Stay ConnectedBrand Builder brings you the people, stories, and lessons learned from the most innovative brands in the world. Presented by SnackNation. Hosted by Sean Kelly, Jordan Cohen, and Jeff Murphy.
Similar to How I Built This, The Dave Ramsey Show, and Seeking Wisdom by Drift.
For Brendan Brazier, Pulp Culture all started with a question:
Why are there so many health-obsessed people who are absolutely unwilling to compromise on what they eat, yet so ready to compromise when it comes to alcohol? Why don't we hold alcohol to the same high standards as food?
The answer, he realized, was that Pulp Culture didn't exist yet.
Brendan is a former pro triathlete and a two-time Canadian 50km ultra marathon champion. He's also the founder of the hugely successful Vega Protein Powder line, which he successfully sold to Danone. And of course, he was one of those people who are so adamant about healthy eating, yet constantly forced to compromise when it came to having the occasional beer or cocktail with friends.
His latest venture, Pulp Culture, solves this dilemma by taking 100% raw, fresh juice and allowing it to naturally ferment over three months through a process called "wild fermentation." That means that there are no starters like yeast or sugar. All the fermentation comes from naturally occurring ambient bacteria.
The result is a zero-additive, zero-sugar alcoholic beverage with 6 billion naturally-occurring probiotics, and B vitamins.
In other words, an adult beverage that's actually good for you.
In this interview, Brendan breaks down how he built the Vega brand, the parallels between building a business and rising in the sport of triathlon, the philosophy behind his successful Thrive book series, and why he's so excited about the opportunity that lies ahead for Pulp Culture.
What do you get when you throw a serial entrepreneur, a vegan chef, and Rob Dyrdek in the same room?
Turns out, the perfect plant-based pork rind.
This week's guest is Bill Glaser, the founder and CEO of Outstanding Foods.
Outstanding make snack foods that are full of flavor and free of guilt - both because they're nutritious, and because they are made completely sans animal products.
Bill started the company with co-founder Chef Dave Anderson, who also happens to be the former lead product developer at Beyond Meat.
Outstanding's first product is the PigOut Pigless Pork Rinds… which are 100% plant-based.
We talked to Bill about why loves high growth companies, why Outstanding is a decidedly judgment-free brand, and the surprising consumer forces driving the meat-alternative movement. And of course, we learn how Rob Dyrdek became a lead investor and ultimately helped him develop the brand.
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Brand Builder is a co-production of SnackNation and ForceBrands.
Not to alarm you, but… Expo West is less than two weeks away.
Of course, if you're listening to this podcast, you're probably well aware of that fact.
Because if you're in the natural foods and CPG space, it's sort of taken as a given - the Natural Products Expo West is a big deal. A very big deal.
The numbers help tell that story. 2020 is on track to be the biggest Expo ever. We're talking:
But is Expo West right for your brand? And how do you make sure you make the most out of the show? What are the insider secrets to make Expo work for you?
To answer all these questions and more, we talk to Mark Mallardi, Executive Director Strategic Development, Natural Products at New Hope Network (the organization that holds Expo West each year).
We're calling this episode The Ultimate Insider's Guide to Expo West 2020.
We go in depth from everything from how to successfully walk the floor, to the top trends Mark expects to see at this year's show, to the big question - the value of a show like Expo for your brand.
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What's your biggest takeaway from the episode? Join our invite-only, private Facebook group just for Brand Builder Community members, where you can connect with fellow entrepreneurs and founders, crowdsource ideas, share best practices (or lessons learned), and get your most important questions answered. Join now!
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Brand Builder is a co-production of SnackNation and ForceBrands.
There's no getting around it, success in CPG requires this one thing:
Repeat purchase.
But how do you get someone not just to try your product, but to come back to you again and again? How do you build a brand that connects on a deep level, and is built for the long term?
This week on Brand Builder we learn the key just might be in creating a "ripple of impact."
This week's featured interview is with Amanda Slavin, a Marketing Strategist & Brand Engagement Expert expert, bestselling author, and the CEO and co-founder of CatalystCreativ.
Amanda has worked with marquee brands like Coca Cola, Google, WeWork, NPR, The Nature Conservancy, and the New York City Ballet, helping them understand how and why Millennial and Gen Z consumers gravitate towards one brand over another.
She also understands how brands connect on a Direct to Consumer level - probably because Zappos' founder Tony Hsieh is one of her mentors.
Speaking of Tony, we also spend some time talking about holacracy, the system of self organization she uses internally at Catalyst, and that she picked up from Zappos.
What we found most interesting was that before she was Amanda Slavin, Catalyst CEO, she was Ms. Slavin, a first grade teacher with a Masters in Education from the University of Connecticut.
As she tells us in this week's interview, Amanda is grateful for her experience as an educator, and actually applies the engagement principles she developed in grad school to her client work.
Through education and engagement, Catalyst helps its clients reach Millennials and create a "ripple of impact" - and lasting value for brands.
There's one question that emerging premium CPG brands need to ask themselves:
Do you want to be a unicorn... or do you want to ride the skate ramp to success?
If you're a little confused, that's ok. This will all make much more sense once you listen to this week's featured interview with author and CPG expert Dr. James Richardson.
Dr. Richardson is the author of the new book, Ramping Your Brand, which we think is the best book for CPG entrepreneurs out right now. Seriously, we keep hearing from entrepreneurs- I wish this book had come out five years ago when I started!
Dr. Richardson has a unique POV. That doctor title - it's because he has a PhD in Cultural Anthropology, and spent time living in southern India doing ethnographic research. The coolest part, he brings a few of the tools and insights from Cultural Anthropology to his work in CPG.
The book is a quick read, full of stories, examples, and specific tactics. The foundation of the book is this idea of the "Skate Ramp," a pattern he saw again and again for the premium CPG brands that broke through and won. It's a model for sustained exponential growth, and it's more powerful and more achievable than the unicorn growth that tends to be celebrated.
We spent a lot of the interview breaking down exactly how brands can ride this Skate Ramp to win. Plus, Dr. Richardson explains why social pressure is at the heart of every premium CPG purchase decision, and a specific tactic for becoming the master of your category.
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What's your biggest takeaway from the episode? Join our invite-only, private Facebook group just for Brand Builder Community members, where you can connect with fellow entrepreneurs and founders, crowdsource ideas, share best practices (or lessons learned), and get your most important questions answered. Join now!
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Brand Builder is a co-production of SnackNation and ForceBrands.
This week our guest is William Siff, the founder and Chief Formulator of Goldthread plant-based tonics.
Goldthread make a line of plant-based tonics with flavors like Turmeric Radiance, Lavender Bliss, and Honey Rose. Their tonics are a brewed formulation of plants that give you the capacity to expand and evolve past our perceived limits, refreshing the mind, body and soul.
One of the most fascinating things about the Goldthread story is that it's all part of one continuous project - to improve people's health and wellbeing through healing herbs.
This is really William's life's work. It started with an early interest in local flora, expanded into his decision to become a licensed acupuncturist, and took him down a path that included an apothecary, an organic herb farm, and most recently, a line of herbal tonics.
In this episode, William takes through this fascinating journey from hobby herbalist, to licensed acupuncturist and ethnobotanist, to CPG entrepreneur.
From day one, Ryan Fortwendel wanted Minna sparkling tea to stand for something more.
It's evident in the name itself. The word Minna means "everyone," and Ryan has spent the last few years creating a brand experience that lives up to this idea.
It's why he focuses so much on inclusivity and sustainability initiatives, and why he made philanthropic partnerships core to the brand's DNA.
As we learn in this week's interview, Ryan spent years working for the legendary fashion house Marc Jacobs, which had a profound impact on how he conceives the idea of brand. We also go into the parallels between fashion and CPG, Ryan's distribution strategy for 2020 and beyond, and why Ryan is so committed to doing things right from the beginning.
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What's your biggest takeaway from the episode? Join our invite-only, private Facebook group just for Brand Builder Community members, where you can connect with fellow entrepreneurs and founders, crowdsource ideas, share best practices (or lessons learned), and get your most important questions answered. Join now!
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Brand Builder is a co-production of SnackNation and ForceBrands.
We all love success stories… and we've told a lot of those on this podcast.
But what we haven't done as much of is shine a light on a success story in the making.
The story of EZER snacks is one of those.
Parents of three, Brittany and Meguell Suell created EZER out of their desire to fuel their family with healthy, and nutrient rich snacks. They make low-glycemic, keto-friendly 1-minute protein cake mixes.
Our goal in this episode: highlight a new brand with a lot of upside (but most of the journey still ahead of them) as they balance day jobs, family, and life in general with building their brand from scratch. The lessons they've learned are applicable to any brand at any stage, but especially to those who are looking for ways to accelerate growth in the early days.
One of the things Brittany and Meguell do best is maximize the event demo, especially for the niche space that they occupy. They take a tribe-based approach, getting up close and personal with the communities who will benefit most from their product.
As we look at the year ahead, the only certain thing is uncertainty. We know that despite the best of intentions, our best laid plans will face unforeseen changes, obstacles, and adversity.
That's what makes this week's topic so relevant and important. We are talking about a subject that just might change your life - not to mention your business. What is it?
Resilience.
Resilience is like a super power. It gives us the ability to turn our challenges into our successes.
What's more, resilience is also a skill, something you can cultivate and get better at with practice.
To learn how all this works, we talked to Tom Morris, the Sr. Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Performance at Indiana University.
Tom's job is to get athletes to perform at their peak, and to show up as their best possible selves.
As you'll hear in this interview, Tom has been on a dramatic journey, and has overcome major adversity to get where he is today.
A former college football player, he found his passion post-college as an elite cyclist, competing at the highest levels of the sport. But in 2012, his life changed forever when a cycling accident left him paralyzed from the chest down.
This set the stage for the fight of his life - the fight to regain his independence.
Today, Tom uses the lessons learned from this experience to teach his student-athletes to become better teammates and more resilient human beings.
In this interview, Tom teaches us specific strategies for getting us into our discomfort zone in order to come out stronger on the other side.
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What's your biggest takeaway from the episode? Join our invite-only, private Facebook group just for Brand Builder Community members, where you can connect with fellow entrepreneurs and founders, crowdsource ideas, share best practices (or lessons learned), and get your most important questions answered. Join now!
Facebook.com/groups/brandbuilderpod
Brand Builder is a co-production of SnackNation and ForceBrands.
There's do denying it. Mushrooms are magical.
There are mushrooms that can eat plastic, clean oil spills, and even survive irradiated environments like Chernobyl.
Mushrooms and other fungi are some of the oldest life forms on the planet, and helped create the conditions for all subsequent plant and animal life on Earth.
Then there are the superfood mushrooms, many of which are adaptogens - meaning they support our nervous, endocrine, and immune systems, helping us recharge our energy when we feel depleted.
This week we learn all about building a brand around mushrooms from Tero Isokauppila, the founder of Four Sigmatic.
Four Sigmatic's mission is to make medicinal mushrooms more accessible to everyone. They do this through their best selling mushroom coffee, mushroom elixirs, mushroom cocoas, and other fungi-based products.
Tero is passionate about dealing 'shrooms. (His words.) He talks to us about how key hires can help create a brand that people connect with, why he never holds meetings, and the greatest challenge facing emerging CPG brands today.
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Join our Exclusive Facebook Group!
What's your biggest takeaway from the episode? Join our invite-only, private Facebook group just for Brand Builder Community members, where you can connect with fellow entrepreneurs and founders, crowdsource ideas, share best practices (or lessons learned), and get your most important questions answered. Join now!
Facebook.com/groups/brandbuilderpod
Brand Builder is a co-production of SnackNation and ForceBrands.
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