We recently connected with Michael Palmatier and have shared our conversation below.

Michael, appreciate you joining us today. We’ve all been there before where things are tight financially and we start asking ourselves in the small/simple joys like a cup of coffee is worth it. Have you had an experience like this and if so how did you think about this sort of spending?

During the peak of the covid shutdown period, our two main revenue streams were significantly impacted. While we were still able to sell online, all of our in-person festivals and most of our retail customers (wholesale) were shut down. This forced a lot of similar companies to reduce spending as much as possible, which makes sense. We decided to roll the dice and go in the opposite direction. We had a couple of new products already in the pipeline ready to be rolled out and took a chance and went forward with them. With most other companies postponing product launches, ours really stood out in the market place. The new products were received extremely well and online sales increased significantly. This gave us increased market exposure in a segment that was relatively quiet at the time.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I have always been what they call a “chilehead”. I’ve been a lover of hot sauce and growing peppers for most of my life. When I moved south from New York to North Carolina in 2010 I did what any good southerner would do, I bought a smoker. It wasn’t long before I crossed my two passions and started smoking the peppers before I made my hot sauces. This brought out such a unique flavor profile, I knew I was on to something. A few years later Rising Smoke Sauceworks was born.

In the Spring of 2018 we rolled out our initial line-up with six different hot sauces from Training Wheels (mild) to Slow Death (XXX-Hot). Nearly five years later we are about to release our tenth hot sauce, we have a line of three BBQ sauces and also two spice blends. We utilize smoked or roasted ingredients in every one of our products to set our flavors apart from everything else you might find in the market. To date, we have won over 75 awards from competitions like the New York City Hot Sauce Expo, the Fiery Foods Show in New Mexico and Zest Fest in Dallas. Our products can be found in over 400 storefronts, in 15 countries.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

This hot sauce business was supposed to be a part time side hustle and grow slowly over 10-15 years where I could make a decent income after my retirement from my day job. While my day job was significantly demanding, forcing me to be on the road for a large portion of the year, I still put all of my efforts on nights and weekends into growing my brand. Many weeks I would fly home from work on Friday, load the truck up for a festival and be off for the weekend on job # 2. Burning the candle at both ends can certainly take its toll but when you’re truly passionate about your business it is such a joy to see your hard work turn into growth. After a few years I was able to make that difficult decision to take my side hustle full time. In my first year of devoting all of my efforts to my business we experienced growth of over 50% from the previous year. It has been an amazing ride and I don’t plan on slowing down any time soon.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

While I create all of my recipes, I do not produce them. I decided early on that I could spend all of my time in the kitchen making sauce or I could put my efforts into selling and growing the brand. I did a lot of research early on and asked several people already in the industry about their experience with copackers, whether good or bad. There were definitely some horror stories shared about poor quality, long lead times, high prices, etc. I was very fortunate to find a copacker that has produced top quality with each order and we have developed a good working relationship/partnership along the way. I would definitely recommend doing your homework in advance of choosing a copacker should you go that route. Understand their expectations as well and make sure that your goals align with theirs.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://risingsmokesauce.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/risingsmokesauceworks/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RisingSmokeSauceworks
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-palmatier-3928227b/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SmokySauce