We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jeremy Cmiel a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jeremy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s something you believe that most people in your industry (or in general) disagree with?

In the hot sauce game, it’s all about how hot you can make it. Or is? I think at Mr.Mustachios Hot Sauce, we aim to elevate the food experience with heat, but with flavor to pair. Don’t get us wrong, SPICY hot sauces is where our passion for the condiment type started. What I think we noticed early on in our consumer lives, was that there more items on the store shelves that focused on heat level than flavor, and so we set out to partake in bringing the right heat level to each dish, with flavor as a central idea to each recipe.

Jeremy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My passion for hot sauce started long ago, a story I’ve shared before, but one many may not know. I was a bit of a rebellious child, and my mother used to discipline me when I began to start using swear words at a childish age, hot sauce was the punishment. Ironically, I ended up loving it. Which started a very long relationship with Tabasco, and Louisana hot sauce. In the beginning, that’s all that there seemingly was for the condiment.

Years later, I often spent time finding spicier hot sauces but felt there was a lot of flavor and nuance lacking and so I would spend more and more time trying to find new things, new food combinations, and more times than not, was disappointed with my purchases.

I began experimenting with a blender in my apartment kitchen in 2019 and stumbled upon my first recipe, “The OG” Pineapple Habanero which quickly became a favorite amongst friends and family. I began to reach out to local hot sauce creators to learn more about how they started their business, and by 2022 I had LLC’d the business, obtained my cottage food producer license, and established a brand read to represent my passion for flavorful hot sauce.

This past year was our first year at the farmers market, which was an incredible experience. We sold hundreds of hot sauce bottles to everyday consumers who recognized us for our flavor and spice together in balance. There was no shortage of great conversations, feedback, and learnings that came from that first season and we’re ready to incorporate our learnings to continue to scale the business. We’re most proud of the fact that people just plainly liked our sauces, and we created a number of repeat buyers who have enjoyed our sauces, week after week.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

While I don’t want to boast about my own personal resilience, I think a lesson everyone can learn is that when you start a business, or you introduce a product, in what could otherwise be known as a saturated market…. you’re going to doubt yourself constantly.

It’s that imposter syndrome we hear all the time, that our product or work isn’t good enough, and you’re not sure if you’ll impress anyone, or that they’ll enjoy what you produced… but our criticism of ourselves are often so much worse than the reality of things.

I didn’t think my recipes would be that creative enough, different enough, or good enough to be purchased and during our first tasting event, we were deeply mistaken by the validation the customers provided.

One of my favorite role models, Rich Roll, has a saying, “Mood follows Action” and I think that’s ultimately what I would encourage small business owners, or creatives to do… Act on the things you know you need to do, and the mood or feeling of success will follow, even after setbacks and failures, which are critical to refining your craft.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Meet your customers where they are at. What do I mean by that exactly?

In our case, it was getting out in front of the customer (literally) at our first farmers market season. I started selling online to local Minnesotans and would deliver or allow for pickup in 2022, but our sales were mediocre at best.

Once we got in front of willing taste testers at the market events, people started buying our hot sauce in multiples, and coming back each weekend we were at the market.

I think the best strategy for you to develop is one where you take a moment to determine where your customer is likely to make a purchase, for us, that’s face-to-face at a farmers market, the next would be say in a grocery store where they’re doing their shopping for the week. While selling online is a necessary part to our business, it’s not where we currently generate a lot of sales.

I think people want to try the product they’re opting to buy, even if it’s only a few bucks.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mrmustachios.com
• Instagram: mr.mustachiosmpls