Report From The Kitchen #1 - What Is Tallow?

All of my creations started in my kitchen.  This includes toothpowder, tallow products, and my upcoming royal jelly line. Every recipe originated in my home using only natural products.  This series is where I break down my thoughts, trends, and what is in store for the VanMan brand.

Elon’s Worst Take vs. Random IG Awesome Take (What Is Tallow?)

There was a lot of craziness in 2020 and the stock market was no exception.  I usually don’t pay much attention to legalized gambling because the house always wins but something happened that year caught my interest.  Elon Musk dropped the following tweet (this was before he bought the platform and the name change):

It is generally a bad idea for CEOs to publicly say their stock is too high.  This is one of the reasons the VanMan Company will never go public.  I am incapable of not saying what I think.  It seems that Musk is the same way.  

This statement was especially tricky for Musk because he had agreed to a vetting process for his public statements because of a prior legal case.  The market did not like this statement at all.  Tesla stock immediately tanked 10% and ended the day trading at $693.

Social media can be a crazy place but sometimes the truth of what you really think pops out and changes your business.  It did that day for Musk and it definitely has for mine.

A Random IG Post Transformed My Business

Everything changed for me when I started to sell VanMan's Miracle Toothpowder.  There was no high-powered marketing team behind me telling me what to do.  It was just me in my “kitchen” making it and posting about it.  Social media was my entire marketing plan.

It was a special time because I had a ton of time to engage with my followers online.  I got a ton of valuable feedback from those conversations.  This is one of the reasons I still pay close attention to my socials.  You never know when someone is going to drop something awesome in there.  This approach has led to some massive moves.

One day I read a random Instagram post from someone who loved the tooth powder and then they started talking about how awesome Tallow was.  I had heard of it but I wasn’t really sure what it was.  The more I looked into it the more I wanted to try it.  

I then did the same thing I always do.  I tried to make some.  After burning myself in the process a few times, I came up with the recipe that you now know as the VanMan Tallow Balm.  It has been a gift to my business.  The more I learn about it, the cooler I think it is.

What is Tallow?

Did you know that tallow has been used for centuries before the culture switched over to modern fats and oils?  It is made by rendering the fat from beef or mutton.  This is accomplished by melting the fat, which separates it into both a liquid and a solid.  When the liquid from the procedure is cooled, you now have tallow in its basic form.  It contains beneficial nutrients, such as vitamin D and K2.

At this stage, you can continue to refine it and use it as an ingredient for all sorts of cool things.  Once I got the basic method down, I was able to start putting some VanMan magic in there.  After a huge amount of trial and error, I landed on the current VanMan’s Tallow & Honey Balm recipe.

It moisturizes your skin while being awesome to use on rashes, cuts, and eczema.  It is insanely soft.  If you want to check it out, you can do that here: VanMan Tallow & Honey Balm.  If you end up getting some be warned, dogs absolutely love it for some reason so you will have to guard it from man's best friend (Cat’s, like in all things, are undecided about it).

What’s VanMan Cooking Up Next?

Next issue we are going to talk about tooth powder.  Until then always remember . . .

The van never stops,

VanMan