Meet Mari Chris Brown | Small Business Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mari Chris Brown and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mari Chris, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
We had never thought about starting our own business before, when Covid first started it was just looking for something to do. I was given the recipe by an old friend, I added some different spices to make it my own, giving them a little extra flare and started making them for family and friends.I didn’t expect my family to enjoy them so much. Before I knew it, I was baking batches of pecans every weekend! My daughter and I discussed going into business together and making this a more serious endeavor. So that’s what exactly what we we did! In the peak of the pandemic we sat down and came up with a game plan. We then decided to start taking samples to my workplace, where my coworkers began praising what they called “crack nuts” because they were so addicting. Starting this business has allowed me to quit my full-time job and work alongside my daughter in creating something we have been able to watch grow.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
What sets us apart from maybe other candied pecan business is we always say our pecans are made with love, The love from a mother – daughter team. We are most proud of the amount of stores our product is sold in. We are now in 24 stores. It’s surreal to go into a store and see the product you put your heart into on the shelf. Some challenges we’ve had to overcome is time and space. At about the 1 year mark of our business being open I was able to quit my job at Costco and work on the brown pecan full time. We also had a hard time finding a commercial kitchen that was within our budget to bake out of. Another lesson we had to learn was it can definitely be hard to work with your family but patience and determination towards the same goal can really help us to stay focused on the things we want to do with our business.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Oh we would definitely go to downtown Tacoma to look at the Art Museum and glasses museum. Make our way to Ruston and grab some amazing clam chowder if it’s a cold day at Northern Fish CO. Walk on the waterfront and look at the seals that like to swim close. The next day we would go hiking at Tiger mountain or Lake 22 and grab some delicious burgers on the way back. The next day we would have to go to Seattle to check out pike place market to see all the cool vendors, visit my favorite local artist Ernesto Yabara on the corner of Pike Place and eat at one of the restaurants in there. That night have tickets to a show at The Crocodile and grab a couple drinks.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
We want to shoutout our family first as they have supported us through this journey. Helping us at markets, promoting us at their places of work and supporting our social media! We also want to give a shoutout to all the people who have bought our product and continue to be returning customers. When people tell us they came to the farmers market just to get our pecans or give us ideas for new recipe’s. It’s such a wonderful feeling to know that our pecans are so well loved.

Website: www.thebrownpecan.com

Instagram: @thebrownpecan

Facebook: The Brown Pecan

Image Credits
The first 2 pictures photo creds go to C Livingston.