Perseverance, sweat, hard work, and a quality team are the recipe for building a solid brand. Inspiring natural brands align with worthy causes. Mission-based causes are in their DNA. Care2 amplifies their message while being social warriors for good.

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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

Perseverance, sweat, hard work, and a quality team are the recipe for building a solid brand. Inspiring natural brands align with worthy causes. Mission-based causes are in their DNA. Care2 amplifies their message while being social warriors for good.

Today's story comes from an entrepreneur that tried a lot of different things before successfully getting his brand on shelves and in the public eye, while becoming a social warrior for good. At the heart of his message, you hear him talk about perseverance, about how you've got to continually work hard, and that a large part of your journey requires you to talk to a lot of different customers to get your product in front of live customers and talk to them and sample things and ask them, "What do you like? What do you like better?" 

His story is the ultimate rags to riches entrepreneurial story. When I use the term riches here, I'm talking about the richness of having a successful brand, of being able to accomplish what few do, to be able to come up with a creative solution, snacking solution that customers love, that they evangelize. That to me is the definition of success in this industry.

As my guest shares, this is where you begin the customer journey. This is where you need to put all your focus on first, because customers will reward you if you provide a solution that they're looking for that meets their needs. 

Today's story is about a young brand that started out with really no focus, no plan, and yet he was able to turn his determination into a successful brand, and in the process became a social warrior for good. Today's guest is Justin Perkins of OLOMOMO and Care2. 

What's fascinating about Justin's story is that it resonates with so many of us that have an entrepreneurial spirit. Despite all the challenges that he ran into, Justin never gave up. Justin shares with us today his story about how he was able to successfully build a brand and in the process, he was able to successfully connect consumers to important causes. 

As a business owner, he talks about the strategies and the challenges that he ran into in terms of getting his product on shelves, and then he talks about how he transitioned his product to an online marketplace and how digital marketing strategy helped him get his products in the hands of more consumers.

In addition, Justin shares with us how he became a social warrior for good and how Care2 is impacting a lot of lives, how to improve the way we communicate social change and social justice through social media and through email marketing, the power of a solid digital marketing strategy. 

I'm excited to introduce you to Justin Perkins. Here he is. Hi Justin. Thank you for coming on today. Before we get started, I'd like to learn a little bit more about you, how you started, and what took you on this journey from entrepreneur to social warrior.

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What retailers and shoppers really want. How to get your brand on the shelf. Dan and Phil candidly discuss market changes, insights, trends, small brands and the future of the CPG industry

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

What retailers and shoppers really want. How to get your brand on the shelf. Dan and Phil candidly discuss market changes, insights, trends, small brands and the future of the CPG industry

If you've been listening to this podcast, reading any of my content, or going through my free course, Turnkey Sales Story Strategies, you've heard me say repeatedly, time after time, that you need to be an expert in your product, your consumer, your competition, the category, other categories that are associated and related to your products. In other words, what consumers buy when they buy your product, and the retailer. Not just one retailer, but every retailer you compete against. Every competitor, everyone on the shelf, the same shelf that you're on. Well, the challenge that faces literally every brand out there is we get so busy, so immersed in what we're doing that we get blinders on. We forget, or sometimes, just can't see what is going on around the corner, in the next market, in retail, et cetera.

Today's guest solves that problem. I am excited to introduce you to Phil Lempert, the Supermarket Guru. The reason that Phil is so important to this audience, to this message, is that he has been working for years now to communicate what's going on in different markets, different retailers, across different channels, et cetera. In other words, Phil is giving you that unique opportunity to see what's happening next door, in the next retailer, in the next category, et cetera. Phil's content has just been amazing. He's an icon in the industry. He's been a featured speaker, a regular contributor to leading publications, and he puts outs so much content, honestly, I don't know how he does it. His content is amazing. He has several different videos that he puts out on a regular basis. He has reports that he puts out, product reviews and other great insights.

I highly recommend that you visit his website to learn more about the resources that he has available to you. Phil is going to help guide you and help you understand, help you get a better picture of what's going on beyond your market. Leverage his resources at retail. I've been using his content for years.

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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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The retail landscape is changing. Brands and retailers need to partner together to better meet the needs of connected consumers through personalization, unified brand messaging that extends beyond the package, and focusing on natural organic growth trends

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 retail landscape is changing. Brands and retailers need to partner together to better meet the needs of connected consumers through personalization, unified brand messaging that extends beyond the package, and focusing on natural organic growth trends 

The retail landscape is changing. Health conscious consumers are looking for retailers to provide a vast selection of products that meet their needs across all categories. Focusing on their needs to drive sustainable category growth is the future of retail.

Shopper attitudes are driving changes. Consumers are looking for solutions that help with healthy aging. Shoppers are continually looking for the “Fountain of Youth” in natural organic products that increase and enhance their health and vitality. Consumers are proactively looking for heathy products to reduce their dependency on medication and doctor visits. 

Natural organic products offer the promise of nutrition focusing on "you are what you eat”. If you are what you eat then what you eat matters. Let me explain. If you are what you eat, then if you eat something that doesn't fully meet your nutritional needs, then that product is not going to sustain or satiate you longer. This includes how and where the product's ingredients come from. Grass fed milk provides nutrients not naturally found in other milks. 

Consumers want authenticity and transparency in the products they buy. They want products that are free from and organic.  

Brands and retailers need to partner together to educate the shopper and help them find the products that best meet their needs. Shoppers have a lot of choices today. If they cannot find what they want at one retailer then they will simply shop another. 

This podcast is a recording of a webinar for the Category Management Association. You can download the deck at RetailSolved.com/CMA2. This webinar explores several of the solutions retailers can use to help guide shoppers toward the products that best meet their needs. 

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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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Getting your brand on retailers' shelves & into the hands of shoppers was the underlying focus of every talk at Expo West. It was echoed by retailers, industry thought leaders & shared by every brand- the reason for my TURNKEY SALES STORY STRATEGIES course.

This episode's FREE downloadable

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

Getting your brand on retailers shelves & into the hands of shoppers was the underlying focus of most talks at Expo West. It was echoed by retailers, industry thought leaders & shared by most brands- the reason for my TURNKEY SALES STORY STRATEGIES course

Today's show is about getting your brand on retailers' shelves. Before I get into this, I'd like to do a quick recap on Expo. Expo this year was fantastic. I had an opportunity to talk to a lot of listeners as well as see a lot of brands and a lot of friends. The reason I was at Expo, the primary reason is because I was asked to be, I was honored to be asked to be a mentor for the Pitch-Slam. I was on the selection committee that chose the eight finalists. The brand that I mentored this year was a company called made of. They did a phenomenal job, in my mind, a solid number two. They actually made it to the finals four.  

One of the top themes throughout Expo West this year is how brands get their products on the shelves and what retailers really want and need. This was something that was echoed in many of the different sessions, many of the different leaders, different retail owners, et cetera, and that's why the show is about this and that's what the show is all about anyhow. In addition to that, there were a lot of incubators. Now, some of the incubators were run by large, big mainstream companies but the challenge that I would have there is that there are only a select few companies that can go through this, a select few new brands.

Last week I released my free course, Turnkey Sales Story Strategies. I'll talk more about that later but this entire course is dedicated toward helping those brands do just that. Another key trend that I saw at Expo is what I'm going to call mentorship. Large brands wanting to take small brands under their wing and help mentor them, help guide them and help educate them on the ways to do business, on how to succeed. 

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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/session30

Storytelling is the most effective way to communicate. The power of a good storyteller cannot be underestimated. This impacts every aspect of how and where your products are sold. Your brand's success relies on how effective your storytelling is

This episode's FREE downloadable

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

This ground-breaking training will empower brands seeking to gain a significant competitive advantage. It is packed with little-known secrets, actionable insights and strategic solutions to teach brands how to avoid common pitfalls, expand their retail distribution, reduce wasteful trade spending, improve merchandising and identify key opportunities for sustainable growth.

Storytelling is the most effective way to communicate. The power of a good storyteller cannot be underestimated. The goal of any story is to paint a picture in the other person's mind that they will remember. 

Remember the game where you share a story with someone and they in turn share it with someone and so on? The story is usually unrecognizable when it comes back around to you. 

This is the challenge that all brands have. Their message gets lost in translation. It gets lost in all of the noise and clutter until it no longer resonates with retailers or customers. This impacts every aspect of how and where your products are sold. Your success relies on how effective your storytelling as it is retold by your sales team, your broker, your distributor, the retailer, the shopper, and so on.

An effective story is one that connects your brand to the customer, one that builds awareness, community and loyalty.

That's what this course will teach you. It will teach you how to get your products on more retailer shelves and into the hands of more shoppers.

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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Entrepreneurs are some of the most dedicated, driven, & passionate people. They struggle with finding the proper balance between running their daily business and serving their customers. Sell more and save valuable time and money.

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Nothing happens until someone buys your product and shoppers can’t buy what they can’t find. The path to sustainable sales and getting your product onto more retailers shelves and into the hands of more shoppers.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE STRATEGIC GUIDE: Top 10 Strategies To Meet Your Business Goals

Entrepreneurs are some of the most dedicated, driven, & passionate people. They struggle with finding the proper balance between running their daily business and serving their customers. Sell more and save valuable time and money.

Today I want to talk to you about something that stifles literally every brand out there, not having enough hours in the day. Seriously, who wouldn't appreciate having more time to do the things that we want to do? The things that we're passionate about, or the things that really help drive our business forward? That's what today's stories are about. This affects everyone, including me. I've noticed that with help, I'm able to get a lot more accomplished. I'm able to serve you, my community, much better as a result. I see this with brands that I work with as well. This includes those young entrepreneurs that are doing everything possible to pinch pennies, while growing their business. 

Now, certainly I'm not advocating spending money that you don't have. But the simple reality is this, if you can find a way to hire someone to take some of the mundane, routine tasks off your plate, that's going to give you more freedom to do the things that grow your business. Then the next step is to hire people that can take away or take over some of those projects that distract you from running your business, from being successful. At the end of the day, consumers buy your brand because they love what it stands for, what you stand for. Shoppers want what they want, I say that all the time. Shoppers want to know that they can go into the store and find your product. 

If you have something distracting you from getting your product into the hands of more consumers, well, that hurts both you and the consumers really trying to help support you. Think about it. In today's story, Connor reached out to me and shared with me some of the growing pains he had when he was starting a business. In his effort to solve those problems, he created a side business, which actually now is his full time business. But the point is this, he found a way to uncork that bottleneck. He found a way to help him drive sales, and make time for what was important, supporting his customers.

This is the focus of today’s podcast, being laser focused on giving your customer the extraordinary support they need and deserve while removing any distractions that could be handled by someone else. 

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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/session28

Natural product brand sales will continue to grow at mainstream retailers. This will benefit us all as it makes our healthy way of life more accessible and affordable. Natural has an advantage because they remain close to their loyal customers

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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

Natural product brand sales will continue to grow at mainstream retailers. This will benefit us all as it makes our healthy way of life more accessible and affordable. Natural has an advantage because they remain close to their loyal customers

Mainstream brands and retailers have been working for years to attract the committed natural organic shopper. They struggle to effectively attract these unique consumers by applying the same strategies they use with every other shopper, low prices and big promotions. These tactics are largely ineffective with the committed natural shopper.  

There is a night and day difference between the core committed natural organic shoppers and traditional shoppers. They diligently read labels and they know and understand, typically better than the retailers, how a product will meet their nutritional needs. They believe that “you are what you eat and that what you eat matters”. They want to know how the product was produced, where the ingredients came from, how transparent and authentic is the brand and much much more. 

The CMA (Category Management Association) asked me to produce a four part webinar series to highlight the differences between the mainstream shopper and the natural organic shopper. This podcast is the live recording of the webinar. I thought you might enjoy learning more about the differences along with strategies retailers can use to better meet their needs. I am including a link to the show notes and on this episode’s webpage on my website at the link below. 

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/session27

An effective branding strategy is the key to every brand’s success. Learn innovative strategies anyone can use to identify who your ideal shoppers is along with how and where to find them. Learn how to leverage the strength of your brand to win at 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

FREE Trade Promotion ROI Calculator: 

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Download the show notes here:

RetailSolved.com/session26

The cornerstone of every brand's success is happy customers. Ensure that your products can be found where they shop. Nothing happens until someone buys your product & shoppers can't buy what they can't find. Learn to grow sales by increasing distribution.

This episode's FREE downloadable guide

Scorecards are powerful goal setting tools. You’ve probably heard that “what gets measured gets done”. Scorecards map out objectives in bite-size manageable chunks that keep you on-track and focused. They're what you need to succeed. 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE STRATEGIC GUIDE: Retail Scorecard

The cornerstone of every brand's success is happy customers. Ensure that your products can be found where they shop. Nothing happens until someone buys your product & shoppers can't buy what they can't find. Learn to grow sales by increasing distribution.

Today I want to talk to you about distribution. This show is for anyone who wants to get more sales out of their dollars.

Distribution is the one thing every brand struggles with, regardless of their size. The difference is that the big brands don't feel the impact as much as the small brands do. 

Nothing happens until someone buys your product and shoppers can't buy what they can't find. The path to sustainable sales is getting your product into the hands of more shoppers and is critical to increasing sustainable food production and sales. So what does this mean and how does it impact you? If a consumer goes into a store to buy your product and they can't find it, they might buy your competitors product. On shows like Shark Tank, you often hear people talk about the cost of acquisition. The cost of acquiring and retaining a new customer is extremely expensive. It's even more expensive to try to reacquire that customer after you've disappointed them. 

Say for example, not having the product on the shelf, or your customer was unable to find your product. That's why this is so critical. The easier it is for a consumer to find your product, the easier it is for them to buy it and purchase it. Makes perfect sense, right? You need to understand the importance of distribution to and how it supports your sales goals. 

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/session25

Every brand's success can be traced back to how well they execute fundamental strategies. Small nuances in the way brands plan, implement, & collaborate with retailers can set you apart as the category leader giving you a sustainable competitive advantage

This episode's FREE downloadable guide

Scorecards are powerful goal setting tools. You’ve probably heard that “what gets measured gets done”. Scorecards map out objectives in bite-size manageable chunks that keep you on-track and focused. They're what you need to succeed. 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE STRATEGIC GUIDE: Retail Scorecard

Today I want to talk to you about a problem that plagues all businesses. I work with brands at all levels of development, from pre-revenue startups to multi-billion dollar companies with a strong global presence. They all have these similar problems in common. 

Today I want to share with you 10 strategies to help you build sustainable sales and profits. As you begin to develop your business strategy for the next year, it's wise to first reflect on the prior year. Did you achieve all your business objectives? Did you reach your goals? What would you have done differently, given the opportunity? Did your actual results match the goals of the projections that you set? These are all important questions you need to answer. 

What I find is that when brands are setting their New Year's resolutions, typically they don't complete the project. Or, they put it off. Now is the time for you to take this seriously. Again, it's not just the small brands that struggle with this. Larger brands have their own set of challenges. I'll explain more in a minute. 

This is the first place to start when developing your business strategy. Next look at the goals themselves. Were your previous goals reasonable and achievable? Don't set goals that are too far out of reach. For example, if your business grew 5% last year, don't set a goal of 25% for the next year. 

Your goals should be smart goals. They should be Specific. Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Resolutions are similar to goals. They encourage and motivate us to achieve more than we did previously. They also help us stay focused and on track. While you should set your business goals at least 6 to 12 months ahead on the calendar in order to achieve them, I find that most of the businesses that I work with don't have really well-defined goals. Learn key strategies to help you achieve your goals for this year and beyond. 

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/session24