Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
S4 Ep07: Brie Rehak's Journey to Cheese Magnate
40 Plays12 days ago
In this episode, Trygve hosts his dear friend Brie Rehak, the creator of That Girl Brie, Elevated Charcuterie. They discuss Brie's journey from being let go from a job during COVID-19 to establishing a thriving business specializing in artisanal cheeses. With a background in creating charcuterie boards, Brie turned her passion into a business, focusing on storytelling, customer experience, and quality. They also explore her collaborations, the creation of unique cheese varieties like Merlot Cheddar, and her partnership with Harmony Cheese. Additionally, Brie talks about the importance of branding, the challenges of licensing, and her new retail space in River Falls. The episode is filled with humor, insights into the food industry, and the importance of following one’s passion.
Connect with Brie:
LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/in/brianne-rehak-2ab4b756
Harmony Cheese - https://harmonycheese.com/
Harmony Cheese Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/HarmonyCheese
Harmony Cheese Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/harmonycheesewi/
That Girl Brie - https://thatgirlbrie.com/
That Girl Brie Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ThatGirlBrieBoxesAndBoards/
That Girl Brie Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thatgirlbrieboxesandboards/?hl=en
Other Mentioned Brands
Facepunch Hot Sauces - https://www.facepunchfoods.com/
Lucky Guys Distillery - https://www.luckyguysdistillery.com/
…
Dial It In Podcast is where we gather our favorite people together to share their advice on how to drive revenue, through storytelling and without the boring sales jargon. Our primary focus is marketing and sales for manufacturing and B2B service businesses, but we’ll cover topics across the entire spectrum of business. This isn’t a deep, naval-gazing show… we like to have lively chats that are fun, and full of useful insights. Brought to you by BizzyWeb.
Links:
Website: dialitinpodcast.com
BizzyWeb site: bizzyweb.com
Connect with Dave Meyer
Connect with Trygve Olsen
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Dial It In Podcast
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to dial it in a podcast where we talk to fascinating people about marketing sales process improvements and tricks that they use to grow their businesses. Join me Dave Meyer and Trigby Olson of busy web as we bring you interviews on how the best in their fields are dialing it in for their organizations. Let's ring up another episode.
Meet Brie Rehek and Her Charcuterie Journey
00:00:30
Speaker
So that was a great last episode, Dave. gen Oh, Dave's not here. Plus we're doing this completely out of order. So I don't even know what the last episode was, but hopefully everybody enjoyed it.
00:00:42
Speaker
It was great. Yeah. We're trying to record a bunch. And i think, what is this like our fourth this week? Yeah. I think it's the third one. Yeah. All right. Good news is it's one of my favorite people ever.
00:00:53
Speaker
And it's going to be a fun discussion about, Selling and building a business and doing all sorts of things. I've had a long history with her. I have a deep affection for her. She's literally one of my favorite people that I've gotten to meet while I worked at Busy.
00:01:06
Speaker
Before that though, Dave, do we have a sponsor for today?
00:01:11
Speaker
Treat me. Dave's not here. ah See, I told you I'd get you to say Dave's not here. Who loves a good Cheech and Chong bit?
Sponsorship by WeFixHubSpot.com
00:01:19
Speaker
Our sponsor today is WeFixHubSpot.com. Is your HubSpot ported, cluttered, and inefficient?
00:01:26
Speaker
WeFix HubSpot, powered by BusyWeb, specializes in customizing and optimizing your HubSpot experience. Our team of certified experts offer tailored solutions, including training, re-onboarding, architecture reviews, and data restructuring, ensuring your portal aligns perfectly with your business needs.
00:01:45
Speaker
Don't let a disorganized system slow you down. Visit WeFixHubSpot.com to schedule your complimentary consultation. Start transforming your HubSpot portal today.
00:01:57
Speaker
Back to you, Trigby. Thanks, Trigby. Our guest today is one of my dear friends. She is the creator of That Girl Bree Elevated Charcuterie, a specialty cheese and charcuterie line under Harmony Cheese that blends artisanal craftsmanship with modern flavor.
00:02:15
Speaker
Known for standout varieties like Merlot Cheddar, Bourbon Cheddar, and Blueberry Maple Cheddar, which is truly amazing. She has built a brand that transforms cheese into an experience.
00:02:29
Speaker
What began as a personal passion has grown into a thriving business that celebrates creativity, connection, and community by focusing on storytelling and customer
Brie's Brand and Storytelling Success
00:02:40
Speaker
experience. She has carved out a niche in competitive food market and inspired a loyal following.
00:02:47
Speaker
Her journey offers fresh lessons on branding, selling, and turning passion into profit. And she's also one of my favorite people because she is also...
00:02:59
Speaker
What's known in the business as an occupatimus, which is where your name matches your profession. Welcome Brie Rehek.
00:03:10
Speaker
Yes, and her name really is Brie.
00:03:14
Speaker
That was the coolest introduction I've ever had, ever. Great. I didn't write any of it, but... I loved it so much, so thank you. And I learned something, so thank you for that as well. here Did you really? What did you learn? I learned this business name situation and the name of... i This is good.
00:03:31
Speaker
The Occuponymous? Yes! Yeah. It's if you have a dentist named Dr. Payne.
00:03:38
Speaker
Got it. I love it. Something like that. I just feel like I'm in a whole new category now that I know that. Yeah. Your name's secondly Brianne, but you everybody calls you Bri. Everybody calls me Bri.
00:03:49
Speaker
And somehow you got into a burgeoning cheese empire. i did. And every time I meet someone new, it's the same thing. Is your name really Bri? Yeah, it is. How did that happen? not really sure.
00:04:03
Speaker
it Go with it. Before that, I knew you through, ah let's call it ah an actual day job. You were working for a company that let you go. I was working for a company that let me go.
00:04:15
Speaker
Did they let you go or much as they might they they gave you the opportunity to pursue anything you wanted and gave you the gift of unlimited free time and and and no income?
Opportunities Arising from COVID Challenges
00:04:25
Speaker
100%. also it was everything it was the perfect storm. It all happened right around the same time that COVID was here. So it was honestly the biggest blessing in disguise ever. Just that door opened up to all of the other doors. And now it's that seems 100 lifetimes ago.
00:04:42
Speaker
And i even tried to hire you. You did, more than once. More than once to come work for me. And i i still believe that was the right move. But you said no, because you were going to do this other thing. well what How on earth did you decide?
00:04:57
Speaker
By the way, for the listeners, just to be clear, Brie lives Wisconsin. Brie lives in Wisconsin. And is a cheese magnate. So that's the theme of our selling today is how easy is it to sell cheese in Wisconsin? So anyway, why did you say, I'm going to start, I'm going to start my own cheese line.
00:05:13
Speaker
What on earth did kicked out you to that? It was a natural progression based on where I had started. So when I lost my job, I'd never been a stay-at-home mom before, ever.
00:05:24
Speaker
then in the land of COVID, I didn't have a job to go to. And as much as I love my children, I am not cut out to be home with them all day. I am just not, that is not me.
00:05:35
Speaker
And so I took that opportunity during this COVID shutdown and I would make charcuterie boards. I started doing that with one of my friends growing up and it was just a way for us to get together and get away from our families and have this hobby.
00:05:48
Speaker
But the hobby quickly turned into people purchasing the boards, which then turned into a business, which then turned into me saying, hey, the shelf life on a charcuterie board is only two days.
00:06:03
Speaker
What can I do next to extend my product and my shelf life, which brought me to the cheese line, and we can dive into this all more, but ultimately brought me into where we are now.
From Charcuterie Hobby to Business
00:06:13
Speaker
Constantly, it was just a pivot to see what's next.
00:06:16
Speaker
So for those people who don't actually know what a charcuterie board is, who are beer drinkers more than anything, what exactly explain the concept. A beautiful board of...
00:06:27
Speaker
charcuterie meat and like a cutting board, right? Like a beautiful cutting board. Yep. um Like a random piece of pine. I mean, you could do that. I've done that too, but a beautiful board. And then also it's just literally these incredible meats, right? Just a ton of a variety of charcuterie meat.
00:06:44
Speaker
And the cheese is just an add in. I say that we're building charcuterie boards, but when I really look at what we're doing, it's ultimately just this big, beautiful snack board because I don't just have the meat on there. We're adding in cheese, we're adding in fruit. I have vegetables on there.
00:07:02
Speaker
It's really just a big grazing board. There's something for everyone on a board. Yeah, it's something that you can pick at a party or if you have people over, you're putting out meats and cheeses and making trip. Yeah, it's just an elevated meat and cheese tray from the Midwest Christmas. It's just kicking it up a notch. Okay. um So let's start back when you were a stay-at-home mom and this was a hobby.
00:07:26
Speaker
What inspires somebody to say, you know what, I like doing that, I want to do that five more times?
00:07:33
Speaker
Honestly, I, there was just a level of excitement with what we were doing. It was instant gratification. You're putting the food on this board. It's cute. It's artsy. It's fun. And I just found so much joy in doing it.
00:07:46
Speaker
And it was fulfilling for me. And from that point, it just felt like I never really thought it was going to be a job if I'm being honest. Right. I just never really thought, Hey, I'm going to do this and it's going to turn into a job and I'm going to create this business and have this entire situation happen.
00:08:04
Speaker
It was more like this is a fun hobby that gets me out of the house. Oh, hey, I'm home with my kids, but now I can sell them. And the moment I realized I could sell them, I realized We have to turn this into a legitimate business, right? Like you can't just sell somebody a meat and cheese board out of your kitchen and not get in trouble for it. You have to follow along with licensing. There's rules and there's things that you have to do.
00:08:30
Speaker
So as soon as I realized that there was people finding value in what I was doing, we created licensing and moved into a kitchen. And then it just it's just been going so fast ever since.
00:08:42
Speaker
There hasn't been day where it's so quiet that I'm like, we're never going to make it. It's just never been like that. It's been busy the whole time. I think it's fascinating that you say that because I remember...
00:08:56
Speaker
15, 16 years ago, I had lost my job. And I came to the conclusion that I didn't need a job as much as I needed a certain amount of money each month. hundred percent 100%. And if I was doing the things that I really liked, and I was making a certain amount of money, wasn't that the same thing?
00:09:17
Speaker
100%. And I ended up doing all sorts of really fun things and all sorts of really foundational things. And I ended up... living just an extraordinary life that I now look back on and I think about and go, oh my God, I can't believe that that happened. Like I once had lunch with a 600 pound man who ordered, ah he yeah had fries and he ordered six cups of mayonnaise to dip his fries in.
00:09:40
Speaker
And i and it's it's something that burns into your head and ever get you never forget that. But I love that kind of adventure. And I think you do too. There's a lot of value in what you just said. As soon as I left the idea of I need this paycheck or I need this security, if I just knew I needed X amount of money to cover existence, but it gave me the freedom of what I wanted to do because I did have little kids and I did enjoy the flexibility of a schedule and being able to be available for them.
00:10:08
Speaker
ah soon as I abandoned the idea that I needed the paycheck or the job and I could build something. It's just been an a no look back situation.
00:10:20
Speaker
ah So you decided you were going to make a business out of it. You said there was all sorts of licensing and I think people don't really appreciate that. So can you walk us through all that had to happen to really start going from a hobby? Yeah.
00:10:32
Speaker
When you, so if for example, if you are a sourdough baker, You can get licensing to bake your sourdough out of your home and you can sell it to the general public, right? I can make my bread in my house. I can have a farm stand out front or I can go to a farmer's market.
00:10:50
Speaker
I can sell my goods. I have licensing. I'm good. But if you have meat and cheese, Other other eggs, eggs, although go through cottage law. But anyway, meat and cheese for me specifically, I can't do that out of my house. I have to have a commercial kitchen.
00:11:07
Speaker
I have to have commercial licensing. You have to go through a food handlers class and you have to be inspected, right? Like you have to hold the licensing in order to do it. And a lot of people don't do that. But I also know that if you want to build a business, you have to play by the rules. And that's what we did. i i had been in the food industry. I waited tables when I was a younger person. i understood the concept of how things worked.
00:11:29
Speaker
But I'm not the kind of person that... If you ask me if I cook or I don't cook, I don't cook for my I don't like to cook. Knowing the chef side of it or the cooking side of it, that's not me. So it was something new to dive into.
00:11:42
Speaker
i had to really school and learn about the licensing and what I needed to do. and once I figured that out, which wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be.
00:11:52
Speaker
But once I had that figured out, knew that we had a real relationship. business situation here. Then we just, the licensing was in place. You do your inspections and you follow the rules.
00:12:03
Speaker
And as long as you're following the rules, you're good.
Catering and Opera Event Collaboration
00:12:06
Speaker
They love you. And I think it was about that time that I did actually get to hire you at the opera.
00:12:14
Speaker
Yes. but Did that help you grow your business? I think it did. gave me nice intro into a different group of people that I had been dealing with before.
00:12:26
Speaker
I did get some business out of that. And also what a great experience. Yeah. That and that's just it's just a fun that's a fun event, by the way. But I gained the business on the lunch side of it and catered some of their private events and then also did their big event. And anytime that somebody is going to take a moment to introduce you to their people and say, hey, can you come and do this it was it's It was a great opportunity.
00:12:52
Speaker
So yeah, it was awesome. Yeah, I should back up because the people are who are long-time listeners and don't know that, yes, i used to i used to help run an opera. I was on the board of a nonprofit in Minnesota that try to elevate opera to in and upper different ways as an art form. And one of their big main events was an event called Opera on the River, where they'd put up a stage next to the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin in this beautiful river valley. And they put in an opera concert, two hours in the middle summer. And it was gorgeous, always gorgeous nights.
00:13:25
Speaker
And we wanted to hire a food vendor and that girl, Brie, making these charcuterie stands and portable charcuterie stands was really on brand and elevated as we were trying to elevate the art form.
00:13:40
Speaker
Having a bucket of chicken while you're listening to opera just didn't really match up, but having a really thoughtful thing, little sneaky snacks that you could eat and meat and cheeses really did help elevate the experience. Yeah.
00:13:54
Speaker
Yeah. And she did that, you did that with us for the first year. The next year we actually sold package deals where you tickets. with actual seats, and then you get a charcuterie tray.
00:14:05
Speaker
And that was great. And then the third year i sold even bigger packages where you get ah actual seats, you get a charcuterie tray, and then you get parking because I reserved a parking lot in this little town in Minnesota called Stillwater, and which is the worst place in Minnesota to try and park. And so I had the entire parking lot all day.
00:14:26
Speaker
And because it was my idea, i was the one who was the parking lot attendant. So as all the VIPs came in and parked, they got really they got to walk out, they got their charcuterie train, they got to go sit down.
00:14:37
Speaker
And I can honestly tell you that was, i have never gotten yelled at more in my life than being a parking attendant for 90 minutes at an opera show telling people they can't park here in downtown Stillwater on a Saturday night.
00:14:53
Speaker
It's a wild event. They were, people were so screaming at me. i had one couple, there was a bar right next to them. They offered me $75 because they had to get a relative who was drunk in the bar. They had to get him home. They said, I will give you $75 if I can park here for 15 minutes. And I said, please have a seat and go ahead.
00:15:14
Speaker
So I got, I walked over and I gave the treasurer $75 more dollars. And she's where's this from? was like, don't worry you about it. donation the donation it's fine it's funny because you wouldn't expect it to be so crazy and busy and high volume just because i loved it but it's not something that it's not a normal event that would draw in the size crowd that you guys drew in but it's amazing how many people were there yeah and it's just a cool event It was really a lot like like that Shawshank moment where he puts on the opera and everybody sort of pauses to listen.
00:15:50
Speaker
I always thought I didn't like opera, and I don't generally... I don't know what my favorite opera is, but every time I could hear artists really performing their crafts, it was astonishing. and I think that's what it's about, though, because if you just put it on in the background or put it on, I can take or leave it.
00:16:08
Speaker
But being there in real life is... That's next level. It's pretty cool. Yes. So if you're interested and you're in the area, out then let me know and I'll get you hooked up. So that would that helped grow the business.
00:16:19
Speaker
But now you got to the point where you had to take over a commercial kitchen, right? You didn't just rent time. youre You actually have your own kitchen now. I have my own kitchen now, but I rented a lot. So we actually, in Hudson, that's where that's where we We hang out, right? We live in River Falls. The business is now in River Falls, but Hudson is where we know the most people.
Business Growth and Support
00:16:41
Speaker
And we have a friend who has a bar. And in this bar basement is a commercial kitchen and it wasn't being used. And he said, you can license here. You can run your business out of this basement and it will be fine. And it was the smallest little kitchen in the world, but it worked exactly for what we needed.
00:16:58
Speaker
And I was there for about a year and it was great. But then i started to grow and I knew that if I wanted my business to grow, I needed to be more available or seen by people, make it easier for people to pick up their items.
00:17:15
Speaker
So in River Falls, there is a business innovation center. which is part of the Small Business Development Center, which is also associated with the college, UWRF here.
00:17:26
Speaker
And so they have a commercial kitchen that you can rent as an entrepreneur, and it's a business incubator. So you go there, you rent the kitchen space, and you can have access then to the entire Small Business Development Center. They help you write a business plan, they give you classes, and they really just coach you through what you need to do. And that was exactly what I needed in that moment.
00:17:47
Speaker
because it helped me figure out where my next level of growth was because I felt a little stuck. I had all this business coming in and I was a one man show and I was working in the basement of this bar and I knew I had to get to the next level, but I wasn't sure how to get there.
00:18:01
Speaker
And this was the right stepping stone. So I moved my kitchen to the Business Innovation Center And they helped guide me through next steps and take what was in my brain and make it a real thing because I knew what I wanted to do. I just didn't know how to get there.
00:18:18
Speaker
What were some of those steps that they helped you take? I took their entrepreneurial training program, which was a really great class because it it taught me. how to write a business plan.
00:18:30
Speaker
It helped me understand even my numbers. As a business owner, i didn't have a full overview of my numbers. Like I have an a accountant who does things for me every day, but I really just didn't dive in to understand what was happening.
00:18:43
Speaker
And they were like, you need to know your numbers more than anything. And so they helped guide me through that. So then I had help with If you ever needed an attorney or legal, I had that. They just somebody that was available to help you through those things, helping me with accountability, because a lot of the time when you're an entrepreneur, it's you.
00:19:02
Speaker
And so if you don't have that accountability, if you're not overly motivated or gaining the momentum every single day that you just have to keep going, if you lose that, then you're starting back over. And so I had...
00:19:15
Speaker
really good accountability through them, which was very helpful. And they helped me write a business plan and helped me apply for grants. It was a great program. So I stayed in that kitchen for about a year.
00:19:27
Speaker
And then ah kitchen became available in River Falls. And I shared a small kitchen slash retail space in River Falls for an entire year with my friend who owns a juice business.
00:19:38
Speaker
And so we were in that kitchen together for one year. I really want to know how did you start making your own, everybody. My own cheese. But your specific branded cheese. Is this so cool?
00:19:50
Speaker
The Merlot cheddar was the first. It was. So I, when you make a charcuterie board, the life of that board is two days, right? Like fruit starts to turn, things get soft. It's meh.
00:20:02
Speaker
So if you don't sell that product in two days, you're out money. And so I knew I needed to have some type of a pivot. Yeah. I needed something in my line that would extend the shelf life. Is that I'm going to private label crackers. I'm going to private label pickles. Like, what am I going to do here?
Cheese Line Development
00:20:17
Speaker
And then one day i was like, oh my God, I need my own cheese because cheese, some cheese can be on the shelf forever. Let's just take a moment and pause there to say that a grown woman with children, ah husband, who's a very nice guy, by the way, said to herself out loud, ah need my own cheese.
00:20:38
Speaker
and then turn that into real money. That's an odd thing, but I wanna know how you say, keep going. You need your own cheese. Okay, but so I thought there's gotta be a way to do this. People do stuff like this all the time.
00:20:50
Speaker
So I literally Googled private label cheese. How can I put my sticker on cheese? What are the rules? And for some reason, Harmony Cheese pops up.
00:21:02
Speaker
okay There's a lot of places that do this, but Harmony Cheese popped up that day and I had the time and I thought, i'm just going to call on it. And so I called and then i was able to talk to someone right away.
00:21:14
Speaker
And I just had all these questions and they answered all these questions. And what Harmony was doing for a long time was private labeling cheese, but on a much bigger scale. Not someone like me who just wants...
00:21:25
Speaker
20 blocks, 20 bricks, but they were doing it on a much bigger scale. And I said, what would you consider private labeling for someone small like me? And she said, let me call and talk to my boss and I'll get back to you. And they called me back within a couple of days and said, sure, we'll do it.
00:21:39
Speaker
And the first one we did was the Merlot cheddar. In my mind, I was only going to do one cheese. And the reason I wanted it, it was because it was pink and it looks pretty on a charcuterie board and it matched my label and it tasted good. I had the sample and I liked it. So It is very pretty.
00:21:53
Speaker
and just said, let's do that. yeah It's kind of, a it almost, it's like ah it's a colorful zebra. It's a white cheddar. And then it has these like maroon stripes through it. Yeah, it's beautiful. It's very marbled. They basically just take the curd and soak it in Merlot wine. And it turns out beautiful.
00:22:12
Speaker
So that cheese came in and I didn't know where I was going to sell it, what I was going to do with it, how I was going to distribute it. I had no plan. I just knew I needed to have it. So you now have 20 giant blocks of wine. like of All this cheese. Like, what am I going to do? They cut it for me and they wrapped it and they put it in eight ounce bricks.
00:22:31
Speaker
So it was more retailable. But what am I going to do with it? I didn't have any distribution set up. I didn't know where i was going to sell it. I didn't even have a retail space at this time. i just knew I had to have it. But what I started doing was putting it on the boards that I make and I literally branded it, shared it on my social media.
00:22:49
Speaker
And then people just started ordering it. kate Can we stop by and pick it up? Where can we get it? Can we can you drop it off? Can you deliver it? And I just started selling bricks and cheese. And then I thought this is going so well. Maybe they'll let me do another one. And they did. They let me do another variety. And so within a few days.
00:23:05
Speaker
Two months, I had three cheeses. I had portabella and chives, the merlot cheddar, and the maple blueberry. And they were selling. And you had a bourbon one, too, right? Because that's what Andy brings me, bourbon cheddar. everything The bourbon cheddar is one of the best cheeses we've ever made. i love it so much.
00:23:22
Speaker
It's made with bourbon from Lucky Guys Distillery, downtown Hudson. And every time we make it, we sell it out. So we're actually going to be making more here, but we need to make more of it because it literally sells out every time. It's phenomenal. I know that Lucky Guys Distillery in Hudson still has a few blocks oops left that they can sell, but but I'm out.
00:23:45
Speaker
So now we're creating, we've not only have we created a brand, we figure out distribution, now there's scarcity. There's scarcity. yeah And also there's some really beautiful collaborations that have happened. For instance, there's i have this great guy named Mark. He's a friend of mine and he owns Face Punch Foods.
00:24:04
Speaker
And Face Punch Foods. What was that? What's in it? I'm sorry. What? It's called it hot Face Punch Foods. Okay. And it's right all hot sauces and spices. And he does a crazy business. His volume of business is so impressive.
00:24:18
Speaker
And just as a human by nature, he's just an incredible person. But we took his seasonings and added them into the bricks of our cheese. And now we have a collaboration. So it's helping his business and it's helping our business. And it's giving Harmony business by making it.
00:24:34
Speaker
And it's just, don't know, it's a really cool trifecta. What goes into, like, how do you explain the process of creating a unique cheese? Who comes up with the idea of let's make a Merlot cheddar?
00:24:45
Speaker
Well, Harmony, so I started purchasing this cheese and then I got a phone call one day and was this guy named Jerry.
00:24:58
Speaker
And he was like, hey, I own Harmony Cheese and you're selling more cheese than my salespeople. Do want to come work for me? And I was like, I don't need a job.
00:25:08
Speaker
I don't need a job. I'm good. i have a job. And he's just, I want you to come to Green Bay. Just meet me and see if you want to work for us. You're already selling the cheese. You might as well get paid for it. Because I was doing all my own social media. They didn't really have a very heavy social media presence.
00:25:25
Speaker
And so everything I was doing, they were getting a great effect by it. They started seeing an increase in followers. So I drove to Green Bay and I met him. And within 20 minutes of being in the office, I accepted a job and that was that.
00:25:39
Speaker
But I knew that if I worked for him, we could create more things because now I'm an employee. I'm just, I have a little bit more input. And when I first met him, the first thing he said to me was, what do you want to do? What's your goal? What do you want to do?
00:25:55
Speaker
And I said, I really just want to grow my brand. Like I know that we can get very far and I have something really special here. I know it. And so he just said, okay, let's do that. And at that moment, it was like,
00:26:09
Speaker
How do you want to get there? And so i he introduced me to his cheesemaker. went to the dairy plant. I've met all the people there now. and And now over the last year of working for them We've created so many cheeses because we have this incredible cheese maker.
00:26:25
Speaker
We have a great team of people that all have input. And that's what's going into making these cheeses is, first of all, an exceptional cheese maker, which Harmony has. Al's been making cheese for almost 40 years at the same plant. He's special.
00:26:41
Speaker
And so when you have that...
00:26:45
Speaker
it's pretty rare that something isn't incredible. He just knows his stuff. What happens when you don't have something good? is there, you get into an argument about, no, I'm right, no, let's try it Never. We'll make these blocks. So a block is, we're making 40 pound blocks of cheese.
00:27:04
Speaker
And so we'll do one test block to see how it's going to taste or what it's like. And so he will make something and then it sits for a few weeks. And after it sits, then we're going to cut it and try it and see how it is.
00:27:18
Speaker
There's been a time or two where it's, I would never say it's not good because it's exceptional. Cheese is good no matter what, really. It really is. But there's been some cheese where I'm like, I don't love that enough to put my name on it.
00:27:33
Speaker
And so it gets cut down and then it gets just sampled out or we sell it at a discounted rate to move it because it is a lot of research and development to see what you want to do But it's never...
00:27:45
Speaker
I've never had anything that I was like, oh, that's terrible. It's just I have a certain standard or a certain flavor, certain taste I like on my boards. And that's what I want to brand is stuff that I would want to have on my boards.
00:27:59
Speaker
I'm dying a little on the inside, number one, at the concept of a 40-pound block of cheese that I just feel like needs a hug me. feel like I need to send you one. i'm like One day you're just to open your front door and there's going to be 40 pounds of cheese. Yeah.
00:28:12
Speaker
i I'm 100% okay with that. But number two is just because we do have a loyal following, and this is for you, Rob Felber. Is there somebody at Harmony whose job it is to cut the cheese?
00:28:31
Speaker
Yes, we have a professional cheese cutter. Okay. Yes, their job is to cut the cheese. Is that what you're hoping? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. i had I'm sorry. I had to take, I'm sorry we had to take that little trip. I just had to get that out. It's all good.
00:28:45
Speaker
That is their job. there's There's a cheese lab and you've got all sorts of things, aging and all sorts of things that Al and you are trying to pull together. and figure out if this is something we want to mass market. So let's pick the blueberry maple, because that's a personal favorite of mine.
00:29:02
Speaker
The blueberry maple cheese, how did that come about? And then how did you say, okay, that's something we're going to do something with? Al was actually making that cheese before my time.
00:29:12
Speaker
And so don't, I honestly, that's an Al creation, Al creation. He's so good at what he does. We did talk through not that long ago about, we I want to attempt a maple Gouda because I think that would be neat. I love Gouda and I love maple.
00:29:28
Speaker
What's it in cheddar other than for people who don't know? I don't know how to even answer that. I really don't. You're hitting me with the hard questions today. I'm not. I just wish I had an answer. I'm like, dang it. I really don't know how to answer that taste. Probably culture. It's probably...
00:29:44
Speaker
magic and fairy dust? I'm not sure. We had a guy in the podcast, is one of our first episodes, who was coffee roaster. And probably one of the most educational experiences in my life is i pulled up the Starbucks menu And I read it to him and I said, what's this?
00:30:01
Speaker
What's this? What's this? So basically at Starbucks, everything is a is usually a combination of flavoring, coffee and milk. It's just a question of which goes in the cup first. So that's why I asked the question about cheese is what's really the difference between Gouda and and cheddar.
00:30:18
Speaker
I'm just going to say love. All right. Love. Love and magic is the secret ingredient. Love and magic. That's the secret ingredient. There's a whole side of cheese making that that is so that I just don't understand if I'm being honest.
00:30:32
Speaker
Like i i just don't. And I probably need two more, but I just go by if I like it or if I don't. Okay. That's my real answer.
Brand Standards and E-commerce Shift
00:30:42
Speaker
If the South Park underpants, gnomes formula for success, step one, you go to Al and say, i need a new, I need a new cheese. Yes.
00:30:51
Speaker
Step three, you sell the cheese. That's a hundred percent. Yep. One to three. Now I will say, We have like conversations and a lot of them. There's also an amazing person that works at Harmony named Melissa.
00:31:05
Speaker
And Melissa runs the dairy plant. But I feel like her brain just works all the time, like nonstop. I don't think she sleeps. So her and I, we meet. I meet with her every day, right? I talk to her every day.
00:31:18
Speaker
And she'll take tidbits of conversations. And all of a sudden she'll call me be like, oh my God, I have a great idea. And it's all of these things we've talked about. And she'll... We need to try to make this into a cheese because of things we've talked about through the week.
00:31:31
Speaker
She's created more ideas or had more concepts than anyone I've ever met. And between her and Al, they just come up with some of the coolest stuff. and It's pretty neat.
00:31:42
Speaker
I'm making fun a little just because you don't know the science of it. I don't. wait Because you're not supposed to know the science of it. But I think one of the things that you said that really resonated was the idea that it's good enough to put your brand on.
00:31:55
Speaker
And that is something that you that you have an expertise in that nobody else does. I'm very particular with what with what I put my name on. I really am. And i almost I wonder sometimes if it's to a fault, but...
00:32:10
Speaker
I just want people to associate what I'm doing with with quality. I just don't ever want to put something out that is half-assed. I just, I can't do it. I can appreciate that.
00:32:23
Speaker
So I have five questions and then we're going to go in a lot of different directions. So you're now an employee at Harmony Cheese. am. Doing a slash job. And a slash job is one of those things where it's, I do this slash this. 100%. Yes.
00:32:37
Speaker
yes And you drive drug Harmony Cheese into the information age because we ended up building a new website for Harmony. You did. And it's beautiful, by the way. It is. HarmonyCheese.com.
00:32:49
Speaker
What was that experience like understanding before you came to us? well How did you come to the conclusion that, hey, pushing this further into e-commerce is the right idea?
00:33:04
Speaker
I just feel like if we're not online with a beautiful web website, we're so far behind. And I feel like we were far behind. We had this web website that was terrible. was very terrible. And people couldn't order. It wasn't easy to order. The main thing that I've learned is if I'm not easy to do business with, nobody's going to do business with me. It has to be so simple.
00:33:24
Speaker
And I knew that having a site, an easy site, like a Shopify site where people can just click and it's at their front door was the answer. But I also knew I've worked with you in the past. So there didn't seem to be anyone else that I would even consider having do that because you guys we're easy to do business with, right? That's, and very good at what you do.
00:33:45
Speaker
I knew that if we weren't somebody that you could find online, that we were going to get lost because there's a lot of cheese in Wisconsin. There's a lot of cheese. And so I knew i had to be as up-to-date and as modern and as easy as possible. And that's what you guys did for us.
00:34:05
Speaker
Thank you, but also i think what's so fascinating about it is that idea that there is a lot of cheese in Wisconsin and you do have to stand out some ways. And so cheese is one of those things that is essentially like a marketer's worst nightmare because it's a like yeah plain white square.
00:34:27
Speaker
yeah but then how do you get people to buy it? And how do you get people interested in it when they can't smell, see, or taste it? And ah it it was a remarkable challenge that I think our team here, especially in collaboration with you, did an amazing job.
00:34:40
Speaker
The site is beautiful. The photos are beautiful. The site is beautiful. The content's on point. And the nice thing was your team, in my mind, I had an idea of what I wanted, right? I want a very clean and modern site.
00:34:55
Speaker
But then your team came back and said, what do you think about this? And it was like, oh my God, I didn't even know that's what I wanted. But you guys knew what I wanted and it was was perfect. It's beautiful. And you've come up so many taglines or so many conversations, so many pieces of social media, so many things have been pulled out of a website that you guys created.
00:35:16
Speaker
it was ah It's a very good marriage. Thank you. And during that process, was there anything that got edited? Essentially, did our team cut things off the cheese site?
00:35:31
Speaker
What do you mean? i I was just trying to make another fart joke. and I'm not falling for it. hi Can we talk about the draft?
00:35:44
Speaker
Yeah, that was a yeah awesome. It was a monster week for you. The NFL draft for those who don't know, ah used to be held in New York city and is probably historically one of the dumbest events of all time, because it you literally go and sit in an auditorium and watch people read the phone book.
00:36:05
Speaker
But they have now elevated it and made a party out of it and made it a destination. And so dr no the draft now moves cities. It's been in Detroit. It's been in Chicago.
00:36:19
Speaker
think it was in Nashville one year. Last year, it was in Green Bay, Wisconsin at Lambeau Field. So what was that like? Because that also coincided with the launch of the new site. And you had, what, like a week's worth parties?
00:36:32
Speaker
It was something that I didn't know how much fun I would really have. Like I knew we were going. i knew the plan was, that was our week. We were treating that as our launch. Like you said, your team came in and said, yep, we can build you this website. And I said, this is my deadline. And your team went, holy cannoli, but okay, let's do it.
00:36:49
Speaker
And so you guys completed the site, had it ready. And then we were in Green Bay and it was literally event after event. We did TV appearances and we were all over the place. And It was fun. That was, that's fun. That was a week of just pure fun. And obviously we made a lot of really great connections. We met so many people. Our website had a ton of traffic and we celebrated that it was finally what we needed it to be.
00:37:17
Speaker
It brought Harmony into a space where it needed to be. When I started at Harmony, the branding was just off. that All the cheese labels had these old European women on them. It was just all this artwork. It was very dark.
00:37:31
Speaker
And we just completely rebranded it. And since my time there, we've rebranded Harmony. We've added That Girl Brie as a full cheese line into their cheese lines. And then we've added Small Town Cheese, which is just another line we created, which is all Wisconsin forward cheeses, Colby, Pepper Jack, Cheddar.
00:37:49
Speaker
And Having the website be able to put all three lines in one space and being able to communicate to the public what we were trying to pull off.
Events and New Website Launch
00:38:00
Speaker
And it worked. And we did TV appearances and shared it. And was pretty cool.
00:38:06
Speaker
That was a great event. We had a lot of fun. And a lot of cheese moved that week, too. I couldn't even tell you the amount of pounds of curds and cheese that moved that week. But but there was a lot of cheese. Cheese is traditionally very binding, especially if you're getting the 40-pound blocks.
00:38:23
Speaker
I'm sending a block to your house. I swear. You're going to wake up one day and there's going to be a 40-pound block of cheddar sitting on your front step. And you are acting like, that A, that's going to be a problem, and B, I'm not going to send you my address as soon as this is done.
00:38:36
Speaker
thinking, like, should literally... That not of threat by any... We should just be selling it in 40-pound blocks to people. That's what we should be doing. Yes. And then you could just have a cheese-cutting party at your... do you Do you know about Andrew Jackson?
00:38:52
Speaker
Please school me. Okay. And this for this is, I think it's Andrew Jackson, but I'm probably going to butcher this in some way. But back before all of the security things, what Andrew Jackson did is in order to i keep his White House open is he would have a giant block of cheese in the White House lobby and anybody could come and take any bit of it that they weren't.
00:39:15
Speaker
And so this was made famous years later in a TV show called The West Wing, where they'd have Big Block of Cheese Day, and they would meet with people who were traditionally wouldn't necessarily get a meeting with the White House. and So on the TV show, it's comedy, but yeah, there was a president who literally had kept a giant block of cheese.
00:39:31
Speaker
I just feel like this, maybe we should all start doing that. Talking or keeping mozzarella? Keeping the block of cheese. Yeah, have absolutely. Again, I don't see why that's a problem.
00:39:42
Speaker
One of the things I want to get back to, because we're waning on time is yeah you also elevated the charcuterie board. And I think when people think of a charcuterie board, they're thinking of something that's 18 inches or something like that.
00:39:57
Speaker
What is a, that girl, Bri grazing table who, for somebody who hasn't experienced that. It is an insane amount of food, but it's so beautiful.
00:40:10
Speaker
So instead of just making a board, we're creating this charcuterie board on the entire length of the table. We did one a couple of weeks ago that fed 300 people, and that was...
00:40:23
Speaker
Absolutely crazy. There was so much food on there. But they're beautiful and it's just, it literally is a work of art. I think the reason I love it so much is that it is a very creative process for me. But that's legit what it is. A charcuterie board the size of a table.
00:40:39
Speaker
How do you, and it really is gorgeous, and you should go on her socials and look for them because they are something to be, as a practitioner of the meat finest meats and cheeses, it's something that I certainly appreciate. But how do you but go out building something like that on a charcuterie board? It's, yeah, yeah, yeah, here's three or four things. You have 60 on a table.
00:40:59
Speaker
How do you make all that sit? How do you make all that pretty? And how do you how do you design a table like that to make that neat? I have a formula for my food. And I know that if I just have enough food to feed everyone, everything else will fall into place, truly.
00:41:15
Speaker
So I have the formula of how much meat, how much cheese, like I have that all worked out. After five years now of doing this, I have a pretty good gauge on that. But I don't know. It's really easy for me to do. And I hate to say that, but i it's like a giant puzzle. And I find so much joy in that. And so for me, I have an idea of what I'm thinking at certain events. But if I'm like doing a wedding and somebody already has their florals, we just build around the whole idea of what they've already come up with.
00:41:42
Speaker
I'm always afraid I'm not going to have enough food. And so I had to create formulas for food to make sure that I just always had the base covered. And then once that's in place, everything else feels really easy.
00:41:54
Speaker
I went to a wedding in May that had a grazing table and it the catering was done by a local Minneapolis restaurant that is arguably world famous. And I think the grazing table was better, more received than the food was.
00:42:09
Speaker
I just think people love variety and they love to be able to just pick. They want to try a little bit of everything. And I... It's just an easy way to feed people. And I think that the design element, I think, really comes as crucial. And I urge you that not to skip on that.
00:42:28
Speaker
here When I was in my twenties, I learned, think that is that thoughtfulness of women is more than the thoughtfulness of men. And I learned that because if you go to, I would coach high school debate and go to tournament that coach was a woman, there would be napkins and there will be silverware and there would be vegetarian food options. Yeah.
00:42:53
Speaker
Eat it with plate. Yeah. And it would be good and it'd be healthy and you generally have a pretty good meal. And if ah the head coach was a man, there would be eight cheese pizzas and a two liter, a mountain.
00:43:07
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And I was talking to a guy this morning that works, works at a company that is run predominantly by men. And they just recently updated their offices after I think 40 years.
00:43:20
Speaker
Because and what he was telling me that I thought was really important is nobody really cared. It was just, we came here, we worked with us. But the design of things, I think, is so crucially important. And having that eye that you have, it's it is not just a meat and cheese delivery system. It is an experience and it's elevated to to truly be extraordinary.
00:43:42
Speaker
And there's so many incredible details in every table. And I hear that when people... have experienced one of our tables, I'll get that feedback. Like it was a treasure hunt, right? Like after every single thing, we found something new. It was a constant uncovering of things.
00:43:57
Speaker
But I really do pride myself in the quality of what I'm pumping out. I pride myself in paying attention to the details. I think it's a critical piece of what I do. I think people love knowing that like we're listening to what they want and then we are going to execute. And I There's so much value in someone's word. And so when somebody asks for our services and we have the conversation of this is what we're going to do.
00:44:22
Speaker
If I say I'm going to deliver, i have to deliver what I say I'm going to do. And so I think people find the value in that. And and there's quality every single time. i i just love to be consistent. And it's so important to me to let people know that. So i think that's why we've been so successful.
00:44:41
Speaker
Yeah, it really is something to behold that you went from hobby to now an entire brand and you're a cheese magnet, so to speak. Yeah, I'm going to put that on a t-shirt, by the way. Thank you for that. And I am writing it down.
00:44:55
Speaker
Good. So what are you and Al cooking up in the cheese lab
New Retail Space and Future Innovations
00:44:59
Speaker
right now? Okay, we have just opened our retail space in River Falls. So I have a full retail store open in River Falls where we sell our full line of our cheese and Harmony's cheese, small town cheese.
00:45:13
Speaker
The University of Wisconsin River Falls is literally across the street. So they bring fresh curds over to me every Thursday. Are you down to it? I'm just off of Main Street, like Main Street.
00:45:24
Speaker
I'm at the end of Main Street. So I'm not in the heart of downtown. about a half a block off. ok But I'm kitty corner from the college, which is very cool. The college here in River Falls has a full dairy processing plant in the campus. And it's literally kitty corner from my space.
00:45:40
Speaker
So it's neat. The college farm is at one end of town. They take the milk. They drive it up the road. They get to the college. They make cheese in the dairy processing plant. And then they literally walk out Kitty Corner across the street and bring us fresh curds every Thursday. And I'm getting curds, they're 20 minutes old. And that's so cool.
00:45:59
Speaker
Oh my And that's an important lesson too for people around the country is yeah there are great educational institutions in the world like Yale and Michigan and all that.
00:46:09
Speaker
But the places that teach food science, think about teaching food science is you actually have to do the food science and then they have to do something with it.
00:46:21
Speaker
So that school she's talking about is in the University of Wisconsin system in a town called River Falls. They have a campus store that you can get ridiculously high quality foods for very cheap.
00:46:35
Speaker
It's a fine and everybody should know about it. But yeah, so back to you. So 20 minute old cheese curds. It's just a really great. rest room Can you cut anything with that cheese? Done with you today. I'm cutting you off.
00:46:50
Speaker
are Dang it. It's really neat, though. So they bring the curds across the street. That's a beautiful relationship. That's a benefit of having the retail space where it is literally across from them.
00:47:00
Speaker
We've brought in a few other lines of cheese, and I'm constantly looking for things to bring in. I take recommendations from people locally or anyone who travels into the store. But...
00:47:11
Speaker
When you cross the Minnesota border, like you would, there's so many cheese stores that just all of a sudden you're in Wisconsin. And I just think, how cool is it that we actually have made the list of a destination for people? Like we're starting to have a place on the map, so to speak.
00:47:27
Speaker
So if you come into the store, you can get grab and go charcuterie boards. There's a ton of different cheeses and we've paired with a lot of local makers to bring some other items in there. I am not making any new cheese, new, from now until the end of year because it's a busy season, right? Busiest season, holiday gift giving. So that is not even a focus of mine.
00:47:47
Speaker
But January is a whole new ballgame and there will be some really cool stuff I'm hoping comes to full light and that we can continue to share as we move forward.
00:47:58
Speaker
But yeah, it's pretty cool. Where can people find Harmony? Where can people find that girl, Brie? Harmony Cheese right now is sold at Festival Foods.
00:48:09
Speaker
That is our biggest retailer that we are in right now. Harmony is at quite a few smaller retailers too. That Girl Bree is at Brian's Meat Market in Stillwater. Harmony, or i sorry, That Girl Bree is obviously in our shop.
00:48:23
Speaker
But everything can be found at HarmonyCheese.com and we can ship out all the full line of everything to anywhere on our very simple and easy to use website.
Passion and Success
00:48:32
Speaker
got I'll have to send you a 40-pound block of something for all the nice things you said about us. But I think normally I have asked Dave if he learned something classy and inspirational, but since he's not here, I'll say that I think I knew you before and I knew you now, and I think the thing that you didn't have before is you didn't have passion.
00:48:52
Speaker
Passion ignited a work ethic that... You, I never, I didn't, you weren't a bad worker before, but you went to a new level once you started doing the thing that you really liked and you really started. Yeah.
00:49:05
Speaker
And then those two things together led to creating a brand, selling more, becoming the the godmother of Wisconsin Chiefs.
00:49:16
Speaker
So it's been an extraordinary ride to be able to witness. And i I'm so happy you didn't decide to come work for me and do your own thing because it's where you should be. And it's that this version of you is I knew was in there, but I'm so happy you found it too.
00:49:30
Speaker
Yeah. It's thank you for saying that. I really... I don't feel like I work all the time. Like I just, it's just like what I do. I don't know. It's just, I actually find so much joy in every day because I really do enjoy it and love I love that for you. And I think that's the resounding lesson that we learned today is it's work if you make it, but if it's, you love it, then it's something else altogether. Yeah.
00:49:56
Speaker
Thank you for coming. Thank you for spending
Closing Remarks
00:49:58
Speaker
some time with us. Thank you for offering to send me cheese and never, ever cut that out. So this has been another episode of Dial It in He was Dave, but he's not here. I'm Trigby. Dial It In is produced by Nicole Fairclough and Andy Wiskow.
00:50:14
Speaker
I am man. Am I going to catch hell for that? Cause he was just complaining to me this morning about how the AI kept screwing up his name and my name. geez. I'm going to catch so much for that.
00:50:27
Speaker
It's produced by Nicole and Andy Witowski. There we go. Andy Witowski. And with apologies to Tony Kornheiser, we will also try to do better the next time.
00:50:40
Speaker
Take care.