We were lucky to catch up with Greg Crafter recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Greg, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

As a child, I remember planting a garden with my mom. She gave me a handful of seeds and told me to dig a hole and plant one seed every few steps. Because of my excitement and lack of following directions well. I placed all of the seeds in one hole.

About a week later, the sight of seeing life come out of the ground in a way that I’ve never seen before completely changed my life forever! Since then, I’ve always wanted to grow something. Anything!

Over the years, I’ve learned to grow in all types of mediums. Because of the seasonality restrictions for gardening (based on where you live), I became extremely frustrated with not being able to garden year round. I began researching different growing methods, then discovered indoor hydroponics and knew it was for me.

My wife “granted” me a small area in our laundry room for a hydroponic system. From there I learned to grow food pretty consistently and converted a 150 sq. ft. backyard shed into my new hydroponic lab. I started sharing with neighbors and soon realized that I may be on to something.

I began growing herbs and gave away samples to local restaurants. I started hearing the horror stories about the imported produce and how it wasn’t quality. I asked a few restaurants if I could provide enough fresh and local herbs on a consistent basis, would they consider me supplying them. As they say the rest is history…. or was it.

I moved my operations into a 2400 sq. ft. warehouse and had quite a few customers at this point. Soon thereafter, on March 20, 202o when Covid-19 began to changes our lives, everything began shutting down. The list of customers I had immediately went away, literally overnight. I had to shift gears and started supplying plants for gardeners as we were all stuck at home.

But it wasn’t enough, I wanted to provide a way for people to grow their own food in the same manner that I was doing year round, but in the comforts of their own homes. This is when I came up with the idea of GrowBlocks – a fully automated indoor hydroponic garden that grows live plants supplied from our indoor hydroponic farm.

The most important thing I wanted to offer was ease of use. I didn’t want customer to look at my product as a science project, hobby, or something you would need to tinker with often. I wanted GrowBlocks to be treated and viewed like an appliance that performed a job (growing food 3 to 5 times faster than traditional gardening) to make your life easier.

GrowBlocks have the most plant growing density in the smallest space, making it a sustainable food source. We made it fully automated with the only requirement to add water every four days and pre-mixed proprietary nutrients every two weeks.

We also provide a monthly subscription plan for live plants supplied from our hydroponic farm that shorten food harvest times by weeks compared to competitors that offer seeds with pods.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m from a small town in middle GA where I learned the value of community.   I’m very passionate about people, their wellbeing, and doing my part to make a positive impact in the world we live in.  I consider myself fortune to be able to do what I love in a way that’s helpful to our environment while presenting a lifestyle change opportunity to others.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Try really hard to get to know “the person” and their strengths. Many times we look at what an individual is good at doing because of their skillset. But when you align them with a role/responsibility that matches who they are to their core or inner strength, there’s no motivation needed only guidance.

Talking always takes a back seat to listening. And listening is the bridge to effective communication. Show people why their role is important and how their contribution impacts the overall success of the company.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I experienced a total crop loss due to poor seed selection, which turned into widespread fungus. It was a hard and costly lesson to learn. I realized that your passion will be tested to make sure it really is your passion.

I often tell people to embrace failure – “early and often”. It help build your toughness and establishes firm foundations to build on.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://producedforall.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/producedforall/
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/produced4all
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-crafter-3386197/
• Other: https://tiktok.com/@producedforall

Image Credits
Crumsey Photography