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Episode 014.
Have you sold out to your profession? Is your passion contagious? Do you hire people who are great at what they do, but also LOVE doing it?
Jessicka Nebesni is a Marketing Strategist for Mountain Rose Herbs in Eugene, Oregon. She manages a lot of the content than is produced through MRH’s blog, and even writes some of the articles herself.
She is a humble homesteader and herbal tinkerer who loves all things wild and natural! Jessicka loves to preserve food, make herbal preparations, garden, and spend time in the great outdoors.
It’s clear that Jessicka is enthusiastic about the natural health/sustainability lifestyle. Find out what drives her and what she’ll be presenting in Albany, Oregon at the Mother Earth News Fair.
“People want to see the face behind the brand. They want to have a personal experience. They want to have a conversation. They want to have advice from someone who knows.” Listen now!
Find out more about Mountain Rose Herbs: http://www.mountainroseherbs.com
Find out the business events secrets for growing and strengthening ANY company: http://brianjpombo.com/secrets/
Full Transcript
Jessicka: I originally grew up in New Jersey, where I had a really rich cultural experience but not a lot of exposure to natural food, or any kind of homesteader kind of lifestyle. And I was really yearning to get back to the land and learn to be more self sufficient.
So I did what any other 21 year olds would do. I quit my job. So got my things and packed up my car with my St. Bernard and my cat and whatever else with it, which wasn’t much after them, and I headed to Northern California.
Podcast Intro: If you’re someone who refuses to go along to get along, if you question whether the status quo was good enough for you and your family.
If you want to leave this world better off than you found it and you consider independence a sacred thing.
You may be a prepper, a gardener, a homesteader, a survivalist, or a farmer or rancher, an environmentalist or a rugged outdoorsman.
We are here to celebrate you whether you’re looking to improve your maverick business or to find out more about the latest products and services available to the weekend rebel.
From selling chicken eggs online, to building up your food storage or collecting handmade soap.
This show is for those who choose the road less traveled the road to self-reliance for those that are living a daring adventure, life off the grid.
Brian: Jessicka Nebesni is the marketing strategist for Mountain Rose Herbs. She describes herself as a humble homesteader, who loves all things wild and natural.
She loves to preserve food, make herbal preparations, garden and spend time in the great outdoors.
Jessicka writes many blogs for Mountain Rose Herbs, featuring her experience with herbalism, natural food prep and body care recipes. She also helps to facilitate the partnership program and Mountain Rose Herbs and gains inspiration from all the amazing homemade goods made in their own homestead using herbs and spices.
Jessicka, welcome to the Off The Grid Biz Podcast.
Jessicka: Thank you so much for having me, Brian.
Brian: Yeah, sure, let us know a little bit beyond the bio. Let us know a little bit about who you are and what you do for Mountian Rose Herbs.
Jessicka: So I am one of the marketing strategist here at Mountain Rose Herbs. As you mentioned, I primarily work with bloggers who create DIY content, using our ingredients.
And I also help with some of the PR relationships and I write some blogs as well, which is my favorite part.
I love to write.
That’s most of my day to day with Mountain Rose Herbs.
Brian: Great. How did you end up here?
Jessicka: So I originally grew up in New Jersey, where I had a really rich cultural experience, but not a lot of exposure to natural food, or any kind of homesteader kind of lifestyle.
And I was really yearning to get back to the land and learn to be more self sufficient. So I did what any other 21 year old would do, I quit my job. I think we packed up my car with my St. Bernard and my cat and whatever else would fit which wasn’t much after them. And I headed to Northern California.
And there I did a WWOOF program and if you’re not familiar with that it stands for worldwide opportunities on Organic Farms.
So I essentially did a work exchange on an organic farm.
And it was there that I learned a tremendous amount of knowledge on gardening and food preservation. They also practice macrobiotics, so be able to learn a lot about fermented foods, how to make them definitely how to eat them. My favorite part.
And then I was there for about a year and then I was offered a great opportunity to come to Eugene, Oregon, and to maintain 140 acre ranch, where I’d be able to homestead more and really do a lot more gardening in my own personal garden. So I was just another big life decision to make.
And after weighing out all the options, I did decide to come to Eugene.
Kind of a fun fact one of the things on my list or coming to Eugene was that Mountian Rose Herbs was here. Maybe one day I would get a job with them.
And ironically, it was the first and only job that I applied to and Eugene.
I’ve been here for three years now.
So yeah, that’s kind of how I got to Eugene and got to Mountain Rose Herbs.
And really took my you know my city experience from New Jersey and transformed it into a more homesteading philosophy of life.
Brian: Wow, what a great story.
So let me just jump right into the fact that we’re talking to you because you’re slated to speak at the Mother Earth News Fair in Albany Oregon.
So what are you going to be covering there?
Jessicka: So as I mentioned with the organic farming that I got to experience came learned a lot about fermented foods. And one of my I call it my gateway preservation project was sauerkraut and it was so accessible for me really instilled a lot of confidence in my ability to create fermented foods and to make food preservation projects possible.
And so I’m going to be teaching how to make sauerkraut.
I’ll be talking about some of the basics but also how to make them unique and fun for the use of herbs and spices.
You know, no two batches my sauerkraut have ever been the same.
I love getting to do it and I really hope to share that with the audience and have them feel confident by the end of my class, that they’re able to go home and make sauerkraut on their own.
Brian: Fabulous. Beyond that, is there anything else that you hope they’re going to get by watching your presentation?
Jessicka: I definitely want them to understand just how easy it is to make it their own. I’m going to be talking about a lot of different aspects how to make it more crunchy, how to make it more sauce, different flavor profiles of the different spices.
So really, I want to give them the confidence to continue on and I basically want them to go home and make sauerkraut after the presentation, I guess.
Brian: That’s great. So have you been to any of these fairs before?
Jessicka: You know, I haven’t actually made it to this area. But I’ve heard such amazing things. And I took a look at the lineup on the website and I can’t believe I haven’t gone before.
I mean, it’s totally in line with my philosophies and my lifestyle.
So I think there’s going to be an incredible amount of content knowledge to be shared there. And I would definitely encourage people to go and check it out. It’s not expensive.
So it’s definitely doable for a lot of people.
Brian: Absolutely.
Commercial Break: Okay, we’re going to pause the conversation right there. What you’re listening to right now is a special edition podcast. These episodes all have to do with the Mother Earth News Fair in Albany, Oregon of 2019 at the time I’m recording this, we have learned so much about how to take advantage of events and I want you to be able to use this information in your own business. Go to BrianJPombo.com/secrets.
We are going to be putting out helpful materials on how you can use events to grow your business.
When you go to this page, you will either see our latest programs or if you make it there early enough, you will see an email address, capture page, put in your email address and we will be sure and update you. As soon as we get these out there, you’re not going to want to miss this.
If you get in early enough, you can get a special deal. These are principles that never go away. These programs will be based on the experience of people who have written books, spoken at the events or exhibited.
They’re talking about how to use events, books, and speaking all to build your business.
That’s BrianJPombo.com/secrets.
BrianJPombo.com/secrets and now back to the conversation.
Brian: Why are you doing this? You know, what do you personally get out of it?
And what does Mountain Rose Herbs get out of putting on this presentation and being seen there?
Jessicka: I mean, that’s kind of the same for both of us, I would say. I think it’s primarily to being around conscious people who are also into the natural ways of doing things.
We really resonate with that audience, I personally, on a personal level do and also at Mountain Rose Herbs, we really resonate with the DIY people.
We love to be part of a community of like resilient people who are just in line with our sustainability commitments and just really valuing the natural resources that are around us.
Brian: Who are you hoping to reach who’s the ideal person that you’re hoping to connect with either in person or to your presentation.
Jessicka: So I think it really ranges and I would say people that are DIY aficionados. And then also people are just getting started with the lifestyle, having it be so accessible to them.
And, you know, we have a booth there, so we’re able to answer a lot of questions, offer some advice, from our experience.
I think that’s really the kind of connections we’re hoping to make there. And yeah, we all have something to learn from each other.
Even the person who’s just starting out sometimes the new person, will ask questions and you know, it kind of brings you back to the basics. And you’re like, Oh, yeah, I forgot about that part or, you know, I have something to offer.
We’re just really looking forward to talking to everybody there.
Brian: Yeah. So you’re in Eugene, you and Mountian Rose Herbs are in Eugene.
And, this is going to be an Albany. So it’s not too far distance for you. Right?
Jessicka: Correct. Yes, about an hour away.
Brian: So that’s great. Have you got to travel much to other expos or conventions or anything of that sort?
Have you done anything like this before? Is this your first time?
Jessicka: Yeah, I’ve definitely done events, we primarily stay within an hour radius. But I have gone out of state before. I’ve been to New Hampshire for the Northeast Women’s Herbal Conference, which was amazing.
We didn’t booth there anything like that. But I just went as a representative of the company and, you know, talk to a bunch of people who are just our people, you know?
Brian: Yeah, absolutely. Do you have any logistical tips for other people that are planning to travel and do do presenting what you’re doing?
Jessicka: That’s a great question. I wish I did. But we’re really lucky.
We have an amazing event coordinator. His name is Nathan Hutchison. And he takes care of all that. Lucky to have him.
Brian: Yeah, well, that’s a tip unto itself or any of the business owners listening, make sure you have somebody that’s put aside to actually focus on that stuff for you. That’s great.
Jessicka: It’s important, you know, he has a checklist of things that he keeps in mind, and that he learns from each event that he goes to all of those lessons are, you know, they’re kind of cumulative.
So he’s got it down to a science now. He’s quite incredible. So very lucky.
Brian: Great. So in addition to that, like I said, we have business owners and executives that listen to this podcast because we are looking at homesteading and self reliance from a business perspective.
So do you think it’d be worthwhile for them to plug into events like this?
Jessicka: Oh, absolutely. It’s a really valuable way to reach like minded people. And you know, people want to see the face behind the brand.
So they want to have a personal experience, they want to have a conversation, they want to have advice from somebody who knows. So it’s really important to plug into these kinds of events, and be present with the people and really develop genuine connections and relationships.
Brian: As the marketing person there, I imagine that this is a huge piece of what of what you guys are looking at doing all year around that Mountain Rose Herbs. Is that right?
Jessicka: Absolutely. We’re definitely into building genuine connections.
We don’t just pay people to promote our products and you know, celebrities and all that kind of thing. We really keep it more low profile and with people that are just more connected with our genuine brand and what makes us so unique and our sustainability and our organics as well.
Brian: Well, Jessica, I really look forward to meeting you at the fair.
This is going to be my first time as well, so I can’t wait.
Jessicka: It’s gonna be fun, I can’t wait too.
Brian: Yeah, so what can listeners do, who are interested in finding out more about Mountain Rose Herbs, your products and so forth?
Jessicka: Yeah, so we have a website and it’s MountainRoseHerbs.com.
We also have a customer support team. If you want to call in and have any questions, you can certainly do that. The phone number is on our website.
And then we have an amazing blog with hundreds of recipes and tips and tricks, to herbalism and homesteading, and you know, different culinary recipes and that kind of thing.
So definitely encourage you to check out those resources as well.
Brian: Thanks, Jessica, for setting time aside to talk with us and we’d love to have you back. Thanks for being on the Off The Grid Biz Podcast.
Jessicka: Thank you so much Brian.
Brian’s Closing Thoughts: That was really great talking with Jessicka. I think what she represents is a huge spirit of self reliance.
And you just look at the passion that she has for homestead and natural health.
I mean, this all led her to quitting her job and moving toward an organic farm. But having that idea for that dream job and Mountain Rose Herbs, and then actually getting it that shows you a determined focus.
That’s inspiring. A second thing I wanted to point out about our conversation was her focus on using networking and creating genuine connections and unique connections really getting down and finding that ideal person to connect with.
She said, that’s a big piece of Mountain Rose Herbs marketing strategy, and it’s what she likes to do when she goes to events like this.
It brings up the question, what are your values as a company?
Does that come through in your marketing strategy?
And how about the events coordinator, she mentioned that she couldn’t even come up with anything that had ever gone wrong and an event because the event coordinator had done such a great job.
I’ve heard so many good things about this company.
In a future episode with Janice Cox, you could hear her discussing the fact that she’s teaming up with Mountain Rose Herbs. Likewise David and Beth Pruett from AMP-3 they told me how they were blown away by their vendor setup and past years at events like these.
If you go to Mountain Rose Herbs website, mountainroseherbs.com, you can see a whole lot of what they offer.
Their title tag pretty much says it all it’s bulk organic herbs, spices and essential oils.
That’s their main business.
So they got herbs and spices, teas, aroma therapy, a lot of basic ingredients that you can work with bath and body items, containers, home goods, it just goes on and on and on.
I love to learn some more. I look forward to meeting Jessicka and a lot of the other people at the Mother Earth News Fair.
Outro: Join us again on the next Off The Grid Biz Podcast brought to you by the team at BrianJPombo.com, helping successful but overworked entrepreneurs, transform their companies into dream assets.
That’s BrianJPombo.com.
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Our theme music is Cold Sun by Dell. Our executive producer and head researcher is Sean E Douglas.
I’m Brian Pombo and until next time, I wish you peace, freedom, and success.