Ryan Hinkson – Hungry for life, hungry for success, and hungry for good food

BY SEAN SEURATTAN

“A classic man is one who is unafraid: unafraid to take chances and risks, unafraid of loss and failure. He needs to be unafraid of the changing world and be unyielding to it. A new classic man can be born, because before anything was classic, it had to first be new.” Ryan Hinkson

When I asked for the opportunity to author the Classic Man segment, the person I would feature came faster to my mind than someone trying to snatch the last piece of oxtail from the pot. It’s strange to see one of your earliest childhood friends become an icon and an idol to literally hundreds of thousands of people in the city and across the globe. Yet, Ryan Hinkson assumes this mantle with the supreme confidence of a CEO, the stylish swagger of a rapper and crystal clear vision of a prophet all in the name of food.

As I sit in the quaint Caribbean Soul Food Café he had chosen for us to meet at, his celebrity reputation arrives long before he sits down. Like Toronto royalty, every person that recognizes him greets him. The love and respect afforded to him is not superficial, but crafted and earned through his tireless work to become one of Canada’s premier food influencers. His EatFamous brand has grown and evolved from a small social media following to a public relations and marketing behemoth.

Coming from a corporate background, nine years ago Ryan began building his own empire while working to maintain the empires of others. Starting simply by featuring some of the best food pictures from around the Internet on his pages, he foresaw the strength of social media to influence people at a time of its relative infancy. His own epic rise to fame mimicked that of Instagram itself.

Slowly progressing from reaching out to individuals that could help him learn and grow, he now has huge corporations like: McDonalds, Tim Hortons, Domino’s, Lay’s Canada and the Toronto Raptors (just to name a few) reaching out to him in order to help them. Currently sitting at just above 282,000 followers and his hashtag #EatFamous being used over seven million times, he has become a powerful force in this new influencer industry.

Initially, he and I take some time to catch up after not seeing each other in person for quite some time. Soon after a few good laughs we begin to segue into our interview and I begin by asking him about what thoughts he begins each day with. “My first thoughts are of family, specifically my daughter. Not just because she jumps on me before I wake, but because the feelings for my family inform all my decisions for the rest of the day. I could wake with stress about work and life but instead I wake with joy.”

When I ask how EatFamous has changed his life, with a bright smile he responds,

“Completely for the better! The pride and confidence in myself has grown exponentially by seeing what I’ve created. The connections I’ve made professionally and personally will last lifetimes. I’ve had the chance to broaden my horizons through food and travel in ways I would have never expected. I’m proudly confident in the legacy I will leave behind.”

Seeing how integral Ryan’s work is to his life, I ask how he manages to find balance between the two.

“The balance begins and ends within me. I choose to find a way to be comfortable with my business decisions and how they will affect my family. I must be at peace with myself about who I interact with, how I do so and when time allows. Sometimes it’s easy because of my passion for what I do, sometimes it’s challenging because it’s hard work. Going around eating food and taking pictures sounds fun, and it is, but there’s a lot happening behind the scenes.” Undoubtedly, he has found his sweet spot between work and play, commerce and culture, being ambitious and being humble.

Even though his work with EatFamous has Ryan trying different cuisines from around the globe, my next question is about how he feels our shared Caribbean culture is represented in his industry.

“For a long time it felt like Toronto and on a larger scale, Canada was always a little brother standing in the shadow of America. Now Toronto has been able to stand on its own as a cosmopolitan metropolis, especially with food. The cultural diversity here provides an unmatched opportunity to try so many things in one place. Caribbean culture and food is at the forefront of that. In fact food is the binding thread amongst most of the Caribbean diaspora that resides here. So many people are influenced by this that it needs to have a much higher place of reverence than it does now.”

When asked how he tries to improve this, he explains,

“The only thing I have different from everyone else is me. Like it or not, we are role models for those that will come after us. I try my best to make my knowledge, my experience and myself available and accessible to those that look like me even if it’s not to my own benefit. I take full ownership for progressing our culture.”

He does so by helping small Caribbean restaurants with his expertise in social media marketing. He also has been a guest speaker talking about his success at institutions like: Ryerson, Centennial, York, the Toronto Public Library as well as being a keynote speaker at Summer Search all in the efforts to inspire the next generation. “I want to build bridges from our culture to other cultures for the people behind us.”

Next we begin to speak about the definition of the male archetype and how it needs to be updated for the society we now live in.

“We definitely need an update on sensitivity, both towards ourselves and others. We need to be better at communicating our emotions and less concerned about how others might judge us for it. You don’t even need to reflect the changes that are happening in society, but you need to accept that changes are taking place.” 

This truly resonated with me because the current male stereotype is becoming toxic. Our generation sits squarely between the previous one and the next, so we are uniquely qualified to be the change that we all need.

Nearing the end of our conversation, I asked him to summarize by telling me what he’d like his legacy to be. I could tell he searched deep within himself before answering

“I want people like me to be inspired to reach for success at any point in their lives. Whether they are a teen or a senior, it can always be within reach no matter what came before. Your today doesn’t own your tomorrow.”