Elevate Magazine - April 2022

Lessons Learned

BY MAIN STREET SQUARE // PHOTOS BY SHILOH FRANCIS

Casey VanVleck // Vita Sana Olive Oil

Casey’s parents, Charles and Merry Jane Walsh, have been entrepreneurs for Casey’s entire life. They have started, developed, and divested multiple businesses since 1991. They opened Vita Sana Olive Oil Company in Casper, Wyoming in 2012, expanding to Rapid City in 2013. “My parents encouraged my participation in the business from the bottom up. Candidly, I didn’t like working in the store. I was young and naïve,” stated VanVleck. “I was accepted into Black Hills State, started a job as a patient care tech at the hospital, recently married, and pregnant, so I thought working at the store was not the right option” added Casey.

But life quickly went a different way. Casey developed pregnancy-induced heart failure. “I realized at that moment, that my parents’ teachings were true. I needed to focus on a healthier lifestyle, consuming things that improved my health,” she explained. “Fortunately, the store manager was exiting employment at that time, so I asked my parents if I could assume operational management controls [at Vita Sana].”

For the next three years, Casey worked as the Rapid City Store Manager while she attended classes in business management and applied that knowledge at the store. “My father challenged me to do things outside my comfort zone. He guided me to lead, build community relationships, and learn business finances, especially cash flow models,” Casey recalled. “Managing the Rapid City Store, assisting the Casper Store team with marketing and sales strategies, and engaging with my parents while attending college, broadened my skills and capabilities immeasurably without me even knowing it.”

During this time, life threw another curveball when the COVID Pandemic surfaced requiring the family business to strategically pivot the business operations to succeed in the new reality. This included adjusting customer sales, sanitizing the store more vigorously, and even closing the store for a short period. “Like other businesses we were adapting in real-time, switching to curbside pickup and web-based (online) sales,” she described. During this time, Casey decided to step away from the store to accelerate the completion of her bachelor’s degree. “This was a difficult decision, as I was emotionally torn with the notion of relinquishing control over something I had a part in building. Frankly, I agonized over the decision,” stated Casey.

In February 2021, Casey had the opportunity to return to the store after finishing her degree to assist her parents to sell the Rapid City store. “After returning to the store operations, I quickly realized how rewarding running the store was to me. I missed the business, community, and government relationships formed with staff and vendor partners, and the freshest and tastiest product of its kind. I came to the realization that my parents had prepared me for business ownership my entire life, so I decided to acquire the business,” added VanVleck.

Like any new business owner Casey was anxious to incorporate her personality into the store fabric, making some tough strategic decisions in the process, including moving the store from their long-standing location to a bigger space directly across the street to allow for product expansion and new services. “I decided to offer new strategic products that highlight our rich history and enhance the existing products in the store. “I watched my dad throughout my life succeed by building a strategy, getting the right people on board, and leading the way for others to follow and learn. This gave me the confidence and assurance that successfully applying my education and experience was indeed possible. One does not realize how ready they are until they take the hardest step to start. It took me a while to realize that I was instrumental in the business getting to this point. Yes, I did it,” added VanVleck.