364 - Josh Pauna’s story from pizza to packaging

Most people don’t set out to work in packaging. Josh Pauna definitely didn’t. Adam Peek sits down with Josh, a Minnesota native now living in New York City and working as an independent packaging consultant with Presence Fieldwork. The conversation starts with the usual podcast chaos (a quick attempt at live music, and a detour into Rhymesayers and Brother Ali) before settling into the real story. Josh’s path into the industry is classic “fell into it.” He grew up in northern Minnesota, baled hay as a kid, worked construction with his stepdad, then spent years delivering and managing for Domino’s Pizza. Those pizza days taught him the simple version of what still matters in packaging work: answer the phone with a decent tone, know your product, set clear expectations, and deliver what you said you would. Do that consistently and people call you back. From there it was commercial moving (including helping relocate Best Buy into their headquarters), a stint at Dunwoody Technical College in Minneapolis where the electrician program was full so he tried printing, running a flexo press on NyQuil labels for P&G, then a desk job on the Target packaging team at Color House. That role sent him to Mumbai to train art workers, which led to more international work with SGS/Propelis and eventually years with Arpac living in Hong Kong and managing a China team supporting big retail customers. Today as a consultant he focuses less on the physical package itself and more on the mess that surrounds it: communication, data, connecting dots between teams, and helping companies navigate things like EPR compliance. He works especially well with small and mid-sized companies (roughly 100 to 1,000 SKUs) that need a fractional packaging director rather than a full-time hire, though he also helps larger organizations figure out which specialists to bring in. Key Moments * 00:47 – Meet Josh Pauna of Presence Fieldwork * 02:04 – Minneapolis Music Scene & Rhymesayers * 04:30 – From Domino’s Pizza to Packaging * 09:52 – Lessons from Delivery: Set Expectations, Deliver * 10:58 – Commercial Moving & Seeing Big Business * 12:20 – Dunwoody, Flexo Press & NyQuil Labels * 14:29 – Target Packaging Team & the India Trip * 18:10 – Living in Hong Kong & Managing a China Team * 21:27 – What a Packaging Consultant Actually Solves * 24:47 – Who He Works With & Fractional Packaging Director * 29:07 – How to Connect with Josh A couple of lines that stuck“If you do it right, you deliver the pizza, what they ordered, they’re going to call back. And so that’s organic sales growth in a nutshell.”“The biggest problem doesn’t have anything to do with packaging. It’s communication, it’s data, it’s connecting the dots between teams.”“I’m a big next step guy. Where do we go? What do we need to do to grow the business?” Josh’s background is unusual even by packaging standards: pizza, moving trucks, pressroom, India, Hong Kong, and now consulting from New York. If you like hearing how people actually end up in this industry and what the work looks like once they get there, this one’s worth a listen. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit encase.substack.com

See All Episodes