207: Evangelina Blue-Williams shares how family and flavor shape Mystic Blue BBQ

Jen Amos 0:00

Music. Do you want to do more than follow orders? Think outside of the box and manifest your dreams? Then you've come to the right show. Welcome to the award winning podcast, holding down the fort by us that wealth. I'm your host, Jen Amos, a gold star, daughter, veteran, spouse and entrepreneur. For season nine, we continue our partnership with the Rosie network to highlight motivational stories of personal growth, financial awareness and autonomy in our military community. We're also excited to continue showcasing our partnership with blue water advisors. Now let's get started.

You Hey, everyone got a question for you, what's your favorite barbecue sauce well? Evangelina blue Williams with mystic blue, a retired military veteran turned barbecue sauce entrepreneur, joins us to share hers. Evangelina shares her passion for cooking, how a homemade barbecue sauce spawned a business and the unique flavors she offers. Learn about the challenges and triumphs of Evangelina, transitioning to civilian life, attending a culinary school and participating in entrepreneurial programs such as the Rosie network, Evangelina also talks about the importance of natural ingredients, family influences and future goals of getting her products into grocery stores. Listen to her journey of culinary creativity, resilience and the pursuit of entrepreneurial dreams, all deeply rooted in personal experiences and love for family traditions. Evangelina, thanks again, so much for being on our show here at Holden on the fort by us. Fetwell, special, thanks to the Rosie network for sending over your service to CEO graduates to be featured on the show. And with that said, I hope you enjoy listening. All right. Evangelina blue, welcome to hold on the fort by us. Pet wealth,

Unknown Speaker 2:25

thank you for having me. Oh, it's

Jen Amos 2:28

my pleasure. So just to give people a hint into what you do, I first want to open up by asking you an icebreaker question, what is your guilty pleasure? Food that you love that actually might surprise some people.

Speaker 1 2:42

I would say, you know, as far as snack wise, I like those weak things that would be like the like, just the plain salt ones I can eat. I can sit and eat a whole box without even second guessing it just eating. They're like little circle crackers. And I can go through a whole bust in one city.

Jen Amos 3:02

Oh my gosh. That reminds me of my mom used to have sky flakes, which is like plain crackers, also maybe like a hints of salt, but she would always feed it to me growing up, whenever I would get sick, she's like, Oh, eat some carbs. Like, I guess I was just like, a method for her to, like, you know, help me get better with an upset stomach. But I remember, even when I didn't have an upset stomach, same thing, like you, I would eat those crackers, like, like popcorn, and not even realize it, and get to, like, the bottom of it, and I was like, where

Speaker 1 3:28

did it go? And it takes a little, like, it's made out of rice, but like, it has, I mean, to me, it has, like, a little hint of, like, a popcorn flavor, like I'd get just the sweat, but yeah, I couldn't sit in

Jen Amos 3:41

Yeah. Well, considering how that is a very plain snack, I'm sure people will be surprised if they don't know you already to know what you do and what you sell for a living. Yeah, so your business is mystic blue. And just real quickly, tell us what is your company? Mystic blue. Well,

Speaker 1 3:59

Mystic blue. I manufactured barbecue sauce. I now have three sauces. I have a sweet and spicy honey mustard and the noodles wine is simply savory. So with this little sauce, with the simply savory is you don't like the sweet or you don't like mustard spiciness, then the simply savory is just for you, because it's not sweet, not spicy, and it's not mustard based. So it's like, don't like that simply save it's the way to go. Yeah,

Jen Amos 4:26

and I know that you know you are a recent graduate of the Rosie network, serve as a CEO program. However, you have been selling barbecue sauces for a long time. Is that correct? I have that's amazing. And so what inspired you to offer a third sauce. I imagine the first two sauces were just amazing. Yeah. So

Speaker 1 4:46

originally, what made me start barbecue sauce? From the beginning, I was just home cooking, and I needed barbecue sauce, and I didn't have any, I didn't want to go just throw it. So I'm like, let me go in the kitchen and just make me some sauce. Just, you know, for. Mo, and I just made a little bit. I just made a little pot full for what I needed. And I was like, okay, came up pretty good, you know. So I was like, okay, my family had an event, and I told my sister, I'm like, Hey, I got my I made my puss, so don't worry about buying it. I'll just bring mine. And it was a big hit. People was loving the sauce. It was pouring it in Cups, and, like, taking it take home, and it was like, Well, what do you feel like, well, I can't tell you my recipe. It's like, well, my sister like, well, you're not gonna give anybody their sauce or what's in it. You might sort of sell them. Like, I'll think about that. And like, months down the road, I decided to try to recreate the sauce, if I can do it again, I think, I believe, I sent out samples around, just to get different people opinions about it. Then I ended up just bottling it, and the first sauce came out, really good, and I was being asked about a second sauce, and I was like, I don't know. I'll think about it. Maybe

Jen Amos 5:57

I see a pattern here.

Speaker 1 6:00

All right, I made a second sauce. And after the second sauce, and going through the process of everything, getting it, how you say, like, because I also want to get it into stores. So, like, it is so much to go through just because it's barbecue sauce. I was like, so I was like, I'm not gonna do a third sauce. But then I Okay, well, if I do want to get into sauce, and you have to be like three flavors of whatever. So okay, going through to a third sauce, and that's what led me to originally doing the third sauce.

Jen Amos 6:29

Yeah, I imagine that the process of creating your first sauce was like having a first child and figuring out what it takes to raise a first child, and then now you have a third child, so to speak. And I imagine that going through that process of creating a third sauce was probably a lot easier, or like you at least, knew a lot more to start a third sauce.

Speaker 1 6:49

The third sauce was easier the second sauce, apparently I handed out the first try, but I was like, no, no. Like, I gotta treat it a little bit. He's like, No, there's nothing else you need to do. And I'm like, I think about it, but I think I'm like, it's the first it's the first batch, you know, first batch. I'm like, I tried a few times, but, um, yeah, the third sauce was easier because I already knew, like, the flavor, as far as what I wanted to achieve, and that's just what I focused on. I wanted it to be a little different, not, you know, saying that you think that you can get on the shelves and stuff. So I didn't want it to taste like, oh, it tastes like this. Like, no, it's, it tastes like mystic blue like, not another sauce, because I am making it from scratch. And I didn't want it to be like, Oh, it tastes like this other bread. And I'm like, No, so I wanted to have, like, a little different taste to it. So, and I really knowing that that's, that's kind of the direction that I went to when I was creating it. Yeah,

Jen Amos 7:55

that makes me want to ask, because I'm sure that there's a, I mean, you tell me, is there like a like, what makes barbecue sauce? Barbecue Sauce versus, let's say, like, ketchup or mayonnaise, or any other kind of sauce that's out there? And obviously, you don't have to give away your formula by any means, but is there like, a basic expectation for it to be uniquely a barbecue sauce?

Speaker 1 8:18

I think so. It's like, you're not the base of airy sauce is either tomato base or mustard base or mayonnaise base. So I guess that's start off with that, and you you go from there, but it's the ingredients that you add to it that make it your own. Yeah. Okay, that

Jen Amos 8:36

makes sense. I'm just, I was just very curious about, like, how that, you know, what makes a barbecue sauce? A barbecue sauce, but without asking for the secret ingredient to what you offer. I wanted to backtrack and talk about how you even got into barbecue sauces to begin with. I know that at from my understanding, at an early age, you fell in love with cooking by watching your dad in the kitchen. Is that correct? Yes,

Speaker 1 8:59

my dad was big on cooking, like he did most of the cooking in in the house, growing up and just watching him in the kitchen, and when he especially, like, one of the things was like holidays, like Christmas, he did, like a really big dinner, that kind of and I love I love that. And Phil I, when I got older, I picked that up, and I continued to host Christmas and do big dinners and stuff like that. So with me loving the cook and all that, I ended up going to culinary school. So while in the military, I still was doing culinary school on the side and expanded what I was doing. I was really excited. I loved it, yeah, and I can I continue with it, which started my business, Mystic blue. I wanted something with my name in it. So since the name mystic blue and yeah, I continue to cook from there last year, it was kind of rough, because I did lose my dad. I. So I'm so sorry. And when that happened, I did lose my love of cooking, like I was still cooked, but it was how you say no, just just cook for that. So I had to work my way back into the kitchen, you know, like remembering how, you know my dad was like my top supporter, and how he would love to see me cook with video chat and everything, but me showing him what I cook, him showing me what he cooked, and just remembering that I kind of worked my way back into the kitchen and then by doing so, that's when I actually came out with the third sauce. Wow.

Jen Amos: 10:38

So there's a lot more meaning to this third sauce than I originally thought. Yeah,

: 10:44

because it wasn't happening, it wasn't I wasn't really. I was out of the kitchen for a minute. It was hard to to actually go back and cook and actually enjoy cooking. So

Jen Amos: 10:56

yeah, I mean, if your association with cooking is with your love for your father. It makes a lot of sense to have gone on the journey you did. It reminds me of my own dad, where, you know, he served in the military, and when we lost him, like, years later, my mom would say, like, Oh, why don't you join the military? And, you know, she was always encouraging me to join. I never did, but I was all like, why would you ask me to join the military, you know, like my like, where's the logic your mom? You know, I love my mom, by the way, but it's like you're asking me to do something where we experience something incredibly traumatic. But you know, the good news is, you know, fast forward to today, working with my husband and and doing podcasting and interviewing our community has been a form of therapy. So this is kind of my way coming back to the community in the way that for you being able to create that, that third sauce and getting back into cooking. In honor of your dad, I thought I would ask, what was your dad's favorite dish to cook? Oh, or dishes,

: 11:54

collard greens and ribs. Ribs? You just said ribs. It's good. Yes, it's funny, we would compete with the ribs, and he would tell me, he'll show me how he did through his ribs. And I'm like, okay, that's why, and I'll take it and I'll do it my way. I'm like, think I got you. But his mate, you know what? No, his mouth was sweet potato pie. Everyone known him from his pies, and I started making his pies. Like, that's why we really started competing, right? Because, like, I was like, I think my PI is better than you like, no, no, you don't like, you know, I'm like, I do it better. So that's, that's one of the things, like, like, he cooked everything, but like, he definitely was known for his pies, because people would come and buy his pies from him and be like, You got to do pie. You got the pie every holiday. He was making pies and just handed it, delivering it, delivering pies to people. That's

Jen Amos: 12:51

awesome. Did he have any formal education to making pies? Or it was just like, No, a natural skill down from my from my grandmother. That's amazing. I love that. Well, thank you for sharing that. It's very special. Let's go ahead and talk about your barbecue sauces. And I want to talk about, like, best practices with barbecue sauces. Because, like, for example, when I go to a barbecue joint, they'll usually it's served with, like, like smoked meat and stuff like that, but they'll on the table, they'll have sauces just sitting there. And so tell us a little bit of when people do buy barbecue sauces from you, from your website, as I saw, you can purchase straight from there. How do you preserve your barbecue sauces? Like, is it okay to leave it out? Does it depend on the sauce? Like, what do you recommend for people one day?

: 13:36

Okay to leave out. You can leave it out, or you could put it in the refrigerator. It breaks both, from what I was told, it lasts from the latter, it lasts up to, like, 18 months. And one of the things with my sauce, I don't have any added preservatives in my sauce, or I don't have high fructose corn syrup in this blue tree. So everything that's in is just natural ingredients, nothing, no chemicals added to the sauce to belong the shelf life or anything like that.

Jen Amos: 14:06

Yeah. Well, that's a very reassuring to hear. And in regards to sitting your barbecue sauce out, really good to know, because my husband has a tendency of just leaving out things in the kitchen all the time, and I kind of go back in there as I end the day and put things away. And he loves barbecue sauce, so I'm always like, putting it in the fridge, and I'm always thinking like, oh, it's gonna go bad if he leaves it out. But great to know. I mean, I'm sure, given their ingredients, probably dictates how long you can sit it out as well. But good to know that good sauces, like the ones that you sell, can, you know, sit out on the counter for, like you said, up to 18

: 14:40

months. I have a bottle on the counter. I have a bottle in the fridge.

Jen Amos: 14:45

Yeah, yeah. I also like hearing you know that you have like, all natural ingredients. One of the common questions I found when I was looking up just researching on barbecue sauces, was, like the health benefits, or if there are even health benefits to. Barbecue sauces. And I think a lot of times it's kind of like that concern for high fructose corn syrup. So I think it's great that you know your sauces are like all natural, no like GMO type preservatives. And I'm curious if, if, if there are health benefits, if you ever looked into that for your sauces, are there any health benefits to it? I don't

: 15:19

know about health benefits, because, like, I said the sweet and spicy, it's sweet, but, yeah, my thing is, like, I've been, like, really health conscious, and I added that as far as looking into the ingredients when I'm making myself so I don't want the glue, in other words, and it's crazy, because when you, when you start looking at labels, you start seeing, like, high fructose corn syrup as, like, the first or second ingredient in the food. I'm like, why is it so much like, it's not really needed? Is that it be needed in, but, like, it's, it's in a lot of stuff. And I was like that, I don't need that, like, I don't know why isn't there, but I don't want to have the Food Trust Commissioner upward. But added preservatives naturally, sugar is a is natural preservative with the other ingredients. So that's one of the things that I kind of focused on. Then lately, once I started doing more of my sauces, yeah,

Jen Amos: 16:20

yeah, it is pretty mind blowing to know, like, what ingredient, ingredients are commonly used, like you said, with high fructose corn syrup. I've heard before, and no one like, like, take my word for it. They just look into it. But I read somewhere where a high fructose corn syrup is just a lot easier to make and manufacture and produce, and therefore that's supposedly why it's easier to like have that as one of the ingredients in a lot of things. And so for people who may not be as health conscious or they just value the convenience of food, that's just a blind spot for them, you know, in general, neither you know it is what it is. And I think it's good that you know from even for me personally, I have learned to I like to eat local and eat seasonal, primarily because I know what's in my food. You know, I know what's in my food. I know who the farmers are. I, you know, I can talk to them at the farmer's market if I have any questions. And there's just something very meaningful about shopping local, and the benefits of like eating food where you know the ingredients to or you could even, like, read the ingredients. I know that there's some like crazy preservatives, where it has, like, the letter X in it, and I'm just like, What is that like? I pronounce, yeah, yeah. And I've heard before the rule of thumb is, if you cannot pronounce the ingredients, it's probably not good for you. Yeah. Well, awesome. Thank you for answering that. Because some of the questions I had about, I mean, the main questions I had is, questions I had is about, like, preserving and the ingredients. And just really great to hear that it's incredibly important for you to use all natural ingredients. Okay, so some tips for when people buy your barbecue, what should they and depending on the sauce or maybe the third let's talk about the third sauce. When it comes to your your third sauce, a new sauce you have out. What would you say? It goes best with I

: 18:03

was saying Ribs. Ribs are grilled roots, that and the sweetness spicy is good for ribs and grilled meats. And the sweet and spicy I put on burgers sometimes love that. You know burgers, the honey mustard is really good on salmon. Oh, okay. Like, you wouldn't think about it. Like I had to tell people, like, when they asked me, like, what should we try to salmon? Salmon? Like, trust me, put it on the salmon. It's, I grill my salmon. I base it with the honey mustard, and it's hurt. Well, now

Jen Amos: 18:39

my hope for you is that when people see salmon or eat salmon, they think of your honey mustard sauce. I feel like I'm gonna have to try that. Now, I

: 18:47

nearly had to put a video on my Instagram with the salmon and the honey mustard, because I could ask, like, what else could I put the honey mustard on? I'm like, Have you tried it in a salmon? Yeah, yeah. I

Jen Amos: 18:58

can totally imagine, like, a list of things to put your sauces on, you know. And then I, like, you said you do that on your Instagram, but for people that are like, I don't know what to do with these. Like, even when I go to a barbecue joint, I will try all the sauces. Like, I'll have, like, a little platter just with the sauces, and I'll dip the same thing in it and see which one tastes the most, Yeah, tastes the best. Which, I think is, yeah, a good way to

: 19:20

taste better. Which? What for your taste? What the sauce tastes good on your food? I have a customer that puts it on everything vegetables. He's hidden, yeah, I tried your sauce on this and this, and it was great. I'm like, Okay, I wouldn't have thought about that. But okay, yeah,

Jen Amos: 19:36

yeah. Well, speaking of your customers, can you share like your favorite story or testimonial of what people have had to say about your barbecue sauces.

: 19:47

Let me see I have walked us away saying that he had family in from Regis. I forget where he said you were from, but they they was visiting, and he had my barbecue sauce, and he like, had my. Sauce, because they throw my sauce, they took my sauce. You're like, I just ordered it, and they tried, I guess he cooked with it, and they took the bottle. Oh, my goodness,

Jen Amos: 20:11

that is funny. Sounds like you need to order some more. Yeah. And you gotta, like, hide it better. That's like, whenever I have something that I bought, like, let's say Swiss cheese that I know my husband likes, and I just try to hide it. And, I mean, there's no it's really hard to hide, like, cheese, but like, you try, and then next day it goes missing. And I'm like, Honey, did you have my Swiss cheese? And he's all like, he's like, yeah, it was really good. And like, like, he wasn't supposed to do that, like,

: 20:39

where he won't look at it, like, because, yeah, like, he's not gonna dig in the refrigerator look for anything. You gotta be like, front and center, like, on the door, put in the bag, where no one gonna look that is true. That

Jen Amos: 20:51

is true. That that actually reminds me, because, like, my husband's a little tall. He's taller than me, so I have to be like, Okay, let me, like, figure out, like, his height, and then, like, try to hide it at the same but anyway, I got to do better job at that, or at least just tell them, like, don't eat it. So at least, like, draw that boundary. This is mine. You can have your you can have your mozzarella cheese. I will have my Swiss cheese. Awesome. All right, well, before we transition over to entrepreneurship, I am curious if there is any final thing you want to share with people about your sauces.

Unknown Speaker: 21:20

Oh, I didn't buy it.

Jen Amos: 21:24

Find them on mystic blue or mystic blue catering.org

: 21:28

right. There you go. You will. I have not had a bad review where someone just genuinely did not like so I'm confident that they will enjoy my sauce on the sweet, spicy, the honey mustard, the simply savory. I'm pretty sure that they will find one that they will just absolutely love.

Jen Amos: 21:50

Love it. Love the confidence. Awesome. Well, speaking of confidence, it takes a lot of confidence to sell anything, and in this case, you're selling barbecue sauces. So I want to go ahead and switch gears here and talk about your entrepreneurial journey. So as I mentioned earlier, you are a recent graduate from the Rosie network's services CEO program. Congratulations. Tell us about that journey, because, like, this is not your first rodeo selling barbecue sauces. So, so how did you even get into the services CEO to begin with?

: 22:18

Okay, so I retired from the military last year, and when I retired from the military, retired civilian side relocated all the and since I retired, I get like programs that are better offered to military veterans, and one of them was the Wounded Warrior Project. And I was talking with the rep from there, and we just was talking about, you know, my business, what we can do, you know, just talking. And then he went to talk about, you know, his, what he did, and he briefly mentioned Rosie network. So me not knowing Rosie never while I'm talking, I'm going like, what's rosy network is, yeah, when I went on the website, looked at see what it was all about, I ended up signing up for it. And what is, it's a 12 week course for veterans and veteran spouses. And the course itself is, it was good. It's letter work. So it's not like you just yeah, you're pretty much in the class in school, and it's for 12 weeks where they pretty much show you go through everything that you could possibly need to know for your your entrepreneurship, from setting your business Up to pretty much every step, like for me, some of the steps I had already, had already done, but the speakers that come on every week, that talk to you, that tell you like things that you should be doing or things that you may not know that you should be doing, all of them is very helpful, very helpful. I was able to take what I learned and apply it to my business. It was a really good experience, and I do highly recommend veterans to to, you know, look into doing it as well. Yeah.

Jen Amos: 24:13

I mean, 12 weeks is no joke. I recently hopped into graduation, and I was talking to my friend after the fact, and I said, I think there was like six or seven people at the graduation. And I asked, I asked her, How many people started, you know, and apparently there is a high turnover rate, like people drop out within the first couple of weeks. I think realizing that it's a lot, there's a lot more responsibility to it than they realize.

: 24:41

Because, you know, it's not just, especially if you already have a business that your start, that you're working, or whatever you is not just, Hey, I have a business. This is what it is. It's actually work that you have to put into, the course that you have to complete, and there's the requirements that you have to meet. If. Or even get to graduation. Yeah, absolutely, definitely have to put some work into it. Not, it's not just to just sit there and just wait for graduation to come.

Jen Amos: 25:09

And you know that I definitely appreciate that a lot about the Rosie network is, you know, they're there to make sure that you come out of it with something tangible. You know, I think the the pitch deck is incredible, because you cannot walk away without having a clear message on your mission, and you know, product, your brand, your slogan, all the things, and also like, have that possibly available for potential investors.

: 25:32

I think that the pitch deck alone was like the best part of the program, because the way, at least for me, the way that I started my pitch deck from day one of the class, completely different, way better by graduation and like, they really, like you really work on your pitch deck. Like every, every week, every class, every presenter that comes on, the first thing they want to go to pitch pitch deck, and then they tell, you know, whether, heck, just too long to cut this out, need to add this or whatever. I mean, that part alone was really good, like they really, really helped me with the pitch deck. Yeah, yeah,

Jen Amos: 26:10

that's wonderful to hear one of the last programs I had been a part of, not related to the Rosie network at all. It was pretty much just a collection of webinars, and it felt very entrepreneur, 101, and it was just saying, like, Hey, here's, you know, here's the A, B and C's of entrepreneurship. Have fun, you know, and, and so that's what often when I you know, the guests who've been on the show, it's just so meaningful to hear your stories, because you've graduated the service CEO program. And I hear that, I hear the journey, I hear the grit, and I have confidence that there's a high percentage of you that will continue, you know, to be in business because of of the foundation that the rosary network has laid. For you very

: 26:51

much. So they were really helpful, really, really, really helpful. I'm glad that I did through the course and was able to complete it,

Jen Amos: 27:00

yeah, especially the completing part. So Evangelina, you mentioned that you recently retired, so congratulations. 21 years is a really long time, by the way. So congrats to you. And since it's very fresh, I'm curious what are the differences and similarities to having served to now being an entrepreneur, let's go ahead and start with like, the differences, the differences of like shifting. I don't know if you had a you feel like you have to, like, shift your mindset. Like, tell us about that experience.

: 27:30

It is definitely took some getting used to being out of the service, especially when you're used to the uniform and going in and just not that took a little minute, because even when I got out, maybe a month after, people were asked, Hey, how's retirement?

Jen Amos: 27:47

Yeah, yeah, I

: 27:48

don't know, still feel it's still fresh. It's still like, it's still there. But now, now I would say, I mean, I still missed it. It was when I got out. It was a, how do you say it was like, a little love, hate, like,

Jen Amos: 28:03

like, bittersweet, maybe, yeah, like,

: 28:04

a bittersweet, like, I was happy I was out at the same time, it's kind of sad, like, yeah, like, I miss it, but at the same time, my blood I'm out, but yeah, in today's telethesis. Oh, I

Jen Amos: 28:16

bet, and I bet that you'll probably feel that way for many, years to come. I'm sure. I mean, that was a that was a huge part of your life, right? That's like half of your life, basically, Alina, yeah? And so, I mean, so I guess it's kind of hard to say, like, how's it like being a civilian now? Because, like, you said, in a way, you're like, Well, I just got out it's, it's hard to, it's hard to process it. Like, maybe you haven't found the words yet to explain, I guess that experience

: 28:42

traveling way different experience I'm used to just packing my bags, going through the airport, not weighing my bags, going through the lines like, oh, wait, I'm civilian now I don't, yeah,

Jen Amos: 28:57

you're one of us now, unless you do the pre Check, like you pay in advance for those pre check things. Yeah, you're pretty much in line with everyone else.

: 29:05

The first trip that I took after retiring, after going to security and everything, finding my gains in that, I was like, I don't like this. Yeah? That was like, Yeah, this what you guys gotta do?

Jen Amos: 29:19

Yeah? I'm like, a billion I understand what you're saying. It's part of my least. It's definitely why I feel like I personally don't have a travel bug. I mean, I'm sure part of it was because I was a military kid and moved around a couple of times. But also just the hassle, the hassle of going through bag check and taking off your shoes, taking

Unknown Speaker: 29:37

off my shoes, yeah,

Jen Amos: 29:40

yeah. And they're like, oh, there's earrings, metal, you know, are you wearing a belt? Like, all the things like, I I understand, I feel your pain

: 29:50

myself, but, I mean, it's usually, it's not that, but it's just, I mean, those was kind of the perks that you had. Being in service versus being tired?

Jen Amos: 30:02

Yeah, well, I imagine that there are some perks now to being a veteran.

: 30:08

Yes, very much. There's so many programs out there for veterans, like the Rosie network, that I did not know when I was in the service. I didn't know. I'm like, Okay, so like, newsletters coming in, did you hear about this? Did you hear about that? Do you know this? And they're like, I cannot know about a lot of these programs, but I am happy that I found them out now that I am retired and have the time to put in my business that way. Yeah, yeah.

Jen Amos: 30:38

I imagine that must been comforting for your transition.

: 30:43

Yeah? Very much. So just even, I mean, it's so many programs for for veterans, it's just not a lot of them are advertised, like, if you know, kind of spread the word, but it's not like you're retired. Here's all the programs that you that would be good, yeah? But no, you actually have to, like, hear it from someone else, from around somewhere else. But, yeah, they're still, I mean, still retired, so I still have, you know, veteran benefits and everything, but, um, I'm still learning new programs to this day. That's that are out there,

Jen Amos: 31:17

yeah? Well, that's wonderful, and that's very comforting to hear, because I often, like in the past years of interviewing veterans, there's often that, you know, period of limbo, and I would dare say depression of that transitional moment and feeling like that support you had throughout your military service was just, you know, pulled out from under you. And so to hear, at least in your case, so far, it sounds like you've had a positive, if not just supportive, encouraging experience in your civilian life.

: 31:49

I mean, there was a moment that there definitely was a moment when it also, and I was out, and it was like, kind of a down moment, and that it's like, like, retired, what now? Like, there was like, what now? What am I going to do now, retired or relocated? I'm in a new area. What now? So I kind of had to find my way. I'm like, okay, you know, this is the perfect time to go on in with your business. You know, it was set aside before because of military and everything that I had going on. But now it's like, okay, this is what you're going to do next. This is, this is what I'm going to do now that I have all this time because my, one of my big thing and I retired, was having the time with my kids while they're still young and want me around, you know? Because, well, they still

Jen Amos: 32:43

want you around. I love that you said that,

: 32:47

you know, I'm not traveling here, I'm not traveling there. I'm not like, Okay, I won't be here this weekend or whatever. But actually, when you wake up and when you go to sleep, I'm here. And that was, yeah,

Jen Amos: 32:59

well, that's very meaningful. And I love that you decided to dive into mystic blue. So let's talk about the future of your company. Where do you see yourself going? Hopefully,

: 33:09

in grocery stores. That is where I am looking. Now. I want to be in grocery stores everywhere. So when you walk into a grocery store, you go down the condo, you look on his shelf. Mr. Blue, I love that.

Jen Amos: 33:23

Well, I I'm just in admiration of your journey and your story, and I really do appreciate you taking the time to speak with us today. Well, Evangelina blue, it's been such a pleasure having you on our show again to our listeners, we already hinted at the website, and I'll repeat this again in my outro, by the way, but you can go ahead and order her sauces today at Mystic blue catering.org Evangelina, one more piece of advice that you'd like to part with to any other veteran out there who you know just got out and is considering entrepreneurship. What would you like to say to them?

: 33:58

Definitely look into all the programs that are offered to veterans. There are so many out there, you just have to get out there. And you can pretty much Google what you need, what programs are out there. Even on the va.gov.gov website, you can search those, those places also, there's even programs where, if you want to go back to school, so definitely, if you're new thinking about doing business and you want to, you know, get a little help, or whatever stage you are in, there definitely programs, Even programs, as far as licensing, depending on your business site, so definitely use the programs that are out there, because they're highly beneficial.

Jen Amos: 34:49

Wonderful. Well, again, it was a pleasure having you. Evangelina, thank you so much for being on our

: 34:54

show. Thank you. I had fun. Wonderful. You. Music.

Jen Amos: 35:03

Hey there. This is your host, Jen Amos, thanks again for listening to today's episode of holding down the fort by us. Fetwell, visit holding onthefort podcast.com to access the full show notes of this episode, including resources mentioned and bonus content. Once again, the website is holding down the fort podcast.com Lastly, stay after the outro for a little something Extra. Thanks again, and chat soon. Bye for now. Hey.

Hey everyone, welcome to the outro. I need to have, like, an official title for this, like post commentary. Anyway, I don't have much major updates this chair. I'm just filling this in to fill it in, of course, as you know, or if you don't know by now, holding down the fort has a private podcast show called inside the forts. And this is where I am a bit more unfiltered about my journey as a podcaster, as an entrepreneur. And I give unfiltered post commentary about the show itself and my journey in producing the show. So if you're interested in that, or you're interested in, you know, just diving in deeper with holding on the fort and all the things we have to offer. You know, highly encourage you to check out our free private podcast, which is available at holding down the fort podcast.com, forward slash portal. So that's holding down the Ford podcast.com. Forward slash portal, I am at the time of this recording. I am entertaining a another domain name inside the fort.com, inside the port.com feel free to try that out. Also, it's still, still tinkering with that one. I think that one loads a little bit more slowly, but if that works, wonderful. All right. Thanks so much for listening, and we will chat with you all next week. Bye for now, you