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Kari Warberg Block – EarthKind
On Value Beyond the Basic Use of a Product: “And a funny side story to that, when the product first got on the market, we were known as, having a product that saved marriages.”
Mice are seemingly everywhere. This is especially true if you live or work near a field or open space for the rodents to expand their population. But what if you’re not interested in the typical chemical and lethal options for dealing with these pests?
Kari Warberg Block, founder of EarthKind, discovered a problem, didn’t like the available options for dealing with that problem, created a better solution and built a business on that solution. That alone in the story many entrepreneurs have lived to tell. Kari’s story, though built around a dirty subject, has no lack of great insights and valuable stories for you.
Kari shares her journey from dealing with a stubborn mouse infestation on her farm to developing a groundbreaking non-lethal pest control product. Inspired by her father’s work as an entomologist, Kari set out to create botanical repellents that deter pests without harming them. Her products, Fresh Cab and Stay Away, are now available in over 35,000 stores across the U.S.
We’ll explore the intelligence of rodents, the environmental impact of traditional pest control methods, and Kari’s strategic approach to business growth and maintaining cash flow. Kari opens up about the personal sacrifices and challenges she faced, including a federal court battle and the intricacies of EPA registration.
Listen as Kari explains how she found a need, created a product, built a business and now makes the world a little bit better.
Enjoy!
Visit Kari at: https://www.earthkind.com
Podcast Overview:
08:29 The rodent problem.
12:11 Mice destroyed 400 tomato plants surprisingly.
16:09 Failed remedies, discovered barkless tree mystery.
25:35 Proven success despite initial skepticism and competition.
29:25 Rodents relocated from factory to racetrack concessions.
35:27 Debt-free growth through savvy cash flow management.
41:28 New CEO manages; leader focuses on strategy.
46:59 Dad transitioned to successful, people-focused businessman.
50:21 Compassion and conflict drive truth and excellence.
54:50 Report mistakes to improve, not blame others.
01:02:49 Know customers; seek referrals for success.
Podcast Transcription:
Kari Warberg Block [00:00:00]:
Then they’ll come in your house and, you know, garage door’s open. They’re like, oh, let’s go. Garage door’s open and run-in, and they’ll be able to find dog food or warmth. And people don’t even know when they’ve invaded the house until it’s too late because they’re so sneaky.
James Kademan [00:00:17]:
You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and strengths and successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found On the podcast link found at DrawOnCustomers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, as well as The Bold Business Book. And today, we’re welcoming slash preparing to learn from Kari Warberg Block, the founder of EarthKind. And Keri, I am excited to talk to you because you are venturing into an area of business that I didn’t even know existed. So I’ll just have you tell the people what EarthKind is, and we’ll get this party started.
Kari Warberg Block [00:00:58]:
Well, great. I’m happy to be here with you and, appreciate appreciate everything here. I’d love love to share this story. We’re an innovator in the category of pest control. Before my company came along, 98% of everything sold to control a pest was a poison or a kill method. Being a mom, having kids, having pets, that didn’t sit so well with me when when it was my job to control pests on our farm. So I invented a brand new way to control pests that would basically deter them rather than lure them in, kill them, and have to clean them up. So it had never been done before, successfully anyway.
Kari Warberg Block [00:01:40]:
So we were the first to do it. That was 18 years. We just kinda like an adult now. I guess the company is an adult. We’re in about 35,000 stores. We’re in almost all cities across the country. You can find our products under 2 brands. Fresh Cab is a brand.
Kari Warberg Block [00:01:58]:
Stay Away is a brand. We sell into rural. We sell into urban. We sell into the government space. Yeah. That’s that’s what we do. So the product, basically, what it is is, it’s almost like an old fashioned sachet. And, on the farm, I just wanted something simple that would keep pests out of my stuff.
Kari Warberg Block [00:02:21]:
And it turned out the magic ingredients was really the botanicals that went inside that that are grown on farms. So you you place our little pouches in and pests leave, and, people have come to depend on them.
James Kademan [00:02:36]:
Well, that is cool. I can tell you we had a mouse problem in our house the past couple years, and I went to war. And we’re talking the simple mouse traps with little peanut butter and stuff like that and Calls and, the sticky traps and the green blocks. And I remember looking I think I was looking specifically at the green Block. The that’s a poison. And I was trying to figure out what is actually in this stuff. And those are some of the longest words I’ve ever seen. And just typing those into a search engine
Kari Warberg Block [00:03:13]:
Yeah.
James Kademan [00:03:14]:
There’s a lot of x’s and z’s, and just trying to go and dig and figure out what what is it that I just bought and who came up with this stuff. So can you tell me why or just, I guess, the history if you know it of the the poison and why Sure. The market seems to be more of a poison and kill rather than a deter?
Kari Warberg Block [00:03:36]:
Yeah. Well, the the easy answer is people wanna get rid of the pest. They wanna do it in the fastest and the cheapest way possible. So that lends itself really well to some type of a chemical where you kill the thing. It it it was it’s just very commonly used and people have become to make it a habit. They’re just they see something, they step on it, and they kill it. They don’t really think about the what that pest does for the, environment, so to speak. On farm, I saw that.
Kari Warberg Block [00:04:08]:
I was thinking about that. On the farm, if I would have used poison, I could have had lost our dog, could have lost an eagle, which would eat the rodent. So the downstream effects of using that poison didn’t sit well with me. I also had the great fortune of growing up with an entomologist. My dad was a specialist in rodents. And even though I took this business out to the world after he had already, you know, passed on to his next world. It was, quite an experience growing up with an entomologist. I saw all kinds of I saw trials.
Kari Warberg Block [00:04:45]:
I saw all kinds of bugs and insects and rodents and you name it On little Calls, some right next door to my bedroom, kind of freaked me out. I never wanted to be near them. I never wanted to see them. I never wanted to touch them. I never wanted to deal with them. And, he loved the things, but yet he made all his money by killing them. And there was this this rub because, you know, I’d say, why do you have to kill them? I thought you loved them. He’s like, well, that’s the business model.
Kari Warberg Block [00:05:14]:
That’s how it is. And so it was only natural for me to ask the same question. Why do we just have to kill them? Why can’t there be an a nonconfrontational peaceful way to do it that was effective? And so that’s really what I brought to market. This is it really just started in my heart EarthKind to solve a problem for another lady just like me on the farm that’s probably getting her butt chewed out because she didn’t protect the equipment and it’s all full of mice now and messy. And, and a funny side story to that, when the product first got On the market, we were known as, having a product that saved marriages.
James Kademan [00:05:57]:
Oh, wow.
Kari Warberg Block [00:05:58]:
Proud of that because you know the problem is painful. It’s just you seems like no matter what you do, you can’t get rid of the darn things. And it’s so it’s it is the hardest to control pest that there is. And, they’re very, very adaptable. They’re smart. They can get in through like the size of a dime. But what’s kinda scary about it, and you probably saw these stats and, you know, wanted to make sure you got a solution that could really truly get rid of them for your family, is because 8% of all household fires are attributed to rodents chewing on wiring.
James Kademan [00:06:38]:
Really?
Kari Warberg Block [00:06:39]:
Experts say it’s up to 20%. Yeah. 6000 dogs, according to ASPCA, die each year ingesting rodents that have eaten some type of, poison.
James Kademan [00:06:53]:
Wow.
Kari Warberg Block [00:06:54]:
The list goes on and on and on. So rodents are nothing to mess with. So taking this task on was pretty monumental because nobody had ever done it before. Taking a botanical alternative to control, public health risk pest. Yeah. So I had to take it all the way to the federal EPA. I had to work on policy. It had to get licensed in all 50 states twice at the federal level.
Kari Warberg Block [00:07:26]:
And coming from somebody who had, no background. I wasn’t an entomologist. My dad was, but he was dead. I didn’t have any experience in the industry. Wasn’t a PhD. Didn’t have any experience really developing products. So I’ve had to learn all of these things along the way to get the business to where it is today, to make life a little easier for people like you that have that horrible problem and really On use, something dangerous that they can’t read the label of, but they didn’t have a choice until we came along.
James Kademan [00:08:02]:
Yeah. I remember going through the the home improvement story. You’re just looking at this the shelving that they have with all the options, and it’s just it’s Calls. It’s just a bunch of chemicals with big words. It’s interesting you mentioned how smart rodents are. We had I had another most problem. We’re talking probably 10 years ago, something like that. And I learned about the little sticky pad things, and I thought this is super easy.
James Kademan [00:08:29]:
There’s some construction happening in office building that we’re at. And I suppose through construction, they had holes that were way bigger than a dime that mice were probably just like, yeah. This is a new vacation home. Let’s do it. And I found mouse poop on my desk and I’m like, okay. That’s no good. So I got a little sticky pad thing and I thought the best thing to do, even though it says not to, is to put a little bait in the middle of it. And I come back the next day, and I happen to have a, clothespin on my desk, and the mouse had put the clothespin over the sticky pad and eaten the bait in the middle.
James Kademan [00:09:06]:
And I was so amazed that a rodent would know I mean, the clothespin was right by there, but still, oh my gosh. I’m like, man, we could probably have these guys cure cancer if we Call figure out how they talk. It seems so brilliant.
Kari Warberg Block [00:09:22]:
They really are. And that’s that’s kind of the secret to what we do. I figured out how they talk. Each different pest is a different so, yeah, it’s kind of a a different approach, but scientists have been working with rodents for I mean, they sniff out dead bodies. They can, sniff out bombs. They can drive cars if you teach them. They’re they’re just it’s really amazing. They can become pets for for kids and clean.
Kari Warberg Block [00:09:54]:
And, and yet when provoked and when in a tough environment, they can become the most difficult things you can imagine, like On New York City and, you know, carrying disease and just nothing to mess with.
James Kademan [00:10:10]:
Yeah. I remember walking down the streets in Boston and learning that there are just rats that roam around. The first time you see On, you’re like, woah. What is that thing? And Mhmm. Then you see many of them. Tell me Yeah. 18 years ago when you first started, what was going through your head? Were you just like, hey. This is gonna be a hobby just for my farm, or was it, hey.
James Kademan [00:10:31]:
I gotta start a business on this?
Kari Warberg Block [00:10:33]:
Well, it started just as, oh, I needed the solution. I called everybody, all the other companies out there, and said, do you have something that’s a little less toxic that, you know, we can use? And they pretty much I I hit nose across the board. There was nothing nothing was in development. But to make matters worse, they kinda made fun of me. And it was, you know, lady, just buy some poison and be done with it.
James Kademan [00:11:01]:
And Wow.
Kari Warberg Block [00:11:02]:
And they use terms like, come on. It’s a war on pests. And it it using words like that, trying to dish me to get some poisons and I’m like, you’re not hearing me. And so there was this, this, insult, you know, and then I just thought, Hey, maybe I could do something like this. I wasn’t even, I I hadn’t even remembered that, you know, my dad had experienced doing this. I none of those things that started. The first thing was like, I gotta get rid of these things. They were crawling up my legs.
Kari Warberg Block [00:11:37]:
They were ruining our equipment. They were chewing on wires. It was, the I’ll tell you about the last two straws. They were it was bad. And it was like, okay. I’m gonna commit myself to do to doing something, or I’m probably gonna go insane because they were driving it was that bad. So I had started a greenhouse on my farm. We had, I had a 2 acre organic garden, and I was selling produce in the summertime to other to stores and other people, and nobody had organic produce.
Kari Warberg Block [00:12:11]:
We did. We had 1100 acre Call grain regenerative farm out in Western North Dakota. And so I built this great little niche that paid really good money and Call, And, this ended up funding the growth of the company actually, but, I’d grow tomato plants where by July 4th, you could have a great little tomato. Wow. That’s unheard of in North Dakota. So I was built these little green twos and putting these nice little plants On, making my own little greenhouses. And, anyway, I went out On morning and 400 of my crop, I had just gotten them to a 4 leaf stage, transplanted them the day before, and all eaten off by mice.
James Kademan [00:12:59]:
Oh, no.
Kari Warberg Block [00:13:00]:
And I was just like, okay. Well, there just went all this money, you know, that I had planned On. And I had to start these things in Kari, so it was like, I can’t start over. It’s too late now. And I just I really had a tantrum. Like, there were some tears. I was like, there’s some swear it it was it was not good. So I go in the house.
Kari Warberg Block [00:13:24]:
I take a shower. I was like, okay, Carrie. I’ll go upstairs. And I pulled out my my underwear drawer, and there was droppings in there. Oh, no. And it was okay. This is just it was like that unavoidable. It was almost like there was a higher power up there saying, no.
Kari Warberg Block [00:13:45]:
No. No. No. You’re gonna do something about this because it was that insane.
James Kademan [00:13:50]:
How many times do we have to give you the clues? Right?
Kari Warberg Block [00:13:53]:
Yeah. It was over and over and over again. The first time I was out on the farm, actually. And, I I knew how to drive truck before I was out there because I used to, run a trucking company. Anyway, so I’m like, well, I’ll impress this guy. You know? So, like, she don’t need to take anything to town. And he, I jumped in one truck. He jumped in another and out of the the out of the ceiling came, mice.
Kari Warberg Block [00:14:25]:
And Really? Yeah. Like, it just the the whole the the the headliner in the truck is like an old 48, you know, grain truck. It it opened up as I took off and then mice poured out of it Oh, nice. Landed on me and they were up my legs or in my crotch. It was like the freakiest, dirtiest, ekiest thing I can ever imagine. And just instinctively, I looked around and I had my purse with me. This was a date, so I was, like, wanting to smell good. So I had perfume in there.
Kari Warberg Block [00:15:01]:
And I was like and they actually ran out. And so I that kinda gave me my first hint of, like, you know, I wasn’t thinking of anything. I was just thinking of, like, raid or something. I need to spray it with something. And that turned ended up being kind of my secret key is maybe I can control them by some type of, sensory aroma. And so, that’s what it ended up happening.
James Kademan [00:15:30]:
Alright. So where did you start? Because I imagine you’re like, okay. Gotta get some stuff that’s got some old factory things here. Do you start with something that stinks or do you start with something strong like mint or where do you start?
Kari Warberg Block [00:15:43]:
Yeah. So I started with mint because there was already this old wives’ tale. Well, you use mint. It’s gonna work for mice. It did not work. And so I’m, like, cooking up this thing going, oh, I can make all this money because we can grow mint. I was already growing spearmint. And and for, I can’t remember the company, but I I was growing herbs and selling them into be used in in food.
Kari Warberg Block [00:16:09]:
And it just didn’t work. And it never lasted more than 10 days. So I’m like, okay. Well, that’s not gonna work. And then I used rose oil, which rose oil worked, but I got such a terrible headache from it. It was a strong smell. And then one day I’m out walking in the snow, in the tree rose And I see this, it was one of those bad winters where there’s like 40 inches of snow and the wildlife are starving and so they start eating bark off the trees. And I saw this tree that had no bark On and the other trees did and there was no rodent droppings near it, no deer tracks near it.
Kari Warberg Block [00:16:52]:
Like, isn’t that interesting? I’m putting I put 2 and 2 together and I thought maybe there’s something too. Maybe the the fir tree makes its own repellent for some reason against these, you know, critters. So I ordered myself up some oil and grabbed some bark and soaked it, and that worked.
James Kademan [00:17:14]:
So how tell me about the experiment to figure out if it works. You get a pile of mice and
Kari Warberg Block [00:17:19]:
get a bark in. Yeah. I had a steady stream of of being on the farm, so it it didn’t matter the day. You know? We had grain bins full of grain. There’s just mice around the farm, you know, all over. So it was just a constant assault when you’re out there. So you need to have something to protect them. So I just put different things in different vehicles.
Kari Warberg Block [00:17:41]:
We had farm trucks. We had, yeah, grain trucks. We had a combine. We had our Calls. Call, all kinds of stuff. A camper, attack room with the with the horse tack.
James Kademan [00:17:56]:
Alright.
Kari Warberg Block [00:17:56]:
Never a shortage of, places to test. And, you know, the balsam fir ended up being the winner. So it there it has a molecule that mice find offensive, but nothing else does. Pets don’t find it offensive. It’s not allergic to anything else. And, with the research, here’s the interesting thing that that I found out about it was On butterflies nest and live in the balsam fir trees.
James Kademan [00:18:29]:
Oh, wow.
Kari Warberg Block [00:18:29]:
So the only predator to a On, they they have 2, and that’s it. 1 is a yellow oriole, which, you know, they have to be making their migration to get eaten that way. The other is a mouse.
James Kademan [00:18:44]:
Oh, really?
Kari Warberg Block [00:18:45]:
So the mice crawl up the bar the trees and try to eat them, and they find them, you know, a delicacy. So, you you know, the mouse is, like, so resilient. No other creature wants to eat the monarchs. They find them you know, they they get sick from it. The same thing as the milkweed that the babies are raised up reared up on. It’s it’s toxic to all other all other wildlife. So it was like, wow. Nature.
Kari Warberg Block [00:19:14]:
So there’s there’s a lot of answers in nature if we take the time to observe, you know, when you’re looking at solutions. And Native American people always said that. If you have a problem, there’s always a solution within your reach. And so that kept playing in my head going, okay. Well, universe, show me the solution because I’m kinda running up on, you know, a dead end here.
James Kademan [00:19:37]:
Yeah. So you’re you got the fur the balsam fir stuff. And so how when you first started, how did you distribute that? Was it in little bags? Do you sprinkle it places?
Kari Warberg Block [00:19:48]:
Yeah. So this is what it looks like now. It’s, a a little sachet about the size of a hand, a small hand. It’s got a little topper on it, and it’s a breathable pouch. And you place this wherever you wanna keep the mice out, and it’ll keep them out for a month. Some people use it for up to 3 months. It all depends on the air exchange in the area. But in the beginning, we had a lot of different iterations of that.
Kari Warberg Block [00:20:17]:
It started out just soaked pine Calls because that’s what I was thinking. I can’t strip bark off, but I’ll take pine cones, right, and soak them in the oil. And, so in the beginning, I had my 4 h ers and neighbor kids out in tree rows picking pine Calls, delivering them to my farm. And because when the farmers saw it, they’re like, oh my gosh. I need that. I need that. I need that. So I started supplying all of our neighbors, and then it just it grew from there.
Kari Warberg Block [00:20:48]:
And companies started asking me to make them for Christmas gifts so they could give them to farmers. And, after that, then it was, okay. Well, I better get a grant because this really isn’t sustainable. I’ve pretty much stripped 2 counties of every of every single pine cone that’s sitting out here. So then I I switched to using, like plant fiber and see inside of corn corn cobs, which is used in the potpourri industry to absorb oils and fragrances, and then it helps to kinda slow release it. So I said, oh, well, that’s good. It’s a farm product again. It’s sustainable.
Kari Warberg Block [00:21:34]:
It’s something that we could grow and use. And I started using that, and it and it worked. And then it was, you know, we went through the whole we had to get it automated. We had to get it distributed. And, yeah, it was all just basically, you know, one step at a time because it it had never been done before. So, basically, we had to create a new process and a new system for everything, every every step along the way. Yeah.
James Kademan [00:22:05]:
Tell me, when you at this point, you’re figuring out, okay, this is how we are gonna make the product. Is this I don’t know how the the rodent or, I guess, what would you call this?
Kari Warberg Block [00:22:20]:
It’s a repellent.
James Kademan [00:22:21]:
Repellent. Thank you.
Kari Warberg Block [00:22:22]:
Yeah.
James Kademan [00:22:23]:
I don’t know how the repellent industry works exactly, but I have interviewed other people in the supplement industry. And the sub it kinda seems to be wild west to a point even now where you can just say, like, hey. This does some stuff. FDA doesn’t say it does this stuff. Slap it on the shelf and call it good. Is the rodent repellent industry more or less the same thing where you can just be like, yeah. This does stuff.
Kari Warberg Block [00:22:45]:
No. No. In fact, I didn’t really know any of that in the beginning. And, I was at a trade show, and we had started to pick up some steam here. And the news the media came by and they saw this huge group of people at my booth buying this stuff because the word had gotten out that, hey, this farm wife invented this stuff and it really works. You gotta get some. So 100 and 100 of people drove to town to come to this show to buy it from me. So the news came over, they interviewed me.
Kari Warberg Block [00:23:18]:
And, the next morning there was a line like, 2 blocks long, and this is North Dakota in the wintertime. So it was, like, below 0, probably. It was freezing, and people were waiting out in line to get this stuff before we sold out. Wow. And that was that moment I’m like I told my kids. I’m like, we’re gonna be rich, you guys. Like, people are so it was like, you know, heaven. It was just amazing.
Kari Warberg Block [00:23:49]:
I’m like because I was happy because I knew how big of a problem it was. And I’m like, wow. I solved this problem, and we can make a real business out of this. Well, at the end of that line was the pesticide police, and they said Nice. Yeah. Yeah. They’re like, did you know it’s illegal to make these claims without a blankety Block, whatever? I’m like, what? This is like there’s nothing in this except farm ingredients. It’s it’s safe.
Kari Warberg Block [00:24:22]:
It’s natural. There’s we’re not doing anything wrong.
James Kademan [00:24:26]:
Yeah. In
Kari Warberg Block [00:24:26]:
rebuttal way. You’re making a claim, you have to have that license. I’m like, okay. Well, tell me how to do that. So I then came down to the Department of Agriculture office Monday morning and I sat down with them, and they did everything to discourage me from registering this because they’re like, well, it’s gonna cost about 2,000,000. Chances of you getting it are next to nothing. What? And because it had never been done before. They’re like, what it to do new protocols, to change anything with a big bureau, you know, agency.
Kari Warberg Block [00:25:08]:
People just don’t do that. And, and they’re like, you would think of like federal or like the FDA and herbal tinctures. You can’t make those claims and Call it. I’m like, but I wanna make the claims and I want it to be government, you know, license. And I think it’s the right thing to do because pests are a public health risk pest.
James Kademan [00:25:34]:
Mhmm. I
Kari Warberg Block [00:25:35]:
think I should go through these studies so I can tell people actually, yes. It works 9 out of 10 times. And, we’re we’re the top rated product today. And now there’s dozens of competitors, but we still have the most effective one. And, you know, we work with Warberg, and we do a lot of good things, and we’re a top place to work and all of all of the other stuff that comes with, delivering our product. But On you know, way back when when, they’re like, yeah, it’s probably not gonna happen. So I went back to those that conversation that I had when the pest companies were, like, laughing at me, calling me stupid. Just use the poison.
Kari Warberg Block [00:26:17]:
Just use the poison. And, I said, well, I at least I have to try. So I sold my horse, my pack horse. I sold my 78 68 Pathfinder Camper, went and got some grants and just started the path and thought, well, one step at a time. And, you know, by the grace of God, we got the 1st federal EPA registration for botanical rodent repellent.
James Kademan [00:26:49]:
So is that the most expensive thing was just getting essentially government approval to slap this nature thing out there?
Kari Warberg Block [00:26:58]:
Yeah. Well, the most expensive thing was losing the marriage, I think. Oh. Yeah. When the business started to go and and I said, you know, this is my calling. I can’t be I can’t be the farmhand anymore. I can’t I I really want your support. I, you know, busted my butt for a lot of years on this farm, and I’d like some help.
Kari Warberg Block [00:27:20]:
And he was like, no. That’s not my gig, really. I’m like, okay. Yeah. So it was, you know, it was pretty amicable, and he was like, but you go, girl. So I still, you know, miss being on the farm, but, you know, I had to I had to make my choice there because I couldn’t really do it from Western North Dakota where the closest airport was, like, a 2 hour drive on gravel. And,
James Kademan [00:27:46]:
Alright. I I was wondering because I know you’re On North Carolina now, so I was trying to figure out, like, are you commuting back and forth?
Kari Warberg Block [00:27:53]:
Yeah. I’m in North Carolina now as the business grew. I ended up moving all of our factories, down here, after the textile mill was decimated. There’s all these beautiful big buildings. We have a 400,000 square foot building we Call move into. We retrofitted it. It was 400,000. Yeah.
Kari Warberg Block [00:28:14]:
We’re in we’re in a 100 little over a 100,000 of it, and other tenants have the other, other spaces. But we were able to move in down here for a fourth the cost of what warehouse space cost up north, in the winter. We were able to turn our products so much faster. Like, our customers, for instance, Lowe’s is less than 5 minutes away.
James Kademan [00:28:39]:
Nice.
Kari Warberg Block [00:28:39]:
You know? Depot’s just a hop, skip, and a jump over in Atlanta and, you know, Walmart’s in Bentonville. So we can make really get around from from this location. It gets a little tough to get out to LA for sure. Right. Since all the ingredients are grown on farms, what we were doing before is we had to get get everything grown, then you ship it in, we convert all the stuff, and then we have to ship out to customers. And the turnaround time was just sometimes it would take 10 days.
James Kademan [00:29:11]:
Okay.
Kari Warberg Block [00:29:12]:
And, you know, in North Carolina, we we can, you know, go through the whole cycle and half that.
James Kademan [00:29:19]:
Wow. Okay. That’s impressive.
Kari Warberg Block [00:29:21]:
Yeah.
James Kademan [00:29:21]:
And I can imagine that there’s no rodent problem in your manufacturing.
Kari Warberg Block [00:29:25]:
I know. It’s kinda funny because there’s a business next door to us, and they have concessions, and they do a race Calls, like miniature race cars because we’re from, we live in NASCAR country, and it’s all about race in here where where we live. And, so there’s this little mini race car place and, they have concessions. And when we moved in, it was so funny because they’re like, well, I don’t I don’t know what’s going on, but, we’re like, we’re seeing more rodents and we’re seeing snakes and we’re seeing all this stuff. I’m like, that’s because they’re not in our factory anymore.
James Kademan [00:30:06]:
They’re safe, you know.
Kari Warberg Block [00:30:08]:
Yeah. It was vacant. So they had kind of moved in and Oh.
James Kademan [00:30:11]:
People had, you know, storing stuff there. And so it’s
Kari Warberg Block [00:30:13]:
people had, you know, storing stuff there. And so it just drove them all over them, and we’re like, don’t worry. We got
James Kademan [00:30:21]:
you covered. Just buy our stuff.
Kari Warberg Block [00:30:23]:
So that’s so that’s the, like, the downfall with our product because it doesn’t eliminate them, but it moves them out. But but the good part of it is once you use our product, those the the pests themselves leave leave a pheromone trail to the other ones and say, don’t go here. So it helps in controlling the next ones as well.
James Kademan [00:30:45]:
Oh, interesting.
Kari Warberg Block [00:30:46]:
Part of their communication. It doesn’t last though because, like, once the product is kinda lived at shelf life, it’s like nature forgets and, you know, comes back in. So that’s, you know, a built in replacement, I guess.
James Kademan [00:31:02]:
Alright. So the other option is to just plant a bunch of fir trees.
Kari Warberg Block [00:31:07]:
Yeah. Yeah. For sure. There’s a lot of things people can do, and our website is just a wealth of information. We have probably the most extensive, library out there of help because we started writing helpful blogs and content, many, many years ago. And, like, here’s all the things you can do for instance. You know? Keep your wood piled 20 feet away because oftentimes yes. 20 feet away from the house because oftentimes, they’ll live in there and then they’ll come in your house and, you know, garage door is open.
Kari Warberg Block [00:31:43]:
They’re like, oh, let’s go. Garage door is open and run-in and they’ll be able to find dog food or Warberg. And people don’t even know when they’ve invaded the house until it’s too late because they’re so sneaky. They can get in, like, on your house. Like, if any kind of a wire leading in upstairs, say, in an attic to for electricity, they can get in there. They can get in a crack.
James Kademan [00:32:09]:
I remember looking at, a buddy of mine just redid the interior of his garage. It was small permit. And he had so it’s probably, I don’t know, 60 by 40 garage barn type EarthKind. And he was tearing down the drywall because he was gonna re insulate. And he was talking about how he wanted to get the spray foam insulation instead of the regular fiberglass insulation because the mice were in the walls. And I’m like, what are you talking about? He takes down the drywall, and you could see the little trails that the mice had been in the Calls, and I had no idea that was even a thing. Because in my mind, the mice are gonna chase after food, and I don’t think there’s any food in walls or there shouldn’t be, but it wasn’t even 1 or 2. It was a maze.
Kari Warberg Block [00:32:57]:
Yeah. So the reason for that is because mice generally will make a nest, have their babies On that within about 20 feet of where they’re gonna find their food.
James Kademan [00:33:08]:
Alright.
Kari Warberg Block [00:33:08]:
So that’s kind of their core, area that they’re gonna live in. So for instance, if they come out at night and grab dog food or crumbs or whatever it is that, you know, people are leaving behind, they’ll come out many times and get as much as they Call, and then they pretty much, stay quiet during the day, and and they’ll come out more at night. So anywhere around your kitchen, you just gotta look at where those areas are that they’re gonna either make a nest, go to feed, or congregate. And once you figure out those areas, you can put our product into those. And we have our website. There’s just kinda all kinds of resources that help with that. But mice need just like us. They’re gonna need Warberg, and they’re gonna need food, and they’re gonna need, you know, something to make a nest with.
Kari Warberg Block [00:34:00]:
So that kinda narrows down where they’re gonna go in a home to find those things.
James Kademan [00:34:07]:
Interesting. That’s very I can tell you, I used to be a mechanic and checking air filters and stuff like that. There’s been many times that we found nests in the little air filter box.
Kari Warberg Block [00:34:19]:
The mechanic car was some of our best
James Kademan [00:34:21]:
car outside?
Kari Warberg Block [00:34:22]:
Yeah. Some of our best customers On re referring because they’re like, you gotta get this stuff.
James Kademan [00:34:28]:
Yeah. For storing cars and stuff like that, that was always a little battle is to make sure that you when you come back in the spring, that mice haven’t chewed up everything. You go to start their
Kari Warberg Block [00:34:37]:
Oh, I know.
James Kademan [00:34:38]:
19 sixties hot rod and
Kari Warberg Block [00:34:40]:
nothing. Rentals, it happens. You know, you can go and pick up a rental at an airport, and the guy before you, you know, had it parked in some farm field or something and or lot. Even even the lots out at the airports get get overrun with rodents depending on the time of the year. Yeah. Interesting.
James Kademan [00:35:00]:
So tell me, I wanna learn more about the growth. So when you first started, you figure out what works. You moved to South Carolina. At this point, you have to hire people, and you have to train people how to put together stuff. You have to figure out what kind of bag you’re gonna use and all the EarthKind, like, what size? Do we make a 3 foot bag? Do we make a 6 inch bag? Like, what do we do? Tell me about that whole process.
Kari Warberg Block [00:35:27]:
So I I think of it, like being an architect. There’s, defining, okay, here’s all the steps that we need to do to get to the marketplace. And it worked I think it worked so well for us to get to where we are today, and we’re a debt free company, and we didn’t need to give give up majority ownership to get capital to do it. So I was always really savvy about making sure that we had good cash flow, and we’re still like that today. So that kinda helped define what we could do, and it made it a lot easier because a lot of times On entrepreneur will go out and say, well, what do I need? Well, you need this and this and this and this. And then they’ll go out and they get the capital for all of that. They don’t necessarily need that. It’s better, I think, to start small and to grow and learn.
Kari Warberg Block [00:36:23]:
So I took a very, phased approach. I like to say, okay, phase 1, and we’re gonna do this. And then phase 2 is this. And then phase 3 means, okay, market success. Now we can expand and and invest a little bit more in that. And I didn’t try to do everything all at once. So the way we grew is by industry. So we started out with Warberg Elevators.
James Kademan [00:36:50]:
Alright.
Kari Warberg Block [00:36:52]:
And because they had a big problem with it, and, and we did implement dealers. Oh, sure. I went out to my local John Deere and said that was what I did with the 1st grant money. I applied for some grants, and I bought enough supplies to go out to all the implement dealers and say, use this sample. If it works, give me a call, and I’ll sell it to you. 100% of the time, they sold you know, it worked, and I think we had 300,000 in revenues within a year by doing that.
James Kademan [00:37:27]:
Nice.
Kari Warberg Block [00:37:27]:
Because they all went, okay. I wanna sell this too. I need this too. So what they do is they when people would buy a new tractor from them, they’d give them our stuff as a gift and then say, you can get more. It’s like the Coke machine. Right? Come back when you need another fix. And so then they started selling it in the implement dealers. So that actually took us all the way to national distribution with John Deere.
Kari Warberg Block [00:37:53]:
We did the same thing with Tractor Supply. It was sold in the local store. Now there’s, like, 2,000 of those from me too. Whatever. So, we started small and then that they were happy. And then we went to this whole state, and then they were all happy. And then we went to region, and they were happy. And then we went all the way to national.
Kari Warberg Block [00:38:16]:
So that’s the really the approach I took. I didn’t do 10 channels all at once.
James Kademan [00:38:23]:
Okay. It
Kari Warberg Block [00:38:23]:
was more of a systematic slow growth. So we experienced about 45% annual growth for the first, 12 years.
James Kademan [00:38:34]:
Oh my gosh. That’s incredible.
Kari Warberg Block [00:38:36]:
And it was very consistent. The Kari, very consistent growth. We started to have it started to get sketchy after that because we had a, a supplier that was misrepresenting, and so I had to self report them. I self reported to the EPA that, hey. You know, this might not be what it it’s you know, I don’t trust these guys. Right? And, because they made admitted some things, and I’m like, we gotta just I gotta find a a supplier that I trust.
James Kademan [00:39:12]:
Well, that happened supplier for
Kari Warberg Block [00:39:14]:
Yeah. Chemical. Of the oils. So this is, yeah, 3rd generation company, large the farming in their history. Anyway, it was when you’re selling a product that’s federal regulated, if all the ingredients don’t come from the place you say they come from or if they contain anything other than what’s you say they contain, then you’re it’s like a violation. It’s a fine of I think it’s like 6 or $7,000 per unit sold.
James Kademan [00:39:47]:
Oh, wow.
Kari Warberg Block [00:39:48]:
And it yeah. We’re into the millions of units by this time. So it’s like, that is really a problem. So it was an ethical thing. Anyway, that ended up being the year that Trump came into office. And he said, it’s gonna be Christmas in DC again. But what, EPA’s interpretation of that was, let’s hold all the files until Christmas and let’s have Christmas because people will be really happy that we got everything done. So what should have taken a couple months ended up taking all year long.
James Kademan [00:40:26]:
Oh, no.
Kari Warberg Block [00:40:27]:
We lost 80% of our revenues that year. I kept people employed, but it almost, you know, broke us. So that next year, we were able to get right back up. But it took a few years to really pick up that growth, and we still haven’t recovered that same pace of growth that we did. Because shortly after that, I went to court with them. It was a federal, federal case, jury,
James Kademan [00:40:57]:
the
Kari Warberg Block [00:40:57]:
whole thing, and ended up prevailing. Thank goodness. But that took some time and energy, of course.
James Kademan [00:41:05]:
Yeah. Nowhere nobody really wins in court.
Kari Warberg Block [00:41:07]:
Right? Exactly. It’s like you try everything to get out of it. Then we you know, shortly after that, we have COVID. You know, shortly after that, you have this huge inflation. But I’m proud to say we just this year, we’ll we’ll have the best year we’ve ever had.
James Kademan [00:41:27]:
Oh, congratulations.
Kari Warberg Block [00:41:28]:
We’re up, I think, three times with the with the rest of the market is. You know, we’re we have a leadership team running the company now. I just brought in a CEO to run everything day to day, and I’m gonna switch to the strategic chair role. So it’s like a perfect mix. It’ll help us, I think, stay ahead of the growth, because you get to a place and time where it’s really hard to do do all the strategic planning of working on the business versus working in the business.
James Kademan [00:42:02]:
Oh, yeah.
Kari Warberg Block [00:42:03]:
Because we created this market, and now there’s dozens of competitors. Procter and Gamble came into the space. All the others are doing more, you know, earth friendly, eco friendly stuff. Everybody has kinda their own twist on it. So it was like, well, I’m either gonna have to really, really run and drive myself ragged and crazy or bring somebody in. And so that’s what I did.
James Kademan [00:42:33]:
How do you figure out who to hire as a CEO?
Kari Warberg Block [00:42:37]:
Well, I got I got so so lucky on this one because that is the question. Right? Who do I hire? So I got resourceful just like I did growing the company. Because I think every good thing that’s happened has come by being resourceful and not being afraid to ask for what I want and ask for other people’s. What do you think? Right? Well, I called a friend that I a guy that I’ve been working with, to help me and consult with me and my employees for 12 years.
James Kademan [00:43:09]:
Okay.
Kari Warberg Block [00:43:10]:
And he originally helped train me for media and, hone my pitch. You know, I was like, I needed a really good expert. He was running Tony Robbins companies. He was he’s got a lot of experience in, communication skills and presentation. And I’m about as introverted as it gets. So I was like, I need that help. Anyway, I called him up and I said, hey, I’m gonna make a move. I’m gonna go back out and do some talking because I really feel that this is the time I wanna be out doing podcasts and talking to people and sharing the wisdom of what I know because now everybody’s into sustainable business.
Kari Warberg Block [00:43:52]:
I’ve done it. Very few have done it On less than 1% growing a business to this side without compromising on on things. So and he’s like, you know, I think I’d be interested. I’m like, you would? And he goes, yeah. Call me crazy, but I think I’d be interested. I’m like, you’ve been a CEO. You he took a company public before. And I said, do you know how much work this is? He goes, I do.
Kari Warberg Block [00:44:22]:
I know. I know. But I really wanna do this because he loved the brand and he’s like, there’s so much opportunity, and it’s just a wide open white space globally. And everybody that uses our product loves it, falls in love with it, and stays with it. So, yeah, he wasn’t wasn’t cheap.
James Kademan [00:44:47]:
How so how recent are we talking here?
Kari Warberg Block [00:44:49]:
5 weeks. We’re only 5 weeks in.
James Kademan [00:44:52]:
Oh my gosh. Okay. Just yesterday. Holy cow.
Kari Warberg Block [00:44:55]:
Yeah. This is absolutely brand new. And case in point, in the last 5 weeks, I think he’s gotten more done than I have in a year or probably 2 years. Wow. Because he just was able to hit the ground running because we already have a leadership team. You know? We already have huge distribution. We have no problems. We’re you know, other than just, you know, the normal stuff that comes up.
Kari Warberg Block [00:45:22]:
We’re a top place to work, so our culture is really good. It doesn’t get, you know, any better. We’re just coming off the best year we’ve ever had.
James Kademan [00:45:31]:
Nice.
Kari Warberg Block [00:45:32]:
So he was able then to come in with some extra people that he knows, almost put this whole other layer on the top and hit the ground running. So I’m loving it. You know? Now in my
James Kademan [00:45:47]:
mind freedom doesn’t hurt?
Kari Warberg Block [00:45:48]:
Yeah. Exactly. So it’s kinda helps me too because it’s like that strong of a leader needs this strong of a counterbalance. Right? Where the 2 of us I’m the visionary leader. He’s that integrator, executor, you know, keep the troops going and, like, keep the army out there. Right?
James Kademan [00:46:08]:
Yeah. That is impressive. Tell me as far as the culture of the business, because I know regardless of what kind of company you have, culture is a huge deal. And I have to admit that when I first started my company, not 18 years ago, but it’s been a while, I don’t even know culture was a thing. I didn’t
Kari Warberg Block [00:46:27]:
Yeah. Yeah.
James Kademan [00:46:28]:
I had no idea until I met someone that said, what was the name of her book? I think it’s Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch or something
Kari Warberg Block [00:46:37]:
like that. Yes.
James Kademan [00:46:39]:
And I’m like, what? What is that all about? And you’re reading it and you’re like, ew. That is a thing. That is a thing that I’ve made some mistakes without even knowing that they were mistakes. So was this one of those things that you knew ahead of time or you learned after you get employees and you have negative culture, oh, we gotta fix this?
Kari Warberg Block [00:46:59]:
Yeah. I, you know, I was fortunate to grow up with a dad that he became a businessman. He left pest control and became a businessman and went into convenience stores. And he was just this most incredible leader. And he was absent for the most part for us growing up because back in that day, you know, your your folks worked all the time. And, but I saw that I saw the success of his company, and I saw how much people loved him. And so I asked I started asking him, what do you really do? You know? Because I never saw him working. I’m like, what do you really do? He’s like, I just take care of people.
Kari Warberg Block [00:47:43]:
I’m like, okay. Well, what else do you do? Oh, like, how can you run all these can be these chains of stores and you can’t even use a wrench? You know? Because I’m like he was like, couldn’t change a light bulb. Right? And I was like, he was just wasn’t computing for me. But, he had this special way of making making things, giving people this trust, right, and security and safety. And so people just didn’t quit on him. They really trusted him.
James Kademan [00:48:16]:
Wow.
Kari Warberg Block [00:48:17]:
But, he was the most humble and down to earth guy that you can imagine, and he was very charismatic too. But I remember seeing him at at his gas station, and he got really lucky when he got into the gas station business because I’ll just tell you this story. So my mother had passed away, and he was heartbroken. I was 11. My sister was 9. And he’s like, I I need a job where I don’t have to travel every day because I have kids. So he bought a gas station, and he says, girls, I’m gonna pump gas, and I’m gonna wash windows. And, of course, we’re like, we’re sitting in Minneapolis.
Kari Warberg Block [00:48:59]:
We’re used to living in the city and this, you know, condos and everything. And we’re like, are you sure? Call goes, yeah. We’re gonna move to North Dakota, and we got relatives there. And they can help out, and I’m gonna pump gas. And I was like, I thought, oh my gosh. What is going on? And he was so happy. And he was out on the parking Block, washing the windows, had this big smile on his face, and he’s like, I just love serving people. I just it just makes me feel it’s the only thing that makes me feel good.
Kari Warberg Block [00:49:31]:
Because he was still so heartbroken. And I’m On I’m very similar in a lot of ways to that. I’m like, whatever kind of job I do, it makes me feel really good if I’m serving people. And, I think that has to do with us being a top place to work. And our culture wasn’t always, as strong strong as it is now. It’s definitely gotten stronger as I’ve grown as a leader. And a couple of the main things I can tell you because they say, what is your values? Right? You know, our compassion is a value. But on the flip side of that, there’s the pain.
Kari Warberg Block [00:50:08]:
And I had to learn to get really good at confronting things. And for somebody that’s more of a servant, it’s like, that’s not fun. You’re like, nope. Nope.
James Kademan [00:50:18]:
This is just going to go away. Here. Right?
Kari Warberg Block [00:50:21]:
Yeah. Maybe it’ll just go away if I, you know, sidestep around it. But, getting coaching myself and learning how to see that conflict is just simply getting to the truth because you can’t have the compassion on one piece and caring deeply without the the the pain, right, and the conflict on the other. So it’s kind of a tricky thing to a company because people will start and say, well, you’re, you know, a compassionate company and think they’re not gonna get fired and be on easy street. I’m like, that’s not how it works. No. We work hard because we care about each other, and we want each other to go home safely, and we wanna have a good family and be leaders in our own families. Excellence is another value that we have.
Kari Warberg Block [00:51:14]:
And, it’s it’s simply, you know, giving it our best and trying our hardest, and we do, like, 1% better a day. So we’re continuous. How do we just get a little better and a little better? And I think that helps us be more profitable. And, for 2 years ago, I challenged my team and I said, okay. If we truly are excellent, every one of you should be able to take a month off if you need it, and your team will have your back. And I did it myself. I left, last year. I left in December, and I left for a month.
Kari Warberg Block [00:51:53]:
And I went to Israel to help the farmers that had been devastated in the war. And I came back, and the team didn’t miss a beat.
James Kademan [00:52:01]:
Oh my gosh. That’s incredible.
Kari Warberg Block [00:52:03]:
And then to our, you know, our our, finance lady, she had she took off for a month and shortly after, and her team didn’t miss a beat. And, you know, I said to the plant, director of ops, who’s the VP now, I’m like, I want you to do the same. And he’s like, oh, I don’t know if I could do that. You know? But, yeah, I mean, you have to question your values to that level. Okay? If we are excellent and we are compassionate, we should be able to do this. Right? And here’s what I found about it. The employees were so excited about this that they could actually see their managers get a much needed break.
James Kademan [00:52:54]:
Oh, interesting.
Kari Warberg Block [00:52:55]:
Because the managers are thinking, well, I need to take care of them, and it’s like a servant type thing. Right? Call, no. They were like it wasn’t about a promotion to the people under them. Like, well, I’m gonna learn how to do it and have their job. It was about knowing that they had their bosses Block so they could take a break.
James Kademan [00:53:15]:
Wow. That is impressive.
Kari Warberg Block [00:53:17]:
So that’s kind of, to me, a good way to describe culture and how it is operationalized, you know, within your company. But having those conversations is not something that people wanna do. And they’re like, oh, Kari, why are you always doing this stuff? And I’m like, well, if we don’t talk about this and live this, and then we because you get one new person, if they don’t fit the culture, they can be the best talent in the world. But you have to let them go and say, it’s in the best interest for all of us because I always say it’s we. It’s not me. It’s we. We are a we. And and even our brand, it’s combination of everything that we have, you know, inside our walls that makes it go.
Kari Warberg Block [00:54:05]:
But I’m totally with you on the whole, yeah, frou frou, what is culture and all that because every school, every there’s so many different philosophies about it. But in the end, I always like to think of it as this. You get what you tolerate.
James Kademan [00:54:22]:
Oh my gosh. That’s it right there. Mhmm. That is totally it. It’s the whole kill the monster when it’s small. But, yeah, silence is acceptance. Yeah. There we just to give you a little bit of insight as to what I’m dealing with.
James Kademan [00:54:36]:
Call answering service. We’re using Slack, and we started a channel that I call the f up channel, but its official name is the boo boos and band aids channel.
Kari Warberg Block [00:54:47]:
Fuck. Yeah.
James Kademan [00:54:47]:
Where we essentially call people out
Kari Warberg Block [00:54:49]:
like that?
James Kademan [00:54:50]:
We try to have people, when they find a mistake, that it gets put in this channel so that we can learn from it, figure out a pattern, see who did it, if they’re messing up, if it was one of these things, like, what can we fix in the process in the system? Was it just ignorance, or was it an oversight, or was it something where it’s just like, hey. I can see how this mistake got made. Let’s change the system to make sure it doesn’t happen again. And some people are like, got it. Cool. And others Kari like, oh, this is a tattletale channel. And we get this pushback. And I was like, you gotta separate.
James Kademan [00:55:28]:
This is not a personal attack. This is making sure that we are improving as a company. And the only way that we are going to improve as a company is to figure out where we’re messing up. If we think that we’re perfect right now, we’re probably wrong.
Kari Warberg Block [00:55:42]:
Yeah. It’s funny people that aren’t used to that level of trust in them. It’s really hard on their part to accept that level of responsibility and On that they’re willing to be brave and say, yeah. Transparency that they’re willing to be brave and say, yeah. It was me. Right. I messed up. Right? So, you know, I’ve always found celebrating that with people as as helpful, you know, to celebrate the mistakes, because it’s just have you ever heard of Jocko, how he deals with it?
James Kademan [00:56:16]:
Where The Jocko Wilnick guy?
Kari Warberg Block [00:56:17]:
Yeah. I love it.
James Kademan [00:56:18]:
I’ve heard of him, but I don’t know of this specifically.
Kari Warberg Block [00:56:21]:
He has this philosophy for that. So people will come to him, and he did it in the military way back in his elite team. It was, I got this and he’d go, good. And they’d be like, what? And he’d go, good. Because we found it. We don’t have to repeat this. You’re alive. Good.
Kari Warberg Block [00:56:42]:
And so having that that challenge, I’ve always thought of that, you know, in the back of my head to, to celebrate it fierce fiercely.
James Kademan [00:56:52]:
I like that.
Kari Warberg Block [00:56:53]:
Celebrate it.
James Kademan [00:56:53]:
I got this idea, I believe, from, Ray Dalio’s book principles, which I’ve been man, it was one of those books where I’m like, another business book by some guy that made a bunch of money so he thinks he knows everything. And I’m reading it, and the first part where it’s about the personal stuff, I’m like, yeah. Whatever. Into the business side, I’m like, oh, this guy’s dialed in. I like what’s going on here. And he’s he’s talking about this mistake thing and how you gotta call people out and make sure that it just doesn’t get overlooked. Otherwise, like you said, what you what did you say about tolerance? What you
Kari Warberg Block [00:57:30]:
No. What you what you you tolerate, you get.
James Kademan [00:57:32]:
What you tolerate, you get. Yeah. That’s perfect. It’s perfect. So there has been this is a fairly new, I’d say, past 3 months for us. So there’s been a little bit of a learning curve, and there’s been a little bit of, like, hey. Nothing was in there yesterday. What are the chances that nobody messed up yesterday?
Kari Warberg Block [00:57:55]:
Well, he another one that that I always like to tell people is I’d say, okay. 99% of the time, it’s a process problem. Not a people problem, a process problem. So when when people understand that, it helps too if they because some people will take things personally.
James Kademan [00:58:18]:
Oh my gosh. To a fault. To a fault. Yeah. The thing like, I’m not kicking your grandma. I’m not insulting your mom. We’re just telling you that you transposed a couple numbers on a phone number, and that’s a really big deal. Yeah.
James Kademan [00:58:32]:
And the
Kari Warberg Block [00:58:32]:
fact that they’re so conscientious is, like, something to be, you know, to be celebrated, but they have to admit. It’s hard to admit you’re not perfect as a perfectionist. Right?
James Kademan [00:58:45]:
Right. Right. Very true. Very true. So, Kari, what what do you find in store for your business over the next few years here as you grow?
Kari Warberg Block [00:58:54]:
Well, I’m, excited to be able to lean into things like, innovative I I call it human experience.
James Kademan [00:59:04]:
Alright.
Kari Warberg Block [00:59:04]:
Right? Which to me is the funnest part of it, leading people and, and building a culture and building jobs. Right? Is what are some incredible experiences that really transform people and help them flourish. Oh. That is something I’m very excited about, doing that through business, innovation, of course. I’m an inventor, and so continuing to disrupt
James Kademan [00:59:33]:
Sure.
Kari Warberg Block [00:59:34]:
Disrupt the industry. And, I’d love to get out of some planes and go overseas as we, you know, can continue to grow. And, it’s just a lot of fun too. Meeting doing business with people that you really respect and and admire and get to love over the years. You know? I see these peep my our customers’ businesses is like my business.
James Kademan [00:59:57]:
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Kari Warberg Block [00:59:58]:
And, you know, especially when floods happen or hurricanes happen, and it’s just like everything stops. Like, our people were so heartbroken when the hurricane happened in Asheville just north of us. It was hard for people. You know? It was like, okay. If you wanna go help, you know, we got involved right away. Nice. But we feel like our community really is part of is part of us. You know, it’s a different way of being.
Kari Warberg Block [01:00:31]:
We don’t see them as separate, really.
James Kademan [01:00:35]:
Yeah. It takes I mean, you have to have a community in order to have a business. So it’s Mhmm. That’s the the give and take there. So yeah. Absolutely.
Kari Warberg Block [01:00:43]:
Yeah. So that’s next. I’m gonna have, you know, definitely more time. My 70 hour weeks now are maybe gonna look more like 40 or 50.
James Kademan [01:00:53]:
Woah. Oh, how much is that? Oh, it’s incredible. Carrie, where can people find you?
Kari Warberg Block [01:01:02]:
So people can Google my name. Just Carrie Warburg Block, and you can find a lot there. There’s there’s in chat g p t too. That’s always fun. Right?
James Kademan [01:01:12]:
Yeah. Yeah. And earth kind is one word. Is that correct?
Kari Warberg Block [01:01:16]:
Yes. Earthkind.com. You can find all of our products there, a store locator, a huge library of different resources for you Call type in the different pests, and, we’ll help you whether it’s with our products or or not. We will we will help you. So we’re really good at that.
James Kademan [01:01:34]:
Very cool. I love it. And it’s earthkind.com. Is that right?
Kari Warberg Block [01:01:39]:
That’s right.
James Kademan [01:01:40]:
Alright. I love it. Carrie, if you have
Kari Warberg Block [01:01:42]:
someone up for our newsletter too because we do discounts and prizes and all kinds of cool stuff for that too. So right on our website, people can can sign up. There’s webinars and story events and all kinds of cool stuff that we do to get out in community.
James Kademan [01:02:02]:
Alright. And where can people find your products locally?
Kari Warberg Block [01:02:05]:
So Call, you can find them at all your Ace Hardwares. You can find them at, Tractor Supply. You can find them at John Deere. You can find them at Lowe’s. Online, you can get them at, Grove Collaborative or Thrive, of course, Amazon. There’s our own website.
James Kademan [01:02:26]:
Wow. All over, man. That’s awesome. Yeah. Tell me I forgot. Before I let you go, I’m gonna extend this a little bit here because I wanted to ask you about distribution. Tell me a story about distribution from what you used to do because I imagine you just throw it in the back of your Kari, deliver. But now that you’re nationwide, all these big, huge stores, how do you distribute your product?
Kari Warberg Block [01:02:49]:
So I can tell you probably the best piece of advice for new entrepreneurs. Get to know your customer and get the referral. So I could go in and get to know these store managers and say, what don’t I know that I need to know to be successful in distributing to you and to your, you know, chains? And they told me everything. Nice. And you don’t people don’t teach this kind of stuff because it’s each industry is different. Because some of them, you you you have to use, you know, LTL. Some of them come and pick up from us. Some of them you have to drop ship.
Kari Warberg Block [01:03:28]:
There’s about 6 or 7 different ways that we do it. And so they’re each its own process. It can get complicated. If there is a screw up in a company, 90% of the time, it comes out of logistics. It’s just it’s just it’s just is. It Call be a real bugger. If a truck shows up late, you know, we could get a fine from a retailer, 1500 a pallet. You know? It’s they there can be a lot of tents.
Kari Warberg Block [01:03:56]:
So you wanna make sure you get the get it done correctly and you label things correctly, and there’s a lot to distribution. What
James Kademan [01:04:06]:
so so this fine thing, I’ve never heard of that. Is that if it’s not on the on time?
Kari Warberg Block [01:04:11]:
Mhmm. Yeah. Oh. Oh, yeah. The retailers because they’re they book tie they book money, you know, so that they’re moving their revenues through. Another thing that’s really helpful to people building any kind of a distribution is make sure you have a system that you can attach the file to the customer and that PO and the how to pack and ship travels with that customer file all the way through the system out to, to shipping.
James Kademan [01:04:44]:
Alright. Interesting.
Kari Warberg Block [01:04:45]:
Most people don’t think of that as, like, they go to a separate file cabinet to get it. Yeah. But that is just a check and balance, and then you can always see, you know, where it’s at and make sure your inventory On your system your, inventory properly.
James Kademan [01:05:01]:
Nice. That is smart. And I imagine there’s a little bit of a learning curve and all that.
Kari Warberg Block [01:05:05]:
Yeah. All those little tips you learn along the way. Right?
James Kademan [01:05:09]:
That is cool. Well, Kari, congratulations. 18 years, you said.
Kari Warberg Block [01:05:13]:
Yeah. 18 years.
James Kademan [01:05:15]:
That is impressive. I mean, that’s way over the 5 year bump. So that’s,
Kari Warberg Block [01:05:22]:
Yeah. Yeah. It’s way over the 5 year bump, but we’ve had a couple little, you know, a long Yeah.
James Kademan [01:05:27]:
It’s a roller coaster.
Kari Warberg Block [01:05:28]:
Yeah.
James Kademan [01:05:29]:
Yeah. 18 years, a cross country move, a divorce, CEO, cool employees, probably less than cool employees sometimes.
Kari Warberg Block [01:05:38]:
Yeah. 2 different brands, you know, federal court case, EPA registrations. I served, at I served the White House and it as an adviser for women in business. That was pretty cool experience. Won awards with SBA, 3rd in the nation, On award with That was pretty Call. You know? Met some amazing friends and people, and entrepreneurship can be just the wildest ride on the planet for sure.
James Kademan [01:06:09]:
I gotta say I love it, and I love interviewing people that have have done it, are doing it. It’s impressive. Sometimes it’s so funny because I chat with people like you, and I’m like, man, I gotta get back to work. I feel like I’m doing well, but then I talked to I mean, I haven’t gone through any crazy court cases. I certainly haven’t been in the White House, so my goodness. Well played.
Kari Warberg Block [01:06:32]:
Well, my favorite White House experience was I went bowling. They have a bowling alley in the basement, and I’m competitive. And I actually crossed the line, and so they grease it for you so you can’t so they know. And I slipped and I fell. Guys come out. The engineers come out from behind the Call. And I was they didn’t have handcuffs or anything, but they’re like, ma’am.
James Kademan [01:07:00]:
Oh, that’s funny.
Kari Warberg Block [01:07:01]:
Yeah. Entrepreneur just coming and pushing all the way, man.
James Kademan [01:07:07]:
That’s what we do. Right? Yeah. Boundaries are meant to be broken here. It’s all good. Well, Kari, thank you so much for being on the show.
Kari Warberg Block [01:07:14]:
Thank you so much. Just real pleasure to talk with you today.
James Kademan [01:07:19]:
Yeah. Likewise. Likewise. This has been Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumph and successes of business owners across the land. My name is James Kademan, and Authentic Business Adventures is brought to you by Calls On Call, offering call answering and receptionist services for service businesses across the country on the web at callsoncall.com. And, of course, The Bold Business Book, a book for the entrepreneur in all of us, available wherever fine books are sold. If you’re listening or watching this on the web, if you could do us a huge favor, keep the algorithm happy, give it a big ole thumbs up, subscribe, and, of course, share it with your entrepreneurial friends, especially those that may have a mouse or rodent problem, which, let’s just admit, almost everyone is or will have that at one time or another. Mice are everywhere.
James Kademan [01:08:09]:
We’d like to thank your wonderful listeners as well as our guest, Kari Warburg Block, the founder of Earth Kind. Carrie, can you tell us the website one more time?
Kari Warberg Block [01:08:18]:
Earthkind.com.
James Kademan [01:08:20]:
It doesn’t get easier than that. I love it. Past episodes can be found morning, noon, and night at the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. Thank you for joining us. We will see you next week. I want you to stay awesome. If you do nothing else, enjoy your business.