Revolutionizing the Ice Cream Truck Business: Tony Lamb's Journey as Kona Ice CEO

In this episode of his “Meet the Zor,” podcast, 1851 Franchise Publisher Nick Powills sat down with Kona Ice CEO  Tony Lamb.

Lamb stumbled into franchising unexpectedly after an ice cream truck visited his neighborhood back in 2004. Lamb took one look at the dilapidated, creepy truck and was in shock. As he looked at his children holding their freezer-burned treats and watched the truck driving away, he started laughing.

“I’m looking at my wife and saying, ‘What has happened to that industry? What a mess,’” Lamb said.

Driven by a vision to revolutionize the ice cream truck business, Lamb became an entrepreneur. He launched Kona Ice in 2006, initially with the hopes of becoming a regionally recognized business.

“We started driving around neighborhoods,” Lamb said. “We started getting into events and it worked, and then we started building more.”

The brand simply kept growing; Lamb soon realized that he could dream bigger and that franchising was an excellent option. The path to success wasn’t always easy, however. Powills and Lamb discussed the complexities of entrepreneurship and the hard work involved, a lesson Lamb is always sure to impress upon prospective franchisees.

“This is hard work. How hard do you think it is? It's harder,” Lamb said. “You're going to sweat and this is goodbye to staying behind that desk. I just want to make sure we are on the same page with our expectations in line before I say yes to a franchisee … If you think it's a nine-to-five, it's not — but it’s so rewarding.”

Powills and Lamb discussed the need for perseverance in business ownership and the danger of getting too comfortable. When business owners do lose that hunger, Powills advised finding a new source for it.

“You have to dive in and refine that fuel,” Powills said. “I agree with you; at some point, the imposter syndrome ends. And you're like, ‘All right, I've made it,’ but the problem with letting impostor syndrome end is the hunger changes … then you have to go find it.”

Watch the full interview here.