Meet Joseph Dahlhausen

We recently connected with Joseph Dahlhausen and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Joseph, great to have you with us today and excited to have you share your wisdom with our readers. Over the years, after speaking with countless do-ers, makers, builders, entrepreneurs, artists and more we’ve noticed that the ability to take risks is central to almost all stories of triumph and so we’re really interested in hearing about your journey with risk and how you developed your risk-taking ability.

It’s scary to try something new. The way that I thought of it was that I would have grown old and regretted what I didn’t do. Starting out, I didn’t think that I’d have enough money and that maybe I was making a mistake. But if I didn’t take risks to start my own business, then I would have ended up in a dead-end job, hating what I did, and being just another cog in the machine. People at my former job were miserable. Always complaining. I told myself that I could not be that person. I pushed myself to take a step outside of that world. If it didn’t work out, I could always go back to what I was doing. I could tell myself, at least I tried.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Some people grow mushrooms as a hobby. I started growing knowing that it was going to be my career. I’ve always been fascinated by mushrooms. When I started homebrewing in 2006, the most exciting part to me was the fermentation and learning about the yeast, which is a fungus. Fourteen years later, Bigfoot Mushrooms was the culmination of my fascination. Doing the lab work in a lab that I built, expanding mushroom cultures, and watching each step in the cycle, finally having mushrooms at the end is the payoff of all of the work that goes into producing it. There are so many things that can go wrong along the way, so it’s very fulfilling when it succeeds. I started growing in the basement of our house but have since outgrown that. In 2024, we expanded to a new location that will allow us to continue to grow the business.

Bigfoot Mushrooms is dedicated to growing quality gourmet mushrooms and producing dual extracts using the mushrooms that we grow.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I would say that three qualities that were most impactful to my journey were adaptability, hard work, and passion.

As for advice, I’d say that it’s great to have a plan, but it’s even better to know when to pivot. Not all ideas will come to fruition. You need to be able to adapt and overcome. You also need to be passionate about what you do and that will show in your work.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

My wife has been the most helpful in helping me overcome the challenges of starting and maintaining a business. My wife and I take in information differently, which gives us different perspectives on problems and how we can overcome them. She helps strengthen the areas in which I struggle, and I strengthen the areas in which she struggles. Working together in different areas help to maintain the growth of the business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bigfootmushrooms.net/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigfootmushrooms/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bigfootmushrooms/

Image Credits

Hannah Dahlhausen