391-Spices, Gardens and Smoked Tomato Soup

On today's episode, we cover quite a few things. I give an overview of the spices, where I'm at now, plans for the future, spice vendors etc.

I have been mixing, blending, testing spices since 1992. Having worked with many vendors and having screwed up many blends has allowed me to become somewhat of a spice ninja. I have always looked at the spices like a side venture, more of a favor for the fans than a business for me. Sure I make some jingle...but it's always been done out of duty rather than pure business.

I have realized that this is stupid. Not the way to conduct business. I was interviewed recently on a VERY LARGE business podcast and the subject of spices came up. The host, being a very shrewd yet honorable businessman said: "you have a lot of low-hanging fruit" which is marketing speak for many things I could be doing to improve my business, my sales, and my profits.

He mentioned that I should be offering free samples to create more customers, setting up marketing automation to provide my customers more ways to engage with me and offering more products, more content etc.

I have undertaken that already and shipped over 100 free samples in 48 hours with a simple Facebook post.

I am excited to create more content and usage videos as many spice customers are not sure the best way to use my spices and honestly, I have left them out to dry.

Also, I discuss my miserable garden this year. Everything is dying and yield is non-existent. Maybe you can learn from my failure.

I give a fun fact of the day; that I was the celebrity chef on a cruise ship in 2009. I discuss throwing up on a formal night and how much of a drag that was.

Lastly, I briefly talk about a cold smoked tomato soup. Perfect for a BBQ, picnic, special dinner etc. Very tasty with the addition of smoked paprika. Check out this version of the soup, then add some smoked paprika to it.