Business Strategies from Foraged and Found
Live with Alaska MEP
Join us for an insightful live interview with Chelsea Goucher, the Sales & Marketing Director for Foraged & Found.
Live Summary
Join Sami Jo Lewis from the Alaska MEP and eCommerce Evangelist for Manufacturers Curt Anderson - Founder of B2Btail as Chelsea Goucher, COO and Director of Sales at Foraged & Found discusses manufacturing in Alaska.
Since her arrival in 2017, Chelsea has been an integral part of the growth of this Ketchikan-based food manufacturing company, known for its tasty products sold across Alaska and the Lower 48 states. Tune in as we delve into the journey of Foraged & Found and gain valuable insights into entrepreneurship and the challenges of the industry.
Key Highlights
• Introduction to Forged and Found. 0:02
• What day-to-day life is like as an entrepreneur. 6:10
• The importance of consistency and critical communication. 12:03
• Nobody is an overnight success. 19:21
Transcription
Sami Jo Lewis 0:02
Have a great interviewee. Today I have my wonderful friend and co-host Curt Anderson. How are you doing today? Curt
Curt Anderson 0:10
Sammi Jo my goodness gracious what a privilege to hang out and learn about this wonderful, amazing incredible delicious Alaska manufacture. I cannot wait to dig into this conversation.
Sami Jo Lewis 0:23
Perfect and for those that don't know we have Chelsea Goucher online. Chelsea is a lifelong Alaskan and lover of the wilderness. She has been a co-owner of Foraged and Found a local manufacturer since 2008. And has worked previously in sales and logistics sector and she is not foraging Chelsea enjoys dancing, backpacking traveling and so Chelsea, thank you so much for being here today.
Chelsea Goucher 0:49
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Sami Jo Lewis 0:51
Perfect. So we can get dive right into some questions. We're gonna get some great tips and strategies from a local entrepreneur and how the business got started. So first question I want to ask is can you tell us a little bit about origin found and how it all began?
Chelsea Goucher 1:05
Yeah, of course we found so Jen, my business partner she started the business she had been working on a yacht that caters to tourists in Alaska and had a crew that worked on the yacht was working in the shop. So through that, she started to really fall in love, you know, all of the salmon and halibut and the crab and the shrimp and started to learn more and more about you know, not just the animals that you can eat and harvest in Alaska but also the plants and different berries and mushrooms. And turning Cooper friends started playing around with tickling bowl with kelp and doing different things with it. And they did a booth at our local blueberry Arts Festival which Arts Council here in Texas can put on every summer. And it was very successful. So Jen took the idea back to her family that has some background in business and finance and they put some numbers together and we're like, okay, maybe this could be a viable business. So the business officially incorporated in 2018. And it's kind of slowly been a process from there of taking different steps and scaling up and yeah, just moving from being kind of just a fun idea to being a commercial business.
Curt Anderson 2:18
Well, Chelsea First off, you know, curious minds want to know we're Where are you traveling right now? We're trying to figure it out. Where are you traveling right now?
Chelsea Goucher 2:28
Oh, right now I'm in a car so it was when I scheduled this I had no idea what was going on. But today's my birthday. So my boyfriend flew into town to surprise me and so last night we stay the night on deer mountain with a bunch of our friends and we just got helicopters back down. And everything was just like a little bit hectic. So my plan was to be home during the interview. But I'm sitting in my car. My boyfriend is driving me home right now.
Curt Anderson 2:55
How about boyfriend of the year? In if he's not listening, what's your boyfriend's name? Well, well, congratulations. We'll he's showing up all the boyfriends out there. And you know what? I can't sing Sammy Jo, maybe you can sing but we wish you an amazing, incredible birthday and what a privilege. To spend your birthday with us. spend it with you on your birthday. So thank you. Thank you. Thanks man. See me Joe. Is this just awesome? Or what this guy says is what happened? I lives as you get things like this. And so Chelsea, thank you Happy birthday, happy birthday. So he wasn't so he gave a great story on Gen get involved with business. How about like what attracted you like, were you you have a nonprofit background? Did you have an entrepreneurial itch that you were you know, like, was there a thirst like, hey, I want to get into business? What did that look like and what attracted you to the business?
Chelsea Goucher 3:57
Yeah, I definitely so I was executive director of the Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce for like two and a half years and, and while I did that, I really kind of like fell in love with entrepreneurship. I saw these different business owners like just doing everything they could to to like to make the community better. And I just really came to appreciate business and see a different side of it and sometimes isn't the narrative you always hear. And I kind of knew that I wanted to do that. And then I worked in the corporate world for a while doing non sales in the shipping industry. And that was really fascinating. I learned even more and again, I was dealing with business owners day in and day out and really hearing like, what their different struggles were when doing business in Alaska and from the different obstacles they have to face. And I just you know, I guess I guess your your challenges, maybe want to get involved with it. You know, I don't know. But I'm Jen and I became friends because when I was working for a shipping company here in Ketchikan, we take customers to lunch and help acquaint them kind of how the system works, how shipping Works has to be rates work, things like that. So Jen and I got to know each other that way kind of as a client, customer relationship and and yeah, she started talking to me about the business. And I got really interested in that because through my involvement with the chamber, I got really involved with se conference. And so you know, years ago, like 2015 2016 I remember Julie Decker with the Alaska fisheries Development Foundation talking about how you know, miracles there's going to be, you know, a billion dollar business by you know, this day just hearing it it's like wow, that's really cool. And so this seed of miracles are like hearing that drum being beaten for like help and see products and really expanding that like sector of Alaska industry. I think that had been in my mind for a long time. And I've been involved with a lot of like, the Alaskan NGOs and government entities have been interested in that sector. And so then getting snowed in and seeing her doing that, like, oh, wow, this is really cool. She's like someone doing it. And then we started to become friends and I kind of had this feeling I was like, I feel like she's gonna ask me to be part of the business. And then one day, he was like, Do you want to be part of the business? And I was like, Yes. And then I realized years later and like, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. But here we are.
Curt Anderson 6:13
Thank you for what a great story and people love hearing the origin story. So boy, you just saw a big gap and thank you Chelsea for and that was just what a wonderful story. Sammy Jo, let's let's keep the party going, man. Let's get the birthday party going what's next sign up list for the birthday girl.
Sami Jo Lewis 6:31
So next I see her and how you kind of got into the business. Typical day for for you.
Chelsea Goucher 6:38
Oh, I mean that's like really impossible. Because, you know, aside from the manufacturing itself, I mean, the business itself, the way we run it is dead and I pretty much do almost everything. You know a lot of the other boots on the ground stuff We contract out with, like, you know, our design and our that's just the way it goes. We have a warehouse that we use in our warehouse, he handles all of our, you know, our Amazon fulfillment, our direct to consumer fulfillment, things like that. So, a lot of what Jen and I do is really managing, like all aspects of the business. So it's everything, you know, we're doing, like most of our own bookkeeping, you know, aside from like taxes and payroll and things like that, and, you know, we're running our Shopify website, and we're dealing with, you know, customer issues. You know, shipping doesn't arrive or something gets damaged. Just all of the day to day operations, planning strategy, dealing with brokers dealing with salespeople in the grocery industry. It's just, it's day to day it's a lot and so, right now what we're focusing on is our pickles, and they are very seasonal. So in the summer, we are harvesting and that's our primary goal. And Jen and I are still going out on on every harvest trip at this point and getting our hands in the water and harvesting the kelp ourselves. And so it's really crunch time with that right now. And then in the wintertime, you know a lot of what we can do is remote work so we can work on our computers and be connected that way. But these days, I mean it's really it's it's a crapshoot. Logistics for handling, you know, the finances and talking to potential investors and getting advice from different VCs. You know, how can we get to a point where people even want to look at investment, you know, so it's, it's a lot
Curt Anderson 8:28
you just summed up entrepreneurship and, you know, five minutes or less right there, Chelsea that was, when you're an entrepreneur, man. It's just not for the weary, you're just enjoying, whatever, whatever needs to be done. Whatever fire needs to be put out whatever tasks need to be accomplished. You're there doing it and so we can imagine we applaud you and very inspiring. I just, that was a great answer. So Sammy, Jo, let's keep it going. What else was on your list next?
Sami Jo Lewis 8:48
Perfect. So now that we've talked about, you know, I pretty much depends on the day and kind of everything. I'd be curious now, in your opinion. What do you think the three most important successful entrepreneur or
Chelsea Goucher 9:01
the most success successful it's a good question because I'm not always the best with with keeping good. Records and found and since quitting my corporate job and like committing fully to try to living entrepreneurial lifestyle, certain things have, by necessity, like fine. It's like you get to a point where like, you can't you can't not do the things you know. And so for me, like I pretty much live by my calendar, everything goes on my calendar, social things, go on my calendar. Work, things, go on my calendar, reminders for myself on my calendar. I just think like basic organizational things like that, like really, really helped so much, and they're so important, especially when you're an entrepreneur, you're doing 15 different things, you know, it can be hard sometimes to, to find to find the time to do everything, you know, and so really, I've just gotten really good at dialing in my days and planning my week. And I think that's, I think another thing that I feel I really matured a lot with is like just having to deal with my own, like, mental wellness and anxiety. You know, I can be a pretty high strung person and a people pleaser, and, you know, I've worked in a lot of positions where it's very oriented towards making other people happy. And it's hard when you're like always feel like you're failing yourself or failing your business partner or that you're not doing enough. And you just have to like produce for myself. I do have to like at the end of the day, remember that this is my business, but it's not my life. And that can be really hard. And I think you know, I think honestly, sometimes it's easier for me than it is for Jen because she's the one that it was her idea. It was her brainchild business and so there's a little bit of a difference there too. And sometimes I think it's good. We balance each other out a little bit because I can just be like, hey, at the end of the day, we're still friends. We still have each other we're happy to have this conversation. The third thing is your business, especially with business partner. I feel like it's made me a better communicator in all of my relationships. I mean, you just have to be able to have some really hard conversations like, we don't have money and we haven't built or, you know, the direction of business or, or being unsatisfied. It's just like, you know, I thought it was something different now going this way. So where are we really what you're really on. So I think being able to have those conversations is also really important. So we're having hard conversations, and just being able to surrender a little bit and say hey, whatever happens happens easier
Curt Anderson 12:03
All right. Well, Chelsea we have these little things each week we we can't like Jack the mic moments and that was just a massive massive drop the mic moment right there. That was that was so profound. That was brilliant advice. Man. I like where was that advice when I was in my 20s You know, young guy, young entrepreneur. So thank you for sharing, you know, your wisdom, your experience. And a couple of things I want to I want to touch on real quick. You know, my notes number one, I heard consistency in that organization, right. It's just the dedication getting the calendar down. Number two so profound and outrageous, love, the mental awareness, the mental health for you, if you don't take care of yourself, like you're you're worthless as an entrepreneur. So I just love that you said that. I love that you said the word of maturity. That just really is a great sign of like your humility coming into things. As a as an entrepreneur. And then the third thing you talked about, like, you know, the critical communication, community, you know, critical communication is just so imperative, especially when you have a business partner because it's not just about you. And I've always said like he This was his brainchild, this is her baby, and you're coming in and doing your business point. It's emotional like you said, like, hey, we don't want you to pay the bills, or like this is going great or this isn't going so great. And like just kind of like how do you how do you, you know, try to prevent that roller coaster ride so you're not always up and down, but just kind of like, how can we get through this journey together and just really be successful. So, boy, kudos to you that was just so profound, what you shared. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That was awesome. Seeing your joy, I'm gonna I'm gonna pop in with a quick question. I love love, love your brand. I'm not a big branding guy. If you saw like how I dress though, my wife was like, Hey, you can't wear that shirt anymore. You've been wearing it for like 20 years, right? So I'm not a big brand new guy. But Chelsea, your branding is just it pops. It's exciting. I love the fonts. I love the colors. It like it just it's I don't know if he usually uses word for food. It's charismatic. Like you bring out a personality in a charm with your food. Can you just talk a little bit about the intent I know I'm going a little bit off script here saying the job but what I'd love to hear like I just think it's brilliant branding for a guy that really doesn't appreciate branding as much I love your brand.
Chelsea Goucher 14:19
Yeah, I mean, I think it really is a testament to Dan's marketing background. And like fabric and effort. You know, again, it was it was one of Dan's friends that had designed our like original label, the original image. We hadn't we were just a local Ketchikan product. And we wanted to like we wanted our new labels to harken back to that we thought it was important to have the pictures of the sea leaders so now they have the kind of stylized artistic tendrils of help coming up the side of it and the designer we worked with for our commercial labels. I mean, he you know, we went back and it was the whole process between him and Jen and I really been like, you know, is this what we liked? It's the right spot. And so we took it, we took it really seriously. And that's been that's been huge for us is to really take our marketing seriously. And right from the beginning, gentlemen after one of the value added producers grants that the USDA offers and we the scope of work was a marketing project. And so being able to, to access those grant funds really helped us be able to pay for some of those things like good design and stuff that sometimes a startup business might not be able to do. And so I think that was pretty fortunate.
Curt Anderson 15:36
Awesome. Tell Jen congratulations. And so for anybody catching this live or catching this on replay, boy go and check out their website is just brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. First, you know, construct a consumer or consumer product. What these guys have really set the bar high. So check out their website, go and buy their products better yet, just go in the shop and grab it and bring it home. And then you can admire it it admire those that branding rate on your shelf at home. So Sammy, Joe, what's next on your list? Perfect.
Sami Jo Lewis 16:02
So next question. I just be curious to hear your thoughts on what you think are the biggest the biggest challenges facing your industry right now?
Chelsea Goucher 16:15
I mean, I guess our industry specifically is, you know, a grocery item. I mean, the grocery industry is just, it's super challenging. It's very part of me. It's very, in a lot of ways, unfriendly startups, and the barriers to entry can be really high. You know, there's a lot of big players that kind of really control most aspects of it. And that can be that can be challenging. And it's just, you know, it's not it's not bad, it just, it is what it is. So for us specifically, that can be hard. And then from typically as a lasting business, really, it's always the same thing. We're geographically isolated from the rest of the country. And so, you know, things like shipping costs affect us more than they do other places. There's just less economies of scale. And so we really had to make some hard decisions in our business in order to to deal with some of the so both most of the inelastic business and for the industry we're in specifically, I feel like we do have some very unique challenges. That can be hard. I mean, manufacturing often it's like you feel like you're spending 95 cents to make $1 You know, and be challenging. Yeah,
Curt Anderson 17:32
I love that. I chose to have a running joke and like, when I was young guy, young entrepreneurs struggling like crazy. I'm like, Man, I'm selling my dollars for 97 cents. And I'm like that that's a really good formula. So the Natalie Yeah, it gets very challenging. Sammy jolla tin it up. You've got one more question for Chelsea today.
Sami Jo Lewis 17:54
So thank you for sharing your challenges, and also what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. So for a business that's starting up, I was curious, like, what advice would you give to new startup business or into law school?
Chelsea Goucher 18:08
I mean, I really think just keep a good dialogue with yourself and really know why you're doing it. Have a good y have been purpose. Know that it's going to be hard and also know that like, every time you think you have those questions answered, it's probably going to change and it can change. And yeah, just to just to know what your vision is, and try to hold that vision as best you can. Because sometimes it can be really hard. And again, in it, and if you have a business partner, same thing, making sure you're on the same page, where do we want to be in three years and four years or five years? I mean, those things are huge, and they're really important conversations to have. So kind of knowing what your end goal is, but being open to it changing. I'm not sure. It's I think that's the best advice. And just to know that it's, you know, nothing's nothing's an overnight success. It can be a lot of work and it can be very challenging, but you will learn a lot about yourself and you'll become a better person for it. I truly believe that every person I don't know,
Curt Anderson 19:21
that was so good. You know, nobody, you know, nobody is an overnight success, right? Nobody sees all the blood, sweat and tears. Nobody sees you guys out like digging out the kelp from underneath the rocks and what have you, right? And so you know, it's a it's a long game, you know, entrepreneur, this is a long game. So let's we're gonna wind down shall see so few things that we want to unpack first off, thank you. This was absolutely wonderful. Now I can his role still within earshot. And was he gone? So tell your Uber driver Well, we said thank you very much for taking care we need to do this more often. You know, it's kind of like it was a comedians and when they doesn't do this, the comedian cars or whatever, this was wonderful next time Chelsea we're gonna be on the show, because you're loving the helicopter. We went from the helicopter and at some time, just put it out there. But first off, happy birthday. Thank you. Happy Happy happiest of birthdays to you. Secondly, thank you. Thank you for sharing your entrepreneurial journey. You are such an incredible inspiration. We just wish dealing den, Monster Monster success. Just keep providing that wonderful salsa, those great pickles and you guys are going to continue crushing it. Sammy Jo feedback. What takeaways. What do you have for us today?
Sami Jo Lewis 20:39
No, this was incredible Chelsea We so appreciate you being able to take the time on your birthday, your cola and share all of your chest challenges. I know a lot of people out there are honest with you. And so sometimes you'll be able to hear from from manufacturer but knowing that like you can't do it. You can't be all you can just try to stay on that path. And like be okay to roll with the changes. But as long as you have that sweet angle and to have those tough conversations, I think it was really really eye opening and a lot of manufacturers that appreciate hearing it so I really appreciate your time coming on here and sharing I felt that this was super fun and hopefully we can have you on here again.
Chelsea Goucher 21:18
Yes, anytime. I love I love this. So yeah.
Curt Anderson 21:24
Awesome. Chelsea Happy Birthday. Have a great rest of your day. Thank you for spending your day sharing your lunch with us today. And Sami Jo. Thank you. I love that we do these live streams every other week. Tell your friends, family, your pets, your dog. Everybody out there come hang out with the Alaskan VP every other Thursday. Take us away Sammy Joe.
Sami Jo Lewis 21:43
Perfect. Great. You said it all. We do these every other Thursday. So I so appreciate that. We'll have a wonderful next interviewer that'll come up next every other Thursday. So two Thursdays from now from 12 to 1230. So it just takes up a lot of your time but I think you'll hear some really great tips and tricks. One other shout out we do have a webinar coming up. It's going to be a fantastic sales webinar all about sales strategy. Again, it'll be in the lunch hour. Of all the one with Leslie Greer, and that'll happen on August 29. So if you guys can join, we'd love to see you there as well. And thank you for spending your Thursday with us. Thank you. Thank you so much, Chelsea and thanks