Seaspiracy, Nutrigenetics & Sustainable Fishing w/ Founders Joci & Ashley Besecker

Show notes in order of appearance:

• Ashley’s last oh shit moment
• Joci’s last hell yeah moment
• Ashley on nutrigenetics
• Gut health and probiotics vs prebiotics
• Joci history with the ocean as a kid, how they met and at what point they decided to go into business together
• Owning a successful business with family
• Ashley shares one of her favorite professional athlete recovery stories
• Ashley talks about a WNBA player and gold medalist
• Emotional and psychological connection to physical endurance and recovery
• What is true sustainability when it comes to fishing?
• The real difference between farm fish and wild-caught
• What does their business, Premier Catch, stand for and guarantee?
• Alaska, the pinnacle of sustainable fishing.
• How they are able to eliminate bycatch
• According to Seaspiracy, 46% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is fishing gear. What is being done by sustainable businesses to combat this?
• Is eating wild-caught fish better than eating meat?
• Joci and Ashley share their top two traits for a conscious leader to embody

Connect with Joci & Ashley via PremierCatch.com 

Connect with Sebastian on Instagram

SebastianNaum.com

Below is a transcript of the video podcast created by Seb’s Robot buddy, Zekton. He tends to make mistakes so please forgive him if you find errors or some funky sounding sentences. For the real deal, watch the video or click on your favorite audio Podcast platform above! Enjoy!

Sebastian Naum:
What’s up fam. I had a great time today chatting with Jocey and Ashley Becker, the founders of premiere catch a sustainable wild seafood company that delivers straight to your door. Ashley Becka, as an expert in human biochemistry and specializes in nutritional genetics and sports medicine. She works with world-class athletes on a strategy that involves nutritional repletion and optimization Jossy and Ashley married into the seafood industry. However, they saw an unfilled gap between the wholesale distributors and consumers, and they did just that with premier catch their mission is to source the highest quality wild caught seafood from Alaska and the Pacific Northwest to fill kitchens across the country. We talked about nutrition, sustainability and discuss some of the concepts that were brought up by the well-known documentary. See spirits. I want to give a special thank you and shout out to the sponsor today’s show conscious capitalism, Los Angeles, whose aim is to connect, inspire, and cultivate conscious business leaders in LA. It is a key piece of a larger scale worldwide conscious capitalism movement. Now stick around and enjoy the show. Jaci and Ashley, welcome to the show. Thank

Sebastian Naum:
Thank you so much, guys. Thanks for being on. Um, so one of the first questions I always ask my guests on the show is I’m gonna ask Ashley, Ashley, what was your last, oh, moment. First thing that comes to mind.

Ashley Besecker:
Oh God. Um, okay. Well, I, I probably have to, um, so I ha I wear two hats, which I’ll, I’ll talk a little bit about, but the first moment related to premiere catch was once we kind of started going and I realized, oh, I own a seafood company. Like, I wasn’t sure how we were going to progress. And as it got better and we gained more traction, I was, I was literally like, oh. And then wearing my other hat as the dietician. I think just some of my Olympic athletes, just watching them either win or lose in Tokyo. It was just like, oh. And then it was like, oh. Like some of it was really good. And then some of it was like, oh, bummer.

Sebastian Naum:
That’s awesome though. How exciting? I’ll ask a little bit more about that, but Josh, you always your last hell yam moment.

Joci Besecker:
Oh, hell yeah. Um, well I go back and forth, I guess I have, I had to oh, moments.

Sebastian Naum:
Yeah.

Joci Besecker:
But, um, hell yeah. Um, so both of them probably go, same thing. Like it started out as like, oh, we’re starting this company. And then, um, probably after our first pop-up shop last summer, it was like, hell yeah, we’re going to do this. Um, we have something great and let’s roll. And then, um, quite a few years ago I, um, decided to do a half Ironman and I didn’t know how to swim. And so it was like starting from, from scratch in the pool. And I, and I learned that slam. I did some, I like train. It was, it was pretty bad-ass and I completed the event, but I remember when I got in the water that morning in the lake, I was like, oh, I have to swim 1.2 miles and like have this whole thing. But then I got out of the water and my dad was actually, I had family and friends there supporting and watching it. My dad was actually holding a sign that said, hell yeah. Like when I got out of the water so that, um, definitely,

Sebastian Naum:
Uh, I love that better to do that. And you literally had to learn how to swim for it.

Joci Besecker:
So I could like swim. Like I could jump in the water and swim around. I didn’t know how to swim properly breathing technique.

Sebastian Naum:
That’s really awesome. Cool. All right. I actually, what, what is, or what does neutral genetics or what are,

Ashley Besecker:
Yeah, so it’s a fairly new field. Um, so it’s nutritional genetics. So it’s how our genetics relates to our nutrition. So neutral genetics is kind of like the set of genes we’ve been giving cause gives those never changed. We get those from our parents, um, how those play into our metabolic pathways. So how we process caffeine, how we processed vitamin a and all the other things, and then Nutrogenomix which they’re used interchangeably, but they are slightly different. Nutrogenomix is then how someone like me would create a meal plan or a set of actionable steps to actually play into those genetics that they were given. So that’s like diet and exercise and lifestyle.

Sebastian Naum:
Nice. Got it. I actually just took a, uh, gut health test that I’m pretty excited to see the results. I’ve kind of heard some mixed reviews on that. I mean, I went down the deep hole of like, you know, reading all kinds of blogs and reviews and I added the pros and cons to all of the different companies out there. But I get that. There’s a lot of people that say it’s kind of BS from what they’re acting, the results that they can get without doing like a really extensive study. Any, any feedback on that stuff

Ashley Besecker:
That one’s really early too. And it layers on, um, so many more. So when you get it back, you’re going to get a list and you’re going to be like, oh my God, it’s really overwhelming when you get it back. So just call me, I’ll have you. Um, but it’s actually, it’s, there’s a couple of different ways to do it. Some of them are genotyping the bacteria. So they’re actually like seeing what kind of bacteria and, and how active those bacteria are because genes can be turned on and off. Um, and then other brands will just look at the call, how much of which strains you have. Um, but it’s interesting. Our, our own microbiome is set by the time we’re two years old based on what we’ve been exposed to, how we were

Sebastian Naum:
Born.

Ashley Besecker:
Yeah. So each of us has a unique microbiome. Um, we can change it based on our exposures and how we eat. Yes. But it’s kind of like fully created by the time that we’re two up until then we’re building it

Sebastian Naum:
Really. So what do you think is the most important thing to do with your kid up until he or she is two years old

Ashley Besecker:
Exposure, exposure to eat, have them play in the dirt and eat a variety of foods. And, um, and you know, be careful, don’t always go to the doctor and ask for the antibiotics. Sometimes, you know, kids have viral infections and a lot of parents were like, just give me an antibiotic, but that can really disrupt the microbiome too. So I think just, you know, listening to the doctor, uh, whether or not that’s something that’s going to help the child or not the antibiotic. And then also just like playing around, eating lots of stuff. Like let them eat the Cheerio that fell on the floor.

Sebastian Naum:
Yeah. What is the, so what percentage of that can be changed at an adult age?

Speaker 3:
Well, it can be completely wiped out by a strong antibiotic. You can, you can totally wipe out your microbiome and then it has to rebuild. And sometimes the bad bacteria will rebuild more than the good bacteria. So I think the, the biggest thing we can do is, is actually not probiotics, but prebiotics. So prebiotics are like the food that the good bacteria eat. So if there’s not enough prebiotics, good bacteria can’t survive. So prebiotics are like, you know, random, different foods, but cruciferous vegetables, random things like Jerusalem artichokes, like, um, fiber, lots of different stuff like that. So if we can eat a lot of prebiotics, then the good bacteria can thrive.

Sebastian Naum:
Interesting. All right. Very cool. I mean, we could do, obviously a whole shell or maybe hundred shell is on gut health.

Ashley Besecker:
And as you’ll learn, I’m the nerd in our company, like I’m the science nerd. Um, and then Jesse’s like so organized and operational. Like I could, we, I could never run this company because I’m like way too down in the weeds. Jaci is amazing. And we’re, we’re amazing partners because of that.

Sebastian Naum:
Yeah. That makes a great team. That makes a great, great team. Jaci I was going to ask you, what was your, or your first experiences with the ocean when you were younger growing up? What were you around in terms of, you know, fishermen and the ocean and things like that?

Joci Besecker:
Yeah. Well, I come from a huge recreational fishing family, very outdoor where, where I grew up outdoors. Um, I’m originally from the Oregon coast, uh, or from Oregon. And so I spent a ton of time on the Oregon coast growing up. It’s gorgeous. I shouldn’t, yeah. Um, it’s, it’s a really special place. That’s definitely where my heart is. And, um, I just spent a week there with my family. Um, I just got back last night, actually. And at one point during the day, we had a few people that were digging for razor clams. We had, we were crabbing, pulling crab rings in the bay. Um, another family group was out salmon fishing. And so it’s kind of in my blood as far as like being around the water, being around the ocean, being on a boat, um, and eating fresh fish and knowing what, um, what truly quality, um, good wild fishes. So, um, yeah, that’s, that was kind of a lot of my upbringing.

Sebastian Naum:
And you guys have the same last name, so you must be sisters.

Ashley Besecker:
We are sister in laws. We are married to the brothers.

Speaker 2:
Yeah. So Jossie, tell us about that. How did that come about in terms of thinking about putting, you know, getting a business together?

Joci Besecker:
Yeah. Well, I think most people say, look at that or, or hear that we’re family number one, and they’re like, whoa, you’re in business together. Number two, your in-laws not even related like double whoa. Right. And, and, um, you know, it was, it’s been something that I think all of us have wanted to do for many years. Um, my husband and I met in college and have been together for 25 years probably. And, um, Ashley and Tyler for 12 plus probably. And so w given the access that we’ve had to incredible seafood, our friends were always like, man, will you sell that? Can you sell this? Can I buy, how do I get this? How do we get this? Um, and so we would kind of joke, well, someday we’ll open up, you know, we’ll figure it out and we’ll start doing this. And, um, it took a global pandemic and, um, our, our COVID friendly, um, you know, family that was safe coming over, um, almost every day and we’d hang out in the backyard.

Joci Besecker:
And, um, that’s literally how our company was launched, was just spending time together, the four of us and, um, brainstorming and figuring out exactly what we wanted to do, what our goals were. Um, and we went for it. And so I think, um, there was no hesitation, I think on either of our parts and the biggest kind of wow to me was how we naturally fell into our roles within our company. Um, Ashley and I are very different people. Um, we’re both moms, we’re both super busy, um, but our personalities couldn’t be more different. And, um, we just have really aligned well with, with how we operate and I know exactly what you know, what to expect. And so does she, and so I think it, I think it turned into be just a, a really great partnership. Um, our, it helps that our, that our husbands are truly best friends. It’s, it’s like this crazy unique, you’ve never seen a closer friendship between two brothers. Um, and so I think that’s really unique and special, uh, the way that we, the four of us kind of operate together. So that’s really awesome.

Sebastian Naum:
Yeah. I’m very happy for you guys. I love a business that comes out of the pandemic and it literally came out of you guys having to spend extra time together and thinking about, you know, what are these goals that we can set and then having your roles fall into place? Just that’s, that’s really unique. You guys are actually very fortunate to have that because usually what happens is you think you have these roles and then you go and you play these roles. And then maybe if that’s not really it, and you have to readjust and you have to hire all kinds of other people to actually make that happen. And so the fact that you guys are still here and you’re doing well and growing is really awesome. So they could asked you guys before we go more into, you know, conscious business, sustainability of fishing and this and all that. I actually want to go back and ask Ashley, um, to share one of your favorite athlete recovery stories from perhaps an injury or something like that.

Ashley Besecker:
Yeah. Um, so it would probably have to be Sue. So Subaru is one of my public athletes. So, um, and she’s signed like all of the releases. Um, I actually just did a interview for, um, a documentary on her. So I am allowed to speak publicly about her. Um, so she has, she’s always had this kind of chronic knee injury throughout her whole career. She’s going to be 41 this year. And she is just one, she’s probably, I mean, one of the most iconic players in the WWE NBA. Um, and so she finally had to undergo surgery for that. And so she was out for a little while, but, um, she had always taken her nutrition more seriously than the average athlete, but really as she aged and got into her thirties, she was like, okay, I gotta go next level. So with her, it was like, all right, we were going to, um, you know, it was a lot of specific supplementation.

Ashley Besecker:
It was a lot of specific diet removing things, adding things. And I would say prehabilitation so putting her on a specific regimen before she went into surgery. Um, I think a lot of people focus on rehab, but prehab is amazing. And so she came out of that and then she wanted WMB championship and then she just won a gold medal and she, you know, and then there’s two other amazing stories where I can’t mention the names, but, uh, pop their Achilles playing. And both of those players just won gold medals. That’s amazing. Came off with there.

Sebastian Naum:
Was there something that, um, do you find that there are also emotional ties or something, things in the psyche that can be unlocked and when unlocked can help a player heal an injury

Ashley Besecker:
A hundred percent, it’s devastating. The biggest thing, the biggest fear for a player and audit professional levels and injury, cause that will potentially take them out. It will potentially cause a trade. Um, it causes them to sit on the bench. There’s tons of recovery time. I mean, and Achilles takes almost a year, um, to recover. So, um, the psychology of longevity is something that I specifically work on. So I don’t care if you’re 20 and coming into a league, or if you’re 30, you know, we gotta believe that the human lifespan can be up to a hundred. Let’s drop the 80 let’s drop the 70 a hundred is where we’re all going to go and how do we get there? So how do you provide for your family and play until you’re 40, 41 42 and keep that in mind so that they can understand an injury taking them out for a year, because if we do that, right, we could potentially add 3, 4, 5 years to your career. So I think longevity and then sports psychologists are amazing and needed by every athlete.

Sebastian Naum:
Yeah. I mean, I’ve heard some amazing stories about athletes that have lingering injuries and that once they’ve gotten other figured out in their lives from an emotional standpoint, then the recovery path is faster.

Ashley Besecker:
Yeah. And we, you know, we just saw that with Simone Biles, she, she did a, um, um, and Naomi, like there, there’s a bunch of athletes that are starting to be public about their mental health struggles or, and that we all, we’re all normal people. We all deal with that stuff. Um, and they’re starting to be more vocal about it. And so I think that’s, I think it’s awesome that they’re taking the time and then they’re normalizing it for all of us. Yeah.

Sebastian Naum:
Yeah, absolutely. I love it too. So we’re going to go back. This was fun about, you know, having a podcast show is that I can talk about whatever I want and I can ask about whatever I want no back and forth. So let’s go back into what we were originally talking about, which is the fishing industry. And, you know, obviously, um, is, you know, you know, see spirits, he came out and I, or, well, it got popularized during the pandemic and everybody watched that movie. And, um, there’s been a lot of things that we, you know, we’ve been, had our eyes open to a lot of things in terms of what we consume and what we’re doing to our environment. And, um, obviously when you watch a documentary, things can be skewed one way or another, but think who makes the documentary, but there’s truth to a lot of these things. And obviously, you know, the idea here with a sustainable company such as premier catch, um, is that you can combat and battle a lot of those things as much as possible. So the first thing I want to ask Jossie is for just the basics though, is what is the true, the real difference between wild caught and farm fishing and, you know, farm fishing really that bad and why as well, possibly better, which is kind of what this understanding that we have.

Ashley Besecker:
Um, well, I think Ashley’s more of our expert on this, so I might defer to her a little bit, but, uh, yeah, as you, you, you take that one. Okay. Um, so sustainability is defined as so many different things within the industry. And so one of my jobs with premier catch naturally has been to dive down that because I’m very, I asked a lot of questions, which is why I’m a scientist. Um, and so I wanted to know, uh, based on all these different scientists and companies and fishermen, like what does sustainability mean to you? And so it covers a lot of different things. Um, it covers the health of the ocean itself. How do we maintain a healthy oceans so that the species can survive? And that goes all the way down to like plankton and algae. So fishing methods are really, really important.

Ashley Besecker:
And, you know, seafood’s one of the last, truly wild sources of food besides like foraging for mushrooms, things like that. Um, you know, all of our other proteins are farmed. Fish are wild and that is a resource that can continue on forever if we do this correctly. And so it’s a source of food and protein that is extremely important for a mega threes. And it’s one of the biggest things around the world. Um, but so the fishing methods are really important, um, and then monitoring the stocks. So there are specific scientists and boards of people that monitor the stocks of the, of the seafood and Alaska is the perfect example of, um, a state and waters and regulation boards that, that monitor those stocks, um, too, sometimes the sugar and of the fishermen because they get shut down if they’ve caught their quota and they’re limited, they are done fishing.

Ashley Besecker:
So that’s a piece. And then also just supporting the families and making sure that we’re paying the families well, we’re treating the families. Well, the people that are fishing and in the industry, um, human rights, um, making sure that they’re, you know, those are going to be sustainable too. It has to be a sustainable workforce as well. And then talk about the nutrition between the wild versus the farm dash. I was about to ask that. Yeah, yeah. So farmed, um, in the industry now is known as aquaculture and naturally, um, as everything else has moved into farmed, this is like all of our other proteins. Um, you know, there used to be wild chickens that run around. If you’ve ever been to Kauai, you’ll see all the wild chickens running around. Um, but then we started farming them. So naturally that was going to happen with seafood, especially as our population on our planet is growing, but there’s been a lot of things in the beginning that have not gone well.

Ashley Besecker:
So for example, the farming, the farmed fish, escaping the pens and mixing with wild populations, um, when that happens, well, if you think about the genetics, um, when they interbreed what happens. And so we’re starting to see that, um, I think one of, one of the examples happened up in the waters off of Washington, right? Just, I don’t know. Um, yeah, I think so. So we don’t know the problem is we don’t know, we just know that that’s kind of not natural. Um, and then also with farming, you’re basically taking some wild fish and then you’re trying to breed them and make them grow faster. And so you’re going against nature. So that diet has to be much different. So farmed fish are not eating what wild fish do for example, salmon. Um, which means all the way down to things like color. So since they’re not eating the natural, you know, uh, shrimp and little crustaceans and the plankton and stuff that make, like, for example, a Sockeye salmon, bright orange, the farming industry actually has a catalog of colors that they get to pick from to falsely turn the fish, the color that we expect it to be.

Ashley Besecker:
Otherwise it would be gray,

Sebastian Naum:
Really a catalog choose your fish is color palette.

Ashley Besecker:
It’s literally like picking a paint color.

Sebastian Naum:
Interesting. Yeah. So it’s similar to feedlots for cows essentially in a way. Yeah,

Ashley Besecker:
Exactly. Not to say that it won’t become sustainable in the future, but there’s a lot of people that are kind of trying it right now and making mistakes. And so the best way since wild seafood is renewable, we can keep it as a renewable resource for forever. We don’t ever have to go farmed. Um, why not just maintain the way that we catch it wild versus trying to do all this stuff with farming.

Sebastian Naum:
Yeah, absolutely. So Jossie, what is the promise of premier cash? If you had to sum it up from what Ashley’s telling us, Hey guys, I just want to remind you that you could get more content like this@sebastiannom.com. That’s Sebastian N a U m.com. And you can also get a ton of other marketing resources from myself and my agencies ranging from SEO to social media, influencer, marketing, branding, animation, web development, and more again, that’s a bastion nom.com. Thank you. And enjoy the rest of the show.

Joci Besecker:
Uh, well, our founding principle is that we only offer Wilde and only offer sustainably caught seafood. Um, we live we’re, we’re all from the Pacific Northwest and, um, that’s the fish that we, that we know that we’ve grown up eating. Um, and that’s what we sell. Uh, all of our seafood. We can trace back to, um, the boat and the captain and the crew that caught it. Um, and we follow it literally until we hand it to some of our customers in person, and then they send us a picture of their plate. And so we can offer, we see it when it’s swimming, fishermen, send us all of their videos and pictures from pulling the pots or getting that hell of it one by one. Um, and

Sebastian Naum:
I ask you something right there. One of those concepts that they talk about in CCRC for example, is bycatch. You eliminate bycatch. What is bycatch, if you want to go ahead and tell us a little bit, how do you eliminate it? So bycatch,

Joci Besecker:
Um, so this is thing about CCRC, uh, or that I would kind of say, um, that was focused on global fishing where premier catch is focused on. I mean, I would say 80% of our products come directly from Alaska. Alaska is the gold standard in the world. I would say for sustainable, for sustainable fishing. They actually in, I think it was 19, correct me, 56 wrote into their state constitution, um, an act on sustainable sustainability. And, uh, so they are really the gold standard when it comes to fishing and, um, the health and the sustainability of not only the species, but the oceans, the forests, all, everything that’s coming out of Alaska, like Ashley mentioned. Um, they want to guarantee forever for that we all can enjoy and, um, and eat. So I would say, um, yeah, I mean, we stand behind, uh, all of our, all of our products, everything is coming directly from those fisheries that are managed as far as the bycatch and the fish types.

Joci Besecker:
That’s what you asked me about. Um, w so all of our salmon king salmon is caught by a hook and line, um, which means they catch one at a time. So there isn’t an opportunity really for much by-catch, um, a lot of our sablefish, um, is caught by pots. And so these p ots are specifically designed with openings in the side where only the size of species that we are targeting, uh, can fit in the pots. And so when they pull these pots, there’s very little things that can get caught because the ones that we don’t want can either not fit or can swim out. Um, yeah. And so standing behind our fishermen that are using responsible fishing methods, um, is something that we feel really strongly about. Um, and so, yeah, I think we,

Sebastian Naum:
That’s really interesting what you’re saying about, you know, you know, the film making it, uh, more so about global fishing. And I think that’s, that’s important to know what’s going on from a global perspective and also seen why, uh, perhaps really small businesses are the way to go in this sense when you’re not trying to scale that much fishing. Absolutely. Yeah. So one of the other things that’s, that was big on that is saying that 40, 46% of the, uh, the great Pacific garbage patch is fishing lines, for example. Right? So that’s a huge thing from an overall sustainable delivery standpoint in terms of plastic. So is that something that, how does that come up? Like, is that something that comes up? Um, I never even thought about that in terms of fishing lines being 46%

Ashley Besecker:
The last year, and, well, it is a very big deal to leave gear in the water. And it’s a very big fine for fishermen. Nobody wants to leave their gear in the water because Hey, it’s really expensive to be a fishermen. It is very expensive. Think about all of the maintenance on a vessel vessels are really expensive. And then on top of that, you have to buy all your own gear. So that’s one of the reasons we pay our fishermen, what they’re worth and very well. Um, but to, to lose gear is a very big deal. So if gear gets lost, it’s, it’s devastating for the fishermen. Not saying it never happens, but it does happen. Um, pots and different things are marked by the vessel. So there can be fines if somebody finds that pod or somebody finds that gear, um, it can be traced back to whose boat it was.

Ashley Besecker:
Um, so, so it’s never intentional. Um, and I would say, um, [inaudible] was very much a film and not a documentary. And some of those statistics were actually misquoted. It is not as much fishing line as it says. Um, so spear C was, and just like a lot of nutrition, documentaries, it’s a very big vegan, um, pushing platform. And so that’s really what they were saying is to stop eating all proteins, um, all fish, all, you know, all, everything. Um, and then that’s a whole other rabbit hole that I could go down. As far as diets go.

Sebastian Naum:
I’ll just ask you right there. Why is eating fish better than eating meat? If that’s even a thing, if that’s your opinion?

Ashley Besecker:
Well, I think one of the healthiest diets you could do is go pescatarian, which means that you eat plant-based and then you eat seafood for your protein. I’m, I’m totally not. Again, I eat and rotate and beef and chicken and all of that stuff. And there’s ways to eat what I call happy animals that have lived happy lives, um, in the pastures with music playing. And you think I’m joking, but some of the farmers actually go out and play music for their cows. Um, but the nutritional content of seafood is wild. Um, the omega three fatty acids alone are worth it. Um, omega threes are one of the best research, um, you know, nutrients in the world and they are so supportive for brain health and heart health. If people would just eat more seafood, that’s one of the ways that we could cut our risk of like the top five killers in the U S because of the omega-3 fatty acids, like heart attacks, preventable strokes preventable, omega three is also just help general inflammation may think about. So you just said you did a gut health test. Think about how many people are out there living with gut inflammation, that some, a mega threes can, can do it. And something like king salmon, if you eat, you know, king salmon, or sablefish something that’s really high in omega is twice a week that gets you in, like your whole week’s worth of prescribed omega-3 is what I would prescribe. If I was your dietician.

Sebastian Naum:
I love it. That’s great. Um, Jossy when I think of a conscious business, I have to entail all aspects of the business. Okay. So it’s not just in this case, let’s say we’ve talked a lot about sustainability, what you guys are doing from that standpoint to ensure that there are sustainable practices all around, but really it’s all about all of the stakeholders of the company. Is that something you guys, um, I, because I know you guys are that way, because I know you guys, but is that something that gets, maybe talked about from a company standpoint, do you guys come up with, do you guys have a plan you think about how can we affect all the stakeholders involved to really kind of value everybody essentially,

Joci Besecker:
Absolutely. A hundred percent. Um, it’s, it’s almost, it’s a daily, a daily task. Um, our customers come number one. Um, our fishermen and processors and suppliers are probably equal because without them, we don’t have a company. Um, and so I think the we’re, we’re very intentional, um, with how we operate and how we interact with our customers, with our fishermen, with our processors, with each other. Um, and I think are yeah, extremely, um, dedicated to making sure that, um, you know, we’re w what we, what our mission is, we fulfill that every day, and that is, um, feeding kids, filling kitchens, feeding families with a wild product, um, that is helping their nutrition, their, their lives. Um, we’re extremely, uh, dedicated to convenience. And so we want it to be easy. We want the access to be there. We want people to not be intimidated by, um, eating seafood. It’s super easy to add it to your diet. And as Ashley has mentioned, um, the benefits of it just are so extreme that, um, we, you know, it’s, it’s really easy to get behind it. So, um, yes, I would say we’re super intentional with, with what our mission is. And, um, it, it seems to be pretty easy to, um, follow that with, with Ashley, you know, at my side and, and the people that we have aligned with, um, with our company and, uh, with our mission.

Sebastian Naum:
I love that. That’s so great. It’s so important to keep that mission forefront. It’s really easy to get caught in the tasks of the everydays and just worry about, you know, the next bottom line type thing and forget about the mission. And when you keep reminding yourself that the mission, it usually, at least for me, in my endeavors and projects, whenever I remind myself of the original mission, it almost like releases this sort of sense of like anxiety or pressure that I’m putting on myself for these little mini micro goals going after all the time. So,

Joci Besecker:
And I get, I get caught up in all of those. I’m very, like Ashley mentioned, like very detailed and, um, and can easily get caught in those, in those minor details. And then if you just take a step back and say, whoa, what we’re doing is really great and that, you know, that’s gonna fall into place or, uh, let’s tackle that, you know, when it’s time, um, it’s, it’s a very clean mission. Um, and, and very, um, yeah, we’re very aligned with what,

Sebastian Naum:
So Jesse you’re both clearly very conscious leaders would, are two traits that you believe a conscious leader must embody today.

Joci Besecker:
Hm. I think, uh, honesty and integrity are kind of the backbone of, of what I would say a conscious leader, um, should have and should be every day. Yeah.

Sebastian Naum:
Ashley.

Ashley Besecker:
Yeah, I think, um, honesty, I think, um, there’s a lot of opportunities to cut corners in business. And especially when you’re looking at things like profit or money, um, and having that consciousness of who are you serving and how, how does what you’re doing, benefit them, going back all the way to, again, the mission, it makes decisions really easy. So, you know, and one of those things, like if, what you just did or said ended up on the front cover of the New York times, would you stand by it? That’s like one of the things that I learned really early on. Um, so yeah, honesty and integrity, meaning every decision that you make may or may, you know, has an outcome and a consequence. And so, um, being conscious of all of that is, is really, really important and not taking that, that shortcut.

Sebastian Naum:
Yeah. I think it is very easy to take shortcuts, like you said, and I believe that the way that we are going with this sort of new paradigm of leadership and business is that not cutting the corners. I think in the end, we’ll add actually ended up being more profitable because these are the companies that are growing more, consumers are more, are becoming more conscious, conscious consumers are just as important as the conscious businesses. And so as that’s changing and, and that’s going to be helping conscious businesses grow, but in that short run, which may feel like a very long run, it is tough to do. And it’s, you know, because that is not maximizing profits ever when it comes to a conscious business. So I love what you guys are doing. Um, how do people get ahold of you either follow you personally, or the company?

Joci Besecker:
Yeah. Premier catch.com. We’re all over Instagram, Facebook TechTalk Pinterest. Yeah. All of our social handles are all over our, you know, main website, but I think one of the things that’s gonna make us stand out and we want to be fun. Like, why would you buy from premier Katz and not another company? Um, we want it to be an experience and a community and super fun. Um, we offer a ton of value as far as just like knowledge and health and nutrition. Right. Um, I’m like to on her hair, I’m sorry. Um, but we have a dietician on staff. Like that’s amazing. And then also like we do really fun Tik talks and we’re jumping into these new, um, social media things, which were, you’re helping us with stem. Um, thank you for that. Um, but we want to be a really fun experience, a really fun company. And so, um, we are all over all of the social media, so please follow us and Jossy makes amazing recipes and they’re all over there.

Sebastian Naum:
I love it. Well, you guys do a great job. I love your mission. I love your business. Look at you. I love it. You guys, it’s passion and your partnership and how it’s worked through even being family. And so it’s just admirable. So you guys keep doing you and thank you so much for being on today.

Ashley Besecker:
Thank you for having us. Thank you.