Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Live Your Mission Show, brought to you by Mission Meats, where our guest share their most actionable advice so that you can live a more mission centered life! 

Todays guest is Nick Mccann, Co-Founder of Mission Meats.

Things we'll discuss on the show:

• Whats going on at Mission Meats Headquarters
• Featured Customers to share their Mission (see details below on how to nominate someone!)
• Guest from all expertise will provide actionable tips and advice to help you live your best mission
• Reaper Round! Our guest answer a rapid fire round of questions while attempting to eat a whole bag of our Carolina reaper beef jerky!

When someone ask you what you do, what do you tell them?

NICK: I think about it a little bit and tell them I sell meat, haha.

Why are you working on this? Why do you care?

NICK: "I love meat. I studied meat science, I've always love agri-business, agriculture has always been kind of my dream job, dream industry. I've been involved in the meat industry for a while and this is what I do! I dream about meat, haha"

PETER: For me, well first off I've always loved jerky, I've always loved meat sticks and stuff like that. I've always loved that stuff and I've always loved e-commerce so to me it's like the best of both worlds because you get to create a relationship, build a brand where people are continuing to buy your product, and they're coming back."

What have we done that's been special? Why should the listener care about what we're doing?

NICK: Oh man, good question...turning up the heat right away! Well for me, and I think that this is something that is valuable just in general, one of the special things is that we made the company surrounded by a Mission. We made the core part of the company really giving back profits from the company. It's not just about selling meat... although, that is important, it's about giving back, donating to organizations that are doing good in the world.

I think another thing we do is we source better raw materials. We use non-GMO raw material, we don't put a bunch of garbage in the product, we're not using fillers or extenders in order to make the product "heavier" so we can sell you less product for the same amount of money... OR sell you less product for MORE money! I think that's important, you take sugar out of the equation, I mean a lot of our products don't have any sugar and that hurts yields a lot. It cost more to put out a like this but people don't want sugar anymore, they don't want garbage in their product, they don't want soy protein, or mechanically separated chicken. It would be cheaper to get that stuff, but we don't have it. So from my prospective, those are two real key parts of what we do as a business and what sets us apart.

PETER: Yeah dude, this is a great answer. The thing for me like to piggy back on that a little bit, and there are so many times we talk to one of our plants, and the plant manager will tell us "oh no, you can't do that" or "if you use that raw material, it'll be more expensive" and what do we say? Don't care. We'll figure it out, because we're just not going to do that, we won't put it in there. I think that's been really special, I also think we're building a company culture here were its not just about "more, better, faster". It's not just about working harder, and harder, and harder. We started this business understanding that we wanted a certain quality of life for ourselves and for our families. We're not going to compromise that under any circumstance, and we're not going to do that for our employees either. Thats been critically important for me, and I think that's helped us build this culture where we're not constantly over worked. Now are there days where it's really, really hard? Yes. Are there days where I wish I was doing something else? For sure. There are hard days, there's no doubt about it. But there are definitely more good days than there are bad, and when we're having several bad days in a row, you and I will have long conversations asking ourselves what is it we're doing wrong or what could we be doing differently to prevent this from happening."

"In the end, you're really trying to serve people, you have to have something to say, you have to have a product or service thats going to make their lives better. If you don't have that, then there's really no use in doing it." - Nick 

Out of all the things you had to get "better" at in your field of expertise, what would you say was the hardest?

NICK: I think I had to get better at listening more and not jumping to conclusions.

PETER: My answer is that, if I had to pick something it would be thinking unemotionally.

Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently?

NICK: A big one for me would be not vauling myself based on my occupation or how I appear to the outside world... something like that, I don't know how to put that into worlds but I think if I have learned over the past few years is that I am not my job, I am not my income, I am not how I appear or what my societal status is, Im something more something different than that. Something thats made me happier is that I don't value myself based on my career path. I suffered a bit from workaholism, worked a lot and had some issues around just working too much and part of it was just about how I saw myself, and what I thought I was supposed to be about. Turns out-- it wasn't very healthy for me

PETER: The thing for me is..Im going to be careful with this but, for me it's not paying attention to what you're good at that also makes you feel like you're fulfilling your purpose or brings you joy and just not paying attention to what those things are. And Im going to be careful with it because I don't think it has to be your profession, you can have a profession that you're really, really good at, that pays the bills, puts a roof over your head and all that but maybe it doesn't fulfill your purpose and thats okay, as long as you have some sort of outlet that can feed that.

Jump directly to Reaper Round: 30:45 

Quotes you live by:

NICK: "It's not the size of the dog, it's the size of the fight in the dog." and "First seek to understand, then to be understood."

Best under $100 purchase?

NICK: I don't buy many things... but I go to crossfit. I started doing it for my health, you know, I wanted to be a better dad... and it works for me because I love the community around it.

PETER: A refurbed apple watch, I was always a hater but it's allowed me to leave my phone behind and have my family still be able to reach me. No apps, just calls, text and music.

Favorite MM Flavor?

NICK: Jalapeno Turkey

PETER: Sriracha Bacon or Bacon Pork Stick but some days I eat the bars...I like them all, haha.

Episode Reading List:
Scared Cows Make the Best Burgers by Robert Kriegel and David Brandt 
Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin

How to nominate someone for Live Your Mission feature

• Post on social using #LIVEYOURMISSION and share with us who you want to nominate (or yourself) thats living out their mission to the fullest!
• You can also email nominations into mission@missionmeats.co

How to enter #missionreaper challenge for your chance at $100 worth of free snacks

• Grab your bag of Carolina Reaper Beef Jerky (be sure to get some for your friends too!)
• Record your reaction to the HEAT. We dare you to eat the whole bag!
• Upload your video to Facebook or Instagram and tag #MISSIONREAPER to enter! We'll pick one monthly winner.