Burritos + ‘Intra’preneurship? How One TikToker is Re-Defining Entrepreneurship
Did you know there’s a more scrumptious way to order your burrito bowl at your favorite Tex-Mex restaurant? Just ask for the cheese on the bottom. Yes, you heard me right. Take Chipotle employee @JackEarly's suggestion and order your shredded cheese on the bottom so it has a chance to melt BEFORE the cold ingredients get piled on top. The result is an ooey-goeey melted cheese phenomenon that is sure to delight your palette.
Guess what this one cheesy burrito bowl suggestion video garnered Jack?
2.8 million views on TikTok.
Jack’s not unlike many Gen Z’rs – he’s a high school student working on the line at Chipotle. He had an idea – what if he could turn his close to minimum-wage job into a brand for himself? That’s exactly what he did. In October of 2020, he began creating videos regularly of his work-life at Chipotle, revealing funky, makeshift dishes on the line after hours, like the burrito pizza and “burrito ice-cream” (creatively kneaded on the workspace like Coldstone Creamery), and through his content, has made menu items more accessible! Did you know that Chipotle has a “quesarito”? It’s a combo of a quesadilla and a burrito. Taking his viewers behind the scenes, he shows tips & tricks and helps non-Chipotle-frequenters discover the menu in new ways.
Today, Jack gets thousands of comments and questions from other Gen Z’rs wondering what it’s like working at Chipotle! He’s become a brand ambassador organically and has over 1.4M likes on his content with over 60,000 followers. What’s so unique about this? You see, Jack is not an entrepreneur who’s branched out on his own. He’s simply leveraging his day-to-day life (and what some people may consider monotonous work) and turning it into a personal brand for himself that will pay dividends both in reputation and profit in the future.
He’s re-defining entrepreneurship.
Jack’s story is not dissimilar to other Gen Z’rs who are creating brands for themselves in the most obscure ways, but what may not make sense to some generations makes perfect sense for a Gen Z’r. Throughout my work as a speaker and consultant, I frequently share that my generation pursues experiences for fear of missing out on what life can offer. To us, creating our own personal brand is one way of justifying that the daily actions we take matter.
Why should you as an employer care about Gen Z’s personal brands? Simply put, if 47% of Gen Z’rs say they either already own or would like to build their own companies and pursue entrepreneurship as a career path, you need to be ready for some major shifts in the workplace.
Gen Z is the future, and we are here. We will either fill your talent pipeline OR we will create our own, and it’s your decision to make.
Here are some considerations you should be making:
1. Do You Have a “Side Hustle” Game Plan? How does your company policy address side hustles? If your employees face heavy restrictions, it’s time to consider a shift. In Jack Early’s case, it would have been all too easy for Chipotle to shut down his TikTok channel for fear that he might “slip up” and misrepresent the brand. Instead, they recognized his content had the potential to organically generate a massive talent pipeline, ultimately helping the franchise compete with the modern shift toward local dining. They encouraged it instead.
2. Do You ENCOURAGE Intrapreneurship? A few days ago, I shared a video highlighting the idea of a #careerinfluencer; essentially an employee you hand-select to create content showcasing a “day in the life” of your company. I envision #careerinfluencers being most effective when they are company-sponsored and have existing influence (1500-2000 followers) and are also capable of curating content about both their life at your firm as well as their day-to-day fashion, lifestyle and experience choices. However, Jack Early has taken this concept to a new level. The inherent value of building a brand was sufficient motivation for him to create content. He didn’t even have to be paid. What a gold mine this could be for any business that recognizes the massive brand ambassadors their firm already has!
3. How Can You Turn ‘Entrepreneurs’ into ‘Intrapreneurs’? With so many Gen Z’rs pursuing the perceived glamour of an entrepreneurial lifestyle, companies will face the challenge of feeding their talent pipelines in coming years with self-motivated talent. Any business would prefer young people who can take initiative rather than those who must be carefully managed, so I posit the question to you – what ways can you encourage intrapreneurship within your company? NOW is the time to consider how your business can attract top Gen Z talent who have both entrepreneurial drive AND prefer the stability of working in an established company vs. owning their own.
If the Jack Early’s of the world are your future employees, what changes would you make right now to prepare for them?
Let me hear your ideas on how to encourage “intrapreneurship” in the comments! AND… If you’d like to see more content like this (and IDEAS for how to foster intrapreneurship within your company) click the “like” button and share this post.