We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michael Frustini. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michael below.

Michael, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

Pepper Jam has always been my go-to condiment. My Friends and I made different versions but always knew being the Foodie that I am that I could perfect a more enhanced Pepper Jam.. They didn’t always appreciate my critique and one of my friends challenged me to try and make my own Pepper Jam. So that’s exactly what I did.

For years, on and off, I would modify My Pepper Jam recipe, it was in recent years when my personal and professional lives changed that I could actually perfect it

I spent 25+ years in Retail Management, with my experience I decided to channel all of my professional experience into taking control of my own destiny. My Pepper Jam recipe was waiting in the wings ready to take me there.

The ideal Pepper Jam must not only be sweet and delicious, but it must also appeal to everyone regardless of their desired heat preference. . My Goal for Rollicking Buckaroo Pepper Jam is to be satisfying, contain real ingredients, have great natural color, consistency and most of all We wanted it to taste amazing!

My recipe started with Medium “Jalapeno” Pepper Jam, and with a slight change I removed the jalapeno from the recipe so I would have a MILD Pepper Jam with just bell peppers and I would add habanero peppers to the recipe so I would have a HOT Pepper Jam. With the MILD, MEDIUM and HOT Pepper Jams ready to go I needed to come up with the brand identity.

I am an equestrian love horses. In addition, I enjoy, cooking, country dancing, line dancing and two-stepping. When I met my current life and business partner, who also is a country dancer I learned that he whimsically referred to himself as the Rollicking Buckaroo, or Dancing Cowboy we incorporated the two and our brand identity had been found.

I have used the tools of my managerial experience to get my idea ready to launch. I found the co-packer who could manufacture my Pepper Jam. I completed all of the required paperwork to have shelf ready labels with UPC codes, ingredients listed and nutritional information. I searched out and applied for being a vendor in farmer’s markets and craft shows. The list of tasks goes on and on. It’s been a Labor of Love and I am very proud of what I have created and I am committed to seeing it continue to grow.

Michael, 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?

Rollicking Buckaroo Pepper Jam officially launched in 2017 with just our MILD, MEDIUM and HOT varieties. We are an Award Winning, All Natural. Gluten Free and Vegan Gourmet Pepper Jam. I gradually started to come up with ideas to elevate us beyond just being seen as the jam you serve with crackers and cream cheese.

Gift Packaging and Hostess Gifts was where I started to brain-storm. Why just bring a bottle of wine to a party when you could bring PEPPER JAM instead? The first idea was the 3-Pack Party Pack with one of each in a branded gable box. From there I thought of our Nosh Box that comes complete with your choice of Pepper Jam, some brie, a box of crackers and a spreader knife.

One of the key priorities of our brand is to be environmentally conscience and have biodegradable packaging.

In the early stages of our development we started to accumulate some empty glass jars that no longer had jam in them. We were so happy to find a way to recycle, repurpose and re-use the jars when we found someone who would pour our All Natural, 100% Soy and Vegan scented candles. These candles fit nicely into our brand as we paired them with the Nosh Box, added apple cider, a frisbee and a blanket and put it all in a strong, sturdy and fashionable reusable canvas bag. It was a complete brand all tied together as the Picnic in a Bag!

While our Pepper Jam is a sweet, delicious dipping sauce or glaze on grilled meats like Salmon, Chicken or Pork, we realized that our customers are foodies like us and sometimes they crave savory seasoning blends and rubs. We now have eight unique and mouth-watering seasoning blends in the Rollicking Buckaroo product line. Some of them satisfy those who want heat from a Jalapeno Seasoning Salt and a Habanero HOT Salt, while others provide outstanding flavor without any salt at all like our Salt Free Garlic and Herb and our unique and delicious Salt Free “Flipping the Bird” seasoning blend.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

If you don’t like social media, or you feel you need to take a break from social media it’s because you are using it wrong. Social media is a wonderful way to not only build our audience and customer base, but also to keep in touch with them for the long haul. Social media allows us to do huge amounts of advertising and promotion for free. Everything we do is an opportunity to create content that we can share on our social media.

We use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep people informed of everything we are doing. The Facebook feature to create events allows us to invite folks to all of our markets and easily let them know where we are going to be and when.

We take pictures at all of our events to share on social media. Our customers really enjoy that we take pictures of them holding our products and then they can see themselves posted on our pages. Many of our posts are the smiling faces of friends and customers. These pictures truly represent our brand as real people enjoying life and good food!

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

We were established in 2017 so just three years into running my own business, I had to experience the shut-downs of a pandemic. All of the farmer’s markets and craft shows that I had worked so hard to apply for and schedule were suddenly canceled.

This could have easily broken me and shut me down completely. But I had worked too hard to build the brand. I had invested myself 100% into Rollicking Buckaroo Pepper Jam and Provisions. I had gotten through so much in my life already so I wasn’t going to let this break me.

I kept on doing the work that I could do so that once markets open up again I would come back even stronger and better than ever.

With the three original MILD, MEDIUM and HOT Pepper Jams, I would often hear customers say, “these are all delicious, but can you go hotter?”

I was motivated to give the customers what they wanted, so at the start of 2022 I was able to introduce a fourth variety of Rollicking Buckaroo Pepper Jam – EXTRA HOT.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.buckaroopepperjam.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rollickingbuckaroo/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/buckaroopepperjam
• Twitter: @BuckarooJams