Brand Builder

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.

Links

• Minna
• Defy Ventures
• NYTAG

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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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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.

Links

• Four Sigmatic
• @iamtero on Instagram
• Mushrooms and Santa Claus
• How to Nap on a Nail Mat
• Stem Cell Therapy

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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 we think about training for high performance, we usually think about training our bodies. We might even think about working our craft. But how often do we consider training our emotions?

Not very often, right? Well, if we care about performance, that's actually a huge mistake.

That's a big part of we explore in this episode with Dr. Glenn Fox.

Dr. Fox leads program design at USC's Performance Science Institute, where he works with top athletes to devise strategies that optimize their abilities. He's an expert on the ways that emotions - particularly gratitude and optimism - drive performance. According to his research, the ability to regulate emotions is the number one predictor of success in life.

This is just as true in business as anywhere else. Since gratitude and optimism affect performance, companies who proactively foster these positive emotions via a culture of recognition have an automatic leg-up on those who don't.

In this presentation, Dr. Fox -

• gives us a functional definition of optimism and gratitude that you can use at your workplace (it's not just rosy thinking and pretending everything is great)
• provides the 3 core components of a Competitor's Mindset
• and walks us through a visualization strategy that top athletes often use, and that we can use in our own lives too.

Links

• Dr. Glenn Fox - bio and publications
• The Empiricist Blog
• USC Performance Science Institute

Recommended Reading

• Peak: Secrets of New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Poole
• Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

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.

It's the Monday after Thanksgiving, and if you're anything like me, you're thinking about one thing right now…

Pizza.

Ok, maybe I'm the only one.

Before the holiday, I saw an incredible campaign by the folks at MOD Pizza. It's their Spreading MODness initiative, a bold, anthemic vision statement in which they declare, "This is not a pizza place. This is a people place."

In the campaign it's quickly apparent that this brand is more than a pizza company, they're a platform for greater good.

And while these aspirational campaigns can sometimes come off a little cheesy (pizza joke!), this one just works. The reason? Because MOD has been proving they're the real deal since day one.

This week, we revisit an interview with MOD Pizza co-founder and CEO Scott Svenson. Scott and his wife and co-founder Ally see MOD as more than just a pizza chain, and a company as more than just a money-making enterprise. They call the approach "enlightened capitalism."

Of course it doesn't hurt that their pizza happens to also be amazing. MOD is a pioneer in the fast-casual pizza concept, and they've been the fastest growing restaurant chain in the U.S. for the past four years.

Key Takeaways

• Scott explains the importance of believing that human beings are inherently good, and how expectations often shape outcomes.
• Why even though pizza is all that MOD sells, but it's actually not the most important thing in MOD's business.
• Why when setting up guidelines for your team members, its all about creating "wide boulevards and high curbs."
• Why Scott and his wife Ally founded MOD Pizza under the banner of "enlightened capitalism."
• The surprising way that money can buy happiness (hint: it's not how you think).

Recommended Reading

• Mindset, Carol Dweck

Links

• ModPizza.com
• @MODPizza on Twitter, @MODPizza on Instagram
• Scott on LinkedIn
• Email Scott at [email protected]

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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.

Evan Holod isn't afraid to admit it. Michel et Augustin is hard to say.

Holod is the CEO of Michel et Augustin U.S., and exactly how consumers might say their name is one of the first challenges he and the team encountered. "It's something we spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about," he told us.

It's not just Michel et Augustin - every French brand that crosses the Atlantic has to contend with the fact that most Americans aren't exactly Francophiles. According to Holod, it's precisely this apprehension with the French language that has prevented French brands from connecting with American consumers in a big way. But Michel et Augustin is here to change all that.

This week we learn how Evan and the team are taking an iconic French brand and starting over in the states. Evan also talks about the "Share a Coke" campaign, which he worked on during his time as an executive at Coca-Cola.

Links

• Michel et Augustin

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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.

If you were only paying attention to the headlines, you'd be forgiven if you thought that the future of brick and mortar retail is a bleak one.

But brick and mortar isn't dead - far from it. In fact, with digital-first players like Amazon getting in the game, pop-ups popping up left and right, and 8-figure investments in places like The Beverly Center in Los Angeles and Hudson Yards in New York, one could argue that we're in a bit of a retail resurgence.

Still, retail strategy remains a sticking point for most brands. To help us uncover the secrets of brick and mortar success, we talk to Dylan Lauren, the CEO & Founder of Dylan's Candy Bar.

Why Dylan? Because Dylan's Candy Bar launched in 2001, and has thrived during this entire period of disruption and change.

Dylan's Candy Bar is the largest confectionery emporium in the world with over 20 locations worldwide, including a new location in Hawaii. Their flagship NYC store is a cross between FAO Schwarz, Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory, and Disneyland.

Success for Dylan's lies in constantly creating fresh, memorable experiences that keep people coming back for more.

We also learn why Dylan conceives of the brand as a fusion of art, fashion, and lifestyle, plus the top lesson learned from her father, the iconic fashion designer Ralph Lauren.

Links

• Dylan's Candy Bar
• Connect with Dylan on LinkedIn

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.

When Saffron Road founder Adnan Durrani first started talking to investors about things like social entrepreneurship and multiple bottom lines, they looked at him "as if [he] had nine heads."

Thirty years ago, Adnan saw the emerging Millennial consumer as the future of CPG, even if the wider business community wasn't ready for a brand proposition that placed health, sustainability, and animal welfare at the forefront.

Today, Adnan's big bet on Millennial values has paid off, and he sits at the helm of a $50 million brand: Saffron Road.

Saffron Road specialize in halal foods, and make world-cuisine inspired frozen meals, simmer sauces, and snack foods that are a hit with Millennial consumers.

Saffron Road was also at the center of a minor controversy that landed Adnan on CNN. Rather than panic, Adnan took a potential PR crisis and turned it into a win - while also strengthening the relationship with their most important partner.

Links

• Saffron Road
• Connect with Adnan on LinkedIn

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.