Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua (Josh) Harris.
Hi Josh, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born in 1975 and raised in Columbia, a small town in Mississippi. My grandfather was a serial entrepreneur and my favorite person on the planet. I idolized him. After high school, I moved to Biloxi, MS for two years where I worked at a few casinos and went to junior college. My first job in Biloxi was as a valet, parking cars. I couldn’t work on the casino floor because I wasn’t twenty-one. This frustrated me because the real money was made in the casino, not in the casino parking lot. This next move is the one thing I believe that’s defined my career as an entrepreneur. I petitioned the court at age of eighteen to be emancipated and the court granted my petition to be emancipated, which made me legally an adult, and allowed me to work in the casinos. I’m not sure if the “Find a way at all costs” attitude was learned or inherited from my grandfather. Dyslexia always made me think outside the box, but my grandfather was the MacGyver of entrepreneurs. If he had a toothpick, a gum wrapper and a milk jug, he could make a business out of them.
In 1996, roughly two and half years after graduating high school, I moved to Houston. I moved completely on a whim in a rented U-Haul with my best friend Gunther, my Dachshund. I had just turned twenty years old, I had $1000 to my name, I knew no one in Houston and I was excited to move to the big city. I started waiting tables and bartending within a few days of arriving in the city. I worked at Mcgonigel’s Mucky Duck for a few years where I learned the ins and outs of the bar business. I still have a great relationship with Rusty and Theresa Andrews, the owners of the Mucky Duck. They’re such great people. A few years later, I accepted a job with Texas Entertainment, the company that owned Timber Wolves, the first bar in Houston to have a hundred-plus beer taps. They were at the forefront of the craft beer scene. I started managing the Houston location and I traveled to work at the Phoenix location several times as an operations manager.
In 1998 I felt I had the knowledge and work ethic to open my own pub. I incorporated that year and started looking for locations. It took over a year to find the location that is now known as Front Porch Pub. Back then, it was an abandoned building with no power, running water and huge holes in the roof. I originally leased the property from Craig Joseph, the owner of This Is It Soul Food, before buying the property a few years later. He’s another great person that had a direct impact on my life. He believed in me, a twenty-four-year-old with big dreams and not a lot of money. Front Porch opened for business on December 21, 2000. I was twenty-five when Front Porch Pub opened.
Every entrepreneur needs seed money and that’s exactly what Front Porch Pub provided me. Every dollar I made, I either reinvested it into Front Porch or I bought a real estate that I would either rent or flip for a profit. I did this for several years and then decided I was ready for another challenge. I opened Porch Swing Pub in 2008, right before Washington Avenue exploded with restaurants and bars. Porch Swing Pub was a success and gave me more money to invest in new ventures, mainly real estate. In 2014 I sold Porch Swing Pub. I used the money from the sale to purchase the property now known as Bungalow Heights.
Bungalow Heights opened in 2018 with a bang but it wasn’t without growing pains. In roughly a fifteen-month period I got married to my intelligent and beautiful wife Jessica, my youngest daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, I found myself in a lawsuit with the contractor that built Bungalow, my staff more than tripled in size, my long-time general manager and I were butting heads and in the middle of all of this, I decide to personally build my first swimming pool. I take DIY to a whole ‘nother level. I survived and the success of another business gave me more money to invest in real estate and new businesses.
In 2020 the Covid pandemic closed my businesses. It was a very scary time. I had to lay off employees for the first time ever. I struggled with this decision, but it was the right one, even though at the time it didn’t feel right. Instead of sitting around feeling sorry for myself and worrying about things that were out of my control, I went to work. David Hays, my best friend, and I had always discussed opening a business together. David was tired of his corporate sales job and my businesses were closed, so he was motivated, and I had time. We started brainstorming. If my memory serves me correctly, David and I were building his kids the coolest treehouse in the neighborhood when the idea for rOks, our craft cocktail ice company came together.
In December 2021, we received our first shipping container of rOks patent pending ice trays and mold inserts. From David’s neighbor’s garage and a nearby storage unit, we sold and shipped roughly $30,000 worth of ice trays our first month in business. Since then, we have moved into an office with warehouse space in Midtown. We’ve recently had to double the size of our office/warehouse space and we’re a few days away from receiving another shipping container that has our new collegiate ice trays. Just to name a few, we will now have A&M, Texas Tech, Ole’ Miss, LSU and Alabama cocktail ice molds. David has killed it this year with corporate sales, we’re in several retail stores, we’re on Amazon and we’re currently working with the Astros on a deal to provide their suite-level fans with Astros ice trays.
After twenty-four years in business, I’m more motivated now than I have ever been. I enjoy working, learning and the adventures that come with trying new things. I took success for granted when I was younger. This is not because success came easily to me. I struggled and made mistakes like most business owners. I feel that struggling in school with dyslexia and the shame that came with being the kid that couldn’t read conditioned me to understand life is hard and it taught me that you better know how to improvise. I hid not being able to read well. To be a successful entrepreneur you need to enjoy the struggle, you need to be able to pivot and to improvise. Outside of being used to struggling, I think I was too young in the beginning of my career to understanding that I could fail. I was never the kid that struck out from watching pitches go by. I was swinging. I always walked up to the plate, knowing I was going to hit nukes. Of course, that wasn’t reality, but again, I was too young, too confident to fear failure and risk never bothered me. This can be a recipe for success, or epic failure. I know better than most that I have all the personality, characteristics that get a lot of young people into trouble. I’m very grateful that I had my grandfather to look up to. His rough hand, soft heart and uncompromising character made me who I am. Cheers to Hally Weems, the grandfather that knew how to harness and shape this wild, fearless and sometimes reckless kid into a loving husband, father and successful entrepreneur.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Smooth isn’t how I would describe my journey. It’s hard for me to remember the struggles I’ve faced. I have the luxury of forgetting about the pain, much like women who give birth. When you’re in the thick of it and the walls are caving in, it feels like the pain of whatever problem you’re dealing with at the time will never end. Then you get past the problem, you forget about the pain, and you’re focused on how beautiful your baby is. Outside of the normal issues business owners face, like finances, employee problems, lawsuits, permitting, licensing, theft, accidents, downturns in the economy and staying relevant, I’d say maturing and growing as a leader with all eyes on you was hard for me. As an entrepreneur/business owner, you’re the one your team looks to for answers. When I was younger, I felt like I had to have an answer to every question. Now that I’m older, I realize that me saying, “I don’t know,” might be the best answer.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
When someone asks me what I do, I always have a really difficult time answering the question. Most people can say what their profession and that’s sufficient. You need a few minutes if you ask what I do. I own and operate two restaurants/bars, I manage residential, commercial and investment real estate that I own, and I help David Hays, my business partner in rOks to operate and grow the business. My specialty would be problem-solving and being able to grind. I’m most proud of my family. Without a loving and supportive family being an entrepreneur wouldn’t be fun. I have worked a lot over the years, I’ve never been able to completely disconnect from work, and my family has always been very understanding. It means the world to me that they’re always in my corner. I believe that me being a jack of all trades sets me apart from others. There is little I haven’t done and there is even less that I can’t figure out.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Favorite app – TD Ameritrade.
Favorite book – The Old Man and the Sea.
Favorite podcast – Joe Rogan.
Favorite resource – YouTube. Sound ridicules, I know. How-to videos are my best friends.
Contact Info:
- Website:www.roksusa.com | www.bungalowheights.com | www.frontporchpub.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/roksusa/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/ROKS/100083273894444/
