The "Hot Dog Cart" Version of Success 🌭

The Origin Story: How a Hot Dog Cart at the Hardware Store Became My Idea of Success

The Hot Dog Cart is a newsletter that helps you do the brave things, work through the scary stuff, and take the important steps to heal from the guru-laced indoctrination, evolve into who YOU want to be, and make YOUR blissfully simple life + business aspirations a reality. Some editions are free, some for paid subscribers only. Get new cart-sized editions sent straight to your inbox:

There’s a guy, named Doc, out here in my slice of ‘country’, who makes well over a million dollars a year selling hot dogs in front of our local hardware store.

He’s out from 11-2, Tuesday - Saturday, and people line up!

Partly because the dawgs are bomb + partly because he’s the nicest guy on the planet. Just a genuinely great human, who loves people, who got bored + broke in retirement, saw a need in his community, and did something about it.

He’s well-known for giving anyone in need a free meal. No questions asked.

He doesn’t care if you’re just short on cash at the moment, a 10-person family who doesn’t get paid for a few more days, or part of our very large unhomed community. If you need a meal, he’ll happily give you one, no strings attached, without the charity case vibes.

The community loves him something fierce for how truly nonjudgmental + giving he is, so they come by his cart weekly, some daily, and they tell every out-of-towner who’ll listen to go get a dawg from Doc.

The dude sells out every day.

It’s a shame I’ll never experience one of his hot dogs.

I wish I could, but they’re at the top of the “not-even-in-a-barren-desert-after-hiking-for-12-days-could-I-eat-that-shit” list. It’s a texture thing. 🤷‍♀️ Some things are just so textually wrong (according to my mouth) that they CAN NOT be swallowed - a.k.a. “the list”.

Ask me about the sushi 1st date I went on… 7 years after I had already figured out (the hard way) that raw fish was on “the list”.

Traumatic… for everyone… including the people at the tables inches from us, in each direction.

The only glass half full part was that it cured me of ever revisiting things already on “the list”. And yes, even if it means shattering the plans of some tall, dark, and handsome man who’s trying to feed me, or shutting down another friend who decides they’ve found the ONE beer on the planet that doesn’t taste like beer - which is also on “the list.”

​

It’s not the dawgs that make him my hero; it’s HIM + his business model.

It’s how he’s getting everything he wants + needs — money, purpose, impact, and community — doing ONE thing he loves.

I haven’t lived here long enough to know (or taken the time to ask) how he got started, but I’ve seen the impact he’s made over the last 7 years… doing something we (probably) all perceive as ordinary, maybe even insignificant.

He’s turned a working-class food we can nuke in the microwave ourselves for pennies; into something worth standing in a long line for + paying 5X’s the ‘value’ for.

He’s turned a rolling metal cart that sits in a strip mall into a meeting place that brings this extremely divided + diverse community together.

He’s turned a one-man dream into an inspiring, sustainable, personally rewarding, commercially viable business that not only markets itself but also pays for itself.

No bells + whistles.

No long hours.

No unpaid work.

No people to manage.

No dreams of expansion.

​

​

What I find MOST heroic + inspiring is the way he practices being who he wants to be every single day.

Perfect example…

A few years ago, another very sweet older man named Scotty asked Doc if he was interested in expanding. He said, he would love to run the 2nd cart at another location and split the profits.

Doc said, “NO, this is all I need + all I want”... and then proceeded to give Scott every trade secret he had + told him to go ‘live the dream’; that he owed him nothing.

When Scott was ready to launch his hot dog cart, Doc posted about it in every single local Facebook group, sharing his hours + location, and setting expectations for how this community would embrace him.

He made it CRYSTAL CLEAR that there was absolutely no competition or rivalry (his hot dog puns are amazing!) between the two of them… that it was just two old men ‘living the dream’… that there was plenty of love + laughter to go around… and that anyone who was sabotaging, robing, or hindering Scott’s business in Doc’s honor was no friend of his.

It was a beautiful post… and the community listened.

They’re both hugely successful 3 years later… and people love having debates about which one is better (in a civilized manner). It’s a community wide inside joke that you can’t let the other know when you’re “cheating on them.”

​

When I think about ‘living the dream,’ THAT's who I picture.

I find myself looking for excuses to go to the hardware store, just so I can marvel in his success (not just the money kind!) + appreciate what a huge impact he’s made doing something ordinary that he loves.

It’s like witnessing a Taylor Swift autograph signing, only the buttfuck nowhere country bumpkin fair-version. It’s pure, organic, and deeply connective in a human way that I long for.

When it comes to business models, I’ve been trying to turn a food truck (who I think I have to be) into a food court (who they tell me I have to be), when what I really want is a fucking ‘hot dog cart’ (who I really am).

I want the Doc’s Dawgs business model!

Getting everything I want + need — money, purpose, impact, and connection — doing ONE ordinary thing I love.

​

If I could do it all over again, I’d never let myself get sidetracked from my ‘hot dog cart’ aspirations.

All the ‘upgrades’ I’ve had done… all the ‘equipment’ I’ve bought… all the ‘contractors’ I’ve hired… all the ‘delays’ I’ve caused… all the ‘permits’ I’ve tried to squeeze through… all because I wasn’t practiced enough in being who I want to be to say, “NO, this is all I want + and all I need!”

As I reconcile more of my ME-shaped, cart-sized aspirations with the capitalism-laced, food court-sized ideas of success, I realize how much practice it reeeeally takes to be gloriously ordinary.

To say NO to all the ‘MORE, MORE, MOREness’ of the system we live in and not shrink into a black hole of self-doubt, but to say it without shame, and chuckle at the absurdity that I’d even entertain the idea.

Like, MORE will satisfy some deeper desire I have.

The practice of being who I want to be isn’t about feeling less ordinary; it’s about being able to do the ordinary shit I love (like, going ALL-IN on community) with the pride + fulfillment of an Olympic gold medalist.

It’s time to start living MY dream.

​

This is me rolling my hot dog cart of a newsletter into your strip mall of an inbox, inviting you to start unpacking what a gloriously ordinary person YOU are.

If you took all the expectations + BS away, what ONE ordinary thing do you think you’d be doing?

I’ve got a LOT more thoughts, but I think calling you ordinary is probably enough for today.

​
​

To realizing we gain more from saying NO to the ‘extra’ in our ordinary,

Dre ‘Hot Dogging It’ Beltrami
Founder, This Digital Playground
Gangster, The Entire Internet (Since 2014)
Beer Hater, No Matter How It's Brewed (Since 1979)
Step into your YOU-SHAPED ERA: Your Brand DNA Dossier Is Waiting 🦄🦄🦄 >>>

P.S. Meet my breeding ground for healing + growth in this YOU-shaped era of life and business, it’s called Brandishing YOU!

It’s like Cheers (the 80’s sitcom), But With More F-Bombs + Fewer Questionable 80s Haircuts 🍺🥳

Brandishing YOU is a safe haven for the overworked, overwhelmed, and over It.

This solopreneur speakeasy is the kind of place where you can admit you have no idea what you’re doing most of the time—and people will slide you a metaphorical drink and say, “Same, dude. Same!”

W’re not building empires, scaling our existences away, or sacrificing our health or happiness for a funnel. We’re rolling out our own damn hot dog carts—simple, profitable, feel-good businesses that actually support full, freedom-drenched lives.

No proven blueprint. No bedazzled boxes to shove you in. No fake promises to hijack your thought process with. Just real support, real experiments, and real progress… with solopreneurs, small creators, dreamers, and rebels all figuring this shit out together.

If you’re ready to trust fall into your YOU-shaped Era + heal from all the damage done to you during your Food Court Era so you can build something that actually feels like YOU, the bar is open.

Pull up a barstool—your next shot of “HOLY SHIT, that’s it!” business clarity is on the house. 🥃💡🌭

The solopreneur speakeasy where perfection’s overrated, progress is contagious, and the liquid courage is stiff enough to fuel your next fearless move. No fake smiles or empty promises—just a bunch of rebels, parents, partners, and dreamers like YOU, building fun, feel-good businesses that support fun, feel-good lives.

---

This publication is NOT like the newsletters you’re used to.

The Hot Dog Cart is hosted on a gloriously human platform called Substack that has its own app + built-in social community. I highly recommend downloading the app — It’s ads-free, creator-friendly, & human AF. It’s the top shelf of safe places! And then, we can actually chat each other up. 🫶

After you subscribe, I’ll drop new editions in your inbox every Tuesday morning.

Plus, if you love a good binge, you can read all my past editions right here.