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Meet Just Ruk: A Regular Guy, a Hat, and a Mission to Brag About Small Businesses

November 6, 2026

Meet Just Ruk: A Regular Guy, a Hat, and a Mission to Brag About Small Businesses

If you’ve been around Deadly Fly Collectibles for a while, you know I’m a card-and-cartoon-villain guy. What you might not know is that I run a second page, and it has nothing to do with Skeletor. It’s called Just Ruk, and it’s about food, small businesses, and one dude with a hat who has opinions.

Let me tell you what it is and why I started it.

What Just Ruk actually is

Right now, Just Ruk is mostly a food page. I do 15-second food reviews on TikTok, and the first one was Slim Chickens’ grilled tenders. I’m also working my way through every Mexican restaurant in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, which is a project I fully expect to outlive my cholesterol numbers.

I work a blue-collar job, and sometimes the videos include clips from work. That’s on purpose. I’m not a polished food critic with a ring light and a tasting menu. I’m a regular guy who eats lunch, has opinions about it, and tells you honestly what I thought. The hat is on in every video. No, I will not be taking questions about the hat.

Why I started it

Here’s the real answer: I wanted to make content that actually helps other small business owners.

Running a small business is hard. If you’ve done it, you know. Most of the time you’re the owner, the marketer, the customer service department and the person fixing whatever just broke. Big chains have marketing budgets that could buy my whole house. A family restaurant down the street has a sign, a Facebook page, and a dream.

A video from a regular local guy saying “go eat here, it’s good” doesn’t cost them anything, and it can put a new face in the door. I’ve learned that from building Deadly Fly Collectibles: when you’re small, getting noticed is the whole fight. If I can use what I’m learning to help somebody else get noticed, that’s a good use of a phone and a free afternoon.

Where it’s going

I know the page is food-heavy right now. That’s where I started, and honestly, restaurants are an easy place to begin, since everybody eats. But I’m slowly layering in other kinds of businesses too. Shops, service companies, makers, the local places you drive past every day without thinking about it.

My hope is that Just Ruk grows into a channel that points attention at small businesses doing things right. The ones that treat customers well, care about their work, and aren’t getting the attention they deserve. I’m not here to rip people apart for clicks. There’s plenty of that on the internet already, and frankly it’s exhausting. I’d rather spend my time finding the good stuff.

Come hang out

If that sounds like your kind of thing, here’s where to find me:

And if you own a small business and want me to check it out, or you know one that deserves a shout-out, send it my way. If you’ve got great food and a little bit of patience for a guy in a hat, I’m in.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting the small guys. We need it.