We recently connected with Tina Barreto and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Tina thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Time. Years and years of making connections and friends lead to my position in the industry. I fell in love with hot sauce and anything spicy. I learned all about makers and different sauces from around the world. I join San Difuego, the longest running hot sauce club in the country. To speed up the process i would have to travel and attend all expo and hot sauce events. These festivals happen all over the country and some happen consecutive weekends across the country. If I had the funds I would be there!
To be successful at this craft you have to stay relevant. Social media helps a ton. Keeping amazing customers and sustaining long relationships help. Ive met tons of great people in the hot sauce world.

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.

Ive been in the hot sauce industry for 20 years now. Ive done everything from retail to manufacturing, from attending festivals to throwing events. I started out by working in a retail store. I learned a lot and made it a point to learn everything I can about the how to products were made, who made them and how to best use them. I always went out of my way to get to know all the makers and learn about what inspired them to make the sauces they do. It’s always fun to learn the crazy stories behind some of these companies. Often people ask me how I know so many people or so much about hot sauce, i guess i study. I just love the industry so much, it’s so fun and it never gets old.

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

Just being myself. You always gotta be authentic. Being so inquisitive and always learning has definitely assisted in my journey.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I put in time and make visits to locations and stay in contact via calls and email. Let customers know that I’m always a phone call away. I try to offer long standing customers deals. Since we frequently come out with new products there’s always something to talk about. Going to festivals and expos really helps foster good, strong, lasting relationships. Festivals are always a blast, you get to hang out with your friends who live across the country.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.Californiahotsaucesolutions.com
• Instagram: California Hot Sauce Solutions
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/californiahotsaucesolutions