Chris Sekeres Podcast Transcript
Neil Dudley: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Pederson’s Farms podcast. We are so excited you’re here. We appreciate you joining us. And we look forward to sharing these conversations with thought leaders from our industry. They’re going to paint a picture from every perspective – consumer, customer, vendor, employee, and peer – that I think is going to be super valuable, and we’re really excited to share. So, thanks for tuning in. Remember don’t tune out, and grab life by the bacon.
Hello. I appreciate you coming here. I know your time is not free to you, so we want to add value. That is the purpose of the Pederson’s Farms Podcast, and we’re going to explain some more of that. But right now, I got to be honest, I’m selfish, I want everybody and their dog to come to KetoCon. So go to ketocon.org and use the promo code bacon for $50 off your three-day pass. If you’re in the area, if you just want to become a part of the keto community, please come to this. Now, the reason I say I’m selfish is Pederson’s will have a booth. We’re going to be serving bacon, sausage, ham. We want the opportunity to show our products to you. We’d love to give you a better understanding of what we do and how it tastes. I believe if you give our products a try, we’ve got a really good chance of you becoming a fan, an PNFer we call them. And that is partially why all five episodes this month are focused around KetoCon. I’m interviewing, we’re talking to, we’re having a conversation with people that will either be speaking at KetoCon, founded KetoCon, working the Pederson’s booth at KetoCon. So, I think it gives you a really good opportunity to see and understand and hear a little bit before you even have to buy the ticket of what value is going to be there. So, thank you so much for just giving us that opportunity. Again, we’ll put all this info in the show notes, but ketocon.org, use bacon in the promo code or discount code to get you $50 off your three-day ticket. I really appreciate Robin giving that to us, and I hope you use it. Now, my name’s Neil Dudley. I’m the VP of Business Development at Pederson’s Farms, and I host the podcast. I’ve been in the industry for 20 years now, maybe a little over, and I worked my way up from a QA tech position to the C-suite. I mean, I really only got in the business because my best friend since kindergarten was made president of Pederson’s and he said, hey, will you come to work for me? And I was like, sure, I think that’d be fun. So now, all these years later, we’re still doing it and we’re still having fun. And I think it’s a great time for me to share these conversations and access to thought leaders, business owners, entrepreneurs, people that are making the food you eat. They are totally a huge piece of where your food comes from. And these stories are what I believe you have the right to know, understand, and get to hear. So, thanks for listening. If you love it, tell somebody, share it on social media. We need the support. We need for people to hear the story, I need your help getting it out there. If you didn’t like it, feedback is always welcome. We need that. We want to make it better. We want to make it valuable to you. So, if you want to hear what KetoCon’s going to have to offer, keep listening. I promise these people will add value and give you insight into the keto diet, the keto lifestyle, and many other things, everything from carnivore diet to intermittent fasting, to eating nose to tail, to how you keep an event alive throughout a pandemic where it’s pretty much shut down for a couple of times, a couple of years. Anyways, keep listening. Let’s do this thing. Thank you so much.
Oh my gosh, people, I totally forgot to hit record. We’ve had a 30 minute conversation we’re fixing to try to have again because I committed the cardinal sin of not hitting record on the audio recorder. And I got to thinking, man, I wonder if that phone is picking up the audio good enough, but it didn’t. We want to have great audio for a podcast. It’s imperative. So we’re back again. We’re starting all over. It might even be better this time because we’ve explored it a little bit. Sometimes I think that little faux pas actually lets everybody just kind of say, oh cool, whatever, let’s do it, let’s talk. I’ve got the man, the surgeon, Chris Sekeres in the house here for the Pederson’s Podcast. And there’s also a guy named Ben Warren sitting over there kind of watching in the weeds in case we don’t get all of the good conversation had. And if you aren’t familiar with Ben, he’s been on the podcast. You should go back and listen to his episode, and go to YouTube and check out the most recent video he did about beef bacon. It is really good. If you listen to his podcast, you’ll understand that was a job for Ben to go do that video. It’s not his personality necessarily to be in front of the camera. So, I love that about Pederson’s, and we’re going to explore some of those things with Chris, how he got the nickname the Surgeon, what it means to be a PNFer, how his whole life changed with the pandemic and the things that we asked him to do. So real quick, Chris, tell us all again who you are, where you came from, and how you got to be at Pederson’s.
Chris Sekeres: Well, I started with Pederson’s back in 2015. I was a customer support rep out in California. I was doing that for about five years before the COVID hit and had an opportunity to come out to the distribution center out in Grand Prairie, jumped on that. I’ve been there for about a year and a half now. And just last week I got back on the streets to hit stores and do some demonstrations again.
Neil Dudley: Yeah, that’s a real, I guess, testament to your willingness to stick with our company, our company’s willingness to try to find a place for people. When the pandemic hit, it just eliminated that demo in store representation of our brand. It took it totally off the table, so we had to start thinking, okay cool, I mean, we want to keep this team together. If you’re a part of the family, we want to try to make sure you’re took care of, what can you do? So, we started telling, okay now, here’s our social media log in, go in there, engage with people, talk about our brand on social media. If somebody mentions us, say, hey, thanks for the mention, and just do that. And that’s not something you did each and every day prior to.
Chris Sekeres: No, definitely not.
Neil Dudley: So, you really had to get out of your comfort zone to take on that role. Then the pandemic starts lasting longer. You first think it’s going to be like, oh, this is a month or two and we’ll be back to normal. So do some of this for now, and then we’ll get you back on the streets. Oh, this is going to be longer than what we anticipated. What are we going to do now? The DC had a position open. Hey, Chris, what about this? Sure. I mean, that wasn’t a simple- like, what did you have to think about to even make that decision? That wasn’t just as easy as it sounds.
Chris Sekeres: No, like you said, I wanted to stay with Pederson’s because they’ve been so great for me or with me. And when I got the opportunity, it was a no-brainer, it was a pretty quick decision for me to make. I literally packed my stuff up and moved out in a week.
Neil Dudley: Really? It’s not like you didn’t have any ties to California. I mean, you have some family and friends and you’ve built a life out there. It’s not as simple as pack your stuff in a week and go. It’s kind of got some gravity to it.
Chris Sekeres: No, my life before Pederson’s has been challenging. And when I did lose my wife to cancer back in ’14, Pederson’s came along in ’15 and I just was so happy. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t ever want to leave the company over the circumstances that COVID provided, or didn’t provide, I should say. And I welcomed it with open arms. Change is something that you have to embrace. And I did that, and I wanted to do that. And it was, yes, leaving my parents and my brothers, my friends behind was hard, but I can always go back. And I haven’t looked back actually.
Neil Dudley: And you’ve been back a few times.
Chris Sekeres: I was just there in California this past weekend. And I think every time I’m so glad I’m in Texas. It is such a rat race out there and it’s crazy. I’m used to Texas now.
Neil Dudley: Well, we’re glad to have you. You just illustrate, you represent what internally we call PNFers. I mean, on the back of my phone, I’ve got kind of a cartoon picture of Uncle Sam pointing his finger and saying, “I want you to be a PNFer.” But a PNFer is Chris. It’s Hackett. It’s Brit. It’s me in a way. It’s just the thing that we do, that we’re very proud of our products, we’re very proud of the people we work with. And you represent that so well, and you bring it out in people. Even the day you showed up at the DC, the personality of the DC changed a bit. It got a little more- and I think that was because of your experience as a demo guy, being in front of consumers and what that means. You give them a taste of bad product, that’s pretty embarrassing. So, you really have to have trust that the people behind you actually care about that too. Has that ever happened?
Chris Sekeres: Oh, big time. It’s funny, when I got there, one of our employees at the DC had never tried our product. So, I was taking it home, cooking it up, bringing it back, and they were blown away and they came accustomed to me – do you have bacon today, Chris? Absolutely, actually, I do. So that part was really cool, just to see their faces, employees that never tried it before. And then same thing when I’m in the stores – customers try our bacon for the first time and their jaw drops and they’re just like, oh my gosh, that is the cleanest bacon I’ve ever had. There’s so much flavor to it. Tell me more. And that is where I go.
Neil Dudley: So, what do you say when they say tell me more?
Chris Sekeres: We’re just a small company out of Texas. We raise our own animals. We are the first kids on the block to do no sugar products, uncured, no added nitrates and nitrites in our products. Just a nice, clean bacon, clean sausage with great flavor.
Neil Dudley: What else can you say? Bam, mic drop, they say. So, talk a little bit about- I mean, we’ve focused on Pederson’s a lot and this podcast is about Pederson’s. I mean, it’s certainly from a perspective- there’s a Pederson’s bias inherently in the podcast, but I don’t think it really serves our community or the listeners if we’re just here telling a commercial about Pederson’s – oh, we’re great. What’s some stuff we don’t do great? Like do you have anything off the top of your head, any experience that you’ve been like hmm, I mean, yeah, we can get better at that?
Chris Sekeres: Wow, that’s a really tough question. No, there really isn’t.
Neil Dudley: I have a lot of them. Probably, maybe I just see more. I mean, we can get better. We’re step one GAP. Hey, that’s great, but there are five steps. Like why aren’t we moving to more steps? I mean, there’s just stuff like that. Pederson’s is not perfect. We are not the only great bacon supplier. I mean, that’s one reason we interview other competitors. This conversation isn’t a commercial for Pederson’s. It kind of may come across that way, but what it is a very transparent conversation, I think, for people who care, who are interested, who want to spend 30 minutes of their time which they’ll never get back. I mean, this is the most expensive spend they’ll really ever make is getting educated about where their food comes from for their selves and in a way with a brand that wants to just do it without any strings attached. You don’t have to buy Pederson’s bacon to listen to this podcast. We want you to know. I want you to get to meet people. Future employees of Pederson’s need to hear these stories. They need to have an idea of what this company is all about. And these conversations really give us an opportunity to share that.
Chris Sekeres: Yeah. That’s one thing I love about when I go into the stores and talk to somebody and I’ll say, hey, I’m Chris from Pederson’s, I’m just coming by to say hi and introduce myself. And maybe the guy behind the counter will say, oh, I’m not the meat manager. I’m like I don’t care. You might be that guy one day, but you’re just as important as the top guy. And they’re like, oh my goodness, that’s so cool that you say that. And next time I walk in, it’s hey, there’s the bacon guy. And it’s so cool that you get that moniker. One of my many nicknames that I’ve received is Bacon Man. And when you get that name, you know you’ve made it. You made an impact in the store with that meat manager, with their team. And I like to become part of their team. I like to help them out wherever I can, whether it be stocking shelves or setting up a demo and sell out what they can.
Neil Dudley: Right. You touched on a thing that has been true for me in my career. 20 years turns out to be a pretty long time doing anything. In the first year or two, I met guys or gals, girls, I can think of a couple specific females, that were putting our bacon on the shelf in grocery stores. And now they’re buyers, they’re decision makers within that company. Like they were just hardworking people I helped stock the shelf, and now they’ve worked their selves up the chain. They’re just driven, looking to do better for their selves and their family. Now they’re in decision-making roles, and that’s kind of cool because we have that relationship, like remember when we opened this store together back in da-da-da. You really can’t trade for that. Some of it is just time, experience, the stick to it nature of Pederson’s. I think that is part of our culture; it is like, hey, we’re going to stay in business. We’re going to do whatever it takes to stay in business because we know that if we can do that, we’re going to win consumers and customers over time.
Chris Sekeres: Absolutely, I couldn’t agree more.
Neil Dudley: All right, so kind of this is a KetoCon month. We’ve had several guests on the show that are also kind of speakers at KetoCon. You’re kind of- I wanted you or Hackett for this episode because I know y’all will be in the booth at KetoCon. By the way, if you’re listening, this is a good time for you to go to KetoCon’s website. Google it if you don’t know. I think it’s ketocon.org maybe. Anyways, I could be wrong there. So, Google KetoCon, K E T O C O N, go get your three-day ticket and use the discount code bacon. We worked a deal out with Robin. She was one of the guests. You can get a $50 discount on your ticket if you use the code bacon. So, thanks for listening. I hope that adds a little value and maybe incentivizes you to come to KetoCon. And I’m going to let Chris tell us, like what is KetoCon? What’s it like? You’ve been there. What was it, last time we did it maybe ’19, ’18, ’19, whenever that was.
Chris Sekeres: Yeah, it’s a really cool interaction with a bunch of different kinds of people who are in the industry who are interested in that eating lifestyle. There’re influencers, there’s suppliers, there’s people who are new to it, people who’ve been there for a long time, there’s table talks, there’s conferences, there’s all kinds of education you can learn from these people that show up. And it’s a great way for them to try our bacon. Maybe it’s for their first time or their hundredth time. It’s always just exposure, letting them know that Pederson’s is there and supporting them and their eating habits as well.
Neil Dudley: Oh yeah. We’re selfish. Look, Pederson’s is selfish. I mean, I think I’m not the most proud of that, but it is an honest thing. I’m kind of selfish with this podcast. Our company’s selfish; that’s why we go to these shows. We want that interaction with the consumer because that’s how we get better. It’s how we learn. It’s how we know we’re still on the right path because we won’t always be on the right- even over the 20 years, we’ve switched, changed. No sugar was never even a part of our conscious until whenever we came out with that. No sugar now, we pretty much made every product we have in a no sugar version. What are we going to do next? We have to keep looking for those things that eventually that no sugar thing will have- Well, I think it’s always going to be a thing in the market. But there is another thing that we can do and do better. All of those things are just really important. That’s what I mean by being selfish with the podcast, with these conferences we go to, these places we exhibit. We’re really there to learn. I mean, it costs us money to be there, so we need to get something for that. Outside of hopefully building a customer, we’re learning from those groups of people and that’s really valuable. What’s it like at a booth? What can somebody expect if they want to come? Are they going to get to just walk up there and talk to you for 30 minutes?
Chris Sekeres: Yeah, they can actually. I’ll be flipping some bacon while I’m doing it. But now I enjoy the interaction I have with the customers and the people that come to the shows and stuff like that. It’s really valuable to me. It fills my bucket to meet everybody and their positivity and just the great things they have to say about Pederson’s, whether it be the first time or, like I said, they’ve had it before.
Neil Dudley: I think Chris might be forgetting exactly what it is like because you’re going to have to fight to the front of the line to get to talk to Chris, but I want you to come and meet this guy and his buddy, Jeff Hackett. He’s like another super perfect example of the PNFer. I’m putting these guys on a pedestal, but our whole team really deserves it. We’re just talking about- I mean, if you come to KetoCon, you’re going to get to meet them and they are a lot of fun. They put on a show. It’s a fun atmosphere. Come to KetoCon, check out our booth, and just see if you like Pederson’s. See if you like what we’re all about. I’d say if you’re a vegetarian, come try the bacon; it’s the gateway meet.
Chris Sekeres: We’ll welcome you back. Yeah, Hackett and I, we’ve known each other since elementary school and we’ve always been those two in the back of the room in class saying we’re going to have to separate you two, aren’t we? So, yeah, Jeff and I, once we get going, it’s a show.
Neil Dudley: It’s fun. It’s a lot of fun, and that makes the time go by quick. Now, so talk about golf a little bit. Like I said, this sounds a lot like a Pederson’s commercial. Well, let’s talk about the things you do. What do you do to decompress? I mean, how do you stay as positive as you do? I mean, because life, it will kick you in the gut.
Chris Sekeres: Yes, it will. Golf is one of those things that’s a release for me. I just love walking on that first fairway and thanking God that I’m here today playing golf, and hopefully I can play it well today. I’ve been playing golf since I was a little kid, about four years old. My two older brothers and my mom and dad, we all played together. It’s something we did as a family. And once I started beating everybody in the family, it was like I really, really love this sport now. It’s just one of those things that I carry my golf clubs with me, and if I can, I’m going to make a turn and I’m going to go hit some balls.
Neil Dudley: I thought it was pretty cool, or was or it is cool how you just show up to any course and play it and you get thrown in any group. What’s that like?
Chris Sekeres: Oh, it’s great. Yeah, you always get paired up with three other guys when you’re a single. The question always comes up, what do you do for a living? You meet all kinds of people from construction, lawyers, and doctors and all that stuff. And I say I sell bacon, and immediately, all the attention comes to me. No matter what these guys are doing, how rich they are, how poor they are, it’s I want to hear about bacon. What bacon do you sell? Do you have any bacon with you? And I was like, oh yes, I do actually. I carry our snack bacon in my golf bag because that question always comes up, and it’s also a great snack for the turn. Get you on about the 13th, 14th hole and it gets you through those last few holes, that little protein spike.
Neil Dudley: That is a great product. And the way we make it is just too slow. I mean, we can’t sell it very often because we can’t make enough. I mean, we only have like a couple of customers and a lot of people are interested and want to buy it, but we just have to say, look, it’s inefficient. It costs too much. Yeah, we could charge you a hundred dollars for this two bites of bacon and we could probably afford to make it, but that kind of doesn’t seem right. And so, just, we make it for samples at shows and different places and a couple of customers still buy it. But ultimately, our process is really unique. It makes it really dang good. It makes it tastes like it came out of your oven at home or off your cast iron skillet, which is different than most fully cooked bacons, or you’ll see bacon jerky in the store. Ours is just done a lot different from that, which makes it really good but slow to make and hard to sell a lot of.
Chris Sekeres: Yeah. I brought some to a group of friends that I had just recently met within my circle, and they never tried our snack bacon before, and they were fighting for the last piece.
Neil Dudley: I mean, my daughter took it to school and was selling it for like 10 bucks a pack. We were like girl, you’re gouging your customers. You’ve got to take some of this money back. You’re charging them too much. They’re never going to come back. And plus, you are going to give us a bad name. But she took it a time or two, and people, her friends wanted her- they were like trading pop its and candy, and all. This whole elementary school has a currency of its own. There’s a whole trading system going on there that I don’t even know.
Chris Sekeres: I like that. That’s the next currency, huh?
Neil Dudley: Yeah, bacon trade or pop its or whatever is kind of exciting to them. And that is the next generation of bacon consumers. So, I’m glad to see they all still like it. Sausage, ham, all those things, it’s just a thing that we take a lot of pride in, and it’s expected to be great. And if it isn’t, we want to hear about it. We want to know about it. Now, so the Surgeon Sekeres, you came to work for us in ’15. We think it’s a good reality to bring our team, the Pederson’s family, to brandings and to see where Cody and I really come from, to kind of come experience horseback riding, cattle work, all those things. Well, part of that is castration. And Sekeres was probably the first, one of the first that just jumped right in there and castrated a calf. Like, what was that like? How’d you feel about that? What were you thinking?
Chris Sekeres: My heart was pounding when you called me off that fence to go join the fray. And I thought I was going to hold a leg or something like that. And like, no, you handed me the knife and told me how to cut and do it and strip it and toss it. Oh, my goodness, when I finished, my heart was pounding. It was pounding the whole time, but when I finished, I was still on that adrenaline high. I was totally shaking.
Neil Dudley: You were shaking like a leaf. I think that’s great. People won’t know what that’s like. And you think about castrating an animal, it seems very inhumane and those things. Well, you just have to talk to Chris about it. We need to have that conversation. It’s not- I don’t think it’s impossible or un- It has some substantial truth to it that you don’t understand it really until you do it. And Chris has been there. I mean, there’s this famous picture floating around the company of him holding a plastic knife a couple of years later, pointing at the calves saying I’m coming for you.
Chris Sekeres: That was the second time.
Neil Dudley: But anyways, that’s just one way that we try to integrate people into our culture and to understand where we come from and how much we really do to support our animals and their lives and how much we respect them ultimately. I mean, it’s the circle of life. These animals are providing us nutrition and we need to utilize that whole carcass in every way we can. All those pieces really play an important part in our brand and our company and what we stand for.
Chris Sekeres: I couldn’t agree more. I think back to that day, and it feels like just yesterday and I can see Hackett’s face when I was doing it. And he’s like got that grimace on his face. And I said, Jeff, you got to do it. And he’s like, no, no, I’m not going to do that. I was like come on, man, do it. I think everybody should try it. I mean, being a city slicker and thrown into that, I was a rental that day for all the other cowboys. And they made me feel part of the team. They were patient with me, they threw me in there and I’d do it again.
Neil Dudley: Well, it’s a decent illustration for just doing hard stuff, doing things that you’re nervous about. It is good for- It’s good to try that. I think it’s a good pressure to put on yourself. I promise, you think about life a little differently since then. Like, man, there’s no way I could have pictured myself doing that and I did, and I didn’t die and I’m still breathing, all those things. So, I mean, I have to try to challenge myself to do those things and our company has to do that as well.
Chris Sekeres: Well, after that second time I did it and you kept that knife and you sent me that picture, it’s still mounted on my wall in my hallway at my place, and everybody who walks by, when they see it, they’re like what the heck happened here? I’m like oh, let me tell you this story. It was pretty awesome.
Neil Dudley: All right, so let’s talk just a little bit more about you and your story. I mean, you came to the DC. Nina’s been on. We talked a little bit about that team and those people. You should go listen to Nina’s episode. I mean, the update there is she got a kidney. That’s really cool. That’s all working out really good. What was that like? Just coming to a whole new thing you’d never done before. So first you did the social media engagement, then you go work in a distribution center where you’re pulling orders. I mean, it’s just a whole new environment.
Chris Sekeres: Yeah. There’s nothing like working in a 30-degree cooler, actually it’s about 25-degree cooler, 8 hours, 10 hours a day. The team is so supportive and so awesome. And they still are. I was there this morning, and everybody gave me hugs and we miss you Chris and stuff like that. I’d only been gone two weeks. I felt like I’d been gone for two months. But it’s just been great. I’ve learned so much, the ins and outs, the distribution part of it. I learned who our customer- more of our customers, who we supply to, I learned that, and that was really neat to think, wow, we are just more than a couple of stores. We service a lot of stores. Because in California, I only have a handful of brands to go service. But seeing what’s going nationwide, that was really eye opening and really impressive.
Neil Dudley: If you’re listening and you happen to catch Chris walking around at a grocery store sometime, that’d be a really cool interaction. Like, hey, I heard your podcast episode. This is actually you. Wow, you actually do this. Like, this is what your job is, walking around and doing that kind of thing. That’d be cool. So, if you happen to do that, that’d be fun for us just to say, wow, people are listening to the podcast. If you’re in Texas, you got a good chance of catching Chris.
Chris Sekeres: That’s the one thing, while I’m in the stores, I’m looking at customers staring at those vast bacon walls going which bacon do I get today? And that’s where I chime in. I’m like, have you ever tried Pederson’s? And they give me this look, and then they see my shirt with the logo and they’re like, oh, wow, there is somebody here supporting them. And we’re local, we are right down- two hours down the road. And that’s a huge selling point for a lot of people in Texas, I should say. That’s not as big in California.
Neil Dudley: That’s the way Texans think. As a Texan, I think we should put “From Texas” on all of our products. I mean, which is probably not the greatest idea, but as a Texan, I think everybody loves Texas, don’t they? Well, not exactly.
Chris Sekeres: They do. The ones I know do.
Neil Dudley: Okay. Ben, you’ve been listening quietly, nicely. What have we not talked about that we did the first time or that we need to that people are going to want to know? By the way, Sekeres, when you moved your headphones, it gave you a little rooster tail on top of your head with the hair. That part. Yeah, there you go. That part of the- I kept thinking, should I tell him? Nah, that’s going to be fun later.
Chris Sekeres: Please tell me.
Ben Warren: I think we’ve covered it all. But one thing I wanted to say is that I think PNFers are great as a whole, but Chris in particular, when I started right before the pandemic as a demo person, I remember I was in Colorado and the closest person to me doing that job was a thousand miles away. And so, you kind of feel out there on your own. But Chris kind of reached out. He asked what I was into, and we got this connection because we like to fish, both of us, and we like to play golf. And he was showing me these pictures of he’d stop at a hole and he’d go fishing. He’d catch a fish, he’d throw it back, and then he’d move on with his round of golf, which I just thought was the coolest thing. But that in itself built a connection that I wouldn’t have been able to have in a remote position with a person who was a thousand miles away if Chris hadn’t taken the time to find out what I was into. And it made that kind of learning how to do that job so much easier because you had this person supporting you, who could talk to you about something other than just work. And then I had a chance to work with him at the DC right as he was making that decision to move to Texas. And I was in awe of his ability to kind of go I love this company, I love what I do, I’m ready for a new challenge, and move halfway across the country to do something new. And those are two stories that stuck out to me with my interactions with Chris. And so, just wanted to kind of get those in because I mean, he’s a pretty amazing guy and I always admired his positivity in the face of everything.
Neil Dudley: Oh man, that’s great. I mean, it’s good illustration of the kind of people it takes. Chris is- it fits him really well to be in a demo booth in front of people. It doesn’t make you necessarily better than anybody else. That fits your wheelhouse in that you’re just a people person. There are other quieter, way behind the scenes people within our organization that are so integral that we can’t do anything without. And I think that’s true for every company. So that’s the stories we’re trying to tell. Nina kind of fits that real behind the scenes, quiet kind of person that, man, she’s so important to the business.
Chris Sekeres: Big time. When she left to go get her kidney, which was a phone call and she’s gone that minute, she was off to go get her transplant, we realized how valuable she was. We knew how valuable she was, but when she left, you really knew it. And I literally started a clock, a countdown clock when she’s coming back. She’s going to be back in 16 days and 14 hours and like 44 seconds, something like that. We’re counting the days for her to come back.
Neil Dudley: Well, I hope everybody that listens to this episode enjoys it, gets a- it is a time in their life they won’t get back. So, that value, this insight, this perspective on Chris, the kind of person he is, Pederson’s, the brand, the kind of products we make, and just where your food comes from. You’ve had some time learning that. Now, go explore other episodes, listen to other employee conversations. If you’re thinking maybe Pederson’s might be a place I’d like to work someday, go listen to other perspectives from our people that work there. Like I said, it’s not a commercial, but it is- it’ll only be- it becomes a big part of our lives and our conversation. You almost can’t go a day without thinking about Pederson’s. It’s just what we do.
Chris Sekeres: I have the opportunity to go to different states and cities to promote our brand. And for a while, I was doing the hiring for the company and for the demo team and sales team, and like I was meeting Ben and going to Florida and meeting Robin and getting her going. I wouldn’t have the opportunity with other companies. And you guys let me be myself, and that’s the beauty of it. And I’m just so thankful for you guys for that part too.
Neil Dudley: Awesome, sool. Well, y’all go check out the website, get you some product. Come to KetoCon, use the code bacon for the discount. We’re really excited about that. We’re looking forward to being there at that event. I don’t know what to tell you. Listen to the next one. There’s a whole nother perspective coming from a vendor we work with on the next episode here. If you’re just following the line of listening to episodes, now you’re going to get to hear Robin, the founder of KetoCon, or Shawn Baker, the kind of carnivore guy that’s really telling that, or Cynthia Thurlow, she’s a big intermittent fasting lady, or Brian Sanders, the guy that started Nose to Tail, a website, and also sapien.org. He’s doing a film called Food Lies. I mean, those are all the people that you can come meet them, shake their hand at KetoCon. It’s what’s really cool about the community. There’s lots of access for you. Join in. Listen. If you loved it, tell a friend. If you didn’t like it very much, tell us, we want to know.
Hey, everybody. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Pederson’s Farms Podcast. It’s been a blast bringing this to you, and I sure hope you enjoyed it and found value. If you did, tell a friend, share it out on social media, hit that subscribe button, or go check us out at pedersonsfarms.com. We sure hope you do. And thanks for being here.
Chris “The Surgeon” Sekeres, enough said!
Visit us online: www.PedersonsFarms.com
Links:
Use code BACON for $50 off!
Topics:
(5:48 ) – Chris’ background & role at Pederson’s
(11:00) – How can we improve at Pederson’s?
(14:37) – Ketocon
(18:48) – Golf & stories selling snack bacon
(22:38) – Castrating a calf
(26:09) – Joining the Distribution Center
The Pederson’s Farms Podcast is produced by Johnny Podcasts & Root and Roam.