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Hello everyone and welcome to the Within Range coaching podcast. I'm Ranger, a certified

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holistic success coach. And in this podcast, I break down the journey entrepreneurs face

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as they start their organizations, overcome roadblocks in their way, and create an impact

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that lasts. We talk with entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, and purpose driven community members

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just like you. Together, we learn how to grow our impact and develop ourselves as the people

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behind the mission. My intention is to help more people, help more people. And remember,

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if you're curious about expanding your impact, growing a community, or defining your mission,

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vision, or values, we can chat off the record. You can find my info in the show notes or at my

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website withinrangecoaching.com. We're also looking to build our sponsor community with

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organizations and individuals who align with our values of fearless innovation, social responsibility,

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and courageous candor. If you're interested in helping us highlight individuals doing great work

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in the world and share these values, reach out to me directly at ranger at within range coaching

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calm. I know you're just as eager to get started as I am. So let's jump right in.

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Hey guys, and welcome to another episode of the within range coaching podcast. I'm your host,

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Ranger Kielak. And we're still in the middle of my walk across America series where I'm interviewing

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the folks that have made my walk possible in some way, shape or form. And today, we're welcoming two

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guests to the podcast that have added a little bit of spice to my adventure. Jacqueline and

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Kieran Parhar from the San Diego Pepper Company. Now Jack and Kieran are friends of mine from UC

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Davis, Go Ags, and have been kind enough to send me a few bottles of their sauces so that I can

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avoid flavor fatigue during my walk. Today, we're discussing resourcefulness, risk aversion,

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and building a community centric brand. Let's get to it. Jack, Kieran, guys, how's it going?

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Doing great. How are you? Doing good. Like we talked about off recording, I'm outside of

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a Whole Foods right now due to scheduling conflicts with my brother's apartment. So that's fun,

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but we're making it work. It's all part of your journey with this walk. I know. This is like the

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weirdest location I've recorded so far. So I think this is the last recording I'm going to do anyway.

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So nice to end it off on a banger, huh? Awesome. Well, Jack, Kieran, we've been friends for a while,

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but can you guys just get the listeners a quick update, who you guys are, what you guys do,

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and set your intention for today's episode, please? Yeah, we so yeah, I mean, we went to

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I mean, we met Ranger in college. But yeah, we are married. We have a business called San Diego

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Pepper Company. We started it about like two years ago. Yeah, we make hot sauce locally in San Diego

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ourselves. We've kind of been more of an effort that's all built off just blood, sweat and a

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little bit of tears. We didn't take any money. We started a business just on the kind of whim

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of we learned to make hot sauce. We started in, we tasted our hot sauce on our honeymoon in St.

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Thomas. It was like a really good one. We came back, tried to recreate it. Couldn't really,

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most of the ingredients were local, but it just kind of got us really in love with the whole process

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of bringing something from ingredients to table that can just sit on a shelf. So we started

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experimenting, got some really good recipes, went to market. And yeah, just really taking the whole

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process and enjoying it while we go. And our intention. Yeah, our intention for today is

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definitely, I want to center around our business and how we kind of approach most of our problems.

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There's a lot of a fail fast approach of anytime we kind of ran into an obstacle, it's, you know,

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we might not have a way of figuring this out perfectly, but let's do it fast. And if it's the

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wrong way, then at least we learn from it. Our business is really centered around giving back

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to the community. So we're really trying to build those kind of pillars early on as a company to

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start giving back to the San Diego community. And there's a couple of cool ways in which we do that.

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We'll touch on later. Yeah, for sure. And I always love the stories where it's like these small little

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things happened that turn into this bigger thing. So what you guys just said there about,

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you just tasted a hot sauce on your honeymoon. Like, what do you mean? Like,

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why did that turn into this whole thing that you guys are doing? And you know, you guys adopted a

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highway, you have a sauce that's specifically for the local animal shelter, and you're just doing

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all these things in the community. Like, what was so important about that one moment that led to all

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of this? I feel like it was like a couple things. Well, first of all, I did not like hot sauce

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growing up. Like I couldn't handle any heat. So I like wouldn't eat it. But slowly like with him

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cooking Indian food for me, I started being able to handle heat. And so like on our honeymoon,

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I tried so many different things, like so many new things I would have never tried. And then he

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loved this hot sauce. I tried it and it was well, I actually really liked the taste of this. That was

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kind of the hot sauce moment, I'd say. But when we got back, it was more just like, like he'd always

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want to start a business. I always thought about it. But I'm a very process, I need to know the

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whole process first before to commit to something. So I feel like without him being like, let's jump

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into this, I would have never done it. And so I feel like that kind of just started that. And then

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the whole San Diego community piece of it, I think we just always knew that we didn't really just want

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our business to be just about the product and stuff. We very much wanted to like, do something

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to help other people or help dogs help anything. So I feel like that kind of just

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having a hot sauce business kind of turned into, oh, we can actually use this to help.

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Yeah, I'd always grown up making salsa and different things like that and cooking. Hot

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sauce was never something I touched on. I always used a lot of it. But once we kind of came back,

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we both were like, man, we missed that. We brought home like six bottles of this hot sauce that we

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liked and ran out quickly. It gave it to friends, family and used a lot of it ourselves. So once it

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was out, I was like, you know, let me try doing this. Let me figure out how to make some hot sauce.

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And I think it was in Googling a couple different recipes. I saw a couple people who'd started hot

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sauce businesses. And yeah, both of us kind of had that itch of wanting to start a company.

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I'm like, all right, let's see what this looks like. I kind of really gotten like

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a lot of the science behind making hot sauce, how to get a shelf stable, didn't want to use

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any preservatives. So all of our ingredients are clean. We made a couple different batches.

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It's funny. The first sauce we made was it was a habanero red pepper. It never saw the market

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because we wanted to start really quick. I made a big batch of about maybe 80 or so bottles,

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which is big for at home just doing it before we knew we'd have a business. I ordered labels,

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was ready to go. They had to send it into the state and that one got a different classification.

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So we couldn't actually make it. So I think I still have a roll of about 200 labels for a sauce

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that's never seen the light of day. And it's just part of the process where if I hadn't done that,

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then I wouldn't have known the process, known that, hey, this label supplier is not good.

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Next time when we have it really ready to go, let's kind of learn from these mistakes.

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And figure out how we can get classified in the way that like we can make these sauces. And

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now we have four flavors that are doing pretty well.

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So yeah. Yeah. And I guess on like the logistical side, when you say there's different

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classifications for the sauces, like what, just for my own curiosity, so that we know

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what we're talking about for a second. Yeah. So the process for each sauce, you

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have your recipe, you make your sauce, and there's a couple of different licenses you need.

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A lot of people, when they start out businesses, they usually go through cottage food program,

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which is you can make things in your home kitchen. In San Diego County, hot sauce is exempt from that.

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So you cannot make hot sauce in your home kitchen. Just given the risk of botulism is the big kind of

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risk there when you're dealing with either fermented foods, shelf stable products, and

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not using a lot of artificial ingredients, it gets a little risky. So you have to make

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sure that you have a dialed in recipe. So part of that process is after you get a

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packaged food registration with the state, you would get samples of your product. You send it,

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they partner with a food lab, actually UC Davis food lab over in the Bay Area. They have that,

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they'll test it for water activity, pH level, and kind of get you back an S letter, which tells you,

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is this okay to use as shelf stable? Is this okay to use shelf stable, but only made in a cannery,

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or are you okay as just a packaged food? So we were hoping for as packaged food,

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then you can make it in a commercial kitchen. So our first one got under the cannery classification.

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It was considered an acidified food. So we couldn't use that unless we paid a lot of money

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for inspections, moved to a different kitchen. And yeah, so we had two sauces, along with that

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first one that we sent in, that was our San Diego sauce, Indian spice sauce. Those were classified as

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just packaged foods. So we were ready to hit the ground running. Yeah. Yeah, we committed to those

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two. And then we were like, okay, well, we still want like some sort of habanero sauce. So eventually

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tried to figure out like how we could make that and then get it classified as a packaged food.

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And we knew that we want to try different flavors and stuff too. And then the it's habanero brown

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sugar. And so that kind of came after our trip to India, we had a lot of like instant coffee with

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brown sugar. And it was like, well, brown sugar sweetness could be like a cool thing to add. So

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yeah, came home, started making a couple batches kind of burned our tongues a little bit. The first

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couple spoonfuls like, okay, let's tweak the heat a little bit. You know, you get six tastes, you

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know, okay, let's tweak the flavors a little bit. And it's a fun process. I'm kind of making those

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spicy ones that ended up tasting really good. And it's a fun thing to kind of we have an idea for a

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product, let's just go for it. We made a lot of batches of bad sauce made a lot of batches of

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some good sauce, and then just kind of tweaking it to this is the sweet spot and getting a sauce

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ready for market. That's awesome. So with with the way that you guys produce the hot sauce right now,

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is it out of a home kitchen? Is it out of like a fancy commercial like what you guys are shaking

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your head? We rent a kitchen over in Encinitas. That's where I work my full time job. So after

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work, she'll meet us up there. We bring all of our equipment, all of our vats containers, blenders,

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we can't store, we can't store anything at the kitchen. So we're always packing up our car,

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like morning update before something packing everything up, running a restaurant depot grabbing

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a couple like the vinegar that we need and things like that. And then I'll meet him at the kitchen

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after work. And we'll spend like, four ish five hours sometimes like making hundreds of bottles

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of sauce. That's awesome. One of the other guests that we had on certified pies over in Little Rock,

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Arkansas, they started out of a like one of those community kitchen startup incubator kind of things.

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And it sounds like it's a little bit different from what you guys are doing. Like it's not so

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much like that incubator, because I think they had most of their supplies there. So ours is actually

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the Encinitas Community and Senior Center. They rent a banquet hall for rentals, and then they have

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a kitchen available for use. So technically, we rent the banquet hall because it comes with the

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kitchen. So that's kind of how we get our kitchen. It's very convenient because I work really close

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there. So after work, I can take off an hour early sometimes then kind of at four o'clock,

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the center closes at eight and we're chugging along till we get it figured out. Yeah, there are

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other commercial kitchens that allow storage, things like that. We just haven't found one that

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works better than what we have set up right now. It's fun to kind of be so quick and as I'm still

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working, it's nice to kind of pop over and then do everything at once. Yeah, we've explored a couple

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other options, but it's easy, convenient for us right now to stay at that location. And it's

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worked well for us aside from the storage aspect. So we make it work. That's awesome. It's like

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close for private event and it's just two hot sauce makers in the kitchen. But you know, the

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center staff really like it because they don't have to set up anything in the bingo hall. So

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it's like just keep it for whatever you need tomorrow and we'll just be in the kitchen,

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just ignore us. That's funny. How did you guys come across that as a, I guess a resource or

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is that something that was just the local hot sauce community knew about or did you have to

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hunt it down or how did that work? So I used to work at the Encinitas Community and Senior Center.

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So knew that the kitchen was there and I used to run the senior lunch program that happens there

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like on weekdays, Monday through Friday, they provide lunch, free lunch for seniors. And so

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knew that as a kitchen. And when we started, we were like, Hey, I know that people rent

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out the banquet hall. Like, would it be possible to rent out just the kitchen? So kind of just

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talking to my coworkers and seeing what our options were. And she was like, I mean, technically you'd

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be renting the banquet hall too, but I don't see why you couldn't just use the kitchen. And so

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just started that process there. So that's how we found out about the resource. I knew the kitchen

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well also. So that helped. We knew that we would have the space that we needed without the storage,

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but we just knew that we had enough counters, had a dishwasher, we can sanitize bottles,

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things like that. So yeah. Gotcha. Just being resourceful with what you have and looking for

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opportunity, asking questions really, I think is the main thing. I feel like a lot of folks kind

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of get caught in that. I don't want to ask because I'm afraid of the answer, but what are they going

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to do? Curse you out for asking if you can use the kitchen? Exactly. That's funny. And I'm definitely

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one of those people who is, oh, I don't want to ask. And so it was kind of been overcoming that.

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He's helped me a lot with that is overcoming that fear. Well, why not just ask? Worst they're going

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to say is no. Yeah. And that was one of the things I have written down that I was going to kind of

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ask you guys about is that difference of risk averseness between the two of you. Is that

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something like, like it sounds like Kieran's more using terms from econ class, risk seeking

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versus risk averse. Is that kind of the duality going on or do you guys kind of feed off each

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other or how does that play into it? A little bit of both for sure. We just kind of ironically talked

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about this the other day on kind of how we view risk. It's we try to make it a win-win situation.

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We're never going to put ourselves in a situation to lose. Nice alarm going on there. So when it

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comes to risk, if we're taking something like the business in general, take it as if no one wanted

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to buy the sauce, why are we doing this? We're putting in a lot of our money, a lot of our time.

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We kind of view risk as a, hey, let's take this chance to see it to the end. What do we gain if

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nothing works out the way we're planning? So we kind of always look for, are we learning from this?

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When we go to street fairs, it's a little more expensive. Are we doing this to sell the bottles?

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Let's say no one wants to buy it. Well, then we just got a great deal on some marketing. We met

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a ton of people and kind of looking at it that way where it's not going to be a, is this going

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to work? Is it not? We usually find opportunities where, hey, if this doesn't work, what do we still

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gain out of it? Is that worth it? So we always try to have that kind of floor of assume the worst

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case scenario, hope for the best, but always plan for, we're paying money to have this turn out in

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the worst case possible. What can we make out of that anyways? I feel like kind of more of like the

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calculated risk. This probably is a risk, but what are the options and what could happen?

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What's the worst case scenario? I feel like I've kind of grown into being comfortable with that.

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We've kind of become that balance for each other. I'm definitely less of a risk taker personally,

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and I don't think that you're necessarily a risk taker. Like you've always kind of had that,

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well, what's the worst that could happen kind of mentality where I think I do think of,

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not like you don't think of all the worst things, but I only think of those. And then

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my brain doesn't go to the good things. So I feel like we've become that balance for each other.

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Well, let's just do it. Why not try? And starting a business is such a good way to kind of like put a

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magnifying glass where you really see it. It's okay. We have to make these decisions. It's not a,

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hey, let me check with my supervisor. Hey, let me get some opinions. It's like, no one knows the

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right answers with you. You got to figure it out. I'm probably a very plain terms. Like I'm

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definitely more of the risk taker. Like I got the first sauce already to go to market and it couldn't.

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And it was like, oh, this is a sunk cost, but kind of always looking at it as, hey, we took this risk.

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It didn't work the way we planned. What do we gain out of it? And it's always been good. And it's

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kind of helped us grow in a lot of ways. Yeah. And it sounds like I was going to say,

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it sounds like it's a lot of reframing if things don't go the right way or they do,

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or they don't, whatever worst case scenario happens. But it also just sounds like knowing that each

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thing that you guys do has multiple different facets that can be beneficial. If you go to a

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farmer's market and you sell a crap ton of sauce, that's great. And you also did marketing and you

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also did this, but worst case scenario, it's not, I don't know, it's not the end of the world. If

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things don't go your right way, because at the very end of the day, it sounds like even you guys

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have that mentality of it's feedback. We're learning. Maybe we'll do things different next time.

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Exactly. I think that that's kind of been how we've approached it all. Just we're getting people to

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try the sauce. Worst case they don't buy it, but we're getting the name out there. We're,

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like you said, marketing, just talking to people. And it's been a cool way to,

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cool way to run our business. I think just being open to whatever happens with what we're trying.

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And so much of what we do is just grassroots. I mean, when we're selling sauce to people at

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any event we go, it's like, hey, we're the people who make this. Even if you're not buying,

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like we really do want your honest opinion. There's a couple of times where we give out a ton of

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stickers, swag, things like that, just to make someone's day. There's two parents with a kid

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that's crying. And I know a sticker might help this situation. Offering just making a kid smile

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sometimes. We're a small business right now. It's not like we're making millions at a farmer's

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market. So it's nice just to kind of have those little moments of kind of showing, hey, like, you

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know, we're a business, we're not here just to take money. Like we're here because we care about

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this. We like meeting new people, being involved in the community. So it's always that other side

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of things where why did we start the business? It wasn't just to sell as much hot sauce as possible

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without regard. It was, hey, we want to be involved, kind of learn how to make a business and

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kind of improve the community. So wherever we are, we try to do that. I have a bunch of little notes

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written down already. It's, you know, grassroots, beyond the sauce, friendly neighborhood pepper

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company, like just a whole... Hey, everyone, just a quick message. You know that my mission with this

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podcast is to share stories of influence and impact so that we can help more people help more

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people. But to do that, I need your support. Please rate, review and share this podcast. If I could

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ask for just one favor, it's to just leave a review. It takes about 10 seconds and a few clicks,

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but it means the world to me and could inspire someone else to make a difference.

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Thank you so much. And now back to the show. Let's focus on the community aspect for just a second.

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So I think you said earlier something about ingredients to table. Are all of your ingredients

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sourced locally as much as possible? Or how does that... Is it like from the very beginning to the

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end or am I asking questions that you don't want to? I'll tell you how it started is I was growing a

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ton of peppers in our apartment and I was like, I'm going to make hot sauce based off pepper

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plants that I grow and I'm going to do this. That's why I was like San Diego Pepper Company.

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We didn't want to focus on hot sauce. Like let's do foods. Living in a two-bedroom apartment with

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no balcony, you quickly find out how much... Peppers don't want to grow there. They don't want to grow there.

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And also there's just not enough space to even if they were growing well, make enough to make it

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viable. So we started like that. There's not a lot of growers of the specific peppers that we're

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using. So we tried to keep a high quality. We get our Chipotle for the San Diego sauce from LA along

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with the habanero for 805 heat and the chili durable for our spicy pepper sauce. The only one

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that we source outside of there is for the Indian spice sauce. Almost all of those spices come from

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India. Speaking of peppers. There's our peppers making some marks there. But yeah, all the Indian

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spice sauce ingredients are sourced from India as much as possible. And then yeah, we try to keep it

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as we can. Right now we make sure that the peppers are dried first before we put them through the

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process. That's kind of our way of doing things. So we kind of get those. Our goal long-term would

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be to have some agriculture property where we could actually grow some peppers and make things

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happen. That'd be ideal. That's a long way down the road if we're to make that happen. But yeah,

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we're always experimenting. There's a couple local farms up in Encinitas. There's one that we're like,

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hey, what do you think about doing a sauce with your stuff you grow? So we're working now on a

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fermented sauce on that. Seeing how it's going to work. It might not. It might. But always trying

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to keep that San Diego community as the kind of North Star to follow. Gotcha. Yeah. So I mean,

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yeah, I mean, that totally makes sense, especially for the Indian spice sauce, which is my favorite

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so far because it doesn't hurt my tummy and doesn't hurt when you're eating it. God, there's so many

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things I want to ask you guys about just to kind of back up to the when you're making the different

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sauces. Cause I don't know, ever since I started working in wine around 2020, 2021 or so, and just

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realizing that there's more to wine than just getting drunk, that there's all these different

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flavors and scents and all these different aspects that go into it. I've started seeing that come up

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in a lot of other foods and beverages, you know, cheese, beer, I guess now hot sauce. So when you're

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looking for these different sauces, like how do you know when one is right? Cause right now you guys,

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it sounds like you guys have a pretty solid stack with your four sauces and there's some like R&D

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going on in the background. So how do you know when it's time to add another one to the lineup?

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So yeah, it's kind of been a fun process of a lot of trial and error. Made a lot of sauces early on,

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but a lot of it is kind of just finding that one recipe that you're like, okay, this has potential,

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where can I improve it? And I mean, with the Indian spice sauce, that was probably the only one that

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I think took one go and we're like, yep, this is good. That was kind of the, I always been cooking

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Indian food and I was like, I want something low heat that's not going to hurt people's tummies.

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So let me just take all those spices, threw it together. And from there is actually kind of

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where we built others. It was like, okay, we can kind of take this process, apply it with some

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spicier peppers, see how it goes. And so kind of just having building blocks of this recipe works

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for this one. Can I turn that into something else? So we've slowly built the 805 heat was kind of

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its own thing where we wanted kind of a thicker sauce. Something was a little different, changed

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up a lot of our base ingredients. But then you kind of go back to like the spicy pepper sauce.

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We kind of stole a lot of the San Diego sauce kind of processes and then kind of built it into a new

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one that's slightly spicier, but it's a lot of just trial and error. I mean, our first batches

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were just a blender and a lot of peppers on that first sauce and never made it to market. It was

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five pounds of habaneros peeling them by hand, blended everything. And that's, you know, a little

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NutriBullet sized thing. So you had to go in batches, pour it into a bigger thing and then

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start cooking it. And a lot of just fun in the kitchen, a lot of messes, a lot of way too spicy

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sauces, ones that I've tried that I can handle a little bit of heat, but they've just kind of

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burnt my tongue off. So. And I think too, like we started out with the Indian spices and the San

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Diego sauce. And then we knew we wanted something spicier as well. This was even before we started

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farmers markets. We like knew that we would want something spicy because when people are going

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like, Oh, Hey, there's hot sauce. Like you want something spicy. Most people who are like just

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looking and seeing hot sauce. And so we then we have the 805 heat. And then we kind of realized like

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our spice level from the San Diego sauce to the 805 heat is a big difference. Like some people who

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can handle the San Diego sauce, like my mom, who can't handle any heat can like pretty much take

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the San Diego sauce, like absolutely cannot handle the 805 heat. And so I feel like we knew we wanted

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something in between. So it was kind of experimenting with that. And then taking kind of just hearing what

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people thought about the sauces and taking that into account. Like some people like spicy, but

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they don't like sweet. And so like kind of taking people's feedback in what they thought about the

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sauces and using that as well as like a guideline for us with experimenting on flavors. Yeah. I mean,

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that's, that's also an interesting thing because when it comes to the different products or services

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that people have, like for my coaching business, like I ask people at the end of every call for

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feedback, what works for them, what doesn't. And it sounds like, I mean, with my service, it sounds

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like I can kind of tailor make it to everybody's preference for the most part with enough sessions

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together to figure it out. But with you guys, when you're taking that feedback, because everybody has

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a different taste, everybody has a different whatever, and your guys' product actually takes

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a lot of time to change or refine or use that criticism or whatever you want to call it feedback.

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How do you know when to take people's feedback or when not to, or do you just kind of try to have

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a diverse spread of products or how does that work for you guys? I'd say there's a lot of take

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everything with a grain of salt, but you know, a couple of grains start piling up and it's like,

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okay, this is probably a real thing that we need to start doing. You definitely, I'm sure you know,

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it's like with a small business, a lot of people love to give advice and it always comes from a

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advice and always comes from a good place. So you always have to remember, it's like, this is your business. What's the best decision for everyone you're trying to reach? Because

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there's some people who come up and they're like, I want the spiciest thing you got. And you're like, I trust you, I'm gonna give you the spicier one.

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And then like, why would you give me something so spicy? I'm like, I'm so sorry, I did not mean for this to happen.

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I'm sorry, I trusted you. You trusted me and this we're in a bad spot now. So trying to find that where it's like, okay,

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this is probably a good sign that we need something a little less spicy. This is a sign that we should always

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kind of start from the least spicy and build our way up when we're having people try it. And

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also if we have kind of repeat customers, it's also a big thing. Farmers markets, people who always

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bought this sauce and like kind of experimenting with new packaging, new flavors saying, I mean for

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the spicy Pucker sauce before we had it ready to go to market, we were sampling it saying, what do you think

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about this? Do you think we should change it? Do you think this is a good flavor profile? Is it too spicy?

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And so we got some good feedback, kind of tweaked things before it even hit the market to kind of get

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a gauge of, is this more of a middle ground sauce? Is this spicier? Do you want it spicier?

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But yeah, a lot of feedback.

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It's one of those things where we take and listen to all the feedback because we definitely want it

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with just being us. But like you said, taking it with a grain of salt because we can't apply it as

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quickly as like you can with your coaching. Like we, it has to be, we have to experiment with the

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flavor. We have to see how that works and what that process actually looks like for us.

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And so just kind of taking those and like keeping those in the back of our mind while we like move

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forward with other flavors and things like that.

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Gotcha. I like the way that you put that was, you know, take it all with a grain of salt,

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but after a while those grains start to pile up. I like that a lot. I think that that is a good kind

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of a, kind of a gauge for something like this. The other thing that I wanted to ask you guys about is

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your being self-funded and your fail fast, I don't know, feedback loop approach.

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Yeah. So when it comes to being self-funded, like I don't know, I don't know if I want to ask

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like specifically how much everything costs it. I don't know. I like asking numbers, but I feel

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like people don't like giving them. I'm kind of feeling out the room. Yeah.

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Yeah. So what did that process look like when it comes to, you know, you're starting out a business,

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it sounds like both of you wanted to start a business, not necessarily a hot sauce business.

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Like how did you know that the money and time and energy effort, blood, sweat, some tears,

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when did you know that that was going to be worth it? Because Jack is doing this full time

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basically now, right? I am. Yeah. This is my full time thing as of just January this past year.

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Yeah. So only six, seven months in. So how did you know that it was going to be something

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viable to jump into full time for at least one of you?

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Yeah. Well, backing up a little bit to just when we started it, we had no clue what we were doing.

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It was, I always loved hot sauce. I was loved working in the kitchen. My past life, I wanted

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to be a chef. That was my goal. And then I kind of pivoted. I was like, ah, maybe not

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working in a kitchen, but I really always had that love for food, cooking it, eating a lot of it. And

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this was such a cool opportunity to kind of dive into, I've used hot sauce so much my entire life.

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I never knew this was a possibility of something I could start. But I was like,

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oh, I wonder if I could bring this to market. I've always had a passion for it. And it was

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something that never really considered. And then we just put in a lot of money to testing,

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getting branding together. Thankfully, we were able to cut a lot of costs,

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just at work and multimedia. So a lot of early branding, graphic design stuff, taking house. But

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at this time, we probably spent, I think, eight months before we actually made a batch of sauce.

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And in that time, probably spent close to like $4,000 in total of just licensing, a lot of

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licensing, a lot of equipment, just basic things. I mean, our first batch we made out of a pancake

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batter filler for our funnel, rather than any sort of filling equipment. So we tried to cut costs and

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kind of use muscles and a little bit of creativity to start, but put a lot of money not knowing

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whether this would even sell. When we made our first batch, we were like, oh, this is going to

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be a good product. So we didn't really have a clear road ahead. It was, let's just see this

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through to the end and make sure if nothing else, we started a business and failed it really quick.

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And that'd be a cool thing to say. So we were kind of just like, definitely in like a, I'd say,

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I guess, like privileged spot to be able to like fund something like this. And we were like,

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we're going to be able to do this. And we were like, we're going to be able to do this. And

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I'd say, I guess, like privileged spot to be able to like fund something that we had no idea if it

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was going to like work or not. And it was, I think it was one of those things that like, I think

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eventually at some point, if it wasn't doing anything, we'd stop putting money into it. And

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then, but we were like, let's just kind of do this while we can see what happens. And then

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now our business, like we're able to kind of fund, we do like business to business, like we'll,

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we don't put any personal money into it anymore. Currently, we haven't needed to,

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which is really nice. And then we're going full time personally, it was kind of,

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we were kind of in this, we'd been doing the same thing for like a few months. We started

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farmers markets in like end of May last year, end of May, 2023. And then we did two farmers markets

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was Saturday and Sunday were filled all summer with both of us working full time otherwise,

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and then doing farmers markets Saturday and Sunday. And so we were very, then we were making shots

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every week because we didn't have this office to store things in. We were storing things in our

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living room because we had a roommate. And so we were like, couldn't make enough sauce to sustain

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that. And so we were super busy. And then we were like, okay, we need a day off. So we took off our

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Saturday market and we were just kind of in this, like we've gotten into a couple of stores, but we

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knew that we could do more, like with more time. And I was kind of in this standstill with my job,

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like wasn't getting jobs I had applied for like promotions and things like that. And so it was,

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what is the next step? Like, am I happy staying in this? And also our business is kind of in the

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standstill as well. So it was kind of this. We were growing, but it was like, it's almost like

368
00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:34,480
our time was the biggest hindrance on, we can't keep this moving. We can't make enough sauce. So

369
00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:39,360
we kind of were in this spot where we don't have the time to make more. We can't really produce

370
00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:44,720
more because we don't have the time to do more sessions. So what are we going to do as far as

371
00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:48,400
we can't even go to a new store and say, Hey, you want some, because then we're going to be stretched

372
00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:52,720
thin. We don't know if we'll be able to provide it. So kind of needed something to boost that where

373
00:31:53,840 --> 00:31:57,280
we need more time to sell. We need more time to make sauce. We need more time to build

374
00:31:58,160 --> 00:32:02,560
a lot of the other stuff as far as our online presence, kind of get into some more markets.

375
00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:07,360
We've been pretty centralized at that point in North County over where we worked. So kind of

376
00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:12,560
getting that opening up and broadening our business a little bit. And we didn't have a way of doing

377
00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:17,280
that. So, and there's farmers markets like every day of the week in San Diego. So we can't do this

378
00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:22,400
because we're working. I could probably do a few if I stopped working at my other job. So it kind

379
00:32:22,400 --> 00:32:26,960
of just was like, let's take the leap. And we've, we've been able to grow like more since then we've

380
00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:34,400
gotten into 20 stores and two restaurants that buy our sauce. So it's been slowly growing now,

381
00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:39,520
but it was also like, we had to run the numbers of, okay, this is how much you make it your job.

382
00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:44,880
We kind of read it all out. I get benefits through my job. I work in IT and it's relatively safe.

383
00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:49,040
And so kind of getting those numbers together of this is how much if we sold X amount these

384
00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:55,120
farmers markets, what are the numbers look like? And it was pretty cool to be like, okay, this is

385
00:32:55,120 --> 00:33:00,320
actually like, we started this not knowing. And now it's a viable option to say, hey, let's try

386
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:07,520
and grow this. And I think it's a smart move to kind of, yeah, quit the full-time job and go to

387
00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:12,000
making sauce. With great sauce comes great responsibility.

388
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:15,840
With great sauce comes back to the friendly neighborhood hot sauce company.

389
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Welcome to the mountaintop. Are you an entrepreneur or nonprofit leader ready to

390
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make a bigger impact in the world, but aren't quite sure how to do it or even where to start?

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Then join the NeverPeak community on school, where bold movers, shakers, and magic makers

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leaders change the world by first focusing on themselves, by fostering community rooted in

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support and learning. My goal is to help you be more effective in your organization, achieve your

395
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biggest dreams, and make time for what really matters in your life. In NeverPeak, you're

396
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going to find weekly book clubs, engaging courses, weekly mastermind calls, monthly Q&As with industry

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experts, and networking opportunities that span the globe. Our courses and discussions cover

398
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essential topics like personal finance, work-life balance, goal setting, relationship building,

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business topics, and so much more. Each course is designed to support you to holistically grow

400
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yourself as the person behind the mission. Oh, and one more thing I forgot to mention.

401
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At the time of recording this, the community is completely free. That's right, you can get started

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for zero dollars down, but that won't last for long. All you need to do is go to school.com,

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that's S-K-O-O-L dot com forward slash never dash peak, or hit the link in the show notes to claim

404
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your spot on the mountain. Again, be sure you get in now because I cannot wait to see you there and

405
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witness the peaks you'll reach in just a few weeks. So when it comes to that, because that's what I was

406
00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:07,680
always kind of asking, like that opportunity cost that you're losing of jack-not working in a full

407
00:35:07,680 --> 00:35:12,800
time whatever job, like I don't know, I feel like there's all these different advices, and this

408
00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:19,120
isn't financial advice obviously, but everybody, you know, you should make your full-time job

409
00:35:19,120 --> 00:35:23,760
salary in six months, whatever, you know, like everybody has like these different formulas,

410
00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:28,480
like what were you guys looking for before you made that jump for Jack to kind of be, it sounds

411
00:35:28,480 --> 00:35:37,920
like the full-time marketing slash CFO slash COO slash slash slash, so. I think as far as numbers

412
00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:42,560
go, the big thing is, as you said, we were in a privileged position, my job is very stable and it

413
00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:47,440
was nice, so we had this kind of, we could live off one income, so that was a big factor of where

414
00:35:47,440 --> 00:35:52,160
we're not a one-person company, there's two of us, so it's not like it's one person deciding, hey,

415
00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:56,880
I'm the sole income for my family, and I need to move to another one, it was, it's just the two of

416
00:35:56,880 --> 00:36:03,120
us, we don't have kids, so it's, hey, we can give up this income, do this, I have enough stability

417
00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:07,760
where we can live off that, so it was a nice position there, I definitely, if I'm giving advice,

418
00:36:07,760 --> 00:36:14,560
yeah, I like numbers, make sure the numbers work out, and for us it did, so it was nice to kind of

419
00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:18,400
be able to take that leap and boost the business a bit. Yeah, I feel like there definitely can be,

420
00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:25,040
like, for some people, it can be like, well, you need to, like, be making your old income, right,

421
00:36:25,040 --> 00:36:29,840
because that's what we're living off of, thankfully, we, like, we're in a spot where my

422
00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:36,960
income already was kind of just added, so if we weren't making anything outside of that, if

423
00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:42,880
we didn't have a business and I was just, I don't know, did nothing, which, which I wouldn't want

424
00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:47,600
to do anyways, but we would be able to make that work, so again, kind of that privileged position

425
00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:52,400
of, like, we worked out those numbers and it worked out for us, but I feel like just kind of

426
00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:57,040
everyone needs to take in those numbers themselves and see what they can make work for their own

427
00:36:57,040 --> 00:37:01,840
business and for themselves. Yeah, so it sounds like it's like a very personalized, there's not a

428
00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:07,840
secret formula, like your hot sauce, it's more so based off the individual and their family really

429
00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:11,680
looking at your, again, being resourceful, seeing what you guys have, what you guys have,

430
00:37:11,680 --> 00:37:16,480
seeing what you guys have, what's really going on behind the scenes, making that decision for you

431
00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:23,680
and your family. Kind of moving into your community-centric aspect, so you guys are San Diego

432
00:37:24,240 --> 00:37:30,320
Pepper Company, very rooted in the San Diego area, which is a pretty large, I don't know,

433
00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:39,120
there's more than a few hundred people there, I'm sure, so when it comes to being, it sounds like

434
00:37:39,120 --> 00:37:45,280
being engaged, active members of your community is very central to the business. It sounds like no

435
00:37:45,280 --> 00:37:50,720
matter what the business was, that is something that you would have as a huge value for your company.

436
00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:57,600
Yeah, that's early on we talked about, hey, if we're going to start a business, like,

437
00:37:57,600 --> 00:38:00,880
it's going to be fun to learn, but we kind of wanted to keep in mind, like,

438
00:38:01,680 --> 00:38:06,720
what do we want out of it? It's what makes us happy, what's our long term, do we,

439
00:38:06,720 --> 00:38:12,560
is our goal to be in the kitchen making hot sauce 24-7, is our goal to be selling, and kind of came

440
00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:16,560
down to just, well, there's the stuff that we really care about. If we had, you know, money wasn't a

441
00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:20,320
factor, what do we want to do? And a lot of that came back to the community of stuff, ways to give

442
00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:25,280
back, things that are important to us. So, early thing we started is, what about the idea of just

443
00:38:25,280 --> 00:38:29,360
a fund? Like, we take some of our money and we donate it to nonprofits that we care about. So,

444
00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:34,480
we'd started that early, it was a nice little tab on our website, the community fund, saying, hey,

445
00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:40,320
we give to a local nonprofit, we started off with just the animal pad, it's a nonprofit where we got

446
00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:44,560
our dog from, like, this is a great place to start, and our contact form, so if people had other

447
00:38:44,560 --> 00:38:50,320
opportunities, hey, reach out to us using the contact page. So, from there, as we started getting

448
00:38:50,320 --> 00:38:55,440
our name out a lot, we had a couple people just, anything from small, hey, could you donate some,

449
00:38:55,440 --> 00:39:00,240
we're doing a raffle for a nonprofit for the Boys and Girls Club to, hey, we're taking donations,

450
00:39:00,240 --> 00:39:06,320
hey, could you volunteer at these things we're doing, do you want to join our, like, the Claremont

451
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:10,560
Town Council, the nice little area where we're in, just different ways to get involved in the

452
00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:16,960
community, even if it wasn't necessarily nonprofit only, just people who needed help, and it was a

453
00:39:16,960 --> 00:39:25,200
cool thing to kind of start early on. Gotcha. And to kind of, I don't know, jump more into that

454
00:39:25,200 --> 00:39:30,800
specifically, when it comes to the spicy pupper sauce, can you talk a little bit about why, it

455
00:39:30,800 --> 00:39:39,040
sounds like animals and dogs and critters are, you guys are all smiling now, but that's very important

456
00:39:39,040 --> 00:39:42,800
to you guys, and again, another huge value that you guys have, can you talk a little bit about more

457
00:39:43,840 --> 00:39:49,920
why a pepper company is so involved with the local animal shelter? I feel like that kind of started

458
00:39:49,920 --> 00:39:56,000
because, I mean, personally, I've always loved dogs, and always, like, the reason why I went to

459
00:39:56,000 --> 00:40:01,840
UC Davis is because I wanted to be a vet, did not do that, not even close, didn't even, not even

460
00:40:01,840 --> 00:40:07,520
close to that, but I was like, I want to help. Me too, sister, me too. Yeah. Are we all in that book?

461
00:40:08,320 --> 00:40:13,040
What is it, the Animal Science to Business major pipeline, that is like a very true thing.

462
00:40:13,680 --> 00:40:19,840
Yeah, and so it was very much just like, always wanting to help animals, and specifically dogs,

463
00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:28,160
like for me personally, and when it was in like 2020, we found out about the Animal Pad, because

464
00:40:28,720 --> 00:40:34,720
it was kind of like, okay, we're working, but like, I'm not super happy in my job, but like,

465
00:40:34,720 --> 00:40:38,640
want to help dogs, so we found out we could volunteer at the Animal Pad, like, and so I

466
00:40:38,640 --> 00:40:45,040
started volunteering, they are doing like, helping them get scheduling vet appointments for their

467
00:40:45,040 --> 00:40:51,840
rescues and stuff, and so slowly like, just helping them was, helping animals was just a big theme,

468
00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:58,080
and then slowly got too busy to like, do that aspect of volunteering for them, but so when

469
00:40:58,080 --> 00:41:02,720
we started, it was like, you got too busy at Luke, because it was, you had adopted, because I adopted

470
00:41:02,720 --> 00:41:08,080
pickles, because I was working there, you're right, you're right, I was volunteering, and I was like,

471
00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:12,800
just always looking at their dog, and I was like, this is so great, and then I knew I wanted to

472
00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:18,160
adopt a dog, and ended up finding pickles from the Animal Pad, she wasn't named Pickles there,

473
00:41:18,160 --> 00:41:24,240
she was named Kate, but we quickly changed that, quickly changed that she's very much a Pickles,

474
00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:30,960
and so adopted her, and definitely got a lot busier with that full time training her, and

475
00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:36,320
taking care of her, and then when we started our company, it was like, okay, let's,

476
00:41:36,320 --> 00:41:41,200
let's get back, and like, we know that we personally like supporting the Animal Pad,

477
00:41:41,200 --> 00:41:45,520
so let's start there, and then move on, and then the spicy pepper sauce just kind of,

478
00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:50,480
it kind of fell into our lap, which is cool. We talked about the idea of like, oh, it'd be cool

479
00:41:50,480 --> 00:41:56,480
if we get a partnered sauce, never did anything with that, just an idea between Jack and I, and

480
00:41:57,120 --> 00:42:05,040
then we, I was at work, and got a little, hey, new contact form submission, and Josie over at the

481
00:42:05,040 --> 00:42:10,080
Animal Pad was kind of the one who spearheaded it all, and she had reached out saying, hey, like,

482
00:42:10,080 --> 00:42:14,240
my name is Josie, I run the, I'm in charge of the behavioral team over at the Animal Pad,

483
00:42:14,240 --> 00:42:21,600
we saw on your website that you guys are supporters, and have a tap alum, we kind of train what we call

484
00:42:21,600 --> 00:42:26,560
our spicy pups, and get them into training, where if they might be a little uncomfortable with people,

485
00:42:26,560 --> 00:42:32,640
or other dogs, and need that extra care to kind of get to a state where, hey, they're up for adoption,

486
00:42:32,640 --> 00:42:36,080
and she's like, this kind of brings us to our point, we're looking for local hot sauces to partner

487
00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:41,040
with, would you want to do a sauce that just either raises awareness, or gives a portion to

488
00:42:41,680 --> 00:42:47,440
getting help for these dogs that need extra training, so we saw that, I was like, screenshot,

489
00:42:47,440 --> 00:42:51,840
I was like, look, we just got sent, like, popped on a call, I think later that day, I was like,

490
00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:56,720
let's do this, let's make it happen. And then at that point, we had already had the recipe for the

491
00:42:56,720 --> 00:43:00,880
spicy pepper sauce, and we just did not know what we wanted to do with it at all. I was like, I don't

492
00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:06,400
have a name, so this is going to be kind of a sauce that we wait on, see how it goes, and then

493
00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:12,320
opportunity came up. And I was like, let's go right away, let me get a label together, I put as many

494
00:43:12,320 --> 00:43:19,120
dog puns as I could think of, along with the help of ChatGPT. And you had drawn Pickles.

495
00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:24,400
Yeah, I drew a picture of Pickles for the label. And so she's on the front of the label. We have

496
00:43:24,400 --> 00:43:28,720
another dog, Marlon, as well, but he decided that he's okay with sharing, giving him the spotlight

497
00:43:28,720 --> 00:43:35,360
on this one. Especially because she's our tap alum, Marlon, we rescued otherwise, but just wanted to

498
00:43:35,360 --> 00:43:40,640
kind of, that kind of fell into our lap. And it was like, okay, cool, we've always been wanting to

499
00:43:40,640 --> 00:43:45,600
like, like just help animals in any way. And that's kind of how that started. And then,

500
00:43:45,600 --> 00:43:51,520
yeah, that was pretty recently, by the time we went to market, we did a couple events, we started

501
00:43:51,520 --> 00:43:56,160
with Cardiff Dog Days of Summer. It's an event over in Encinitas where there's a lot of dogs.

502
00:43:56,160 --> 00:44:00,080
We did that, just kind of get the word out, got a couple people, met some, made some cool

503
00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:05,360
connections with other kind of nonprofits, people that help dogs that were super interested. So

504
00:44:05,360 --> 00:44:12,720
we had it available. I think we started with a batch of 250 sauces. And right now it's not been

505
00:44:12,720 --> 00:44:17,280
a month since we dropped it and we were sold out of that first batch. So we raised a good amount

506
00:44:17,280 --> 00:44:21,600
of money for that and a nice little chunk. And it's something we're hoping to do just in,

507
00:44:21,600 --> 00:44:24,800
in perpetuity. Yeah. And then just kind of giving back in other ways too. I feel like the spicy

508
00:44:24,800 --> 00:44:30,640
pepper sauce and like helping animals is one thing. But yeah, we've recently adopted the highway,

509
00:44:30,640 --> 00:44:36,720
the 805 highway and our, and basically we just have, we clean that up once a month. And so giving

510
00:44:36,720 --> 00:44:40,800
back in that way has been cool recently too. We just started that too, like a month ago.

511
00:44:40,800 --> 00:44:47,200
Yeah, this is cool. Our habanero sauce is the 805 heat has a, has the kind of highway logo behind it.

512
00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:54,080
So just kind of, as we have these ideas, kind of like you touched on before, it's asking questions

513
00:44:54,080 --> 00:44:59,040
and we saw a sign, call this if you're interested. I was like, I wonder how much that costs. I had no

514
00:44:59,040 --> 00:45:02,800
clue it was a free program by the department of transportation. They're like, Hey, you have to

515
00:45:02,800 --> 00:45:08,160
clean up the street, like a highway this many times. Like I love that. That's awesome. Like our roads

516
00:45:08,160 --> 00:45:14,000
get cleaner. We get to adopt a highway and it's a cool way to just kind of give back. Like they,

517
00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:20,320
they actually had it available on the exit that we live on the Balboa exit over in off the 805. So

518
00:45:20,320 --> 00:45:25,200
we do that once a month, we just go out there with trash bags and get everything cleaned up.

519
00:45:25,200 --> 00:45:28,800
It's a cool way to like, it's really rewarding where it's, you know, this is a fun thing that

520
00:45:28,800 --> 00:45:34,080
we're able to do, clean up our neighborhood and kind of give back in a little way. Even if it's

521
00:45:34,080 --> 00:45:38,800
not in the monetary, we can always go back to kind of how we started blood, sweat and tears and kind

522
00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:42,640
of help, help things in a way. Yeah, that's a good point. I think that's a good point.

523
00:45:42,640 --> 00:45:46,880
Help things in a way. Yeah, that's awesome. And what I really like about all of that is that it is,

524
00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:52,640
it's, it's value stacking. Like these are values to me. How can I use my business as a way to be

525
00:45:52,640 --> 00:45:57,280
involved in the community in the ways that I care about with the animal pad, with other rescues,

526
00:45:57,280 --> 00:46:01,840
with the adopt a highway, which I also thought you would have to pay something for. So that's good to

527
00:46:01,840 --> 00:46:07,440
know that it's a free thing and you just, I don't know, put in the elbow grease to make it happen.

528
00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:12,480
Exactly. Yeah. It's a fun thing, especially it's definitely rooted where we want those values to

529
00:46:12,480 --> 00:46:17,760
kind of be at the corner of it. You know, the San Diego part of San Diego Pepper Company is

530
00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:22,640
definitely focused on community down the line. We have tons of ideas of just ways we can help. And

531
00:46:22,640 --> 00:46:28,080
we want to keep kind of building on that. If we, we kind of believe we don't start it early, then

532
00:46:28,080 --> 00:46:31,280
it's kind of one of those things you can always put off of, Oh, I'll give back once we've gotten

533
00:46:31,280 --> 00:46:35,360
to this point, we'll give back once we've gotten to this point, but it's nice just to do it now,

534
00:46:35,360 --> 00:46:40,240
you know, kind of make those sacrifices and think it's makes it more fun. You know, if the business

535
00:46:40,240 --> 00:46:44,880
is just a business and it starts slowing down a bit, then it makes you want to kind of give up.

536
00:46:44,880 --> 00:46:50,400
But if you have kind of bigger goals outside of just making hot sauce and selling it, it really

537
00:46:50,400 --> 00:46:55,920
keeps you motivated when you, it was 9 PM and you're carrying up all these boxes of very heavy sauce,

538
00:46:55,920 --> 00:47:00,720
you know, there's kind of that deeper root that keeps us going. And I think that it's cool that

539
00:47:00,720 --> 00:47:05,920
we like have these ideas on our own, but we've been approached about like helping in different

540
00:47:05,920 --> 00:47:11,760
ways as well, like with the spicy pepper sauce. So I think like, we're super open to whatever,

541
00:47:11,760 --> 00:47:18,080
like anyone has for us, but also like looking for those ourselves kind of whatever, whatever comes

542
00:47:18,080 --> 00:47:24,160
our way. I like how with the lady from tap, she's like, all right, let's, let's talk numbers. And

543
00:47:24,160 --> 00:47:28,320
you guys are like, talk numbers, we have on each other's numbers. That's how we're talking. You're

544
00:47:28,320 --> 00:47:34,880
like, here's this picture of pickles. We already have the sauce is already in production. You said

545
00:47:34,880 --> 00:47:39,600
you wanted something. It's already happening. Don't worry. There's no going back. You sent that

546
00:47:39,600 --> 00:47:43,520
contact form and we were fully committed. She's like, yeah, when we come to an agreement, you're

547
00:47:43,520 --> 00:47:50,880
like, what do you mean an agreement? You messaged us and we said yes. Yeah, I think it was later

548
00:47:50,880 --> 00:47:59,920
that day. I already, I was like resizing, making a logo. Yeah, it was really quick turnaround. We

549
00:47:59,920 --> 00:48:06,960
were hopping on that as soon as we could. Gotcha. I love that. And just for a couple business

550
00:48:06,960 --> 00:48:11,760
tactical kind of questions, it looks like you guys have a ton, like you were saying, how many

551
00:48:11,760 --> 00:48:16,880
locations are you guys in? Like over 20, you said, or you were in 20, that's a mix of grocery stores,

552
00:48:16,880 --> 00:48:23,440
grocery stores and shops. And then we got two restaurants that buy our sauce. Gotcha. So when

553
00:48:23,440 --> 00:48:28,720
it comes to approaching these different businesses and making that connection, you know, Hey, can we

554
00:48:28,720 --> 00:48:34,800
have some shelf space? Can we have some shelf space, which I assume is a very valuable piece

555
00:48:34,800 --> 00:48:39,840
of real estate in a store? How does that conversation kind of go? Like what is your,

556
00:48:40,880 --> 00:48:46,720
I don't know, what is your ratio for nos to yeses? You know what I mean? Like how does that work?

557
00:48:47,840 --> 00:48:54,080
I think so our first two grocery stores that we got into was, I think those are both great stories

558
00:48:54,080 --> 00:48:58,480
of the different ways it can happen. The first one was I had messaged on Instagram, Jensen,

559
00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:05,040
it's an independent grocery store on over near the Point Loma area. So I had messaged saying, Hey,

560
00:49:05,040 --> 00:49:09,760
like, love to drop off some sauce. And they're like, yeah, sure. Like, you can come in, like,

561
00:49:09,760 --> 00:49:16,160
talk to the manager, whatever. It was very like, here's the info. Cool. And so we just walked in

562
00:49:16,160 --> 00:49:21,200
confidently, like, yeah, here, here, drop off samples. We're expecting it for and then we've

563
00:49:21,200 --> 00:49:26,560
met the grocery buyer there, Mark. He was really cool, dude, because excited to take them. He's

564
00:49:26,560 --> 00:49:31,600
like, yeah, sweet. Like a little caught off guard because we came in with no prior contact of just

565
00:49:31,600 --> 00:49:36,560
walking in confidently saying, Hey, here's our sauce. Yeah. You want to try it? Told us, or like,

566
00:49:36,560 --> 00:49:41,680
kind of told the story of us and totally make it all. And didn't hear anything about that for

567
00:49:42,320 --> 00:49:47,680
about three months. We didn't follow up. We were very just, we did this on a whim on an evening,

568
00:49:47,680 --> 00:49:52,160
because I was like, Oh, Jensen's, this is a place that, you know, this granola company I follow got

569
00:49:52,160 --> 00:49:58,320
into. Let's see if they'll talk to us. We didn't do anything. And then I think it was about like,

570
00:49:58,320 --> 00:50:03,760
three months later, we have QR codes on the side of our bottles. And we got a contact form because

571
00:50:03,760 --> 00:50:08,480
he had scanned our QR code and lost our business card and anything like that. He's like, Hey,

572
00:50:08,480 --> 00:50:13,440
you want to come talk tomorrow morning? Like about your sauce? Like, cool. Sweet. Like, this is

573
00:50:13,440 --> 00:50:17,840
awesome. He went in there. He's like, Yeah, I lost your business card. And he's like, I was eating

574
00:50:17,840 --> 00:50:22,000
some food and like, I had your sample sitting there. I was like, Oh, let me try it. Like, he's like,

575
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:27,520
that was so good. And he tried the 805. He liked it. And he's like, Yeah, I want to bring in your

576
00:50:27,520 --> 00:50:33,120
sauces. And that's how we got into our first store. That one was super just on a whim. We decided,

577
00:50:33,120 --> 00:50:37,920
I think we're hanging out just on our laptop. I was scrolling through Instagram and saw that just

578
00:50:37,920 --> 00:50:43,200
kind of like, Hey, let's go do this right now. Like, so we got up, did it. And then that was

579
00:50:43,200 --> 00:50:47,840
really nice too, because like, Mark was super helpful. Because we had obviously never gotten

580
00:50:47,840 --> 00:50:52,000
into a grocery store before we're like, what does this process even look like? Like, how do we give

581
00:50:52,000 --> 00:50:56,160
you the sauce? Like we are working with a distributor, like, can we just bring you the boxes? Like,

582
00:50:56,160 --> 00:51:00,960
can we just hand you the sauce? And then how do we get paid? Like, how do you pay us things like

583
00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:05,600
that? So he kind of walked us through that, like, whole process, which is super helpful for our next

584
00:51:05,600 --> 00:51:10,720
upcoming store as well. And then with Seaside Market, it was like our second grocery store

585
00:51:10,720 --> 00:51:15,280
got into that was another cool story. Kieran was just very persistent. Yeah, I came in, I

586
00:51:15,280 --> 00:51:20,960
live close by and it was one of those things that we'd done the Carter Farmers Market as part of our

587
00:51:20,960 --> 00:51:24,320
kind of suite of farmers markets. We were doing a lot of people were like, Hey, are you at Seaside

588
00:51:24,320 --> 00:51:29,840
yet? Like they carry a lot of local brands. I was like, No, like, let me walk in. And this was a

589
00:51:29,840 --> 00:51:34,320
little bit different. I was like, Hi, who's the buyer? I speak to him, same Steve, really nice guy.

590
00:51:34,320 --> 00:51:39,200
But he's like, Hey, like real estate and this is like, it's really hard. Shelf space is very

591
00:51:39,200 --> 00:51:44,080
valuable. It's like, perfect. Like, I understand that I just wanted to like meet you. Like, I'd

592
00:51:44,080 --> 00:51:49,840
love to talk more. We make hot sauce in the air. It's all made in Encinitas by us. Like, he's like,

593
00:51:49,840 --> 00:51:56,000
okay, yeah, cool. Like, right now is not really when taking it. Awesome. Perfect. Understand. So

594
00:51:56,000 --> 00:52:00,000
after like the third or fourth time I came in, then he's like, Okay, like, what do you want from me?

595
00:52:00,000 --> 00:52:03,440
Like, how do you go on? I was like, because he said he doesn't like hot sauce. He doesn't really

596
00:52:03,440 --> 00:52:07,040
want to try it himself. Like, do you have someone who can try it? I'd love to drop off samples,

597
00:52:07,040 --> 00:52:10,560
get it in there. He's like, Yeah, he's like, he's out on vacation, but bring me samples and make sure

598
00:52:10,560 --> 00:52:14,880
it gets to him. And then about three more times after that, he's like, Okay, okay. He's like,

599
00:52:14,880 --> 00:52:19,360
how many sauces do you have? Three? He's like, had the guy try them yesterday. He loves them. We'll

600
00:52:19,360 --> 00:52:25,040
take them all. And I think part of that was probably a little bit of if I take the sauce in,

601
00:52:25,040 --> 00:52:30,240
maybe this guy won't bother me every week. And also part of, Hey, I'm persistent enough. He's

602
00:52:30,240 --> 00:52:34,880
making the effort to come in. And we do a lot of demos that the stores were at. So we go out and

603
00:52:34,880 --> 00:52:39,680
help them sell our product. So things kind of showing that, hey, we're not just here as a one

604
00:52:39,680 --> 00:52:43,440
time thing, hoping you'll buy it on the spot. Like, we're really invested in the stores that

605
00:52:43,440 --> 00:52:49,280
we target because at the time, you were still working full time, we had a very limited space.

606
00:52:49,280 --> 00:52:54,160
The stores that we did go to were very like, this would be a perfect location for a start at,

607
00:52:54,160 --> 00:52:59,680
we want to grow it slowly. But a lot of asking questions, a lot of dropping off samples, and a

608
00:52:59,680 --> 00:53:03,760
lot of now it's just, yeah, kind of, kind of a similar process, but like finding out the

609
00:53:03,760 --> 00:53:08,640
buyer's information, just being persistent about trying to get in contact with them. We've gotten

610
00:53:08,640 --> 00:53:13,280
into sprouts and Chula Vista, but that one took like dropping off three sets of samples to three

611
00:53:13,280 --> 00:53:18,160
different people. I don't know where they all went. But three different people got samples of sauce.

612
00:53:18,160 --> 00:53:21,760
And like, I was on hold for like an hour and a half before I actually talked to the buyer. And it

613
00:53:21,760 --> 00:53:26,960
was like, honestly, if I wasn't just doing this full time, I wouldn't have been able to sit on the

614
00:53:26,960 --> 00:53:31,120
on hold for an hour and a half waiting to talk to the buyer. And so eventually, that one was a lot

615
00:53:31,120 --> 00:53:38,480
of persistence too. So I think just like being able to, for me, it's knowing the buyer's information

616
00:53:38,480 --> 00:53:42,400
stuff beforehand, it's hard for me to walk into a store blind and just like drop off samples. That's

617
00:53:42,400 --> 00:53:47,920
like very anxiety filling for me. But like knowing the information and calling. So we've kind of

618
00:53:47,920 --> 00:53:51,840
figured out that balance where Kieran will find out that information for me. He's okay with making

619
00:53:51,840 --> 00:53:56,960
that initial call, Instagram message, anything contact, and then I'll go bring in the sample.

620
00:53:56,960 --> 00:54:01,920
So that's kind of our process now of trying to get into stores and following up because

621
00:54:01,920 --> 00:54:04,640
they have a lot of other things to do versus follow up with us.

622
00:54:04,640 --> 00:54:08,960
And we find too, even on accounts that have said no to us, just going in there being genuine of,

623
00:54:08,960 --> 00:54:13,680
hey, I want to know the process. How do we get in here? Like, is this something you guys even

624
00:54:13,680 --> 00:54:18,080
consider? I'd love to do it. And even if they're not interested in the product, they're usually

625
00:54:18,080 --> 00:54:22,480
very helpful of this is our process. We can't take you in unless you have a distributor.

626
00:54:22,480 --> 00:54:26,320
This is where you could do that if you're interested. If you're looking for another

627
00:54:26,320 --> 00:54:32,080
spot, I know so and so has bought independent sauces. So you can try that. It's like, it's cool

628
00:54:32,080 --> 00:54:36,640
how even if you get a no, it's still building a network. Then if we do have a distributor and

629
00:54:36,640 --> 00:54:40,640
come back, we already have made a connection. We already kind of know the buyer's names and

630
00:54:41,200 --> 00:54:45,040
just kind of making it where it's not a chore for them to listen to us sell a product instead.

631
00:54:45,040 --> 00:54:49,440
It's more, this is what we're doing. We're excited to help you. And we truly do believe in our

632
00:54:49,440 --> 00:54:53,840
product. So it's not like it's easy thing to sell when you're like, hey, we help all these ways in

633
00:54:53,840 --> 00:54:58,560
the community. We make this sauce ourselves. It tastes delicious. Do you want it? Kind of a genuine

634
00:54:58,560 --> 00:55:05,040
connection has been a goal for sure. Yeah. And that's something I was going to echo and say also

635
00:55:05,040 --> 00:55:10,880
is that the people that say no usually have more info. It's not just no hard stop. Like that's

636
00:55:10,880 --> 00:55:16,960
something I've learned with the walk is, Hey, can I stay in your spare bedroom? No. Awesome. Do you

637
00:55:16,960 --> 00:55:21,200
know anybody else that has a spare bedroom that would be comfortable with it? And I've gotten

638
00:55:21,200 --> 00:55:26,240
quite a few connections just from asking that follow up question of awesome. You're not interested.

639
00:55:26,240 --> 00:55:34,320
You can't no problem. Who else? So I think that's another fun little interesting thing. But you guys

640
00:55:34,320 --> 00:55:40,720
in terms of following you guys on your hot sauce, friendly neighborhood, hot sauce people,

641
00:55:41,840 --> 00:55:46,320
adventure, or for people that want to get your sauce, what would be the best way for folks to

642
00:55:46,320 --> 00:55:53,600
connect with you? We're most active on Instagram, all of our social medias at SD Pepper Company.

643
00:55:53,600 --> 00:55:58,640
And you can order our sauces online at SDPepperCompany.com. And if you're in the

644
00:55:58,640 --> 00:56:03,840
San Diego area, you can go on our website. There's a location staff that has all the spots we're at.

645
00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:08,800
We're in a couple of spots that are outside of San Diego too. There's one Empire Comics over in

646
00:56:08,800 --> 00:56:13,840
Sacramento carries our sauces. There's a couple of booths in Utah from Burn Your Tongue Hot Sauces

647
00:56:13,840 --> 00:56:20,080
that stock our stuff there. And then a shop in South Miami, David's Been Here Hot Sauce Store that

648
00:56:20,640 --> 00:56:26,880
stocks there. So a couple of spots you can find us. It's pretty cool. But order online. If you're

649
00:56:26,880 --> 00:56:30,400
not interested at the time, you can always shoot us a message and we're you're talking to us when

650
00:56:30,400 --> 00:56:35,120
you find it. So. Gotcha. Awesome, guys. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story and

651
00:56:35,120 --> 00:56:39,360
some tidbits of info. I'm pretty sure that a good amount of listeners will be able to find some

652
00:56:39,360 --> 00:56:44,960
value for their business or being able to implement what you guys have shared today. So thank you so

653
00:56:44,960 --> 00:56:52,240
much. Thank you. And that's it for today's episode of the podcast. One more huge thank you to Jack

654
00:56:52,240 --> 00:56:57,040
and Karen for joining me on today's episode and sharing their story with us. It's clear that they

655
00:56:57,040 --> 00:57:03,040
are really the friendly neighborhood sauce company of San Diego. They're helping local animal

656
00:57:03,040 --> 00:57:07,600
shelters, cleaning up their roads and building themselves as a cornerstone in their community.

657
00:57:07,600 --> 00:57:11,680
If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a review. And while you're

658
00:57:11,680 --> 00:57:16,160
at it, be sure to check out San Diego Pepper Company on all their social media platforms,

659
00:57:16,160 --> 00:57:23,600
which will be listed down below in the show notes. And as always, remember to have fun,

660
00:57:23,600 --> 00:57:38,000
stay safe and be yourself. Thank you for listening.