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Ian Gladue | Mitsoh image

Ian Gladue | Mitsoh

S2 E47 · Aisle 42
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47 Plays22 days ago

Now, this conversation is not for the faint of heart.

It’s a powerful and deeply personal look into Ian’s raw and profound path—one that starts and ends talking about Mitsoh’s delicious pemican strips (available in a grocery store near you)

but it’s the middle part, his telling of his turbulent past and inspirations along the way, that will have you glued to your ear buds.

Ian’s vision goes beyond sharing authentic Indigenous food;

it’s about reclaiming cultural identity, creating opportunities for his community, and becoming the best human he can be.

Let’s get into it. And just a heads-up—this episode is not family-friendly.

The future of food starts f*** right now.

To learn more go to https://www.mitsoh.com/.

To learn more about who’s behind this podcast and how we help food and beverage brands grow faster, visit https://www.ethicalfoodgroup.com/.

Here’s a summary of this interview:

Call for Indigenous Representation in Grocery Stores – Ian advocates for a dedicated Indigenous food category in mainstream retailers to celebrate First Nations culture and cuisine.

Mitzoh’s Mission – The brand focuses on restoring and sharing traditional Indigenous foods, such as dry meat and pemmican, which predate colonial influences in Canada.

Overcoming Adversity – Ian’s journey includes homelessness, incarceration, and struggles with addiction before finding his calling in food entrepreneurship.

A Passion for Cooking – From childhood, Ian had a love for cooking, which eventually helped him transition from street life to building a successful food business.

Indigenous Foods in Mainstream Markets – Starting with a small food cart, Ian navigated challenges to scale Mitzoh into major retailers, proving the demand for traditional Indigenous foods.

Innovation in Indigenous Cuisine – Mitzoh is expanding its product line with pemmican bites, cranberry-infused variations, and a new push for traditional Bannock in mainstream stores.

Resilience and Entrepreneurial Spirit – Ian leveraged his street smarts and determination to overcome business obstacles, even when faced with financial and regulatory challenges.

Community Impact – His work has inspired others in Indigenous communities to pursue their own food ventures and reclaim their cultural food traditions.

Collaboration and Growth – Partnering with Range Road Meats Co. enabled Mitzoh to scale from 35 stores to over 600 locations, demonstrating the power of strategic business alliances.

A Legacy in the Making – Ian sees himself as the first Indigenous entrepreneur to break these barriers but is committed to ensuring he won’t be the last, fostering opportunities for future generations.

Transcript

Introduction and Ian's Vision

00:00:00
Speaker
This is Aisle 42.
00:00:07
Speaker
Now this conversation is not for the faint of heart. It's a powerful and deeply personal look into Ian's raw and profound path. One that starts and ends talking about Mitsu's delicious pemmican strips available in a grocery store near you.
00:00:21
Speaker
But it's the middle part, his telling of his turbulent past and inspirations along the way that will have you glued to your earbuds. Ian's vision goes beyond sharing authentic indigenous food.
00:00:32
Speaker
It's about reclaiming cultural identity, creating opportunities for his community, and becoming the best human he can be. So let's get into it. And just a heads up, this episode is not family friendly.
00:00:44
Speaker
The future of food starts right now.
00:00:49
Speaker
Ian, I love that we're having this chat. You make beautiful product and you have a beautiful story. And I can't wait to get into all of these things. But before we do that, I want to welcome you to the show officially with the big question. And that is, if you could look to the future and if you could get excited about one new thing in the food system, what would that new thing be?

Cultural Representation in Mainstream Stores

00:01:12
Speaker
Well, right on the top, Straight out, I would love to see an Indigenous category within the mainstream stores. I think there's a huge shift and it's ah common, you know, we got we got all different ethnic races that have their own category within the stores. But, you know, everybody's a visitor here to Canada in which we call Turtle turtle Island. And Unfortunately, we're the um we're not in there. So yeah, I would love to see that. I would love to see an Indigenous category.

Mitsu and Traditional Foods

00:01:46
Speaker
I would love to see Indigenous shelving a spot for us to have to be able to bring our cultural foods, everything from culture, language to foods back in and to show showcase it to everybody here.
00:02:02
Speaker
That would be a beautiful thing. I love it. I'm so glad you said that. Thanks, man. So before we go any further, I think you need to tell listeners like what it is that you guys are making over at Mitsu.
00:02:14
Speaker
So what we are is, Mitsu means eat in Cree, first of all. And so we specialize in indigenous meat snacks, authentic indigenous meat snacks that predates any colonial ways that have come in. So some of the first foods of Canada, we'll say.
00:02:35
Speaker
So we're here to preserve, restore and share and bring back all these traditional foods that are lost now that were once here to help early settlers that have now i've been forgotten. and Amazing. And you guys have quite a lineup of but it's bison and there's other what other ingredients are you working with outside of just bison meat?
00:02:58
Speaker
our product that we're currently focusing on right now is the traditional pemmican pemmican that is the actual way to say it and it means like um fine ground meat.
00:03:11
Speaker
The pemmican is derived from the dry meat. And so we have a traditional dry meat, which is just buffalo and smoke, very clean, healthy, soy free, gluten free, zero carbs, it's just buffalo and smoke.
00:03:24
Speaker
So that is one of the oldest traditional foods to Canada. And so from that, we would ground it up on a stone and then we would add berries. Now, people ask, oh, berries and meat, buffalo, why the buffalo? I'll explain all of that too as well here.
00:03:44
Speaker
So the berries, the way that we did it is because we roamed the lands, our people were always out hunters, gatherers. Wherever we were at and whatever was in season, the blueberry, the Saskatoon, strawberries,
00:04:01
Speaker
the cranberries, all of these berries that we've used, we would take these berries and we dry them out And we would combine them with that meat that was finely ground down and we would add fats with it too as well.
00:04:17
Speaker
So that is what traditional pemmican is come now. So we use the berries specifically because all these berries, we always known the benefits of all of these berries to help keep us sustained through the cold, hard winters, hot summers, you name it.
00:04:37
Speaker
And I've had, i think, all of your product. Maybe there might be maybe one that I haven't. But ah the blueberry ah meat is just it's off the charts. I would consider myself ah very much a category shopper for you. I i want i buy your product from an urban fair in Vancouver, in Olympic Village in Vancouver. That's where I find you.
00:05:01
Speaker
And I was the kid that on my bike route when I was 10 years old would swing by the local butcher and I would buy 45 cents worth of beef jerky on my way home.
00:05:13
Speaker
And my dad was always like, oh, did you bring any for me? Like it was like, it was, you know, that type of meat, you know, was ah beef jerky anyway. It was part of my childhood. I have great memories of sharing beef jerky with my dad and just that that experience.
00:05:26
Speaker
But years later, i i meet you at an event at a food show. And I'm like, okay, dried meat. All right. And and i I tried it for the first time. I had never had berries in meat before.
00:05:38
Speaker
had never had ah buffalo meat before, at least maybe just not dried. I'd never had a dried buffalo meat. And so the the eating experience was wonderful. But then, of course, I start to hear from you about how this all began. And, you know, there are a lot of food founders that have stories of entrepreneurial dreams and all these different experiences around food and and therere their journeys. And your story stood out to me. And I would love it if you could refresh my memory a little bit and share with listeners, like, where did this idea

Ian's Personal Struggles and Turning Point

00:06:11
Speaker
come from? Because getting into the food space, getting into meat processing, these are not things that are easily done. They are hard journeys.
00:06:18
Speaker
but you have leaned into it in a way that is reflective of not only your values, but that of your community. Well, in my culture, it's always best to know where you come from. The stories that we share and all of the experiences are best known if you know where where you've come from and and how it all began.
00:06:40
Speaker
So I had always had a passion for cooking, always I love to be able to go out and serve my family at like eight years old. I can make a beef, mandarin stir fry, Mr. Subway, exactly the same. And there was one other one. I forget what it was. but And so everybody played all these different games and stuff. I played restaurant.
00:07:05
Speaker
That's what I played. So I always had a passion for it. Always had a passion for cooking. I just never knew to what extent. I come from a pretty pretty rough background.
00:07:17
Speaker
I grew up in a very clean, sober home. I never seen drinking in my home, but we grew up on the reservation. And my father, he was already clean and sober, same with my mom.
00:07:30
Speaker
But just growing up on the reserve and stuff, there was just a whole bunch of the lifestyle that I was exposed to, which was normal for me and for everybody else growing up, to which was alcohol, drinking,
00:07:42
Speaker
partying, you name it. So at a very young age, I started drinking at a very, very young age, probably like nine, 10 years old. I was already drinking. And then from there, it just escalated. I started getting into like selling drugs. I started getting into like all of that kind of a lifestyle where I became an entrepreneur in that sense. And I was independent and I was like 11 years old with like $5,000 in my pocket. And and it was crazy and And my father found out, i was 13 now, and my father found out because people were coming to the house, like if I couldn't hide it anymore. And they were literally coming to the house.
00:08:26
Speaker
where my family was at and asking him to see me. And I just, my dad, he knew for a long time. He was just a very quiet man. He just never had the courage to really say something to me, but it took him everything finally. And he just came into my room one day and said, listen, I know what you're doing.
00:08:45
Speaker
I don't like it. Get out. Either quit or you get out. And he gave me the option, but you know, I was already, you enriched with this. I was already, that's all I could think about and do. That's all that I knew now.
00:09:02
Speaker
And so I ah let my pride get to me and I just said, well, fuck it. I'm out of here, man. I'm gone. So he kicked me out. I was out on the street. I left from the we reserve, which is Big Stone Cree Nation. I left from there.
00:09:18
Speaker
Also Dene from Fort Good and Hope, Northwest Territories. And I left from Wabiska and I hitchhiked down to Edmonton at 13.
00:09:30
Speaker
By then, this is kind of like where the money stopped now. And I was like really feeling the squeeze of like, I was hurting that. I got out of this truck over at the CI and it was a hot summer night.
00:09:43
Speaker
And I just walked around all night, like lost, nowhere to go. no home, no nothing, nothing but just ego, just ego. Like, fuck, I don't need anybody, whatever, blah, blah, blah. But I just was so, I really put myself through a bad, ah bad spin ah because of that pride.
00:10:03
Speaker
So I did that for years, man. I live on the streets. I live on the streets in Edmonton. I started getting into some more shit there, gangs, alcohol, more drugs, getting into like selling now and bringing it back to my community now. And like,
00:10:19
Speaker
Yeah, I did that for the longest time. It was like a really dark phase in my life, like really, really dark. But i I always had this passion for cooking still. And even though times would go and I try and steer off from it to get out of that shit,
00:10:35
Speaker
This lady, she had a fine dining restaurant. Her name was Madeline. And she felt sorry for me. She took me in. And, you know, she knew what I was doing.
00:10:46
Speaker
This was in Hobima area. And she knew what I was doing. And she was like, You know what? Come in. I'll give you give you a job doing dishes and stuff and you can learn and stuff. And and so I went in there and I'd go in there, do dishes. I'd start to learn more about that, about the kitchens. I liked it. I loved it. It was very fast paced. I learned lots about it.
00:11:09
Speaker
And then eventually she got me on other things. First line, second line grill. Uh, then I was able to start generating the orders and start doing everything on my side. And I was incredibly gifted at a very, very fast, fast, uh, pace here.
00:11:26
Speaker
Then I'd steer off and I'd go back and do this shit all over again. I'd get back to the drugs and drinking and whatever, and try to take over the world. And, uh,
00:11:37
Speaker
whatever it was and stuff and and then uh it was around 19 we got caught the doors got kicked in undercover came in kicked open the doors where we had i had quite a few homes working for me all over up north and uh then the doors got kicked in everybody got arrested and uh yeah man went on the run for like three years.
00:12:03
Speaker
Cops were looking for me, couldn't find me. i just was AWOL all over and cops were searching me for ah longest time. And eventually i just got tired of running. I couldn't go home anymore. I couldn't see my parents, nothing. They were looking for me everywhere.
00:12:18
Speaker
And I just got tired of it. I just, I was over at a 7-Eleven and I called them up and I said, Hey, you guys are looking for me. Here I am. And, and then they were like,
00:12:30
Speaker
well, hey, can you just come into the, can you come into the freaking detachment? And I was like, you guys have been fucking looking for me for three years. This is the only time i'm calling you. Like I'm telling you right now, if you're not here,
00:12:43
Speaker
I am not going. And they're like, what's your name? And I was like, Ian Gladwell, blah, blah, blah, this and that. All a sudden, fucking sirens were coming from everywhere. And I was at like 7-Eleven and guns were drawn. I'm trying to drink my last bottle of fucking whiskey because I know I'm going to jail now. and Anyway, they end up grabbing me, throwing me in I went to jail and got out after I think it was like nine months, year. it Yeah, it was but probably close to a year ah got out.
00:13:14
Speaker
came out a couple buddies of mine picked me up went out partied with them and they picked me up in a stolen vehicle and um yeah went right back to jail the next day it's crazy uh yeah so man i live i live a life of yeah i was a gangster man you know ah was a gangster and uh it was a dark horrible experience but i learned lots from it i learned about who i am and who i don't want to be and and what I want my boys to not be and how to help guide them and stuff. So eventually down the road, i was about 26 now, i got into more cooking. I had my first daughter and I used to work for their family. They had a concession and it was it was called Res Boys.
00:14:04
Speaker
I was sitting in there, I was working grill and I was looking at this long lineup, man. This freaking lineup was just nuts. And I was sitting there and I'm just killing it. I'm fast, like really, really fast.
00:14:16
Speaker
I can pump out the orders, like no word of a lie. And I'm looking at this long lineup and I'm thinking, man, why, why is our food only popular at powwows?
00:14:27
Speaker
Like why? And there's over a million people at like a fricking hour and some away and nobody's wants to bring it into the city. Like why?
00:14:38
Speaker
So I started thinking like that. i started going around to each of the old timers. Like these guys have been here doing powwow trails long before me. And I started going around to them, asking them questions like, how come you guys don't go in the city? How come you don't want to bring the foods in there? Like you have everything set. You have your own concessions. you have And I just went around and around and around. And all of the answers that they give me response was just like, who's going to want us?
00:15:07
Speaker
Who's going to eat our food? Oh, it's too hard. ah there's too many rules. And I was just getting this from each of them. And I was just like, what? So much opportunity there.
00:15:20
Speaker
And I realized though, a lot of that came back from residential schools. Later on, I realized these things that came from, they were beaten from the system. Our people were beaten from the system for so many, for hundreds and hundreds of years.
00:15:37
Speaker
And, It's hard. It was hard for them to get past it. I started thinking about all the shit that I've been through, though, man. Homelessness, drugs, alcohol, jail, you name it. i Like, there's a whole bunch of shit I could talk about here that'll keep your freaking audience stuck here, like, for real. Like, the shit that I did, and I, oh, my gosh. but I thought I was a bad boy because I sold fireworks. I guess have me beat.
00:16:03
Speaker
ah
00:16:06
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Yeah. It was fucking crazy, man. Yeah. So then i thought about all these things that I've been through and i was like, man, like I'm never one to give up.
00:16:18
Speaker
Like I i just, I'm very stubborn. Always look at what I've been through, where I slept. I used to freaking sleep underneath this bridge, man. And because I didn't have anywhere to sleep and I was trying to find somewhere to go and I was scared because sometimes you'd sleep on the ground and there'd be a lot of like fucking weirdos coming after you while you're sleeping and shit. And and I just didn't feel safe. I was really young. So I'd go climb up underneath this bridge and talk myself up in this little gap that was there and I'd sleep there and I'd feel safe there.
00:16:51
Speaker
And I just keep thinking about that goddamn bridge. And I'm like, oh, there's freaking no way like, it ends here. It doesn't stop here. There's something more for me. I always know that there was something more for me.
00:17:04
Speaker
And like from the dealing drugs and this and that, I just had a natural act for sales and whatever it was. And, You know, I just didn't know to what extent I didn't know how to harness my gifts properly and to use them because I was never taught that.
00:17:21
Speaker
We're not taught about savings. We're not taught about investments. We're not taught about any of these things. You know, we're just taught to exist for the day. Unfortunately, that's what I grew up with.
00:17:34
Speaker
So it was like.

Pursuing Dreams Despite Challenges

00:17:38
Speaker
2009, I started thinking about bringing Indigenous foods. Now i'm like, man, I wonder if I bring Indigenous foods into mainstream. It started like turning some wheels for me, and I thought, started thinking about But hey, I burned every fucking body that I could in my past. Like I had zero credit. I had shit credit.
00:17:56
Speaker
I think my credit was probably like 400 or something like that. Like I burned every fucking credit card there was or this and that. I burned everything, everybody. i honestly didn't expect to live that long.
00:18:08
Speaker
I lived for the day and I didn't care. And I just was so irresponsible. and And now I got to restart and try to do better. And I'm like, shit. you know, I cleaned up my act now. I'm trying to get a job. I started working the rigs now. I started working oil field and I was like trying to get out of that whole freaking lifestyle and leave it all behind and do better for my daughter now. And and I was doing that. so And then I started thinking, well, I'm going to bring this indigenous foods back in the mainstream. Like, here's something I want to do now. I want to work for myself.
00:18:39
Speaker
I want to do that. And so let's see what, what can actually unfold with this. But I worked the freaking rigs for so long. Eventually i was close to coming out. It was 2009, February 2nd.
00:18:54
Speaker
Actually, it was yesterday. Just like, yeah, yeah. I was working the rigs and I was working night shift. was cold, man. It was freezing, freezing cold.
00:19:05
Speaker
I came on for freaking night shift, walked up the tanks. Somebody froze the tanks that were on there. It's these big mud tanks, probably like 12 feet high, expanding about 20 feet wide. And they're like huge mud tanks that they use to circulate the whole system in that well.
00:19:25
Speaker
And they froze it because it was so cold. They didn't turn the freaking agitators, et cetera. And it froze. And they put a steam hose in there to be sneaky. And so it was going all day. The next shift came on and there was all this fog coming up and steam it was being hot now.
00:19:44
Speaker
One of the guys called me up on the mud tanks. I need your hand. Come here. here. And they started fucking screaming. Everyone's screaming on the rigs, man. It's crazy. So I go up. get on there and where the steam hose was going in on the top of the gates it rattles because the steam shooting in and the gate that was there rattled and it fell in so it was a big square gate that you can use to go in the tank to clean it so this gate fell in from there as I walked in I fell in it as well I just grabbed for anything and
00:20:21
Speaker
I held on for my dear life, man. I just felt this. I can't explain this pain, but I fell in up to my knees and I'm just screaming. The guy comes over. Holy shit. He grabs me, pulls me up and I'm standing there on the tanks.
00:20:37
Speaker
I pull off all my clothes. I pull off my boots, all my long johns. And as I pulled down my freaking long johns, my skin just,
00:20:48
Speaker
followed them right to my freaking knee like right to my ankles i was just looking down at my feet and there was a big roll of skin on around my freaking ankles and i just like what the fuck and i just kept looking at it it was unreal i walked off from the tank's I went and sat in the change room. My push comes in Holy shit, are you okay? And he's like, holy fuck.
00:21:17
Speaker
He's looking at me and I'm sitting there looking at him in shock. I'm like, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. i'm sorry. i said, I'll get back to work here. Just give me a second here. I just got a re-fucking group here. And he's like, fuck that. You're going to the hospital. And I was like, and if you go to the hospital on the rigs, you're a pussy and blah, blah, blah. And you grow up with all this mentality of how hard you are. And solid you are and you can lose a finger and still go back to work the next day or whatever right it's crazy what the mentality is like you're you get trained to be something something different minus 40 up there and stuff right so yeah I was nuts went to the hospital went through everything again I was just doing good now was like quit drinking everything like
00:22:07
Speaker
Saving money for my daughter, doing better, being a good dad, this and that. And now I got hurt. was fuck. So back to square one and had to learn to walk again. They told me you might not be able to walk again. It's so bad.
00:22:22
Speaker
had like 890 staples all over my leg. They took skin from my ass, the back of me here, took it all. They put it all on my legs. It all worked. And I spent the last, I spent about three and a half months at the U of A in the burn unit. And it was unreal. It was the craziest experience I've ever went through, man.
00:22:47
Speaker
But one thing I learned from it when I walked out of there and I told the doctor, I said, I'm walking out of here. And he said, okay. And, uh, I told him, I said, um, I said, I'm going to walk out of this place. And I was kind of looking outside the window every now and then I'd see this grass and stuff. And I was like, just couldn't wait to put my feet in the grass again or something. I just wanted to just feel it. a And it was just completely like crawl into the bathroom on my stomach. Like I can't move my legs. They're completely bound up. And it was horrible.
00:23:25
Speaker
It was absolutely crazy, man. Yeah. But I got past it. I got through it. Came out. Walked. First thing I did, I went out. I put my feet in the grass, man.
00:23:38
Speaker
oh It was the best feeling. I learned lots about that. I learned lots about forgiveness, for starters. I learned to forgive the guy that I got hurt from on the tank.
00:23:49
Speaker
The old me was like, this fucking guy's dead. I'm going to to jail fucking three and a half years. I'll do a quick fucking three and a half. No problem. Blah, blah. Like that's where the freaking mind was going. I couldn't wait to get out of jail to find this guy because I just felt ugly now. Like who's going to want me? All this self-pity came in. It was it was crazy, man.
00:24:09
Speaker
But I learned like something changed in me. Something something shifted. And I learned lots about humility. learned lots about forgiveness.
00:24:20
Speaker
And I walked out of there feeling completely new. Then I went back and tried to start this whole venture. I didn't save a penny. Again, I had shit credit.
00:24:32
Speaker
Couldn't buy nothing. I wanted to buy this big concession, but I'm like, they're like 160 grand. How can I buy a big concession? with bad credit and no money, but with this dream and, uh, nobody believing in me, you know, except for myself and my mom, my mom. Right. So which every mom does that. Right. And, uh,
00:24:56
Speaker
Yeah, man, went out and um I just used all my street smarts. I knew I couldn't afford this now. I knew I couldn't do it. But I said, what can I do to still accomplish this? Like, what can I, what other alternatives do I have to make this dream a reality? Again, i just don't give up, man. Like, I just refuse, refuse.
00:25:19
Speaker
So I built this little tiny cart, probably the size of your desk. And I learned lots from the rigs about circulation, water flow, you freaking name it. Like I learned lots about fittings and my dad was an electrician. So I learned a lot from him as a kid too, as well about how to wire up the cart and this and that. And and then my but little bit of experience i had working all the kitchens and here and there, I was able to piece it all together. And I built this little cart and it was, I was trying to get a class E.
00:25:52
Speaker
It's like where you can cook burgers and like high risk, they call them. And so I called the inspector over. His name was Steven Nebel. At the time, he was one of the main inspectors here in Edmonton.
00:26:06
Speaker
And I called him over and said, hey, I'm trying to build this cart here. And he's like, Ian, like for what you want to do, like I don't see it happening, to be honest. And I was like, ah.
00:26:18
Speaker
Well, don't tell me no. Just tell me what I need to do to make this pass. You give me this this book. It was crazy, man. Like all the do's and don'ts were just crazy in there. And I was just like, holy shit, how am I going to make this work? It's got to be a certain distance from this and that. And it can't be close to this. And it was just like, how can I do this in this confined space and still do it?
00:26:40
Speaker
Well, I failed like eight times, like for real. And I was so frustrated. I was like, fuck. And I was just about to like call it. And I was like, ah, that's right. Thinking about that goddamn bridge.
00:26:54
Speaker
And I was like, ah, all right. So went back, back, tweaked it up, called them up. Steven, I think I got it. He comes, he's all right. Where are you at? And I tell him he comes out, checks it over. and He's looking at me. He's like, man.
00:27:09
Speaker
And I was like, yeah, yeah, I get it. I failed. What do I need to pass it though? And he was like, no, man. He was like, um, You're good. You're good to go. Like, this is crazy. I can't believe you did it.
00:27:20
Speaker
And so I built one of the first class E high risk mobile carts from hand, right from scratch, with this passion and dream about wanting to bring indigenous foods back in the mainstream.
00:27:34
Speaker
Failing everything over and over. Like all my people were saying, it's too hard. Who's going to buy it? All these things. I just kept hearing all these things, man. And I was like, let's go. Let's fucking go. Like, screw this. Let's like, there's no way. Like I didn't go through all this shit in life to stop here. Let's go.
00:27:54
Speaker
And I just kept pushing. I went through it. We went out on Churchill Square. It was April 4th, 2013. thirteen ah we We didn't know what to to to expect. There was still some snow on the ground. It was bit chilly. went there for the lunch rush.
00:28:10
Speaker
And it was unreal, man. The freaking lineup was like as far as you can see. And I just thought, holy, and we're just giving we're just passing out the orders. We're giving her, giving her, giving her. And we sold out that day.
00:28:24
Speaker
I thought it was just like maybe the first experience, the first day people are just trying it the second day, third day, for i just reach over and over and over again.
00:28:35
Speaker
At the time we were doing like indigenous food with a Westernized twist. We use traditional bannock. Bannock is a cultural food to us too as well.
00:28:46
Speaker
And so we use this Bannock with Westernized twist with like Buffalo Bannock burgers or bacon cheddar Bannock burgers or mushroom bacon, Swiss Bannock burgers or native tacos.
00:29:00
Speaker
And, uh, the other one was, um, called a res res dog, which was a big ass smoky and a big bun of Bannock. And, uh, so we, um,
00:29:13
Speaker
we had, it was just, it was unreal. I didn't realize the impact that it was going to make, to be honest. I thought it was just like the whole reason why i I had started to be truthful was so my mom didn't have to work again.
00:29:26
Speaker
So then we went from there and flipped up every, I took all my street smarts, everything. And I started of flipping up all my dollars, all everything I've learned on the street, how to like,
00:29:40
Speaker
do shit and like pinch pennies and this and that. And like, I just combined it all, man. I have no freaking education, no nothing, just all dry passion street smarts.
00:29:55
Speaker
A friend of mine says that I come from a school of hard knocks is what he says. Sounds like an understatement, Ian, an absolute understatement, hard knocks. yeah Yeah. So we just grinded from there. We flip every penny. Eventually,
00:30:10
Speaker
That year, i was able to buy out a full concession, a big, huge concession trailer, cash, straight out. From there, we focused on bigger events like K-Day's, Taste of Edmonton, all these huge, massive events where I started to want to have more walks of life tasting our foods than restaurant came to life, then a second location, then mass catering everywhere in the city. It was unreal. Like just that big bomb that we put off. It was like a big wave just went like this.
00:30:46
Speaker
And then our people were coming from everywhere. They were like, oh my goodness, how much that you've inspired me. oh because of you, I did this. And it was just well like completely blown away because I didn't realize the impact it was going to do on my people or for my people, you know, and how was going affect them. And man, it there was this huge shift that was coming and everybody was coming from all over, inspired and touched by what we were doing.
00:31:20
Speaker
Then 2015, I started to like another calling, ah started to like feel another calling I felt like there was something bigger and deeper coming, you know, like Bannock is absolutely traditional for sure. And it's something we do. And, you know, but I started thinking about what did we do before Bannock? What did we eat before Bannock? I started thinking like, what were the first, as my role started to unfold and I started to see my calling of like, now I'm like,
00:31:50
Speaker
I'm not in the food business like this. Like I'm actually I'm a trailblazer in a sense like I'm and what I'm doing here. How is it affecting my people? Now I got to think more about that than just being selfish my whole life.
00:32:06
Speaker
What can I do better to be a better version? and always challenging myself now, being clean, sober, drug-free now, completely changed my whole life, learned my cultural identity, language, all these things that were taken from us, I brought them back into my life and my children's life now.
00:32:27
Speaker
And so from from there, I was sitting there with my mom one day, and I was like, she's like, what's wrong? And I'm like, I don't know, I just feel like there's feel like I'm missing something. Like there's something more.
00:32:41
Speaker
And she's like, what do you mean? Like she's blown away too. She's like, you got the restaurants, you have the concessions, you have all of these things. You're like, what are you talking about? Like, we're very blessed.
00:32:53
Speaker
I said, yes, I know we're blessed, but I just feel like there's something else. And she's sitting there cutting up some meat, hanging it on the racks. And I looked at it and I said, that's it.
00:33:06
Speaker
That's it. And she said, what, what, what? I said, we're going to bring back traditional dry meat and pemmican back into freaking mainstream. What is more authentic to Canada than the first foods of our people?
00:33:19
Speaker
The first foods of the first ah nations, Dene, the Inuit, Métis. What the first foods of our people? and oh Traditional dry meat, dry fish, pemmican.
00:33:32
Speaker
There's all of these different ones down the line too, but holy smokes, man. We used to offer traditional tea, like Laboom tea and bannock in the restaurant when people came just as a as like an experience.
00:33:48
Speaker
And now we were bringing dry meat in there in Pemmican and it just blew up. People were now coming for the dry meat.
00:33:59
Speaker
and asking him to buy the dry meat and the sales, like they weren't asking for the Bannock burgers as much anymore or anything like that. It was all dry meat and stuff like that. And, and then I got a call from a store and they were like, Hey, we heard you got dry meat for sale, traditional bun. So on, which means thin sliced meat and cream.
00:34:20
Speaker
And I said, yeah, yeah, I got it. I got it. They're like, Oh, we won't. we want to carry it in our store. Are you all set? Like you got your packaging, you got your UPC, GS1s, you got your label, blah, blah, blah. And i was like,
00:34:37
Speaker
Oh, yeah, for sure. i got it all. Don't worry you about it. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. Like, let's go. Let's go. i didn't know shit about anything. I just quickly threw some stuff together and put it in a bag. And I just, it was nuts. We shipped it out to the store. They sold out in like four hours.
00:34:56
Speaker
Like, it was unreal. It was unreal. All our people were just like hitting these stores and just buying it up. And then one store went to two to three to four to five.
00:35:06
Speaker
Fries and Bros jumped online, jumped on with us. We got like 35 stores total. We're doing like dry meat around the clock. My wife comes to me and she's like, listen, I know Native Delights is your baby. Like that's where it all started from. And that's what we call the concessions and all that, that side there. And And she's like, I know it's your baby, but I need you to look at this. And I said, yeah, what? She says, look at Bansawan.
00:35:39
Speaker
Look at Native Delights' as account, which is here. And then look at Bansawan's account. And she said, and now we're injecting money into the lights now because, well, for one, we we kind of like, we refuse to sell booze in the restaurant. I just felt like there was enough places for my people to go and do that.
00:36:01
Speaker
And I just wanted a safe place for families to come. And she's looking at it and then she's like, if you could just put a little bit of you into here, i think it could go somewhere.
00:36:21
Speaker
And I was like, ah, you don't know what you're talking about. you know But you know what? She was absolutely right. She was absolutely right. And so I made the big decision. i took the leap of faith.
00:36:35
Speaker
We couldn't grow anymore. i was doing a demo. We decided on selling in the restaurant and um we didn't sell the concept. We just sold the spaces. And so we still kept the name and stuff, but We sold them and then I was doing doing a demo and we're trying to focus more now on going federal, start shopping around, looking at places.
00:36:58
Speaker
And I came across the Leduc processing facility. I went in there talk with some of the scientists in there about our product and went through, went for a tour.
00:37:11
Speaker
felt like i was a little too small in there like probably the same setup as ours currently so I didn't really think that there was much volume we could put out from there it was kind of funny because as I was like sitting there and I was talking to this scientist I see all these binders in the back and all these binders here say Range Road meets Co it says on there and I'm like looking at this like who the heck's this Range Road meets Co like there's Lots of binders here of them.
00:37:42
Speaker
Anyway, so it kind let it pass. And then I was doing a demo. It came up again. Somebody told me and said, there's this guy. He's got a facility, Range Road Meets Co.
00:37:53
Speaker
And it's over beside the Leduc Processing Facility. So I started Googling it. I went for a drive. I couldn't find it. I didn't know it was actually in the incubator site, as you learn that after. But I just drove around, couldn't find it.
00:38:09
Speaker
And I'm like, what? Screw it. I can't find this place. I'll just keep on looking around somewhere else. And so then I'm doing a demo over at Save on Foods. I run into this lovely lady and she's like, tell me all about your product. And I said, give it a spiel. This is Banzo on so-and-so. It's soy-free, gluten-free, hormone-free. It's just bison and smoke. And And I started giving her samples and explained to her about the whole cultural side of it, where it comes from. And she's just blown away. And she's like, you got to meet my son. And I was like, who is your son?
00:38:45
Speaker
She's like, his name is Brandon. And I was like, Brandon who? Brandon Marquee. And I was like, I've heard that name before. And then, so she gives me this card and it's at Range Road Meets Co. And I'm like, oh shit.
00:38:56
Speaker
So it was kind of funny. Yeah, i did. And it showed the same place. So then I called him. I couldn't find it. I sent him a frigging email and yeah, soon we, we went in and started doing some r and D runs and,
00:39:12
Speaker
hit it off. And in a few months down the road, I asked him to be my partner and, and we started killing it. Those 35 stores jumped to a hundred to 200 to 300. Sobeys, Safeway, Saban Foods, Co-ops, Whole Foods is jumping on board. Loblaws is coming on board.
00:39:30
Speaker
Oh my goodness. I'm losing track now. um Yeah. There's so many stores now it's coming. I go, and we're just over six, 600 and some stores now. all through Western Canada and growing daily now. And yeah, man, that's my story compressed. I'm trying, I'm looking at the time and I'm like, well it's hard to get it. it's been I haven't barely spoken. It's 35 minutes, which I'm sure my wife can tell you that doesn't happen very often.
00:39:58
Speaker
But I'm really glad you shared what you did. Yeah, for you, that does sound condensed. We've been around each other long enough to know. I know that is condensed, but I appreciate you telling me your journey yeah Talk about like a lot of people in our business know the grocery store as a street fight.
00:40:15
Speaker
It is a hard business to survive, much less win at. But when you come to this business with the experiences that you have had and experience challenges that your people have had, it is, I think, very commendable. And ah the fact that you've done it so graciously ah now as ah now that you're all grown up, ah but, you know, I think it's a beautiful thing when you can share a story A lot of people, when they look at their own struggles and their own fight in business or in life, ah they can sometimes feel very isolated and they can feel very alone and frustrated and like the world is out to get them at times. And when you can come through a journey like you've had and you have battled, like you said, you didn't give up.
00:41:02
Speaker
I think it's a testimony of your character that's deep and and wonderful. So I think, you know, i i'm I'm glad you shared the story that you did. I think it was maybe two years ago when I first, like I said, when I first tried your product and first met you. And I think one of the things that really stood out to me is that i it wasn't just about a consumption occasion or a product market fit or some of the stuff that we know about to talk about in our line of work.
00:41:32
Speaker
There was something deeper, something more beautiful than I'm used to hearing. And so I just i just want to say that the... The opportunities that you have, the opportunities that you've taken to share your stories and versions of your stories, shorter or longer, I think is something that is missing in the food space. If you think of just obviously look at how food brings us together and unites us.
00:41:54
Speaker
I think we're reminded of that during COVID when we couldn't experience food and and gatherings like we were used to. is sort of very ah It was a very poignant reminder. ah But those things have been forgotten again. And now, you know, it's so easy for everyone to turn back to their devices, turn back to their stress, turn back to their work or their distractions. And they forget the people around them and the fact that enjoying food together. And ah we all have some cultures, right? We all have some part of our history that is important and cherished. And that we have these memories.
00:42:27
Speaker
And the fact that you tell yours so beautifully is a wonderful thing. So, so grateful. Yeah, man. thinking about the whole shift now and, you know, CHFA being out there and we have a booth and we're looking at all these natural foods. Everyone's pushing to be in the natural foods, clean, healthy living. And then you look at our product and it's like,
00:42:51
Speaker
this is one of like probably one of the original categories of where they would have started from, you know? And it's like so funny how all of a sudden now the category is called natural foods. And, but to us, it was just called foods.
00:43:06
Speaker
So true. So you and Brandon, I, you guys are always scheming. You guys always have stuff. Is there anything in the pipeline that you're allowed to say out loud things that you guys are working on or projects that are underway? Yeah.
00:43:19
Speaker
Yeah, there's well, there's there's a couple of them here. So we're we're working on a new packaging for Mitsu, which is going to be similar. This is probably similar to the size of it. This is just a rough little copy of the size.
00:43:37
Speaker
And um so we'll be doing Hemmikin Bites is what we're working on. We're also bringing out another line. We're working on on some R&D runs. We've had a huge calling for cra cranberry as well. A little bit of tartness in it. Yeah.
00:43:54
Speaker
A little sweet, little tart. That's fantastic. Yeah. So that's exciting on that side. There's some other projects too down the line that we're kind of working on. On my side here, I have... ah Through Made Up The Lights brand, we're currently working on um bringing traditional bannock back into mainstream now. like Again, being one of the first companies in history to do that and bring fried bannock and baked bannock back into mainstream. So we're going to focus on a B2C side first and then B2B on that side too here. So we're looking to launch that.
00:44:31
Speaker
Well, put me on your VIP for list list for that one. I i love Bannock. love it so much. It's going to be crazy. It's going to be crazy. So I'm super, super excited for that and just blessed, honored to be able to play a small part in this and how I can help and bring our people together and help inspire people to want something more, especially within my culture. And I might be the first person to do this, the first indigenous person to break these barriers down, to kick these walls down, to do this, but I'm not going to be the last man.
00:45:06
Speaker
So that's what I love and I'm looking forward to. So good. Ian, thank you for your time and thank you for sharing all that you did. I am rooting for you. My team's rooting for you and can't wait to hang out with you guys in Vancouver coming up.
00:45:20
Speaker
Yeah. Looking forward to it. Thank you so much. Everybody like follow us meet. So.com let's go.
00:45:31
Speaker
Thanks for listening to this episode of aisle 42. Make sure you follow Ian and the Mitzow team on social and grab one of their products the next time you're at the grocery or convenience store. And don't forget to sign up for Ian's newsletter. I look forward to it every time it lands in my inbox.
00:45:46
Speaker
Okay, that's it for me. I'm Corwin Hebert from Ethical Food Group, and I'll see in the future.
00:46:01
Speaker
Bye.