June 9, 2022

The Power of Community

Today, Kokomo is a multi-location restaurant with thousands of followers and a thriving retail business, but just a few years ago it was nothing but an idea in Katie Ruddell's imagination. She opened her first shop in a hyper-competitive market with no restaurant experience and only the support of her community.Community marketing has become a buzzword to the point that it's just about lost any meaning, but for Kokomo it's been the foundation of their success.
Learn how Katie thinks about creating social media content that not only builds followers, but drives the business, and how she finds time and resources to do the things that are necessary to invest in and grow her community.
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Lesson Content

Meet our guest speaker

Katie Ruddell
Founder, Kokomo Foods

Katie Ruddell is the owner and founder of the sunshine inspired café group, Kokomo Foods. Before opening the doors to Kokomo’s first location in 2017, Katie spent over 10 years working in marketing and brand strategy in Vancouver. Katie’s relationship with fresh, nourishing food is the result of a lifetime of living and travelling abroad.

She became inspired by the accessibility of plant-focused food and how it brought people together, especially when paired with the sun. Years later, Katie left her dream job at lululemon to pursue her five year goal of creating that very thing for her own community. Now with three Kokomo locations, Katie serves as a brand and business guide to new entrepreneurs, sharing everything she wished she knew when she first opened Kokomo.
Patrick Jones - Course author