S2E7 - Preserving An Industry w/Vanessa Rundell

Subscriber-only episode

This week in The Biz Dojo, we talk with Vanessa Rundell from Preserved in Bragg Creek, AB.

We'll dive into the challenges in growing your small business, finding work-life balance and coordinating mutually beneficial outcomes with suppliers. Vanessa also shares her joy in finding that two of their items made the list of the Top 25 Best Things to Eat from Avenue Magazine

Then on the Podium, brought to you by Beyond a Beaten Path, we'll talk to the owners of Sasquatch Coffee about some mispronunciations, and ask listeners to take part in providing some of their own challenging words.

So grab a cup of Dojo Dark roast as we dig into another tasty episode of The Biz Dojo.

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Transcript

Seth Anderson: 0:00

Welcome to Episode Seven of The Biz Dojo with Seth and JP JP. This was another fun episode for lack of a better describing word.

JP Gaston: 0:11

I'm gonna try to make it this whole intro without saying amazing or fun, or any of the words that I say cuz it was all of those things, but

Seth Anderson: 0:20

every time you just say those things Oh, shut you. So we were joined by Vanessa rondelle from preserved small business based in Bragg Creek. They do gems, they've got ketchups. And they don't think they I don't know if they actually sell sauces there, but they make sauces. They've also got all the canned goods you could think of and just a really cool little business.

JP Gaston: 0:44

Yeah, I mean, I love jams. Like just love them. And I'm a

Seth Anderson: 0:49

big jam guy. I'm the only one in the house like I jam everyday.

JP Gaston: 0:53

yet. So here's my problem. I don't have jam in my house. Because I don't why cuz I don't want to buy the like pre packaged large company. jams. I love the local stuff. So I need I need to get some preserved. You need to come reserve you need to come out to Bragg Creek and just grab yourself. So now is the last time I had jam. I'll tell you a little story. Last time I had jam in my house. It was because we stayed at a little boutique hotel that had a bunch of mini from a local, a local company. And

Seth Anderson: 1:29

you brought them home with a Sawzall a satchel

JP Gaston: 1:33

case. It was amazing. All of my clothes were just strewn out on the back of the car, my suitcase was filled to fill the jams. With jams. That's funny. No,

Seth Anderson: 1:43

I mean, there's a very easy solution to that much like I drove to our friends at cluck and cleaver for a mother clucker. I am now challenging you to drive out to Bragg Creek and get some preserved I guess

JP Gaston: 1:54

well, after talking to you, Vanessa, my mouth was watering, like the entire episode because we just kept talking about different types of foods.

Seth Anderson: 2:02

Well, there may be like a foodie spin off podcast in the future, folks, because we just love talking about food, honestly, we do. We even when we talk to some of our other guests, we're talking about seven we start down a path.

JP Gaston: 2:15

But this one was relevant, it was really good. Because we got we got to talk a little bit about the industry, some of the challenges that you face as a smaller or medium business, especially in the food industry. And again, things I never would have thought of when I walk into the grocery store and pull some food or produce off the shelf, we dove into it.

Seth Anderson: 2:35

Yeah, and I think it was just great to have an S on and get her perspectives on it. She's been a chef, you know, basically her entire working career something like 15 years, and she's got that background, the whole premise of their business is to create a quality product for people, you know, which is what I respect in any business, right? If you're creating a quality product, then usually I'm in on whatever that is. And then I think just her passion around, like taking by local to the next level is what I'm going to call it which is like source local, helping the you know, the farmers in Alberta get their products on the shelves into the the I wanted to say restaurants, I mean, you could say restaurants, but the grocery stores in Alberta selling products that are not only made here, but also grown here, I think is a pretty cool cause.

JP Gaston: 3:20

And because of what she's doing year round, right? Like when you preserve something, now you've extended the life of that food so that you don't have to, you know, we talked about a few foods that just would never make it into the grocery store because they're so delicious and tender. But when you turn them into a gym or you preserve them, they suddenly can get on the shelf. And they can be a product that you buy, whether it's you know, the middle of July or the middle of February when it's minus 40 for a week.

Seth Anderson: 3:49

Well, if we've learned anything through COVID having a few items on the shelf isn't isn't a bad plan. So, you know, and especially, I don't know, I like I've increasingly like COVID one thing it's brought my attention to is this whole by local and supporting local companies. And I do think it's important and it's it's great that we you know, have an opportunity to share some of those local stories because I think they're meaningful and they matter. Yeah, absolutely. You know, without further ado, let's let's get into it with an ESA.

JP Gaston: 4:19

Alright, here's the steadies to get us there.

Voiceover: 4:42

This week on the pod. We talked to Vanessa rundale from preserved we'll talk about working with suppliers, finding work life balance and having two of the top 25 best things to eat. Then the podium brought to you by beyond a beaten path. We'll talk to you our friends at Sasquatch coffee. about some commonly mispronounced words. So whether you're from Calgary or Cal Gary, from Spokane, Washington to verse sallys, France, you're listening to The Biz Dojo with Seth and JP.

Seth Anderson: 5:28

Welcome to the dojo this week we're chatting with Vanessa Randell owner of preserved Welcome to the dojo. Vanessa, thanks for having me. We're super excited. Super excited to have you. I think I ended up reaching out to you guys because I was in your store right before Christmas and you actually weren't even there. It was your fiance,

Vanessa Rundell: 5:47

right? My fiance here was was likely working the store.

Seth Anderson: 5:51

He was working in the store and we were out Christmas shopping in the days leading up to the COVID lockdown right before that all kind of went down. And we came across this delightful little store in the Bragg Creek strip mall. I guess you would call it filled with a bunch of jellies and catch ups and fetch or no vegetables, I guess canned goods. And I just thought you know what, this seems like a pretty cool place and I should get the owner on the pod. And here we are. Well, I'm so glad you stopped in. Yeah, so what? What's your story? What? What? How did you end up owning a shop in Bragg Creek? I guess? Let's start there.

Unknown: 6:32

Um, well, I started preserved about two years ago, my background was always in food. I was a fine dining chef restaurants for about 15 years leading up to this. No, me and my sister decided to go out to the farm one day and learn how to Can she called me? Hey, would. Wouldn't it be fun if we went out to the farm and learned how to make some pickles

Seth Anderson: 6:51

sounds like a sisterly thing to do. Yeah,

Unknown: 6:55

that really kind of escalated. We call it can fest it's like a family event. We'll go to the farm for like four days and can our body weights and vegetables and drink our body plates and homemade wine. And after about the fifth year of that we walked away with about 800 jars of food and thought well now what are we going to do with all of this?

Seth Anderson: 7:15

Just as an aside before what is Is there like a crazy thing that you've canned or something you've canned that turned out to be extra delicious that you weren't expecting or any cool canning stories. I guess

Unknown: 7:25

I try to keep what I do to be easily marketable products. But definitely my mom with her farm background has canned whole chickens, many times whole chicken.

JP Gaston: 7:38

Like I'm trying to picture just getting it into the cam.

Unknown: 7:41

Do you hear a bunch of cracking noises just getting it? And then No, no, it's very monotone and beige and makes a

JP Gaston: 7:54

it's more of a slur on the way out. Yeah, yeah.

Seth Anderson: 7:58

That's, that's fun. I the only reason I ask is because my wife is. I want to say I feel like maybe they've been counting longer than I remember. But they've recently we're counting at our house a while back and they canned grapes, I think and my grandma was just completely perplexed that she had canned grapes. So anyway, chickens. I was not expecting that answer.

JP Gaston: 8:20

I'm glad you didn't say turkeys.

Seth Anderson: 8:23

Awesome. So sorry. We've totally gone off route. So you're in the canning game and you're like, Huh, what do I do next?

Unknown: 8:29

Yeah, and then that kind of stage it was I'd made a lot of really great relationships with you amazing farmers around Alberta through the restaurant industry kind of dawned on me that you know Alberta we don't have added value products from our local farmers in our grocery stores and we don't have access to Alberta grown produce year round. So I decided I would start a business and strictly buy produce directly from farmers within Alberta and make that into a shelf stable product with the end goal of getting into the bigger grocery stores making sure everyone can access these products

Seth Anderson: 9:06

see really like taking that the whole biological thing to like the nth degree right and then value chain of local producers and products made here in Calgary. I am trying my darndest Yeah, has there been more roadblocks? Or is it been more difficult than maybe you anticipated? Because I'm sure you head into that with like the, the dream and the vision of here's what I'm going to do, I'm going to be you know, sort of a local Crusader for this and then you kind of get into it, what have been some of the roadblocks

Unknown: 9:35

Um, so the roadblocks are really I'm just starting to kind of hit them now. Right now I'm at like year three of this business and at first, right like it was just me in a rental kitchen that I'd work out of three days a week for maybe eight hours on average, just make all the products myself in small batches and waterbath can and now I'm kind of getting to grow stage where I'm looking into bigger production runs and getting into Co packing type event where I personally can't actually keep up with production needs. The issue in Alberta with food manufacturing is that we're not really got lots of great opportunities for small, small businesses, and we have lots of great facilities for huge businesses. And we don't really have a good middle ground facility. And access to those types of facilities. Our big manufacturing plant in Alberta is called the Alberta food manufacturing plant, and it's outside of laduke. Their minimum run for anything in a jar is 2500 pieces. So for a startup, it's really hard to make that kind of leap. And then within the laduke facility, the street from barber purchase produce often doesn't have the trackability of produce that you would buy frozen from a large food supply chain, like Gordon food services, or Cisco. So when I go to the local Saskatoon farm and buy saskatoons, directly from where they're grown, I often can't take those saskatoons to our major food production facility.

Seth Anderson: 11:05

And there lies the rub that that would be,

JP Gaston: 11:08

that's crazy. Yeah, you need you actually need more touches on your food, in order for it to be properly trackable to be considered appropriate for a large facility. That's insane,

Unknown: 11:20

isn't it? There's different like certificates and different programs that farmers can use to have that kind of trackability. But for us small to medium sized farm in Alberta, unless they're selling to the major distributors, it's not a profitable option to their business to sign up for these programs. That is crazy. rightfully so for the the major food manufacturers, they need to be able to track these things. If anything goes wrong, or somebody gets sick from a product that was made in their facility, they need to be able to track that back and know who sold the food, who made the food where the food came from, to make sure that we're not making the masses sick. So that

Seth Anderson: 12:01

yeah, that's fair,

Unknown: 12:03

right? Yeah, I think my goal for this year is to kind of bring a few more farmers together and say, collectively, I need you five Saskatoon farmers to come together and all sign up for these programs. And once you do that, I'll promise you, I'll buy 1000s of pounds of your fruit to be able to make that jump.

Seth Anderson: 12:22

That's interesting. So it makes a lot of sense, I guess you're gonna buy the fruit from them. But in order to help you help them, they need to kind of band together and get organized, basically.

Unknown: 12:31

Right, which is how the major food the like when you buy from a major food distributor. It's often not sourced from a single farm. Right. So I guess

Seth Anderson: 12:41

in that example, those local Saskatoon dairy farmers, do they have an option to join some of the bigger conglomerate organizations that exist? And they choose not to? Or is there just not really an option for them? Because they're not really at a certain size and scale? Or how does that gap happen?

Unknown: 12:57

Be honest, I don't think I've ever asked that question. I would suspect I find most farmers to be pretty decent business people. So I would imagine that these are things that they've

Seth Anderson: 13:07

they've explored to some degree and

Unknown: 13:09

what if you own a giant you pick? Like, how much labor are you putting in to have people come to your firm and pick your fruit might be more profitable for them to just have a you pick?

Seth Anderson: 13:18

Interesting. So when you say that that would be your goal this year? I mean, obviously, that that's a big part of your business is sustainability and, and the local element, what other goals do you have just for preserved as a business this year? Obviously, with COVID we've been impacted in every industry, but you know, especially having a brick and mortar shop in a small town, you're probably disproportionately affected in some ways. So what is your sort of, I guess, if you call it a rebound and 2021 what is good look like for you guys

Unknown: 13:50

major goal for preserve this year is to really focus our whole year on having a smoother Christmas season. Our big sales time is November, December, and I probably do 50% of my year sales in those two months. This year. We're just hoping to plan the year towards having a nice smooth Christmas season.

Seth Anderson: 14:13

And you guys do some cool things. Like I said, how I came across you guys was in the Christmas season and you had like it was like a jam pack or something like that where we had three different types of jams all in a nice little wrapping and I think we bought even a couple for our family members. So obviously that's a big time of the year for you guys. How do you come up with like the different packs and things like that to get the customers really interested in and maybe trying something that they might not have tried otherwise

Unknown: 14:37

main goal with all the different packs that we make and we market is both pure and I our background chefs. So for us everything's about food all the time in every aspect of life. So the we pack you know Is everyone likes a jam. And so here's the nice tasting pack with one that's a little bit more tart one that's a little bit more sweet one that's As well with savory items, here's something to make your barbecue season easier or here's how to make your cheese charcuterie pack or your choosing charcuterie board shine with very little effort on the person who's making it, a lot of it was just about making holiday eating easier. how challenging

JP Gaston: 15:18

is it for you to control inventory when you have a system like that, where you've only got a limited window where things are actually coming through to you to be preserved because the growing window in Alberta is certainly not the longest in the country. And then you've got a very short season where you're making half of your incomes coming in and two months,

Unknown: 15:38

we've been running the stores that we have are two different product lines. I've got my main line that I try my hardest to keep around your round. And we also like wholesale that to other stores. Now those products are ones that I specifically chosen that are like our bread and butter pickles are cucumbers that our greenhouse grown. And Gaul Valley ensures me that they can grow these cucumbers year round. Another one is dilled carrots. And we all know that our root vegetables store really well throughout the winter. So there's only about a two month period where I don't have access to carrots and that's actually in the tender vegetable season one other things are coming into season berries when they're ripe, the farmers freeze them so right now February minus 30. Outside I am making jam after gem after gem after gem in hopes that come August when pickling cucumbers are available that I don't have to make jam. So I kind of changed my year around to match what's ripe and available and what can be frozen to make into a product later

JP Gaston: 16:42

this year. In particular, there was lots of challenges but there was challenges that were pretty widespread on the news specifically around things like potatoes did you experience any challenges with any particular produce this year as a result of COVID

Unknown: 16:56

not with any produce my my challenge this year for me was that I wasn't able to get enough and that's because I under projected for my farmers. Usually in January I'll touch base with my farmers and say hey, we sold this much last year I'm hoping that next year we sell this much more Are you able to plant that much produce wise I was totally fine. But with restaurants pivoting to ready made meals and lots of people looking for other ways to supplement their income jars and lids were non existent around October. Still in the heat of canning season. It was timber when there was no lids to be found anywhere in the province and not coming from the manufacturer. And then once lids came around then there was a massive jar.

JP Gaston: 17:45

We got the all these lids but now we're just Yeah, I bet of the two you'd rather be without a lid than without a jar.

Unknown: 17:54

Yeah. And I try to be particular with my my branding and the colors that I use. I have like my clear labels and white ink and I really like my white lives. But then when Liz came back there was only gold ones available. And then I bought a bunch of those and so right now my jars that are on shelves, like have a few different color lids on them but I figured

Seth Anderson: 18:18

limited edition gold lids I mean, who doesn't get to have some fun with it better to have a different color with them no product at all. There you go. Did you think about getting into the the jar and lid industry at any point during that or?

Unknown: 18:32

No we didn't. But it's it would be a great industry to be in and I actually don't see it eating.

Seth Anderson: 18:39

There you go an idea for someone listening to the show today. jars and lids. Who would have thunk it.

JP Gaston: 18:44

I can't imagine that's an easy industry to get into. Overhead overhead.

Seth Anderson: 18:49

There's probably a couple big players. I don't know one of the cool things that you guys had happen this year, you're featured and Avenue magazine top 25 best things to eat. I think PR was actually telling me about it when I was in the store and you guys have a thing up on the window, you want to I think there's a bit of a story behind that, like you had your jam in there. And then sort of a bit of a story and maybe you can want to share that with us.

Unknown: 19:10

So actually, we ended up having two products on on that list of the Top 25 things to eat in Calgary. And I don't think when they were writing the article that they they knew immediately when they chose these products. I also make added value products for my farmers to sell under their own label or as a co branded label. So I work a lot with all Valley growers and I make a lot of salsa just for them. And so within the avenue magazine top 25 was our haskap jam as well as Gall valleys salsa which was super great and I was through the roof excited for that and I was also just through the roof excited to even see my products on the same level of some of the other people who are there that I look up to and I think are so great and people I want to be like

Seth Anderson: 19:58

in the mix of them. And has kept jam is of the three jams I think that were in the pack that one went the quickest was a family favorite in our house for sure.

Unknown: 20:07

It's really neat one and it's one that I talked about a lot in the store because not everybody knows of haskap berries. So it's one I talk a lot if you don't know what haskap Berry will be like our new bigs super fruit here in Alberta. It's native to the tundra, I think Siberia even is where it originally came from. And it's blue in color like a blueberry but maybe it looks like more of an elongated grape has a really thin skin and a super juicy texture underneath, you're likely never going to find it fresh in a store because they're so tender and so juicy that they wouldn't hold up well and one of those like, shells that you get your strawberries in. Yeah, they just have those really great Indigo notes of like plum and blueberry and Blackberry. And then I also use a local honey to sweeten that jam. So it has tart, dark notes, as well as the fresh bright floral notes of honey. It's a fantastic product that

JP Gaston: 21:06

one I'm going to be very hungry by the end of this episode. It already it already started before the episode I was researching and you know, going through your website and things and I was like, Oh, that's sustainable breakfast looks good. local gym looks good. All that delicious. And then as soon as we start talking food, I should know better I should eat before these. That's what I should do. When you were looking through Avenue magazine. Was it a surprise at that point? Or? Or did you already know like, did you turn to you know, page three, and you're like, there's our stuff but then you're like, I wonder what else is in here and you kept turning you're like there's more of our

Unknown: 21:39

I knew a month that the jam would be featured in at that point like someone from Avenue magazine has gotten a hold of me and said like, Hey, can we have a jar of the honeyberry jam? It was called at that point? Do you have like a high rez photo of it? Then they just told me what month it was gonna be in what above and beyond that there was no other communication at the salsa was a surprise they didn't reach out to me for that one.

Seth Anderson: 22:04

That's a pretty good surprise. I don't know JP and I have been toying with the idea of doing like Local Business Awards because we love to eat food and visit cool places. So I don't know if that's that's pretty cool this beyond nonetheless. So congratulations.

Unknown: 22:19

from that list. I was inspired to get my fiance to order me a custom cake on that list was a nine Mopar cake. From sweet relief bakery with a whole nymo bar in the middle. There's non stop food. Yeah, I'm gonna meet that one.

JP Gaston: 22:40

So delightful.

Seth Anderson: 22:42

On on the topic of PIR, you guys also have a children's book, or did he write a children's book to enter? Do I remember that? Right?

Unknown: 22:49

Yes. So he wrote and illustrated a children's cookbook called the munchie munchie cookbook for kids. And that was his third cookbook that he's written and illustrated. That's impressive.

Seth Anderson: 23:00

So what's the inspiration behind that just kind of get kids in the kitchen and get them cooking? Or where's that come from?

Unknown: 23:07

You're interested in cooking and then just the way the cookbook is put together. And then the way you follow a recipe within the bunch of crunchy cookbooks have a lot more illustrations and drawings of what you'll be doing and how you'd be doing it just presented in a way that's more visually appealing to a child and easier for a child to like follow along then you're very standardized cookbook,

Seth Anderson: 23:33

JP I was gonna ask you if Declan is sending me recipes yet, but I guess maybe not.

JP Gaston: 23:39

Declan eats everything. So, which I mean, you may be getting that sense that I eat after the last 37 seconds here but no, he he eats pretty much every and I love to cook so he gets a little everything he loves siracha lovely boy Yeah.

Seth Anderson: 23:56

Wow.

JP Gaston: 23:57

Oh yeah, I make like a like siracha honey passion that I sometimes do with dinner and I made it not even thinking that he would just be grabbing stuff off my plate which is just what kids do. So I don't know why I didn't think it but sure enough hand comes over. Potato disappears off my plate. And you see a Munch and then his face is like oh, I do like that. He grabs another one some broccoli and yeah, like he'll eat everything.

Seth Anderson: 24:26

My my son his first he has like a signature dish. And we talk or he talks about how we're gonna have a family restaurant one day, which I don't think is in my life plan but anyway, we'll see.

JP Gaston: 24:39

Eight Did you plan on having a podcast and a coffee? No.

Seth Anderson: 24:42

Well, it's coffee line more than the podcast which maybe we'll get into that in a minute. But he we created a dish it's called crunchy munchy chicken and he we get like the egg wash and the flour and then we smash up a bunch of munchies like in the big cost. Go back there and coat the chicken in that and that's like his go to dish. He makes it all the time.

Unknown: 25:05

What appears favorite moves is like garnishing things with like treats like hickory sticks or Doritos. Like he'll make chili and then like fresh off the redoes and use that as like crunchy fits on top. So it seems like your son might have a career in cookbook offering.

Seth Anderson: 25:22

He might maybe we need to, you know, collab at some point he can maybe submit, I guess it's on an invention. I don't know that it's his recipe. I mean, but you know, got his tip might as well be Why not? Why not?

Unknown: 25:33

No such thing as a new recipe we've been looking for.

JP Gaston: 25:36

It's like new music. It doesn't exist. every chord progression possible has already been made in some way.

Seth Anderson: 25:43

I am curious though, now that we're on the topic of chips, sort of what's your vibe on chips on a sandwich? Because like I'm a big believer in like, if you have like a Subway sandwich throwing like Doritos on there. That's, that's next level,

Unknown: 25:57

like Miss Vickie's chips on a sandwich is

JP Gaston: 26:01

you know what's really good, is just plain old Lay's or miss Vickie's works to on an egg salad. Because egg salad is so mushy that the crunch is brings

Seth Anderson: 26:13

it all together. Yeah. Oh,

JP Gaston: 26:15

yeah. Oh, yeah.

Seth Anderson: 26:16

I take that. I take that total aside there. But I just you know, I had to, I saw I saw the lane and I took it JP, I just took it straight to the hoop. So JP mentioned there to Vanessa, we've recently embarked on a new venture within The Biz Dojo with our coffee line, which is super exciting. What advice do you have for us in sort of entering this sort of food product space?

JP Gaston: 26:44

Don't go jars, check.

Seth Anderson: 26:48

If I want to know how to put a chicken in a jar, and I'm following up on that, that's a thing I want to know more about. But for the moment, like getting into coffee, what advice would you have for someone starting out with that kind of adventure?

Unknown: 27:00

Honestly, I think just having a product that you love and you stand behind matters the most and having a level of consistency. You don't want to have somebody buy your coffee and love it the first time and buy your coffee a second time. And it's only Okay, consistency. Consistency matters.

Seth Anderson: 27:19

I think that's where we're lucky we're working with. Well, it's actually my aunt and uncle they they've been roasting for a few years now. And that's one thing. They're really good at making coffee. So we've got great coffee, it's got great packaging, they've you know, and we love coffee. Like that's our whole thing is it looks like crazy has been. We have like a $500 order the first day I was like what? Okay, all right, let's do this.

JP Gaston: 27:42

I guess we're purveyors of coffee now.

Seth Anderson: 27:45

Or coffees. Man. That's the thing, though. I don't know where it's gonna go. I mean, to JPS point, if you would have said a year ago that we were going to be on a podcast, slinging coffee and doing stuff we're doing. I don't know. I don't know. But here we are. And we're rolling with it. And we're having some fun. So we'll see.

Unknown: 28:02

way different one year ago, still, it's fine.

Seth Anderson: 28:05

Actually, you hit on something there that though that I was interested in around consistency and getting your customer back for the second time. So it's one thing you know, when someone happens upon your store at Christmas, and you know, ends up buying the Christmas pack, but what's your guys's philosophy? How do you how do you make sure that customer experience is consistent, you know, Time after time

Unknown: 28:24

getting a customer back the second time for us at the store is really just about having a quality product and a product that people love the idea behind and I think a lot of our customers come back because they liked what they ate and really enjoyed it and it went quickly in their house. But also the backstory of buying local and us also buying local is a big driver for having a quality product

JP Gaston: 28:51

and a story that people understand and appreciate you were talking about getting it into some of the larger stores. What does that look like? Cuz I think you know, a lot of our listeners probably don't understand that industry. They you know, they walk into a co op or a no frills and they see there's produce it got here magically I'm gonna buy some and take it home. And they don't know all of the behind the scenes like do you need to know someone in corporate office of a co op or a Safeway? Or like, Is there an avenue in there? Like, how do you how do you get in there?

Unknown: 29:20

I would say maybe five years ago, you needed to know someone in corporate office to get into the grocery stores. But as trends change. Most of the bigger grocery stores now are looking to carry more locally made products and are they're a little bit easier to get in that way. But on their end, you still need to be able to guarantee them that you can hit the numbers that they they need to have to fill our shelves regularly. They need to know you can make X amount of product consistently. For a long time. There's a lot of bargaining on on price. The difference between the wholesale price that they buy from a maker versus the retail price on the shelves is pretty drastic, and they like to make their margins and they make sure that just like a business, they try and talk you down on on your price and tell you that, well, that's your price. And this will be our price, and we won't be able to sell it at that price. There's a lot of that. And as the maker UK in the large grocery stores for product placement. So if you want your products, all those stands at the end of the aisle, if you want your product at eye level in the grocery store, rather than foot level, you'll pay for that. And grocery stores, yeah, again, are getting better about buying directly from the maker, but from there, and it's also easier to buy through a distributor that carries 10 or 15 different small products. He versus her other at the grocery store cannot remember whose order cut off days and minimums are on this day. And that day for for the 1000s of products that they carry. They prefer to work with with a distributor that'll carry 15 small maker's products rather than each individual

Seth Anderson: 31:16

things you probably wouldn't think of when you're starting out and you want to go down that space. So that's super useful information. I think anything else you've learned from that whole thing and dealing with the bigger grocery stores and that kind of thing?

Unknown: 31:28

Not yet. Because I'm just kind of getting into the steps of of getting there, I'm sure there is a lot more to learn.

JP Gaston: 31:36

So in

Seth Anderson: 31:37

our in our follow up episode in season three, we'll learn lots more about Yeah, one thing you know, you sort of have your chef background, which is the core of your business, but then there's also the running of a business part of the business. What are you doing to you know, sort of improve or grow in both of those areas. So you know, you're staying relevant on your, Jeffery, as it were. But also, you know, growing your business acumen and that kind of thing, as you go through all this,

Unknown: 32:10

staying up to date with my my chef side of things. If it weren't for COVID, I'm also the corporate chef for Bradley distributors. So people who sell well, and subzero appliances, they have a really great showroom. And within that showroom, I would host people and teach them how to use the equipment while while feeding them. Like I do cooking classes that way. And that really feeds my my chefs soul, it's a really creative job, and they give me tons of freedom. And so keeps me motivated that way. But then for growing the business since I'm at Pier three. Now, one of my other major goals is to really start working on the business and making the shift this year of working on the business versus working in the business. I'm doing a lot behind the scenes of working on systems of what I do and how I do it and implementing it in a way where I can bring someone in to fill that position. And I'm going to try and do that one at a time until finally, I am not the one who's doing the business anymore, then I'll be able to move to like a product development position within the business. And that would be my position rather than my current one which is lost everything,

JP Gaston: 33:35

every hat.

Unknown: 33:36

Yeah, a lot of hats. And it's been fun wearing them. But it would be cool to see what they look like on other people

JP Gaston: 33:43

is there one one thing in particular that you're like, this is the thing I hate the most, I am going to hire this out immediately

Unknown: 33:53

see a new face in their retail store starting this spring. And not that I hate the retail side of things. It's just the one that's preventing my work life balance, the most would be silly to have a store in a tourist town and not be open on the weekends. But I clearly missed my weekends. particular way in the summer out camping, did a struggle with the work life balance. And that's the one I think that's going to help center me a little bit and help me clear my mind so that I can again focus back into the business better when I am here. You read

Seth Anderson: 34:31

the E myth by chance.

Unknown: 34:33

Um, I've read it once and I just read listened to it audio book, maybe a month or two ago to kind of check back in just today actually, I listened to my first audio book at one and a half times speed. And I was actually driving out to Strathmore and back today and during that time I powered through a book called bilk Ansel, which touched on a lot of the same kind of talk The building blocks of of the E myth.

Seth Anderson: 35:03

Yeah, was when you said working in versus working on the biz. I'm reading it right. It's one of the my three books I have on the go right now. It's it's a good pretty good template for small business for sure.

Unknown: 35:15

Yeah, no, the audio book on 1.5 times was I think it's gonna be a game changer for me this recommendation from a friend and I was like, how do you do that? And today I tried. The E myth is a really good template. I don't think it necessarily works for every small business. But the overarching theme of it is it's something I think anyone with a startup should definitely read over

Seth Anderson: 35:40

someone's like the the premise of it like I think is a good thing to kind of get your head around even if it's just working on the business and not in the business you kind of need to make that transition at some point and I thought that was pretty good guidance. You know, I think we kind of talked about your goals and some of the things at the front but it's been a pleasure having you in the in the dojo today. What what's next for you guys like if you kind of look at the the next little bit ahead, I know you maybe want to summarize that a little bit for us.

Unknown: 36:07

Next, we are launching a new line called mighty pine mixers. We're desperately hoping to drink with friends this summer. There you go. There you go. And we're hoping when we do that, we don't have to spend the time making great cocktails, we can just pre mix them up. So what these are cordials It's a mixer, we'd use one part this one part. Vodka, top of soda. Really great cocktail.

Seth Anderson: 36:33

What was that flavor? rhubarb. habanero?

Unknown: 36:35

Yeah. reuber habanero. We're gonna start with five flavors, rhubarb, habanero peach cobbler. Berry, basil. One called prairie punch. And another spruce tip.

Seth Anderson: 36:48

I don't think I've ever seen rhubarb and habanero in the same sentence before. So that's exciting. Very cool. what's what's the inspiration behind that? I mean, other than wanting to drink with your friends, but just another thing you were passionate about?

Unknown: 37:00

Yeah, we started selling cordials in the store this summer. And they they did really well. They were really fun. they translate to people who want to drink they were well received by people who don't necessarily drink alcohol, but want to have a cool drink when everybody else is having an alcoholic beverage. And again, it pairs well with our food background. So this gives us a lot of fun of like, well, what are we going to cook with our rhubarb habanero cordial, and what are we going to eat with that? And

Seth Anderson: 37:34

that's awesome. Very exciting.

Unknown: 37:36

Yeah. We're hoping to have those launched in May,

Seth Anderson: 37:39

you will be able to get it in the store online. How? I guess that's a good segue. How can people find you

Unknown: 37:44

preserved you can find us in store and through many of your natural food stores within Alberta a big list of them on our website and mighty pine, you'll be able to find online, pine mixers calm, you'll be able to buy the products through the preserve store through mighty pines website. And we're hoping to have our product in a few more stores before launching. But we're just not sure which ones those are yet

Seth Anderson: 38:09

exciting. Well, we'll have to we'll have to keep tabs on that as it goes. And I know we follow each other on social so we'll be we'll be happy to share some of that as it starts to get released and very excited for you guys. That's awesome. Thank you. And now we're we're both in the beverage industry, The Biz Dojo and preserve taking it taking it over. That's what we're up to.

Unknown: 38:28

Next will be a cocktail mixer with your coffee in

Seth Anderson: 38:31

it. Let's Let's do it. Maybe Maybe The Biz Dojo preserved collab in the future, some sort of coffee based something that would be fun. Awesome. Well, thanks so much for joining us today, Vanessa. It's been an absolute pleasure. And we look forward to seeing you guys grow over the next few years here. Thank you so much for having me. It was it was great hanging out with you guys, too, Vanessa.

Voiceover: 38:54

Thanks to Vanessa rundale from preserved for joining us today. Now, stay tuned from the podium. Brought to you by beyond a beaten path. Visit beyond the beaten path.ca.

Seth Anderson: 39:11

All right. Well, this week on the podium, inspired by our guests this week, Minister rondelle JP apparently has trouble with the word preserved.

JP Gaston: 39:23

And no, no, no.

Seth Anderson: 39:25

That's what I heard. Anyway.

JP Gaston: 39:27

Yeah. Well, you hear what you want to hear. People have trouble with the word Preserve. Some people say preserved some staple. People say preserved I've trouble with the word people. But

Seth Anderson: 39:38

they among other words, Anyway, I digress. So we decided we are going to do top three words that we either have trouble saying or miss or spelling that we're doing something like that. Sure. Yeah. Okay. I did mispronouncing mispronouncing okay. So we're gonna do a combination of those things and the mysterious voice that just popped in is Uncle Jared, from Sasquatch coffee who is here joining us special guests this week, along with Auntie Karolina. I don't know if we would call them auntie and uncle Seth, but yeah, we are related to you. So yep, that's what we're doing. Yep. So welcome to the show guys. Absolute pleasure to have you I don't I think I think just uncle Jared is giving his top three. Is that what's happening? Yes. With support with moral support. Exactly. Yes. Why don't why don't you kick us off uncle Jared. Let's, let's see what you got top three mispronounced words.

Garred Huber: 40:36

I have three words here. The number one word I have because I'm a car guy. And I lived in New Zealand. They said this word totally different was nice. And they said listen this in North America. What do we usually say? Nice. I had a nice San. Missing a Nissan Sentra. That's weird. I can't I can't even joke about it. It's hard. It's hard to even say for that purpose. So that's my number one. Number two. It's either aluminum or aluminium, aluminium foil

Seth Anderson: 41:08

aluminium Who says that? Maybe JP is an Ontario thing? No,

JP Gaston: 41:13

it's it. Lots of people say aluminium. I'm not. I'm not one of them. For the record. I say aluminum.

Seth Anderson: 41:19

We were at a banquet a couple years ago. And Caitlin was standing in line at the buffet. This is not on my list, but it's kind of similar, I guess. And some guy pointed at the pineapple. And he was like, Oh, I need to get some of those pinnacles that was like that word.

Garred Huber: 41:37

Sounds are rated.

Seth Anderson: 41:41

Awesome. Okay, and how are you? How are we rounding out our list?

Garred Huber: 41:44

This is a local one. So a lot of people won't know this. But I live in windell. But everybody that sees it says wind down

Seth Anderson: 41:53

on account of the why

Garred Huber: 41:54

probably? No, it's the back end. This is w-y-nn-d-e-l. So they go wind owl should really be wy-nn-d-l-e. Then people would spell it right.

Seth Anderson: 42:06

Was it a spelling mistake?

JP Gaston: 42:09

They misspelled the name of their first sign and they were like, let's go with it.

Garred Huber: 42:14

You know how the English language works. You'll have a word and it says use pronounces some way and it's spelt totally different. That's the thing. This is one of those words.

Seth Anderson: 42:23

All right. There we have it. So the recap on that was Nissan as Nissan Nissan missin. What was number two again? I've already forgotten. Aluminium aluminium. Yes. Aluminium and window or window? window? window window. Yeah, actually, very good. Okay. Well, I also have a city in mind as well. So maybe I'll I'll hop into mine here. JP, yeah.

JP Gaston: 42:52

You rarely go in the middle. I like this.

Seth Anderson: 42:54

This is new. We're in. We're in uncharted territory. So number three, this is just, you know, we're kind of doing this on the fly a little bit. But for some reason, like my entire life, I had trouble with the word cabinet. And I have no idea and but then it just I need to know how you said it though. Well, it wasn't saying it. It was just writing it. Like for some reason I would always get the letter the I don't know. It just did not click on my brain. And then I realized it was cabin. And like, and I was like, Oh, that's actually really easy. It's

JP Gaston: 43:22

like a tiny cabin, like a tiny cabinette.

Seth Anderson: 43:26

So I overcame that one. That's good. But there's one on my list. I have not yet overcome

JP Gaston: 43:31

thank God, because I'm sure that you write it off attack. And people would just think you're a fool.

Seth Anderson: 43:37

Okay, number two. I don't know what the technical term is. JP, you've been here longer than me. So maybe you're gonna know is it Calgary or Calgary? Calgary?

JP Gaston: 43:45

Depends. depends who you ask.

Seth Anderson: 43:47

I mean, I feel like I say Calgary.

Garred Huber: 43:49

I think I stay in both ways, depending on how I say it.

JP Gaston: 43:53

I say Calgary. Hmm. But then I say Calgarian. So I kind of say both.

Seth Anderson: 43:59

So I don't even know what the right answer is there.

JP Gaston: 44:01

I don't know if there is a truly correct answer.

Seth Anderson: 44:05

Well, let us know in the comments. If there's a truly correct answer, he probably won't. But

JP Gaston: 44:09

he was not too many angry emoji.

Seth Anderson: 44:13

I'll take some angry emojis if someone would just comment at this point. Yeah. All right, number one. And this one messes with my life almost daily. is the word entrepreneur.

JP Gaston: 44:26

Oh my God, we do do a cabinet entrepreneurship entrepreneurs an issue for you

Seth Anderson: 44:38

it I so many E's and R's. I mean,

JP Gaston: 44:41

the good news is you get a lot of practice with it now. So maybe by the end of season two, it'll look lucky. I'm not confident in that. But we'll, we'll see. We'll see. My brain just does not like it. We're gonna go with The Biz Dojo, the business starter show to accommodate for your problems.

Seth Anderson: 45:00

Yeah, so, maybe one day if anyone has any tips on how I can remember that word other than trying it 12,000 times and still not lab. Alright, JP,

JP Gaston: 45:15

what do you got? Alright, I've got I've got a little bit of a mix here of mispronounce well I get mostly mispronounced and then one that's kind of not really a word and it just ticks me off so I wanted to bring it up. I'll start with that one here regardless. Hmm It's it's not really it is kind of mispronounce because it's just regardless, there is no or it doesn't make any sense what's your stance on and or it depends on the context I think for and or

Seth Anderson: 45:48

I took a course like

JP Gaston: 45:50

if it's number one and could be number one and number two together or it could be two by itself then and or makes sense

Seth Anderson: 46:01

I think and is always redundant to though I don't know I use and or but this English guy who knows a lot more I mean he was a self professed

JP Gaston: 46:09

Can he spell entrepreneur?

Seth Anderson: 46:10

I I'm gonna guess he could. Okay then I took a course and he was like the self professed best person in Calgary English. I don't know how you like get that title. But

JP Gaston: 46:23

well, if you're self professed, I can tell you how you get that title.

Seth Anderson: 46:27

And he said that and is never like and is always redundant, like or is all you need if you every single use case, or is sufficient. Anyway, I just what if it's both then or what if it could be both? Or still? That was just his I'm just asking like, you seem really passionate about your regardless, so I just thought I'd double click and

JP Gaston: 46:46

well hold on here. I'm becoming very passionate. like chocolate chip cookies contain flour or chocolate chips.

Seth Anderson: 46:56

That doesn't allow for both. That doesn't mean Wow, I don't know I'm not that good in English. So I'm just gonna bow out.

Garred Huber: 47:02

I'm with you on this one, JP.

JP Gaston: 47:06

All right. I will I will shift to number two for you, Seth. Okay, the another debate one garage or garriage? Who's ever said garriage everybody from the UK that I've ever met?

Garred Huber: 47:22

I was gonna say in in New Zealand. Same thing. Everybody's scared.

JP Gaston: 47:25

Yeah, there you go. It's like the roof or roof. debate. up on the roof.

Seth Anderson: 47:31

I didn't know that was a debate either. Maybe I just haven't. I'm not traveled enough.

JP Gaston: 47:35

You live in the middle of nowhere.

Seth Anderson: 47:36

I haven't left Alberta in like 20 years. So

JP Gaston: 47:42

even then it was just the lloydminster lloydminster or Lloyd minister. Now that we could go into that and then the final one that I will go to is actually one someone I went to school with just could not say fabric softener. And every time she tried to say softener, she said softener or softener. Yeah, I was gonna say I couldn't even say it incorrectly. I'm, I'm too. I'm too good at fabric softener. fabric softener it is. I am a self professed fabric softener, pronunciation expert.

Seth Anderson: 48:17

All right. I don't know if this was the best or worst podium we've ever done. I don't know if this would make our top three podiums.

JP Gaston: 48:22

You know what in the comments? Let us know. rank our podiums

Seth Anderson: 48:26

angry emoji face if you loved it,

JP Gaston: 48:28

if you loved it?

Seth Anderson: 48:31

I'm just testing to see if anyone's still listening by the end.

JP Gaston: 48:34

Perfect. I like it.

Seth Anderson: 48:36

Awesome. Well, thank you, auntie and uncle Seth for joining the show today. And that's it. We're out.