Daily Inspiration: Meet Hamilton Pevec

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hamilton Pevec.

Hi Hamilton, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I went on my first mushroom hunt in 2009 and I fell in love with the seeking, the treasure, the ecology, the forest, the Latin, the role mushrooms play in the environment, the terps, and the soil. That first hunt inoculated me.

I learned to ID wild mushrooms with the help of an expert guide and a few good book recommendations. I spent the next 14 years reading and learning and adding new mushrooms to my ID list. To this day I continue to learn new mushrooms and how to incorporate them into my life.

It took me ten years before I discovered that there were such things as mushroom clubs or even FB pages. When those doors opened, it was almost too much to handle.

I traveled the world hunting mushrooms. I discovered cultivation and tried to cultivate mushrooms with some success, I spent six years being a farmer in Nepal. Deepening my relationship with the land, my food and the cycles of the earth. I really wanted to be a farmer. To me, it was a personal solution to my impact on the earth.

When my grandfather began to lose his mind I learned about the lion’s mane as a medicinal mushroom. I began to unravelled the whole functional mushroom space. Each species is a new powerful tool in the box.

The results were measurable and I fell in love again, face down in the duff, heels overhead.

Everything I learned about fungi just increased the love, the curiosity and the desire to go deeper. It was a kind of insatiable thirst fueled by the impacts that the fungi had on my body, mind and spirit.

I want to share that love by telling stories and making mycology-centered films. As a career filmmaker, I had to ask myself how was I going to pay for these films? then I decided to piggyback on my success as an international mushroom broker and go direct to consumer with my own brand.

I started Hamilton’s organic mushroom extracts.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
For the most part, it has been a long winding road. I don’t believe the saying “do what you love and never work a day in your life.” the risk is that when you monetize your love you risk falling out of love with the thing.

The millennial phenomenon of the “side hustle” is a kind of curse. Why can’t we just keep our hobbies hobbies?

I got the wind knocked out of me when I decided to go all-in on this mushrooms for movies idea. It was scary because I have a six years old daughter and a one-year-old son and a stay-at-home wife that raises our children. It was scary because I was actively and consciously removing my job security and a regular income. Some might say it is irresponsible, others might call it inspiring. For me it is life. I would rather be working from home and present for my wife and kids then away from home grinding and dreaming of the things I’m not doing.

This way, if I fail, at least I can say that I tried. I won’t ever regret trying and failing…well that is the best kind of learning there is because the lesson sticks and at the very least you have educated yourself.

From the business side, the struggle is in the lack of capital. I know now how truly important the capital is. Learning this opened my naive eyes to the nature of the system. So I am staggering, baby-stepping my way up. I don’t have enough money to buy all the materials I need. So I have to buy what I can then wait for the money to come back, then take a tiny step forward and repeat the process. With a big chunk of change I can take a big step, and that would be like a catapult for the business.

I designed my company to scale easily. So I know that it is only a matter of time before the data supports the best kind of investment and investor. Making money is easy, anyone can do that, however growing a business, like raising children is a completely different story.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a filmmaker, among other things. I have been doing documentary production since 2002. I fell into documentaries because I could do it alone for the most part. whereas fiction requires a lot of other talented people. Documentary was convenient.

I don’t think I am known for any of my films but if I had to choose one I would say it was Hanuman Airlines: Fly Over Everest. About two Nepali guys who climb Mt. Everest and launch a paraglider from the summit…..then kayak to the ocean. The pilot, Babu never climbed a mountain before. And Lakpa the climber doesn’t know how to swim. Neither of them had seen the ocean before.

Most of my films are themed around the environment, education, or the inner life. But now, they are all about fungi and the people involved with fungi.

I have a kind of rough style when it comes to my films, it took me a long time to fully appreciate the difficulty in telling a well-crafted story. So that is always my goal now, tell a good story and don’t worry about the fancy cameras or flashy editing.

The thing that sets me apart is allowing the content, my subjects and the BROLL to tell the story. Go where the footage takes you.

What does success mean to you?
Do you care about what you are doing? Does that action hold meaning?

Does the work fulfill something within you?

Success is many things to me right now because I am many things.

I am a father so when I am present for my kids then I am successful. I am a husband so when I am a caring supportive partner I am successful. I am an entrepreneur so when I make a sale I do a little dance, that is deeply satisfying because somehow I managed to convince a complete stranger to buy my mushrooms! When I update my website or write an article or a report or even better: complete a mycology documentary, or do a great interview with an expert mycologist… then I am successful!

Success is so many things, even failure is a kind of success in my eyes. Because it means that I didn’t let fear guide my choice it means I did something creative, and it means that I learned something! Failure is something to embrace, you don’t have to aim for it, but you don’t have to be scared of it either.

I am also a son, a brother, a mentor and an individual within a community. So I am very blessed with many ways to define success.

Pricing:

• 100g is $40, good for 50-100 days
• 200g is $60
• 500g is $120
• Buy bulk it’s better for everything and everyone.

Contact Info:

• Email: Hamiltonsmushrooms@gmail.com
• Website: hamiltonsmushrooms.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hamiltonsmushrooms/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hamiltonsmushrooms/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCthuP_IQ1-EatQ3m5RnlNEw
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@hamiltonsmushrooms?lang=en

Image Credits
Tatiana Vint