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

Alright, Raoul thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

We were all in Covid lock down and I found my self in a very creative mind space. I was doing a lot of walking, cooking and self care. One night, I had a dream about my grandfather, Eleno Rodriguez Ochoa.

He founded a candy company in Monterrey Mexico in 1940. That night, Ghost Honey – Heart Soul Heat everything just came into focus like the idea had always been there and it was just waiting for me to discover it.

Raoul, 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?

My name is Raoul Benavides. I am a lifelong visual artist and creative entrepreneur who has worked as an editorial photographer, artist agent, film producer, record store owner, and even a bug farmer. My Mexican immigrant parents were restaurateurs when I was growing up, so entrepreneurship has always been on my radar.

In the back of my mind, I have always wanted to get into CPG ( Consumer packaged goods / Grocery store products ) but I didn’t know how and I didn’t have the bandwidth. Covid My grandfather started a candy company in 1940 and Heart Soul heat is directly inspired my his love of sweet and spicy food combinations.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

We sell on a lot of online retail platforms. I believe that you need to be where your costumers are. Our main outlet is traditional brick and mortar grocery stores but we move a love to Ghost Honey through our website and through Amazon. We also sell on Instacart, Doordash, Bubble, and Here Here market.

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

I truly believe that entrepreneurship is more about your relationship to creativity and vulnerability than about product market fit or profit margins. I have always felt that. I am a big fan of the book The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. Rubin is very well known as the founder of the Hip Hop label Def Jam. In this book, which is not a how-to, Rubin talks about connecting to a higher source of energy and about everyone’s universal creative potential. It is really good and I recommend it to all artists and entrepreneurs

Contact Info:

• Website: https://heartsoulheat.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heartsoulheat/

Image Credits
Kevin J. Miyazaki