Meet Georgie Pulman-olzaski

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Georgie Pulman-olzaski. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Georgie, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

Like most small businesses mine started out because I had a need, and there wasn’t a solution in the marketplace. The year was 2007, my husband and I were working as professional skydivers in Waialua, Hawaii when we discovered a mother and three Pitbull/Rottweiler, newly born puppies that were being neglected. They were in a dreadful condition and had fleas at 6 days old, it was absolutely heartbreaking. We worked with the owner so that we could care for the mother and puppies, and ensure the puppies would find good homes … and of course, one of the puppies chose us to be her family.

Pit mixes are generally pretty easy to train, if you do it properly, and Jazzy Jasmine was great, however there will eventually come a need when any K9 parent needs a high value dog treat; one made with high quality, nutritional content, with no sugar, salt, or preservatives, and I couldn’t find any that met this criteria. I was flabbergasted, and bearing in mind this was before the grain free explosion of dog treats we have now. So, I started making my own using organic ingredients we had in our fridge, googling recipes and adapting them to my own needs. I gave them Hawaiian names such as Huli Huli Chicken (made with organic chicken broth), Kalua Pig (with real bacon pieces and organic eggs) and Hale’iwa Pizza (made with cheddar cheese). Our kitchen always smelt good and Jazzy and her friends loved the treats. Then Annie Suite and Pamela Boyer asked if I would like to sell at the Hale’iwa Farmers Market and that is how our small business started, we called it HawaiiDoggyStyle (a risky, but memorable name).

At the farmers market I met Terry the butcher, who sold free range beef products. He asked me if I had considered making dog treats out of beef liver, I told him I could make dog treats out of anything, note to self, next time check the arrogance at the door, because I had no idea how to handle, cut or dehydrate a cow’s liver. A cow’s liver is approximately 10lbs and they contain a lot, and I mean a huge amount of blood, and when I cut into it the blood squirted all over our kitchen, up the walls, it even hit the ceiling. When my husband came home from work he thought I had chopped off my fingers and asked if I needed to go to the hospitial. It looked like the scene from Monty Python’s Holy Grail “It’s only a flesh wound”. Dehydrating liver in our kitchen ensured our kitchen went from smelling delicious to disgusting LOL. However, the beef liver was a massive hit with the dogs, and it proved to be a fantastic training treat for even the most distracted dog because I didn’t add any preservatives or fillers. I called it K9 Crack because dogs would do anything for it.

In 2014 we moved to Roseburg, Oregon, my business tanked, and I got quite depressed because I couldn’t find work. Fortunately, my husband suggested I study for a business degree at our local community college. The classes were great and allowed me the opportunity to rethink my business plan, I decided to specialize in single ingredient dog treats, sourcing from local free-range farmers, thereby supporting our local community. Our local SBDC (Small Business Development Center) was a fantastic resource with free mentoring and advice, so that I managed to rebrand my business and relaunch it in 2019 as K9 CRACK – Single Ingredient Dog Treats.

Even today, my business is one of the only brands that contains just one ingredient, and trying to educate dog owners about the importance of giving our dogs healthy, nutritional dog treats is hard, because eating right is not cheap. However, as we like to say “less is more”; when you use K9 CRACK Liver Stix for training, you only need a small piece because the flavor is so intense.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I am totally focused on growing my online business, and spreading the word about the importance of ensuring your dog has a wholesome, nutritional diet through the use of single ingredient dog treats. The upside is it helps your K9 maintain a healthy weight, ensures your dog remains active and happy, and reduces vet bills.

At K9 CRACK we also understand that not everybody has the time or resources to feed raw, so we have meal toppers available to enhance your dog’s kibble, and when you add some raw veggies, sweet potato and/or blueberries to the kibble it suddenly becomes a more exciting, and nutritious, meal for your dog.

We all want our dogs to live forever, they are as fundamental to our happiness as we are to theirs, but unfortunately there are too many dog treats on the market that contain sugar, salt, preservatives and fillers, basically junk, that are detrimental to our dogs overall health and wellbeing, and don’t get me started on the dangers of giving your dog rawhide as a treat … it should be banned.

My advice is, always read the label on the treat bag, to ensure you are not paying for a lot of high calorie, low nutrition ingredients, and check to make sure that the product is “sourced” and “made in the USA”, there are dog treats out there that are sourced in China (this will be hidden in the small print) but say they are made in the USA. We have several blogs regarding how to read food labels, what is the difference between freeze dried and dehydrated dog treats and basic dog training using K9 CRACK. I am always happy to answer questions anyone may have regarding our dog treats. We make K9 CRACK because we love our dogs, they are part of our family, and your dog will only get K9 CRACK that has been approved by my dog and his friends.

I love what I do, it is the hardest job I have ever done, but the most fulfilling. Nutrition is paramount for a healthier, longer, more active life, and staying active is much more fun with a dog.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Tenacity: If you really feel passionate about what you want to do, do it, however, you have to listen to the Universe and if it isn’t working out you will need to alter or change direction. Like when we moved from Hale’iwa to Roseburg, I felt like I had lost my identity but going back to college allowed me to rebrand my business and grow.

Listen: It used to absolute gut me when someone critized my business because it felt personal. What I have learnt is ‘don’t take it personally’, listen without getting defensive because sometimes that person may say something that fixes a problem, or it may be a piece of grit that will grow into a gem.

I take notes on everything, that way I don’t have to remember anything, and I date everything, that way I can go back over my notes at a later date and either discard, or keep my musings.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

My parents were entrepreneurs and had their own transportation business, so being a business owner has always been an option for both me and my sister.

I grew up in the UK, and culturally it is surprisingly different from the US, for one thing it is very close to Europe, so vacations were always in another country, with different cultures and languages. The first time we went to Switzerland my sister, and I were 7 and 8 years old. My parents sent us to ski-school with the hope that we would learn to ski like the local Swiss children. They expected us to communicate (even though we spoke different languages), and ski just like them. The Swiss kids had been skiing from the time they could walk, they were good, and although I managed to keep up, I lacked the style and panache of the local kids. At the end of the week there were races to practice the skills we had learnt at ski-school, I remember flying down those slopes, arms wide and skinny, legs grappling to master the art of the snowplow, barely making the gates and being terrified that I wouldn’t be able to stop at the end. I didn’t win, but I did manage to stop, that in itself was a victory. My parent’s attitude was “there is no reason why you shouldn’t win if you work hard enough and take risks”.

More often than not I didn’t win the competitions I entered, and I have come second more times that I can count, but every experience is another chance to learn and excel, and the times when I have won is because I was ready, prepared, and present to take advantage of the opportunity at hand. My parents have always encouraged me to take risks, whether it’s moving to the USA to become a professional skydiver, backpacking in Egypt, or SUBA diving with sharks in Australia. Everything in life has risk, even crossing the road, but it’s about minimizing the risk, and having a Plan B.

I am fortunate to have parents with such a great sense of adventure; we went Wing-walking on a bi-plane for my 50th birthday, a mule ride into the bottom of the Grand Canyon when they were in their mid-sixties, and I took my dad on his first skydive when he was 63, he did his second when he was 65 and he still raves about it. They are great role models, although slightly eccentric, and I am so fortunate to have had the opportunities I have. I hope I have lived up to their expectations, and that they are as proud of me as I am of them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.K9CRACK.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/k9crack/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/K9Crack/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pQbHkVVeM8

Image Credits

Mike McGowan