Keep Building It: Interview with Ray Rastelli, Jr., President and Co-Founder of Rastelli Foods Group

I recently went one one one with Ray Rastelli, Jr., President and Co-Founder of Rastelli Foods Group.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?

Ray: I can definitely say that my journey has been a long one, starting as a teenager with “rock and roll dreams.” For as long as I could remember, I had always wanted to be a musician and I could not imagine doing anything else; however, once I got married and my wife and I had our first child, I knew it was time to take my life in a new direction.

It is by total chance that I quit what I thought was my dream and actually found what I now know is my true calling in life. Once I made up my mind that I wanted to provide more for my family, I discovered that my favorite donut shop in my hometown had gone out of business and that the tiny one room storefront was available for rent. I’d long felt that the neighborhood needed a deli, and I envisioned the space as a butcher shop that would supply both the deli and locals with quality meat. My dad had been in the meat business, selling smoked hams in South Philadelphia and it seemed as good a business as any to make an honest living. Forty-four years later, I have turned needing to earn a living as a newlywed for my wife and my daughter into not just a career, but also a real and true passion.

I was 18 years old when I became an entrepreneur and that came with its own set of challenges. I had so many questions at the start: What do I really need to do to run a business? How do I manage my slim amount of capital? What meat do I buy and from whom? Who do I hire and what equipment do I need? As you can see, very little planning went into that first butcher shop. It was more of an idea that I decided to put in to motion very quickly. It was a gamble, but having mouths to feed along with the fear of failure served as incredible motivation to succeed. I had just $10,000 dollars to put towards this new venture and I went for it.

As you can expect, the new experiences, shocks, and struggles as a new business owner came in waves, but the most difficult challenge was getting vendors and customers to relate to an 18-year-old business owner and have them understand that I was serious about planting roots within the community. I had to gain their respect, as well as their trust and I can honestly say that trust is the most important element in this business. From your customers, to your vendors to your employees, trust must be earned and focused on every single day, so that it becomes part of your being and you can grow.

Failure is also a huge part of growth and the sooner you identify your failures, accept them, cut the cord, and move on, the more efficient you will become. Failure is 100% a part of success and I never let my failures or setbacks define me or my company. If we learn something from a mistake, I consider it a valuable (albeit sometimes costly) lesson that will help us make more informed decisions in the future. Setbacks also occur every day and how you approach them with your team will determine how quickly you can put those setbacks behind you.

Lastly, I am an eternal optimist, sometimes to a fault and I have always been that way from the start. Therefore, I know it is very important for me to try and stay grounded and have the ability to bounce my ideas off of trusted advisors. I need people around me who can give me their honest opinions and a little bit of a reality check when I need to simmer my boiling optimism. One of the biggest challenges for me these days, and often a lesson well learned, is to slow things down. Slowing the process, sleeping on it, and getting another opinion on an idea is critical to my success, but honestly slowing down is one of the things that I struggle with the most; and that is why it all comes back to trust. Decades of adapting to consumer behaviors and tastes and keeping up with current trend keeps my mind going about a million miles an hour at all times and sometimes I just need someone I can depend on to tell me when to take a step back for my own good. It’s important to find those people and keep them close.

Adam: In your experience, what are the key steps to growing and scaling your business?

Ray: The key step in growing and scaling your business is to know your limitations. Once you have an idea of what your limitations are or your best estimate, you can better develop a plan. Growing your sales is clearly the most important goal, but not the whole picture. You must also consider things like staffing, and what other benchmarks are to start that process. Consider the following: Do you have the capital resources to fund the growth, and over what expected time frame, so that you can share that plan with your lenders? Lenders are most effective when you make them a part of the process and sharing your vision and risks with your teammates is also extremely critical. When your team knows the overall vision and goal, you have a much better chance of success. Last but not least, make sure your growth plans have rewards built in for those key teammates that helped you get there. You will never accomplish your goals without them.

Adam: What are your best tips for leaders of family businesses and those interested in working with family?

Ray: Simply put, the best tip I can give to those working with family is to treat your family members the same exact way that you treat every other employee. You are more comfortable with family, so you have to remember to lead with a clear head and not with emotion. You should also expect more from them than other teammates, because they have a significant opportunity for growth, while being a part of your family business. Most of all, communicate with them clearly and often to help create a path to personal development, but always be there for them as a family member first, not just a boss. You should also try not to take conflict home with you or involve other family members outside of the business. If something cannot be resolved in a day, let it go when you leave work and figure out a solution the next day. As with all family dynamics, balance and communication is key.

Adam: What do you believe are the defining qualities of an effective leader?


Ray: I believe that the defining qualities of an effective leader are as a follows: The ability to communicate clearly, knowing how and when to show compassion, trusting in yourself, as well as others, being transparent and passionate at all times, and promoting inclusion. These six simple ideas must be woven into your life and leadership styles to succeed. If you are able to communicate effectively because you know your business, you will be able to clearly share that vision with your team. When you have compassion for your team, they will trust you, as well as your ideas, and work with you to achieve your goals. Set a tone that no one works for you, as much as they work with you. You never want to be looked as someone’s boss, but rather as his or her trusted leader. After all, you cannot be an effective leader if you have no followers. One of my favorite sayings that I try and live by each and every day is by Maya Angelou, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” I always want my team members to feel valued and know their immense worth.

Adam: How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?

Ray: Taking leadership to the next level is to first understand that there are other ways of doing everything. I tell my teammates often that “we don’t know what we don’t know” and this keeps everyone striving to become better and seek out better solutions. I am huge proponent of bringing in outside consultants to evaluate us, almost like a report card, and benchmark us against our competitors. An outside perspective will always help in creating a better organization over all. You simply cannot do everything by yourself and a good leader should know that.

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders?

Ray: First, be compassionate to everyone around you and reach out to help when you can. At the very least, you should always let the people around you know that you are there to support them however they need. Second, be a part of the team and don’t lead from behind, you should be out front with a shared vision and inclusion. Third, be flexible and approach each and every week with the optimism that every single day holds a new opportunity. You never really know where you might end up or where a new idea could take you and that is the beauty of being an entrepreneur, paving your own way and having a solid group of people by your side.

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading and managing teams?

Ray: As I’ve mentioned before, the best advice I can give is to be truly honest, transparent, and compassionate with your team members, and hold yourself accountable to them every single day. A team that trusts you and follows your lead will be more engaged and feel as though they are part of the family. You want your employees at any level to be happy and comfortable sharing their own thoughts and opinions. If they don’t grow along with the company, you are doing something wrong.

Adam: What are your best tips on the topics of sales, marketing and branding?

Ray: Building a good brand is very difficult, but if it is always at the top of your mind you can accomplish the task. Create your brand identity first, as in who you are and what you stand for as a company. Once that is established, the product branding should have specific guidelines, or as I call them, guardrails, so that you don’t fall off the cliff. These guidelines will help to ensure that the products you develop always reflect the core values of your company. You must also identify the points of difference in the product, packaging, or story so that your marketing team can share that vision properly with your customers. Once your brand is clearly identified, and your products well vetted, the sales strategy has to be executed. The sales team should have a very clear understanding of the product and all of its attributes, along with the story behind its development and the specific target audience. Once you feel confident with all of the above, you should start to test your skills on a few smaller fish first and then when you’re truly ready, go full on whale hunting.

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?

Ray: The single best piece of advice I ever received was, “Believe in yourself, because no one understands your business as well as you do” and it really is as simple as that. Trust your instincts, because they exist for a reason and have gotten you as far as you are. If you have a bad feeling about something, don’t do it. The pitch might be really good, but if your gut is telling you something is off, listen to it. I’ve talked about trust throughout this entire interview and you can’t forget to apply that concept to yourself, as well.

Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?

Ray: If you love what you do, keep building it. You are never done learning about your industry and it’s never to late to expand your expertise within your field. Remember not to get too bogged down by the everyday administrative duties of running a business and forget what gives you joy. I am the president of a global company, but at the end of the day, I am a butcher first. I love being on the cutting floor and I will never stop perfecting my craft.

And lastly, take it from me, if you don’t wake up each day with a passion for your work; realize that you have a choice. Find your happy place, it will be worth it.


Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.

Follow Adam on Instagram and Twitter at @adammendler and listen and subscribe to Thirty Minute Mentors on your favorite podcasting app.