We had the good fortune of connecting with Michael Takla and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Michael, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I’m 36 years old, living in Los Angeles with my wife of 14 years and our 4 beautiful children. My story goes all the way back to 1998 at the age of 12 when I was able to try sushi for the first time, well I wouldn’t really call it “sushi”, as it was just a California Roll but it instantly became my favorite food. From the age of 16 when I received my driver’s license is when I started to go to sushi bars for lunch at least twice a week “because I would crave it”. Throughout the remaining years up until 2015, I would always watch food shows on TV when I could and I never saw any food shows about sushi. So in 2015 is when a lightbulb went off and I said to myself, “Why don’t I create my own show and only focus on sushi”. That’s when the Sushi Traveler was born. I created my website, social media accounts and the biggest was YouTube because I wanted to start filming. Now, being a super novice when it came to filming, I didn’t know what I was doing. But with trial and error, I now have a YouTube Channel with over 800k views and over 6k subscribers that is dedicated to traveling to sushi bars all over the country (soon the world) and seeing what the Chefs have to offer.
Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Let’s start off with Social Media. On Instagram, we have over 160k followers and they love seeing all these sushi videos from all over the world from all these different creators. When starting on this platform, nobody ever shared my sushi photos and that was disappointing because I wanted to show the world what sushi really is. So now since I’m at the level I’m at right now, when someone sends me a request to repost their content, I take a look at what they have and most likely will post it because I was once in their shoes. What really sets me apart from everyone else, especially on YouTube, is that I’m the only channel that is 100% dedicated to visiting sushi bars. The thing I would say that I’m most proud of is when I became the Guinness World Record Holder for the “Most Sushi Rolls Eaten in One Minute”. I want people to think of me as a real life Yelp! but in video format and only for sushi. People love to know what’s a good sushi bar and where I’m going next in my travels in their area but photos can only say so much, but video is a whole new ball game.
Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
When visiting a new city, I try to film at multiple sushi bars to widen the range of my adventures. When someone goes online and types in for example: “Best Sushi Bar in Los Angeles”, I want my videos to show up first and foremost because I’ve already been to their request. My top sushi bars in Los Angeles that I would definitely recommend are the following: Kaviar Sushi Bar, The Brothers Sushi, HRB Experience, Catch Me Sushi, Blue Ribbon Sushi, Kura Revolving Sushi Bar. This is just a handful from hundreds of other locations in the city. If you’re on budget, I have a video for that. If you’re looking to splurge and money’s no object, I have videos on that too. Even if you’re looking for a Michelin Star sushi bar, I have videos on them as well.
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would love to dedicate my shoutout to my wife Rebecca Hardy because for the last 14 years she has stood by my side and has always pushed me to succeed. I would also love to dedicate this to my 4 children Johnny, Daniel, Christopher and Kelsey because they are the reason I do what I do.
Website: www.sushitraveler.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sushitraveler/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sushitraveler
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sushitraveler
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/sushitraveler
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sushitraveler?lang=en
Image Credits
Michael Takla