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As owner of the vegan restaurant chain Slutty Vegan — and a former television producer — Pinky Cole knows the value of getting attention. After all, her restaurant’s menu includes items like “Slutty Fries” and a vegan “Fussy Hussy” burger.
Cole’s authenticity and genuine connection with audiences have been instrumental to Slutty Vegan’s success. She believes that people aren’t just buying her meatless masterpieces — they’re buying into her story, personality and mission.
“People can feel the genuineness, [and] that has given me a lot of success in my career,” Cole tells Shawn Walchef, host of Restaurant Influencers.
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From Maury Show producer to founder of a buzzed-about restaurant brand, she has paved her own path and triumphed through adversity.
“One thing I know how to do is merge people,” Cole says. “I know how to connect people. I know how to meet people where they are.”
Cole’s road to entrepreneurial triumph was not without its hard turns and steep climbs, some seemingly insurmountable. Yet, she stands today at the top of a brand valued at $100 million.
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I Hope You Fail
Challenges are one of the many reasons Cole released her second book, I Hope You Fail, in 2023. She stressed that embracing failures and things we can’t control can be a catalyst for growth.
“I hope you fail because it’s in those moments of failure that true growth and success can be found,” she says. “I want you to do that every day. I want you to fall on your face. I want you to hit the speed bump. I want you to get in a pickle. I want it to look like it’s not going to work out for you because what that does is it adds a layer of texture to the story that you’re writing in real-time.”
Cole’s belief in the power of failure comes from her own experience: In 2016, her first restaurant, a Jamaican spot in New York, burned down.
“I was devastated, man,” she says. “And I’ve never claimed depression in my life, but it felt like a depression… I felt like a failure. I’m not somebody that fails. I’m too ambitious for that. But losing a restaurant was out of my control, and anybody knows that when you’re an entrepreneur and don’t have control, it bothers you.”
But you can’t fail when you don’t give up.
In the aftermath of the blaze that turned so much hard work into ashes, Cole experienced a pivotal moment of clarity.
“It was the best thing that could have happened to me because it really redirected my energy to focus on something else,” she says. “If it wasn’t for that fire, that probably would have never happened.”
That was when Slutty Vegan came to be. Cole describes the inspiration as a “light bulb moment,” coming to her through a haze of weed smoke in her small apartment.
“Now, here I am with one of the hottest concepts in the country, and I’m proud of that,” she says. “Has it been easy? No. There’s some days I’m not gonna lie to you, I’m like, I don’t want to do this no more. This is hard.”
One critical lesson Cole has learned is the importance of focusing on talent and building a strong team rather than just chasing money. She credits her two longest-serving employees, Angel and Miesha, as the “left brain and right brain” of her business. It’s not one person who runs a business; it takes a team.
“Talent is so necessary to the growth and success of a business, and you should definitely get people who are smarter than you, who are as hungry, if not hungrier than you, and who have the same ethos and mindset as you. If you don’t have that, it will not work,” Cole says.
In addition to her unwavering determination and willingness to take risks, Cole has also recognized the crucial role that media and public relations have played in her entrepreneurial success.
“If you don’t have a publicist, you are going backward,” she says. “You need somebody that will be able to expose and amplify your brand. You need somebody that’s going to talk about all of the giving back that you do and the new menu items that you have.”
When the chain first came to Brooklyn in 2022, people camped outside to try it out. That could not have happened without spreading the word.
“Media is my friend,” Cole says. “A lot of people don’t realize that a publicist can put you in…all the trade magazines so that the people who need to see it will see it.”
Related: After Co-Founding a Successful Restaurant Group, He Turned to Tech to Simplify the Checkout Experience
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