Off-the-Grid Biz Podcast

Off-the-Grid Biz Podcast

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Off-the-Grid Biz Podcast episodes

  • Christopher & Kirsten K. Shockey – Fermentation School & The Big Book of Cidermaking
    Christopher & Kirsten K. Shockey

    The Big Book Of Cidermaking

    Christopher Shockey and Kirsten K. Shockey join us again to talk about their new book, The Big Book of Cidermaking.

    We also talk about an exciting new project they've taken on called, Fermentation School!

    Fermentation School has online classes from top experts to help you advance your own fermentation skills.

    For more on Fermentation School, The Big Book of Cidermaking and other Books and information the Shockey's have checkout the links below!

    Fermentation School - https://www.fermentationschool.com/

    Ferment.Works - https://ferment.works/

    The Big Book of Cidermaking - https://www.storey.com/books/the-big-book-of-cidermaking/
    Transcription
    Brian: Christopher Shockey and Kirsten K. Shockey are the authors of The Big Book of Cidermaking. And award winning
    Miso, Tempeh, Natto & Other Tasty Ferments, Fiery Ferments and the best selling Fermented Vegetables books that came from their desires to help people eat in new ways, both for the health of themselves and the planet.

    They got their start in fermenting foods 20 years ago on a 40 acre hillside smallholding, which grew into their local organic food company, when they realized their passion lay in the wish to both teach people how to ferment and push this culinary art to new flavors.

    Kirsten and Christopher lead lead experience experiential workshops worldwide and online at FermentationSchool.com. Helping people to make enjoy and connect with their food through fermentation.

    They can now be found at Ferment.Works. or excuse me, they can also be found at Ferment.Works. Kirsten and Christopher, welcome back to the Off The Grid Biz Podcast.

    Christopher and Kirsten: Thanks, Brian.

    Brian: Why don't we just start out by kind of going over your new book, tell us tell us what led you to write this new one on cidermaking.

    Christopher: Well this is the one I wanted to write from the very beginning, we bought a hand press on the farm 20 some years ago when we moved here. And so we've been making a lot of cider since that time and that's my favorite ferment by far.

    So we just had to do a few 100,000 other books before we could do this one. Yeah, and it's cider season, we have cider apples on the farm. So all those reasons why.

    Brian: Was this one of the original fermentation experiments that you guys went with or how did it come about?

    Christopher: This is one of the ferments that we did for ourselves, we had a lot of apple trees and so we we made cider for ourselves. The Founding Fathers would let you make 200 gallons for yourself and we came darn close nearly every year.

    Friends and family, I trained as a cider maker. And we were going to do cider instead of fermented vegetables and all that other stuff.

    When I learned that to run a little cidery, the most important thing is you can repair equipment, used equipment, I can look at a pipe and it'll start to leak. So I'm good with grey tape and after that it falls down. So I said to Kirsten, I love drinking it, I love making it, but I'm not so sure we're going to be a good small cidery. And that's how all the other fermentation stuff started.

    But in the response back from the book so far, it's been really positive.

    Kirsten: Yeah, I think this one's much easier lift than the last one.
    40 min
  • Corwin Bell & Karen Sadenwater – BackYardHive


    Corwin Bell

     

    Karen Sadenwater

     

    Established in 2005, BackYardHive is committed to bee-centric practices that increase the survivability of colonies through their Bee Guardian Methods.

    Corwin Bell and Karen Sadenwater join us to talk about their transition from starting out as computer animation to developing a deep passion for beekeeping from observing bee behavior, to help save the bee and teach others how to safely help our friendly flyers today, and in the future!

    Checkout their leading innovation products like the Cozy Cover and the Cathedral Hive, while soaking up quality information at their site below!

    Checkout BackYardHive Today - https://backyardhive.com/
    Transcription
    Brian: In 1995, Corwin Bell started keeping bees due to a longtime fascination with this delicate pollinator. Along with Karen Sadenwater, Corwin founded BackyardHive.com in the spring of 2005.

    They are committed to be centered practices that increase the survivability of colonies.

    If the bees are cared for by applying the Bee Guardian methods that they teach, then the survival genetics and healthy behavioral traits will be preserved within the gene pool.

    Backyard Hive was the first to offer backyard beekeepers, online resources, training DVDs, and information about getting started in a lifetime of top bar beekeeping. They realize the need early on and became the very first organization to make available fully assembled top bar hives on the web.

    BackyardHive.com is committed to sharing knowledge and top bar hive technologies that encourage and enable backyard beekeepers to be successful and completely chemical free.

    Corwin and Karen, welcome to the Off The Grid Biz Podcast.

    Corwin & Karen: Hey, Brian.

    Brian: It's great having you here. Why don't you let us know a little bit about what it is that you do?

    Corwin: Well, we have a business called BackYardHive. And it's about teaching natural beekeeping for people that are gonna keep bees in their backyards.

    So we do classes, we do intensives, we innovate in the bee space. Have two of our own design hives we've worked on over the years, and pretty much in unnatural beekeeping is our thing without using you know, chemical treatments at all or smoke or sugar. So we really promote that. That's pretty much what BackYardHive is doing.

    Karen: Yeah, we really want to teach people that method, you know, backyard beekeeping and natural beekeeping and treatment free.

    Brian: Well, that's fabulous. So you started the website in 2005, right?

    Corwin: Yeah.

    Brian: And tell me about what led up to that, what was your life up till that point?

    Corwin: Well, yeah, it's funny, because when someone says, oh, you're a beekeeper, I'm like, no, no, I'm a bee researcher more than anything. And even then it's odd that I'm doing bees.

    I started off in the film industry doing TV commercials. Then I moved into doing game design for computer games. I was the first one to put out a computer game on CD ROM for Hanna Barbera called Page Master. It came out on the same weekend that Lion King did so I just crushed our game on the endcaps. But it was great game.

    Then, I kept working in the game genre that we work in is called serious games.

    Karen: And games for health.

    Corwin: And games for health.

    42 min
  • Charles Wiley – Corn Man Chapter 2: Corn Inc. Cometh
    Charles Wiley

     

    Corn Man Chapter 2: Corn Inc. Cometh

    Charles Wiley is back with us to talk about the Chapter 2 of the Corn Man story - Corn Inc. Cometh, as well as what sparked his idea for International Corn Man Day! 

    Checkout Chapter 2 and all things Corn Man at the link below. 

    https://cornmanofficial.com/shop/
    Transcription
    Brian: Charles Wiley has been writing music and playing drums for 25 years. He currently lives in Los Angeles and plays with various bands and artists including rock band Dark Horse, Rising Riot, award winning singer songwriter Chris Angeles, and Americana band Circa 62.

    In addition to playing drums, he also writes music for television. His music has been played on Oprah, Dateline, NBC Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Dr. Oz Show, The Young and the Restless and more.

    Charles created the Corn Man project to bring awareness to how much corn is in everything we eat. Corn Man is an ongoing action adventure children's book series, and progressive rock concept album, Charles was inspired to call attention to the issue using music and humor.

    Corn Man hopes to be the conversation starter and tackling the complex issues surrounding the food industry, the environmental impacts of it, and the unsustainable nature of how we eat and grow food.

    Charles Wiley, welcome back.

    Charles: Thank you so much Brian, and pleasure to be back. I'm really excited.

    Brian: For those of you who are listening, you may remember Charles from an earlier episode and we'll link to that in the description, where we first met him met the Corn Man project, and what's that's all about.

    And now we're kind of getting back together and being updated on what's happening in his world, his upcoming book, which is Corn Man Chapter Two.

    So that should be out in paperback next week. At the time of when we're recording this by the time you hear it, it may already be out.

    Charles: That's the hope.

    Brian: Yeah. So let's go right into it.

    We were talking a little bit before and you had mentioned, International Corn Man Day, just celebrated. So why don't you tell us a little bit about what that is?

    Charles: Well, that was yesterday. And I had this idea, How can I bring more awareness to what the Corn Man project is about, and what it's doing at one time?

    I thought, well, let's have a day, a Corn Man Day. And I liked the way Corn Man day sounds. But for some reason, International Corn Man Day, just had a more grand name.

    I was like, I like that, plus two, I do have people that support the project overseas. And you and I both know, tackling our food system, the environment, it's a worldwide solution that we're looking for. It's not singular to the United States or to any other place.

    So I said, let's do International Corn Man date. And my goal was two fold.

    One, I wanted to help people find one small thing that they could maybe implement into their lives that would help reduce the amount of processed corn and their food. In September,
    34 min
  • Tom Watkins – Murray McMurray Hatchery
     

    Tom Watkins - Murray McMurray Hatchery

    Murray McMurray Hatchery

    Specializing in heritage and rare breed chickens for small backyard flocks and homesteading family's.

    Join us as we talk with Tom Watkins from Murray McMurray Hatchery about life and times working in a long-time owned family company and just how does it work to have live animals shipped to customers doors!

    For more about Murray McMurray Hatchery and what they have to offer, please checkout their website below!

    Murray McMurray Hatchery - https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/index.html
    Transcription
    Brian: Thomas Watkins is vice president and McMurry Hatchery.

    He's been working at the hatch for eight years. No previous chicken experience but now he's something of a chicken expert. McMurray Hatchery is a family owned small business, but they just happen to hatch a lot of chicks.

    They specialize in heritage and rare breed chickens for the small backyard flocks and homesteading families. Thomas Watkins, welcome to the Off The Grid Biz Podcast.

    Tom: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

    Brian: So why don't you tell us a little bit more about what it is that you do?

    Tom: Like you said, I'm the vice president here. It sounds impressive. It really isn't.

    That's part of being a small family company.

    You might get a big title, but I'm still the plumber. I do a lot of building maintenance.

    Number one is we have chickens.

    And with that, we raise our own breeder flocks and take care of all the chickens. We hatch the eggs.

    So here we have large commercial incubators and we hatch out about 150 to 200,000 chicks a week and ship them all across the United States. So primarily to small backyard flocks.

    We don't really do anything commercially for that. So it's just people want chickens, you know, a couple of laying hens in the backyard or to produce their own meat or eggs.

    Yeah, you kind of wear a lot of hats.

    Brian: So you said you didn't have previous chicken experience.

    How did you end up here? What's your life story up to this point?

    Tom: I married into it, you would say. My father in law is the president of McMurray Hatchery. So McMurray Hatchery has been around for a little over 100 years now.

    All right here in Webster City, Iowa. So we're in the heart of Iowa. And while the McMurray's are all gone, went through Murray McMurray and his sons John and Charles and then his grandson Murray MacMurray took over and he had two business partners.

    And those two retired and it was my father in law Bud Wood and said eight years ago, I came on with really no intention of being any management plan just to kind of help around and work my way up, you'd say, oh, pretty quickly.

    It's, you know, helps when your father in law is the boss, but you just kind of jump in with everybody. We're really lucky, we have a lot of great help. Because it's all hands on deck when you deal with live animals.

    So we work really hard when you need to work. And then, you know, take time off later.

    Brian: Yeah.

    Tom: Oh, absolutely. Yeah I don't know and now, you just answered enough questions, you can be your own chicken expert.

    Brian: Good deal well, and it fits into the crowd that you're playing into, because it's what they're all attempting to do, right. They they're going from quite possibly not knowing anything about chickens to raising them and so fo...
    31 min
  • Gianaclis Caldwell – Pholia Farm
    Gianaclis Caldwell

    Holistic Goat Care

    Some people are just experts in the subjects they excel in.

    Others are experts with a joy for helping others and learning from those they interact with.

    Tune into this podcast and checkout some of the links below, and it won't take long to get an impression that Gianaclis is the latter.

    Now, I could spend time talking about her love for Nigerian Dwarf Goats here.

    Or perhaps her extensive knowledge in Cheesemaking.

    Possibly even her 6 nonfiction books or her ventures into fiction writing.

    Maybe you'd even like me to spill the beans on her thoughts on speaking and teaching classes?

    Well I'm not going to do that, no, not at all.

    But if you want to know more about the subjects we cover in this episode, please checkout the links below, because Gianaclis is someone you'll want to follow and learn from!

    Checkout Gianaclis's books, future classes, consults and more at her website and Facebook page -

    https://gianacliscaldwell.com/

    https://www.facebook.com/gianaclis/

    For more about Pholia Farm - https://pholiafarm.com/
    Transcription
    Brian: Oregon native Gianaclis Caldwell grew up milking cows, but was lowered to the goat side where she remains a committed devotee. She was a commercial cheesemaker at the Caldwell Off Grid Dairy Pholia Farm for over 10 years.

    She now milks her Nigerian dwarf goats just for pleasure. In between writing books in which he has six, speaking, and judging cheese, which she considers the most fun.

    Gianaclis Caldwell, welcome to The Off The Grid Biz Podcast.

    Gianaclis: Well, thank you, Brian. Thanks for having me.

    Brian: Yeah, so why don't you tell us a little bit about what it is that you do on a regular basis?

    Gianaclis: Oh, gosh, it sure varies from day to day. And I was just talking to my mother about people who are drawn to this kind of life really have to be nonlinear, because you just can't really schedule your day or your week sometimes with animals and farm life and that sort of thing.

    So still milking the goats, you were very correct and I do it for pleasure, love having them can just working with the animals. We've been breeding the Nigerians now since 2003, and have developed a good name for the breed or as a breeder, I should say, of Nigerian dwarfs. Particularly for strong, long milking animals and with good milk production for that breed.

    And that's, that's something that's hard to imagine. And we're getting older now, of course, as we all do. But it's difficult to imagine giving up but that process of working on a breed and all those those genetics and all those improvements, and of course, there's this addiction that every goat person will confess to.

    I think about waiting for those babies to come every year. And goat babies are there's a good reason that they're all over YouTube and such.

    They're they're so appealing, and they pretty much stay that way as adults.

    So we work our local farm is mostly a pleasure farm now, we do Airbnb with a couple of farms days we have, and that keeps us busy also, but it's a great income stream for the farm supplement a lot of the feed bills and that sort of thing.

    And then working on books, which you said correctly, six nonfiction books and now I'm switching to what was originally my first passion which is trying to and I say that becaus...
    36 min
  • Jason Smith – Adventures In Homebrewing
    Jason Smith - Adventures In Homebrewing & Austin Homebrew Supply



    From experiments in brewing while serving in the Army to now over 20 years in the Homebrew industry, Jason Smith joins us to talk about the joy of Homebrewing and fermentation.

    Checkout Jason's fine websites to help you in your homebrewing adventures today!

    Adventures In Homebrewing - https://www.homebrewing.org/

    Austin Homebrew Supply - https://www.austinhomebrew.com/
    Transcription
    Intro: Jason Smith is the owner of Adventures In Homebrewing.

    It all started when he was brewing beer in 1992. While serving in the army in 97, he left the army and moved back to Detroit to pursue pharmacy school. While preparing for school, he realized the lack of competition in the homebrew market in Detroit and opened up his own shop in 1999.

    Over the last 20 years, his business has evolved into both retail and online sales as well as producing their own warehouse management system. So the gap year that he took off from pharmacy school has actually been over 20 years now, but it's been quite a rollercoaster ride.

    Jason Smith, welcome to The Off The Grid Biz Podcast.

    Jason: Thanks for having me.

    Brian: So why don't you let everyone know a little bit about what it is that you do?

    Jason: My name is Jason Smith. I own Adventures In Homebrewing and Austin Homebrew Supply. We do homemade beer making, wine making, cheese making, distilling of products.

    We have guests that do soap making, soda making to kind of anything that you would make at home. As far as beverage supply goes for sure.

    Brian: How did you end up of all things in the home brewing industry?

    Jason: It's kind of crazy. I started out in the Army. And when I started, I wanted to make wine with the guys in the Army. And they're like wine, How about beer?

    Well, I suppose we could do that.

    So we got involved with some beer making.

    I worked in a pharmacy. We had lab equipment available to us, of course. So we started culturing a lot of our own yeast doing different things in the beer making side of it. We really didn't have what's available today.

    Internet access, we couldn't just order something.

    It was a lot of finding where can we get grains, where can we get hops? And then of course with the yeast we started culturing a lot of it within the labs at the hospital at the time, I did that for some time, started a small homebrew club at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, did some fun stuff with that.

    And then as I left the military, I got home, I was gonna go back to school for pharmacy.

    When I got home, there was a couple small shops, but nothing really, that had bar equipment and you know, the kegging equipment and just the bigger items that were available.

    I just had a larger vision of what home brewing could be versus what the local shops had had. Says talking to a friend one night over beer, of course, and kind of determined that we could do a better job than what was currently available in Michigan.

    So the first thing we did was kind of that ESPN mentality.

    Well, we can open this in Michigan, but there's a whole world out there. Let's jump on the internet and make sure that we are getting out to everybody. We started collecting email addresses, phone numbers, names,
    34 min
  • Petra Page-Mann – Fruition Seeds
    Petra Page-Mann - Fruition Seeds



    In our opinion, Petra Page-Mann is one of the top communicators in the self reliance and DIY organic gardening fields.

    Join us for a terrific conversation on why personality marketing and quality education can help differentiate you from big corporate companies. As well as some heart felt thoughts on current events in America today.

    Head over to Fruition Seeds for helpful tips on gardening and be sure to grab some organic seeds to start growing now! - https://www.fruitionseeds.com/
    Transcription
    Brian: Petra Page-Mann is the co-founder and storyteller at Fruition Seeds. Growing up in her father's garden, Petra believes each seed and each of us is in the world to change the world. Her passion, curiosity, love of food and love of people led her all over the world studying seed, song and culture worth celebrating.

    In 2012 she co-founded Fruition Seeds with her beloved partner Matthew, to share the seeds, knowledge and inspiration gardeners crave to amplify our individual as well as collective abundance in our short seasons.

    Petra, welcome to the Off The Grid Biz Podcast.

    Petra: Why thank you, my friend. It's a joy to join you.

    Brian: Awesome.

    So how did you end up here? What's your life story up to this point?

    Petra: I really like to eat and I've been fortunate enough to eat a lot of wonderful things and somehow it just keeps happening and so I am to share all of those seeds and all of these meals with all the people so we can all keep growing.

    I grew up in my father's garden here in the Finger Lakes of Western New York. And if you'd asked a little seven year old Petra, what she loves to do, I wouldn't have told you gardening.

    I also wouldn't have told you brushing my teeth. It was just something that we did.

    And I took seed saving for granted as well.

    Now, if you want to sow some seeds, you should save some right?

    So I'll profoundly be so grateful for that gift that my father gave me my entire life. And as I, you know, became a teenager and became more aware of the world around me and really just deeply concerned by the patterns that I was seeing.

    I realized that agriculture was kind of this intersection of a lot of my passions of being outside of eating but I've also like soils and justice, and all of these wonderful things and seeds are kind of the seed of it all right?

    And seeds are this just epic metaphor to me of just the growth of the potential the capacity to adapt and change, and kind of that like gift of our ancestors and how we can become good ancestors.

    So I spent over a decade working in kind of the organic seed world, working on farms and also for seed companies. I've worked for some of the smallest seed companies in the world, also one of the largest. And it really galvanized me to know decentralization is so important.

    You know, there are oaks all over so many continents, right. But there are so many different genus species. So many subspecies and the Oaks that we have on this ridge above me, are distinctly different even within that subspecies from five miles down in down in the valley.

    So we must do the same thing as humans, with our economies, with our businesses, with our hearts with how we communicate and organize.

    And so our centralized, highly commodified seed system, food system, you know, it's not broken. It's doing exactly what it was designed to do, which is exploit the marginalized people that have been so profoundly exploited for ...
    51 min
  • Sam Friedman – Chagrin Valley Soap & Salve
     

    Sam & Ida Friedman - Chagrin Valley Soap & Salve

    It all started with a school teacher wanting to help educate students and show people online how to have healthier beauty and wellness options.

    Join us as Sam Friedman takes you on a fun journey from his mother Ida's beginning, to his involvement soon after, all the way up to today as a thriving ecommerce based, natural and organic body care products company.

    Be sure to checkout Chagrin Valley Soap & Salve's quality organic products today - https://www.chagrinvalleysoapandsalve.com/

     
    Transcription
    Brian: Sam Friedman has taken a long and interesting journey on his road to operating an organic bath and body care company. His first passion being music and theater, Sam co-founded and was artistic director of the actual reality Theater Company in Columbus and Cleveland from 1997 to 2001.

    From 2001 to 2004, he took the position of technology director at the Agnon School in Beachwood, Ohio, where he taught second to eighth grade technology and media and was also the family retreat director from 2002 to 2004.

    In 2004, Sam then moved to Madrid, Spain, where he worked with the Spanish government as an English language specialist to diplomatic liaisons.

    In 2007, at the request of his mother, Sam moved back to the US to try and help turn the hobby and small local market business she had started into something bigger.

    Today, Sam is the managing and brand director of Chagrin Valley Soap & Salve. A USDA organic brand that hand-makes over 350 bath skin and hair care products. And he helps lead the natural body care industry as educator spokesman and brand ambassador for one of the globe's finest brands of natural personal care.

    Sam Friedman, welcome to The Off The Grid Biz Podcast.

    Sam: Thank you. Thank you for having me Brian.

    Brian: Yeah, so that's a nice recap of your life up until this point, why don't you let us know a little bit about what you do right now.

    Sam: So right now Chagrin Valley Soap & Salve is a company that makes about 350 organic certified products. We currently have a staff of 19 individuals. We're selling our products through our own website, ecommerce, and in some stores, both small mom and pops and a few larger shops in all 50 states in the US and over 120 some countries across the globe.

    Mostly all small parcels, small packages, mostly direct to people's homes. Of course A few business clients that buy and resell themselves. We make every type of product under the gamut that you could imagine having to do with body care, skin care, taking sort of care of the outside of the body.

    And, you know, at this point, just looking at where we've come from where we've been, it's been a really great journey from the kitchen to a really robust business.

    Brian: What led your mother to go into this business?

    Sam: Well, my mother's background is in science and human biology, because her first job she was a nurse, so she actually went to nursing school for several years and got medical training and then spent a decade working in local hospitals.

    Then after leaving the hospitals, a lot of the reason that happened was because of her not agreeing with some of the standard pharmaceutical care that's out there and the things that are being provided for people as far as the diagnosis and the remedy for what your issue might be.

    That really started spinning in her head because of my stepfather's eczema.

    Eczema is a pretty annoying condition that a lot of folks have, especially here in the US.
    1 hr 2 min
  • Tigger Montague – BioStar US




    Tigger Montague from BioStar US took sometime to sit down and talk us about the companies fine horse and dog supplements, what brought her into the industry from her time in dressage and some of the companies challenges and mindset during the COVID-19 pandemic and how to handle adverse situations.

    Be sure to check her BioStar as well as her Healthy Critters Podcast linked below.

    BioStar USbiostarus.com

    Healthy Critters Podcast healthycrittersradio.com

     
    Full Transcript
    Brian: Tigger Montague is the owner of BioStar, a provider of nutritional supplements for dogs and horses.

    Tigger has been in the supplement industry, both human and animal for 38 years. She competed in dressage as a professional, but had to give that up when she started BioStar.

    She's written two books, has a fine monthly podcast called Healthy Critters and lives on an organic farm in Virginia.

    Tigger Montague, welcome to the Off The Grid Biz Podcasts.

    Tigger: Thank you, Brian.

    Brian: Why don't you let everyone know a little bit about how you ended up here, what's your life's story up to this point?

    Tigger: How much time do you have?

    (laughs)

    Actually, my competition horse it was diagnosed with inflammation of the bursa. The bursa is in the foot and my vet is one of the United States Equestrian Team veterinarians. We tried every drug every modality known to man to get this horse sound, nothing worked.

    He finally said to me, I think we're going to have to nerve him. And that means cutting the nerves in his foot so that he wouldn't feel it.

    The problem with nerves and horses is that the nerve regenerates. So in a year or two, we'd have to go back and nerving him again. So my vet was away at a big show in Calgary, Canada. And I thought, well, you know, this horse is going to have surgery, maybe I should start thinking about preparing his body and I was working at the time as a consultant for a human health food company called Mega Foods, doing a lot of research on raw food, spending a lot of time in California.

    I thought, well, you know, maybe I should just start sprouting some seeds and I had a little dehydrator and I just literally took sprouted seeds, added some papaya, made it into little cookies to hydrated them and start feeding them my horse. To make a long story short, in about three weeks I saw an improvement.

    And then my vet came and he couldn't believe it.

    He said, wow, if you can do something with nitric oxide, you might be onto something. I didn't really know what nitric oxide was, but it turns out it's the master circulatory molecule of the body.

    There are certain foods that are very high and an amino acid called arginine.

    Arginine is a precursor or a substrate for nitric oxide production.

    So I started looking at foods that were high in arginine, and they always contain lysine.

    I realized that in nature, those two amino acids are always together. Now some foods are high in lysine, low in arginine and others are high and arginine low in lysine. But when I sorted out the high arginine foods and made them into a cookie if you will, just to dehydrated them. And feed them to my horse, he came sound.

    I went, whoa. okay, okay, there's really something to this food. And that start that started the journey.

    Brian: Wow, that's incredible. So how did that know into a business for you?

    31 min
  • Joe Rieck – Emergency Essentials




    Looking past the amazement of people lining up for full carts of toilet paper in the month of March. The real underlining concern for most Americans was for safety for their loved ones yes, but also an all too real lack of practical preparedness.

    Join us today as Joe Rieck of Emergency Essentials (BePrepared.com) shares what life has been like since sales started to climb in the month of February. From challenges the company has faced to the customer letters of gratitude Joe's received that help him and the staff know they are making a difference in tough times.

    Our hopes align with Joe's that in light of these challenges, people will view preparedness as a practical and safe thing to do in the future.

    Find out more at their website and be sure to pickup a QSS certified, 1-Month Food Supply - https://beprepared.com/

    Full Transcript
    Brian: Joe Rieck is the VP of sales for Emergency Essentials. It can be found online at BePrepared.com.

    He's been involved with emergency preparedness for over 14 years, and he has helped thousands of people to become better prepared. Joe Rieck, welcome to the Off The Grid Biz Podcast.

    Joe: Hey, thanks Brian for having me on. It's a pleasure to be here with you.

    Brian: So why don't you let everyone know a little bit about what it is that you do?

    Joe: Okay, so emergency essentials, we specialize in long-term emergency food, and this usually consists of freeze dried items as well as dehydrated items. We have a wide selection of fruits, vegetables, meats, ready made meals, MRE's, we have a wide selection of emergency gear, 72 hour backpacks, water filtration systems, anything you can kind of think that you might need an event of an emergency or disaster. We try to have you covered.

    Brian: Great.

    How did you personally end up here? What's your life story up to this point?

    Joe: Well, you know, about 10 to 11 years ago, I was involved with a company that we started a long-term food storage company that grew. And we ended up selling that off a couple years ago.

    Typically once companies get in the hands of private equity groups, the mission kind of changes a little bit.

    I was lucky enough to be found with a group called Emergency Essentials. And I've been here for over two years. It's a great little company, we're a privately held, there's no private equity group that is responsible for to.

    We have one owner and that's the only person that we listen to, and that we kind of take advice from. And so it's very, very simple.

    We try to just be there for our customers the best that we can. So I actually love what we do here at Emergency Essentials and it's been a lot of fun over the past couple of years.

    Brian: Oh, fabulous.

    So what where do you find new customers at?

    Joe: Well, let me just tell you right now they're coming out of the woodworks with this whole COVID-19 pandemic that we're going through. It's like, a flip was switched and everybody in the world kind of became well aware of the need to have a backup plan.

    As you can imagine, with this COVID crisis that's going on just our industry, our business, I mean, we've been hit tremendously hard, you know, in a positive way, because the amount of interest that we have in our products. And so it means it's caused a little bit of hiccups from a business perspective as far as having the capacity to produce and to make the food and to get it packaged and prepared and shipped out, which caused some trouble that way as far as having a backorder list.

    But as far as the knowledge and the need to educate people, the media has done a great job of showing what happens in the event of a disaster w...
    28 min

About Off-the-Grid Biz Podcast

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If you’re someone who refuses to go along to get along; If you question whether the status quo is good enough for you, your family, and your future; If you want to leave this world better off than…