Passion, Sacrifice, and What You Really Need to Succeed as a CPG Entrepreneur with Dom Crockett
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Dom Crockett is making waves with a CPG product containing organ meat (something that most Americans don’t traditionally eat.) That might sound like a liability for some companies, but Dom has built a market, an audience, and is on a trajectory to keep growing. And he’s done it all without venture funding.
While that might sound a little extreme, Dom isn’t a classic “hustle culture” guy. He values his rest, sustainability, and whatever balance he can get in the midst of entrepreneurship. So, how does he do it?
Today on the podcast, Dom is sharing his unconventional start-up advice, the sacrifices he’s made to create Mighty Meats, and some pretty basic business advice that many, many entrepreneurs forget. He also offers some realistic, non-judgmental questions to ask yourself if you’re thinking about creating a food start-up.
Subscribe to the Food Means Business Podcast with Hudson Kitchen founder Djenaba Johnson-Jones to hear the personal stories and “secret ingredients” of abandoning your day job and starting a CPG food business.
In this episode, you’ll learn...
[01:43] What makes Mighty Meats unique and how Dom developed the idea
[06:29] How Dom educated his audience and fostered a market for Mighty Meats
[11:36] What Dom would have done differently looking back and the information you can’t ignore when starting a CPG business
[20:16] The sacrifices Dom made to build Mighty Meats
[26:39] How Dom takes care of himself in the midst of entrepreneurship
If you’re considering starting a CPG company, be sure to tune into this episode:
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About Dom Crockett & Mighty Meats:
In May 2019, Dom took a bold step by founding MIGHTY MEATS, a company born from his passion for optimal nutrition and sustainable food practices. Leveraging his expertise in user-centric design and lean experimentation, Dom set out to make superior food both accessible and delicious. MIGHTY MEATS focuses on reducing food waste by utilizing under-appreciated ingredients, transforming them into nutritious and flavorful products.
Dom's transition from the corporate world to entrepreneurship showcases his adaptability and commitment to innovation. Using the same strategic approach that saved Fortune 500 companies millions in his previous roles, Dom has grown MIGHTY MEATS organically. Without any advertising spend, he has successfully shipped 700+ pounds of product to retail and wholesale customers, demonstrating the power of his user-focused approach.
Connect with Dom Crockett:
Follow Mighty Meats on Instagram
Stay Connected with Djenaba Johnson-Jones:
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[00:00:00] Djenaba: You are listening to the Food Means Business podcast, which features the personal stories and secret ingredients behind what it's like to abandon your day job to start a CPG food and beverage business. I'm Djenaba Johnson-Jones former marketing executive turned entrepreneur and founder of food business incubator Hudson kitchen.
[00:00:20] Join our community of fellow food business owners and subject matter experts. First to learn and laugh with us as we explore a startup world. That's a little more culinary and a lot less corporate these days. All right, Dom, welcome to the food means business podcast. I'm so happy that you're here.
[00:00:35] Dom: Thank you so much for having me.
[00:00:37] Djenaba: Absolutely. So before we talk a little bit about your business, I love to hear about you. Tell us about your journey from corporate to becoming a food entrepreneur.
[00:00:47] Dom: Well, my journey starts in corporate as someone who was. trained in the world of lean startup design, venture capital. I [00:01:00] learned that these types of businesses were possible.
[00:01:04] I learned that entrepreneurship was possible. I learned like frameworks around entrepreneurship and strategy. So I want to start there. And then that gave me the tool book, I guess. to apply that to things that I was passionate about, which are and were food sovereignty, reducing food waste, optimizing nutrition, honoring our ancestors, honoring ourselves, honoring, honoring the earth.
[00:01:36] And so now I'm a founder and CEO of Mighty Meats.
[00:01:40] Djenaba: So tell us about Mighty Meats. What is it?
[00:01:43] Dom: So Mighty Meats is a ground beef with organs mixed in. You may be familiar with liver and onions. You may be familiar with beef heart tacos if you're from Latin America. But in [00:02:00] America, in modern day society, we do not respect organ meats.
[00:02:06] We either throw them away or we feed them to our dogs. Mighty Meats is making offal, which in food circles, they call Oregon Meats awful. O F F A L. I like to say that Mighty Meats is making offal less awful. We are giving you ancestral nutrition. without the yuck or the ick that you can get from handling liver, heart, kidney.
[00:02:34] So that's what we do.
[00:02:36] Djenaba: So talk about the nutritional benefits of the product.
[00:02:41] Dom: As I mentioned before, organ meats are the most nutrientally dense. parts of the animal. Let's start off with beef liver. That's grown to be very popular for people to take in recent years. Beef liver has all of your B vitamins, [00:03:00] B1, I know a lot of people are B12 deficient.
[00:03:03] Beef liver also has all of the folate that you need, which is helpful to grow new babies. And a lot of moms have folate in there. pre and postpartum pills. Beef liver gives us iron. It gives us copper. It gives us zinc. Beef heart gives us CoQ10, which is an antioxidant that people pay a lot of money for.
[00:03:25] If you are taking a statin, you need to be eating CoQ10 from the heart. The beef kidneys have selenium and they have nutrients that help you with allergies, reducing your histamine load. So, the organ meats, they really have They, they are pound for pound, dollar for pound. They are the most valuable. bang for your buck if you are choosing to eat meat.
[00:03:51] Djenaba: How did you execute on the idea? Right. Cause you, as you mentioned, people don't really eat organ meats. They're feeding it to their dog. How are you able [00:04:00] to find someone to help you produce your product?
[00:04:05] Dom: Well, I first started off going to nose to tail butchers and If you don't know what a nose to tail butcher is, that is a butcher that's going to get a whole animal. They're not just going to order cuts from a slaughterhouse. They're going to get the whole animal to their place of business, and they're going to break down that animal.
[00:04:31] So you get all this, all the cuts that you know, like the rabbi and the skirt steak, but then you're also going to get. lesser known cuts that are just as good, but they are only going to be available when you have a butcher that really knows what they're doing. Like the Denver cut, a Bovet steak, organs, liver, heart, kidney.
[00:04:55] So finding those places was key. That was number one. Once you find those [00:05:00] places, then it's about finding folks that are willing to work with you. Some knows to tell butchers were willing to work with me. Some were not. Some made it very apparent. To me that what I was asking them to do, which is grind organs into ground beef.
[00:05:16] They made it very apparent to me that that was difficult and they did not want to do that. Some were very happy to do it. So you really just have to find a place that you trust, that you vibe with, that respects you back and start a conversation with them about what's possible. Now, I was making. These blends for myself over a course of like a year and a half trying to figure out how to make it taste good, how to make it taste palatable.
[00:05:46] And I knew I had to make it so that people who did not like the taste of organs could enjoy it. And so that took me about a year and a half to find the partners that I [00:06:00] have now, which are two farms, one in New York, Western New York, where I am and another farm in. Uh, Eastern Pennsylvania, and they provide the beef that I make Mighty Meats with.
[00:06:13] So where are you
[00:06:14] Djenaba: selling the product right now?
[00:06:16] Dom: Right now we are sold online, direct to consumer on the East coast only. And we're also selling in a store called Farm Shop Buffalo in Buffalo's Elmwood Village.
[00:06:29] Djenaba: I have to imagine like there's an education process for the consumer. Like, how are you reaching the people that are ordering from you on your website or going to the store to purchase?
[00:06:39] Dom: So the first thing I did when I thought that I could have any sort of idea with Mighty Meats is I made an Instagram page. And I would encourage anyone listening to me, if you have an idea, you can create an Instagram. You can create a Twitter. You can create a TikTok. The purpose of that is not to go viral.
[00:06:58] The purpose of that is for you to [00:07:00] get in touch with The people who you think would be down for your product and start to engage with them, see what they're posting, see what they're commenting. You start to produce things that you think would help them. So that's what I did with Mighty Beats. You know, I knew from being on the internet that there were a lot of people on the internet that were obsessed with meat and they were obsessed with like eating nose to tail or they were obsessed with biohacking, like taking vitamins and pills.
[00:07:25] So I was able to create a Mighty Meats page. I started posting stuff, you know, you want to be human. You want to post like things that you would want to see. And I just started interacting with them and slowly grew my following to what it is today. I've never paid for any advertising. I've never paid for any thing.
[00:07:46] Djenaba: That's a really good tip. My journey was a little similar with trying to figure out who my target audience was. I started just having events. coming. And then the other thing that I did was I did these like free consultations where I was talking to, I talked to [00:08:00] like thousand entrepreneurial food entrepreneurs before I got started, just because like, it was just people are wanting to talk about for me was starting a food business.
[00:08:08] So they want to talk about it. So for you, I'm sure they, people wanted to talk about what they were doing for their health and how they, you know, how they could, you know, have longevity with their life. So that, that's really cool.
[00:08:18] Dom: I love that you offered those free sessions. So you were offering up that time and you were giving them.
[00:08:26] Like, like, were you interviewing them or were you just giving them feedback?
[00:08:31] Djenaba: So it was a little bit of both. So what I ended up doing, like I just created a webpage, which included like this, you'll get a free 30 minute consultation. Hey, and this is who I am. I'm starting this. I'm going to open this kitchen.
[00:08:43] Cause the first thing it was as do, do people actually want. A commercial kitchen space. And so I was like, let me figure that out. And so, but people want what I found out, especially just in New Jersey, and I'm not sure how it is across the country, but people were just hungry for information on how to get started.
[00:08:57] And so I had done all the research because [00:09:00] I was something that I was trying to do. So I would just get people on the phone one on one and hear what their challenges were. So that was, that kind of helped me shape what I was doing. It was me hearing about them. It was me giving them information about how I can like easily run down for anybody, like, this is how you get this done to the point where I ended up creating a PDF that you can download still on the website today.
[00:09:20] It's like the gift that keeps on giving of just information about. How to get started. Cause I think it's like, it was just, it was great for me. It was good for them. They got something from the conversation and it's good for me because I got something as well, which was the thing you're out like kind of how I should move forward with the business.
[00:09:34] Definitely. I love that approach and inexpensive. Like it was time, right? Cause in the beginning, that's all you have to give. Yes.
[00:09:42] Dom: Yes. I love
[00:09:42] Djenaba: that
[00:09:42] Dom: approach. That makes me think that I want to offer something like that with mighty meats, because I know so many people have questions like,
[00:09:50] Djenaba: right.
[00:09:50] Dom: And. I would actually rather them do that than try to jam pack everything into my website.
[00:09:56] I know that's still a task that I have to do, but it's [00:10:00] very difficult to really figure out well, okay, well, people always ask me, well, who are you? Who's your target audience? And I say, well, my target audience is. people who believe that food is medicine and people who believe that organ meats are good for them.
[00:10:15] Right. Obviously, like I, you know, that's, that's not a very niche market. That's a lot of people. Right. But that is kind of also my point. Like, it's very difficult. I think in the beginning to figure out who Really wants me. And I honestly just think that's because I'm so young and I haven't quite found with, with data, with numbers, back it up, like, okay, here's my product market set.
[00:10:40] I think founders really rushed to find. I've definitely tried to rush myself into finding it to say that you found it and all those sort of things. And you don't get any points for like rushing to it and it not being true. You don't get any more points for, for saying, Oh, I found product market fit and these couple of people buy it.
[00:10:59] It's like, [00:11:00] that is not commercial troops. And actually, I know one of the questions, one of the questions you have for me is like, what would I have told myself? In the past,
[00:11:11] Djenaba: what would you, yeah, what would you have done, you know, differently is that it's interesting that you talk about, you know, kind of like rushing to find product market fit.
[00:11:18] Like, I think it's going to evolve over time, right, because you're going to have interactions with people online or in person or however you like to do it. And you're kind of going to, and then also some of what you want to do is kind of going to inform some of that as well. And yeah, I think that it's just, it evolves.
[00:11:36] So yeah, that my question to you was, and I always like to ask you, like, what would you have done differently when you were first starting out? Stay focused
[00:11:42] Dom: on commercial truth. Stay focused on the numbers. The business is the numbers. You need passion to be an entrepreneur because you're doing something that is that's never been done before.
[00:11:56] So you need passion. You also need to know [00:12:00] your numbers, not only to tell other people, but to tell yourself, like you cannot, if you want this to be a business. That's different than a hobby, right? Like a hobby is something that you do, you, you, you give passion, it gives you passion. Maybe it's not a business, so to speak, like you're not making a profit.
[00:12:21] But if your intention is to make a business, a profitable business, then the numbers are the numbers.
[00:12:29] Djenaba: I resisted that.
[00:12:31] Dom: Yeah. I resisted that with my own personal planning being like, I mean, being so naive and so rose colored glasses, like, Oh, everything will just work out. It's like everything will just work out and having a business plan, having a plan for what each month looks like, helps you manage your expectations, right?
[00:12:53] I think a lot of people quit because like they're the delta between like what they're experiencing, what they expect to experience is so big that they're just [00:13:00] like, I'm out.
[00:13:00] Djenaba: Did you only see the outside of somebody else's business, right? You see what they post on LinkedIn or whatever. So you don't know.
[00:13:05] So you're, you're, that is correct. Like you are, there's a big difference between what you expect to do and what's actually happening on a day to day basis.
[00:13:12] Dom: For sure. For sure. Especially in our world of food and CPG, we just saw that like Dom's market in Chicago is no more. Yeah.
[00:13:25] Djenaba: And it was a shock. It was a shock and it's going to have this really big impact on a bunch of emerging brands because they have product.
[00:13:33] They were trying to sell invoices that they wanted to get paid for. And who knows what's going to happen with that.
[00:13:39] Dom: But you know what it also taught me to, and to all my other CPG founders that may not have been in there and wanted to be in there, just like you say, you do not know what's going on. Until you see the numbers, which nobody can see the numbers because we're not publicly traded companies.
[00:13:58] Right, right, right. [00:14:00] You have no idea what's going on. I'm good at not comparing myself. I know I'm better at that than others. I still do compare myself. I still do want to rush my journey. And I'm actively now, you know, of course I dream, you know, I'm like, Oh, you know, one day I'll be in Irwan. And one day I'll be in Whole Foods and Central Market and all these places where I know my customer is.
[00:14:25] And I'm like, yeah, one day, but right now I'm at Farm Shop Buffalo and that's who I'm riding with. Right. And I'm on the line. And I'm going to really just keep selling this meat and keep talking to customers and asking them. What do you think about it? How did you use it? How's the packaging? How could it be better?
[00:14:45] How can we cut back on plastic? How else would you like this? It is my job to be in my customer space as much as I can, as much as it won't annoy them.
[00:14:56] Djenaba: Right. And I think in the beginning, like [00:15:00] me talking one on one with somebody that might be interested in kitchen space and you talking one on one with your client in store is not exactly scalable, but it's going to give you a lot of information.
[00:15:09] That you need to move the business forward.
[00:15:11] Dom: Exactly. Because we're trying to find what's the right combination of factors that's going to make this product, service, or experience sticky for this customer. How do I get
[00:15:31] Djenaba: moms to budget? Or, how do you reach the person that doesn't care how much Mighty Meats costs?
[00:15:38] Cause there is that person.
[00:15:39] Dom: See, and this has been my struggle. Like this has been my struggle since I launched because Mighty Meats is, you know, in my head, it is a Robin Hood brand. I'm, you know, charging people who can afford 16 a pound for me and giving it to people who cannot. And. What I'm learning is like, I've been so, I've, so [00:16:00] I say that to say I've been resistant to just going after rich folks.
[00:16:04] Djenaba: The reason why I said that is because like, if you can get the people that actually have the funds to purchase that product, then you can fund giving a give back program versus you giving something away now that you probably shouldn't be giving away. And that's, that's what I would
[00:16:18] Dom: also tell myself.
[00:16:19] Going back, I gave away a lot, like I went through on orders that were gonna cost me money. Only because I was excited that somebody across the country wanted me to send them meat, right? And I'm not saying that's a good or a bad thing That just goes to show the amount of passion and the amount of interest I have in this thing And I would really want people to hear me say if you're not that obsessed about something Don't do it because my accounts have taken a hit my credit score has taken a hit My ego has taken it all in service of this greater good.
[00:16:59] Djenaba: No, I appreciate [00:17:00] you saying that. Cause a lot of people aren't as transparent. Like you hear these really glossy stories about what people are going through, but I mean, and all the success, but like a lot of times there's, Not there's a businesses that are making a hundred million dollars a year that are not profitable.
[00:17:14] And it's a problem. No, I
[00:17:16] Dom: know. Who does it serve to pretend I need people to know what I'm working on and what I've been through, what I'm struggling with. So they can like have some resonance and maybe help me. And I can help them, especially for as a black man founder in meat, CPG, good point. I'm like, if I got up in here, if I got up on here and said it was easy, who would believe me?
[00:17:43] I get all this venture capital money, they just
[00:17:45] Djenaba: throw a
[00:17:46] Dom: lot of money at me. Like,
[00:17:47] Djenaba: no, if you could say you've got all this venture, but like the time, the year that it took somebody to raise the amount of funds that they need, no one talks about all the nose that they got. They just talk about the one. Yes.
[00:17:58] Dom: And I mean, [00:18:00] anybody, I think anybody who is raising venture, I'm not actually raising venture for Mighty Meats, but I mean, if you are in on that journey, it really just takes that one person to say yes. And then you will find that then two people say yes. And then three, like, I was just thinking about that recently.
[00:18:15] It goes like zeros on three, five, you know, Right. And you just have to ask yourself, do you have the, and this is another thing I would ask myself, like Dom, how much energy and time do you have to have zero days, zero weeks? All founders need to be able to answer that question. Yeah,
[00:18:33] Djenaba: it's
[00:18:33] Dom: true.
[00:18:35] Djenaba: It's true.
[00:18:35] What are you gonna be able to stomach?
[00:18:37] Dom: You have to have a strong heart, mind and stomach to be an entrepreneur. So what does success look like for you? Success looks like me backpacking in Mexico or Thailand. And I get a notification on my phone, like, Oh, your direct deposits hit for my, and I can go, Oh, great.
[00:18:56] You know, Mezcal on me, you know, [00:19:00] I think that's about 10 years away, but, uh, what, what success really looks like for me is people, yes, people eating my meat, but more people understanding where their food comes from. I think that's what really would feel successful to me is people understanding that. Food is medicine that we can actually live better lives by wasting less.
[00:19:30] If we just look at, okay, like, I'm going to go to a local farmer, I'm going to get a CSA, I'm going to make a challenge to eat the whole thing. Even though I don't know what these vegetables are, I've never seen this, it may not even look that attractive to me, but I'm going to try because I think that that is what is being asked of us in, in these modern times.
[00:19:53] Like we don't have any more resources to be wasteful. Right. Personally, I think we never did, but now [00:20:00] so more than ever. And so Mighty Meats, I think. If I could be looked at or talked about in rooms that I'm not in, if Mighty Meats could be referenced as a company that's doing better for people, the planet, and the animals, that would be successful.
[00:20:16] Djenaba: So we've talked a little bit about challenges and success. What sacrifices have you made for your business? Cause I feel like people don't think about that as you're going towards doing this, this big thing, you know, of having a successful business. There's going to be some things you're going to have to not be able to do along the way.
[00:20:34] I think.
[00:20:35] Dom: So I, for about a year, I was working on Mighty Meats on nights and weekends from my. You know, my previous position and I would make progress. I'd make progress, but this is an energy management thing. Like if you can [00:21:00] expect for your business to really flourish and for you to have like the headspace to really get focused and for you to have the energy to be excited about this.
[00:21:09] If your energy is being drained or leaked from your nine to five, it will always sit in the hobby folder or like nights and weekends folder. And that's fine. Like you've got to really ask yourself, like there are no right or wrong answers. What is right for you? Like, do you really want this to be a business?
[00:21:28] Is this something that you can't not do then? Let's figure out your stomach. How much tolerance can you handle of working on this a hundred percent and really focusing all your time on it? I left my job, not really because I've, I mean, I left my job because they wanted us to go back in the office. And I just knew that that wasn't going to work for me.
[00:21:53] I would also say though, that I needed that comfort and [00:22:00] safety in the early days of mighty needs to run experiments. To like, have time to find the farm. Now I have to rush into the first Order that I, you know, that I got for the meat, I had to have money in order to be calm and run clearly logic experiments.
[00:22:20] But again, everybody's situation is different. Everyone's savings account is different. Everyone's stuck tolerance for. Not having money is different too. So you have to really ask yourself, like, what's my tolerance for it now? What's my top, what will, what do I think my tolerance for it, this will be in six months.
[00:22:37] Djenaba: Right. How long until the business takes care of you?
[00:22:39] Dom: How long until the business takes care of me?
[00:22:42] Djenaba: Or is it doing that now? Yeah, I'm just curious. No,
[00:22:44] Dom: it's not taking care of me yet. How long? I love that question. If I continue at my sales pace now, I'd say about another year. I think I got another good year in the trenches.
[00:22:59] Well, that [00:23:00] can change as a drop of a hat. No, it can definitely change. Somebody could hear, somebody could hear this podcast and be like.
[00:23:07] Djenaba: So I was going to ask, what are the plans for expanding your retail stores or growing your DTC business? Yeah, so I want to find
[00:23:18] Dom: shops like the Farm Shop Buffalo that have a community of people that are looking for more niche food products like sourdough bread and raw milk and raw cheese and specialty dumplings and fancy croissants and pastries.
[00:23:39] So finding those people that are kind of like foodies. Gourmands, people who, that's how they spend, that's how they choose to spend their extra time and money is, is going to be, is going to be critical across New York state, especially, you know, I live in Buffalo, New York now. [00:24:00] And I think the reason why I'm so proud to be in FarmShop is I was a customer and I just, I resonated with.
[00:24:07] The store way before I wanted to sell Mighty Meats in there. Like, yes, I always thought it would be cool for, you know, me to have Mighty Meats in there, but I want people to understand that it wasn't just like a, Hey, I have this product and this person said, yes. This was months and years of relationships to building so that we could both figure out, Oh, we, we like each other.
[00:24:28] We want to work together.
[00:24:29] Djenaba: Right.
[00:24:30] Dom: And I feel as though, like, especially CPG founders, just starting out, find the people who really like you for you. Because as quickly as you can go to a random grocery store, that's as quickly as you can leave. And you want to find somebody that likes you for you. So you can get the insights.
[00:24:50] Like I got an amazing customer insight from Kelsey, the owner that There's a lot of ex vegans and vegetarians eating Mighty Meats because their doctors have [00:25:00] told them that the nutrients that they're deficient in are found in liver, heart, and kidney. That's a great data point. Wow. Wow. Okay. So it's like, you know, the vegans, I get some, I get some respect from the vegans because I'm using the whole part of the animal.
[00:25:14] So they, they feel me on that. But, you know, of course, and that's the, and, and, and, My whole thing is, is like staying close to your customers and your, uh, buyers. So you can get those types of insights. Now that gives me like 50 blogs I can write and like, just that one little nugget. Run me down your day.
[00:25:36] Like what are the typical day for you look like? I wake up without an alarm. I makes myself some green tea. I get sunlight on my face. I put my, I try to put my feet in the earth. Do like my prayer meditation bit. And then it's about thinking like, okay, what does mighty means need today? I always have myself that like thinking about it, like it's a newborn.
[00:25:55] And then I kind of established that. And then I kind of organize my [00:26:00] day around how I'm feeling, what I want to do, what I don't want to do. And that freedom though, like that is success for me. You know, what does success look like? Success does look like that. And that is something I am proud of. Mighty Meats is not meeting all my needs, but it is meeting the deep needs I have.
[00:26:18] Which is to be working on something worth it and to be in charge of my time. Cause I could not, the other way was not working for me.
[00:26:26] Djenaba: Right. Right. So we talked a little bit about energy management earlier. Talk about what you do for, what else do you do for self care? Cause you also mentioned you're kind of more your routine.
[00:26:36] What else are you doing to take care of yourself?
[00:26:39] Dom: Oh, I love that question. Um, I'm going to the gym. I'm moving my body. I'm making sure I'm seeing plants in the earth, making sure I get sunlight on myself. I'm making sure I'm eating locally in season, listening to my body. I'm making sure I get eight hours of sleep, [00:27:00] not looking at screens an hour before bed, that's been very difficult.
[00:27:03] I'm not going to, I'm not going to lie because my energy is the most important currency I have, especially as an entrepreneur, I cannot afford to get sick. If I get sick, then what, like. So I have, you know, health and wellness is not a nice to have, it is a requirement. The more stressful your life gets, the more health and wellness will become more of a requirement.
[00:27:25] Self care. I love to hit up the infrared sauna. And reading an actual book, like a
[00:27:31] Djenaba: physical book. Physical book, right, because I always, I listen to books a lot. So you're saying that actually holding the book in your hand. Mm hmm. Like,
[00:27:41] Dom: a cup of tea, candlelight, and a book. You will be asleep. 15 minutes. Right.
[00:27:47] That's the best quality sleep I got when I just forced myself to read before bed. And this is a marathon, like, I want to be working on Mighty Meats for a long time. I cannot become over attached to [00:28:00] this. Like I have to do, I have to remind myself, like, okay Dom, you are you. You work on Mighty Meats. This is your business.
[00:28:06] This is not who you are. It's okay to put it down. It's actually, it's imperative that you put it down sometimes. Those are all ways I try to take care of myself. Good points.
[00:28:20] Djenaba: So at Hudson kitchen, we have what we call the money bell that we ring when people are celebrating something. So I'm wondering, like, what are you celebrating? Like both personal and professional.
[00:28:28] Dom: Personally, I'm celebrating. I mean, I've, I've said it before in this podcast, but like, I'm really doing this.
[00:28:34] Like I'm actually doing it. I'm really out here selling designer ground beef. I'm really like doing the thing that, like, I'm impressing, like, I'm impressive to like my eight year old self, even my, you know, post college self, like that version of myself was very attached to other people validating me and saying that, you know, like through money and through [00:29:00] accolades that, you know, you're doing a good job.
[00:29:02] But now I own a business where people tell me that they love my product and they think it's good and they buy it. They like what I'm doing that feels successful to me. So I want to celebrate that for sure. And I think in terms of Mighty Meats, there's a lot of great things in the pipeline, actually, that I can't talk about, but it's happening.
[00:29:22] Like if I can just remember to stay calm, breathe and take care of myself and focus on producing a great product, I believe I'll be taken care of. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for having me. Let everybody know where they can find you. So if you wanna follow the Mighty Meats journey in particular, we're on Instagram at Eat Mighty Meats.
[00:29:46] That's eat mighty meats.com or Eat Mighty Meats on Instagram. And I'm Dom Crockett on all the things. Instagram, actually, not all the things 'cause I'm not really on TikTok. But Instagram and Twitter, I spend a lot of time on Twitter. That's actually the fastest way to get [00:30:00] in touch with you. And I'm Don Crockett on LinkedIn too.
[00:30:03] Djenaba: Thank you.
[00:30:03] Dom: You're very welcome.
[00:30:05] Djenaba: The Food Means Business Podcast was produced by Hudson Kitchen. It is recorded at the studio at Kearney Point and mixed and edited by Wild Home Podcasting. Our theme song is by Damian DeSandis and I'm your host, Djellaba Johnson-Jones. Follow Hudson Kitchen on Instagram, At the Hudson kitchen.
[00:30:22] And to get food business bites right in your inbox. Sign up for our newsletter at the Hudson kitchen. com forward slash newsletter, listen, follow, and leave a review on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts until next time.