Today we’d like to introduce you to Rolo Cantu.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
It has been a wild/long journey so far! Out of High School, I went to culinary school in Dallas, TX while working for a marketing company in the nightclub world. After graduation and running a few food concepts, I was part of the opening culinary team for Sundown at Granada overseeing brunch and special events at both Sundown and Granada Theater. To make a long story short, I spent every part of my career working with intention with companies and people to learn and absorb every bit of wisdom I could. It’s a practice I still uphold till this day. Cooking has gifted me with amazing memories and experiences I thought I’d only ever read about (or scroll past on my feed). Today I Co-produce various types of video marketing content for companies including our Major League Arena Soccer team, The Dallas Sidekicks as well as a personal passion of music videos for such bands like “From Parts unknown” and “The Holophonics”.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Smooth is not how I would describe it, exactly. During my cannabis venture in northern California, Nevada City/Grass Valley to be exact, my former business partner and I built an operation and brand called Elevated Roots. We received a healthy investment to expand our operation where we were cultivating and extracting cannabis to have only gone south due to some oversight in legalities that resulted us to lose our whole business. I was living out of my SUV while trying to find restaurants that need some advisement on their at-risk concepts.
All struggles weren’t financial, I spent a couple seasons on Nantucket Island cooking at the highly known Ventuno Restro right on federal St. One would be so lucky to have the opportunity to visit let alone live and work on the island. For me, however, it was the first time I had ever been completely apart from friends and family, by that, I mean on a body of land separated/surrounded by miles and miles of ocean with minimal ferries to the mainland. I was completely out of my comfort zone, there was endless amounts of time for self-reflection and tests to give up and fly home. I learned what patience really meant and most importantly, Courage.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I feel what sets me apart from others, is my wide range of experiences that have molded my work ethic and drive to really seek out what I truly want out my life and career. I think I’m in a really unique generational bracket in that I can still remember “old” ways of marketing and production. We (my generation) have seen, designed, and improved some very important logistical and creative issues with tools in technology and communication avenues.
If I had to describe what I do, I’d go in the direction of creative problem solver that specializes in bringing idea solutions to others and/or companies, bringing their visions into a reality. Most of my background is in the culinary world in so many different sectors. I was a private Executive chef for a sorority at SMU, I’ve cooked for Will Ferrell, managed food events for well-known musical artists, craft services for independent films (one being in a cave in Arkansas), was a travel pop-up chef for Diner Lab, Cooked and lived on Nantucket Island, Co-developed a cannabis brand cultivating and extracting cannabis, learned some cooking tips in Bulgaria from some very special locals and was even an executive chef at a high profile private social club and lounge called Maplewood.
Amongst some very special and unique experiences, I’ve spent plenty of time outside of the food world and dabbled in some creative outlets such as video production. I’ve been super fortunate to be surrounded with talented and like-minded individuals to partner with. Most recently, I’ve been working with the Major Arena Soccer League team The Dallas Sidekicks, producing various types of video media projects such as branding and commercial videos. Growing up in a musical family, I’ve stepped into the music scene co-producing music videos along with a really cool upcoming project summer 22′. I’ll be assisting in the production of punk festival doc in Austria covering “SBAM”
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I feel this type of consulting space will gradually get smaller, but with higher quality pool. When you advise, I believe you have to make yourself available for the “New” and think ahead. I associate it with the home computer, I feel that had my generation known what IT or the internet was going to turn into, we would have made some different choices in planning our future to stay with it. I think that goes hand and hand with being creative, it’s not enough today to be creative, you have to be original as well.
Contact Info:
- Email: rolocantu48@gmail.com
- Instagram: @rolocantu
