Kookloofeed
Karla Lozano opened her family restaurant the morning after her friends convinced her to attend a rave — naturally she felt exhausted.
It was that feeling that inspired her to create a video she never expected would go viral on Instagram.
“I show up. I’m hung over. I’m dying and I just felt like I was swinging everywhere and… that video was almost at 9 million views and then I was just like, ‘What the heck?,’” Lozano said from inside her family’s Pico Union restaurant, Don Carlos Pupuseria.
“Like the dumbest videos that I don’t even try on making are the ones that are blowing up and the ones I am spending hours and hours and hours on are the ones that flop,” she said.
Over a year and a half ago, Lozano saw her parents’ Salvadoran restaurant business was struggling. At one point, the family considered shutting down one of their two locations.
It was then that she decided to create Instagram and TikTok accounts dedicated to rescuing her family’s business through sharing funny videos, behind the scenes footage of her working and even being transparent on the amount of tips she receives. She called it savnmifambiz.
The 33-year-old’s ideas are inspired by other social media creators, trending sounds and videos on TikTok. She also uses ChatGPT, which she affectionately calls “Gigi” to help with search engine optimization (SEO) and idea creation.
As a child, she recalls teachers telling her parents she should be an actress. That outgoing, silly personality comes across equally in person as it does in her videos. Still, she gets shy recording voiceovers for videos in front of her boyfriend (who sometimes edits those same videos) and she gets embarrassed filming in a restaurant full of customers.
But the results are clear. Since starting the social media page, sales have doubled, strangers recognize her in the Sam’s Club parking lot and brands have offered her sponsorship deals.
“I’m not saying it’s great sales, but going from $500 for 12 hours to $500 in six, seven hours, it makes a really big difference”, Lozano said. “So, now being able to see my parents feel a little bit more on top of their bills makes me very happy because my parents were on payment plans for basically everything.”
Her parents initially doubted the power of social media, but now they are proud of the work she’s doing and grateful for what it means for the business.
“A lot of people come up to me and say, ‘We saw your daughter on TikTok, we saw her on Instagram, we saw her in the newspaper.’ And that fills me with a lot of joy,” Karla’s mother, Sosia Lozano said.
Sosia stated that the impact of ICE raids near their El Monte restaurant made customers fearful to visit their dining room and at times she offered to lock the doors in order to make them feel safer.
The immigration raids made it difficult for everyone, because customers would eat and constantly look over their shoulder, Karla Lozano said.
On top of struggling to make ends meet, the Lozano family suffered the loss of other businesses, the loss of their home and the loss of their beloved brother and son who once managed the Pico Union location.
Nearly five years ago, Lozano’s brother, Charlie Lozano, died after an accident outside their restaurant. For a long time, the restaurant was a painful reminder of his death.
Karla’s father, Carlos Lozano, wanted to sell the business, but now she’s managed to keep the space open and preserve her younger brother’s memory.
The social media creator said that one of the things helping her cope with her brother’s death is making videos that he would probably enjoy, too.
“Anything that I do film nowadays, I film it as if it’s something I would send to my brother and that he would think it would be hilarious,” Lozano said.
Her advice to others interested in starting a social media page is simple: Post the video.
“You’re going to feel stupid, you’re going to feel dumb, you’re going to feel so many different negative feelings, but you have to remember the reason why you’re doing it and you have to define your why and know why exactly you’re doing it”, said Lozano.
Lozano often debates whether to expand the type of content she creates or stick to focusing on the business. But the end goal is to allow her parents to retire.
“My mom has been working open-to-close for almost 30 years,” Lozano said. “So if there’s anything I can do to kind of get that weight off of her, I’m completely open to doing it and that’s why I was completely okay looking like an idiot on the internet if that meant it was one step closer to retiring my mom.”
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