--- title: "Austin Samuelson of Tacos 4 Life on Mission-Driven Restaurant Models, Radical Empathy, and Building High-Performing Teams" url: "https://authoritymag.co/articles/austin-samuelson-of-tacos-4-life-on-mission-driven-restaurant-models-radical-empathy-and-buildin" publisher: "Authority Magazine" author: "Charlie Katz" authorUrl: "https://authoritymag.co/authors/charlie-katz" interviewee: "Austin Samuelson" company: "Tacos 4 Life" category: "Social Impact" datePublished: "2022-02-06T18:53:20.651Z" dateModified: "2026-11-12T17:08:01.236Z" tags: "Business" --- # Austin Samuelson of Tacos 4 Life on Mission-Driven Restaurant Models, Radical Empathy, and Building High-Performing Teams *The co-founder and CEO of Tacos 4 Life shares how pivoting from pizza to tacos fueled a global mission to eliminate childhood hunger.* > In 2009, my wife Ashton and I learned that over 18,000 children were dying worldwide each day due to starvation and hunger related causes. It’s an incredibly heartbreaking statistic and a completely preventable problem. --- As*a part of our series called ‘*[Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A CEO](https://medium.com/authority-magazine/search?q=Before%20I%20Became%20a%20CEO)*’ we had the pleasure of interviewing Austin Samuelson.* *Austin Samuelson is the co-founder and CEO of Tacos 4 Life, a restaurant that donates one meal to starving children around the world for every meal purchased at its locations. Austin founded Tacos 4 Life in 2014 with his wife, Ashton as they were inspired and driven by the need to help eliminate world hunger. Prior to opening Tacos 4 Life, Austin graduated from Ouachita Baptist University with a degree in Finance.* --- **Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?** In 2009, my wife Ashton and I learned that over 18,000 children were dying worldwide each day due to starvation and hunger related causes. It’s an incredibly heartbreaking statistic and a completely preventable problem. We vowed to set out to join the cause and thought — what if we opened a restaurant that donated a meal for each meal purchased. Our first attempt at executing this model was with a pizza restaurant. We quickly realized that while people loved the mission, they didn’t love the food as much. In 2014, we opened the first Tacos 4 Life restaurant offering a chef-inspired menu with fresh ingredients that everyone knows and loves. Ashton and I believe that God is up to something big and can use Tacos 4 Life to empower communities to end world hunger. **Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?** There are quite a few stories I could tell, but the most interesting dates back to the first time Ashton and I went to Africa to see the food we raised in action. This was before we actually opened Tacos 4 Life, it was when we started out with our pizza business. We had been working incredibly hard at the restaurants to raise these meals and were extremely excited to take our work a step further and actually meet the children we were providing for. One day one we went to a feeding center in a really small town where we were able to interact and play with all of the children. We were having an amazing time and actually were chosen to hand out the meals when it came time to serve lunch. Ashton and I were scooping out bowls of rice from a really large container and it was one of those moments where you stop and think — wow, this is what we’ve been working so hard towards and the mission we share with our employees and customers. However, there were about 150 kids in line and as we were scooping and talking with the kids, I realized the food was going away a lot faster than the line was getting shorter. Ashton went over to the women who had prepared the food to ask if they were able to provide more and they shook their heads solemnly and said this was all they had. It was the only food for the day and so we had to try and make it work. We started handing out smaller portions in order to feed the entire line. The way they organize the line is by having the youngest children first followed by the older children and lining up the girls ahead of the boys. We ran out of food with about 10–12 kids left in line, all 12 year old boys. It was one of the worst feelings I’ve felt in my life having to look at these kids and not be able to serve them a meal. As Ashton was crying, we both looked at each other and said we don’t want to do anything else for the rest of our lives until we can ensure this doesn’t happen. Thankfully we were able to run down the road to a hut and buy several loaves of white bread and bananas to feed the rest of the kids. It was a motivating moment for us to open Tacos 4 Life and get our model of donating a meal for each meal purchased to work. **Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?** Believe it or not, when we opened our first restaurant Ashton and I had never worked in a restaurant before. We never even worked in a retail environment. Ashton was a school teacher when we married and also taught cheer and gymnastics and I had always worked in construction or on a farm. Neither of us worked in an environment where we were around a cash drawer before. When we were installing our first cash drawers, I went online to learn how to set them up. What I did not read in the instructions was which direction the money goes, and being left-handed I apparently set them up incorrectly. We found out a year and a half later that ours were set up differently from every other cash drawer in the world. One of our new employees at that time shouted out to us that the cash drawers were all backwards. A couple of others chimed in and shared that they had noticed the difference too and asked for us to change the system. Coming into a new business, we have a ton of similar stories of learning on the fly. It’s made our journey all the more interesting! The lesson there has been that we’re constantly learning, especially from our team. **None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?** Firstly, Ashton and I are business partners in this and I couldn’t have done it without her. We really enjoy working together, it makes what we do fun. When you’re running your own business you have some really good days but you also have days where it is hard. You sit there and ask yourself — man, can we make it, can we go on? Ashton is the most optimistic person in the world and having her by my side throughout all of this is just incredible. There have also been hundreds of people who have helped us along the way. Tacos 4 Life is such a unique concept being a mission-based brand and also a restaurant. We’ve received amazing advice and assistance from people working both in the industry as well as in non-traditional roles outside of the restaurant business, like myself. It’s one of our core values to be hungry to grow and so we’re always learning from those around us. We’ve been blessed with great friends, mentors and colleagues who have helped along the way. **As you know, the United States is currently facing a very important self-reckoning about race, diversity, equality and inclusion. This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have a diverse executive team?** Having a diverse team is a standard that we talk about often at Tacos 4 Life. It’s important to be able to represent our communities and represent our guest base fully. In order for any team to be truly great, you need to be able to learn and grow from one another. Surrounding yourself only with individuals who are from similar backgrounds limits your perspective and opportunity for success. Through the Tacos 4 Life mission, the food we raise is donated to some of the most underserved communities in the world. Unfortunately in these areas if a child doesn’t have access to food there aren’t any consequences, it’s more of a way of life. For us to be able to effectively help break a cycle of poverty, it takes people and groups from all backgrounds all over the world. **As a business leader, can you please share a few steps we must take to truly create an inclusive, representative, and equitable society? Kindly share a story or example for each.** In order to see the steps that we as leaders need to take it’s important to self-reflect, stay informed and have that hunger for growth. Self-reflection and education provide the pathway on an individual and community level to help create a more inclusive society. We have to be honest with ourselves and take a look at the role we play in the bigger picture — are we truly doing what is best for all, are we keeping an open mind, what can we change to better provide for the communities we live in? We won’t always have the answer. Everyday we have an opportunity to learn, whether it be through our own mistakes or simply by listening to others. Having a desire for growth and leading with purpose will help bring us closer to creating a more equitable society. **Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a CEO or executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what an executive does that is different from the responsibilities of the other leaders?** For myself and the leaders I respect most, we have the responsibility of focusing our time and efforts on our executive team. At Tacos 4 Life we have three key values that drive us as an organization and we lean heavily on those values everyday. We work hard on what we call organizational health so that we can make not only smart decisions but healthy decisions as a team. In order to lead by example, the executive team has to be able to communicate confidently and effectively with one another to navigate difficult situations that might arise. It is important to manage these relationships and build a sense of trust and community amongst the team. **What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive. Can you explain what you mean?** As a CEO, it’s important that I get to know and love my team well. We’re very caught up in social media and this notion of building a personal brand and a personal platform. There’s this myth that CEOs or executives are too concerned with people’s perceptions of themselves and not concerned enough with the wellbeing of those who help run their business. I mentioned earlier my focus on organizational health and to me being able to best serve my team by providing a healthy sustainable work environment is more important than creating a social media image. **What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?** With the unique story of how I’ve come into this role, I didn’t necessarily have expectations. I wasn’t hired into the position and at times still find it hard to consider myself a CEO. At the end of the day what’s surprised me most as I’ve grown and developed into this position is the importance of having a great leadership team. I’m an extremely hard worker and have always been able to tackle any project thrown my way. It’s how I’ve been able to get to where I am today. However, as CEO, there are plenty of times where I lean into my team and have to give them time to perform. I’m grateful to have built a team of incredible leaders who I can trust to make effective and efficient decisions. I don’t have to bear all of the weight of running a business alone when I have amazing people, including my wife, by my side to help me through it. **Do you think everyone is cut out to be an executive? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful executive and what type of person should avoid aspiring to be an executive? Can you explain what you mean?** Yes — I think everyone is cut out to be an executive and achieve their goals if they have a desire to work hard and serve others. As long as people believe in themselves, are willing to make certain sacrifices, care for others and have a hunger for constant growth. **What advice would you give to other business leaders to help create a fantastic work culture? Can you share a story or an example?** It’s important to be able to effectively communicate who you are as an organization and how you act as an organization. In knowing this information, everyone is able to make decisions that help them and the business grow in the right direction. The entire organization should be aligned on what you stand for so that not every decision has to be run by a manager or executive team member. **How have you used your success to make the world a better place?** While our food is something everyone talks about, it’s our commitment to the Meal 4 Meal program that is the true difference maker at Tacos 4 Life. For every meal purchased $0.24 is donated to Feed My Starving Children, our non-profit partner. The $0.24 provides one MannaPacks rice meal, made up of rice, vitamins, soy and veggies to over 70 countries where they are distributed through schools, orphanages and CarePoints. Kids from all over are able to enjoy these life-saving meals made possible by the meal our guests enjoy. **Fantastic. Here is the primary question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)** 1. **Have fun**. As leaders and as entrepreneurs we’re all achievers and are motivated by setting big goals. It’s easy to slip into the grind of pushing hard chasing after our dreams and we forget that what we do is actually really fun. We are blessed everyday, so ride the wave and enjoy it! 2. **It’s all about building a team.**Learn how important it is to have a really effective and high functioning team that will make smart, healthy, and quick decisions. 3. **Be patient.** As a leader, there are times where you have to be patient and let others lead. You won’t be able to jump in and take over for everyone. It’s important to have the patience to let others effectively complete their job. 4. **Over Communicate.**Even though I’ve always been in leadership positions, I’m actually an introvert. Knowing that I don’t always default to speaking, it’s important to focus on over-communicating my beliefs, values, and goals. 5. **Stay optimistic.**Have a relentless focus on being optimistic. It’s easy to fall into seasons where the grind can be frustrating. Optimism is contagious and ultimately as a leader it’s our job to paint a picture of a place that people want to be. **You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.** Our hope with Tacos 4 Life is that we continue to inspire others to help end world hunger. We have the power to change the world through food. We believe that food is the foundation that allows children to receive medical care, education and skills training. We’ve seen firsthand the life-changing impact that each meal provides and the hope that it brings to the children who receive it. Hunger is the world’s greatest solvable problem and together we can make a difference! **Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?** One of my favorite life lesson quotes comes from Greg McKeown — *“When you focus on what you lack, you lose what we have. When you focus on what you have, you gain what you lack.”*How true is that quote? As simple as it is, gratitude changes so much. I’m very future-focused, always dreaming about what’s next and in doing that I can move past what is right in front of me. I lose everything I have to be grateful for in trying to obtain what I lack. It’s a phenomenal concept and for someone with my personality, it’s very much needed. **We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them** I’m a big fan of Bob Goff and would be honored to share a meal with him. I have a great deal of respect for the way he dreams big, loves everyone and tells inspiring stories. With all of these great attributes, he must be a fun person to be around. I love surrounding myself with positive people that see the world as an adventure and Bob Goff does just that. Bob does a lot of work helping those who are in need around the world in a way that empowers others, just like our strategy and mission at Tacos 4 Life. **Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.** --- Source: https://authoritymag.co/articles/austin-samuelson-of-tacos-4-life-on-mission-driven-restaurant-models-radical-empathy-and-buildin (Authority Magazine, Social Impact). Interviewee answers are first-person statements of the guest. Index of all pages: https://authoritymag.co/llms.txt