Starting a brand is hard work. It challenges every aspect of your person. Brands that succeed and grow are born out of a “never give up” attitude and a focused dedication to solving a specific problem. Personalized mission-driven energy accelerates growth

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Brands stories that resonate and connect with shoppers help them stand out on crowded shelves and appear in more shopping baskets. They inspire brand evangelism and fierce loyalty. This is accomplished through consistent and impassioned storytelling.

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Your brand's selling story is the cornerstone of all effective business building strategies. Learn How To Get Your Brand On The Shelf and What Retailers REALLY Want. This Is Your Roadmap To Success. 

CLICK HERE TO GAIN INSTANT ACCESS TO MY FREE TURNKEY SALES STORY STRATEGIES COURSE

Today’s story is from an industry thought leader that says that usage occasion disruption is one of the most important things that every brand should be focused on. He shares that the most effective way to do this is through storytelling. Jon Sebastiani is a master storyteller. So what do I mean about that, and why is this important?

Jon grew up in the wine business, and in the wine business, people learn how to tell stories about how the grapes are unique to the climate, to the ground. They talk about the importance of a vintage and why that vintage is unique or different from any other vintage out there. They tell stories to help us identify with the products, stories that help us fall in love with a product before we’ve even tasted it. 

Think about it. What’s the difference between a $2 and a $2,000 bottle of wine? Why would anyone pay so much for a bottle of wine? It’s the anticipation. It’s the theater. It’s the story behind the bottle of wine. Jon used these strategies to create a disruptive brand, to re-create a category. His message wasn’t focused on, well, this is a blue box or this is a green box or this is something unique. Instead, he built a story around why his product was so unique, why this is something everyone had to taste, everyone had to try.

Jon’s ability to effectively tell a story that was crafted in the uniqueness of the product, again, the usage disruptive occasion, that helped consumers identify with the product that brought new consumers into this category. Today, Jon shares his story with us and, more importantly, how he uses these strategies today with the new brands that he’s created as well as the brands that he’s invested in. I’ve listened to Jon speak on stage a few times and I’ve had the privilege of meeting him in person this year as a mentor for the Expo Pitch Slam. Jon was a judge.

He’s even more inspirational in person. You’re going to love this podcast. I invited Jon to be a guest today to share with you how he uses romance to effectively tell a story, how he uses his story to change the way people talk about food, think about it. You’ve heard the story “You need to sell the sizzle, not the steak.” This is the strategy I talk about a lot. Brands need to have an effective selling story. They need to be more than just a package on the shelf. They need to help retailers grow sustainable category sales by leveraging their product. 

This is how a brand becomes more than just an ATM machine. This is how a brand stands out on a crowded shelf. This is how a brand gets their product on more retailers’ shelves and into the hands of more shoppers.

Want an unfair competitive advantage? 

Take the 30 Days To Prosperity Challenge to master the brand-building skills and strategies required to give your brand a substantial and sustainable competitive edge. Stop Using the same cookie-cutter tactics your competitors rely on. RetailSolved.com/30daychallenge

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One person can make a lasting and dramatic impact on the way we celebrate food and how it unites our community. Authentic humility and purpose is what drives mission-focused brands to do more and be more helping shoppers feel good about their purchases

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Your brand's selling story is the cornerstone of all effective business building strategies. Learn How To Get Your Brand On The Shelf and What Retailers REALLY Want. This Is Your Roadmap To Success. 

CLICK HERE TO GAIN INSTANT ACCESS TO MY FREE TURNKEY SALES STORY STRATEGIES COURSE

I’ve worked in this industry for a long time now, and throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of meeting and getting to know and working with several amazing thought leaders and industry pioneers. You’ve heard several on this podcast over the past 50 episodes, and you’ll continue to hear more. Today’s story is truly inspirational, about an unsung hero, a quiet and very humble change maker, who focused on his talents and his gifts, saw a problem, and made a change, a change that had a tremendous impact and inspired other thought leaders in the industry to join forces to create a lasting impact, something that affects us all. When we stop and think about our heroes, we think of people like Steve Jobs, or Elan Musk, our heroes that have disrupted the way we think about life.

I was equally humbled to talk to Ahmed today to learn about all the important causes that he’s involved in. Simply put, Ahmed saw a problem, and he solved it. He saw another problem, he solved it. More importantly, he was able to build a community of industry leaders to help him solve some of the biggest challenges that we’re faced with, like climate change, the need for sustainable packaging, the need for fresh, clean drinking water, fair wages, and safe working conditions for farmers, giving people a reason to belong to the community through art and education, eliminating food deserts. I could go on and on. But the reality is, I could not begin to tell the story as well as Ahmed does.

Here's Ahmed Rahim of Numi Organic Tea and OSC2

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Take the 30 Days To Prosperity Challenge to master the brand-building skills and strategies required to give your brand a substantial and sustainable competitive edge. Stop Using the same cookie-cutter tactics your competitors rely on. RetailSolved.com/30daychallenge

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Most work to live. The inspired live to work with bold mission-driven visions that fuel their souls. A true leader is someone who humbly nurtures the creative spark within others to be more and do more. Mission and purpose are their guiding principles.

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Each of us needs to perform basic retail math calculations but it's not always possible to remember every formula, especially if you don't use them on a regular basis. Here's a quick cheat sheet with some of the most important formulas you need to know. 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE STRATEGIC GUIDE: Retail Math Cheat Sheet

This week's story is about an inspiring entrepreneur, a real thought leader in our community whose advices us to have a bold vision and humility. In her story, she literally shares with us how she rose from the ashes to become the entrepreneur and the leader that she is. In this episode, we both talk about how we had a similar upbringing in terms of we went to traditional school, we got a traditional education, and how it really didn't fuel our souls. This is a common dilemma that a lot of people face. What she shares with us is how she was able to take her knowledge and her passion to give back, and to do something more, and to be able to craft a career that fuels her soul and gives her a great work life balance that she uses to inspire those around her.

I love the passion that she shares with us. Her enthusiasm and her zest for life is contagious. Sheryl shares a wonderful story about a brand that was born out of a mission and how it's disrupting the category. She believes that we all have something unique to be shared. Her job as the Chief Love Officer is to nurture and inspire others to be more and to do more. Her greatest success comes from the thriving community she built around a bold vision inspired by humility and purpose.  

Here's Sheryl OLoughlin of REBBL and Clif Bar

Want an unfair competitive advantage? 

Take the 30 Days To Prosperity Challenge to master the brand-building skills and strategies required to give your brand a substantial and sustainable competitive edge. Stop Using the same cookie-cutter tactics your competitors rely on. RetailSolved.com/30daychallenge

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RetailSolved.com/session50

Natural organic products are fueling sustainable sales across all categories and all channels. Health-focused shoppers base their buying decisions on quality, not price. They do not compromise. They demand transparency and authenticity. 

This episode's FREE download

Your brand's selling story is the cornerstone of all effective business building strategies. Learn How To Get Your Brand On The Shelf and What Retailers REALLY Want. This Is Your Roadmap To Success. 

CLICK HERE TO GAIN INSTANT ACCESS TO MY FREE TURNKEY SALES STORY STRATEGIES COURSE

Natural is the R&D in the CPG industry. Natural, organic brands are driving sustainable growth across all channels. Natural and organic consumers are not motivated by price alone. They base their buying decisions on transparency, clean label ingredients that are not only meet their nutritional needs, but products that they can trust. These consumers do their research, going beyond the four corners of the package. They vote with their dollars, purchasing products from a sustainable and mission-based brands, brands that provide true innovation that are closely aligned with their core customer, and remain true to their mission, and are steadily capturing market share.

For those who don't know me, I'm the first person certified at the highest level category management proficiency, Certified Professional, Strategic Advisor, a CPSA, something I'm very proud of. In addition to speaking at various events like this, I've written over 300 articles that have been published nationally and internationally. In addition to that, I wrote the article, “Mainstreaming Category Management, Natural products sales trends and how to capitalize on them in the 2016 Category Management Handbook, I have a Turnkey Sales Story Strategies course and a popular industry podcast. 

I just finished a four-part webinar series for the Category Management Association. You can view those on their site, or I've actually converted the audio files too onto my podcast. So you can listen to them there. This presentation will be made available to everyone. If you want to download it, please go to RetailSolved.com/CMA2018.

My mission is to get healthy, natural, organic brands on more retailer shelves and into the hands of more shoppers. And I do this by helping the smaller brands compete head to head, toe to toe with the large brands. And the reason that I'm here, and the reason I did the webinar series is because I helped a large brand understand what makes natural, natural.

Want an unfair competitive advantage? 

Take the 30 Days To Prosperity Challenge to master the brand-building skills and strategies required to give your brand a substantial and sustainable competitive edge. Stop Using the same cookie-cutter tactics your competitors rely on. RetailSolved.com/30daychallenge

FREE Trade Promotion ROI Calculator: 

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RetailSolved.com/session49

"One person can make a difference and change the world”, powerful words that inspired a brand and birthed a mission to do more and to be more. Building a robust community around them, they focused on helping our overlooked and forgotten neighbors.

This episode's FREE download

Your brand's selling story is the cornerstone of all effective business building strategies. Learn How To Get Your Brand On The Shelf and What Retailers REALLY Want. This Is Your Roadmap To Success. 

CLICK HERE TO GAIN INSTANT ACCESS TO MY FREE TURNKEY SALES STORY STRATEGIES COURSE

Today's story begins with a single phrase, one person can make a difference and change the world. Some of the most powerful words in the English language. Think about it. This is where dreams begin. This is what this show's about. It's about you and it's for you. It's celebrating thought leaders and brands that go out of their way to make a difference, to give back, to become something more than they currently are, to make a difference, a lasting difference, in our world and in our community. Today's story is about two accidental entrepreneurs. 

What I mean by this is that they didn't set out on this path. This is a path that called them. They saw a need and they rose up to the challenge and in the process built a brand that's making a real difference in our community and beyond. When I say our community, I'm talking about the natural channel. I'm talking about all the brands that are going to be inspired by this story to want to do more. One of the key takeaways in this story is how these two accidental entrepreneurs were able to leverage the people around them, how they found a community of people that wanted to help support them by donating their time, by committing to supporting them, by helping them realize their dreams. 

This episode's FREE downloadable guide

Want an unfair competitive advantage? 

Take the 30 Days To Prosperity Challenge to master the brand-building skills and strategies required to give your brand a substantial and sustainable competitive edge. Stop Using the same cookie-cutter tactics your competitors rely on. RetailSolved.com/30daychallenge

FREE Trade Promotion ROI Calculator: 

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RetailSolved.com/session48

Natural is the incubator of the ideas, strategies, and products that are changing the way consumers think about the products they buy & the causes they support. Regenerative business is the next emerging trend championed by disruptive brands & retailers

This episode's FREE downloadable guide

This short guide levels the playing field between small brands and their more sophisticated competitors. It highlights the advanced strategies the big brands use called Category Management - what retailers want. 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE STRATEGIC GUIDE: Strategic Solutions To Grow Your Brand

If you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you hear me talk about what makes natural natural, all the components about natural, why it's important, and how we as a community work together to support one another, how we think beyond the four corners of a package, and how we unite to do more than just sell products, to benefit the planet, to improve our healthy way of life, and much, much more. A couple of episodes ago, you heard me talking with Gary Hirshberg about the importance of regenerative agriculture. That's the starting place for our conversation today, where I'm talking with Neil about regenerative business practices. What I love about the conversation that we're about to share with you is how Neil was able to capitalize on these strategies, and use them, and make them a part of everything he did from when he started and ran a natural food store, all the way up to being a CEO of some of the most prominent and iconic brands in the natural channel. 

Neil shares with us his passion for regenerative business practices and how he incorporated those strategies at the Climate Collaborative and OSC2, in addition to the many other groups that he works with.

This episode's FREE downloadable guide

Want an unfair competitive advantage? 

Take the 30 Days To Prosperity Challenge to master the brand-building skills and strategies required to give your brand a substantial and sustainable competitive edge. Stop Using the same cookie-cutter tactics your competitors rely on. RetailSolved.com/30daychallenge

FREE Trade Promotion ROI Calculator: 

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Download the show notes here:

RetailSolved.com/session47

Behind every successful entrepreneur is a thriving community mentoring, nurturing, and encouraging them. This explodes their personal and professional growth. Paying it forward to emerging brands is at the heart of what makes natural natural

This episode's FREE downloadable guide

Real shopper loyalty is earned not found on plastic cards. Your brand’s real strength is its ability to convert casual customers into brand ambassadors.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE STRATEGIC GUIDE: Merchandising Checklist To Grow Sales and Shopper Loyalty

Behind every successful entrepreneur is a thriving community mentoring, nurturing, and encouraging them. This explodes their personal and professional growth. Paying it forward to emerging brands is at the heart of what makes natural natural.

Today's story has several different parts. The first is a story about someone who is passionate about food, who grew up in an industry that was inspired by the thought leaders around her that took that energy and that passion and turned it into a viable business that's very successful today.

The next part is about how she inspired others around her by helping to build that community to help support other small nurturing brands. Her passionate, bright spirit is infectious. She's able to communicate that to help other brands, giving back to her community to help foster that spirit of growth and innovation to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs.

The next part of our story is about how Alex was able to successfully build her brand in an alternative channel and help leverage that to gain traction at traditional retail.

This episode's FREE downloadable guide

Want an unfair competitive advantage? 

Take the 30 Days To Prosperity Challenge to master the brand-building skills and strategies required to give your brand a substantial and sustainable competitive edge. Stop Using the same cookie-cutter tactics your competitors rely on. RetailSolved.com/30daychallenge

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Download the show notes here:

RetailSolved.com/session46

Knowledge is power. Nowhere is that more important than in natural. Knowing your numbers is the key to your success. Fact-based strategies can add rocket fuel to your growth. Hear how an expert leverages these advanced strategies to exceed expectations

This episode's FREE downloadable guide

This short guide levels the playing field between small brands and their more sophisticated competitors. It highlights the advanced strategies the big brands use called Category Management - what retailers want. 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE STRATEGIC GUIDE: Strategic Solutions To Grow Your Brand

Today we're going to be talking about something that's near and dear to my heart. It's the underlying focus of this podcast, and why I launched my free Turnkey Sales Story Strategies course. 

Today's story focuses on the importance of the strategies that brands need to use to get their products on more retailer shelves and into the hands of more shoppers. Today's story is about those strategies that brands need to use to help retailers be successful, helping them grow sustainable sales across every category within their store. Sadly, these strategies are not given the focus they need and deserve. And yet, as you're about to hear, these strategies can help you propel your brand and add rocket fuel to your growth.

I chose today's special guest to help you understand the importance and the need for these strategies, and how he's been able to capitalize on these strategies to achieve huge growth across every category that he's worked with and every brand that he's supported. I'd like to introduce you to TJ McIntyre, the CEO of Bobo's Oat Bars.

Here's TJ McIntyre of Bobos Oat Bars

This episode's FREE downloadable guide

Want an unfair competitive advantage? 

Take the 30 Days To Prosperity Challenge to master the brand-building skills and strategies required to give your brand a substantial and sustainable competitive edge. Stop Using the same cookie-cutter tactics your competitors rely on. RetailSolved.com/30daychallenge

FREE Trade Promotion ROI Calculator: 

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Download the show notes here:

RetailSolved.com/session45

What makes natural natural is the focus of the panel discussion for the Category Management Association. Thought leaders from Beyond Meat, Alpine Start/Naturally Boulder, and Jackson’s Honest share insights on the trends driving natural product sales

This episode's FREE download

Your brand's selling story is the cornerstone of all effective business building strategies. Learn How To Get Your Brand On The Shelf and What Retailers REALLY Want. This Is Your Roadmap To Success. 

CLICK HERE TO GAIN INSTANT ACCESS TO MY FREE TURNKEY SALES STORY STRATEGIES COURSE

The Category Management Association asked me to host a four-part webinar series focused on the natural organic products industry and the trends that are driving sustainable sales across every category and every channel. This is the fourth in the series. This podcast episode is the audio portion of the webinar. 

The panel discussion included Daniel Lohman CPSA Organic & CPG Strategic Advisor, CMS4CPG www.RetailSolved.com, Chuck Muth Chief Growth Officer, Beyond Meat www.beyondmeat.com, Alex Hanifin CEO, Alpine Start / VP, Naturally Boulder www.alpinestartfoods.com www.naturallyboulder.org, and Megan Reamer CEO, Jackson’s Honest www.jacksonshonest.com.

This episode's FREE downloadable guide

Want an unfair competitive advantage? 

Take the 30 Days To Prosperity Challenge to master the brand-building skills and strategies required to give your brand a substantial and sustainable competitive edge. Stop Using the same cookie-cutter tactics your competitors rely on. RetailSolved.com/30daychallenge

FREE Trade Promotion ROI Calculator: 

RetailSolved.com/PromotionROI

Download the show notes here:

RetailSolved.com/session44