September 17, 2023 • 42 mins
Meet Parker Olsen, a 27-year-old entrepreneur with a captivating journey of scrappiness, the journey to become a neuroscience major but went entrepreneurial, and an unflinching quest to avoid mediocrity. With a background in finance and a love for technology, Parker's unconventional path from neuroscience to entrepreneurship is a testament to his adaptability and determination. His unique insights into AI, social media growth, and the world of psychedelics are as intriguing as they are inspiring.
Join us for a deep exploration of Parker's journey, one marked by sacrifices and innovation. Hear how he lived in a tent and sold his car to finance a Japanese import pop-up camper van, the depths of commitment he showed in building his brand. Learn how he dove into the world of marketing and leveraged AI to target influencers on TikTok. Parker's experiences provide a fascinating perspective on entrepreneurship, technology, and the importance of staying true to one's vision.
In our chat with Parker, we also delve into the profound impact of AI on communication. He shares his experiences building AI tools and highlights the crucial role of human guidance in optimizing these tools for effective communication. As we uncover Parker's entrepreneurial journey, we gain valuable insights into his strategic thinking, his innovative use of technology, and the lengths to which he's gone to bring his visions to life. This episode is a must-listen, packed with inspiration, challenge, and intrigue. So tune in now!
You can Reach Parker at the following links:
www.Forij.co
Parker@forij.co
If your looking for a quality custom tattoo or piercings please head on over to their website today!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dustin Steffey (00:00):
Welcome to another episode of Chopping with
Fire.
You are joined with your host,dustin Steffi, and today we have
a unique one.
I am excited, I'm stoked tohave this individual on.
We are going to have ParkerOlsen on in a matter of moments
here.
I'm excited because he has areally good story for our
(00:23):
entrepreneurs on enduring andreally just making it as an
entrepreneur.
So if you are ready to go,let's chop it up.
Welcome to Chopping with Fire,where we bring you relevant
(00:57):
experts in the topics ofbusiness, entrepreneurship, self
development and, of course,smart investments.
Nominated by the People'sPodcast Awards in 2022 and 2023
as one of the top businesspodcasts hosted by owner, doctor
(01:17):
and content creator DustinSteffi, we are blessed to have
our podcast in the top 50,paving the way in five major
countries and counting, as wellas money raised for two amazing
causes cystic fibrosis and, ofcourse, the Boys and Girls Club.
With that being said, andwithout further ado, let's chop
(01:43):
it up.
I have on with me Parker Olsen.
(02:06):
Parker, how are you, my friend?
Parker Olsen (02:09):
Dustin, what's going on?
Where am I catching you in theworld today?
Dustin Steffey (02:13):
Right now I'm in a small little country town
named Friendly Nevada, which isabout 30 minutes outside of Reno
.
Parker Olsen (02:20):
Cool, cool.
Dustin Steffey (02:21):
What about you?
Where are you at?
Parker Olsen (02:23):
I'm on the show.
I am in Seattle Washington.
Dustin Steffey (02:27):
I mean lucky.
I like Seattle also, I don'tknow.
Parker Olsen (02:31):
I like Seattle too , man.
I love it out here, although Ithink I'll be moving to New York
soon, but Seattle is good fornow.
I've listened to a couple ofyour episodes that are just
awesome.
Most recently I listened to Ithink it was with it was a Joe
Rocco about the three chords oflife.
I really like that episode.
So I'm stoked to be on here tokind of share my story.
Dustin Steffey (02:48):
Yeah, definitely , and your story is a unique
story.
So I think, before we dive intothat, let's dive into getting
to know you a little bit.
Right, nobody knows you.
That listens, probably, and ifthey do, then that's awesome too
.
Let's just build somecredibility here.
Parker Olsen (03:05):
Yeah, I mean, yeah , sure, yeah, I'll give a little
background.
My name is Parker.
I'm 27, from Boston.
You know kind of have beenentrepreneurial my whole life.
So you know, I think about, youknow, forming.
You know who am I?
Right, on a fundamental level,I always grew up and was the
younger brother of somebody whoI looked really similar to, so
(03:27):
it was always sort of comparedto him, and I feel like I've
taken that with me forever and Ifeel like I'm now like I feel
like my ultimate fear is beingmediocre and so everything and
anything I do like can't bemediocre.
Like I was just mentioning kindof before, we hopped on, you
know, and entered a domesticpartnership this past weekend,
which you know is certainlyunique.
But yeah, my, my educationalbackground is in neuroscience
(03:49):
and finance.
You know went into sort of amanagement consulting roll out
of school and then dove intoentrepreneurship pretty hard
around the age of 23.
And it's been anentrepreneurship kind of ever
since, for about four years.
Dustin Steffey (04:03):
That's awesome.
And speaking of you having adoppelganger Ganger, keith
Ledger, is he your brother atall?
Because you kind of have thatvibe and you kind of have that
look right Okay.
Parker Olsen (04:16):
I guess I'll take that as a compliment, yeah
that's a great compliment.
Dustin Steffey (04:19):
Come on now.
He's awesome, he was awesome.
Parker Olsen (04:23):
He was awesome, yeah, yeah.
But yeah, yeah, that's a littlebit about me and you know,
originally kind of how I gotstarted was I was really into
neuroscience.
I took a course in neuroscienceand it actually kind of all
weaves through to what I'mcurrently doing too.
Took a, you know, high schoolcourse in neuroscience and we
spent the entire year learningabout what different drugs do to
the brain.
And for me, my biggest takeawayis and I don't know how
(04:46):
familiar you are with this orothers are who listen to the
show, but is that, like you know, about eight, 10 years ago I
learned that like psychedelicsare actually like really kind of
can be really medicinal andreally valuable for the brain
and for brain development.
Where, you know, previously Ikind of understood psychedelics
to be really kind of a dangerousdrug, and so that's what sort
(05:09):
of like kicked off my interestin neuroscience back in the day
and, you know, started to becomecompelled by sort of mushrooms
and just like what they can dofor overall health.
Dustin Steffey (05:19):
So I don't know, are you?
Parker Olsen (05:20):
familiar, or have you messed around with
psychedelics at all?
Dustin Steffey (05:23):
I have not messed around with psychedelics.
However, some of the greatestmusical artists that I like ie
Jimi Hendrix, led Zeppelin, acouple of them have, and most of
their creativity has come frompsychedelics.
Parker Olsen (05:39):
Yeah.
So, yeah, I don't know, I, youknow, my sort of background
starts there.
And then, you know, kind oftook a hard look at during
school and realized, you know, Iwas going to be in school for
about 15 years if I wanted tobecome a neuroscientist.
So I changed course and Idecided you know, I double
majored in neuroscience andfinance, you know decided I
would go into business.
And during college, actually myfirst day in college, I met a
(06:03):
guy in my dorm and he was on hisphone on Twitter and I kind of
looked over his shoulder and hewas on our Twitter account that
had three million followers andI was like, holy shit, dude,
what you know, what are youdoing?
Like, can you teach me whatyou're doing?
And he's like, oh nothing.
And I said I will give you allof my life savings if you teach
me what you're doing and how Ican do it.
And two days later I gave him$3216 and I just sent it to him
(06:29):
and he taught me how to buildTwitter accounts and monetize
them.
And that was kind of my firststeps into entrepreneurship.
So I was building, or I built,a Twitter account to about
800,000 followers freshman yearof college and then was
monetizing it with a blog andthat was sort of my first step
into being like, oh, like youcan do things for yourself and
(06:50):
make money and sort of open myeyes a little bit to that world.
And any guesses on what theTwitter account may have been
called?
Dustin Steffey (07:00):
Man, knowing you , knowing, knowing you I I mean,
you're a creative person itcould.
It could go one of two ways.
It can go out there or it couldbe something simple, and I just
overlook it.
So there's a million guessesthat I have I like that I don't
know.
Parker Olsen (07:16):
It was.
Uh, we called it.
Uh it was.
It was called shit, yourparents say.
But the idea was right, likehow can you relate to anybody
and everybody on Twitter?
Everybody, you know, at onepoint or in time had parents.
So, yeah, we made that and thatwas super cool.
I remember, you know, thehighest grossing day.
I made a thousand dollars in aday just from, just from running
advertisements on this blog andthen funneling traffic from
(07:37):
Twitter to this blog by postingabout the blog on a tweet.
People would go and then go tothe blog.
So anyways, you know I got intothat for a while and then
graduated college, went into amanagement consulting role.
You know, I thought I was goingto be a big, big, big root
business man.
You know, I'm sure a lot ofpeople kind of find themselves
at that point at one time oranother and honestly got sort of
(08:00):
bored and was like, okay, youknow, this doesn't feel like I'm
being challenged enough.
I wanted some sort of autonomyback and I ended up spending 30
days and I went vegan.
I thought, you know, I'll govegan for 30 days.
This could be fun.
I don't know why people eatvegan.
Besides, you know, I guess Ican understand, for
environmental reasons.
(08:20):
I wasn't super sure and it wasinteresting.
I don't know it doesn't haveyou ever tried any sort of like
dieting or nutritional regimenregimen?
Dustin Steffey (08:29):
I have.
I've tried quite a few and thebest one that's worked for me
and I do right now, isintermittent fasting.
I think it's pretty healthyactually, and healthy for your
body, depending on what you'reputting in your body.
I'm not saying fast for 16hours and go eat like a whole
(08:50):
crap ton of McDonald's, but ifyou do it right there's some
benefits.
Parker Olsen (08:56):
Totally yeah, yeah , and honestly I actually loved
doing that one as well.
Yeah, so I spent for 18 monthsand I like one month at a time,
I tried different nutritionalregimens and was sort of noting
like how I felt and honestly itwas just sort of this like fun
experiment sort of like gave mesomething to look forward to
outside of work and I startednoticing like pretty significant
shifts in how I was feeling orhow much energy I had or how I
(09:18):
was sleeping, based off of how Iwas eating, and kind of like
the biggest takeaway for me waswhen I was supplementing with
like these legal medicinal orfunctional mushrooms.
I felt really really good.
Like that month felt awesomeand with some of my neuroscience
background, I was familiar thatthese psychedelic mushrooms a
(09:41):
totally different type ofmushroom had medicinal benefits,
and so I became kind ofcompelled here and was like
what's what's going on here, andso you know next thing, I know
I'm trying to get thesemushrooms into my diet.
I'm going to you know localapothecaries and buying like
different sorts of mushrooms andherbs and I started to put them
(10:02):
into like an oatmeal around thesame time that I was training
for an Ironman and so, similarly, I was like man, this Ironman
thing seems kind of wild, butjust let's just sign up and do
it.
And you know, I kind of haddialed in the whole nutrition
thing and then by the end ofsort of that Ironman training, I
was taking these supplementsevery day and kind of telling a
(10:22):
lot of people about them and Iwas making sort of my own like
oatmeal, granola and, you know,got through the Ironman and next
thing I know I'm like at astartup conference.
Just, you know, similar toprobably what a lot of listeners
and yourself are interested in,right, and I'm like I'm going
to be here with other folks andhave you been to some of those?
Some of those like gettogethers, dustin.
Dustin Steffey (10:45):
So we just recently finished up Burning man
out here.
So I've been to Burning man acouple of times.
I've been to EDC once and I'vebeen to a couple other things.
And then, younger, growing up,I was hung out with the older
people and so I've I've beenaround it just hanging out with
(11:06):
friends.
Parker Olsen (11:07):
Yeah, Cool, yeah yeah.
And what I found out is a lotof these like sort of start up
events.
You know, everyone's alwaysasked it's like oh, like what
are you working on?
And I didn't really have ananswer because at that point I
was sort of just in consultingand so I made it up on the spot
Rule number one entrepreneurship, will it into existence?
And I just started tellingrandom people that, like, I'm
(11:30):
making the first like mushroominfused stack to help get these
mushrooms into people's diets.
And have you come across any ofthese mushrooms like lion's
mane or like chaga or gorgeousseps, any of those mushrooms at
all?
Dustin Steffey (11:45):
I have not, but I would venture to guess if I
asked a couple of my buddies,they have.
Parker Olsen (11:51):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so I found them popular,like on the coast, and the
realization these mushrooms,they're totally legal, you can
buy some of them at the grocerystore.
They've been used medicinallyfor quite literally thousands of
years in Asia.
So, like, from a documentationstandpoint, they're actually,
you know, some of the oldestdocumented like quote unquote
(12:12):
medicines that humanity knowsabout.
So really, really interestingthat they have a really long
history.
And so I started telling peopleabout this at the startup
conference and you know,everybody was like cool, don't
care.
And one guy who was an angelinvestor who was there was like
I think that's really smart, Ithink that's going to be a huge,
huge wave.
And I saw it Okay, cool.
(12:32):
And he said you know, send meyour pitch deck.
And I said, sure, I'll send itto you tomorrow.
And, dustin, I went home, Iwent on to Fiverr, I found
somebody to build the logo and Igot the logo built and put
together a PowerPoint deck andsent, sent to pitch deck.
And that was the day that myfirst business was created.
And it was all a complete sham,a total lie, and that was back
(12:54):
in late 2019.
So that's a little bit of sortof my beginning roots and sort
of my beginning history, andthen you know, I've kind of
doled into a lot of things since.
Dustin Steffey (13:06):
So a couple of things that I took from that one
.
You are a badass at buildingsocial media, because to get to
800 K I haven't gotten to that.
I don't what's the secret there?
Because you built.
You built that, I mean, andwe're in a day and age of tons
of social media, so was itorganic?
(13:28):
Did you have a bot flowingthrough to get that inflated?
Like, how did you build that?
That, that that I'm interestedin.
And then, obviously, your, yourwhole conversation is
interesting.
Parker Olsen (13:39):
So yeah, yeah, that's a great question and not
something I actually like reallytalk much about.
And and the answer?
The answer may not surprise you, or or it may.
So the guy who I knew, who heand I later found out he had
about 10 to 12 Twitter accounts,all within the range of like
400,000 to 2 million followershe showed me how you do it and
(14:01):
and what you do is is youactually find you know it really
starts once you get it, onceyou get an account up to 100 K,
which we can talk about in thesecond of how you get there but
once you get above 100 K, whatyou're doing is your messaging
other accounts that have, youknow, anywhere from 100 to 300 K
or within the same band as you,and you're trading retweets.
So like, hey, I will repostyour, your content for 15
(14:24):
minutes today If you repost mycontent, and then I'm reposting
like, like their top threetweets to my audience, and so
what you're starting to do iscross over your content into a
new audience and their contentinto your audience, and you're
trading it right.
So it's almost like a servicetrade.
So that was how I grew fromabout 100,000 up to 800,000
(14:45):
roughly.
The other major thing here islike how do I get to 100,000 and
then continue that growth?
Is the kid who I became friendsand paid him to show me how to
do it.
He was originally once Istarted the account.
He was retweeting my content onhis accounts to help me get
started.
So it sort of comes back tothis thing of like who do you
know right, who are youconnected with and who's willing
(15:06):
to help?
And you know, I remember therewere days where you know I put
out, you know, a couple oftweets a day and you know maybe
one or two tweets got some goodorganic following and so he'd
say, okay, we're going toretweet those.
And I would see you know fourto 10,000 followers in the next,
10,000 followers in a day,sometimes like on really good
tweets and like it.
(15:27):
Just sort of like he wouldretweet it on a couple of counts
and it would related with a lotof people and immediately like
we're following.
Dustin Steffey (15:34):
And I know Twitter has changed and I guess
we should be using it by itsname.
X is the new Twitter, so that'schanged.
The landscape has changed.
Does the same strategy, in youropinion, work for Facebook or
Instagram or TikTok?
Parker Olsen (15:53):
Well, it's hard because you can't trade like,
you can't like retweet on someof those platforms you could
remix right.
So I'd imagine the samestrategy may still be being
deployed.
But I also imagine that, likehow the algorithm works,
especially on, like a TikTokplatform where, like, hey, it's
not just your followers that areseeing things, it's sort of
like being broadly produced, I'dimagine the reach would be
(16:15):
slightly different.
But if I had to guess that, ifI had to guess, I would bet that
the strategy is still beingdeployed.
Yeah.
Dustin Steffey (16:22):
Today.
Good, good, I mean.
I think that those are relevantquestions considering the day
and age we're in right now andwhat businesses starting to
utilize technology a little bitmore.
I think a lot of marketing isdone on social media, so I think
it's important to understandhow do you grow your social
presence, which I still think alot of these businesses struggle
(16:44):
with.
I mean even me, being two yearsin with the podcast, I could be
a little bit bigger than I am,and so I even struggle.
Parker Olsen (16:53):
Yeah, and I will say like I actually kind of
sunset the Twitter extravaganzabecause it became really anxiety
inducing because it was likeevery 15 minutes I would have to
like retweet another accountand then like un-retweet the
previous account.
And that was kind of at thebartering system and it was like
you retweet every 15 minuteswith another account and that
just became very like stressfulto me and I didn't, you know, it
(17:16):
was taking joy away from mewhere like like sure I was
making money but like I almostlike it wasn't worth it for me
at that time and I hadn'tfigured out how to like build a
good system around that or maybelike hire someone to do that.
You know if I could haveafforded that and whatnot.
But that was more of me beingmore naive than anything else.
Dustin Steffey (17:34):
So let's dive a little deeper in your story,
because we just hit like the tipof the iceberg.
We haven't cracked the icebergyet.
You have, you have, you havemore of a story that is even
more interesting that we need todive into.
So let's, let's dive into thata little bit.
So we already know you're anentrepreneur, we already know
(17:54):
that you have that spirit andthat you do it, but to what
extent?
So let's dive into that.
Parker Olsen (18:00):
Yeah, yeah, so kind of you know where we left
off right?
It's like I was sort of messingaround with this food concept
where, like, we take thesedifferent mushrooms and we take
them in a powder and extractformat and we put them and we
fortify different snacks withthem.
So, like, we have, our flagshipproduct is a loose bag of
granola.
And you know, right when Istarted the company you know I
was just sort of following mynotes, Like I was, you know,
(18:23):
while I sent out this pitch deckI thought to myself, okay, I
better start trying to sell this.
Okay, who would buy granolaCafes?
Maybe?
So I would.
I would bake the granola at homeand I put it in baggies and I
would drive around to differentcafes and I'd be like, hey, I've
got this revolutionary granolayou know would love to sell to
you, blah, blah, blah.
Here's why it's super unique.
And, you know, got a lot ofrejections and feedback.
(18:44):
But, you know, a couple ofcafes brought me on.
And then, you know, I'd startproducing more granola and I'm
like, okay, well, I need a placeto put ingredients, and I'm not
, I don't have money to rent aplace, so I just started doing
it in my room.
So I bought like racking youknow like big metal racks, and I
put it up in my room.
And then next thing I know, youknow, fast forward three, four
(19:06):
months is I would, when I wokeup in the morning, I would move
a bunch of boxes off of my deskand like other furniture in my
bedroom, I put it onto my bedand my entire, my entire room
was covered with like 50 poundbags of oats, like finished
product, all sorts of crap whereI was like pretty, I was living
it right, and it was kind ofstressful.
(19:27):
And so I decided, you know,okay, I can't do this anymore, I
need more space.
But I can't afford any morespace.
What should I do?
And I decided I would moveoutside.
So we had a backyard I wasliving with roommates and I
moved out into a tent, into mybackyard for two years.
Throughout my bed, I moved inmore storage racks, a desk space
(19:47):
and we ended up hiring someinterns and that became our
office and I lived outside likein a tent situation.
My roommates were cool with itfor two years, while I started
to kind of build the businessearly on and people thought I
was insane, Like people couldnot believe that I was living
outside and you know, Dustin,honestly, some of the best sleep
(20:08):
I ever got was out in that tent.
I still think about that kindof to this day.
Dustin Steffey (20:13):
We will be right back after a quick break.
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Parker Olsen (21:17):
So that was sort of the next stage of sort of
entrepreneurship.
For me was like gettingsomething off the ground and
being like as scrappy as neededand shameless as needed to
possibly do that.
Dustin Steffey (21:28):
You took scrappy to a whole different level.
My friend, I mean one.
I agree with being outside andit being peaceful.
I like the country, I'm veryinto that.
I'm very into camping andhunting and all that stuff, so
I'm into that.
But, man, you takeentrepreneurship to a whole new
level.
Parker Olsen (21:46):
Yeah, and people would come, you know, approach
and be like that's insane.
And in my mind I like nevereven question it.
It was sort of like it's thismentality that like what has to
happen, like has to happen, andand if you're not willing to
sacrifice your own sort ofcomforts of life, like I would
second guess about what, how youwant to approach
entrepreneurship or if you'reinterested in entrepreneurship
(22:08):
or at all.
Because I think and you know, Ithink people who listen to your
podcast probably know betternow but you know,
entrepreneurship can get veryglorified and it's, you know, oh
, we raised this money and youknow, oh, look, how great this
is, it's all super easy.
Like no, entrepreneurship sucks, it's really really shitty most
of the time.
And so, anyways, lived in a tentfor about two years and we got
(22:32):
to a point where we had apackaged product and we were
kind of starting to sell ingrocery stores.
And when we were starting to dothat, we had an opportunity in
2021 to sell with a majordistributor kind of around the
country and I wanted to go andsort of survey these different
markets right, like what's goingon in the Midwest, what our
products sell well, here, or inSouthern California or on the
(22:54):
East Coast, and so I sold my car, took the proceeds from from my
car and I bought a Japaneseimport pop-up camper van.
So the wheel is on the rightside of the road and you know,
you hit a little button.
It's a 1995 vintage.
You hit a button and like theroof kind of pops up and it's a
canopy tent and I got it brandedwith our branding the name of
(23:17):
my brand is called Forage and Imoved out of the tent and I
moved into the van and I hit theroad and you know next thing, I
know I'm sleeping in grocerystore parking lots across the US
and I did that for, you know,close to a year, and that that
experience was was on a wholedifferent level for several
other reasons, but yeah, thatwas, that was super intense.
(23:40):
I know you had mentioned thatearlier of something that kind
of stuck out to you as beinginteresting and sort of wild.
Dustin Steffey (23:49):
I mean, if I had to do what it takes to run the
podcast and live in a van orsomething, I'd do it and you're
just kind of a testament todoing whatever it takes to get
the business going.
Parker Olsen (24:01):
Yeah, yeah, so did that for a while and, honestly,
like that, there was.
There was a moment there where,like sort of sort of had a
quarter-life crisis.
Honestly like the van brokedown in sort of middle of
nowhere, new Mexico, you know,the business was within two
weeks of running out of money.
You know, I actually ended upfiring my brother was working
for us and running operations.
I fired him.
That week I went through kindof like an emotional breakup
(24:23):
with a girl.
I was in horrible mental shapebut you know, I was by myself,
so super lonely.
And then, you know, slide aside.
I was actually also wrong,wrongfully arrested for a felony
around that same time as well,which is like a whole other
story we don't have to get into,but that was super tough.
But, you know, learned a lot.
I met a lot of customers.
I got our product on a lot ofshelves.
(24:43):
I really sort of started tounderstand the landscape of what
does it take to really sell ingrocery stores and really, by
seeing that that firsthand yes,so that was that was super
interesting.
And then after that, you know,got off the road and started to
kind of refocus on you know,okay, like I know, it takes to
kind of sell products in thegrocery stores.
(25:04):
What's next?
And I really started to take acloser look at marketing and
this is sort of where, like, mypath starts to evolve again.
So, you know, we have havethese food products are selling
in grocery stores, we sell themonline and you know, what I
started to realize was a couplethings like influencer marketing
(25:24):
.
And marketing, you know, Ibelieve, becomes easier and more
organic when you start to do,when you start to market through
what I refer to as credibilitybased sources.
So, like Dustin, you are acredibility based source.
An influencer on tiktok is acredibility based source, right,
(25:46):
people listen to you and theylisten to these influencers and
they like them and they'recompelled and they come back
almost every week.
And so you know, how can I, howcan I sort of get that story
out there and connect with thesepeople?
So I started getting into theworld of, you know, influencer
outreach and you know sort ofdiscovered some tools within the
(26:08):
AI space to actually help withsort of bulk targeted outreach
specifically to influencers ontiktok, and so I was mentioning
kind of right before we gotstarted as well, but I, you know
, worked kind of, have figuredout some systems where we're
able to leverage AI and we'reable to reach about would that
be about 1100 kind ofinfluencers on tiktok a week
(26:30):
using sort of some personalizedoutreach and some AI sort of
automation involves with that aswell.
Dustin Steffey (26:38):
So, speaking of AI, which it's definitely a hot
topic right now, what is youropinion?
Yes, I'm asking your opinion onAI and, furthermore, how do you
feel about how others think ofAI right now?
So, I mean, it's very much amixed grab bag right now.
(26:58):
When I look at opinions, thereare people that love it, people
that hate it, people that don'tknow about it, people that don't
care.
I mean, it's definitely ahodgepodge of answers.
My opinion on it is used in theright situation, it's
definitely useful and it savestime for you to be able to
(27:18):
double up on work, in my opinion, depending on how you use it.
So, like for me, I like to useit to help with, maybe
articulating tone in a post, orarticulation of a book, or
whatever the case may be.
Ai definitely is useful.
It does not replace the humanmind at all, and I will forever
and always say that I thinkwe've done a good job of
(27:42):
evolving it, but it still isn'tthere.
Parker Olsen (27:45):
Yeah, I would say overall, I agree with you.
I mean, my take on AI issimilar, right, like it all sort
of depends on how it's beingused.
I have a, you know, I reallybelieve, like, what the major
challenge with AI is going to beis not actually like the AI
technology per se, but it'sactually effectively
communicating with AI.
(28:06):
I think a lot of people havetrouble clearly communicating
their wants and needs withwhatever AI tool they're working
with, right?
And so I actually believe thatthere's going to be a huge job
market opportunity and hugeopening kind of of literally
like AI prompts consultants, andthese are people that all
they're going to do is listen toyou and your needs and help you
(28:29):
communicate that effectively towhatever AI tool you know
you're maybe communicating with.
I also sort of don't believe AIwill be, you know, autonomous,
if you will.
So I think some people you knowyou hear about like singularity
, right, it's like when dorobots take over?
And like gain consciousness.
I don't really believe that'sgoing to happen.
(28:49):
I think AI is really bestsuited with sort of a manual or
a human counterpart, right?
So you know, somebody actuallyneeds to be working with the
tool.
You know things, things, a lotof AI tools right now are still
pretty nascent and things break,or you know, lots of stuff
happens where AI is somethingwhere you just hit a button and
like whatever you want to happenhappens.
(29:11):
It often requires a lot of sortof manual input and smoothing
over, and so that's sort of myother takeaway as well from it.
So you know what I'm nowbuilding and you know, dustin,
you know kind of cut forward alittle bit.
So, you know, started to work onsome of these AI tools for
forage for my brand and thenhave, recently as well, and
doing some work for a privateequity fund and I manage a
(29:33):
couple of their consumer brands.
And right now, you know, we Ihave, along with another sort of
partner, we have about 10 fulltime employees that are all
helping with a lot of these AItools and marketing processes
across all these brands thatwe're working on.
And so you know, I don't see,you know, and we don't use AI to
(29:54):
be a standalone product.
I really think it is best usedwith sort of a manual component,
and so what we're trying to getreally good at, and we are
starting to get really good at,is is hiring really talented
remote talent Right, so it's abit more affordable, but there's
really great talent out thereacross the world that can
actually help operate and be anoperator of a lot of these tools
(30:14):
.
Does that makes kind of sensewhere it's like the dichotomy of
like human labor and AI, notjust AI?
Dustin Steffey (30:21):
Yeah, absolutely .
I mean for those that have used, like chat gpt, for example, it
builds on what you feed it.
So if you don't know how toarticulate to feed the AI, it's
not going to feed you therelevant information that you
(30:41):
need to create successful toneor do something within your tone
or voice or whatever the casemay be.
So, like for me with chat gpt,for example, I sit there for
about a half hour and I explainhey, I'm a marketing consultant
that blah, blah, blah and I liketo use hashtags and all this
(31:04):
stuff.
You have to feed the bot therelevant information for it to
spit out intellectually theinformation you need it to.
So I do not ever think and Iknow that's a pretty definitive
ever but I don't think that thehuman touch side is ever going
(31:25):
to go away.
Parker Olsen (31:27):
Yeah, I agree.
And to your point, right, LikeAI doesn't comprehend it and I'm
using generally, you know wecan talk about chat gp
specifically, right, Chat gptisn't comprehending and
communicating how humanscomprehend and communicate.
It's learned to understand somelike human dialogue, right.
So you could type in hey bro,type me out this and it'll spit
something out.
(31:47):
But you know, understandinglike how does chat gbt or some
of these am I don't want to becommunicated with to be most
effective, is really important,right.
So it's like providing anexample can be super valuable,
Providing a template and sort ofguardrails hey, I don't want
this to be longer than X, orplease use Y tone or consider X,
(32:09):
Y or Z or reference, you know,a.
So really trying to provide itas much sort of guidance as
possible versus just, you know,thinking that that understands
what you want in your head andunderstanding how to communicate
those things really effectivelyis going to be really, really
important in the future.
Dustin Steffey (32:27):
Well, I definitely agree with your take
on it as well.
I mean you and I.
You and I will see as we godeeper into the coming years,
how AI really is going to impactpeople.
In my opinion, I think it'sgoing to be leveraged as a tool
to double throughput for work.
In my opinion, I think it'sgoing to help people do their
(32:51):
jobs a little more efficiently,to add more on for people's
workload.
Again, I'm not certain whereit's going to head, but right
now where it's heading, we're inthe infancy stage of AI and
there's more to come for sure.
Parker Olsen (33:10):
Absolutely, yeah, yeah, and you know, just, I
realized, kind of now too.
I've been speaking a bitvaguely about AI and some people
are like, okay, what does thatmean?
Like, what are you actuallyusing with the tools, right?
So, just to provide somecontext, so I've built an AI
scraper bot.
So what is that?
A scraper bot is something thatgoes across the internet and
collects information, and what'sAI about?
(33:33):
It is like I've given it anexample template of like example
URLs, say, these are the typesof pieces of information I want,
and then it's able to recognizethat same information across
the internet, across multipleURLs.
So, like I've built thesedatabases where, like, I've
scraped, like usernames andemails and information about
someone, right, and then haveused that information that I've
(33:56):
scraped, sort of allautonomously.
This is all in the background,that's going on and, if trained,
you know something similar to achat GPT bot as well as say,
hey, here's all of thisinformation that we have on this
person.
Here's an example of the typesof outreach or prompts or
communications I want to send tothis person using the reference
information.
Can you help me createpersonalized outreach?
(34:17):
And here's what I'm, here's theobjective of what I'm trying to
communicate, and here's thetone and here's how creative I
want you to be, and here are thequalifications around like how
long I want it to be, andproviding a lot more of that
sort of structured detail untilyou can get like output.
That is really prettyincredible, really.
You know, I found that using alot of these tools for for kind
of targeted copywriting can besuper valuable.
Dustin Steffey (34:41):
Yeah, and again, I agree with you.
I think it's a tool, again atool, so it's not gonna, it's
not gonna replace us.
I don't think I think I got aphrase that's right.
I do not think that we shouldbe concerned with AI.
Where my concern lies is in theuser of AI, in my opinion.
(35:05):
So how effectively are you ableto use it?
So, again, we're in the infancystage, and so even for people
like you and I that are wellversed in it, I think that you
and I are still kind of gettingour feel for AI and how we can
use it to leverage for success.
Parker Olsen (35:25):
Totally Definitely .
Dustin Steffey (35:28):
And congratulations to you, by the
way, on creating that scraperbot.
That takes, in my opinion, alot of intellect, which I'm not
there on creating things likethat.
I'll create you video montages,podcasts, and articulate the
hell out of things all day long,but when it comes to creating
(35:49):
things like that, I don't know.
Parker Olsen (35:52):
It's just fun, man , you just kind of learn it.
It's like we had to have a foodbrand and we need to figure out
how to market right, and whenyou try and run ads through
Facebook, it's like thosechannels are so saturated and I
believe in a lot of alternativemarketing approaches.
And how can you go to placeswhere channels aren't as
(36:12):
saturated?
Or how can you go to placesthat aren't typically considered
traditional marketing channels,like living out of a branded
public camper van or stuff likethat?
Or I like to do a lot of stuffon LinkedIn, and so that's just
sort of evolved into what I'mdoing now.
And so if there are folks outthere that are interested in
kind of how I do what I do orhave interesting problems, I'm
(36:35):
always happy to kind of learnand just look at what are other
people working on or like hey,feel free to reach out and say,
hey, I'm working on this problem.
Do you think some sort of AIscraper bot could help with this
or automate this?
Cool, I would be happy to sortof take a look at stuff like
that for people as well.
Dustin Steffey (36:50):
Yeah, I think that that's definitely a nice
little knowledge bomb and keynugget for my listeners.
To kind of consider, wedefinitely are going to post
your contact information in theepisode description, so that's
definitely going to help out andgetting some people that are
interested in looking at thisyour way.
Parker Olsen (37:11):
Cool.
Yeah, sounds good.
I appreciate it.
I appreciate you having me onhere, Dustin, for sure.
Dustin Steffey (37:16):
Absolutely.
And speaking of getting a holdof you, what are some good
medians for people to get a holdof you if they are so inclined
to kind of chat it up with you?
Parker Olsen (37:24):
Yeah, yeah, the best spot for me.
I'm really active on LinkedIn.
You can find me.
It's Parker Olson and I have alittle mushroom emoji net next
to my name.
That's really the best spot toconnect with me.
Now, if you want to check outour brand, the website is
wwwforageco, so no m justco, andyou know, those are really
(37:49):
going to be kind of the two bestspots.
Dustin Steffey (37:53):
And again I'll have this information for my
listeners that are listeningright now in the episode
description to contact Parkerand take a look at everything.
Parker, I have one question foryou.
That one question is if youwere to leave everybody with one
big knowledge bomb and I knowyou've dropped a lot today what
(38:15):
would you leave them with?
Parker Olsen (38:19):
I think the most valuable thing anybody can do is
whatever really terrifies you.
Go and do that thing and proveto yourself that you're much
stronger than you think you are.
And I don't know, maybe itsounds a little vague or maybe
even a little cliche, but I'vefound that like for me, enabling
like a lot of.
I guess what I've done kind ofin an entrepreneurial space is
(38:40):
like going and completing theIron man.
For me was like earthshattering to be like whoa, like
I thought that was impossible,and to go and do that and then
to prove to yourself of likewell, what else is there out
there that I'm sort of limitingmyself on because I think it's
really scary or not possible Forme.
That has like opened my mindmentally to, you know, learning
how to use AI tools, which Iwould have probably thought was
(39:02):
absurd in the past.
Dustin Steffey (39:05):
And guys, just in case you missed the whole
episode, this man's been througha lot.
I mean he's lived in a backyardin a tent for a couple years.
He was selling his product fromliving in a grocery store for a
few years.
I mean this guy's been througha lot, so his knowledge bombs to
me are definitely important.
(39:27):
Thanks, dustin, I appreciate it.
Buddy, I got you Appreciate you, man, absolutely.
Parker Olsen (39:32):
I'm here all day.
Dustin Steffey (39:34):
With that being said, parker, I want to just
extend some gratitude towardsyou.
Thank you for coming on.
I have fun interviewing peoplethat have been through true
entrepreneurial journeys.
I'm not devaluing anybody who'shad it a little bit easier,
even more hard and moredifficult than you, but you've
definitely like, experienced itand you've kept.
(39:57):
You've kept going, so Iappreciate you.
Thank you for coming on.
Parker Olsen (40:02):
Appreciate it, dustin, and we'll be in touch.
Dustin Steffey (40:05):
Oh for sure, this probably isn't the last
time we talk.
Thank you again for choosingChopping with Fire as your
premier podcast for anythingwith regards to business,
entrepreneurship, selfdevelopment and smart investment
decisions.
If you enjoyed the episode asmuch as we did, please head on
over to one of our socialplatforms and leave us a comment
(40:28):
and or at us.
We do have a tip talk, we dohave a LinkedIn, we have a
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website.
Head on over towwwchoppingwithfirecom that's C,
h, o, p, p, I in with firecomand take a look at prior content
(40:52):
that we have posted.
Lastly, if you guys can, pleasehead on over to your favorite
podcast platform and leave us afive star rating and review.
We love to interact with ourfans and I would love to post
responses to your guys'scomments.
Again, this was another episodeof chopping with fire, Thank
(42:32):
you.
Welcome to another episode of Chopping with
Fire.
You are joined with your host,dustin Steffi, and today we have
a unique one.
I am excited, I'm stoked tohave this individual on.
We are going to have ParkerOlsen on in a matter of moments
here.
I'm excited because he has areally good story for our
(00:23):
entrepreneurs on enduring andreally just making it as an
entrepreneur.
So if you are ready to go,let's chop it up.
Welcome to Chopping with Fire,where we bring you relevant
(00:57):
experts in the topics ofbusiness, entrepreneurship, self
development and, of course,smart investments.
Nominated by the People'sPodcast Awards in 2022 and 2023
as one of the top businesspodcasts hosted by owner, doctor
(01:17):
and content creator DustinSteffi, we are blessed to have
our podcast in the top 50,paving the way in five major
countries and counting, as wellas money raised for two amazing
causes cystic fibrosis and, ofcourse, the Boys and Girls Club.
With that being said, andwithout further ado, let's chop
(01:43):
it up.
I have on with me Parker Olsen.
(02:06):
Parker, how are you, my friend?
Parker Olsen (02:09):
Dustin, what's going on?
Where am I catching you in theworld today?
Dustin Steffey (02:13):
Right now I'm in a small little country town
named Friendly Nevada, which isabout 30 minutes outside of Reno
.
Parker Olsen (02:20):
Cool, cool.
Dustin Steffey (02:21):
What about you?
Where are you at?
Parker Olsen (02:23):
I'm on the show.
I am in Seattle Washington.
Dustin Steffey (02:27):
I mean lucky.
I like Seattle also, I don'tknow.
Parker Olsen (02:31):
I like Seattle too , man.
I love it out here, although Ithink I'll be moving to New York
soon, but Seattle is good fornow.
I've listened to a couple ofyour episodes that are just
awesome.
Most recently I listened to Ithink it was with it was a Joe
Rocco about the three chords oflife.
I really like that episode.
So I'm stoked to be on here tokind of share my story.
Dustin Steffey (02:48):
Yeah, definitely , and your story is a unique
story.
So I think, before we dive intothat, let's dive into getting
to know you a little bit.
Right, nobody knows you.
That listens, probably, and ifthey do, then that's awesome too
.
Let's just build somecredibility here.
Parker Olsen (03:05):
Yeah, I mean, yeah , sure, yeah, I'll give a little
background.
My name is Parker.
I'm 27, from Boston.
You know kind of have beenentrepreneurial my whole life.
So you know, I think about, youknow, forming.
You know who am I?
Right, on a fundamental level,I always grew up and was the
younger brother of somebody whoI looked really similar to, so
(03:27):
it was always sort of comparedto him, and I feel like I've
taken that with me forever and Ifeel like I'm now like I feel
like my ultimate fear is beingmediocre and so everything and
anything I do like can't bemediocre.
Like I was just mentioning kindof before, we hopped on, you
know, and entered a domesticpartnership this past weekend,
which you know is certainlyunique.
But yeah, my, my educationalbackground is in neuroscience
(03:49):
and finance.
You know went into sort of amanagement consulting roll out
of school and then dove intoentrepreneurship pretty hard
around the age of 23.
And it's been anentrepreneurship kind of ever
since, for about four years.
Dustin Steffey (04:03):
That's awesome.
And speaking of you having adoppelganger Ganger, keith
Ledger, is he your brother atall?
Because you kind of have thatvibe and you kind of have that
look right Okay.
Parker Olsen (04:16):
I guess I'll take that as a compliment, yeah
that's a great compliment.
Dustin Steffey (04:19):
Come on now.
He's awesome, he was awesome.
Parker Olsen (04:23):
He was awesome, yeah, yeah.
But yeah, yeah, that's a littlebit about me and you know,
originally kind of how I gotstarted was I was really into
neuroscience.
I took a course in neuroscienceand it actually kind of all
weaves through to what I'mcurrently doing too.
Took a, you know, high schoolcourse in neuroscience and we
spent the entire year learningabout what different drugs do to
the brain.
And for me, my biggest takeawayis and I don't know how
(04:46):
familiar you are with this orothers are who listen to the
show, but is that, like you know, about eight, 10 years ago I
learned that like psychedelicsare actually like really kind of
can be really medicinal andreally valuable for the brain
and for brain development.
Where, you know, previously Ikind of understood psychedelics
to be really kind of a dangerousdrug, and so that's what sort
(05:09):
of like kicked off my interestin neuroscience back in the day
and, you know, started to becomecompelled by sort of mushrooms
and just like what they can dofor overall health.
Dustin Steffey (05:19):
So I don't know, are you?
Parker Olsen (05:20):
familiar, or have you messed around with
psychedelics at all?
Dustin Steffey (05:23):
I have not messed around with psychedelics.
However, some of the greatestmusical artists that I like ie
Jimi Hendrix, led Zeppelin, acouple of them have, and most of
their creativity has come frompsychedelics.
Parker Olsen (05:39):
Yeah.
So, yeah, I don't know, I, youknow, my sort of background
starts there.
And then, you know, kind oftook a hard look at during
school and realized, you know, Iwas going to be in school for
about 15 years if I wanted tobecome a neuroscientist.
So I changed course and Idecided you know, I double
majored in neuroscience andfinance, you know decided I
would go into business.
And during college, actually myfirst day in college, I met a
(06:03):
guy in my dorm and he was on hisphone on Twitter and I kind of
looked over his shoulder and hewas on our Twitter account that
had three million followers andI was like, holy shit, dude,
what you know, what are youdoing?
Like, can you teach me whatyou're doing?
And he's like, oh nothing.
And I said I will give you allof my life savings if you teach
me what you're doing and how Ican do it.
And two days later I gave him$3216 and I just sent it to him
(06:29):
and he taught me how to buildTwitter accounts and monetize
them.
And that was kind of my firststeps into entrepreneurship.
So I was building, or I built,a Twitter account to about
800,000 followers freshman yearof college and then was
monetizing it with a blog andthat was sort of my first step
into being like, oh, like youcan do things for yourself and
(06:50):
make money and sort of open myeyes a little bit to that world.
And any guesses on what theTwitter account may have been
called?
Dustin Steffey (07:00):
Man, knowing you , knowing, knowing you I I mean,
you're a creative person itcould.
It could go one of two ways.
It can go out there or it couldbe something simple, and I just
overlook it.
So there's a million guessesthat I have I like that I don't
know.
Parker Olsen (07:16):
It was.
Uh, we called it.
Uh it was.
It was called shit, yourparents say.
But the idea was right, likehow can you relate to anybody
and everybody on Twitter?
Everybody, you know, at onepoint or in time had parents.
So, yeah, we made that and thatwas super cool.
I remember, you know, thehighest grossing day.
I made a thousand dollars in aday just from, just from running
advertisements on this blog andthen funneling traffic from
(07:37):
Twitter to this blog by postingabout the blog on a tweet.
People would go and then go tothe blog.
So anyways, you know I got intothat for a while and then
graduated college, went into amanagement consulting role.
You know, I thought I was goingto be a big, big, big root
business man.
You know, I'm sure a lot ofpeople kind of find themselves
at that point at one time oranother and honestly got sort of
(08:00):
bored and was like, okay, youknow, this doesn't feel like I'm
being challenged enough.
I wanted some sort of autonomyback and I ended up spending 30
days and I went vegan.
I thought, you know, I'll govegan for 30 days.
This could be fun.
I don't know why people eatvegan.
Besides, you know, I guess Ican understand, for
environmental reasons.
(08:20):
I wasn't super sure and it wasinteresting.
I don't know it doesn't haveyou ever tried any sort of like
dieting or nutritional regimenregimen?
Dustin Steffey (08:29):
I have.
I've tried quite a few and thebest one that's worked for me
and I do right now, isintermittent fasting.
I think it's pretty healthyactually, and healthy for your
body, depending on what you'reputting in your body.
I'm not saying fast for 16hours and go eat like a whole
(08:50):
crap ton of McDonald's, but ifyou do it right there's some
benefits.
Parker Olsen (08:56):
Totally yeah, yeah , and honestly I actually loved
doing that one as well.
Yeah, so I spent for 18 monthsand I like one month at a time,
I tried different nutritionalregimens and was sort of noting
like how I felt and honestly itwas just sort of this like fun
experiment sort of like gave mesomething to look forward to
outside of work and I startednoticing like pretty significant
shifts in how I was feeling orhow much energy I had or how I
(09:18):
was sleeping, based off of how Iwas eating, and kind of like
the biggest takeaway for me waswhen I was supplementing with
like these legal medicinal orfunctional mushrooms.
I felt really really good.
Like that month felt awesomeand with some of my neuroscience
background, I was familiar thatthese psychedelic mushrooms a
(09:41):
totally different type ofmushroom had medicinal benefits,
and so I became kind ofcompelled here and was like
what's what's going on here, andso you know next thing, I know
I'm trying to get thesemushrooms into my diet.
I'm going to you know localapothecaries and buying like
different sorts of mushrooms andherbs and I started to put them
(10:02):
into like an oatmeal around thesame time that I was training
for an Ironman and so, similarly, I was like man, this Ironman
thing seems kind of wild, butjust let's just sign up and do
it.
And you know, I kind of haddialed in the whole nutrition
thing and then by the end ofsort of that Ironman training, I
was taking these supplementsevery day and kind of telling a
(10:22):
lot of people about them and Iwas making sort of my own like
oatmeal, granola and, you know,got through the Ironman and next
thing I know I'm like at astartup conference.
Just, you know, similar toprobably what a lot of listeners
and yourself are interested in,right, and I'm like I'm going
to be here with other folks andhave you been to some of those?
Some of those like gettogethers, dustin.
Dustin Steffey (10:45):
So we just recently finished up Burning man
out here.
So I've been to Burning man acouple of times.
I've been to EDC once and I'vebeen to a couple other things.
And then, younger, growing up,I was hung out with the older
people and so I've I've beenaround it just hanging out with
(11:06):
friends.
Parker Olsen (11:07):
Yeah, Cool, yeah yeah.
And what I found out is a lotof these like sort of start up
events.
You know, everyone's alwaysasked it's like oh, like what
are you working on?
And I didn't really have ananswer because at that point I
was sort of just in consultingand so I made it up on the spot
Rule number one entrepreneurship, will it into existence?
And I just started tellingrandom people that, like, I'm
(11:30):
making the first like mushroominfused stack to help get these
mushrooms into people's diets.
And have you come across any ofthese mushrooms like lion's
mane or like chaga or gorgeousseps, any of those mushrooms at
all?
Dustin Steffey (11:45):
I have not, but I would venture to guess if I
asked a couple of my buddies,they have.
Parker Olsen (11:51):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so I found them popular,like on the coast, and the
realization these mushrooms,they're totally legal, you can
buy some of them at the grocerystore.
They've been used medicinallyfor quite literally thousands of
years in Asia.
So, like, from a documentationstandpoint, they're actually,
you know, some of the oldestdocumented like quote unquote
(12:12):
medicines that humanity knowsabout.
So really, really interestingthat they have a really long
history.
And so I started telling peopleabout this at the startup
conference and you know,everybody was like cool, don't
care.
And one guy who was an angelinvestor who was there was like
I think that's really smart, Ithink that's going to be a huge,
huge wave.
And I saw it Okay, cool.
(12:32):
And he said you know, send meyour pitch deck.
And I said, sure, I'll send itto you tomorrow.
And, dustin, I went home, Iwent on to Fiverr, I found
somebody to build the logo and Igot the logo built and put
together a PowerPoint deck andsent, sent to pitch deck.
And that was the day that myfirst business was created.
And it was all a complete sham,a total lie, and that was back
(12:54):
in late 2019.
So that's a little bit of sortof my beginning roots and sort
of my beginning history, andthen you know, I've kind of
doled into a lot of things since.
Dustin Steffey (13:06):
So a couple of things that I took from that one
.
You are a badass at buildingsocial media, because to get to
800 K I haven't gotten to that.
I don't what's the secret there?
Because you built.
You built that, I mean, andwe're in a day and age of tons
of social media, so was itorganic?
(13:28):
Did you have a bot flowingthrough to get that inflated?
Like, how did you build that?
That, that that I'm interestedin.
And then, obviously, your, yourwhole conversation is
interesting.
Parker Olsen (13:39):
So yeah, yeah, that's a great question and not
something I actually like reallytalk much about.
And and the answer?
The answer may not surprise you, or or it may.
So the guy who I knew, who heand I later found out he had
about 10 to 12 Twitter accounts,all within the range of like
400,000 to 2 million followershe showed me how you do it and
(14:01):
and what you do is is youactually find you know it really
starts once you get it, onceyou get an account up to 100 K,
which we can talk about in thesecond of how you get there but
once you get above 100 K, whatyou're doing is your messaging
other accounts that have, youknow, anywhere from 100 to 300 K
or within the same band as you,and you're trading retweets.
So like, hey, I will repostyour, your content for 15
(14:24):
minutes today If you repost mycontent, and then I'm reposting
like, like their top threetweets to my audience, and so
what you're starting to do iscross over your content into a
new audience and their contentinto your audience, and you're
trading it right.
So it's almost like a servicetrade.
So that was how I grew fromabout 100,000 up to 800,000
(14:45):
roughly.
The other major thing here islike how do I get to 100,000 and
then continue that growth?
Is the kid who I became friendsand paid him to show me how to
do it.
He was originally once Istarted the account.
He was retweeting my content onhis accounts to help me get
started.
So it sort of comes back tothis thing of like who do you
know right, who are youconnected with and who's willing
(15:06):
to help?
And you know, I remember therewere days where you know I put
out, you know, a couple oftweets a day and you know maybe
one or two tweets got some goodorganic following and so he'd
say, okay, we're going toretweet those.
And I would see you know fourto 10,000 followers in the next,
10,000 followers in a day,sometimes like on really good
tweets and like it.
(15:27):
Just sort of like he wouldretweet it on a couple of counts
and it would related with a lotof people and immediately like
we're following.
Dustin Steffey (15:34):
And I know Twitter has changed and I guess
we should be using it by itsname.
X is the new Twitter, so that'schanged.
The landscape has changed.
Does the same strategy, in youropinion, work for Facebook or
Instagram or TikTok?
Parker Olsen (15:53):
Well, it's hard because you can't trade like,
you can't like retweet on someof those platforms you could
remix right.
So I'd imagine the samestrategy may still be being
deployed.
But I also imagine that, likehow the algorithm works,
especially on, like a TikTokplatform where, like, hey, it's
not just your followers that areseeing things, it's sort of
like being broadly produced, I'dimagine the reach would be
(16:15):
slightly different.
But if I had to guess that, ifI had to guess, I would bet that
the strategy is still beingdeployed.
Yeah.
Dustin Steffey (16:22):
Today.
Good, good, I mean.
I think that those are relevantquestions considering the day
and age we're in right now andwhat businesses starting to
utilize technology a little bitmore.
I think a lot of marketing isdone on social media, so I think
it's important to understandhow do you grow your social
presence, which I still think alot of these businesses struggle
(16:44):
with.
I mean even me, being two yearsin with the podcast, I could be
a little bit bigger than I am,and so I even struggle.
Parker Olsen (16:53):
Yeah, and I will say like I actually kind of
sunset the Twitter extravaganzabecause it became really anxiety
inducing because it was likeevery 15 minutes I would have to
like retweet another accountand then like un-retweet the
previous account.
And that was kind of at thebartering system and it was like
you retweet every 15 minuteswith another account and that
just became very like stressfulto me and I didn't, you know, it
(17:16):
was taking joy away from mewhere like like sure I was
making money but like I almostlike it wasn't worth it for me
at that time and I hadn'tfigured out how to like build a
good system around that or maybelike hire someone to do that.
You know if I could haveafforded that and whatnot.
But that was more of me beingmore naive than anything else.
Dustin Steffey (17:34):
So let's dive a little deeper in your story,
because we just hit like the tipof the iceberg.
We haven't cracked the icebergyet.
You have, you have, you havemore of a story that is even
more interesting that we need todive into.
So let's, let's dive into thata little bit.
So we already know you're anentrepreneur, we already know
(17:54):
that you have that spirit andthat you do it, but to what
extent?
So let's dive into that.
Parker Olsen (18:00):
Yeah, yeah, so kind of you know where we left
off right?
It's like I was sort of messingaround with this food concept
where, like, we take thesedifferent mushrooms and we take
them in a powder and extractformat and we put them and we
fortify different snacks withthem.
So, like, we have, our flagshipproduct is a loose bag of
granola.
And you know, right when Istarted the company you know I
was just sort of following mynotes, Like I was, you know,
(18:23):
while I sent out this pitch deckI thought to myself, okay, I
better start trying to sell this.
Okay, who would buy granolaCafes?
Maybe?
So I would.
I would bake the granola at homeand I put it in baggies and I
would drive around to differentcafes and I'd be like, hey, I've
got this revolutionary granolayou know would love to sell to
you, blah, blah, blah.
Here's why it's super unique.
And, you know, got a lot ofrejections and feedback.
(18:44):
But, you know, a couple ofcafes brought me on.
And then, you know, I'd startproducing more granola and I'm
like, okay, well, I need a placeto put ingredients, and I'm not
, I don't have money to rent aplace, so I just started doing
it in my room.
So I bought like racking youknow like big metal racks, and I
put it up in my room.
And then next thing I know, youknow, fast forward three, four
(19:06):
months is I would, when I wokeup in the morning, I would move
a bunch of boxes off of my deskand like other furniture in my
bedroom, I put it onto my bedand my entire, my entire room
was covered with like 50 poundbags of oats, like finished
product, all sorts of crap whereI was like pretty, I was living
it right, and it was kind ofstressful.
(19:27):
And so I decided, you know,okay, I can't do this anymore, I
need more space.
But I can't afford any morespace.
What should I do?
And I decided I would moveoutside.
So we had a backyard I wasliving with roommates and I
moved out into a tent, into mybackyard for two years.
Throughout my bed, I moved inmore storage racks, a desk space
(19:47):
and we ended up hiring someinterns and that became our
office and I lived outside likein a tent situation.
My roommates were cool with itfor two years, while I started
to kind of build the businessearly on and people thought I
was insane, Like people couldnot believe that I was living
outside and you know, Dustin,honestly, some of the best sleep
(20:08):
I ever got was out in that tent.
I still think about that kindof to this day.
Dustin Steffey (20:13):
We will be right back after a quick break.
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Parker Olsen (21:17):
So that was sort of the next stage of sort of
entrepreneurship.
For me was like gettingsomething off the ground and
being like as scrappy as neededand shameless as needed to
possibly do that.
Dustin Steffey (21:28):
You took scrappy to a whole different level.
My friend, I mean one.
I agree with being outside andit being peaceful.
I like the country, I'm veryinto that.
I'm very into camping andhunting and all that stuff, so
I'm into that.
But, man, you takeentrepreneurship to a whole new
level.
Parker Olsen (21:46):
Yeah, and people would come, you know, approach
and be like that's insane.
And in my mind I like nevereven question it.
It was sort of like it's thismentality that like what has to
happen, like has to happen, andand if you're not willing to
sacrifice your own sort ofcomforts of life, like I would
second guess about what, how youwant to approach
entrepreneurship or if you'reinterested in entrepreneurship
(22:08):
or at all.
Because I think and you know, Ithink people who listen to your
podcast probably know betternow but you know,
entrepreneurship can get veryglorified and it's, you know, oh
, we raised this money and youknow, oh, look, how great this
is, it's all super easy.
Like no, entrepreneurship sucks, it's really really shitty most
of the time.
And so, anyways, lived in a tentfor about two years and we got
(22:32):
to a point where we had apackaged product and we were
kind of starting to sell ingrocery stores.
And when we were starting to dothat, we had an opportunity in
2021 to sell with a majordistributor kind of around the
country and I wanted to go andsort of survey these different
markets right, like what's goingon in the Midwest, what our
products sell well, here, or inSouthern California or on the
(22:54):
East Coast, and so I sold my car, took the proceeds from from my
car and I bought a Japaneseimport pop-up camper van.
So the wheel is on the rightside of the road and you know,
you hit a little button.
It's a 1995 vintage.
You hit a button and like theroof kind of pops up and it's a
canopy tent and I got it brandedwith our branding the name of
(23:17):
my brand is called Forage and Imoved out of the tent and I
moved into the van and I hit theroad and you know next thing, I
know I'm sleeping in grocerystore parking lots across the US
and I did that for, you know,close to a year, and that that
experience was was on a wholedifferent level for several
other reasons, but yeah, thatwas, that was super intense.
(23:40):
I know you had mentioned thatearlier of something that kind
of stuck out to you as beinginteresting and sort of wild.
Dustin Steffey (23:49):
I mean, if I had to do what it takes to run the
podcast and live in a van orsomething, I'd do it and you're
just kind of a testament todoing whatever it takes to get
the business going.
Parker Olsen (24:01):
Yeah, yeah, so did that for a while and, honestly,
like that, there was.
There was a moment there where,like sort of sort of had a
quarter-life crisis.
Honestly like the van brokedown in sort of middle of
nowhere, new Mexico, you know,the business was within two
weeks of running out of money.
You know, I actually ended upfiring my brother was working
for us and running operations.
I fired him.
That week I went through kindof like an emotional breakup
(24:23):
with a girl.
I was in horrible mental shapebut you know, I was by myself,
so super lonely.
And then, you know, slide aside.
I was actually also wrong,wrongfully arrested for a felony
around that same time as well,which is like a whole other
story we don't have to get into,but that was super tough.
But, you know, learned a lot.
I met a lot of customers.
I got our product on a lot ofshelves.
(24:43):
I really sort of started tounderstand the landscape of what
does it take to really sell ingrocery stores and really, by
seeing that that firsthand yes,so that was that was super
interesting.
And then after that, you know,got off the road and started to
kind of refocus on you know,okay, like I know, it takes to
kind of sell products in thegrocery stores.
(25:04):
What's next?
And I really started to take acloser look at marketing and
this is sort of where, like, mypath starts to evolve again.
So, you know, we have havethese food products are selling
in grocery stores, we sell themonline and you know, what I
started to realize was a couplethings like influencer marketing
(25:24):
.
And marketing, you know, Ibelieve, becomes easier and more
organic when you start to do,when you start to market through
what I refer to as credibilitybased sources.
So, like Dustin, you are acredibility based source.
An influencer on tiktok is acredibility based source, right,
(25:46):
people listen to you and theylisten to these influencers and
they like them and they'recompelled and they come back
almost every week.
And so you know, how can I, howcan I sort of get that story
out there and connect with thesepeople?
So I started getting into theworld of, you know, influencer
outreach and you know sort ofdiscovered some tools within the
(26:08):
AI space to actually help withsort of bulk targeted outreach
specifically to influencers ontiktok, and so I was mentioning
kind of right before we gotstarted as well, but I, you know
, worked kind of, have figuredout some systems where we're
able to leverage AI and we'reable to reach about would that
be about 1100 kind ofinfluencers on tiktok a week
(26:30):
using sort of some personalizedoutreach and some AI sort of
automation involves with that aswell.
Dustin Steffey (26:38):
So, speaking of AI, which it's definitely a hot
topic right now, what is youropinion?
Yes, I'm asking your opinion onAI and, furthermore, how do you
feel about how others think ofAI right now?
So, I mean, it's very much amixed grab bag right now.
(26:58):
When I look at opinions, thereare people that love it, people
that hate it, people that don'tknow about it, people that don't
care.
I mean, it's definitely ahodgepodge of answers.
My opinion on it is used in theright situation, it's
definitely useful and it savestime for you to be able to
(27:18):
double up on work, in my opinion, depending on how you use it.
So, like for me, I like to useit to help with, maybe
articulating tone in a post, orarticulation of a book, or
whatever the case may be.
Ai definitely is useful.
It does not replace the humanmind at all, and I will forever
and always say that I thinkwe've done a good job of
(27:42):
evolving it, but it still isn'tthere.
Parker Olsen (27:45):
Yeah, I would say overall, I agree with you.
I mean, my take on AI issimilar, right, like it all sort
of depends on how it's beingused.
I have a, you know, I reallybelieve, like, what the major
challenge with AI is going to beis not actually like the AI
technology per se, but it'sactually effectively
communicating with AI.
(28:06):
I think a lot of people havetrouble clearly communicating
their wants and needs withwhatever AI tool they're working
with, right?
And so I actually believe thatthere's going to be a huge job
market opportunity and hugeopening kind of of literally
like AI prompts consultants, andthese are people that all
they're going to do is listen toyou and your needs and help you
(28:29):
communicate that effectively towhatever AI tool you know
you're maybe communicating with.
I also sort of don't believe AIwill be, you know, autonomous,
if you will.
So I think some people you knowyou hear about like singularity
, right, it's like when dorobots take over?
And like gain consciousness.
I don't really believe that'sgoing to happen.
(28:49):
I think AI is really bestsuited with sort of a manual or
a human counterpart, right?
So you know, somebody actuallyneeds to be working with the
tool.
You know things, things, a lotof AI tools right now are still
pretty nascent and things break,or you know, lots of stuff
happens where AI is somethingwhere you just hit a button and
like whatever you want to happenhappens.
(29:11):
It often requires a lot of sortof manual input and smoothing
over, and so that's sort of myother takeaway as well from it.
So you know what I'm nowbuilding and you know, dustin,
you know kind of cut forward alittle bit.
So, you know, started to work onsome of these AI tools for
forage for my brand and thenhave, recently as well, and
doing some work for a privateequity fund and I manage a
(29:33):
couple of their consumer brands.
And right now, you know, we Ihave, along with another sort of
partner, we have about 10 fulltime employees that are all
helping with a lot of these AItools and marketing processes
across all these brands thatwe're working on.
And so you know, I don't see,you know, and we don't use AI to
(29:54):
be a standalone product.
I really think it is best usedwith sort of a manual component,
and so what we're trying to getreally good at, and we are
starting to get really good at,is is hiring really talented
remote talent Right, so it's abit more affordable, but there's
really great talent out thereacross the world that can
actually help operate and be anoperator of a lot of these tools
(30:14):
.
Does that makes kind of sensewhere it's like the dichotomy of
like human labor and AI, notjust AI?
Dustin Steffey (30:21):
Yeah, absolutely .
I mean for those that have used, like chat gpt, for example, it
builds on what you feed it.
So if you don't know how toarticulate to feed the AI, it's
not going to feed you therelevant information that you
(30:41):
need to create successful toneor do something within your tone
or voice or whatever the casemay be.
So, like for me with chat gpt,for example, I sit there for
about a half hour and I explainhey, I'm a marketing consultant
that blah, blah, blah and I liketo use hashtags and all this
(31:04):
stuff.
You have to feed the bot therelevant information for it to
spit out intellectually theinformation you need it to.
So I do not ever think and Iknow that's a pretty definitive
ever but I don't think that thehuman touch side is ever going
(31:25):
to go away.
Parker Olsen (31:27):
Yeah, I agree.
And to your point, right, LikeAI doesn't comprehend it and I'm
using generally, you know wecan talk about chat gp
specifically, right, Chat gptisn't comprehending and
communicating how humanscomprehend and communicate.
It's learned to understand somelike human dialogue, right.
So you could type in hey bro,type me out this and it'll spit
something out.
(31:47):
But you know, understandinglike how does chat gbt or some
of these am I don't want to becommunicated with to be most
effective, is really important,right.
So it's like providing anexample can be super valuable,
Providing a template and sort ofguardrails hey, I don't want
this to be longer than X, orplease use Y tone or consider X,
(32:09):
Y or Z or reference, you know,a.
So really trying to provide itas much sort of guidance as
possible versus just, you know,thinking that that understands
what you want in your head andunderstanding how to communicate
those things really effectivelyis going to be really, really
important in the future.
Dustin Steffey (32:27):
Well, I definitely agree with your take
on it as well.
I mean you and I.
You and I will see as we godeeper into the coming years,
how AI really is going to impactpeople.
In my opinion, I think it'sgoing to be leveraged as a tool
to double throughput for work.
In my opinion, I think it'sgoing to help people do their
(32:51):
jobs a little more efficiently,to add more on for people's
workload.
Again, I'm not certain whereit's going to head, but right
now where it's heading, we're inthe infancy stage of AI and
there's more to come for sure.
Parker Olsen (33:10):
Absolutely, yeah, yeah, and you know, just, I
realized, kind of now too.
I've been speaking a bitvaguely about AI and some people
are like, okay, what does thatmean?
Like, what are you actuallyusing with the tools, right?
So, just to provide somecontext, so I've built an AI
scraper bot.
So what is that?
A scraper bot is something thatgoes across the internet and
collects information, and what'sAI about?
(33:33):
It is like I've given it anexample template of like example
URLs, say, these are the typesof pieces of information I want,
and then it's able to recognizethat same information across
the internet, across multipleURLs.
So, like I've built thesedatabases where, like, I've
scraped, like usernames andemails and information about
someone, right, and then haveused that information that I've
(33:56):
scraped, sort of allautonomously.
This is all in the background,that's going on and, if trained,
you know something similar to achat GPT bot as well as say,
hey, here's all of thisinformation that we have on this
person.
Here's an example of the typesof outreach or prompts or
communications I want to send tothis person using the reference
information.
Can you help me createpersonalized outreach?
(34:17):
And here's what I'm, here's theobjective of what I'm trying to
communicate, and here's thetone and here's how creative I
want you to be, and here are thequalifications around like how
long I want it to be, andproviding a lot more of that
sort of structured detail untilyou can get like output.
That is really prettyincredible, really.
You know, I found that using alot of these tools for for kind
of targeted copywriting can besuper valuable.
Dustin Steffey (34:41):
Yeah, and again, I agree with you.
I think it's a tool, again atool, so it's not gonna, it's
not gonna replace us.
I don't think I think I got aphrase that's right.
I do not think that we shouldbe concerned with AI.
Where my concern lies is in theuser of AI, in my opinion.
(35:05):
So how effectively are you ableto use it?
So, again, we're in the infancystage, and so even for people
like you and I that are wellversed in it, I think that you
and I are still kind of gettingour feel for AI and how we can
use it to leverage for success.
Parker Olsen (35:25):
Totally Definitely .
Dustin Steffey (35:28):
And congratulations to you, by the
way, on creating that scraperbot.
That takes, in my opinion, alot of intellect, which I'm not
there on creating things likethat.
I'll create you video montages,podcasts, and articulate the
hell out of things all day long,but when it comes to creating
(35:49):
things like that, I don't know.
Parker Olsen (35:52):
It's just fun, man , you just kind of learn it.
It's like we had to have a foodbrand and we need to figure out
how to market right, and whenyou try and run ads through
Facebook, it's like thosechannels are so saturated and I
believe in a lot of alternativemarketing approaches.
And how can you go to placeswhere channels aren't as
(36:12):
saturated?
Or how can you go to placesthat aren't typically considered
traditional marketing channels,like living out of a branded
public camper van or stuff likethat?
Or I like to do a lot of stuffon LinkedIn, and so that's just
sort of evolved into what I'mdoing now.
And so if there are folks outthere that are interested in
kind of how I do what I do orhave interesting problems, I'm
(36:35):
always happy to kind of learnand just look at what are other
people working on or like hey,feel free to reach out and say,
hey, I'm working on this problem.
Do you think some sort of AIscraper bot could help with this
or automate this?
Cool, I would be happy to sortof take a look at stuff like
that for people as well.
Dustin Steffey (36:50):
Yeah, I think that that's definitely a nice
little knowledge bomb and keynugget for my listeners.
To kind of consider, wedefinitely are going to post
your contact information in theepisode description, so that's
definitely going to help out andgetting some people that are
interested in looking at thisyour way.
Parker Olsen (37:11):
Cool.
Yeah, sounds good.
I appreciate it.
I appreciate you having me onhere, Dustin, for sure.
Dustin Steffey (37:16):
Absolutely.
And speaking of getting a holdof you, what are some good
medians for people to get a holdof you if they are so inclined
to kind of chat it up with you?
Parker Olsen (37:24):
Yeah, yeah, the best spot for me.
I'm really active on LinkedIn.
You can find me.
It's Parker Olson and I have alittle mushroom emoji net next
to my name.
That's really the best spot toconnect with me.
Now, if you want to check outour brand, the website is
wwwforageco, so no m justco, andyou know, those are really
(37:49):
going to be kind of the two bestspots.
Dustin Steffey (37:53):
And again I'll have this information for my
listeners that are listeningright now in the episode
description to contact Parkerand take a look at everything.
Parker, I have one question foryou.
That one question is if youwere to leave everybody with one
big knowledge bomb and I knowyou've dropped a lot today what
(38:15):
would you leave them with?
Parker Olsen (38:19):
I think the most valuable thing anybody can do is
whatever really terrifies you.
Go and do that thing and proveto yourself that you're much
stronger than you think you are.
And I don't know, maybe itsounds a little vague or maybe
even a little cliche, but I'vefound that like for me, enabling
like a lot of.
I guess what I've done kind ofin an entrepreneurial space is
(38:40):
like going and completing theIron man.
For me was like earthshattering to be like whoa, like
I thought that was impossible,and to go and do that and then
to prove to yourself of likewell, what else is there out
there that I'm sort of limitingmyself on because I think it's
really scary or not possible Forme.
That has like opened my mindmentally to, you know, learning
how to use AI tools, which Iwould have probably thought was
(39:02):
absurd in the past.
Dustin Steffey (39:05):
And guys, just in case you missed the whole
episode, this man's been througha lot.
I mean he's lived in a backyardin a tent for a couple years.
He was selling his product fromliving in a grocery store for a
few years.
I mean this guy's been througha lot, so his knowledge bombs to
me are definitely important.
(39:27):
Thanks, dustin, I appreciate it.
Buddy, I got you Appreciate you, man, absolutely.
Parker Olsen (39:32):
I'm here all day.
Dustin Steffey (39:34):
With that being said, parker, I want to just
extend some gratitude towardsyou.
Thank you for coming on.
I have fun interviewing peoplethat have been through true
entrepreneurial journeys.
I'm not devaluing anybody who'shad it a little bit easier,
even more hard and moredifficult than you, but you've
definitely like, experienced itand you've kept.
(39:57):
You've kept going, so Iappreciate you.
Thank you for coming on.
Parker Olsen (40:02):
Appreciate it, dustin, and we'll be in touch.
Dustin Steffey (40:05):
Oh for sure, this probably isn't the last
time we talk.
Thank you again for choosingChopping with Fire as your
premier podcast for anythingwith regards to business,
entrepreneurship, selfdevelopment and smart investment
decisions.
If you enjoyed the episode asmuch as we did, please head on
over to one of our socialplatforms and leave us a comment
(40:28):
and or at us.
We do have a tip talk, we dohave a LinkedIn, we have a
Facebook, instagram, youtube aswell, and also we do have a
website.
Head on over towwwchoppingwithfirecom that's C,
h, o, p, p, I in with firecomand take a look at prior content
(40:52):
that we have posted.
Lastly, if you guys can, pleasehead on over to your favorite
podcast platform and leave us afive star rating and review.
We love to interact with ourfans and I would love to post
responses to your guys'scomments.
Again, this was another episodeof chopping with fire, Thank
(42:32):
you.
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