Shownotes
Business Building Insights
- Context brings everything into alignment.
- As long as you continue making connections, amazing things will happen.
- The trick is to reinvent things. Look at what you have and see how it fits in the marketplace.
- Regularly evaluate what you’re doing. This will help you identify the next steps to take to move forward.
- Listen and communication with your customers.
- Notify customers when things are changing. This will be key to retention.
- Packaging is critical and one of the most important parts of your brand.
- You must figure out how to stand out in the marketplace.
- Create a vision board. Start with asking some questions. What’s the story you want to tell? What’s the imagery you see representing the brand?
- There is great value in existing customers. Don’t forget them!
- Keep exploring. Keep your mind open for opportunities.
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Thanks! Sue
Transcripts
This is gift biz unwrapped episode 215 there's just a completely
Speaker:different customer base shopping in different places,
Speaker:so there might be opportunities in places where you didn't even
Speaker:realize that opportunity existed.
Speaker:Attention gifters,
Speaker:bakers, crafters,
Speaker:and makers pursuing your dream can be fun whether you have
Speaker:an established business or looking to start one now you are
Speaker:in the right place.
Speaker:This is gift to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources, and the support you need to grow your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host gift biz gal,
Speaker:Sue moon Heights.
Speaker:Hi there.
Speaker:Get Sue So happy that we're back together again today.
Speaker:If you're a first time listener,
Speaker:welcome. I'm thrilled to have you join in on the fun
Speaker:here too.
Speaker:It's an exciting place to be,
Speaker:particularly right now because my new live masterclass is happening in
Speaker:just a few days.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:I've been preparing for this forever and I can't believe it's
Speaker:right around the corner.
Speaker:I get notifications on my phone when someone new registers and
Speaker:I'm thinking pretty quickly,
Speaker:I'm going to need to turn them off because my phone
Speaker:keeps chiming.
Speaker:This masterclass is truly live like I'm really there with you.
Speaker:You know how many times you'll see masterclasses and they're prerecorded,
Speaker:not this one.
Speaker:I'm right there with you live.
Speaker:I'm going to be talking about the five critical elements you
Speaker:need to know when starting a handmade business by meet so
Speaker:many people who dream of making money from their craft,
Speaker:but they just don't take any action.
Speaker:I get it.
Speaker:It can be scary or they have gotten started and it's
Speaker:not working.
Speaker:For some reason,
Speaker:it's heartbreaking.
Speaker:Perhaps this describes you or if you're just curious about the
Speaker:whole business thing,
Speaker:then I'd love to have you come over and join the
Speaker:masterclass. If you haven't signed up yet,
Speaker:it's not too late.
Speaker:The masterclasses is called how to turn your handmade products into
Speaker:an income producing business and it's totally free to grab your
Speaker:seat. Go to gift biz unwrapped.com
Speaker:forward slash masterclass.
Speaker:Let's turn now and talk about what I have in store
Speaker:for you on the show today.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:most of the time I bring on guests who have started
Speaker:their business from scratch,
Speaker:but what if you come upon an opportunity to buy an
Speaker:existing business?
Speaker:And what if that business isn't living up to its potential,
Speaker:but you see what it could be and you want to
Speaker:take a shot at turning it around?
Speaker:Is it worth the risk?
Speaker:I'll rephrase that.
Speaker:Is it more or less risky than starting from nothing?
Speaker:You can decide for yourself as you hear what Eric has
Speaker:accomplished in bringing a well known brand back into its glory.
Speaker:Along the way,
Speaker:you'll also hear Eric mentioned actions that you too can use
Speaker:to get more business regardless of how you started your company.
Speaker:It's my pleasure now to introduce you to Eric of pasta
Speaker:mamas. Let's roll that interview Today.
Speaker:I am so excited to introduce you to Eric Deleri of
Speaker:pastor mamas.
Speaker:Eric is the general manager and managing partner at pasta mamas,
Speaker:which is a small pasta manufacturer in Richland,
Speaker:Washington. The path to where he is today took many turns
Speaker:from working with Burton snowboards in Vermont to DC shoes in
Speaker:California. Eric's passion has been with iconic brands in niche industries
Speaker:working on projects with red bull and monster energy.
Speaker:When the opportunity arose to take control of a local brand
Speaker:with a lot of room to grow,
Speaker:he took it.
Speaker:Pasta. Mama's was originally founded in 1986 by the Sam Tilley
Speaker:family. There were some not so typical ups and downs.
Speaker:The brand has survived over the years.
Speaker:It is once again thriving.
Speaker:Thanks to a refresher image revised energy and a broader company
Speaker:passion that focuses on their founding principles to provide the highest
Speaker:quality gourmet foods possible,
Speaker:utilizing only the finest,
Speaker:all natural ingredients.
Speaker:Welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:Eric, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker:So glad to be here.
Speaker:I am so excited.
Speaker:It'll be interesting to see if we get into the story
Speaker:about how we know each other,
Speaker:but we'll just see how things progress here.
Speaker:Absolutely. We're going to leave our listeners curious for a minute.
Speaker:I like it.
Speaker:Perfect. First,
Speaker:I want you to share with all of our listeners who
Speaker:you are by way of a motivational candle.
Speaker:So if you were to give me the color and a
Speaker:quote on a candle that you would create that you would
Speaker:put your name on,
Speaker:what does your candle look like?
Speaker:I think right now my candle is bright orange and it
Speaker:would say context is everything.
Speaker:I think that that's where I'm at and what does that
Speaker:mean? Yeah.
Speaker:The further I get along in this little journey of life,
Speaker:the more that you're able to absorb and experiences and individuals
Speaker:and just as much context as you can put to life
Speaker:in general.
Speaker:I think it helps you understand what's going on around you
Speaker:all the time and just creates this synergy that keeps you
Speaker:going and motivated and everything comes into alignment when there's a
Speaker:context that you can define and see.
Speaker:So it's not just the situation at hand,
Speaker:it's everything around it.
Speaker:That so where that situation links into the whole,
Speaker:Yes, exactly.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:But yeah,
Speaker:there's so much synergy around you all the time.
Speaker:I feel like and there's always things going on.
Speaker:The world is such a small place.
Speaker:Right and I think the more that we network and the
Speaker:more that we meet people,
Speaker:the more we realize just how small that is and so
Speaker:when we can see that context and understand it,
Speaker:it starts to intertwine everything.
Speaker:I like that Way of thinking cause I think it leads
Speaker:to broadening your mind and your thoughts.
Speaker:Absolutely. All right.
Speaker:I am really excited to talk about pasta mamas,
Speaker:Eric, because I know a little back story of pasta mamas
Speaker:and then I also,
Speaker:and I guess we're going to get into our relationship,
Speaker:our relationship,
Speaker:Eric, pretty quickly here,
Speaker:but I got a chance to meet your now new wife,
Speaker:Sarah gift biz listeners.
Speaker:You might remember Sarah Frank from a show boy several months
Speaker:ago. She and Eric have now gotten married and I've been
Speaker:hearing about pasta mamas all the way along and I think
Speaker:this is going to be a really interesting conversation.
Speaker:Let's jump right into how you got into pasta mamas and
Speaker:how you identified the opportunity.
Speaker:Well, originally I met Sarah almost 10 years ago and she
Speaker:was into a lot of freelance marketing things back then.
Speaker:I did a lot of marketing.
Speaker:It was into those things and we actually were just in
Speaker:different places at different times and we cruised around for quite
Speaker:a bit doing our own thing.
Speaker:And then we reconnected back a couple of years ago and
Speaker:it's all history now.
Speaker:And yet we got married on the first of this year
Speaker:and there's just been a lot of different things that she's
Speaker:done that really aligned with the things that I've done.
Speaker:It actually goes right back to what I said before is
Speaker:just there's always this open synergy between people wherever you are.
Speaker:And as long as you continue to make those connections and
Speaker:just go with the flow of things,
Speaker:amazing things happen.
Speaker:So I had been working on a number of different projects
Speaker:and really doing different freelance things and was just busy traveling
Speaker:and doing some of these things and uh,
Speaker:really kind of wanted to settle down and found myself looking
Speaker:for some new opportunities.
Speaker:And she had actually been working with pasta mama's from a
Speaker:marketing standpoint and they were a client of hers and the
Speaker:owner really just needed fresh management there.
Speaker:And he's getting a little bit older.
Speaker:He's actually a fifth generation wheat farmer out of Spokane.
Speaker:He had bought the company from the sand Antilles back in
Speaker:2013. I've been partnered with them for several years before they
Speaker:moved on to other things as well.
Speaker:And I saw an opportunity to ever take a brand that
Speaker:had been around for a long time that needed some love
Speaker:and attention and really put some effort into restructuring how the
Speaker:company not only is doing business day to day internally,
Speaker:but how we see the brand aligned in that industry in
Speaker:general. Because grocery is definitely something that's complex and there's a
Speaker:lot of moving pieces to it.
Speaker:So it was just really interesting from the start.
Speaker:This is interesting because you were looking for opportunities,
Speaker:so you were in a mode where you're thinking,
Speaker:okay, I want to do something new.
Speaker:Sarah had been working with him a little bit and so
Speaker:did she recognize the opportunity and chat with you and you're
Speaker:like, Hey,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:yes, all the stuff that I've been doing is something that
Speaker:they could use.
Speaker:How did that union start coming together?
Speaker:And the reason I ask you is a lot of the
Speaker:people who are listening here are thinking of starting a business
Speaker:for themselves.
Speaker:And that idea of linking up with someone else who might
Speaker:need their area of could be a new concept for people.
Speaker:So I think this can add some new context.
Speaker:Eric. I love that.
Speaker:Good job.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Yeah, so ironically,
Speaker:I mean I'm pretty outspoken with stuff,
Speaker:especially with my wife.
Speaker:I saw so much potential and I kind of just kept
Speaker:speaking up about certain things that maybe she was working on
Speaker:or different ways that the brand could be thinking of things
Speaker:differently. So as an agency essentially with different employees working for
Speaker:her, obviously she's taking instruction from her clients,
Speaker:she's getting feedback and ultimately even with her own recommendations,
Speaker:they're still going to do what they perceive is the best
Speaker:fit for their company.
Speaker:And that's ultimately what I saw going on As well.
Speaker:They should,
Speaker:right. I mean they should take recommendations from a lot of
Speaker:people and then decide,
Speaker:cause we all steer our own ships.
Speaker:Exactly. So what I really saw was sometimes there's just things
Speaker:that needed some changing and when previous management decided to go
Speaker:the other way,
Speaker:I said this is a great opportunity for us to reinvent
Speaker:what's going on here.
Speaker:One of the really cool things,
Speaker:yeah. What about pasta moms in particular is they did actually
Speaker:close down the business and had a hiatus from 1997 until
Speaker:2010 and the volume of business that they were doing leading
Speaker:up to 97 was tremendous.
Speaker:They had done an incredible job with the business.
Speaker:There was tragedy with Paul,
Speaker:the owner at the time,
Speaker:he actually was in an accident and became paralyzed.
Speaker:Oh dear.
Speaker:And that's kind of why they shut it down for a
Speaker:bit. So in 2010 they came back.
Speaker:But if you think about the landscape of let's say mail
Speaker:order catalogs and writing checks and everything that was going on
Speaker:pre 97 and then you think about 2010 and you're now
Speaker:e-commerce and Amazon competition,
Speaker:I mean it's just an entirely different dynamic.
Speaker:So keeping that same business bottle and doing what they had
Speaker:known for so long definitely was a setback and they really
Speaker:needed to start reinventing things.
Speaker:So it was a struggle I think when they reinvented it
Speaker:and trying to bring it back around.
Speaker:And so that's what we looked at it as is just
Speaker:this awesome opportunity to really look at what we had and
Speaker:how it fits in the marketplace and really do something too
Speaker:that was streamline and cost effective because we're a small business
Speaker:and again,
Speaker:working with somebody who's a wheat farmer himself,
Speaker:he's not a huge investor,
Speaker:I guess.
Speaker:More conservative business growth.
Speaker:Yeah. So at that time,
Speaker:I'm just curious,
Speaker:how did you go about creating,
Speaker:he didn't just hire you in because like you own a
Speaker:portion of the company,
Speaker:you're invested in the company in that way.
Speaker:How did you do this from a legal standpoint and or
Speaker:investigating whether this was a good idea for you to enter
Speaker:into? We definitely spent a lot of time looking through the
Speaker:financials the last couple of years and what the business had
Speaker:done and where it was headed.
Speaker:It was important for us obviously to look at what the
Speaker:advantages were,
Speaker:but not enter this as something that was going to be
Speaker:an immediate issue for us in terms of financial stability or
Speaker:having to invest a lot of money into it.
Speaker:So clearly a development move.
Speaker:Yes, exactly.
Speaker:So we spent a lot of time going through the numbers
Speaker:and when we finally settled on something,
Speaker:what we said was,
Speaker:we'll make this in the company itself.
Speaker:We'll take the time to do the things that we need
Speaker:to do and invest our own resources into it.
Speaker:As long as the partner that's working with us on this
Speaker:is able to continue funding the month to month minor investments
Speaker:that we need and then we can keep pushing forward with
Speaker:the new development of product lines,
Speaker:point of sale merchandising,
Speaker:just a lot of the assets that we really needed in
Speaker:general and really infrastructure for production as well,
Speaker:so some of the systems and processes in place needed to
Speaker:be updated,
Speaker:so that's how we went into it and really what we
Speaker:said too is we wanted to evaluate quarterly and then we
Speaker:set a deadline to decide how we were going to move
Speaker:forward as a partnership.
Speaker:Once we reached the point where we all felt comfortable that
Speaker:we were in the right position because it wasn't doing great
Speaker:when we took it over.
Speaker:I think we might get into that a little bit when
Speaker:we talk about some of the challenges,
Speaker:but I believe what I heard you just say is as
Speaker:you were looking at it,
Speaker:of course you're looking at the numbers and then you also
Speaker:divvied up responsibilities.
Speaker:These will be things that we're going to bring to the
Speaker:table. There are advantages for the partnership.
Speaker:These are things we're expecting you to do,
Speaker:which enable us to fulfill what we're wanting to do.
Speaker:So you have divided responsibilities before you even made an agreement.
Speaker:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker:And we didn't just have that conversation that we drafted everything
Speaker:out so that you can actually see what those roles were,
Speaker:what they look like and what those responsibilities were.
Speaker:And then after a year we did the same thing and
Speaker:reevaluate it again and just looked at what do we need
Speaker:now and what are the next steps forward.
Speaker:Well, I thank you for sharing that because I think for
Speaker:our listeners,
Speaker:anyone who's interested in joining into a partnership that's really important
Speaker:is talking through all of that beforehand.
Speaker:The other thing I really like about what you're talking about,
Speaker:Eric, is points of evaluation.
Speaker:Like at certain points you have it built into the whole
Speaker:structure that you're going to be relooking at it at certain
Speaker:points along the way and making changes,
Speaker:deciding where you go,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:Yeah, and you really have to,
Speaker:I think especially now things are always so fluid and constantly
Speaker:changing right now that you really do have to set,
Speaker:I would say at least quarterly.
Speaker:We do monthly meetings internally,
Speaker:but then as far as,
Speaker:well we do monthly meetings as partner meetings as well,
Speaker:but even the staff internally,
Speaker:we're always meeting on these things and then reevaluate our position
Speaker:quarterly and just check everything and make sure that here's what
Speaker:we set as goals and these are what we're aiming to
Speaker:achieve. What's still in line,
Speaker:what makes sense or what have we dove into development wise
Speaker:and then found out that this may not make as much
Speaker:sense as we thought that it did and what's another way
Speaker:of looking at it.
Speaker:So something that's pretty exciting that we'll be making an official
Speaker:announcement about here shortly is that we're going to have an
Speaker:offshoot of a lot of gourmet products that are going to
Speaker:accompany what we've been doing for years and really the recipes
Speaker:that the Santillana family left behind with the legacy of the
Speaker:company. So there's a lot of really cool attributes to the
Speaker:company that maybe some years ago we just weren't focused on.
Speaker:And now with some of the opportunities in the marketplace,
Speaker:that's where we see these new opportunities.
Speaker:Oh, that's exciting.
Speaker:You've piqued my interest there for sure.
Speaker:To finalize this portion.
Speaker:How Long a time did it take from when you identified
Speaker:the opportunity?
Speaker:I know when Sarah was working with them,
Speaker:maybe we're starting to think and build the concept and kind
Speaker:of lay the groundwork,
Speaker:but from the time you guys agreed that this would work,
Speaker:how long did it take to define roles?
Speaker:Do your due diligence,
Speaker:get something legal together and then sign?
Speaker:Really, and I think because it is a small business and
Speaker:without somebody in the proper position,
Speaker:it doesn't take it long to start falling by the wayside.
Speaker:We did this pretty quickly,
Speaker:but we did it in about three months,
Speaker:which may also be why we said after six months,
Speaker:let's really look at this again and revisit everything.
Speaker:And after a year again,
Speaker:so November of 2017 is when I came into this organization
Speaker:and we started revamping everything,
Speaker:so what are we,
Speaker:we're 16 months into this now.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker:and I would say finally with what we're doing now,
Speaker:we feel like we're really at a good place and the
Speaker:entire business has done a complete one 80 we've increased revenue
Speaker:every month over twice of the previous year,
Speaker:so we're really excited about just the changes that we've seen
Speaker:in the last year alone.
Speaker:Very cool.
Speaker:Okay. I'm writing some notes here,
Speaker:a bunch of things I want to talk to you from
Speaker:a baseline.
Speaker:Can you give us a feel for when you walked in?
Speaker:What were some things that you felt that you needed to
Speaker:work on that have changed to give you the numbers and
Speaker:the results that you're getting now?
Speaker:But initially what we had heard was customer service.
Speaker:There were just certain things that the customers seemed like they
Speaker:wanted to see.
Speaker:Our client base is small business owners.
Speaker:The majority of the business for a lot of years.
Speaker:We have a database of a little over 500 gift and
Speaker:gourmet stores around the country.
Speaker:Farm stands,
Speaker:mercantiles country stores,
Speaker:small hometown businesses,
Speaker:and so we pride ourselves on our ability to work one
Speaker:on one with these folks who are doing everything they can
Speaker:to run a small business,
Speaker:so we love that aspect of it,
Speaker:which means we really needed to listen to what was going
Speaker:on with them and so the customer service side was one
Speaker:of the biggest things and coming from a gift and gourmet
Speaker:specialty food item.
Speaker:Yeah. Obviously customers are very specific on what they want and
Speaker:what they expect and when quality changes or packaging changes or
Speaker:somebody makes an abrupt change and doesn't notify customers that these
Speaker:things are going out,
Speaker:you have to communicate with people and so sending some of
Speaker:that stuff out.
Speaker:The previous management did some rebranding,
Speaker:they changed some recipes,
Speaker:they sent stuff out.
Speaker:It didn't notify people and that you immediately start losing customers
Speaker:that way.
Speaker:I'm glad you bring that up because I was involved in
Speaker:the gift basket industry for a while and knew of pasta
Speaker:mamas and knew of them as being a solid reputation,
Speaker:solid product for a while.
Speaker:Then I dropped out of that industry a little bit.
Speaker:But I think that's the time when maybe some of the
Speaker:changes happened and you bring up a really good point that
Speaker:customers come to expect something.
Speaker:And certainly if it's a consumable product,
Speaker:so certain types of ingredients,
Speaker:your product is a certain way cause they're you in that
Speaker:way. And if anything is changing,
Speaker:and this is before you came on the scene,
Speaker:I know Eric,
Speaker:if anything's changing,
Speaker:it's really critical that you communicate that out,
Speaker:which is what sounds like maybe didn't happen here.
Speaker:So when you came on board,
Speaker:you were actually working,
Speaker:I don't want to say from a deficit,
Speaker:I don't mean to say it that way,
Speaker:but it sounds like there was a point when trust had
Speaker:to be reestablished and there was a level of education that
Speaker:needed to be had to say,
Speaker:here, this is what happened in the past and here's how
Speaker:this is going to be different for the future.
Speaker:Yeah, no,
Speaker:that's exactly it.
Speaker:And you said it perfectly,
Speaker:to be honest is we felt a little bit initially like
Speaker:there was a deficit there because so much business had been
Speaker:lost or it really,
Speaker:because these are small town businesses too.
Speaker:What's amazing about it is you do get direct feedback.
Speaker:So if someone had come in and had been buying pasta
Speaker:mamas from a local store for years and then they came
Speaker:in and picked up their typical groceries with it and came
Speaker:home and cooked it and it was completely different,
Speaker:you can bet that that person probably mentioned it to the
Speaker:store owner the next time they went in and that store
Speaker:owner definitely called us and let us know,
Speaker:Hey, you know our customers are coming in and saying this
Speaker:and that,
Speaker:and we heard that constantly,
Speaker:which sounds like a deficit.
Speaker:But what's great about it is we're getting the feedback.
Speaker:So if we're a big company in a big store and
Speaker:somebody goes in and complaints to the manager,
Speaker:they might apologize,
Speaker:wish them the best,
Speaker:but they most certainly aren't going to reach out directly.
Speaker:And that's really what we spent the first at least six
Speaker:months doing is just reaching directly out to people and asking
Speaker:for forgiveness.
Speaker:Hey, can you give us a shot again?
Speaker:Here's what we've done.
Speaker:We've revamped the recipe,
Speaker:we've gone back to the original one,
Speaker:we're using the same flowers,
Speaker:we're using the same ingredients.
Speaker:Give us a shot again.
Speaker:And they did.
Speaker:And that's the great thing honestly,
Speaker:about small businesses is that they're willing to give it a
Speaker:shot if you're willing to work with them,
Speaker:they're willing to give it a shot.
Speaker:I think as small business owners,
Speaker:we want to feel important and we want to know that
Speaker:we're being heard and that we're recognized.
Speaker:Our input is being recognized and to do that goes a
Speaker:long way.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:look at what you overcame and to be fair,
Speaker:I don't think,
Speaker:and I don't know,
Speaker:cause I hadn't tasted it during that transition time,
Speaker:but I mean it wasn't like it wasn't edible.
Speaker:It was just different.
Speaker:Right. I mean it wasn't a bad product necessarily.
Speaker:It just wasn't what was expected anticipated.
Speaker:And now you've taken it to a whole different level.
Speaker:We're going to get to that.
Speaker:We'll definitely get to that.
Speaker:It's interesting.
Speaker:Yeah. Okay.
Speaker:So reaching out and talking directly and virtually being honest with
Speaker:what's happened and ask in kind of just asking them to
Speaker:give you another shot is what you're saying.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:Yeah. It really is.
Speaker:Just we know we'd love to work with you again and
Speaker:really offering to bring value back to their business as well.
Speaker:And that is one of the things that I saw as
Speaker:such a potential with,
Speaker:this is again,
Speaker:from that 97 to 2010 timeframe,
Speaker:the consolidation and buying up of small craft brands,
Speaker:gourmet brands,
Speaker:food, beverage,
Speaker:whatever it is,
Speaker:any industry really that had been happening so much that it
Speaker:really did become harder for small businesses to buy these products
Speaker:from other small businesses.
Speaker:And that's what many of our customers prided themselves on was
Speaker:these really nice craft products.
Speaker:So there's not many of those out there anymore.
Speaker:It's coming back again.
Speaker:I think there's a lot of new craft businesses and people
Speaker:are doing amazing things,
Speaker:but some of these brands that have been around as long
Speaker:as they have,
Speaker:they've usually been bought up by somebody else at this point,
Speaker:which is eventually what you'd like to do with a lot
Speaker:of your brands and sell it off to and start something
Speaker:else perhaps.
Speaker:But yeah,
Speaker:it was just cool to see something come back to life
Speaker:that would really start supporting these small business owners again.
Speaker:And I think that's why we've done so well in the
Speaker:last year is because we've done everything we possibly can to
Speaker:help them grow their business,
Speaker:which obviously in return grows ours.
Speaker:I think that that's why it's been a good situation over
Speaker:the last year.
Speaker:Yeah. Well the way you just described that as brilliant Eric,
Speaker:because you have a need the you want to get the
Speaker:product out and retell the story that it's now different.
Speaker:Right. But they also had the need of being able to
Speaker:get product that they're not seeing in the large grocery stores,
Speaker:their specialty.
Speaker:So this is a really important point on positioning for everybody
Speaker:to recognize and ways to do things for their businesses too.
Speaker:Because you need to find a need on behalf of who
Speaker:your customers and if you can talk to your product and
Speaker:how it fills an issue that they're having,
Speaker:you're able to jump so much further ahead.
Speaker:It's absolutely of your initial list of people who you were
Speaker:going after to tell the story they used to buy pasta.
Speaker:Mama is they probably they went through,
Speaker:I mean actually those customers went through a little bit cause
Speaker:the business closed.
Speaker:Then it came back up in a tireless different product.
Speaker:There were a couple of little hurdles,
Speaker:big hurdles maybe that you've had to overcome,
Speaker:but what would you say just you might know the number
Speaker:exactly, but like how many customers do you think you retained
Speaker:through the whole process?
Speaker:It's actually,
Speaker:it's kind of hard to judge because there's such a long
Speaker:list of customers from over the years and truthfully all businesses
Speaker:close and some go away.
Speaker:But really I think our list,
Speaker:if I had to say there's about 300 stores in particular
Speaker:that we really wanted to go after,
Speaker:I would say that we've gotten at least two thirds of
Speaker:those back at this point.
Speaker:I am not surprised.
Speaker:Congratulations on that.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:So I know that you had to change,
Speaker:I don't know that you had to,
Speaker:but part of the success is that you changed the recipe
Speaker:back to the original recipe.
Speaker:What is that do back of house to you?
Speaker:How do you even do that?
Speaker:Yeah, so I said before I kind of came from some,
Speaker:I always think like a product as a product and as
Speaker:long as you know your product,
Speaker:the general strategy overall for business development and your processes,
Speaker:it should be similar,
Speaker:right? So whether you're selling sneakers or apparel or an energy
Speaker:drink or a bag of pasta,
Speaker:it all has the same type of business cycle and it's
Speaker:just how you look at it.
Speaker:But what I didn't think about with the pasta in particular
Speaker:was really how much science goes into pasta itself.
Speaker:Well, for example,
Speaker:I went to wazoo Washington state university shortly after I started
Speaker:because when I started looking at the flower and trying to
Speaker:figure out why the customers didn't like the product,
Speaker:because the flower did come from the same farm in Spokane.
Speaker:Again, the partner in the business,
Speaker:it was a fifth generation wheat farmer.
Speaker:He decided to harvest all the wheat himself one year.
Speaker:And then instead of using the typical mill that we use
Speaker:with a company called Shepherd's grain,
Speaker:he has a slightly different milling process,
Speaker:same wheat,
Speaker:same type of flour milled slightly differently.
Speaker:And it changed the consistency of it.
Speaker:So when I went to Washington state university,
Speaker:I was woken up very quickly when they told me there's
Speaker:over 15,000
Speaker:different strains of flour right in their lab that they study
Speaker:specifically. And I thought,
Speaker:alright, yeah,
Speaker:there's way more flour variations than I may have thought that
Speaker:there was.
Speaker:Well, yeah,
Speaker:it's crazy.
Speaker:So you start looking at what consistency the flour is to
Speaker:make certain things.
Speaker:And really what we were using was a little bit better
Speaker:for maybe like a pizza crust or bagels,
Speaker:but it was a little bit too firm and whole wheat
Speaker:for the pasta.
Speaker:So actually a semolina wheat flour is still all wheat flour,
Speaker:but the milling process is different.
Speaker:It's a bit more grainy and textured.
Speaker:But a typical semolina is what Italian pasta makers have been
Speaker:using for years.
Speaker:We went back to that.
Speaker:We just refined the recipes.
Speaker:We tested a lot of times and made sure that our
Speaker:hydration was spot on and what we were doing with the
Speaker:ingredients was spot on and we just dialed everything in.
Speaker:We set those standards again and made sure that we had
Speaker:one good handbook for everything production wise and that's where we're
Speaker:at. I could go down so many little rabbit holes here
Speaker:to try and stay.
Speaker:I know I'm going to try and stay on top of
Speaker:things that I think would be interesting and good information for
Speaker:our listeners too.
Speaker:Did you have inventory sitting there?
Speaker:Did you just have to like ditch in?
Speaker:Like was that a financial hit or how did you deal
Speaker:with that?
Speaker:First off,
Speaker:let me start with did you,
Speaker:Yeah, we did.
Speaker:So within the first,
Speaker:basically after the first three months and getting the feedback,
Speaker:I quickly learned that the flour just wasn't going to work.
Speaker:So I reached out to my partner and said,
Speaker:Hey, you know we have flour in storage somewhere.
Speaker:Can you tell me how much we have?
Speaker:And he said,
Speaker:well, we have 25 pallets.
Speaker:Those pallets are 2000 pounds a piece.
Speaker:We had 50,000
Speaker:pounds of flour in storage.
Speaker:We go through about a pallet maybe every two weeks depending
Speaker:on some of the orders that come in.
Speaker:And we might go through it in a week,
Speaker:but that is a good supply of flour and a lot
Speaker:of it and it clearly wasn't going to work.
Speaker:So we did donate it to this great place just up
Speaker:the road from us called second harvest.
Speaker:They're an amazing nonprofit.
Speaker:They have this beautiful commercial kitchen and they do and repurpose
Speaker:all of these different food products.
Speaker:So 50,000
Speaker:pounds of flour,
Speaker:they can do a lot with that product.
Speaker:So we did write it off.
Speaker:It was a bit of a loss.
Speaker:But moving forward,
Speaker:you just have to make those decisions too and decide we're
Speaker:either going to continue making poor product and pushing out things
Speaker:that people just aren't into or you got to cut your
Speaker:losses and move on to something else.
Speaker:So that's what we did.
Speaker:Yeah, I think so too.
Speaker:Especially in the situation you're talking about a clear,
Speaker:well I can say that cause I know it's been a
Speaker:choice. So that's an easy statement for me.
Speaker:But in terms of just,
Speaker:even though it was a financial hit,
Speaker:just saying,
Speaker:okay, starting here now line in the sand because that also
Speaker:helps you in communicating with customers.
Speaker:We're serious about this,
Speaker:this is what we're changing as of now it's back to
Speaker:the new recipe.
Speaker:None of this,
Speaker:Oh we're just going to whittle down what we already have.
Speaker:Right, Exactly.
Speaker:None of that.
Speaker:It was just clear and I think that was a really
Speaker:strong solid statement.
Speaker:So with that,
Speaker:let's now describe,
Speaker:and I've had the opportunity,
Speaker:you guys sent me samples of everything.
Speaker:Not just the pasta but the sauce.
Speaker:Is it?
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:I'm just going to start with so super yummy.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:Without a doubt.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:Good. And it's really,
Speaker:really different in a good way than some of the other
Speaker:pastas I've had.
Speaker:So you can definitely tell it's of high quality and flavor.
Speaker:And I guess the audience is saying,
Speaker:well, yeah,
Speaker:because you have Eric on the podcast.
Speaker:Obviously you're going to say that.
Speaker:No, honestly and seriously,
Speaker:it's true.
Speaker:So describe for everybody how you would go in if you
Speaker:were presenting to us for the first time,
Speaker:like we're all business owners and we have the potential to
Speaker:carry your product.
Speaker:How would you describe the line?
Speaker:Your mouth is going to start watering when you hear Eric's
Speaker:description, and that's going to happen right after a word from
Speaker:our sponsor.
Speaker:This podcast is made possible thanks to the support of the
Speaker:ribbon print company.
Speaker:Create custom ribbons right in your store or craft studio in
Speaker:seconds. Visit the ribbon,
Speaker:print company.com
Speaker:for more information.
Speaker:All of the recipes literally are traditional Italian recipes.
Speaker:And so when we say there's an ingredient,
Speaker:and let's say it's a spinach linguine,
Speaker:it is semolina.
Speaker:It has spinach in it as water,
Speaker:and those are the only ingredients that are in it.
Speaker:There's no fillers.
Speaker:We don't put anything extra into it.
Speaker:There's no preservatives.
Speaker:All of our ingredients are sourced locally.
Speaker:So we know where our spinach,
Speaker:shark, cayenne pepper,
Speaker:tomato, Bazell,
Speaker:anything that we have,
Speaker:it's all coming right from the Pacific Northwest.
Speaker:Currently we get everything from Oregon spice.
Speaker:All of our flour comes from Shepherd's grain,
Speaker:which is all non-GMO verified.
Speaker:And we pride ourselves on a product that is small batch
Speaker:and handmade.
Speaker:So we don't use high temperature drying machines.
Speaker:We don't use the $2 million piece of equipment like some
Speaker:of the large pasta companies.
Speaker:I have a great production staff who hand makes everything in
Speaker:small 50 pound batches.
Speaker:It's hand folded.
Speaker:It's long dried for 48 hours at right about room temperature.
Speaker:Typically we're right about 70 degrees.
Speaker:We use fans and a dehumidifier to remove some of the
Speaker:moisture. But other than that,
Speaker:we're not cooking it at 180 degrees for two hours to
Speaker:crank out as much as we possibly can.
Speaker:And what that really does is it leaves all the nutrients,
Speaker:it leaves all the good things that you want in your
Speaker:pasta in there,
Speaker:and it allows it to cook it a lot nicer pace.
Speaker:So it's just a higher quality product in general.
Speaker:And then the sauce is typically,
Speaker:have you spent any time in Italy at?
Speaker:I have.
Speaker:Yeah. It's a beautiful place.
Speaker:I'd like to spend a lot more time over there cause
Speaker:you didn't want to come back.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:Yes. Well and it's really hard to compete with their pastas
Speaker:over there.
Speaker:And one of the things they always say is enjoy the
Speaker:pasta and the sauce is just light sauce.
Speaker:So we've always done a traditional dry sauce mix because then
Speaker:you can customize everything to exactly what you want and how
Speaker:much sauce you want.
Speaker:I think in America we tend to put way more sauce
Speaker:and she's done things typically.
Speaker:But yeah,
Speaker:we just,
Speaker:all of our sauces,
Speaker:same thing,
Speaker:all natural ingredients.
Speaker:It's all just the best quality things.
Speaker:There's no binders,
Speaker:no fillers,
Speaker:No preservatives,
Speaker:no additives.
Speaker:It's just a great quality product.
Speaker:Again, all hand mixed,
Speaker:hand packaged and done right here and then the Tri-Cities in
Speaker:Washington. So what I'm hearing is that the real benefits besides
Speaker:the flavor and all of that is the health aspect.
Speaker:All the nutrients aren't cooked out of everything.
Speaker:Yeah. And it's not a high carb product.
Speaker:I know a lot of people think that pasta is just
Speaker:this high carbohydrate product as well.
Speaker:But again,
Speaker:it depends on the quality of ingredients you're using and how
Speaker:you're processing and packaging those ingredients.
Speaker:So I think sometimes we don't think about that in particular.
Speaker:We're not thinking about how our food gets to where it
Speaker:is and the process by which it gets there.
Speaker:We're just thinking about the end result and what we're going
Speaker:to make with it.
Speaker:Yeah. And that it's going to taste good and we're going
Speaker:to really like it.
Speaker:But it's really good if it tastes good and you like
Speaker:it and it also is healthy for you.
Speaker:Uh, yeah.
Speaker:That would be the best benefit I think.
Speaker:Yeah. How about that as a concept?
Speaker:Yeah, crazy concept.
Speaker:Okay. You know,
Speaker:a lot of our listeners as they're building out their own
Speaker:products, question their packaging,
Speaker:how they're going to represent their brand in terms of the
Speaker:visuals and how everything's going to be packaged up.
Speaker:And I know you guys just went through a whole rebranding
Speaker:and that was super fun because Sarah let me in and
Speaker:give some feedback on it.
Speaker:And I know you went through a couple of reiterations and
Speaker:landed on something really super solid share with us how that
Speaker:whole process went.
Speaker:Yeah, so one of the first things that I think,
Speaker:I mean with any product again is you have to draw
Speaker:your customer to it.
Speaker:There's going to be something particularly attractive about whatever it is
Speaker:that you're doing.
Speaker:And then it also has to pertain to your brand and
Speaker:the perceived value of what you're doing.
Speaker:So I think packaging is super critical.
Speaker:And then one of the most important parts of really your
Speaker:brand in general is how you look all the time and
Speaker:how you show up.
Speaker:So again,
Speaker:we really just talked to a lot of people and listen
Speaker:to what they had to say.
Speaker:Folks missed some of the old packaging from before,
Speaker:which some of it is nostalgia or some of it's habit
Speaker:and people get used to certain things.
Speaker:They missed it because of the imagery or the actual materials
Speaker:of the packages or,
Speaker:To be quite honest,
Speaker:they said it looked higher end when it was white with
Speaker:like a gold foil logo on it and they didn't like
Speaker:what we had done over the,
Speaker:I think it was like 2013 that was changed originally and
Speaker:it kind of ran through until we changed it over in
Speaker:2017 but they changed it over to like this black packaging
Speaker:or a black and it was Nice that they updated it
Speaker:and the branding had changed,
Speaker:but they just hired somebody to develop something new and there
Speaker:wasn't a lot of attention to what are the customers going
Speaker:to think and does this fit the food category and is
Speaker:this attractive for this particular product?
Speaker:And realistically,
Speaker:no, the black packaging and the colors that they use and
Speaker:things like that from not being attractive on the shelf to
Speaker:honestly people just saying,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:we used to put all this stuff in gift baskets and
Speaker:it's really hard to match this to other products.
Speaker:It doesn't look good.
Speaker:That's really what the feedback was.
Speaker:So yeah.
Speaker:How do we tie back and keep the original feel of
Speaker:the package,
Speaker:give customers back what they want,
Speaker:but really update something and bring it forward.
Speaker:Because a gold foil on a white label from the eighties
Speaker:isn't also gonna achieve what we need to do now.
Speaker:Right. So I love the fact that you started at once
Speaker:again by listening to customers.
Speaker:Super smart.
Speaker:And it's interesting because the way a package looks,
Speaker:even if it's the same product in the package,
Speaker:the quality can be perceived differently if there's not like if
Speaker:a potential purchaser can't resonate with it.
Speaker:I also know from working and being with Sarah for a
Speaker:while that you guys wanted to make sure that they all
Speaker:looked good on a display because your clients mostly are gourmet
Speaker:stores, so you had to be able to have it.
Speaker:Look, I don't know how to say this right,
Speaker:but in terms of the displays that it wasn't all just
Speaker:one signal package of positive.
Speaker:There were variations and flavors and it had to be attractive
Speaker:and also size wise for the basket people.
Speaker:Yeah, a huge part of that was making sure that it
Speaker:was something that we could merchandise.
Speaker:Well, You went through several iterations,
Speaker:right? Like how do you do that?
Speaker:If you're going to go through and rebrand,
Speaker:what's the process?
Speaker:Can you take us through the steps that you went through?
Speaker:First, it's the idea,
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:our customers aren't liking the branding.
Speaker:It's not making sense.
Speaker:We need to change it up.
Speaker:So then what happens from there?
Speaker:Yeah, so I gathered the feedback from them initially and then
Speaker:what you look at is how do we stand out in
Speaker:the marketplace?
Speaker:So then it's one of the best things to do is,
Speaker:yeah, look at all your competitors,
Speaker:what's around you?
Speaker:So I spent a lot of time just cruising out to
Speaker:different grocery stores,
Speaker:small boutique retailers,
Speaker:things like that.
Speaker:And really just looked at all of our competitors.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:kind of what I said earlier is you have this big
Speaker:landscape of the big companies that do this in boxes and
Speaker:with high priced items or high priced equipment.
Speaker:And then you have smaller companies that actually similar to pasta.
Speaker:Mama's maybe haven't rebranded in years and the packaging is a
Speaker:little older.
Speaker:And then you have to think to the boxes,
Speaker:things like that,
Speaker:automated box packaging,
Speaker:it's so expensive.
Speaker:So how do we continue to do something that is cost
Speaker:effective? It's something that we don't have to make a huge
Speaker:investment in production wise,
Speaker:but then meet all of our objectives.
Speaker:Well, and for you with a consumable product,
Speaker:it has to be packaging that's going to retain the integrity
Speaker:of the product in terms of freshness and all that.
Speaker:Yep, absolutely.
Speaker:Well, and what we kept hearing back from people too,
Speaker:the bag they liked that you could see through a bag.
Speaker:I really was set on the idea that I'd like to
Speaker:have being an all product and health conscious,
Speaker:environmentally conscious too.
Speaker:And I don't love the idea of plastic,
Speaker:but realistically the cost of boxes,
Speaker:the barrier to entry and doing some of those things and
Speaker:the cost of the equipment to do it is just,
Speaker:it's astronomical for a small business.
Speaker:So the feedback was in general that they really liked the
Speaker:bags. Most people wanted the bags that we use right now.
Speaker:So it was kind of a no brainer to just redo
Speaker:the label.
Speaker:And we spent some time with the elements that we knew
Speaker:we wanted.
Speaker:We is obviously a huge factor in pasta.
Speaker:So that became an element and the logo and visually you
Speaker:just play around with it.
Speaker:I would,
Speaker:I always love to do is you look at the brand
Speaker:and where you want to see it and maybe five years,
Speaker:what's the vision,
Speaker:what's the story you want to tell?
Speaker:What is the imagery that you see representing the brand?
Speaker:And I create a vision board for all of that.
Speaker:So rusty pickup trucks in the field next to a farm
Speaker:with the wheat and straw hats and like just all of
Speaker:these different
what you want the brand to be and then look at
Speaker:how your logo and your packaging represents that brand.
Speaker:And so that's what we continue to do.
Speaker:And I think you're going to see that in the next
Speaker:line that we launch here.
Speaker:Should see it.
Speaker:I think at the beginning of may.
Speaker:So it sounds like it's an evolution to that image that
Speaker:you just set out.
Speaker:For us it is.
Speaker:So then you had some versions of what the logo would
Speaker:look like,
Speaker:you'd send it in,
Speaker:it would include wheat and you already knew it was gonna
Speaker:be plastic with some type of a label on it.
Speaker:Then did you go to customers for feedback on it or
Speaker:how did you decide and narrow down on exactly the one
Speaker:it was going to be?
Speaker:Yeah, you know,
Speaker:I did get some feedback.
Speaker:We reached out to some reps and we have some folks
Speaker:that rep our product as well,
Speaker:and we have a broker that works on some of our
Speaker:other accounts.
Speaker:So we definitely got feedback and really we asked folks like
Speaker:you, I had Sarah vetted through people as well.
Speaker:Yep. I got to give my input.
Speaker:That's what's super helpful is we got a lot of the
Speaker:same feedback on the ones that we were really looking at.
Speaker:So even after having several rounds,
Speaker:let's say we had six different versions of the logo and
Speaker:we really had two that we loved and getting feedback even
Speaker:from a couple of dozen people just reinforce that,
Speaker:yeah, we're headed in the right direction and this is perfect.
Speaker:I'm so glad you did that because you are so close
Speaker:to it and you're probably looking at all different versions of
Speaker:images and colors and like all of that.
Speaker:You get so lost in it sometimes that it's really good
Speaker:to get outside feedback and then for it to land on
Speaker:the one that you liked was perfect.
Speaker:Yes, exactly.
Speaker:Wait, well,
Speaker:and that's what I was just going to say is you
Speaker:get so close to it sometimes at some point you just
Speaker:have to say,
Speaker:yup, love it.
Speaker:Let's go and pull the trigger on it because I mean,
Speaker:yeah, sometimes I get caught up in the weeds on some
Speaker:of those things and you think,
Speaker:all right,
Speaker:well we could do it this way or you could do
Speaker:it this way and really just got to pull the trigger
Speaker:and make it happen.
Speaker:I like to always say that a perfectionist paralysis and if
Speaker:you linger too long on something,
Speaker:you may never get it done.
Speaker:So just pull the trigger and go,
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:So true.
Speaker:And many of our listeners including me can be guilty of
Speaker:that cause we're,
Speaker:so we're gonna fumble around with the color of something on
Speaker:the frame of a painting or adding more to those glass
Speaker:beads or the jewelry or like you could go on forever.
Speaker:Oh my God.
Speaker:Forever. Yup.
Speaker:Yup. And that totally messes with your profits because you're spending
Speaker:so much time you can't output as much,
Speaker:especially if you're making single things versus you know,
Speaker:the type of thing that you're making.
Speaker:Let's move on to sales a little bit more.
Speaker:Cause this is always a big question with my audience is
Speaker:how do I attract more customers?
Speaker:You've already talked about the gold that was in the existing
Speaker:list. You could have said,
Speaker:Eric, Oh my gosh,
Speaker:all of these other people hate us because of what happened.
Speaker:We changed the recipe.
Speaker:Like I don't want to go and have to have those
Speaker:conversations with people.
Speaker:I'm going to start fresh.
Speaker:But you were really smart cause you saw the value in
Speaker:existing customers and that was a base.
Speaker:You had all the contact information,
Speaker:so you did that first,
Speaker:which is always the best I would say,
Speaker:where you can get more business out of existing customers and
Speaker:this is a good lesson.
Speaker:Maybe even if you have had some issues,
Speaker:it's always best to go back there first.
Speaker:But then how are you now today attracting visibility for your
Speaker:business besides being on a podcast?
Speaker:Yeah, which is awesome.
Speaker:I'm super excited that we even get to do this.
Speaker:Yeah, me too.
Speaker:Yeah. Really reaching out to everybody.
Speaker:Again, what it does is it reminds you of the categories
Speaker:of the businesses that you really need to be looking at.
Speaker:So looking at identifying certain categories where your product can be
Speaker:placed, right?
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:And so even just using our own store locator on our
Speaker:website, which again,
Speaker:the little things that have to be updated and you go
Speaker:through it and you say you look at maybe your sales
Speaker:for the last six months and look at who your customers
Speaker:are. And who used to be and start reaching back out
Speaker:and then you start filling on all these other little holes
Speaker:where one of the strategies,
Speaker:honestly it was just we have these three stores and let's
Speaker:say Minnesota,
Speaker:well who else is in this general area and how far
Speaker:do we have to go before we hit another place that
Speaker:carries our products,
Speaker:so I don't want customers to be right on top of
Speaker:each other.
Speaker:I'd like them to have the exclusivity of our products and
Speaker:there's plenty of people out there to do that,
Speaker:so we really just started looking around at other stores.
Speaker:Olive oil and vinegar stores.
Speaker:Huge part of our business always has been,
Speaker:Well that's a complimentary product for you.
Speaker:Exactly. It's always been a big part of the business,
Speaker:so reaching back out to other places that are doing those
Speaker:things. Farmstands other mercantiles things like that that are in that
Speaker:realm. That's really all we started to do is look up
Speaker:those businesses.
Speaker:Was that part of your sales play though also that we
Speaker:don't want,
Speaker:we are reaching out to people who don't have our product
Speaker:already available in their area,
Speaker:which gives more potential.
Speaker:I mean that's another selling point for an owner.
Speaker:Just like I'll,
Speaker:I want to have that product cause kind of honestly,
Speaker:indirectly it's almost saying,
Speaker:but if you're not interested I'll go to someone else in
Speaker:your area.
Speaker:Kind of.
Speaker:Pretty Much,
Speaker:yeah. Kind of.
Speaker:Yeah. Kind of.
Speaker:So what we found too is because there's not that many
Speaker:other small pasta brands like ours,
Speaker:I mean to be honest,
Speaker:if you head on to other folks websites and they have
Speaker:store locators typically too.
Speaker:And so where are our competitors selling?
Speaker:Let's give them a call.
Speaker:I have plenty of the stores.
Speaker:There's one particular pasta company that is in many of the
Speaker:locations that we're in.
Speaker:And I think competition is great.
Speaker:So having them next to us and a lot of these
Speaker:places, it really just creates opportunity for both of the brands.
Speaker:And then we're really just competing in that space and it's
Speaker:just us.
Speaker:And so yeah,
Speaker:reaching out to some of these places that actually wasn't sure
Speaker:that they could get pasta mama's anymore and had been buying
Speaker:some of our competitor's stuff.
Speaker:It was great for them to see that there was another
Speaker:option and maybe it was the pricing was slightly different.
Speaker:Plus we have a couple of other things that that brand
Speaker:doesn't, it really again is just giving people options and so
Speaker:that's really how we reached out.
Speaker:Were you replacing then store space or you were in addition
Speaker:to the other ones?
Speaker:In a couple of situations we're replacing it in a couple
Speaker:of situations.
Speaker:They're adding us to it.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I kind of feel we forget that if someone loves your
Speaker:product, they don't necessarily always buy from only one source.
Speaker:Like if you love jewelry,
Speaker:you don't only buy jewelry from one place.
Speaker:Do you like necklaces?
Speaker:Let's say you maybe have necklaces from a whole bunch of
Speaker:places. Same thing could be with pasta or anything else for
Speaker:that matter.
Speaker:If people love pasta,
Speaker:they may love both.
Speaker:You might be loyal,
Speaker:but there's no reason why one has to be exclusive of
Speaker:another. Really for both of you to win.
Speaker:I guess this is what I was going to say.
Speaker:Totally. Well And right here it's interesting because right here in
Speaker:the tri cities we have mean because there's been such a
Speaker:history of the brand here,
Speaker:we have such a variety of customers and we really have,
Speaker:wow, there's probably,
Speaker:I would say at least a dozen larger customers right here
Speaker:that are still smaller,
Speaker:independent businesses,
Speaker:but do a lot of volume with us and I would
Speaker:be willing to say that even though some of them price
Speaker:our products slightly different from location to location,
Speaker:I don't think customer crossover exists as much as you might
Speaker:think that it does.
Speaker:So somebody who might shop out at one of the other
Speaker:specialty stores may not shop at the grocery store down the
Speaker:road who carries the product.
Speaker:So you don't see a lot of,
Speaker:I don't have a customer coming in and saying,
Speaker:Hey, I bought this at this store down the road for
Speaker:$2 more than I bought it for this store.
Speaker:And just giving an example.
Speaker:But that's the general idea.
Speaker:There's just a completely different customer base shopping in different places.
Speaker:So there might be opportunities in places where you didn't even
Speaker:realize that opportunity existed.
Speaker:Interesting. I think you're right and I think nowadays too,
Speaker:we value convenience and habit.
Speaker:Just what's in our regular routine over price.
Speaker:Yeah. I always stop at this place on the way home.
Speaker:I love to grab it.
Speaker:Or you might just be familiar with the store and it's
Speaker:just a lot easier for you to get around.
Speaker:I know just walking into like you walk into a different
Speaker:Safeway or any store for that matter,
Speaker:if it's slightly different,
Speaker:it could be the exact same franchise,
Speaker:but everything isn't in an entirely different place and it takes
Speaker:you an extra 20 minutes to figure out where stuff is.
Speaker:It is so true.
Speaker:Totally. Final question here.
Speaker:Do you create certain promotions or something to gain trial of
Speaker:the product or what do you do from an offering standpoint
Speaker:for people?
Speaker:Let's go with new customers here.
Speaker:Anyone that's a new customer in terms of our wholesale business,
Speaker:of course,
Speaker:free samples all day long.
Speaker:We'll send you some stuffs as cheating,
Speaker:check it out.
Speaker:Sometimes we go a little crazy and we may send larger
Speaker:packages than I anticipate,
Speaker:but I really want people to see the colors and the
Speaker:flavors of everything.
Speaker:I got that larger
sauces? Oh no,
Speaker:no, no.
Speaker:I loved it.
Speaker:Yeah, that's our big thing.
Speaker:I love people to try it out because if they do
Speaker:once they're going to love it and that's really it.
Speaker:So just try the product.
Speaker:We'll send it out to whoever we can,
Speaker:but then we do a lot of different promos and things
Speaker:like that too.
Speaker:Would you,
Speaker:if you're a brand new customer,
Speaker:we're going to help you out with your initial order Store
Speaker:displays. I was just going to say store displays.
Speaker:We do recipe cards,
Speaker:we do shelf talkers.
Speaker:We have like a pairing card that is a pairing card
Speaker:on one side so you can see what sauces and pastas
Speaker:go well together.
Speaker:And then on the other side it's kind of a value
Speaker:proposition for both of our product lines and the company overall.
Speaker:Just simple,
Speaker:quick, easy,
Speaker:something that's readable and a good takeaway for customers that are
Speaker:just cruising through the store.
Speaker:Even if they don't buy the product and grab the pairing
Speaker:sheet or something like that or the parent card and you
Speaker:have a little takeaway and maybe they think of it the
Speaker:next time they cruise in there.
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:that is an excellent idea.
Speaker:So gift biz listeners,
Speaker:any of you guys who are doing craft shows and you're
Speaker:looking at promotional materials,
Speaker:and this doesn't have to be just for a consumable product
Speaker:either, but the cards are a great idea for exactly what
Speaker:you said because you're also then Eric adding on like add
Speaker:on sales because if someone's looking at the positive,
Speaker:they're getting a certain one and they're like,
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:I see three spices that are recommended now I need all
Speaker:three versus the just the pesto that I was going to
Speaker:get or whatever.
Speaker:Exactly. Yeah.
Speaker:And sometimes it's hard for some of these stores.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:in a grocery store you're maybe going to have just kind
Speaker:of the top three skews or something like that.
Speaker:We have 36 different combinations of flavor and pasta style.
Speaker:We have 16 different sauces.
Speaker:You're probably not going to see it all there at the
Speaker:store. So yeah,
Speaker:you pick up a pairing sheet and see that there's no
Speaker:man there.
Speaker:I didn't know they had all this stuff too.
Speaker:You might go to the website.
Speaker:Oh yeah,
Speaker:because you're not necessarily going to have everything there.
Speaker:No store might not carry everything they should,
Speaker:but they might not even know why they don't.
Speaker:But we're trying.
Speaker:I know these crazy store buyers,
Speaker:like why isn't the whole store just your product?
Speaker:I know the stock is up.
Speaker:Alright, so given that,
Speaker:let's take a little bit of a peek into your future,
Speaker:and I do this also in a little bit of a
Speaker:different way.
Speaker:I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.
Speaker:This is a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future,
Speaker:Eric, or the future of pasta mamas.
Speaker:You get to decide,
Speaker:so this is your goal of almost unreachable Heights that you
Speaker:are looking at within whatever time range you decide is appropriate.
Speaker:So please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
Speaker:What's inside your box?
Speaker:Oh, this I think is the gift of constant exploration.
Speaker:Ooh, talk More.
Speaker:Yeah. If I had any High expectation of myself or anything
Speaker:that I want to do,
Speaker:be it pasta mamas or my personal life or with my
Speaker:wife and kids.
Speaker:Any of those things.
Speaker:Just want to keep exploring and keep my mind open to
Speaker:new opportunities and new things,
Speaker:and I'm in kind of like I said earlier,
Speaker:the more you explore and the more that you open yourself
Speaker:up to new opportunities and just put yourself out there,
Speaker:the more that you see context to the life that you're
Speaker:living in and the synergy between all of the different things
Speaker:that you do.
Speaker:So being able to continue to explore with an open mind
Speaker:all the time.
Speaker:I just think it creates just this wonderful synergy in life.
Speaker:Love it,
Speaker:and that's what gives you the spirit and the energy that
Speaker:we hear in your voice.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:Just that attitude and approach to life.
Speaker:I appreciate that.
Speaker:How would you direct our listeners to learn more about pasta
Speaker:mamas? You can go to pasta mama's dot com just P
Speaker:a S T a M a M a s.com.
Speaker:You can sign up for a newsletter there.
Speaker:You can sign up for an account and check out some
Speaker:pasta. You can send us a note at info at pasta
Speaker:mama's dot com if you'd like to try out some pastas
Speaker:and you're interested in doing anything like that,
Speaker:we'd be happy to send you some.
Speaker:You can email me at Eric at pasta mama's dot com
Speaker:also. Beautiful.
Speaker:That's pretty much it.
Speaker:Find us.
Speaker:Yeah, you can find us on Facebook and Instagram as well.
Speaker:We've got recipes and always updating new blog posts with recipes
Speaker:and content.
Speaker:Oh, Ooh,
Speaker:yeah, we didn't even get into that.
Speaker:We'll have to schedule another time.
Speaker:It will have to be for another time.
so give biz listeners,
Speaker:you know Eric just rattled off a number of different ways
Speaker:you can connect up with them.
Speaker:I will have all of that information as well as the
Speaker:links to all the social media sites over on the show
Speaker:notes page.
Speaker:So if you're out and about,
Speaker:you're not able to have a pen and paper,
Speaker:but it sounds pretty easy.
Speaker:Just remember pasta mamas and I bet you you can find
Speaker:your way there.
Speaker:Eric loved hearing the story.
Speaker:Like I said,
Speaker:I've known a little bit of it.
Speaker:I've had a few intimate looks behind the scenes,
Speaker:but hearing the whole story from you has been absolutely fabulous.
Speaker:You've shared some great,
Speaker:really solid best practices with our audience,
Speaker:so I really appreciate that too.
Speaker:And I look forward to seeing the future of pasta mamas.
Speaker:Thank you so much for being on the show.
Speaker:Awesome. Thank you so much too and I really appreciate you
Speaker:taking the time to bring me on and talk with me
Speaker:about all of this.
Speaker:Hopefully I wasn't too long winded.
Speaker:You weren't,
Speaker:but you have done one thing.
Speaker:I now have to go home and make pasta for dinner.
Speaker:That's just the way it has to be.
Speaker:Take a picture Tag,
Speaker:isn't it?
Speaker:If you do that,
Speaker:I love seeing all of our different recipes and anything that
Speaker:we have out there getting cooked up.
Speaker:So anything you're creating,
Speaker:I would love to see it.
Speaker:Okay. And we're going to end this on a final fun
Speaker:note. If you were doing that,
Speaker:what would be the pasta choice and the sauce?
Speaker:Like describe to us as we're going out here,
Speaker:what it would look like.
Speaker:Your favorite,
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I love the black pepper.
Speaker:It's got a little bit of zip to it and you
Speaker:can get it in a linguine or a fettuccine or a
Speaker:Pepperdine. I personally liked the big Pepperdine noodles and I love
Speaker:the creamy Craill sauce.
Speaker:I like a little bit of spice.
Speaker:I don't love a lot of spice,
Speaker:but the creamy cradle sauce and the black pepper pepper Dale
Speaker:with let's say some good fish and shrimp or scallops.
Speaker:So good.
Speaker:That would be a good way to go.
Speaker:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker:Alright, thanks again for taking your time today.
Speaker:Yeah, thank you.
Speaker:I appreciate it.
Speaker:Okay. I seriously think I'll be making Eric's pasta tonight.
Speaker:If you have a business that could potentially use his product,
Speaker:you definitely want to get a sample as he so generously
Speaker:offered and if you see it on the shelf in your
Speaker:local gourmet shop,
Speaker:take it from me,
Speaker:pick it up and plan for a very tasty experience.
Speaker:I'm really loving right now how one podcast episode is leading
Speaker:into another and next week is no exception.
Speaker:What comes up after a delicious pasta dinner?
Speaker:Dessert, of course,
Speaker:and I have a very sweet show being served up next.
Speaker:An easy way to make sure you don't miss any episodes
Speaker:is to subscribe to the show in Apple podcasts or wherever
Speaker:you listen to the show.
Speaker:That way a new episode every time it comes live will
Speaker:just automatically be delivered over to your phone,
Speaker:so that's a wrap for this week.
Speaker:Meanwhile, don't forget to join us in the masterclass.
Speaker:That link again is gift biz unwrapped.com
Speaker:forward slash masterclass.
Speaker:Bye for now.
I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook
Speaker:group called gift biz breeze.
Speaker:It's a place where we all gather and our community to
Speaker:support each other.
Speaker:I've got a really fun post in there.
Speaker:That's my favorite of the week.
Speaker:I have to say where I invite all of you to
Speaker:share what you're doing,
Speaker:to show pictures of your product,
Speaker:to show what you're working on for the week,
Speaker:to get reaction from other people and just for fun because
Speaker:we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody in
Speaker:the community is making.
Speaker:My favorite posts every single week without doubt.
Speaker:Wait, what aren't you part of the group already?
Speaker:If not,
Speaker:make sure to jump over to Facebook and search for the
Speaker:group gift biz breeze.
Speaker:Don't delay.
