Meet Catharine Kuerbis | Entrepreneur, Marketing Director & Social Media Strategist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Catharine Kuerbis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Catharine, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I have historically been a happy risk-taker in my life and career. I moved to Iceland at age 18 as an exchange student (the one country on the list promising no idea what to expect when I got off the plane back in 1993, before we had the internet!) I quit my first “real job” within the first two years after college graduation, sold everything and moved to Hawaii for a work-trade at an eco-resort to try my hand at culinary arts. After earning my master’s degree and again working a “real job” doing the 9-5 with a government agency for two years, I quit and sold everything and moved to a homestead in Tucson, AZ, to milk goats and water their fruit trees.

I finally realized what I was really looking for was a life I could feel truly passionate about that allowed me to enjoy a flexible day to day schedule full of variety, comfortable clothes, and a burning desire to make it work.

I think you absolutely must be a risk taker in order to be an entrepreneur. Every day presents new challenges, and the income very likely ebbs and flows depending on a variety of factors. Some will be within your control and many will be out of your control. You have to evolve and adapt daily, if not hourly.

My husband and I don’t have children or even a dog at the moment, so I feel like our “risky” entrepreneurial lifestyle works because we only have to feed ourselves and we don’t have to send anyone to college!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My career began in book publishing, a fitting start because I earned a degree in English Literature and Mass Communications and I love everything about creative storytelling. This background led to future work in Public Relations, freelance writing, and eventually becoming the owner of my own small social media agency. I now handle all the social media and marketing for our company, HYCH Heat You Can Handle, as well as running social media for several local business clients.

Matt is essentially an artist through and through. He loves the culinary arts and he loves music — when he’s not cooking, he’s writing and songs and playing guitar on stage with his band. His career began with an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies that prepared him for years of work with nonprofit environmental agencies. He eventually followed his love of food and began cooking in restaurants, on a boutique cruise line and after going back to school to earn a master’s degree in Education he began teaching at the Le Cordon Bleu School of Culinary Arts in Portland, OR. Matt eventually rose to the top at Le Cordon Bleu and served as the Executive Director before moving to Costa Rica in 2014 to travel and work as the Head Chef at Finca Mia, a small retreat center in the jungle.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We dedicate our Shoutout to our friends in Costa Rica who inspired Matt to start creating hot sauces from scratch with garden-fresh ingredients; to our first SCORE business mentor, Bill, who helped us get our business plan off the ground in 2016; to our parents and families who continue to cheer us on through all the ups and downs; and to the thousands of farmer’s market shoppers who have taken home our sauces over the years and come back for more!

Website: heatyoucanhandle.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hych_heatyoucanhandle/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatyoucanhandle/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeatYouCanHandle/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfEo0ZtfkqblcfRfw4KiBZw

Other: TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@hych_heatyoucanhandle

Image Credits
Catharine Kuerbis