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

Hi Paul, thanks for joining us today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

I want to be remembered as the guy who brought individuals together in an ongoing effort to save the planet. As a people, we need to spend more of our time focusing on the diversion and transformation of food waste with the end product used to grow more bountiful and nutritious food for our planet. These efforts will not only reduce the amount of food waste in landfills, but directly impact those of our population most affected by food insecurity. While the task as a whole can seem daunting and even unattainable, one small win at a time is the key to success. I love telling the story of the man and woman walking down a beach full of starfish. Every step the man takes, he bends down and throws a starfish back in the ocean. At one point the woman stops him and asks, “why are you doing that?” The man replies, “I’m saving these starfish as they will most certainly dry out if left on the sand to bake in the sun.” The woman ponders for a second and then says, “I don’t know why you’re even bothering, this beach is full of starfish as far as the eye can see and you can’t possibly think you’ll make a difference.” The man looks at the woman, reaches down and grabs another starfish, throwing it into the ocean and says, “Made a difference to that one, didn’t I?” I want my legacy to be that I made a difference to the health of the planet, even if it meant throwing starfish back in the ocean, one at a 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

My name is Paul Horner and I’m a Worm Farmer, Vermicomposter, and Children’s Book Author based out of Harrisburg, NC. In December of 2020 my father came to me with the desire to start a family business. He said he’d been watching old episodes of a show no longer on television, and he wanted to start a worm farm. Wanting to spend as much time as I could with my Dad and also fulfill my everpresent desire to make him proud, I set to work learning anything and everything I could about worm farming and vermicomposting. What I stumbled upon during my initial education stages was nothing short of a giant rabbit hole. Each time I uncovered a nugget of information, it was sitting on top of ten more nuggets. In January 2021 we ordered our first worms and launched Our Silent Partners LLC in my spare downstairs bedroom. We spent the next four months feeding, watching and learning our worm’s behaviors, their likes and dislikes, as well as harvesting and cultivating the soil amendments so graciously provided by the worm’s excrement. We’d read and heard from many industry “experts” of the amazing benefits of these worm “castings” and what they provide to gardens, farms, and plants in the way of nutrients. However, we’d never truly witnessed it for ourselves and being men of honor and integrity, we didn’t want to sell anything to the general public, hence making certain claims, without extensive testing first. So that’s what we did. From January 2021 to May 2021 we used these soil amendments we’d cultivated on anything and everything we could find. Our vegetable plants, my lawn, our seed starts, house plants, and even dying plants. And what we learned was astounding. While the benefits were potentially different for each application, the one constant was that each application provided an immense benefit as opposed to not using it all. Seed starts germinated in 50% less time than mentioned on the seed packs when first soaked in our “Worm Tea” for 24 hours before planting. All vegetable plants grew larger, stronger, and had higher yields than their companions where our castings or tea weren’t utilized. We were amazed by the results, and honored that Mother Earth would entrust such a wonderful resource to us. So in May of 2021 we began packaging and selling our products. At the time we simply sold one day per week at the local farmer’s market backed by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture. Castings were sold by the pound and our tea was sold by the quart and gallon utilizing old mason jars from my parents’ garage and recycled jugs that used to contain distilled water. In almost two years of being in business, we’ve yet to have a market day where we didn’t gain at least one new customer and several converts to our chemical-free way of life. Of course we’ve also maneuvered many hurdles over the last two years. From logo and website design to logistical hurdles like extremely fast growth and worm reproduction. At the beginning our worms lived in two 40-gallon totes in my downstairs bedroom. Each time their population doubled, they were split and used to make new bins. Two totes quickly grew to ten totes, outgrowing my downstairs bedroom and moving into my garage. It wasn’t long before we’d completely outgrown my garage and needed a much larger space to expand. That was when my Dad and I started looking for affordable land in the area. It took us about six months as we were being pretty picky, but we eventually found the 27 acres we’ve now affectionately named Cats in the Cradle Farms. The farm came with a nine stall barn which now houses our continuously growing population of red wigglers (Eisenia Fetida), and all of our equipment to include a ten-foot custom-made trommel screen used for sifting and separating our precious castings from our even more precious silent partners. Along the way I wrote and self-published a children’s book, Worms Are People, Too. A children’s picture book about science, the environment, self-worth, and being comfortable in your own skin. And yes, it’s about a worm. This year we’ve also launched two new products after much customer input. We now have our “Mother’s Mix” which is a proprietary potting soil blend infused with 20% of our pure worm castings and have begun individually packaging our castings as well after learning some customers prefer a quick grab & go option. Both items have been selling out almost every week. During the “offseason” we also received our Nursery License and Certification from the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and are currently licensed to sell perennials, annuals, and vegetable plants. I suppose the moral of the story here is, even when you’re discouraged, never stop growing.

Have you ever had to pivot?

My life seems like it’s been one pivot after another. From careers in public service, to hospitality, to being laid off as a result of a COVID-related reduction in workforce, to weathering a considerable term of unemployment as a result of that lay off, to returning to that career in hospitality to just eventually walk away from that career altogether to start a business with my Dad from scratch. Each time I hit a wall, or the wall hits me, and I’m discouraged, I go back to my core support group and reboot. By support group, I mean my family. Now, mine just happens to be my family, so you’re support group can be anyone that lifts you up. It doesn’t necessarily have to be your family. Each time I’ve faced adversity, as if right on cue, without prompting, my Dad reminds me that I’m ENOUGH. It’s always EXACTLY what I need to hear in that moment and I dust myself off, pivot in a new direction, and put one foot in front of the other. While that sounds cliche’, putting one foot in front of the other when facing adversity is truly the best medicine. Keep moving. Even if it’s slower than you might like at first.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Honesty, integrity, and 100% transparency. As the effectiveness of our products is also results-based, it’s extremely important to our market reputation that customers see tangible growth as a result of using our products. We love before and after photos and encourage every customer to take them and share them with us via our social media. As a result, customer testimonials have proven extremely valuable in our particular industry. Expanding on the transparency piece, being a purveyor of chemical-free fertilizer, it’s very important that our customers know exactly what’s in our products as well as what goes into cultivating our products. Quality of feed stock, sustainable packaging, and even the quality of water used to brew our “Worm Tea” becomes valuable information to our customers.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.oursilentpartners.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oursilentpartners/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oursilentpartnersllc/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thewormdude9204
• Other: https://a.co/d/by58i0s