibility from an hour's perspective to shift
Speaker 2: your work schedule around. So for the Wednesday one to
Speaker 2: twenty pm games, I was able to get to Wrigley
Speaker 2: to make a little money and work later Wednesday night
Speaker 2: on the startup. So it became my primary source of income.
Speaker 1: But more than just provide him with money to exist
Speaker 1: on while he gets his company up and running. Jonah
Speaker 1: credits his vending career with helping him develop into the
Speaker 1: businessman he's become.
Speaker 2: For sure, it has. I think there are so many
Speaker 2: transferable skills that I've learned vending at Wrigley over the
Speaker 2: past decade that have translated to running my own company.
Speaker 2: I have no fear of rejection, no fear of making
Speaker 2: a fool out of myself than asking people for things.
Speaker 2: It's helped sales, it's helped networking, it's helped content creation,
Speaker 2: it's helped public speaking, and ultimately, like when I'm in
Speaker 2: the stands selling beer, I'm doing a ten second elevator
Speaker 2: pitch for someone to buy my product. Translated into fundraising
Speaker 2: meetings as well with potential investors. So I think there
Speaker 2: have been so many things that have been helpful from
Speaker 2: a professional standpoint that I've gotten from my job at
Speaker 2: Wrigley that I use on a day to day basis
Speaker 2: as a CEO.
Speaker 1: But even as Bracketology continues to grow and they continue
Speaker 1: to add more reality shows to their roster, requiring even
Speaker 1: more of Jonah's time, Bracketology CEO says he has no
Speaker 1: intention of quitting his hot Dog bending gig anytime soon.
Speaker 2: It's really been a blessing. I've been super appreciative to
Speaker 2: have the opportunity to work there, and like I said,
Speaker 2: I really think that as long as I am living
Speaker 2: in Chicago and physically able, I will do this as
Speaker 2: long as I can.
Speaker 1: For on the job, I'm Avery Thompson.