Conquer The Noise

In this episode, Jonathan (CCO at Unconquered)has an insightful conversation with Joe Dickson who is a co-founder and CEO at Merryfield - a clean label rewards app for purpose driven consumer packaged goods.

Having spent over 20 years at Whole Foods, Dickson took inspiration from the many farmers and suppliers he built relationships with and started his own farm at home where he practices the same organic farming methods. He describes organic farming as a set of ecological farming practices that focuses  on using natural inputs to the land  and limiting the use of synthetic chemicals. He also appreciates Whole Foods’ mission of taking a serious stance  on GMO labeling as well as organic practices.

The conversation moves to Dickson talking about David Mayer (Co-founder and CEO of Merryfield) who had spent his whole career working in private equity. He explains how Mayer decided to focus his energy and resources on tools to improve wellness for everyday consumers out of his personal passion for wellness. He talks about how the two met over a shared interest in creating a  reliable tool that let consumers know that every product  has been vetted.

He then talks about how there are organic brands at supermarkets like Walmart but that they are buried among non-clean legacy brands. He says for a consumer who wants to choose better and wants to avoid unnecessary ingredients, it’s really hard to cut through the noise of label claims, the sheer number of products and focus on brands that are really better. When it came to the question of trust, Dickson talks about Merryfield Clean Council - a credible group of experts in GMO and food ingredients who help vett the products and Merryfields standards.. “Education is a huge part of the app” says Dickson further explaining how they selected a group of brands that met standards at a baseline and all of which had a clear purpose. Every brand and product has a page on the app and  they highlight credentials such as what organic means in a 1 liner definition to keep it digestible.

Dickson says that all brands want a way to open a trust driven dialogue with consumers and to build the habit of continual purchase. This is where he thinks Merryfield can help brands create a level of trust while it their platform rewards its customers with every purchase to foster long term relationships. 

 Their marking will focus on user acquisition strategies and success metrics will include the number of users, brands and satisfaction. In order to get new users into the clean label tent, the company will invest in approachability and relatable language with a focus on offering personal benefits.

Jonathan and Dickson talk about how they were on a search for the right celebrity to partner with when they learned of Zooey Deschanel’s personal interest in wellness and clean food. The depth of her personal resonance with the brand’s mission made them realize that there was a much bigger fit than a standard sponsorship deal, and so they brought her in as a co-founder and Chief Creative Officer. 

The conversation ends with Dickson’s advice to early career professionals,  - “Everyone regardless of age or experience is a bit unsure of themselves and that there isn’t a magic door you cross through into adulthood. Despite the lack of years of experience, you have a lot of insight and perspective to offer,” said Dickson. 

In this week's episode, we dig into the story of Kara Goldin, an entrepreneur and founder of HINT water, an American beverage company producing healthy substitutes for soda, juices, and energy drinks. All their products are sugar-free and meet smart snack requirements.

The conversation starts with Goldin talking through what  led her to write her book, Undaunted. Her new book outlines her journey in entrepreneurialism and the qualities that people need to have in order to succeed. The discussion uncovers many insightful learnings Goldin gained through her experience. 

Goldin explains how it is important to learn from tough experiences that most people would want to forget and move past. She acknowledges that it can be uncomfortable for one to go back and reflect on their journey but highlights how valuable it can turn out to be . She substantiates this by talking about an early  experience with Starbucks when they were removed from Starbucks’ which left her with inventory that had to  to be sent back to the warehouse. Goldin believes when bad things happen, they don’t last forever. Continuing her story, she talks about her decision to not work with Amazon because she believed it did not foster  direct relationships with customers.  As a result, she launched  her own store, which allowed her to have meaningful conversations and build relationships with her customers. She believes  the subscription program she launched on the site was what made HINT water stand out. 

Goldin dives into her founding story where she talks about how her own health issues led to the creation of HINT water. She discovered ingredients in her diet soda that made her stop consuming the products because of the harm it was doing to her. Within a few weeks of doing so, she was surprised to see her skin glow and weight drop. After this, she ventured into the market only to realize everything had some kind of sweetener and decided to make her own products. 

The discussion comes to an end with Goldin explaining how the purpose of HINT water was to fill holes in the market that didn't exist. She says she always thought of the worst that could happen and reminded herself to go out and try it. If nothing else, she had the courage to laugh at herself and make the most of her learnings along the way.

In this episode, Jonathan has a conversation with Merve Doran, co-founder of OLEAMEA, an organic extra virgin olive oil producer based in Turkey. OLEAMEA works with farmers to buy early harvest olives and while practicing sustainable production that relies on the traditions of artisans and local masters. 

The conversation starts with Merve talking about her family and how they have been producing olive oil in the southwest region of Turkey for generations. Sensing a gap in organic farming practices, she and her brother decided to invest in their infrastructure through local partnerships. The small region housed about 1000 olive farmers, and they helped them get certified and better understand the business side of farming.

She mentions that many farms in the region are on mountains where no modern machinery can be brought in and explains how this leads to farmers having ample questions on the sustainability of the business. Due to these situational factors, she describes her initial days as a period that focused heavily ​​on consulting, working with engineers & consultants.

Merve began her career in HR and discusses how going after her dream of working with her family's extra virgin olive oil made perfect sense given her family roots. 

She explains how OLEAMEA ​​works with farmers to buy early harvest olives from their farms (not their oils) which they then harvest together. This, she says, allows them to control everything from farmers to end products in terms of quality and pricing.

Having never bought olive oil off the shelf, Merve describes her experience of relying on store-bought olive oil during her stay in Milan as highly disappointing. This made her want to push her products to the forefront knowing that the quality and pricing of her products are far better.

She also acknowledges that there is limited knowledge around olive oil quality for consumers so she has aligned her marketing and PR efforts to help educated people. She also highlights how they focus on social media as a way to introduce people to the different uses of the product and that an agency in Turkey is helping the brand roll out olive oil-based recipes of different cuisines from around the world.

The conversation ends with Merve revealing her future plans where she mentions that olive oil is going to be the core and that she will expand into different areas that use the oil. 

In this episode of Conquer The Noise, Mike Lackman (CEO, Trade Coffee) speaks  with Jonathan (CCO, Unconquered) about how Trade Coffee offers deeply personalized specialty coffee subscriptions to their customers.

Trade Coffee is a platform that connects the best craft roasters in the country to consumers who want to make better coffee. The company delivers fresh, on-demand coffee by creating deeply personalized experiences for coffee lovers. It offers a highly modular solution with 8 different frequency intervals and quantities to choose from. 

Mike explains how Trade Coffee uses an online subscription model to provide their roasters with consistent business. He stresses the importance of ethical standards and how they are Rooted in the philosophy of direct relationships between roasters, farms, and importers. They ensure all stakeholders with living wages and a further investment in those crops.

Their goal is to be able to provide easily accessible and affordable solutions to specialty coffee buyers. The personalization happens through buyers answering a simple quiz followed by an extensive data analysis. According to Lackman, , measuring customer loyalty is one of the most reliable success metrics for the business.

Lackman’s  vision for the company is to scale the business to reach a much larger audience and  do so without compromising on quality. He  explains how focusing on the smallest audience segment is among the hardest things to do. He says  that Trade Coffee is one of the few businesses for which a picture is not worth a thousand words because  the narrative that data provides is more important.

As for marketing, he says the company advertises to a broader target group as opposed to spearfishing for hyper-targeted audiences. For the team at Trade Coffee, it’s more about identifying interest groups that disproportionately fit with what they’re trying to do and how to get better at catering to them. They heavily invest in influencer marketing as they believe the narrative is key to their story. This strategy has been very valuable for the company says Lackman, explaining how people showed up and understood the pitch better when it was delivered through a trusted source.

The conversation ends with Lackman explaining how he believes it is important to set expectations of what success looks like for the company and trust the organization’s stakeholders in the process. He concludes by saying it is necessary to allow the team to take bets confidently while knowing that some of these might not work.

In this episode of Conquer The Noise, Jonathan speaks with Hannah Skvarla, co-founder of The Little Market, and Liesl Gerntholtz, the Chief Program Officer. The Little Market works with global artisans to sell handmade and fair-trade products. It empowers female artisans by providing living wages and dignified work to women worldwide by extending their products’ distribution. Established in 2013 as an online marketplace, the nonprofit has grown to include a brick-and-mortar store in California. In just 7 years, the nonprofit has helped create 1 million hours of dignified work for their suppliers.
 
The nonprofit tries to reach out to most marginalized groups and work with them to bring their products to market. Supporting sustainable income opportunities is at its core, and they believe giving women money directly through appropriate product valuation is where real empowerment comes. In addition, the team aims to position and market all products to different marketplaces and create an ongoing relationship with their artisans.
 
Hannah Skvarla shares how she met Liesl Gerntholtz at FIDAM and bonded over their shared passion for community and giving back. She then talks about the trip that helped her understand women’s quests for opportunities to work. She learned about the magnitude of existing artisan products and the lack of scalable ways to reach a marketplace. All these eventually led to creating an online marketplace to connect people with ethically made products worldwide.

“A living wage is the ability of families to pay for essentials - school, food, rent payment, and some discretionary income. Unfortunately, many jobs don’t allow for these, which mandates people to work longer hours”, explains Hannah. The Little Market addresses this by developing living wage guidance for all countries they exist in. They arrive at this by thoroughly analyzing the conditions in which the products are being made and other crucial factors. Hannah states that the real value is in empowering women economically, i.e., enabling them to earn money and decide how to spend it in a safe environment. This is among the reasons for them to focus on dignified work as a measurement.
 
Hannah also reveals how despite COVID, 2020 was their best year to date. She explains how the shopping patterns have changed and how people are more conscious about supporting small businesses. She also describes how the nonprofit’s flexible model has been helping them immensely during these uncertain times.
 
The founder also highlights on multiple occasions how this entire initiative isn’t about “helping people” but genuinely empowering them. The team works hard to create a partnership. They do not see themselves as service providers but enablers who work closely with artisans to educate them on the best practices while preserving traditional techniques. This entire process is built on relationships and transparency at all levels and is mutually beneficial.
 
Growth for The Little Market is diversifying its portfolio and looking for as many things to sell as possible. This leads to uncovering the challenge Brick-and-mortar throws, especially with shipping costs and the scale of orders making it so hard to ship to many locations. There is also an emphasis on how being a nonprofit has helped them receive the support of some incredible activists, tastemakers, change-makers & celebrities.
 
Hannah also highlights how marketing is quite challenging given the amount of information to get across and expresses how getting better at storytelling is an important goal for the nonprofit. She also covers the difficulties of navigating through the concept of greenwashing. Hannah stresses that as long as the big brands use terms without monitoring how they’re being used, it will be hard for a consumer to understand what fair trade is.
 
Lastly, Hannah shares her views on pursuing dreams. She mentions how different experiences can teach people something they might not even realize for the next phase of their career by narrating instances from her own experiences.
 
Liesl mentions how it’s about working in places that connect with one’s values. She talks about how a lot of her satisfaction has come from feeling like the good she’s doing out in the world is replicated by doing it for the team she works with. She then ties it back to the nonprofit’s value to treat all staff with dignity and how it is the thread that connects everything. She finds learning about things that are completely outside of her comfort zone and wheelhouse very stimulating. The conversation ends with her stating how learning in one’s job and getting out of their comfort zone is excellent.