Live in Alaska with the Alaska MEP

Damon Pistulka  00:00

because we got a camera. Hey look.

Curt Anderson  00:06

Dude, you’re live. Damon. Happy? I’m just gonna say Monday. Happy Tuesday. Hey, it’s our first time live like standing like, hey, look, look how handsome he is in person. I don’t know, man. Oh, you see, that’s all the guys. Okay, so, guys, happy Tuesday we are live in Kenai Peninsula wherever we were in Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. This is just so awesome. Oh, no, not at all. Okay, so happy Tuesday, hope everybody had a wonderful, amazing, blessed saved safe Memorial Day weekend. And so I know this is a different time than we normally go. But we are live at the Alaska, the Alaska MEP in Kenai Peninsula. And we are with the one the only Dr. Alyssa Rodrigues, the director of the Alaska MEP. Dr. Alyssa, how are you

Alyssa Rodrigues  00:59

doing? I’m so glad you guys came. Oh, are you kidding

Curt Anderson  01:01

me? We wouldn’t pass this up for him. We wouldn’t pass up a party. Damon, what do you like? How’s it going so far? Well, this is great.

Damon Pistulka  01:07

We’ve got people here are helping through the things that we normally go through. But

Curt Anderson  01:12

it’s a great day. So all right. So let’s dig in Alaska MEP, please share with folks what is the MEP? What is the Alaska MEP?

Alyssa Rodrigues  01:19

Yeah, so we are part of a national network of organizations that help manufacturers to succeed. So we help them to grow their sales, we help them cut their costs. They need help really with just about anything. But if we’ve got manufacturers who are looking to grow, looking to exit as well, then we’re here to provide services to them.

Curt Anderson  01:37

Oh, this is fantastic. And how long have you been the director of the

Alyssa Rodrigues  01:41

MEP going on for years, so the entire time this MEP has been around I’ve been I’ve been at the helm of this little ship trying to trying to steer fest,

Curt Anderson  01:51

right direction has been the fearless leader and I’ve had an honour of being having a front row seat. And so we’ve had here pretty much I’ve been, it’s been it’s been pretty close. So we’ve had a great time together. So talk about the different programming that you’re doing. And, you know, some, like you do supply chain, you don’t leave marketing

Alyssa Rodrigues  02:11

are kind of core services that we offer right now, e commerce, of course, we help with supply chain, we help with Lean, that’s a big one. And we’re seeing more more and more folks who are really interested, as they need to cut their costs, you need to be more efficient, they can’t find employees. And so if they want to keep growing, they have to figure out ways to do more with less. And so that’s one of the big tactics that we take there. We’re going to expand our you mentioned supply chain, we’re gonna expand our supply chain offerings. Really excited about that one, because we need that both in state and then as we look at how we interact with the rest of the nation in terms of our supply chains, but even in the states really hard to get things from the Kenai Peninsula to Anchorage we want to buy those bagels over there. But it’s really hard to get them up up in Anchorage. So

Curt Anderson  02:53

yeah, well, this is fantastic. And so there’s a lot of really exciting things being made and manufactured here in Alaska. So talk about why what’s going on here in Kenai today.

Alyssa Rodrigues  03:03

Oh my gosh. So we’ve got this fantastic program that’s really all about increasing how you connect with your consumers. How are you going to increase your sales and I’m really excited about what you’ve the programming that you put together. And then just going through and figuring out like, wow, I never knew that I could find somebody who has got a lug home, you know, a cabin kit right here. I I’ve been coming to the peninsula for Kaitlyn, like, at least 15 years at this point, maybe longer. And every time I come and give a presentation like this is my favorite place. We want to be here. And it’s not lip service. So I want to be able to get a look, you know, log cabin kiss so we can build it in a couple of days and get a place here. And then my mom is adorably short, and so she could really use the rectangles over there. Was it like vertically challenged I think but yeah, and then I was talking to Marnie that you know, we’ve been buying fermented foods in Anchorage and I did not know I could get her product in Anchorage. So now I’m gonna get her product in Anchorage. So I’m super I’m super excited about this. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  04:05

that so everyone, everybody just keep eating, talking. So we have a bunch of people that are just having a great lunch. We’re just having a good time, a little workshop here today. And you’ve got a number of new members on the team that we’re excited we’re gonna call up but who? How about CME Joe, are you are you ready for us? Are you ready to interrupt her lunch and so we’re going to keep keep the party rolling. I want to, I want you to see up here. So we got we got plenty of room. So kinda here we got Sami Jo, so Sami Jo has been on here multiple times. So Sami Jo, seasoned veteran, and just talk about like your role your goal, man, we’re doing LinkedIn lives together. So talk about like your role and what’s going on with the MEP? Yeah, happy

Sami Jo Lewis  04:43

to thank you, Curt. Um, so I’m actually I’m just moving from the Client Services Manager position to now Communications and Outreach Manager position. So I’m super excited about that. I’m going to be doing more live sessions so super excited. It’ll be kicking off the lives with you that are available every other Thursday on online Oculus MVP website. I’m super excited to be able to dive more into social media and really be able to just like engage and build our network of clients manufacturers say,

Curt Anderson  05:15

yeah, it’s great. And you’re doing a wonderful job helping manufacturers to what stopped being the best kept secret that and so we have a really fun program. Here, we’re doing all sorts of different lives Damon, you were a guest, we had our dear friend, Nicole Donnelly. And so we’re putting those lives though that content on the last MEP website. So it’s just a great example here of today of like, how the MEP is just dedicated to helping manufacturers. This is going on in all 50 states, but it’s just so inspiring. so rewarding to see what’s going on here in Alaska, we have a bunch of wonderful, just relentless, we’re talking about resiliency today. And you better eat that sandwich, because I’m calling you up in a minute, Caitlin, so you know, don’t go Oh. So, Amy, it’s

Damon Pistulka  06:03

really inspiring to be in the right year, much all these people have great products, great companies, great ideas that they’re bringing to market or already in the market and trying to grow their sales, right. And I really think that people are listening, people that don’t understand what the MVP is really can help them with, need to check out go to the MVP website in your area, and really understand how they can help because as we talked, lean marketing, Six Sigma cybersecurity, yeah, there’s so many different things that they can help your business with. And going international. We were talking about that today. So you really need to just check out your local MEP, because they’re right where you’re at. They’re in 50 states and Puerto Rico, yep. Right. And, you know, they can get a lot of help for their business, right. It’s like, it’s so inspiring to be here and be a part of this. Right.

Curt Anderson  06:52

And you know, and we talk a lot about, like, you know, being with the customer, and like, you know, hopefully like that little pandemic thing is behind us that, you know, we can now physically travel up here to the great State of Alaska. And man, I can think if we could, we’ll put the camera out there, like, look how beautiful it is out there. Right. So we’ll come back over here. So anyway, who’s next? Kassim? Are you ready for us? Can you get up here? So we’ve got a new teammate, here. And so go ahead, Sami Joe, thank you for everything you do. Man, Sami Joe, you throw a great party. By the way, what a fun time or having

Alyssa Rodrigues  07:23

Sami Joe a shout out. She’s been here since the beginning, like three days before the pandemic hit and doing everything remotely and doing multiple jobs. Yeah. So Sammy is just Yeah, yeah. Do you

Curt Anderson  07:35

have any kids in the middle of the whole pandemic thing? And so just a little minor. But so let’s can you do an intro to who’s our

Alyssa Rodrigues  07:42

new teammate, our new teammate is Kassim Kurani. And we’re super excited. He’s our new Associate Directors got decades of business experience here in Alaska. He knows he knows how challenging it can be to do business here. And now he’s here to help manufacturers to succeed.

Curt Anderson  07:57

While this is awesome, and so cost him the internet. Welcome, my friend, and welcome to the party, the manufacturing extension partnership here in Alaska. Talk a little bit about like, your takeaway so far with the MEP? What’s your perspective?

Kassim Kurani  08:10

Well, I think that what you guys are doing here is probably the best thing is I think when I first interviewed it was I wish you I knew you guys, were here. Yeah, when I was restaurant ops, because I could have used a lot of the services from the Lean Six, and how do we train? And how do we get the services, and now with what we’re doing with the supply chain, just be huge, not just to manufacturing, but the core and manufacturing, to really just help the state stand on its own

Curt Anderson  08:38

right. And longtime entrepreneur, like your said, you know, in which you have a contagious enthusiasm, and just you’re bringing this great passion of you know, and it’s a wonderful thing about the MEPS is just the amount of talent and expertise that we you know, we’ve interviewed dozens and dozens of folks from MEP network, but just like your entrepreneurial journey in like, what you bring what you feel that you can bring to the table to help manufacturers.

Kassim Kurani  09:01

Oh, man, that’s, that’s a hell of a question. But put them on the spot, right? It’s just that no matter what your business is, a lot of the businesses face the same problems. Even though I was specifically in restaurants before it was how do I get stuff here on time? How do I deal with shelf life? How do I get stuff back out to the customers? Where do they live? And how do we get the messaging out? Right, so a lot of the core business goes across, regardless of what it is right? And then it’s how do we get our teams to work together on it?

Curt Anderson  09:32

Yeah. And, you know, labor insurance, like everything that you would deal with in your man, you know, and again, so, Kassim had an honor. He was the Pizza Hut, representative for the entire state of Alaska for your family for decades, right? Yes,

Kassim Kurani  09:45

my father and I operated it since 1978. So now just over 40 years, 40 years

Curt Anderson  09:49

and so the cool thing is, you know, from your perspective, Damon we’re seeing this with manufacturers like they’re finally you know, I mean, I hope this is you know, sunrise, they’re realizing like, hey, we need to bring like almost a retail customer service mentality to our manufacturing operation remaining the past, you know, hey, I only have a handful of customers and I didn’t. But now with like the E commerce with digital with social media, we need to have a more of a retail mindset. And so I love your expert experience your expertise of bringing that to the manufacturers, right and

Kassim Kurani  10:18

get away from being just a business to business mindset, but where it really is a production to consumer. And that’s changed a lot in the last 1520 years, especially COVID change that right, right, where people were going directly to the source as opposed right through retail I’ll talk about that that was

Curt Anderson  10:38

that was a dropped a mic moment break through it. I gotta like we’re having our first drop the mic. And in the thing is what I love what you just said, you know, like, it’s typically like b2b, but you know what, it’s human to human. It’s human to human. It’s like, right, it’s human to human on how it doesn’t matter, though, in the past was like, Oh, that retails different, or service sector is different. It’s it’s not it’s all about customer relationships. And so anyway, we’re ecstatic for what you bring to the table. Kassim, and thank you for joining us today. We’re gonna bring up we’ve got another new teammate here. Thank you.

Alyssa Rodrigues  11:10

I’ll give you a tidbit while we’re swapping out, yeah. So we’ve worked with a lot of our smaller manufacturers that have put in small retail spaces in the front of their production, what have they done exceptionally well, people want to see how their products, they want to be able to peek behind the curtain and see, you know, see what’s going on, and what products are using those sorts of things. And then they want to walk away with it. So it’s been really successful, to have that, that business to consumer mindset. And to kind of incorporate it more and more. And we’re seeing a lot of our manufacturers, even if they do wholesale, they’ve got that retail front where they can connect with people. I forget who was mentioning it earlier here. But you know, you want to be able to connect with the people who first started with you. Yeah, and understand what is it that you love about it? What is it that you’re not really liking and, and be able to tweak and pivot and that sort of thing. And it gives you that connection, as opposed to just hope this works? Well,

Curt Anderson  12:03

man, I was like, drop my job number two, right there, right? Maybe we might have had more, but that is fantastic. And what we were talking about this morning, like how important is is to engage with that customer get the face to face go out, like, you know, Damon, we’re traveling a little distance up here to like, you know, be with manufacturers and see what’s going on and get an understanding like, what are their needs? What are their challenges? What are their frustrations, and I absolutely love that. And you know, what a great way to be face to face with a customer to have retail. Now speaking of like, just amazing are wonderful, incredible human beings that I just say that. So how about who’s this fine young man is

Alyssa Rodrigues  12:38

Bentley Hamilton. And he is yes, he is a fantastic human. I think I’ve described you in several, several places as one of the best people that I know. And so I am so so thrilled that he has joined our team. So he is our business development manager for Alaska. He’s down here and so that which we’ve never had a presence, like a physical presence down here. And so for anybody online who’s not familiar, so this is Alaska, you always have always have us not just in your heart, but right here. And so he is right down here. And and yeah, we’re trying to have more of that statewide presence. Yeah, because that was our needs are different. We’re an enormous state so the needs are different down here than they are real up in Fairbanks and that surface we’re super excited not just to have that let’s have him here. Be able to connect with people face to face without a plane right in between. Yeah, so

Curt Anderson  13:28

All right, little little trivia question for Damon. I don’t know if you knew this, but there’s this really popular Broadway show. And it’s about Bentley. I’m just kidding. Hamilton’s my little I’ve just I’ve got Bentley Hamilton. Welcome. Thank you. It’s been an honor privilege working with you. And now we finally get to meet in person. He’s got Vanessa’s here then his his nine year old daughter is here today. Bentley talk a little bit about like manufacturing to you what attracted you to the MEP? What made you decide to join this wonderful team

Bentley Hamilton  14:00

is wonderful team was pretty much hand picked by Alyssa. I’ve known Alyssa for a number of years. Just very honored to join the team. They have been so successful in broadening the scope of manufacturing right and I just want to contribute what I can be a part of the success that they’re that they’re making in Alaska, right? branching out, finding helping small businesses, startups, those people that have plateaued and struggling to get to that next level, right, connect them with the resources that you find and just get them launched, get them distribute. Even outside their successful step is just be there to help get them where they can get To be successful, and bring the wonderful products from Alaska manufacturing man,

Curt Anderson  15:10

I didn’t do it. How do you like, dude? How do you? Yeah, so you know, we got a new one on our show so we could so we have like light mic drops, but now it becomes like you ever go to grandma’s on Sunday dinner? Like like who makes dinner better than grandma like it just didn’t matter what it was like her. That was like Sunday dinner at grandma’s right. That was That was so good, man that was like Sunday, your big sales background from your previous rock life goals expectations for you like what you want, you know, I love what you just shared about, like, how you’re going to help move the needle for manufacturers. How about for you personally, like what are you looking to accomplish at the MVP?

Bentley Hamilton  15:49

So my background, I got some sales background, industrial, commercial, residential. I’ve also been in transportation so specific remote from Anchorage, Anchorage in Alaska. You know, that’s kind of an ongoing supply chain, both in and out. I just I look forward to just broadening the range of possibilities for for our manufacturers, or vendors. And just just kind of lifting everyone

Curt Anderson  16:32

you know, just just being that brand advocate, you know, or just being the fierce you know, enthusiast you know, the evangelists for manufacturing, right. And, you know, all of manufacturing, so I’m gonna I’m gonna go out to the crowd, is there anybody that wants to wants to come up? I don’t want to put anybody on the spot. Is there anybody that doesn’t? So I Jenny’s come into the stage. All right, let’s go. So, Jenny, talk a little bit about your business, your background and what brought you to the program today.

Jenny  17:06

I have spent 25 years moving people out of poverty. Oh, nice training churches and agencies quit being shipping access stuff and help people solve their problems. earn income. So we my daughter founded anchor during made remade I came up to help and I love it. Oh, good for you. The coolest project we have is I want to see you know, we have Alaska ReMade. I want to see Alaska remade because we are remanufacturing blue surgical route that Providence Hospital was throwing into the landfill. And this week, we are going to deliver them to Aih hardware to sell on their eight stores. So So we’re taking something that was costing right, Providence, right? We sell him their gift shop time their incomes, right, right. And now we’re remanufacturing them last.

Curt Anderson  18:13

How about can you give me one? How about man? Let’s blow that up. So congratulations. How inspiring is that? So last year we made so we got Jenny we’ve got her daughter Patti here today. So thank you for joining us and what an inspiration. Who’s, who’s next? Who’s going to Marnie? Let’s get up here my man my soul sister here Okay, so we’ve gotten Marni coming in. So about something here alright. So So in manufacturing food is a huge thing. A lot of times when you think manufacturing Damon you think like you know, bending metal cutting steel, but you know, food is, you know, gazillion, gazillion. I guess like 350 of us Americans need to eat once in a while. Right? So we have a great manufacturer right here of wonderful nutrition, nutritional food, Marnie, welcome thank you little introduction. Who are you? What problem are you solving? How are you making the world a better place? Well, we

Marnie Olcott  19:06

are My name is Marni Alcott and my husband and I Greg have AK Fermentation company and we are bringing real food live food made here in Alaska from Alaskan products to

Curt Anderson  19:16

Alaska. Nice nice. Let’s take it in next like what like you’ve got your flying colors you got the sweatshirt going to take a little another step further. Just talk a little bit about like, what what what are you what are you offering to your clients and you’re here in the Kenai Peninsula right here

Marnie Olcott  19:30

on the Kenai Peninsula. We have reached wheat. We started out as a cottage food in the cottage food market and we learned fermentation from our from my parents. Yep. And for my dad and my stepmom. And when they decided that they weren’t going to do it anymore. They asked us if we wanted to kind of take it over. We said yes, we do. And we’re going to take it to the next level and go to the wholesale market and we have we still want to maintain our presence here at our local markets because near and dear to our heart. But we also now have stores in Anchorage We have stores in Palmer We have stores in the US Sell out. and stuff. And so we’re looking for additional retail locations as soon as we get our expansion under

Curt Anderson  20:07

Nice. Yeah. Awesome. Well,

Damon Pistulka  20:09

I want you to tell him the specific kind of products you’re manufacturing here because this is awesome.

Marnie Olcott  20:14

Okay, so our main, our main product line right now of which we’re focusing on is is our sauerkraut. And they’re made in the traditional way, with locally grown products. We have growers up in the valley and we’re actually just acquiring a local grower here on the peninsula and then also down in Homer. And so we we’ve we ferment, we all our hands touch every piece of cabbage or illustrated piece of cabbage. We currently make 15 different flavors of sauerkraut. And that’s what we get people like sauerkraut comes in flavors, and yes, it does. We make anything from like tumeric, Ginger, Ginger sesame, to a Karatedo which is a Salvadori and Mexican flavor to lemon, dill, and juniper berry, I think carry away which is our most traditional flavor, nice and Apple, onion, fennel, all kinds of flavors. So you just have to kind of, kind of check that out. And so then after once we get the cabbage, all shredded, we get the flavorings and the salts all mixed in with it. Then it goes in our to our fermentation products. And we use 15 liter which we can pack 25 pounds in in a crock at one time. And we process typically at about five 600 pounds at a whack on a rotation and then we ferment from anywhere from six to eight weeks. Low and slow, because that’s what maintains the nice crispy texture. If you’ve had mushy sauerkraut, and you haven’t had good sauerkraut, yep.

Curt Anderson  21:33

That was the biggest drop the mic moment right there, man. Say that again. Could you say that?

Marnie Olcott  21:37

You’ve had mushy sauerkraut? You have not had good?

Curt Anderson  21:40

Yeah, you know what? They were getting T shirts about that? Because you know, like, we’re only here for the sauerkraut. You know, like it was just right. That’s that’s the only last question for you. The last time you pee, can you just how awesome is last coming up just like what’s your impressions? You and I’ve met before we met back in October. And workshop here just your impression of working with me when

Marnie Olcott  21:59

there’s a reason why I’m back here again today? Because I think they’re they’re offering a great a great resource. Because this guy, I think they’re offering a great resource. And they we are truly trying to open up the supply lines for manufacturers in Alaska and making it possible for us. It’s been traditionally difficult with anything here in Alaska. I mean, there’s so much that’s not on the road system that it’s difficult, logistics are difficult. And so when we have some help in that area, just making sure that we can source product and then we can get our product back out is really hugely beneficial.

Curt Anderson  22:28

Awesome, Marty, thank you for taking your time today. Thank you for the energy what you’re doing. All right. How about I’ve lost track of time were we doing on time? Okay, we got it. Let’s see. Any buddy outs. Are you are you coming up here? Are you good? Are you getting up? All right. So all right, man, we got to Damon, like a powerhouse right here like I’m I’m like sweating, a little shinier than normal right now. So just okay. All right, Ali. Welcome. Thank you for joining us today. Man. We just having a good time. Oh, I’m having a blast. Blast. So just a little bit about you your background. And I’m just so impressed with what you’re offering today. But talk a little bit about your background and what you’re here for today.

Ali  23:10

Well, I work for a builder locally here on the Kenai Peninsula. And that’s how quality builders and we also have a sister company called Denali Log Homes. And my position there is in sales and marketing. And my background consists of lending. I was a mortgage lender and in banking, and I used to be the Kenai Peninsula as a small business banker. And so I worked with small businesses and their growth as well. And so this all kind of ties in together.

Curt Anderson  23:38

Awesome, perfect, okay, we’re digging into marketing and like you’re just blown me away with your creativity, just so manufacture of log cabin homes, just talk a little bit about like, what’s working, you’re the marketing that we’ve been talking about today, just you, man, just share some of your brilliance that you’ve been sharing with us today.

Ali  23:55

So we are launching these new log cabin kits. And in that process, we’re building a website. And we’re really wanting to get out within the Alaska communities and provide the kit products. And so those key words of how to how do people search for these log cabins? And how do they know we’re there and like you were saying, we don’t want to be the best kept secret anymore. We want everyone to know about our kid. And we want them to be able to build off grid if they want to. If they want to build equity. We really want it to be something that is an opportunity for anyone with a log cabin or a long home dream for it to come true.

24:33

Perfect. Man.

Damon Pistulka  24:36

listen to us talk this morning about you. You wanted to help Angie, the librarian who has two children now own a home of her own and make that a possibility.

Curt Anderson  24:48

Right and so what’s awesome was so again as a manufacturer what Ali’s doing is super digging into like I heard she’s described like her ideal buyer her core keywords content based around those keywords and really like dedicating yourself to like solving that ideal buyers problem. And our tagline today has been like, how do we teach the competition? And Ali course like, you’re just, you know, just, uh, can you share just some of the content ideas just to kind of give folks like, you know, if you’re a manufacturer out there, you know, doesn’t matter what you’re manufacturing just, you know, talk about some of the different suggestions that you’ve had. I’ve been blown away today so far?

Ali  25:24

Well, I think one of the big ones is we are a local family business. So we really put a focus on family. Even in our advertising, we don’t have stock photos, we use photos of the family of our employees, because we want everyone who does business with us to know that family comes first. And so that’s one of our main goals. We want to get families in homes, we want them to have an opportunity to build for their own future. And so we focus on that as well. And then we’re in Alaska workforce. And so we want, you know, to keep everything as local as we can. And then that concept of like, helping make the connections to benefit our community. And then, like really looking at how can we benefit each family. And, and so that’s really been our focus. And that’s been our company’s focus. And we want to get back to our communities. So another thing our company does is, we meet as a team, and we decide one purpose for that build season. And then that purpose we donate to so if it’s like a community organization or a nonprofit, or if it’s a donation to like, a club within the peninsula, so we every building season, one of our employees gets to pick as season that we dedicate towards so so that we benefit our own community as well.

Damon Pistulka  26:55

Living in the community, from the community. Oh,

Curt Anderson  26:58

my gosh, okay, so guys, you’re just getting like a little sliver. A little taste, man, a little FOMO Hey, Nicole is here today, Nicole? Hey, happy Tuesday. Nicole wisher with us, Madison, lots of love to you. And I’d say you would absolutely love and Nicole, Ellie, you guys need to connect. And she I’ll tell you you’re like right up her alley. Okay, Ellie. Oh, is Val here today. Hey in Regina. Guys, thank you for joining us here today. So Alaska, me up to you?

Ali  27:27

Well, this is my first experience with the Alaska MEP. And I’m so excited. I got an email I wanted, I read through it, I wanted to sign up. For me, it’s like, the more we can learn and grow, the more we can be successful in our business. And it’s just so exciting to make these connections and know that there’s funds avail available for small businesses on the community, and that this organization is really out there to benefit these small business owners.

Curt Anderson  27:53

Excellent. Well, Ali, thank you. You’re a tremendous inspiration, man. I get we’re still we got more to go. Can’t wait to learn from you. So thank you for joining us today. We’re going to start winding down. Is there anybody else that wanted to? I’m getting headshake? No, no. Anybody else that wanted to join us? Okay. All right. So dude, this is what man?

Damon Pistulka  28:15

Yeah, look at the camera. Okay, do

Curt Anderson  28:17

you coming up to up here? Yeah. Okay to get up here. Oh, my goodness. Gracious. Okay. Okay. No. Man, this is my dear friend Candy. Candy. We go way back like, like, like, like in COVID times like 20 years ago, but we met during COVID. Early. We met early COVID. And so we’ve done a lot of work together. And you are an inspiring entrepreneur, innovator, and just relentless man, look at us. Can you talk about your sequence of moves your thing? Let’s see that your final colors there? Let’s see. Can we see that? It’s probably backwards. Yeah, that that’s just read it backwards. But bring the floor to your feet. Bring the floor to your feet. Can you please explain please explain what is this product that you are the brainchild of what does this do? This

Candy FitzPatricK  29:05

is a cleverly designed extremely portable foot rest that brings the floor to your feet. So if you sit and your legs are dangling, this can help bring the floor to your feet. So it folds flat. And it only weighs 12 and five eighths ounces. And you can use it in two different wedge forms. So you could do like can use it like this of your feet or this so that it stretches the back of the front of your legs. You can use it like this is four inches and then you put your feet on the edges so that your knees are a little bit apart, which is better for your back and your hips when you’re sitting. And in the center is a lot of dynamic movement so it moves with you center. You could also use it on its side like this for seven inches if you want your knees above your hips for some reason, okay. They’re all gonna come with this

Curt Anderson  29:52

little sack. Yeah, look at that.

Candy FitzPatricK  29:55

recycled plastic bottles. Oh,

Curt Anderson  29:57

look at that. Goodness gracious. How cool is that? Resting. So what inspired you to innovate this new cutting edge product?

Candy FitzPatricK  30:10

Well, of course, I’m the demographic that I am making this for I was I live in Alaska, but I was commuting to work in Antarctica. So the flight across the Pacific Ocean, I’d get off the plane in New Zealand, pretty much not able to walk.

Curt Anderson  30:24

Did you say Antarctica? Yeah, like we’re in. We’re in Alaska.

Damon Pistulka  30:27

This year, we’re going to the other Yeah, for 10 years. For 10

Curt Anderson  30:31

years you did that.

Candy FitzPatricK  30:34

And I tried different products. I used cardboard box for a while. And it’s like, I can make something better. Right, that suits me better. So that’s where it came from? Basically,

Curt Anderson  30:44

that is fantastic. One. So what an inspiration solving your own problem right here? Because like you are your own buyer persona, right? Your own customer last year. And my mom and my mom’s three sisters. Right. And you’re right. So there’s lots of women, lots of folks in your life that could absolutely use this product. Kenny less MEP to you? You and I are longtime friends connected through you know, you and I live 1000s and 1000s of miles away. Yet we’re connected through the MEP network. What’s the last MEP done for you meant to you and your business?

Candy FitzPatricK  31:15

Well, to be honest, during COVID, and just having a business in general is pretty lonely when you’re at your, at your desk in your home or by yourself. Yeah. So when you guys were offering the courses, I was like, Whoa, why not? Yep. Mostly. And, and so you were explaining you were talking my language? That’s what I was working on at that time during COVID. Yeah. And so then we had the weekly meetings. Yeah, yep. So that really helps me along and right at the right time, and it’s pretty slow growing your business. Yeah. That helps. And then, and then I want you guys the slides. Yep. Which I guess we’re doing right.

Curt Anderson  31:51

Yeah, we finally got candy on one. All the time. Right.

Candy FitzPatricK  31:55

So I invite you into my office every time you’re on. Yep. So you can make companies.

Curt Anderson  32:00

Excellent. Well, Kenny, thank you. It’s been wonderful. I have a front row seat of your journey. You’re an incredible inspiration to all everybody here. And so I’m gonna give you a little hug on. So thank you. Thank you. So that’s candy, you got to check out her website. And is there anybody else that wants to join us? I know, like, we have some shy people here. I don’t want to like,

32:24

Okay, I think room is full of people.

Curt Anderson  32:26

I think we’re great. I think

Damon Pistulka  32:28

we gotta get back to these these manual. We got to get back more so. And the Alaska MEP is brought a whole day here today that we’re going to be working. We’re going to be visited other Alaska manufacturers tomorrow. Yes. And then Thursday, we got even more on Anchor. Right. Right. And then Friday, what’s happening on Friday? We’re gonna live. We’re doing live. Yes. From the Alaska MEP on Yes,

Curt Anderson  32:50

I think in word I think we’re doing Thursday. I don’t know. So we got all sorts of stuff. So, guys, thank you. Thank you for joining us. Appreciate it. If you’re catching this on replay, go back. And like listen, it’s just so inspiring here hearing these manufacturers and entrepreneurs, innovators, and how they’re just dedicated them selves. Not only made in USA, but made in Alaska, you talk about a chant, you know, you know, you’re in a little bit of a disadvantage up here. And these guys are just, you know, take it, you know, just they’re unstoppable. They’re just unstoppable. And they’re here learning and working with the Alaska MVP. So, dude, thank you, man. It’s great being you live. And so yeah, we’re

Damon Pistulka  33:28

actually in the same room.

Curt Anderson  33:30

So for the first time. First time for live. Alright. Thanks, guys. We’ll see you. I’m not sure what we’ll see you again. Thank you. So we’re going to appear we’re going to appear. Hey, God bless you. Have a great day. We’ll see you soon.