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

Josh , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Y’all is a celebration of culture and heritage, the best of every southern state, a recipe for togetherness and we fill our bottles with it.

We believe great food has the power to bring people together. To unite us. We believe the south is meant to be shared. It is rich in history and flavor. And so are our sauces.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

It all started in Sunday school. Josh McGee and Paige Harlow met and became friends through Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, KY. These black sheep Baptist became fast friends and connected over a love of the South, a taste for bourbon and they both cuss a little.

After finding themselves underwhelmed by the corporate world and wanting to create something that added a little more flavor in the world they began their journey of sauce making. Josh with his culinary background and Paige with a talent for graphic design they launched Y’all Company at the Cobblestone Farmer’s Market in Winston-Salem, NC on April 2018 and have been at it ever since carefully crafting sauces to highlight the flavors of each Southern state

Y’all Company, creates Southern food products for everyone who wants to obtain flavorful dishes with ease and we seek to create a more equitable community for all.

Y’all Company strives to create Southern inspired foods that assist in achieving our goals of solving their problem of making food flavorful, easy recipes that help customers spend time with loved ones, cultivating magical moments at the dinner table and contributing to a better world.

We believe that everyone deserves a place at the table We foster partnerships with our customers and suppliers. We promote kindness, diversity and inclusion. We provide connection

We create opportunities for togetherness
• Passion
• Authenticity
• Inclusion
• Kindness

We currently have three sauces in our Y’all Sauce line up: Kentucky Henry Bain, Mississippi Comeback and Tennessee Jezebel. We have launched our new brand, Appalachian Gold, in July 2022 with an emphasis on highlighting farmers in rural poverty by converting their vegetables, honey and syrups into self stable products. This will help reduce their waste and keep driving money into these areas of Appalachia for more economic stability. You can check our more of this brand at appalachiangold.com.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck by Mark Manson
How I Built This Podcast with Guy Raz
The Lean Startup By Eric Reis

Most of all, be in a community with people in your industry. It is always good to be in touch with people who are in the thick of it just like you!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When the pandemic hit, we had to pivot hard! Usually when people are out of work or strap for cash, they cut out the non essentials.

We had stores that would not allow us to do pop ups or tastings. Some businesses we lost because they could not buy product or they shut their doors. We feel like this was hopeless for us to come out on top or still even had a business.

So we had to pivot to put the work we did into our tastings and popups through a digital platform instead of an in person platform. We teamed up with a small grocery store that sold our sauces and developed recipes to curate a meal for a family of four. Sort of like Hello Fresh and Blue Apron, but what we did was we have an instructional video we created with these ingredients and our sauces. We did several episodes and it was a huge success!

We had people on our side and won them over easily since everyone was at home cooking. We just need to help individuals be creative in the kitchen with little ingredients and huge flavor!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.yallsauce.com or www.appalachiangold.com
• Instagram: @weareyallco or @appalachiangoldfoods
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/weareyallco or https://www.facebook.com/appalachiangoldfoods/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/yallsauce
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_aO4yaEl1zlnF_U7TdMlIg

Image Credits
Jenny Sherouse Micah Cash Liz Nemeth