Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
In this episode, Jonathan has a conversation with Merve Doran, co-founder of OLEAMEA, an organic extra virgin olive oil producer based in Turkey. OLEAMEA works with farmers to buy early harvest olives and while practicing sustainable production that relies on the traditions of artisans and local masters.
The conversation starts with Merve talking about her family and how they have been producing olive oil in the southwest region of Turkey for generations. Sensing a gap in organic farming practices, she and her brother decided to invest in their infrastructure through local partnerships. The small region housed about 1000 olive farmers, and they helped them get certified and better understand the business side of farming.
Conquer the Noise is a podcast dedicated to telling stories of outstanding ideas and people who have found their way amongst the chatter.
Series: Cultivating Purpose & Passion in Business
In an environment of cultural change and demanding consumer expectations, engage with fellow marketing leaders and hear how they navigate brand relevance, impact and authenticity. In this series, we will explore how to create a greater impact on your business and community by cultivating purpose and passion into actionable items. During this session we’ll discuss ways brands and businesses can better connect with the environment and their community. Learn from 1% leaders on how they bring values in sustainability through all aspects of their brand and business.
Unconquered presents this series in partnership with 1% For The Planet's Be 1% Better Campaign. Unconquered is an independent creative agency challenging brand perspective through redefined content. We founded the agency to create work with a sense of purpose beyond itself, using commerce to change the world. We believe the unconquered spirit is at the heart of every great brand.
Credits:
Thank you to all of our guests, without you this wouldn't exist.
Art - Mike McNeive, Partner @ Drexler https://drxlr.com/
Audio - Harry Glaser
Speaker 1: Conquer the noise is a podcast produced by Unconquered, an independent agency, challenging brand perspective. This podcast is dedicated to telling stories of outstanding ideas and people who have found their way amongst the chatter.
Speaker 1: Hi everyone. Thank you so much for joining us in this weeks episode of conquer the noise. I'm your host, Jonathan Hansen. I'm obviouslyrecording this again from my New York city apartment, [00:00:30] and you can probably hear the sirens going off in the background. Um, but we it's more authentic that way. Merve Doran is the founder of Oleanmea, a Turkish olive oil brand. Her family has been making olive oil for generations in the Southwest region of Turkey. And what she basically did is she joined up, with the other local farmers in the region and started creating a premium, organic olive oil, that honors the cultural significance of the region. Um, but also I think is a Testament, [00:01:00] , to keep business within the communities and creating living wages and helping local communities thrive. I'm really excited to talk to her her today. I love olive oil, I love cooking and I'm excited to see how she's, working out of Turkey while having a brand inside the United States. I think it's gonna be really interesting conversation. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: Um, thank you so much for joining us today. Uh, where are you calling from?
Speaker 2: I'm actually [00:01:30] in Boston right now, little north of Boston.
Speaker 1: And is that your home base?
Speaker 2: Yes, we are.
Speaker 1: So how have you been running? Uh, or how has it been running a olive oil company? That's has roots in Turkey. You're in the cold Arctic Boston area. What's, how's it going? How are you doing that? I'm managing that.
Speaker 2: That is actually a pretty good question because I was actually back in turkeys. I spent the entire summer basically in Turkey Uhhuh, and the day I came back at the end of August, it was [00:02:00] a completely change of weather and everything, beautiful weather in Turkey. And as I said, Arctic weather in Boston, but, um, so I'm fortunate enough. I'm based in Boston, in the us. However, my, um, business partners, my brother and my father, they are based in my hometown mm-hmm Turkey, where this business actually operates in terms of production, you know, research and development and, um, some of the marketing pieces as well. So, um, that's [00:02:30] how we are being successful
Speaker 1: And, you know, be because you're from Turkey and I don't think the, I would say the average us citizen probably doesn't whole have a whole lot of context around Turkey, um, or maybe hasn't traveled the, that I haven't met a lot of people that have traveled there outside of a few close friends. What is one thing before we jump into what you, you, the cart of your business, what is one thing that you would like people to know who've never been to Turkey or unfamiliar with the country? Um, as someone who's lived there obviously [00:03:00] has very close, personal, uh, ties to it, both from a passion side for what it can produce and offer the world. Um, but also just from the, the place of, of origin.
Speaker 2: So the, you know, the first thing I usually, um, ask is, what kind of language do we big if we speak Arabic or if we speak any other languages, Uhhuh , um, this is one thing that, you know, people ask and we speak Turkish. Um, but the second thing they usually ask if the, the people [00:03:30] are friendly, um, I don't know where the, um, the concept of unfriendly comes from Uhhuh . Um, but the people are in Turkey. We are very similar, we are Mediterranean culture. So we are very similar to Italians, Greeks in Spanish, very friendly. We love hosting in our households, you know, mm-hmm, , we love people coming into our homes for dinners and, you know, we set dinners for, for hours. We set [00:04:00] dinners for hours. So it's the first two things that I'm usually asking. Um, I have to explain myself, I guess, for, um, mm-hmm for my culture.
Speaker 1: my sister just spent three weeks traveling through Turkey, uh, for her honeymoon. She got back last week and is in love with, uh, the country. And her experience has been like every time I talk to her, she she's still pulling from the energy of, of her trip, uh, trying to recruit me to go on a trip with her next year there, [00:04:30] um, and just had wonderful things to say about it. And I think really match up to what you're saying. She said people were so friendly, um, and welcoming and, and really eager to show, uh, them like a, like a true, authentic experience there for sure. Um, the food she said was amazing. The breakfast, I think breakfast was her favorite thing there, which is one of the things I was very surprised for her knowing my sister to say, um,
Speaker 2: It is called Turkish breakfast and it is a feast. And since we got back, this [00:05:00] is about two and a has been, my kids have been asking Turkish breakfast every single morning.
Speaker 1: So what is that? What's the difference? What would you say the difference is between like between a Turkish breakfast? And so
Speaker 2: To be honest with you in the us, it's just like breakfast, eat and go. Yeah. Um, cereal, um, pancake or, you know, stuff like that in Turkey, you basically sit on the breakfast for hours. Mm-hmm you have five or six different of Jesus, [00:05:30] three or four different of different olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, bunch of different of jams in honey. Like everything that you can think of mm-hmm , um, different bread. It just like, you basically enjoy eating and when you're eating there, you are so mindfully eating rather than eating and, you know, on the go. So I think that's the difference.
Speaker 1: Yeah. She brought back a bunch of jams for our family, [00:06:00] um, which I'm really excited to try. Um, yeah. And
Speaker 2: Well, next time, either she, or you go hit me up, make sure you
Speaker 1: Me up.
Speaker 2: Definitely. If I'm not there, my brother is there. My dad is there, so we will make sure you guys are, um, oh, amazing. So part of our culture too. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Thank you for that alpha. It's really pretty sweet. Um, you know, I'm curious to how now we, so we have a little bit background, uh, on, on some of the Turkish culture a little bit. I would love to hear how you're sort of no pun infusing [00:06:30] this into your olive oil business and, and story and how you're, uh, upbringing this into the us market.
Speaker 2: So we founded ale, uh, with my brother myself. We basically started dreaming about this back in 2006, both of us and I was in college at the time and he was in high school. Um, my father supported us from day one. Um, and I mean, it's me and my brother. We, we founded it, but my dad and my mom are definitely [00:07:00] involved in many different levels as well. And, um, we produce it's a U SD organic, but the organic certification is also valid in Turkey and in European union countries, mm-hmm, extra Virgin olive oils and it's to better describe the ver in Turkey, it's the Southwest region of Turkey. So we have, we are not on the coast, but the closest coastline is the agency part of Turkey. Mm-hmm . [00:07:30] Um, this goes back for, you know, years, our family, my grandfather's father has been producing all the world in the same region mm-hmm , uh, for generations.
Speaker 2: So, um, we never com commercialize it. Um, we never sell it. It was always gifting to our, you know, visitors gift thing to our friends, family. Um, but we, we, we saw a gap. Um, we saw a gap in organic farming practices in Turkey and [00:08:00] development in Turkey. And, um, this happened back in 2004 that my dad decided to invest significantly in developing that infrastructure through our local partnerships. So in our region only, which is a very small region, there's only maybe a thousand farmers, olive farmers, mm-hmm , but they're, they're olive, olive and olive industry in Turkey is so much humongous than us. So now we are, we, we, with our [00:08:30] dev development, the, the, the, with our foundation, we were able to, um, connect with right now, it's over 800 F farmers, um, over about 14,000 acres of land. Um, we were able to get these farmers organic certified educated, and basically help them better understand how they can keep, how they can sustainably keep [00:09:00] their farm, you know, farms and move forward to the next generations. Mm-hmm
Speaker 1: mm-hmm . So that seems like a really big undertaking, um, as far as like the educational process, sort of creating this community and, and everyone to come together. Um, and I'm curious what that process was like for you all to, to develop that educational network and that, um, the process of, like, were you doing meetings? Were you doing like a, sort of a school? How old was that like [00:09:30] to try and teach some of these newer practices?
Speaker 2: So, at the very beginning, when we first ed, it was a lot of education I'm talking about back in two mid two thousands. So 2004, 2005, six, uh, a lot of in person education, a lot of consulting, you know, consulting onsite visits. And we had, um, we had engineers with us. We had, you know, spirits in terms of sustainable and organic farming practices. Mm-hmm um, [00:10:00] so that's how we started, but right now it's more like more on the consulting level. So when these, uh, farmers needs help with, and sort of, um, you know, if, if they have any questions, any sort of questions, they usually come to our foundation. And if we don't know the answer, we usually work with the government entities. Mm-hmm that supports this, you know, development and get them the answer, um, for them. So, um, the, the farms though, it's it's so that region, majority of the farms are on the uphills.
Speaker 2: [00:10:30] Mm-hmm think about Mon mountains. Mm-hmm so no modern machinery can go in there you can't even go in there with your tractor or your car. You have to go there walking. So this is a perfect situation that can any, that can a farmer could ask how to, you know, take, uh, my current situation to the next generations without damaging, just keeping it as is without damaging [00:11:00] and then moving to the next generations. That's I think, you know, by just knowing that this is possible, they took these farms from their ancestors. Yes mm-hmm , but they didn't know how to, you know, give these farms to their grandkids, um, as, as, as they, as they are, I guess. Um, so now they do, um, they just, you know, keep learning, they just need, they just keep practicing and then keep moving forward. [00:11:30] Mm-hmm
Speaker 1: . And so what's what I find really interesting for you is that, you know, looking at your background, this is definitely a new sort of career change for your, or, you know, you spent your earlier, uh, part of your life in recruitment and, and mm-hmm and human resources. So I'm really curious, you know, what sparked this change, um, and inspired you to, to get into this land of work. And, um, how has that been as far as just a midlife career change?
Speaker 2: So [00:12:00] if you actually go all the way back, I got my undergrad with, um, as a, my undergrad was business administration focused on finance and accounting mm-hmm and I got my MBA, and I actually decided to focus even more on finance. So I actually, my education background is finance and accounting mm-hmm . And then after I graduated, I, um, I was able to, at the time it was still, the crisis was still going. This is back in 2011, economy crisis was still, [00:12:30] you know, hard. So I was able to find a job in human in DC, mm-hmm working with government agencies. So that for me was perfect because this, that was my, you know, I was only here in United States for a couple of years. I was gonna be able to learn us government and their entities mm-hmm , um, that's when I decided to the, the leap of faith and joined the human resources part of [00:13:00] the, the, the, um, sector.
Speaker 2: And then I stayed there, ended up saying I ended up loving it, and then, but I still had that, um, dream of, um, producing something or making something, being that producer, being that maker of a product that can be done, if, if, if it is done correctly, if it [00:13:30] is done sustainably, if it is done organically, that it doesn't have to be cost, you know, it doesn't have to the customers thousands of box to, you know, to access it. Mm-hmm . So that's, it was always in my mind to come up with an accessible product and all the oil was perfect because again, my four generations, my grandfathers, my grandfather's father, they produced olive the oil. So that was one thing that I was very excited to take the leap again, [00:14:00] you know, mid-career and, um, so we can, because I know that I could passionately stay involved in every step of the production process. Mm-hmm like I can be involved in the cultivation. I could be involved in the harvest thing. I could be involved with the farmers. I could be involved in every step of the, the, the, the production, so that I see, and I can control how [00:14:30] I can control the steps in, in this sustainable business, basically. Mm-hmm
Speaker 1: mm-hmm . Um, and so how is it, I mean, how's it been like adjusting, has there been like a big learning curve for you? Is it something that, you know, it's obviously been your family for a long time, so I'm sure there's already a strong level of base knowledge, but I know you have also, uh, just the, the, the issues of importing into the United States. , you know, I'm curious to how all that's been. Yeah. How you've, how you navigated all that, that seems really daunting [00:15:00] and, and difficult.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So that's, that's whole different, you know, um, topic I believe, but we are, you know, it's, I am a person I'm very much motivated by innovation. Like constantly like entrepreneurial thinking and like trying to create new new products. So the, the, the, the move wasn't that difficult, because I I'm always in a constant mind of like, thinking, thinking, thinking mm-hmm . But, um, [00:15:30] when it reality, that's when it becomes, you know, when it, the reality heads that's when it comes, you know, so we wanted to source recyclable bottles that we wanna make sure the, our bottles are recycled. We want to make sure the products, um, stay as fresh as the day. We basically produce the product. So we need to source a special cap. Um, and I want to make sure that's also recyclable. And then we, um, [00:16:00] we decide, you know, we were looking for the, the, you know, the importing, you mean, you, you mentioned.
Speaker 2: So we were like looking companies in the us to work with, but then was adding extra cost. And then that was increasing dos and increasing the RN cost, which is, is not what I meant. I wanna be, I wanna have an accessible product in terms of price point. So we decide we actually gathered everything. All of our team is actually right now in, still in Turkey, our importers [00:16:30] are tur, it's a Turkish company that helps us import everything here that handles the documents in the us. And then we just pull the documents and then distribute it in the United States basically.
Speaker 1: Okay. Interesting. Um, very interesting. So what, ho oil Hills is one of those things when I go in the grocery store and there's just like so many options, probably 30 options or so, um, and they range from like really cheap to sometimes kind of expensive. [00:17:00] Um, obviously expensives relative to, who's standing in front of the price tag, but could be up to, I've seen 'em up to $40 or so. Oh yeah. Um, in yours kind of sits in the middle, um, in some ways, or at least up the, that I just listed out. Um, I'm curious to, like, it seems really hard for me, um, to understand how you sort of position yourself within that sort of diversity of, of price ranges and then, and then how you can communicate, um, [00:17:30] why it's there. Cause I think sometimes I I'm reading, you know, I'll be saying in the, the grocery store and I'm reading them, trying to understand one and why, why one costs so much more than the other, what are the benefits versus the other? How do I taste the benefits? There's all these things that I'm thinking, um, through this. And I think it's a great opportunity right now to just talk through that and just, I think help our, our own listeners become a little bit more education educated in, um, what they should be considering or thinking through when they're, when they're buying. So yeah. [00:18:00] I would love to talk for some of that. Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's, it's, it's a great question. I, I'm gonna try to be as politically correct as possible too. Like, I don't wanna
Speaker 2: I don't wanna say they're too expensive. I, I don't, you know, I don't, I don't, so this is what we are doing basically Uhhuh. Um, I grew up without consuming a sip of store bought olive oil. Yeah. Um, but when I moved to us, well, I actually lived in, in Milan for six months at, as an exchange student [00:18:30] over there, it's, it's a whole different, you know, um, concept of olive oil, but I found myself in the us why the quality didn't meet my expectation with every single bottle. Basically I had to buy from different retail stores. Mm-hmm I tried, as you said, one of the most, so ones to the, the, the cheapest one in the store. But, um, so we are working with the farmers and [00:19:00] we are buying their olives as an early harvest olives. This actually increase the pricing of the olive.
Speaker 2: We are not buying their oils. We are actually using the oil in our own facility. We are buying their oil, the olives from their farm. We mm-hmm hand, you know, harvest them together. Um, we bring them to our facility. So we control everything from as mentioned from our farmers to the end products. This gives us to control [00:19:30] the price as much as possible. Mm-hmm from the tree to the, to the bottle we, we are after that. It's honestly try to keep again, I don't know why those expensive olives are expensive because with our price range, we can give an award winning product with a great quality inside extraversion with great, [00:20:00] um, you know, lab test results. Mm-hmm with that kind of pricing. If this answered your, you know, question
Speaker 1: no, I think it does. And I think when you, I think part of that price that you're paying for some of these more expensive, so more expensive, um, bottles is brand, right? Like it, it boils down to the brand and the story that people are buying into. And I think if you have a beautiful, if you have beautiful packaging, if they're trying to sell like, you know, a very specific angle of it, a handpicked, [00:20:30] single sourced, whatever, um, it, it, it, it's all about the brand cache and what's being, what's being communicated, which I think really, um, opens itself up to, um, thinking through, I'm curious to how then, how you're differentiating yourself than, you know, um, through your storytelling.
Speaker 2: So we are, you know, we are organically sourced. And like I mentioned, in, in the very beginning, we are not only organic certified in the us, but in European union, as [00:21:00] well as Turkey and, um, cold press. But most importantly, with our works, uh, you know, with our foundation that we have been working together to farmers, we are providing not just social economic and social, you know, development to these farmers as well. Mm-hmm in the past, these farmers had to sell their oil, not olives oil mm-hmm , which is a lot cheaper than olives to a government run entity mm-hmm , uh, in a very cheap [00:21:30] price. And the pricing was determined by the government, not by the farmers. So we are mm-hmm , this is our story. Our story is we provide the, with our foundation, we work with the farmers and provide them an economy and social, um, you know, freedom to decide and keep their farms as organic and sustainable possible and decide what they wanna do with their, with their farms. Basically mm-hmm, ,
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm . And I think, you know, part of that brand really is around [00:22:00] name and developing a brand name. Um, and I'm curious to how you landed on your name and what that means.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah. It means in Latin, my olive. Um, and when we were deciding on a brand name, there were a couple other Latin names, but it re really re resonated that this was, you know, my part of, you know, grow, you know, when I was [00:22:30] growing up consuming all the oil, but it was it's, it was my product. So I'm giving you my, my customers, my product mm-hmm to I'm serving what I can consume, basically mm-hmm and I'm not serving what I will not use. Mm-hmm , that's where the, the, the brand name came from mm-hmm .
Speaker 1: And so, um, you know, there's, there's olive oil from all over the all different parts of the world. Um, going back to my sister, her husband's actually Tunisian, and his has a family farm with olive oil or [00:23:00] olives, and they bring, he makes their own olive oil and brings it back. Um, yeah. So, so which I love, um, but I also love that story behind it. I think the story sometimes, really, it makes the things taste better. Um but, but, but, but I'm really curious to like what the difference is between, you know, Turkish, olive oil versus Italian versus Tunisian. Um, is it more in the land? Is it more in the type of olive you're using?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's so many different types of olive oil. This is what I will start saying. I think [00:23:30] as long as the product is produced as sustainable and keeping the, the, the land as organic possible mm-hmm, , I think you all the, all the oil taste great. Like I have, I sell to this date. I, I still try to keep tasting, um, olive oils from Spain, Portugal, um, Croatia. They have a beautiful olive oil mm-hmm , um, there, um, so we have a very different olive oil, the olive type in Turkey. It's mostly in [00:24:00] my region, it's called MEIC mm-hmm . And, um, it only grows in my region and the, the fruit of olive oil is medium fruit, fruit, fruity, but also the punt in, and, um, like that beautiful smell of grass when you open the BA bottle will pop out of the, the, the, the bottle itself. Um, that's the little nuances that, you know, gives the olive oil, its characteristic or different differentiation from what olive [00:24:30] oils. Um, but again, as long as it is produced correctly in my book, I think all the olive oil stays beautiful.
Speaker 1: Um, I think that's, what's a great way to say it, and I love how you're not taking like a elitist standpoint by saying Turkish is the Turkish. Olive is the best. I think it's really beautiful that you can, that you can acknowledge and say, you know, some people I think would definitely be a little biased in their opinion. [00:25:00] I think you have a great, great perspective there. Um, and
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm not going to it's, it's, it's a Mediterranean culture. As I said, all the Mediterranean countries, they produce all well, they produce wine. I mean, you cannot just say, um, the Spanish wine is better than French wine. They have all their own characteristics. Yeah. All world is actually very similar to the wine. And that's, I think one of the, I know it took years to educate consumer about the different wines. Mm-hmm, it's gonna probably take us to educate consumers [00:25:30] about different olive oils, but if, if all dollar oils in my book is if they're produced correctly, it's, it's beautiful. Mm-hmm
Speaker 1: and, you know, it's I, so I was doing quite a bit of, of research on the brand before, um, our, our talk today and, you know, your you're all olive oil have made a lot of like top 10, top five lists online. Um, and it seems like there's like a great strategy there of helping with brand validity. There is, I think one of the things when you're in [00:26:00] a store and you're making a purchase olive oil or wine, and I consider these two similar in some aspects, just because of one that varying price points and then the regionality and, um, the stories that go into to telling how and how, how it was being sold. Um, oh, I totally lost where I was going with that. um,
Speaker 2: It's like, it happens
Speaker 1: yeah. It's okay. Um, oh yeah. So going back to that, so you, so there's like, there's like a strong, I think, element of how having it be, um, [00:26:30] some of that risk de-risk by reading, like by breed your product on a top 10 someone's validated, it said this is great. So, so it's a little bit easier to make that purchase later on when you see the product. Right. Um, for sure. So, so I'm curious, you know, how the rest of your marketing is, is, is stemming out of that, are you primarily relying or relying on like a PR strategy or do you have a very strong, um, you know, social media strategy, or do you have like another, uh, [00:27:00] way that you're trying to reach your customers?
Speaker 2: Um, both. So going back to that, why we are doing basically why we are being, you know, pushing on that forefront to be the best, one of the best olive oils. Yeah. There's so many, I'm gonna say junk in the market. Mm-hmm um, and they are named unfortunately ex olive oil, but majority of the month, I'm talking about the junk, basically they're not even extra Virgin, all world quality. So [00:27:30] the being, having that quality recognition mm-hmm as a top 10 top, you know, um, you know, what five is very important to differentiate. It was very important ourselves because mm-hmm, when, if you're in the market. And if you're, if you are a consumer, just looking at the pricing and determining if it's a qu determining the quality mm-hmm, our price change, as you said, it, it, it lays in the middle, but in the meantime, this is, this was our strategy.
Speaker 2: We wanna create [00:28:00] really good quality product with an accessible pricing. So the, that was very important part of the strategy to, you know, push that forefront, to get qu quality recognized by international all world tasters mm-hmm . Uh, we have been in the competitions from Japan to Italy, to, um, United States, um, New York as, as the com. Um, so that was very important. Um, so we work with our, when we [00:28:30] started with working with our PR agency agency, that was one of the things that we wanted them to focus on, but we also wanted to make sure that they, um, they introduce the, the Turkish Turkish, you know, part of the culture of the, um, the brand as well, because everybody heard about Italian, olive, the oils, everybody heard about Greek, all the oils. When I personally do, which I still keep the one events with, you know, meeting with the customers.
Speaker 2: They, I always say, guess [00:29:00] where'd all the oil from, they never, none of them ever said, Turkey always said Portugal, Spain, but that was another thing like Turkish, olive, the world has a great and quality olive, the oil and I, that was one of the strategy that I'm pushing mm-hmm to educate peop the customer, um, that Turkey has a great olive, the oil as well. Mm-hmm marketing strategy goes hand to hand with the PI as well. So they are mm-hmm um, that that's [00:29:30] a couple strategies that we are following right now. Mm-hmm .
Speaker 1: And so is that, how do you translate that to like social media, right? Because, so the nice thing social media is it kinda offers you this two-way conversation. Mm-hmm um, so, so I'm curious to how that's set, how you're setting it up and transferring that over to the, the social side.
Speaker 2: So, social media goes a little bit with this strategy, but also I, I wanted to focus on, on social media a little bit differently. Here's the reason, um, there are so many different [00:30:00] oils in the market that consumers can basically cook good or bad is a different story. Mm-hmm . Um, so I wanted to introduce in our social media strategy, um, how people can, how consumers can use all the world in their daily lives with their cooking, baking with their, um, you know, in their past sauce, or, you know, they can make their [00:30:30] hums with it. So we are working with a team in Turkey, um, who knows that, you know, the cuisines all around the world mm-hmm and they come up, this was last year's strategy, but we are still continuing a bit so far. They basically create, uh, recipes using our olive oils. And we are basically using those, um, in our social media strategy a little bit too. Mm-hmm
Speaker 1: mm-hmm . And to
Speaker 2: Teach, go ahead. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: No, no, please, please continue.
Speaker 2: So [00:31:00] I just wanna make sure, like, um, the new generation is very eager to learn and eager to find out different ways. So we are targeting new generation as well with our social media strategy, a little bit to, you know, when they're cooking at home, they can use olive the oil. It, it's not something that they should be scared of, basically.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay. Okay. Interesting. Yeah. And I mean, since it's such a personal side or personal a business for you, um, and I'm curious to how, you know, how you're interjecting yourself into it, and, [00:31:30] and if you're using, you know, if you're appearing on social media, if you're using social media platforms to do help with just your personal appearance and the brand, you know, I've read statistically from some of our strategy work with other, uh, um, other other brands that, you know, founders and CEOs who are often the face of the brand, um, perform better with engagement on, on social media. And I'm curious if you're embracing that and using that as well.
Speaker 2: I am. Um, so [00:32:00] I think this is, this, this comes with, I love my product. I, and I'm so proud of it. So I think this shows too, that's, that's why I'm not scared of showing my face. Yeah. You know, I am behind this, this product I'm behind this brand. Um, hon the founder of Toban, he, he had a, um, in one of his interviews, he said, let's products that we can, you know, sew to our kids. So after I heard this, you know, [00:32:30] this is what I do. I like mm-hmm , I don't, I don't produce anything that I want. So to my kids. So mm-hmm, , that's why I'm not scared of putting my face out there. Mm-hmm um, we are actually working in a new project with completely different industry, um, still with, you know, relate to olive oil, but I'm not going to be scared of putting my face behind that, those part, because that's gonna be very much hard work, but also I that's something that I will be using on my daily life too. Mm-hmm
Speaker 1: yeah. I think that's a great, [00:33:00] um, re or a great metric. Is, would you serve it to your family? Would you serve it to your children? Yeah. Um, and speak, speaking of family, you know, your husband's involved in the business, this is, uh, a business that's been in your family for generations mm-hmm or, or at least the, the olive portion of it. I don't know if it necessarily as, as a full on business, but at least the, the olive, uh, um, create, uh, olive oil creation, manufacturing. Um, I'm curious to how you balance all that. Cause that's a lot, that's a lot of family time and work time at the same time. Yeah. So [00:33:30] how, how, how are you balancing all that? How do you deal with all that?
Speaker 2: Um, to be honest with you short answer, is I not balancing it?
Speaker 1: I think I love that it's, it's, it's, uh, true and honest and I love it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, if I say that, oh yeah. It's so that it's, it's a lie. I mean, long answer is that, you know, I have two little kids, one is two and a half. The other is five years old. Mm-hmm I have a bus I'm, I'm a business owner. I'm an entrepreneur. And you, [00:34:00] that has all these have different demands from me. Mm-hmm , you know, and I think that the, the worst part is these demands regularly change directions. You know, one day you wake up, uh, you know, your kids ask to go to zoo and then you have to take 5:00 PM meeting. And then, you know, uh, you have a deadline for new projects, you know, what stuff like that. So it's, it's just like how you it's [00:34:30] it's for me, how to make it sustainable is to be okay with the changes mm-hmm um, that comes to my way mm-hmm and know that I only have, you know, certain amount of time in a where I can accomplish so much. Mm-hmm because if I start beating myself that I didn't answer to that email right there. Right. That moment, instead of when my kid is playing my leg to play with them, you know, I, I just gotta be okay with that, at that, at that time. So it's, yeah. I'm, I'm trying my best to balance it as [00:35:00] much as possible, but short answer. No, I cannot balance it all the time.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I, I agree. I mean, as a, as a founder, it's something I struggle with too, um, is, is creating space. And then when I create the space, um, making sure I continue to be present and not thinking about, oh, man, I gotta get back to this and I gotta do do this and just maintain the, the, the focus on what I'm actually doing and trying to enjoy. And, you know, sometimes I wonder if like the, that work life balance as much as I try to create it for our team and [00:35:30] employees, but from a founder's perspective, you know, sometimes I wonder if that's just a fallacy and if it's something that's can actually be true and one, you know, you maybe, you know, I also think I'm, I'm a similar to your career in that, you know, I've had a sort of a later stage transition into something new mm-hmm .
Speaker 1: Um, and I remember the first, you know, 10, 15 years of my, um, career before this was just go, go, go all the time. Um, and I'm wondering, and sometimes I wonder maybe [00:36:00] that's just, maybe that's the method you go hard while, while you're young and you have the time and energy and then taper off as you get older. Um, but at the same time, I, going back to what I was saying earlier, I just, it's still not the case. I still find myself trying to push, push, push. Um, yeah, it's just been something I've personally have struggled with. Um, and, and often wonder if you, if you really can, you know, I think it's, it's, it's hard to taper motivation and, and inspiration sometimes to, to, [00:36:30] you know, open keeping your, your life open to other op opportunities. And like, and like, as far as like a real life experience, more versus like creating a business mm-hmm and my father was an entrepreneur and had his own business and, um, my whole life.
Speaker 1: And then I think probably 10 years ago, I'll never forget it. Um, we were just sitting around dinner when we have long family dinners as well. Um, and he said that his, one of his one, one of his regrets when he was younger, [00:37:00] was not spending enough time with us. Um, I always thought he was very present and very much involved in our lives. So it was interesting for him to say that, cuz I had never thought all my dad didn't spend any time with me cuz it was, in my opinion, it was never the case. Um, but I think just hearing him say that that was definitely one of those moments where you're like, I he's been evaluating like where he spent his time and, and like where he, um, you know, chose to, to put his, some of his energy and the, I think it, for the benefit [00:37:30] of the family, it was, it provided us with a lifestyle that, um, you know, made me, um, very fortunate and I think got lot opportunity out of it.
Speaker 1: So I, I, I mean, I'm grateful for, for it. Um, but it, it just has been in my mind as I get older and start thinking about, um, my life and how I'm gonna, um, continue to like be a person outside of being a business owner. Um, how you, how you, how you sort of try and merge those two. And it's something that's just, um, I think difficult. Um, and [00:38:00] I think, you know, long term, it makes you also wonder like where do I see this brand going? You know, um, especially as you start to, to think through like your commitment, what you're putting into it, what's the long term version or a vision of it. Um, and, and, and I'm curious for you, you know, um, all with all that said, how what's your long term vision for your business? Do you, do you want this to be something you passed on to your chip older in, or is this something that, um, you know, you're gonna do for the time being, and you're encouraging to do their own thing or is I'd love to hear what you're, what you're thinking there.
Speaker 2: [00:38:30] Um, so it's funny, um, because like probably all mom or dads will say, like, I want them to do whatever they are, you know, passionate about. This was my passion. I cannot, I will never push that to them, but what I wanna create in our region and, you know, hopefully make it a little bit more wider than just our region in Turkey and maybe all Turkey as two you to, to, to keep our lands as, as is [00:39:00] mm-hmm , um, our lands are already very, um, nurturing. Um, it it's, you know, for centuries, we had those, some of our, some of our alters are, you know, thousands of years old mm-hmm so they have been there, like they're not going anywhere, just don't damage them any further. So, you know, making this mindset as valuable to all the regions in Turkey as possible is what I'm gonna try if this continues via my kids.
Speaker 2: Perfect. But [00:39:30] I wanna set up this mindset to keep this self pushing for generations after us. That's one thing, but the olive oil, I'm gonna be pro probably producing olive the oil until the end of my life. And then I'm starting this new venture. It's a little bit in the different side. Um, we are trying to come up with all natural. It's a little bit tricky to get the organic certification, but I'm still working on it. I'm the not giving up on the idea of kids, cosmetic products, which is [00:40:00] shampoo, you know, lotion mm-hmm with and all the, our extra Virgin olive, the world is an ingredient main ingredient. Mm-hmm . So I'm working on that new venture. Um, I have a couple other, you know, pro you know, projects going on. So all the world is a core, but I wanna be, you know, spreading the arms a little bit into different areas of, um, where can you, you know, bring the olive oil into the mixture and make it a better product, basically. Mm-hmm
Speaker 1: well, and I think, um, that [00:40:30] sets us up for like one of the last questions I wanted to run through as we, as we approach time, you know, I've used personally used olive oil in, you know, just personal care Um-huh and I'm curious to what a nonconventional use of olive oil is that you, you don't think people, all the people know of,
Speaker 2: Well, I wish my dad was here because he would've answered that my dad uses olive oil and everything like, yeah. Um, he has never used a store bought to example he's 65 years old this [00:41:00] year, he uses olive oil. So, um, he has an eczema, so he can't use any store bought, bought, you know, liquid SOS or anything Uhhuh. He uses olive oil. So, and as a lotion, he can't use, you know, any type of, he uses olive oil as a, as a lotion and his hands and his body. And now, um, I use olive oil as a credible crap remedy, you know, the babies when they're born. Oh yeah, they have, yeah, they have that, those little wives. So it's a remedy for that. [00:41:30] Um, I use olive oil for diaper rash for my daughter solution. Amazing. Because it has antioxidants in it. So no one knows about this. Like it has healing powers, like before centuries ago, seriously, we have documents that it was used as in everything mm-hmm every imaginable thing. So we just forget about those, you know, mm-hmm , mm-hmm, mm-hmm . Yeah.
Speaker 1: Um, I, I saw on your, on your, [00:42:00] um, is you on your website or your social media, olive oil and ice cream, which I am gonna try,
Speaker 2: Please do, but make sure. So it's gonna depend on the olive oil you have, because, um, you can actually check the New York international olive oil, um, Uhhuh competition's website, because they have some recommendation depending on the olive oil. Um, some olive oils are really good with chocolate mm-hmm and vanilla, and some olive oils are really great with fruity Sobe. Oh. So it's [00:42:30] gonna depend on the olive oil you have, or that you're gonna be approaching. It's a delicious way. Our olive oil goes really well with so base like fruity, um, beautiful. And it just depends, but yeah, delicious.
Speaker 1: awesome. I'm gonna try it. Well, thank you so much. Yeah. Uh, for absolutely for talking with us today, I really enjoy the conversation, learning more about, you know, how you're building your brand, um, and just the olive oil world. I think it's just one of those things. It's, it's kind of a mystery to folks. So I hope this provides some context and helps with their, uh, next [00:43:00] next purchase.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh my God. Thank you so much for having me. It was, I was thrilled and I'm so happy to know, talk to you guys today.
Speaker 1: All right. Thank you so much. We'll talk soon. Thank
Speaker 2: You. Yep. Bye.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining this last hour. I hope you are feeling inspired and feeling like you learn something. Please have it over to the apple podcast app in leave review. You're also welcome to email me, jay@weareonconcord.com. See you next week.