We recently connected with Hernán Castro and have shared our conversation below.
Hernán, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
My mission was to make a product that could provide help to people who are seeking natural support for illnesses. When I first started I told myself I was going to help the whole world with my mushroom products. My father was paralyzed from strokes and after long research I made a mushroom extract that eventually helped him repair his nervous system and he became mobile again. That event galvanized me to bring this mushroom along with others to help everyone willing to try something different!
Hernán, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Well, like I said, the story of my father helped me get started with my company. Along with him, there were many others who also had incredible experiences. In the beginning, I noticed that a lot of companies were selling products that were full of filler or bad quality ingredients. So I decided to make my own with wild foraged ingredients. This is something that set me apart from a lot of companies if not all of them. I produce high-quality extracts made with a proprietary recipe that insures the full spectrum extraction of medicinal metabolites. I spent many years studying the organic chemistry behind organisms I would like my fans to know that my products are top quality and that I will not sell out so that my quality and integrity remains the best. I Wild craft everything so I want my clients to learn to let go of the stigma behind mushrooms and grow with me as I teach them all how to identify mushrooms and herbs. I want this knowledge to be common knowledge as it once was before western medicine changed.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I built my audience on social media by creating videos. I noticed in the beginning people were very curious as to where I got my mushrooms and they would asked me to take them with me. I spend a lot of time in the mountains, studying collecting, wild mushrooms. So after a couple years, I decided to start taking people up and teaching ethical harvesting practices, identification, and Mushroom safety. Soon after I started creating videos on my social media, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook for the people who are not able to come up to the mountains and hike. I started teaching people everything I knew about mushrooms because that’s what always interested them. Making these videos helped my business a lot as well as my reputation. My advice for new business owners is to create a lot of videos share knowledge of your craft with your audience. This will get you a lot of following and can only help your business.
How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.
I started selling my mushroom products on Etsy, but then realized after a few years that they were taking a high percentage of my profit. So I decided to create my own website DesertAlchemist.com where I can control everything and can keep all my profit. One thing that I had to learn, was to find ways to minimize costs of goods such as packaging, shipping, and so forth. Having my own website was the best choice because I can offer discounts, free shipping, share my videos, add links to my social media. The pros of having your own website they are that you get to keep your profit and you get to do whatever you want no rules you don’t have to deal with third-party platforms. The only cons to that is that you have to build your own clientele and do your own marketing.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.DesertAlchemist.com
- Instagram: @desert_alchemist
- Facebook: Facebook.com/DesertAlchemist
- Youtube: YouTube.com/c/DesertAlchemist
- TikTok: DesertAlchemist