A Fresh Start

Today’s four entries are not intended to be read in any particular order, so please read as you wish:

• Cook eggs in Olive Oil?

• Defining success

• Mr. Olive Oil

• Unsaturated Market

And before you get started, if you liked the recent Fancy Foods Blog Post, I posted a video here:

Cook eggs in olive oil?

Cooking eggs in Olive Oil is not dangerous.

Paul Saladino advises to instead use Tallow or Butter citing a higher oxidative stability. But the impact of oxidative stability differences while cooking eggs is minimal

Think of oxidation as a temperature and time equation. Exposure to higher temperatures for a longer period of time cause fats to oxidize (and become unhealthy). Oxidative stability measures a fats resistance to molecular changes in an unfavorable environment.

But here's the kicker

Eggs cook best at low / medium temperature for a very short period of time. In other words, the environment isn't bad enough for a long enough period of time for the oil to oxidize. It's not a 2 hour cooking process at 450 degrees.

For those who want to lower their chance of the oxidation of your olive oil while cooking:

• Put the oil on the pan immediately before the eggs

• Use a higher quality olive oil with more antioxidants (which resist oxidation) as opposed to cheap EVOO or even Refined (Extra Light) Olive Oil

Paul does great work but sometimes the details make me scratch my head a bit.

TLDR Cooking your eggs in Olive Oil is just fine because the oil likely will not oxidize to harmful levels

Please note the above post is in response this video:

Thank you for reading up to this point. I did want to let you know palloncino.co is back up and running, so you can restock your olive oil.

Defining Success

When I started the Olive Oil brand in ‘22, my mindset was to sacrifice everything for that success. Lay it all on the line. At the time 23 years old and nothing to lose.

Now looking back, I realize there was a serious flaw in that mindset: I had never defined success.

• Was a 1M view TikTok for someone who posted this video (https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRo2o7DG/) 6 months prior a success?

• Was running a Farmer’s Market stand for the summer and selling 30 bottles per weekend considered a success?

• Was selling oil to over 40 markets in ~2 months in the Hamptons and Fire Island a success?

At each of those points of time, I always wanted more. The accomplishments were great in the moment, and while others congratulated me, in my mind it was always “what’s next.”

Until it wasn’t.

By August 2023, I hit a wall. The Hamptons expansion strategy hit a limit, the farmers market strategy wasn’t particularly scalable, and I had 0 motivation to post on social media.

Mr. Olive Oil

When I moved to Denver in September 2023, it was like moving to a completely different universe. Everyone from my existing high school / camp / college / internet, random NYC relationship bubble stayed on the East Coast, and a curious Jack wandered off to the West Coast where I knew a total of 3 people. The move put me in position to not have to bump into random Long Islanders strolling through Murray Hill on a Tuesday night.

Funny enough while in Murray Hill this past Tuesday night, I realized I did it to myself. Every Facebook Friend I bump into from the previous years of my life, greets me the same way - or some variation of it.

“The Olive Oil Man himself”

“Mr. Olive Oil”

“Palloncino King”

Also one thing I learned in Denver is to instead tell people “I’m in Marketing” all to avoid the 45 minute long conversation about visiting Olive Oil factories in Greece.

I don’t need to be Mr. Olive Oil to everyone in the world, but it could always be worse, right?

Before getting to the final entry, if you know a small business owner (1,000 - 5,000 followers) that needs help with social media strategy and content creation, reply to this email or DM me (@extravirginguy on all platforms).

An Unsaturated Market

Out of all the people who graduated from your high school class:

• How many do you still follow on social media?

• How many of those that you follow post — even sporadically?

• How many of those posters talk directly to the camera specifically as a professional creator or for their career?

Looking at my 500 person high school class, there’s Reece (@guywithamoviecamera) and AJ (@Augie_Bello).

But after that, no one comes to mind (sorry if I’m leaving you out). Plenty of people post, but it’s casual, not professional.

Even if it seems like the internet is so crowded with content, remember that less than 1% of your high school graduating class posts professionally, and apply that logic to all of America, all ages.

The social media market is less saturated than you think.

-Jack