Off-the-Grid Biz Podcast

Episode 021.

How do you gauge success? Are you positive regarding your future? Are you persistent?

Scott Smith invented the "Earth 2 Earth Compost Pail" while still working full time in construction. He is now trying to spread the word of how important composting is, and how simple the process is using kitchen scraps and small garden trimmings.

Though new to business, Scott's passion and drive will inspire you. Listen Now!

Go to Scott's website for more - https://www.earth2earthcompostpail.com/

Find out the business events secrets for growing and strengthening ANY company: http://brianjpombo.com/secrets/

 

Full Transcript

Scott: Met some very nice people had a great time.

Did it really help my business? Time will tell.

If you're a business, you need to get out there and meet your customers.

Podcast Intro: If you're someone who refuses to go along to get along, if you question whether the status quo was good enough for you and your family. If you want to leave this world better off than you found it and you consider independence a sacred thing. You may be a prepper, a gardener, a homesteader, a survivalist, or a farmer or rancher, an environmentalist or a rugged outdoorsman.We are here to celebrate you whether you're looking to improve your maverick business or to find out more about the latest products and services available to the weekend rebel.From selling chicken eggs online, to building up your food storage or collecting handmade soap.This show is for those who choose the road less traveled the road to self-reliance for those that are living a daring adventure, life off the grid.

Brian: Scott Smith has been in the commercial construction industry for over 40 years building quality projects that have provided his customers years of trouble free use.

That same pride and workmanship is exactly what's led him to inventing the Earth 2 Earth Compost Pail, hoping he can help every homeowner to compost and do their part to help the environment.

Scott Smith welcome to the Off The Grid Biz Podcast.

Scott: Thank you.

Brian: Hey, besides what we heard in your bio, tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.

Scott: I'm a construction Superintendent by trade I've been in construction business all my life. Was raised to where you do a job right? Try to the best job you can, you know, get up early, go to work every day, try to earn your paycheck.

And you take pride in what you do. Kind of how I live my life by you know, I mean, and if something's not done, right, tear it apart. You fix it. No, you make it right.

You know what I mean, because if it don't work, what good is it?

So that's kind of the idea behind Earth 2 Earth compost pail. I spent a couple years making them redesign them. So they work right so they're easy to use.

So the handles are right, so it does what it's supposed to do. Trying to provide the average homeowner a product that is easy to use, affordable, and it does exactly what it's designed to do, you know help you compost all your organic organic kitchen scraps.

Every person can do their part to try to help do a little bit to help the environment.

Brian: Awesome. So what actually led you to building the compost pail?

Scott: It started from a phone call. A friend of mine is a truck driver.

Episode 020.

Have you used live events to promote your business, your book or your speaking career?

Podcast Host Brian J. Pombo and Producer Sean E. Douglas attended the Mother Earth News Fair in Albany, Oregon from Saturday, August 3rd to Sunday, August 4th 2019. Located at the Linn County Fairgrounds, Brian and Sean give their reactions, thoughts and tips for attending and profiting off of shows and expositions like the Mother Earth News Fair. Listen now!

Find out the business events secrets for growing and strengthening ANY company: http://brianjpombo.com/secrets/

Full Transcript

Brian: How many people do you think actually put their email address down off of that crowd from what you could tell Sean.

Sean: If we're playing the game. So if you understand the 80/20 principle. 80 percent of the crowd was signing up for it, which pretty much blew me away, every single time I saw that. From my observation, I was definitely making note of that.

Podcast Intro: If you're someone who refuses to go along to get along, if you question whether the status quo was good enough for you and your family. If you want to leave this world better off than you found it and you consider independence a sacred thing. You may be a prepper, a gardener, a homesteader, a survivalist, or a farmer or rancher, an environmentalist or a rugged outdoorsman.We are here to celebrate you whether you're looking to improve your maverick business or to find out more about the latest products and services available to the weekend rebel.From selling chicken eggs online, to building up your food storage or collecting handmade soap.

This show is for those who choose the road less traveled the road to self-reliance for those that are living a daring adventure, life off the grid.

Brian: Alright, welcome back to the Off The Grid Biz Podcast. Today's episode is going to be quite a bit different because what we're doing instead of interviewing somebody from the outside, I have producer Sean E. Douglas with me.

He also joined me in Albany, Oregon for the Mother Earth News Fair.

And we're going to talk about our experiences there.

First, we're going to go off of why we went. What made this one standout in our mind of something that we wanted to highlight on the show, and go to when it happened this year.

And really, that comes back to an episode with Brad James from BeePods.com.

He's the one that mentioned Mother Earth News Fair off of the podcast, we had a small conversation with him about how he got involved with them and was giving a speech at one of the other events.

So that led us to look a little further into Mother Earth News Fair. We were very familiar with the magazine. And as we were looking into it, we noticed a number of speakers that had all the media capabilities.

They had been on podcasts before many of them had, many of them had written books. And it was something that was interesting to us that we wanted to explore via the podcast.

So in leading up to the actual fair itself, we decided to start emailing and calling some of these people and seeing if they'd be willing to be interviewed on the show.

Sure enough, they did.

As you may have heard up until now, and if you haven't, go back and listen, we had 11 episodes with a different interview on each episode, all from different backgrounds, some of them writers, some not.

We produced them over a very short period of time in order to hit that deadline of the show itself.

The last one that you may have heard with from Jereme Zimmerman was taken at the show itself.

So you got to hear us on location and it was interesting,

Episode 019.

Are you willing to break the barriers of your "comfort zone?" Is your natural personality holding you back? Were you made for employment or entrepreneurship?

Jereme Zimmerman is a writer and traditional brewing revivalist who lives in Kentucky with his wife, Jenna, and daughters, Sadie and Maisie. In 2015 his book Make Mead Like A Viking was published, and became an unexpected hit! He followed that up with Brew Beer Like A Yeti in 2018.

Our conversation with Jereme goes into his life as a freelance writer and how it has lead him (inadvertently) to publishing books, and giving public speeches about homebrewing and the history surrounding it. His story is interesting and inspiring - Listen Now!

* Find out more about Jereme: http://www.jereme-zimmerman.com/

* Buy & Read his books: http://www.jereme-zimmerman.com/products-1?category=Books

* Follow him on social media

* Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JeremeZimmYeti/

* Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeremeZimm

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeremezimm/

Find out the business events secrets for growing and strengthening ANY company: http://brianjpombo.com/secrets/

 

Full Transcript

Jereme: I almost think I'm just kind of made to do this kind of thing. Same as when I was homeschooling I could I get up in the morning, my dad taught high school English, you'd get up really early, I get up with him do my work, I'd be done by 11 o'clock.

Sometimes, the rest of the day I'd be playing in the woods, doing chores and stuff. And then when my school friends came home, they'd been set in school and I'm like, ready to go.

So it's the idea of just being able to get up. And even though it can be daunting, sometimes at least I know, okay, well, here's a list of what needs to get done.

I'll get as much done as I can and often do my chores now.

Podcast Intro: If you're someone who refuses to go along to get along, if you question whether the status quo was good enough for you and your family. If you want to leave this world better off than you found it and you consider independence a sacred thing.

You may be a prepper, a gardener, a homesteader, a survivalist, or a farmer or rancher, an environmentalist or a rugged outdoorsman.We are here to celebrate you whether you're looking to improve your maverick business or to find out more about the latest products and services available to the weekend rebel.

From selling chicken eggs online, to building up your food storage or collecting handmade soap.

This show is for those who choose the road less traveled the road to self-reliance for those that are living a daring adventure, life off the grid.

Brian: Jereme Zimmerman is a writer and traditional brewing revivalist who lives in Berea, Kentucky. He has been published in various magazines and websites and travels globally to speak on topics such as fermentation, natural and holistic homebrewing, modern homesteading and sustainable living.

He is an avid fermenter and researches extensively into traditional fermentation practices in order to revive lost food arts, and to educate people on how to preserve food using traditional natural and healing ingredients and techniques.

His first book Make Mead Like a Viking was published in 2015.

Episode 019.

Are you willing to break the barriers of your “comfort zone?” Is your natural personality holding you back? Were you made for employment or entrepreneurship?

Jereme Zimmerman is a writer and traditional brewing revivalist who lives in Kentucky with his wife, Jenna, and daughters, Sadie and Maisie. In 2015 his book Make Mead Like A Viking was published, and became an unexpected hit! He followed that up with Brew Beer Like A Yeti in 2018.

Our conversation with Jereme goes into his life as a freelance writer and how it has lead him (inadvertently) to publishing books, and giving public speeches about homebrewing and the history surrounding it. His story is interesting and inspiring – Listen Now!

* Find out more about Jereme: http://www.jereme-zimmerman.com/ * Buy & Read his books: http://www.jereme-zimmerman.com/products-1?category=Books * Follow him on social media * Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JeremeZimmYeti/ * Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeremeZimm * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeremezimm/

Find out the business events secrets for growing and strengthening ANY company: http://brianjpombo.com/secrets/

Episode 018.

How close in proximity do you get to your customer base? What would you do if the world economy went bust? Are you connected with a local customer base, and can you survive independently?

Michael Foley is a farmer, local food activist, and writer. He is the author of Farming for the Long Haul: Resilience and the Lost Art of Agricultural Inventiveness. He takes a historic look at farming, (with a global perspective) and discusses what he considers "good economics" especially regarding small farming.

Are you a homesteader? Do you take it seriously, or is it just a fun hobby? Michael may give you a new perspective of what it means to be self-sustaining.

Are you doing what you love in your business? Do you feel guilty for how EASY it is for you? I think you'll relate with Michael's story regarding writing and teaching. Listen now!

* Find out more about Michael: https://www.anothermadfarmer.org/

* Find out more about Green Uprising Farms: https://greenuprisingfresh.wordpress.com/

* Find out more about the School of Adaptive Agriculture: https://www.school-of-adaptive-agriculture.org/

Find out the business events secrets for growing and strengthening ANY company: http://brianjpombo.com/secrets/

Full Transcript

Michael: That's something that I've emphasized. I work with a lot of young farmers both through the school and through farmers market and through something we created called, the Farmers Guild, that direct sales are really what you've got to do at least as part of your market, if your going to make it.

Podcast Intro: If you're someone who refuses to go along to get along, if you question whether the status quo was good enough for you and your family.

If you want to leave this world better off than you found it and you consider independence a sacred thing. You may be a prepper, a gardener, a homesteader, a survivalist, or a farmer or rancher, an environmentalist or a rugged outdoorsman.We are here to celebrate you whether you're looking to improve your maverick business or to find out more about the latest products and services available to the weekend rebel.From selling chicken eggs online, to building up your food storage or collecting handmade soap.

This show is for those who choose the road less traveled the road to self-reliance for those that are living a daring adventure, life off the grid.

Brian: Michael Foley is a farmer, local food activist and writer. Formerly a political scientist, he now runs Green Uprising Farms in Willets, California with his wife and oldest daughter. He is also a co founder of the School of Adaptive Agriculture, a farmer training program and Willits.

He is the author of Farming For the Long Haul - Resilience and the Lost Art of Agricultural Inventiveness.

Michael, welcome to the Off The Grid Biz Podcast.

Michael: Thanks, Brian. Thanks for having me.

Brian: Yeah. Besides what we read out on your bio, what else can you tell us about yourself and let people know a little bit about who you are and what you do.

Michael: I actually just stepped down as manager of the Willets Farmers Market, which I did for nine years. And that put me in touch with lots of local produce vendors and a few, a few meat producers and I to know the sort of alternative agricultural community.

That doesn't mean bunch of hippies and liberals by any means, though.

Episode 018.

How close in proximity do you get to your customer base? What would you do if the world economy went bust? Are you connected with a local customer base, and can you survive independently?

Michael Foley is a farmer, local food activist, and writer. He is the author of Farming for the Long Haul: Resilience and the Lost Art of Agricultural Inventiveness. He takes a historic look at farming, (with a global perspective) and discusses what he considers “good economics” especially regarding small farming.

Are you a homesteader? Do you take it seriously, or is it just a fun hobby? Michael may give you a new perspective of what it means to be self-sustaining.

Are you doing what you love in your business? Do you feel guilty for how EASY it is for you? I think you’ll relate with Michael’s story regarding writing and teaching. Listen now!

* Find out more about Michael: https://www.anothermadfarmer.org/* Find out more about Green Uprising Farms: https://greenuprisingfresh.wordpress.com/* Find out more about the School of Adaptive Agriculture: https://www.school-of-adaptive-agriculture.org/

Find out the business events secrets for growing and strengthening ANY company: http://brianjpombo.com/secrets/

Episode 017.

How good is your customer service? Do you send REAL people to represent you at events and on podcasts?

Chris White has helped customers with their irrigation needs across the United States as a Sales Representative with DripWorks. Drip irrigation can be a tricky business, and with lots of young people who are first-time gardeners, as well seasoned professionals looking to save water, Chris travels to shows like the Mother Earth News Fair to teach and help people overcome the mystic behind their product. With the economics and ecology behind water conservation, making every drop count matters now more than ever.

How do you educate your customers? How easy do you make for brand new customers to test out and use your products?

Chris represents his company well, and his perspective of the irrigation business is quite interesting. Listen now!

Find out more about DripWorks: https://www.dripworks.com/

Find out the business events secrets for growing and strengthening ANY company: http://brianjpombo.com/secrets/

Full Transcript

Brain: We've got business owners and executives who listen to the show. Do you think that it would be worthwhile for them to plug into events like this, in the same way that DripWorks has been doing?

Chris: Yeah, they're running 15,000 to 20,000 people to these shows, if people are paying to come to that show, which is important because they want to come and they want to learn, and they want to see what's out there. And that's one of the nice things about doing the show.

Podcast Intro: If you're someone who refuses to go along to get along, if you question whether the status quo was good enough for you and your family. If you want to leave this world better off than you found it and you consider independence a sacred thing.

You may be a prepper, a gardener, a homesteader, a survivalist, or a farmer or rancher, an environmentalist or a rugged outdoorsman.We are here to celebrate you whether you're looking to improve your Maverick business or to find out more about the latest products and services available to the weekend rebel.

From selling chicken eggs online, to building up your food storage or collecting handmade soap.

This show is for those who choose the road less traveled the road to self-reliance for those that are living a daring adventure life off the grid.

Brian: Chris White has worked for DripWorks for five years, helping customers from all across the United States with their irrigation needs. He's worked with Master Gardener groups, local school farms, colleges and community and commercial farms, educating them on the importance of conserving water by using drip irrigation.

DripWorks has been in business for almost 30 years and works hard to educate customers and communities on the importance of saving water through irrigation.

Chris White, welcome to the off the grid biz podcast.

Chris: Thanks for having me today, Brian.

Brian: Yeah, happy to have you here.

So besides what we heard about your bio, tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do for your course.

Chris: Well, I work as the outside sales representative. You know, our main goal here at DripWorks is educating the public and our customers on the importance of knowing how to use our product either properly so last for years to come, but also educate him on important to saving water, conserving water and getting basic water where it needs to go.

And as to the plants or trees, or vegetation that they're growing.

Episode 017.

How good is your customer service? Do you send REAL people to represent you at events and on podcasts?

Chris White has helped customers with their irrigation needs across the United States as a Sales Representative with DripWorks. Drip irrigation can be a tricky business, and with lots of young people who are first-time gardeners, as well seasoned professionals looking to save water, Chris travels to shows like the Mother Earth News Fair to teach and help people overcome the mystic behind their product. With the economics and ecology behind water conservation, making every drop count matters now more than ever.

How do you educate your customers? How easy do you make for brand new customers to test out and use your products?

Chris represents his company well, and his perspective of the irrigation business is quite interesting. Listen now!

Find out more about DripWorks: https://www.dripworks.com/

Find out the business events secrets for growing and strengthening ANY company: http://brianjpombo.com/secrets/

Episode 016.

Are you selling physical products? Can you scale fast if necessary? Have you considered adding information, education and/or entertainment to your product line?

Kirsten and Christopher Shockey had a farmer's market-based fermented edibles business (think sauerkraut) that was so popular and grew so fast that Whole Foods Market put in a massive order for their chain of stores! While many would think that was the beginning of a huge product empire, it actually forced them to rethink what they really wanted out of their business.

Years later, they have transitioned to an information-based business, that provides entertaining books, courses and live-training all regard how to make fermented foods of all shapes, sizes, smells and colors.

They have authored 3 great books:

* Fermented Vegetables: Creative Recipes for Fermenting 64 Vegetables & Herbs in Krauts, Kimchis, Brined Pickles, Chutneys, Relishes & Pastes

* Fiery Ferments: 70 Stimulating Recipes for Hot Sauces, Spicy Chutneys, Kimchis with Kick, and Other Blazing Fermented Condiments

* Miso, Tempeh, Natto & Other Tasty Ferments: A Step-by-Step Guide to Fermenting Grains and Beans for Umami and Health

Listen as we discuss their tragedies and triumphs in business, and presenting at shows like the Mother Earth News Fair.

While, in certain spots, this episode is difficult to hear, we've provided a full transcript below. Listen & read now!

Find out more about the Shockeys: http://ferment.works/

Find out the business events secrets for growing and strengthening ANY company: http://brianjpombo.com/secrets/

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT:

You're listening to the Off-the-Grid Biz Podcast. I'm Brian Pombo. I'm going to set the scene for you a little bit with this next interview. You see this all started when I was set to meet one-on-one with Kirsten and Christopher Shockey. This is kind of different because up until this point, I had not done any live interviews with anybody for this podcast. Everything had been done either by phone - we also do it by zoom, which is a digital communication similar to Skype and so being one-on-one, I thought I had all my equipment working properly.

Sadly, I was wrong. After finishing up, I realized that my microphone was not fully plugged in to my recording device. What we ended up with was subpar audio. The conversation I had with the Shockey's was so interesting, was so revealing, that I found it necessary to get as much out of this audio as possible.

What we ended up with is - there are some parts of the audio you may not be able to fully understand what the person's saying. So here's what I did to help resolve the problem: We attempted to get the audio to sound as best as we could and I've added in transcription where you can actually read what everybody is saying. If you would rather read it, go check out the description or go to offthegridbiz.com, and right in the post, you can read every word that is spoken in the podcast. With that in mind, I hope you enjoy this great conversation that I had with the Shockeys.

Brian: Kirsten. Christopher, welcome to the Off the Grid Biz Podcast.

Shockey's: Thank you. Glad to be here.

Brian: So why don't you just let everyone know a little bit about who you are...

Episode 016.

Are you selling physical products? Can you scale fast if necessary? Have you considered adding information, education and/or entertainment to your product line?

Kirsten and Christopher Shockey had a farmer’s market-based fermented edibles business (think sauerkraut) that was so popular and grew so fast that Whole Foods Market put in a massive order for their chain of stores! While many would think that was the beginning of a huge product empire, it actually forced them to rethink what they really wanted out of their business.

Years later, they have transitioned to an information-based business, that provides entertaining books, courses and live-training all regard how to make fermented foods of all shapes, sizes, smells and colors.

They have authored 3 great books:

* Fermented Vegetables: Creative Recipes for Fermenting 64 Vegetables & Herbs in Krauts, Kimchis, Brined Pickles, Chutneys, Relishes & Pastes* Fiery Ferments: 70 Stimulating Recipes for Hot Sauces, Spicy Chutneys, Kimchis with Kick, and Other Blazing Fermented Condiments* Miso, Tempeh, Natto & Other Tasty Ferments: A Step-by-Step Guide to Fermenting Grains and Beans for Umami and Health

Listen as we discuss their tragedies and triumphs in business, and presenting at shows like the Mother Earth News Fair.

While, in certain spots, this episode is difficult to hear, we’ve provided a full transcript below. Listen & read now!

Find out more about the Shockeys: http://ferment.works/

Find out the business events secrets for growing and strengthening ANY company: http://brianjpombo.com/secrets/

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT:

You’re listening to the Off-the-Grid Biz Podcast. I’m Brian Pombo. I’m going to set the scene for you a little bit with this next interview. You see this all started when I was set to meet one-on-one with Kirsten and Christopher Shockey. This is kind of different because up until this point, I had not done any live interviews with anybody for this podcast. Everything had been done either by phone – we also do it by zoom, which is a digital communication similar to Skype and so being one-on-one, I thought I had all my equipment working properly.

Sadly, I was wrong. After finishing up, I realized that my microphone was not fully plugged in to my recording device. What we ended up with was subpar audio. The conversation I had with the Shockey’s was so interesting, was so revealing, that I found it necessary to get as much out of this audio as possible.

What we ended up with is – there are some parts of the audio you may not be able to fully understand what the person’s saying. So here’s what I did to help resolve the problem: We attempted to get the audio to sound as best as we could and I’ve added in transcription where you can actually read what everybody is saying. If you would rather read it, go check out the description or go to offthegridbiz.com, and right in the post, you can read every word that is spoken in the podcast. With that in mind, I hope you enjoy this great conversation that I had with the Shockeys.

Brian: Kirsten. Christopher, welcome to the Off the Grid Biz Podcast.

Shockey’s: Thank you. Glad to be here.

Brian: So why don’t you just let everyone know a little bit about who you are and what your roles are at Ferment Works.