I was a broke American living in New Zealand. A viral TikTok turned my taco stand into 3 restaurants.

• Sean Yarbrough is a 39-year-old American who moved to New Zealand in 2021.
• Sean said the thing he missed the most from the US was Mexican food.
• Three years later, Sean, once homeless, has opened three successful restaurants.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sean Yarbrough, owner of Broke Boy Taco. It has been edited for length and clarity.

In 2022, I was flipping burgers when the owner of the burger joint asked me what I missed most about the US.

I moved to New Zealand in 2021, and what I missed most was Mexican food. My boss asked if I knew how to cook tacos, and after I told him I did, he said I could cook them the next day. I did, and we tasted them. He told me I should quit my job and sell the tacos. They were that good.

The thing was, I didn't have any idea where to start. He told me to just buy a little flat-top grill, set up an Instagram account, and start cooking.

I was able to quit my job

A buddy of mine said I should call my venture Broke Boy Taco, and since I've been a broke boy my whole life, I decided to go with it.

I figured it couldn't be all that hard — just buy ingredients, get a table, make a sign, and take a picture to tell people where I was. The burger joint I was working at — Ralph's — reposted anything I'd put up, so I got a whole bunch of their customers to start.

First, 20 people showed up when I set up outside for the first time. The second time, 40 people showed up. After that, I would say it just doubled every time I cooked, which ended up being once every three weeks to start.

Once I reached 100 customers consistently, I knew I could afford to quit my job and start selling tacos three times a week.

A restaurant owner reached out to me and said they were looking for someone to take over their kitchen because it was sitting empty. I took my little grill and cooked tacos there for six months, paying him 10% of whatever I made.

TikTok really helped my business

Even though I had been cooking a variety of tacos, I decided to put only three items on my menu: Coke, Birria (slow-cooked beef) tacos, and Birria ramen. It was what I liked most, and what I cooked best.

I asked a friend to record a video of me cooking on his phone and then post it to TikTok and Instagram. The next morning, I woke to thousands of new followers. When I showed up at work the next day at noon to open at 5 p.m., people were already lining up for my tacos.

The minute I saw all those people, I knew I had hit the lottery. If I could convince people to come and try my food, I knew they'd be return customers.

I was homeless most of my childhood

As I shared with people about my story — how I'd been homeless in Kentucky for most of my childhood, how I had been a drug addict and alcoholic, how I had been in jail — they were curious to know who I was and how my tacos tasted. I wasn't just some rich business owner who wanted to generate income. I just wanted to cook good food.

I saved money, with my eye on buying my own restaurant, and that's what I did in October 2023.

I kept seeing that a big UFC start would show up in line to buy tacos. People were always surrounding him while he waited to get photos. I told him that if he let me know he was coming, I could get his order ready for when he arrived. We became friends, and he later told me he wanted to invest in my business, so I used the money he invested to buy a food truck.

And then I opened two more restaurants.

It's all happened in less than three years and feels completely bizarre. It's unbelievable that people know who I am — this guy from Kentucky cooking tacos in New Zealand. People want photos with me, and know the name of my cat.

I've been able to buy my first car — the first car I've ever bought — because of Broke Boy Taco.

Sometimes, I think back and ask if I'd change anything, because there was a lot of difficult stuff that got me to this point. I suppose, though, I might not have gotten to where I am if anything had been different.

I'm exhausted from sleeping an average of four or five hours each night, but I'm so happy. I've got this opportunity, and I can't let it go. I'm keeping my head down, staying focused. If this much has happened in such a short space of time, imagine what's ahead.