Many times, your experiences motivate you. For Nancy Trangmar and Meghan Marsden, Co-Founders of Veil Intimates, the big point was when they were trying to buy a beautiful, supportive bra but couldn’t find any that fit well. One discussion after another and one search after another for high-end but comfortable intimate apparel led them to create Veil Intimates. Veil Intimates is an apparel technology company where they’ve designed and patented technology that will revolutionize the women’s apparel industry. The heart of their product is the process and the design. Their approach is to change the marketplace, and they ultimately hope to work with existing brands not only in the traditional foundation arena, but also active wear to change the support structure for women.

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Veil Intimates with Co-Founders Nancy Trangmar and Meghan Marsden

Thank you for having us.

This is an inaugural where I have two guests at one time. You guys are going to be fascinated by what these two have embarked on. If you would, tell us a little bit about your business and who you serve.

Veil Intimates, we are an apparel technology company. We’ve design and patent revolutionary technology that is going to change women’s apparel. Meghan and I were shopping and trying to find a supportive bra that didn’t use an underwire for support and we were dumbfounded when we couldn’t find it existing in the market already. So, it motivated us to search out for possibilities, and here we are today.

You were motivated. I’m thinking of the quantity of times that you’ve been shopping for undergarments, a bra, whatever and this one was the tipping point. Tell me a little bit about when you had been disappointed and you left wherever you were and the conversation you guys had going on that spurred you to action? It’s amazing how many times you can experience something and it not motivate you but for some reason this was the tipping point. For us, we were at a really amazing boutique located in Cherry Creek in Denver that’s known for the most beautiful, high-end apparel and intimates. It was their sidewalk sale, so we’re buying really nice things at a discount. But even then we went to Starbucks, we we’re talking about it and this is the best fitting piece of apparel place that you could buy this piece of apparel in Colorado. We’re sitting and looking at each other, how can we spend that much money and still be this dissatisfied?

Maybe it just means that we need to look into the market and how our bras are made. Is there a way to do it better? Why does it have to be this way, and just started investigating, and that’s really what it was. There wasn’t one particular thing that really pushed us over the edge besides being together and both feeling the same way, and then having the conversation with other women. It was a continued echo of mentality that I guess this is just as good as it’s going to get and accepting this piece of apparel that you have to wear everyday is just not going to be comfortable. It is what it is. That wasn’t good enough for us.

I think about it in the morning, getting ready to go and do whatever you’re going to do and you go, “I have to put that device on again.” You already have some degree of rancor with that garment. You were explaining the history, the background from here. This is old technology as it exists today, the technology that you’re trying to interrupt, whalebones, corsets and the wire was brought on board when?

It was patented in the ‘30s.

The only innovation was making it to a plastic as opposed to the wire. Now, when it pokes you it doesn’t poke quite as stabbing as it used to.

Well isn’t that nice!

Yes, exactly!

I’m thinking about the genesis of you guys, that you’d left the shopping, you’ve gone to Starbucks. You have a history in business. Both of you guys have been entrepreneurs.

At some point in time, NFL players realize the game of football is going to leave them behind. However, they could still be in a position where they’re financially stable, they’re of sound mind and body, and they’ve got opportunities after football. Craig Domann, CEO of 360 Sports, says these can all be provided for. Craig’s company represents NFL players when they come out of college. They’re basically career counselors and negotiators, and help players through their journey through the NFL. Craig talks about the many hats they have to wear in assisting clients with all aspects of their NFL career and shares the process it takes for an NFL prospect to be in the league.

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360 Sports: Through NFL And Beyond with Craig Domann

We’re with the CEO of https://360sportsrep.com/ (360Sports), Craig Domann. Craig, thank you for taking time out.

I appreciate it, Bob.

Tell me a little bit about what you do in 360Sports and who you serve?

What we do is we represent NFL players when they come out of college. We’re basically career counselors, negotiators, we wear lots of hats. We help them through their journey through the NFL. At some point in time, the game of football is going to leave them behind. At that point in time, we want them to be in a position where they’re financially stable, they’re of sound mind and body and they’ve got opportunities after football.

The whole agent world, there are many misunderstandings about what you do. I suspect the Jerry Maguire movie had a great deal to do with that. Let’s walk backways, what did you do before you became an NFL agent?

First, you’ve got to look at the fact that I love sports. I love competition and I played college football. When I got out of college, I was in tax accounting. I was bored out of my mind. I went to law school to pursue something in sports and I found my way into the athlete representation business back in 1990. It gives me an opportunity to mentor young men, coach them. I love coaching. You are the ultimate coach when you’re an agent.

In my impression and I’m willfully ignorant, is that we have a notion of what an agent does. The coaching aspect, now that you say it, makes incredible sense. They have the coaching on their sport side, but you’re a life coach for them.

Absolutely. The person that besides the players that have fathers, the person they respect the most is typically a coach. The vernacular, the nomenclature, everything that goes along with the player-coach relationship is the one that they hold the highest. If you can communicate with a young man from a coach perspective, you can make more of an impression with him.

Looking at what you do for the athletes, you’ve been doing this for a long time. How many athletes do you think you’ve worked with through the years and securing them a place in the NFL?

Probably over a couple hundred.

That’s a couple of hundred folks and the audience is in a couple of different camps. You have the audience that may have either a friend or somebody that’s trying to get in the NFL as a college player. You have the folks that are sports enthusiasts and trying to understand the process of going from an NFL prospect to being in the league. Let’s talk about the typical things that are processed for an NFL prospect from college coming up to what’s important to them to get into the NFL?

There are a lot of myths involved in what it takes to be an NFL player. When guys come out of college you have to look at where they started. These guys were talented athletes, probably multisport athletes from when they were knee high. They were probably the best player in their middle school, certainly the best players in their high schools.

It’s true what they say that it’s lonely at the top. Former CEO Todd Ordal says he gets where CEOs are coming from because he’s worn their moccasins and felt their pain. Todd’s new company, Applied Strategy, was developed over years and years of screwing up and making mistakes. He now works with CEOs and helps them lead better, profit more, and sleep soundly at night with coaching strategies that work and has more organizational effectiveness. Todd talks about the problems he came across and the growing pains of setting and building up an organization.

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Applied Strategy: Helping CEOs Lead Better with Todd Ordal

In this episode, we have http://toddordal.com/ (Todd Ordal) who is the CEO of http://appliedstrategy.info/ (Applied Strategy). He is the author of https://www.amazon.com/Never-Kick-Cow-Chip-Hot/dp/1630477206/ref=sr_1_1?s=booksandie=UTF8andqid=1529988622andsr=1-1andrefinements=p_27%3ATodd+OrdalanddpID=51AoBfM5mcLandpreST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_anddpSrc=srch (Never Kick a Cow Chip on a Hot Day), a great book. I’ve been through the book. I would recommend if you have not. It is a how-to and it tells you specific things you can do. Todd, thanks so much for being a guest on the show.

Thank you, Bob. Welcome to the People’s Republic of Boulder.

Tell us a little bit about your business and who you serve.

I’m a former CEO and I now work with CEOs and help them lead better, profit more, and sleep soundly at night and hopefully without narcotics. That looks like coaching strategy work and has more organizational effectiveness, mostly CEOs of $50 million to $10 billion in range that I work with. Industry diagnostic and my work’s all over the country, a little bit of international. I hail from Boulder but don’t do much work here.

For the folks who don’t know your background, when you’re out in the space, there are a lot of consultants around on there. You did this for a living before consulting?

Yes. The reason I have a voice in this world is that there are all the mistakes I’ve probably made so there’s not much that my clients can screw up that I haven’t already screwed up. I can hopefully help them make different mistakes. I’m an operating guy so I can come at this coaching consulting thing from a senior’s perspective as opposed to a psyche community. I got an undergrad in psych, but I’ve made all of those mistakes. I had been in their moccasins and felt their pain and know it’s lonely at the top, so I get where they’re coming from.

I was going through your book before the show and you have experience with Kinko’s and some rather large store. Let’s talk a little bit of the backstory or background of you and Kinko’s.

I stumbled into Kinko’s on a college long family connection, ran a store, then ran more and more stores. I eventually ended up on the board there and had 7,000 people working for me. This was during the growth years of Kinko’s and we just had an absolute blast. Building that company was so fun and I was there for twenty years. It was just a riot. In fact, one of your friends, Larry Hay, used to work for me when I was at Kinko’s, but I had a division office here. We eventually rolled that thing up and sold it to a private equity firm. I stayed for three years after that and ran a couple of other smaller organizations. That’s the short story.

You were working for Kinko’s and for those that don’t know, it’s an office supply event, correct?

FedEx eventually bought them. They killed the name but it has been FedEx Office, which you would probably know them as now, that’s closest thing to what it was.

There’s that time frame and you see it grow,

There are about 75% of closely held family business owners in the country. Yet, 85% of those have not completed the transition and succession plan. As a result, 25% of businesses close while others have to sell, cutting their family ties and emotional investment with it. Lisa Niederman, managing director of Speed2Results, talks about the importance of planning for your destination and preparing your business for succession. Sharing her own story and background in psychology as well, she discusses the state of owner readiness and the common problems with business owners. She also covers the processes of transition—from selling to buying—and the need for value drivers.

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The State Of Seller Readiness In Family Owned Businesses with Lisa Niederman

We’re incredibly fortunate. We have Lisa Niederman. She is the Managing Director of http://speed2results.com/ (Speed2Results). Lisa, thank you so much for allowing us to come into your home.

Bob, what a pleasure. I’ve been excited about doing this interview with you and I’ve heard all about it. I’m ready to get started.

Lisa, tell me about your business and who you serve.

Speed2Results is about focusing on closely held family-owned businesses in transition. It’s particularly working with the owners, the rising generation, the nonfamily executives, and the partners in helping them look at the emotional and behavioral challenges that they’re experiencing with succession. There’s a lot of succession going and continuity. How do you grow the business? How do you create that legacy and getting it ready for sale? We call this seller readiness. It’s the people side of the transition journey that ensures improvement in value drivers and optimum valuation.

For the folks in our audience, they’re going, “What is that entire touchy-feely thing?” I don’t think they’re aware of the statistics for the quantities of businesses that come to market that don’t sell. Can you share some of your experience and understanding of basically the state of owner readiness?

There are about 75% of closely held family business owners in this country. 85% have not completed a transition plan and that succession we’re talking about. 50% haven’t even started. Out of that, 75% regret it when they do sell because they’re not prepared. They spend approximately the next eighteen months in depression and anxiety, trying to find themselves because their identity was tied to their business. 25% of the businesses only close. That’s not much. When we talk about seller readiness or the emotional and behavioral side of getting the business owners ready, I know that sounds a lot of gobbledygook, it’s not. If you think about it, it’s the glue that makes that transaction or succession work and people aren’t paying attention to it.

They’re paying attention to the advisors, the valuation, the attorneys, the CPAs, the investment bankers, and business brokers. What happens when the people side falls apart? What happens when the owner isn’t psychologically ready? They’re controlling. They’re a know-it-all. They’re not ready yet and they think they can do it in another three to five years. We’re living in a volatile market. We don’t know what’s going to happen. People think that they still can sell their business. They still have a right to sell their businesses. Nobody has a crystal ball. We don’t know that. You don’t know what’s going to happen if it’s a family business. What’s going to happen with your siblings and your cousins when they want out? Those are some of the issues that we’re talking about when we’re talking about emotional and behavioral challenges. That is what you have to address in order to make the continu...

Football is not just a contact sport. It’s a game of discipline, respect, and character. When Teddi Domann and her husband would drop her two boys off at youth football camps, she thought they could do something to make the camps be better. They gathered some people and put together their vision for impacting young people by using the sport of football and run a youth football camp for ages seven to fourteen, which is what is now known as Pro Football Camp. Teddi shares that they’re not only teaching kids proper football but life skills and character qualities that are some of the keys to success for many of the top and most successful people in the world.

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Pro Football Camp: Teaching Football And Character Skills with Teddi Domann

We are with Teddi Domann. She is the Founder and Board Chairperson of http://www.profootballcamp.com/ (Pro Football Camp). Teddi, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me on.

What we’re going to be talking about with Teddi is about Pro Football Camp. If you would, tell us a little bit about Pro Football Camp and who it serves.

The Pro Football Camp is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We serve the youth of the Greater Colorado Springs area. What we do every year is we put on a three-day camp. The camp starts at [8:00] in the morning and it goes to [11:30]. We have current and former NFL athletes who teach not only football skills, which you would expect from a football camp. They also teach character skills. When I talk about character skills, what I mean by that is what does it take to be able to be an athlete who’s able to play in the NFL? That’s a pretty small number of people and it takes some character qualities that candidly are some of the keys to success for many of the top and most successful people in the world. The bottom line is, if you can learn this at a young age, it’s going to impact your life whether you’re playing football or not.

What was the genesis of the idea to do this? How did it start?

It started because our boys, we have two boys, wanted to go to a youth football camp. My husband and I signed them up for several different camps. We would drop them off or pick them up, we’re checking out the camp and I was like, “We could really do this to help this camp be better.” At the end of it, I actually reached out to all three of those camps that my kids attended in and offered our assistance. No one took us up on it.

Because the backstory is people don’t know what else you do.

The back story is that my husband is an attorney and a CPA and what he does is represent NFL athletes. He’s a certified NFL PA agent.

You’re at this crux and you’ve reached out and they’re not interested in your help. What was going through your mind when you said, I think I’m going to do this?

Actually, I reached out to them a second time and no answer. Then my husband and I were talking, I said, “Let’s pray about it,” and so we did. At the end of that time period of praying, I said, “What do you hear what the Lord is saying?” My husband looked right at me and he goes, “You’re supposed to do this?” I said to him, “If we’re going to do this, then we’re going to do it right. It’s going to really make an impact in our community. We got together with some other people who shared our vision, including a former NFL player in Colorado Springs. His name is Rich Griffith. He played with the Jacksonville Jaguars, just short of ten years. He’s actually a pastor at a local church and just retired from that. Now he’s doing full-time missionary work. The bottom line is we all had a vision for impacting young people by using the sport of football and running a youth football camp for ages seven to fourtee...

Small businesses are important to the nation’s economy. Over 80% of our gross national product is produced by employers with less than 100 employees and the failure rate is 76% to 90% in the first one to two years. Harry Lay, trusted advisor to CEOs and owner and president of Lay Professional Services, provides services primarily to small businesses to help them accomplish things they can’t seem to accomplish without somebody’s help. Harry says there are lots of companies that are underperforming, and he looks for the willingness and the ability of people to change what and how they do things. In order for them to move from where they are to where they want to be, he offers them the skillsets that they need but don’t have. Harry shares how he leveraged his skill as a CPA into starting his own consulting firm and becoming the trusted advisor to CEOs and business leaders worldwide.

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The Trusted Advisor: Learning From The Voice Of Experience Harry Lay

We’re incredibly fortunate to have https://www.laypsi.com/ (Harry Lay), he’s the owner and president of Lay Professional Services, and he’s a good fishing buddy of mine. Harry, thanks for taking the time.

It’s a pleasure to be with you, as always.

Tell us a little bit about your business and who you serve.

https://www.laypsi.com/index.cfm (Lay Professional Services Inc.) is headquartered in Tulsa. We provide services primarily to small businesses. The Chamber of Commerce, define small businesses, employers with 100 employees or less. I work with early stage mature small businesses and I help them accomplish things they can’t seem to accomplish without somebody’s help,

Folks go, “I’m that small business and I probably need some help.” Why should Harry be qualified? They don’t know your history and I do. Let’s dig in a little bit and talk about your journey prior to professional services.

Most people, when there’s something they want to change in their business, they want more income, and they want more sales or more profits. When I talk about I help companies change whatever it is in their company they want to change. That’s a pretty broad statement. I’ve had a pretty broad range of experience by education and training. I’m a CPA, at this stage of my career I’m a reforming CPA. I spent nineteen years in the profession, first of all with Arthur Andersen’s company as an auditor. After a few years there, two of their tax partners and I left. We formed our own firm in Tulsa and after almost ten years we grew to be one of the larger local firms. We were merged with or acquired by https://www.bdo.com/ (BDO Seidman). I was a senior audit partner with them for two more years before I got an incredible opportunity.

In the CPA world, I worked in virtually every industry that specialized in construction type clients, both in commercial and residential real estate, real estate development. My favorite client was https://www.weyerhaeuser.com/ (Weyerhaeuser), the forestry company. You’ve heard some stories about that. An architecture firm contacted me in Tulsa about 1988 and asked if I would become their president and chief financial officer. I was a single parent with a thirteen-year-old daughter at the time, so I’m not sure why I took that job. I don’t remember what motivated me to do that. It might’ve been my concern about the SEC and their crack down on publicly held companies, but I did take the job. I realized pretty quickly I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know that much about business. That may sound odd for a nineteen-year CPA veteran.

I knew how to audit companies. I knew how to work with companies that somebody else had generated.

Hiring somebody could either break or make the company. There has to be an assurance that the person you hire is someone who they say they are. You have to go through a number of credentials and background checks to ensure their honesty and to know whether they can deliver well for the job. It helps to hire the right person in the first place, though this can be tough to do. Lori Denham is the founder of Guardian Background Screening, a full-service background screening company. Lori has all the details when it comes to doing pre and post-employment background checks. She takes us down into the processes as well as provides some notes and advice on the necessity of undergoing through the screening.

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Lori Denham on Hiring The Right Person With Background Screening

We have Laura Denham on the show. She’s the Founder of https://guardianbackgroundscreening.com/ (Guardian Background Screening). Laura, thanks so much for being here.

Thanks for having me, Bob.

Tell me a little bit about your business and who you serve.

We are a full-service background screening company. We do pre and post-employment background checks. We do tenant checks, volunteer background screening, drug screening, aptitude and integrity testing.

Is there a requirement to do those types of testing now in the workplace?

No. However, the aptitude and integrity testing for the small business owner is a way to figure out if this person is going to be a good fit. Are they going to waste time on the computers? Do they have abusive tendencies? Do they have leadership potential? This is an affordable non-DISC way for small business owners to get that information.

Circling back to the background checks and other services that you provide for the business owner, you also work with nonprofits. Is it mandated that you do?

None of it is mandated for me.

I had a clearance way back in the military. To serve in my field, I had to have a clearance.

That depends on where you want to work. Obviously, in the military or government, there is a requirement. Any local government, there’s typically background screening required.

For the rest of the world, it’s a voluntary elective pursuit. When a business engages you to do a background or any of the services that you provide, what’s the general motivation of that business owner? What’s the typical benefit to them?

They are looking to trust the person they’re hiring and make sure there’s nothing lurking in the background that’s going to be a surprise down the road. Perhaps they work with vulnerable populations or sensitive information, and they want to make sure that the person they’re hiring is not going to take advantage of either of those situations. Whether it be abuse, neglect and maybe they don’t have the credentials that they said they had. It’s a high-fraud area of resumes, saying that they’ve graduated with degrees or have had jobs that they’ve never done. For the employer, I’m ensuring that who they’re hiring is who they say they are.

As an applicant, I said I went to Vanderbilt and I put that on my resume. There’s some database that you go to verify. Is that available to everybody? How does the data retrieval to verify work?

Yes and no. There are a lot of colleges or schools that have stored their information with a vendor who then charges us to retrieve it. If they don’t use that service, then anybody can call the registrar’s office. Sometimes they have to pay for that verification, sometimes they don’t. It depends on what level of education they have. It’s to make sure that you’ve graduated with either the diploma or the degree that you’ve said you’ve graduated with.

Trish Groom, business development leader and serial entrepreneur, takes us into her journey towards success as she lays down the attitudes and mindset that got her there. From opening a coffee shop called Sidney’s Café to evolving into other business ventures with Splick-it, Inc, she shows that determination to reach her goals. As a business owner making her own name in the game, she encourages women to become investors as well. She has built this community for women investors to tap into an industry that no one taps them into. Talking more about her businesses, she gives great advice on how to inspire other people to become successful in their areas as well.

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The Spirit Of A Serial Entrepreneur with Trish Groom

We have Trish Groom on the show. She was the Owner of a coffee shop called Sidney’s here in town. She’s the Cofounder of https://www.splickit.com/ (Splick.it). Trish, thanks so much for taking time out of your day.

Thanks for having me.

Trish is a serial entrepreneur. She’s on more than one business. She’s involved in many different things in the business community. In Splick.it, tell me about your role and who does Splick.it serves?

I was Cofounder and in business development. We built an online pre-order, pre-pay app and web for businesses, for restaurants specifically. We target more franchise companies. The sweet spot for us are franchises that have between 500 and 1,200 locations. We white label for them and provide the service. We manage the backend and the customer experience for them.

I’m not a restaurant person. Let’s say I’m the franchise owner, what improvement or what change should I expect to see by using Splick.it?

A lot of restaurants lose revenue because they lose people at the end of the line. They can’t wait. In the early stages, we were one of the first to come up with this idea where we were taking your pre-order and pre-payment and putting it on an app. That way, you can still as an owner, get that revenue in the door and the customer can still get served quickly like they need to do be.

That’s the sticky factor on the long line. For the app, is it an app that the customer has to have or does an employee come from the restaurant with the app?

We do the marketing. We help the franchise market the app to a customer. They download it and create an account. We have a credit card on file so it’s easy for them to order and pay.

The consumer won’t know that it’s Splick.it because it will be private labeled for the franchises. How long has that company been around?

We started in 2009.

That was an auspicious time.

It was rough, a lot of early-stage friends and family rounds.

What folks don’t realize is you didn’t come from a business background. Your first foray in Boulder was you bought a coffee shop.

I did buy a coffee shop. What I didn’t realize was that I had never drunk a cup of coffee in my life and I thought that was a good idea. I didn’t realize that was unusual at the time.

Do you drink coffee now?

I do. I learned a lot. I was traveling in South America for a year and had this idea that I wanted to own a coffee shop. Not because I loved coffee, but because I thought that there was some community aspect to it that was intriguing. I came home from South America and I had no money and no business owning a coffee shop. I had no experience whatsoever. I was teaching at the time, but I ended up in Telluride during the summer at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. My parents probably don’t want to know this part, but I drink a lot of beers and ended up buying a coffee shop from a couple there that I had met and ran into. Two weeks later, the universe conspires sometimes and the next thing I knew,

The culmination of diving into the curious question of, “Who am I?” resulted in Kerry Crandell’s establishment of WoMAN or the Women of Mergers and Acquisition Network. The mission at WoMAN is to enrich the lives of women who work in mergers and acquisitions through three pillars – information, connection, and service. Kerry explains that it’s basically a great group of women in a male-dominated industry that comes together every month. They’re building this great community so that they can share with each other and can also enrich their lives through personal growth, professional growth, and service. Learn more about this great group as Kerry shares how it all started, what it is all about, and how you can qualify to become a member.

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What It Takes To Be A WoMAN with Kerry Crandell

We’re so fortunate to have Kerry Crandell on the show. She is the Founder of http://www.womanglobalgroup.com (WoMAN: Women of Mergers and Acquisition Network).

Thank you for having me.

Tell us a little bit about WoMAN, who you serve and what you do.

WoMAN is an acronym for Women of Mergers and Acquisitions Network. Our mission at WoMAN is to enrich the lives of women who work in mergers and acquisitions through our three pillars and that’s information, connection and service. As the name implies, you do have to qualify to become a member of WoMAN. You have to be or you have to identify being a woman and you have to work in or be affiliated with mergers and acquisitions in some form or fashion within your work. We launched in January of 2017.

For the young ladies and women, maybe they’re going, “I don’t know if I’m in that industry or not.” Expand on the folks that are in your group.

All of this is found on the website. I try to do a great job of it. It is http://www.womanglobalgroup.com (Womanglobalgroup.com). As we’re expanding and growing into other markets, we’re actually in the process of figuring out an international domain that we can plug into that but right now that’s where you can go. The categories that we have of WoMAN is very broad and very diverse which is definitely a great thing for us. The first category we have is corporate women. That’s anywhere from a woman business owner who is acquiring companies or the one that has started a business and knows that she wants to exit it and wants to stay informed and connected to the MandA community. The other middle corporate category that we have are a lot of the general counsel and corporate dev team and that sort.

What if it’s a woman that sold a business lately, would they be qualified to be in your group?

Potentially depending on what their role is.

If they were the CEO, Founder of the business and they sold it?

Absolutely, and then they would want to stay involved and connected to the community for sure.

If you’re a corporate officer in a company, let’s say you’re the COO or the CEO of a publicly traded firm, would that be someone that would be qualified to be in your group?

We have a few COO and CEO members as well. Those companies are in the acquisition phase right now. There’s relevancy there but even if they weren’t, it’s basically a great group of women in a male-dominated industry that comes together every month. We’re building this great community so that we can share with each other and we can also enrich our lives through some personal growth or professional growth and through service.

Do you meet up? You have a presentation or a meetup.

We have an event, http://womancolorado.com/events/ (WoMAN Connect).

If somebody is going, “I don’t know whether I should go or not,” if they’re not a member,

When you see frozen food at the supermarket, you may not think about it and many people don’t even know it but they’re actually a result of food science. Just like any other item that needs to be manufactured for consumables, a lot of food will always start with a concept, whether the concept comes from the consumer or from a marketing aspect. That’s what food science is all about. Brandon Shepherd, CEO and Founder of Mile High Food Science, talks about paints a picture of what the food science space involves and what goes on behind food product development and manufacturing.

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Food Science: From Concept To Shelf with Brandon Shepherd

We’re up in Denver and we’re visiting with Brandon Shepherd. He’s the CEO and founder of https://milehighfoodscience.com/index.html (Mile High Food Science). Brandon, welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about your business and who you serve.

We are a food product development consulting company that works with a lot of major consumer package goods companies here in America as well as in Central America.

When folks would go food design, what does that mean? Paint us a picture, we’ve got this picture that you probably can’t see that well in the video in the background, but it’s the thing called Side Shots. Let’s talk a bit about that and maybe that will paint the picture for them.

A lot of food will always start with a concept, just like any other item that needs to be manufactured for consumables. Whether a concept comes from the consumer or from a marketing aspect, that’s where the idea starts. Once the data is gathered, it will be handed over to a product developer or a food scientist to say please make this product that can be manufactured in our facility at these certain costs.

We see that typically in the frozen food counters and the supermarket regularly. As you look at it, we were talking about Side Shots. For the listener they talk about food science and that’s certainly not how I grew up. There were family recipes that we’d worked with. What I see from what you were talking about, why I was excited about having you on the show is you did Hot Pockets where you did product development for https://www.hotpockets.com/ (Hot Pockets) and then you’ve actually had a foray into the cannabis industry as well.

When I graduated college, there was no such degree as a food science degree. This industry and this position has grown immensely over the past decade, two decades. Food science has become a household name now almost. Everybody knows a food scientist somewhere. Those are the rings that I travel in. The need for this kind of product development and knowledge of the science and manufacturing of food is becoming a very important and necessary in this environment. Food is the number one manufacturing business in North America. There are more food manufacturers than anything else. The industry seems very innocuous and we all have to eat, but it is a behemoth of an industry.

You graduated college and you worked at a dairy place. You worked at a manufacturing facility of some kind. Then at some point you got hooked up with Hot Pockets?

Yes. I actually just fell into the food industry. I was working. I had just come back from a teaching job in Japan for a year and 911 had happened while I was there. When I came back there were zero jobs to be held. I was a camp counselor. I did work with my dad when he could afford it. Then I was a microscopist for a long time and I just happened to fall into a temp job at Nestle handheld food groups, which was located in the Denver Tech Center at the time. Worked there for a week, sling and Hot Pockets on the bench top. Making them by hands actually. They gave me a job offer the next week and the rest is history...