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.
In honor of Presidential Proclamation 5219, this week's featured brand is completely reimagining America's favorite frozen treat.
(Hint:🍦)
Yes, in honor of National Ice Cream Day, we're talking to Dream Pops CEO and Co-Founder David Greenfeld.
Dream Pops is a plant-based frozen dessert, packed with superfoods, but made without dairy, gluten and soy.
Its innovative shape and consistency make it remarkably snackable (which we love), and with a 3-star Michelin chef concocting the flavors, it's downright delicious.
But the appeal of Dream Pops goes beyond even that. The product itself is beautifully designed, and David and the team have worked hard to create a consistent, holistic brand experience across all consumer touch points.
David talked to us about his first entrepreneurial foray (which involved exploding bags of wine), the Latin American culinary tradition that inspired the entire Dream Pops line, and why every Dream Pops employee is required to spend a day making the product in their downtown LA facility.
Takeaways
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Brand Builder is a co-production of SnackNation and ForceBrands.
It's summer, and hopefully for you that means spending some time in the great outdoors.
And whether you're hiking, camping, or glamping, we've found a new must-add item to your outdoor gear checklist -
Kuju Coffee.
This week, we have brothers and co-founders Jeff and Justin Wiguna of Kuju, a premium, single-serve pour over coffee brand. Kuju is great for anytime you want great coffee on-the-go, but it's really caught on among outdoor enthusiasts.
Jeff and Justin brought the heat, telling us about the inspiration behind their brand, and why they're building a business for the long-term, not for a quick exit.
Takeaways
Life isn't easy. Life isn't perfect. But life is good.
That's the motto that has propelled Life is Good - the lifestyle clothing brand that celebrates optimism - from a $200 initial investment in 1989 to a $100M company today.
This week our guest is Life is Good co-founder and CEO Bert Jacobs. In the interview, Bert shares how he and his co-founder/brother John conceived of the company, and why placing optimism at the core of the brand has helped it reach millions of people.
As Bert tells it, before it was ever a company or a t-shirt, "Life is Good" was a spirit personified by Bert and John's mother, Joan, an eternal optimist who taught her children to turn the music up, enjoy the moment, and always remember to focus on the good things in life.
Ultimately, the pair took her message to heart, and made the spread of positive energy their lives work. In addition to the brand's uplifting message, Life is Good achieves spreads good vibes by donating 10% of net profits to the Life is Good Kids Foundation, and by holding events like the Life is Good music festival.
Bert was an incredibly honest, good-natured, and fascinating guest. He told us why he believes our disposition determines our happiness, why employee engagement is so important to his organization, why work/life is balance is an inherently flawed concept, and why the people who have the hardest road ahead of them tend to gravitate toward the Life is Good brand the most.
Speaking to Bert put us in a great mood and taught us a lot about leadership and business, and we think listening to him will have the same effect.
Recommended Reading
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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 on Brand Builder, how to leverage PR like a boss, without wasting money.
Some brands are a little wary of PR. They're afraid of throwing their money away on something they don't quite understand. They might have even felt burned in the past by an agency who over-promised and under-delivered.
Why does this happen? Because the media landscape moves so quickly. The PR tactics you used 18 or even 12 months ago just aren't as effective today. Each year you have throw out your playbook and start fresh.
This week's guest is Sabina Gault, the CEO of Konnect Agency. She's here to tell you how to design campaigns that succeed in today's media landscape, and how to continually evolve your approach, so that you can make PR work for you without wasting time and money.
Konnect is a consumer public relations firm based in LA, New York, Austin, and Denver that just celebrated their 10 year anniversary. They are change agents for food & beverage, franchise, lifestyle and family brands, reaching Millennials, entrepreneurs, health-minded consumers and moms. Clients include some big names, like KRAVE, Lenny & Larry's, 4505, Kodiak Cakes, Lyft, TEDxLA, Skyzone, and more.
Takeaways
Building a brand isn't just about the tactical and strategic. It's also about the abstract and esoteric. Things like leadership, culture, personal development, even psychology - they all play a part, and they can all be difference-makers.
That's why we're bringing you this live conversation with Ryan Holiday, a bestselling author, media strategist, and the former marketing director of American Apparel.
Ryan has been in the trenches for years, building brands to unbelievable heights, and today is one of the most highly regarded marketing minds of his generation.
His work has been translated into over 30 languages and has appeared everywhere from the New York Times to Fast Company. His books include Trust Me, I'm Lying, Conspiracy, The Obstacle Is the Way, and Ego Is the Enemy.
In this interview, Ryan focuses on the lessons from the latter, laying out a framework for how Ego can undermine our goals and intentions, and providing strategies for overcoming it.
Takeaways
Links
Recommended Reading
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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.
When it comes down to it, what is a brand? Ask a hundred founders, and you might get a hundred different answers. But this week's guest has a simple, compelling answer -- Words. That's according to Dave Gerhardt, the VP of Marketing at Drift. Why words? Because at the end of the day, a brand all comes down to the stories you tell and the emotions that resonate with your customer. And the medium through which these flow are almost always words on a page (or a screen, as it were).
And if a brand is made of words, then copywriting is the most important brand building skill there is.
That's one reason why Dave and the team built Drift, the world's first and only conversational marketing platform. Drift helps businesses build real relationships with their customers by facilitating real conversations.
In addition to Drift, Dave co-hosts the Seeking Wisdom podcast, and it the co-author of the books Conversational Marketing and This Won't Scale.
Dave joins us to share his unique approach to marketing, gives us his top trade show tip, and describes the strategies you need to grow your business from $1M to $10M in just 12 months.
For this episode, we enlisted the help of our in-house marketing expert, SnackNation CMO and co-founder Andy Mackensen, to guide us through the interview.
Takeaways
Recommended Reading
Links
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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.
Kurt Seidensticker thought he was building a paleo running company. Turns out he was building a billion dollar beauty brand.
Kurt is the CEO and founder of Vital Proteins, an all-natural collagen brand and category leader. Vital Proteins make collagen-infused water, lattes, and powders, and their collagen comes from natural sources like pasture-raised cows in Brazil and wild-caught fish in Hawaii.
And while he originally thought Vital Proteins would appeal to long distance runners like himself, it really caught fire with a different demographic, one who loves Vital Proteins for its anti-aging effects.
The rapid ascent of Vital Proteins is undeniable. The brand has been featured in top-tier outlets like Vogue, Men's Health, Well + Good, and People, and has celebrity fans like Jennifer Aniston and Kourtney Kardashian. In fact, Vital Proteins is the first product launch by POOSH, Kourtney's new wellness and lifestyle site.
We talked to Kurt about his unconventional path to entrepreneurship (he spent his early career teaching astronauts to fly the space shuttle), his successful influencer marketing strategies, and why #wesprint is his team's internal motto.
TakeawaysLinks
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.
Aunt Flow founder Claire Coder talks about the "hidden cost of menstruation." What does that mean? Well, consider the following:
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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.
Ask yourself - as a leader, are you coming from a place of fear and uncertainty? Do you look for fault and blame in others, cling to an opinion and fixed worldview, and believe in scarcity over abundance?
Or are you open to outside interpretations, curious about the world around you, and committed to learning more about yourself and those around you?
In other words, are you leading below or above the line?
That's the topic of this week's Brand Builder, as we explore the concepts contained in The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership, a fantastic read and a book that can help you become the leader your brand needs to level-up.
On the show is Diana Chapman, one of the book's co-authors and a founding partner at Conscious Leadership Group. Diana has coached more than 1,000 organizational leaders and many of their teams, is a TEDx speaker, and has given keynotes everywhere from the Mindful Leadership Summit, to the Stanford Graduate School of Business and UC Berkeley Haas School of Business - and a lot more.
To say that this book has had a huge influence on the culture and leadership style at SnackNation is a major understatement. We apply the precepts within it as we all strive to get better every day.
In this episode, Diana explains both how to practice conscious leadership and why it's so important, both to our businesses and our lives.
While we absolutely recommend reading the book, here's a quick rundown of the 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership that Diana discusses.
Commitment 1 - Radical Responsibility
Commitment 2 - Learning through Curiosity
Commitment 3 - Feeling All Feelings
Commitment 4 - Speaking Candidly
Commitment 5 - Eliminating Gossip
Commitment 6 - Practicing Integrity
Commitment 7 - Generating Appreciation
Commitment 8 - Express Your Zone of Genius
Commitment 9 - Remember to Play
Commitment 10 - Consider the Opposite of Your "Story"
Commitment 11 - Be Your Own Approval
Commitment 12 - Recognize You Have Enough
Commitment 13 - See People as Allies
Commitment 14 - Win for All
Commitment 15 - Be the Resolution
To see more of what the 15 Commitments look like in action, check out the Conscious Leadership Group.
Links
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.
This week we've got Daina Trout, the CEO and co-founder of Health-Ade Kombucha. If you're not familiar, kombucha is a high acid, low sugar, bubbly beverage, and Health-Ade makes the best testing and highest quality kombucha you can buy.
One of the most fascinating things about the Health-Ade story is that they've successfully scaled the small batch, artisanal production that makes for great kombucha. It's pretty crazy - they are the fastest growing company in all of refrigerated beverage, yet they still brew in 2.5 gallon glass jars. (They just have 250,000 of them.)
Dainia gets real and vulnerable in this interview. She talks about the highs and lows of building a business, dealing with the self doubt you feel as an entrepreneur, and even near death experiences that changed her perspective on life and business.
And of course, we dive into the tactical. Daina breaks down the leadership style that helped lead Health-Ade into the massive success it is today.
Links
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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