- Video shows products Jackson-area entrepreneur Karey Casto-Chrin developed and is presenting on two TV shows: Kevin Harrington's "Pitch Your Way to the Top" and "Blox" — a business incubator reality show.
- Casto-Chrin pitched pain topicals she created remembering how much her father suffered for lack of pain topicals.
- Appearances are helping her network with potential investors.
- Watch the video for a look at her products, her store, and her story.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
Not everyone with a promising business idea gets to pitch it to celebrity investors. I'm your Fox 47 neighborhood reporter Darius Udrys with the story of how one Jackson entrepreneur got the chance to "Pitch Her Way to the Top".
"My dad was living in major pain..." — Karey Casto-Chrin remembers her father’s suffering…and doctors having no topicals for his condition. He passed away in 2006.
Remembering what he went through, Casto-Chrin was inspired to find a solution.
This year, that solution became her ticket to two TV shows: "Pitch Your Way to the Top" with "Shark Tank's" Kevin Harrington, and Blox — a business incubator reality show.
“I actually onboarded to both of the TV shows on the same day,” she says.
Her pitch? Pain topicals she developed herself — using hops, which, she says, has terpinoids like those in CBD — but without the traces of cannabis.
Filming of Harrington's show took place just recently. She won't tell me who won, but says the experience was worth it no matter who wins:
"Everyone was a winner there. If you make it that far to get to go and sit in front of a panel of celebrity entrepreneurs who, like, set the stage for us, because these are the men and women who have done it. Who have made billions on their own…"
The only contestant from Michigan, Casto-Chrin says the networking alone was worth it.
But it's not enough to have a great idea or even product. Everything's got to be right: packaging, branding, marketing…all advice she expects to get filming the second show — Blox.
"When I go out there," she says, "there's a hundred of us. So I'm going to get the chance to meet a hundred entrepreneurs plus fourteen, I want to say, judges that are all incredible."
Casto-Chrin says being selected boosted her confidence. After much effort, she finally feels it all coming together:
"I just finally see my business going somewhere because I never gave up on it."
I asked her what she thinks are the chances we will see a Jackson-based unicorn out of her storefront in Westwood Mall?
She pauses, then says: "There's a good chance. I see it coming."
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