Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Zach Scott. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Zach, appreciate you joining us today. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers
The first craziest thing that has happened to me was opening up an email from a customer in regards to one of our coins. The email asked if we had updated the spelling for our Mount Bierstadt coin. As my hands started sweating I typed in our web address www.mountainfreedomcoins.co and went to the shop. I selected Mount Bierstadt and was relieved to notice that the spelling was correct. I went back to my email and starting typing my reply when I noticed the way I typed Bierstadt was. NOT what I had just read on the picture of our coin on the website. I reopened the page and my heart sunk! The coin that I had worked so hard on, checked and rechecked multiple times by not only myself, but several others read Mount BIERSTATD!!! I had just taken a leap of faith in starting up a company without any type of business background and wondered if I were cut out for this. I had spent my entire professional career “paying close attention to detail,” and had felt like I had failed. I had already sold several of these coins, and no one had reached out to me with this discrepancy. I took a moment to breathe and realize that we all make mistakes. I remembered back to being in the military and conducting close quarters combat training and the debriefs that happened following. We called out mistakes and worked through them, so that everyone was on the same page and the same mistake didn’t happen again. I now had to own up to my mistake, contact our customers and have them ship the coins back to me, and replace them when the new ones arrived. What was great is that they replied back to me laughing about the situation and that they hadn’t noticed the misspelling either. So now we have a 100 misspelled Mount Bierstatd coins that we can joke about and eventually turn into a cool Mountain Freedom epoxied counter or floor.
Zach, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
On July 19th, 2020, Corinne and I hit the trailhead of the DeCaLiBron loop bright and early. We reached the summit of Mount Democrat before sunrise. The day was captured in pictures and videos as we continued the loop to the final summit of Mount Bross. A stranger took our picture (please let us know if that was you) in front of the log and then we went off to the side and talked about our accomplishment. We discussed what products we knew that were out there for hikers who had completed 14ers, but neither one of them knew of a company that had created a coin. With my military background and Corinne’s work in global health, a Challenge Coin was familiar to both of us as being part of a special unit and or distinguished guest in a foreign country. Once we reached the parking lot and made it back to cell phone service, Corinne began the Google search. By the time we had made it home we had worked out a list of things to look up if we were going to turn this new adventure idea into a reality.
Five days later this crazy idea that promotes chasing your own “Mountain Freedom” became a company.
We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.
Corinne and I met each other in Central Africa Republic. She was working on a Department of Defense contract assessing medical facilities in remote villages, and I was working on a Department of State contract training local security forces for US Embassy security. When I met her I could see into her soul and became a believer of true love. We have been inseparable ever since.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
We are still such a small brand in the realm of social media. Although our social media isn’t enormous yet, we feel that we are growing an authentic following by being our authentic selves. The outdoor community in Colorado is full of like minded people that support one another and love sharing their stories of their own Mountain Freedom experiences.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mountainfreedomcoins.co
- Instagram: @mountainfreedomcoins
Image Credits
Matt Griener