Fred Hart is joining us on the show today. We had Fred on the podcast back at episode #30, and if you haven’t listened to that interview yet, we talked all about honing brand strategy, and I’d definitely recommend checking that one out.

Fred is a Partner and Creative Director of Interact, one of the most sought after packaging design firms in the industry.

Part of Fred’s job as creative director is keeping a pulse on industry trends and how to leverage that knowledge to set brands up for the future. Fred and his team recently returned from the Fancy Foods show in New York, and on the show today, we talk about:

• Interesting categories and trends popping up in the Natural Products industry
• How Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods could have a huge impact on packaging design
• What steps you can take to get your brand strategy buttoned up

And plenty more…

Fred is a rock star in the industry and has plenty to teach us all in his approach to keying in on trends, branding, and design.

Resources: 

Pics of Notable Trends at the Fancy Foods Show

Check Interact Out on Instagram

On the show, we’ve got Kate Weiler, co-founder of DrinkMaple- and we’re talking about being the champion of your own new category. Kate’s maple water is now sold in over 12,000 stores, which has taken years of grit, passion, and in her words “blissful ignorance” to make happen.

As you’ll hear from Kate, there are pros and cons to creating a product that’s the first of it’s kind, especially as a start-up bootstapping it to the top.

Kate’s got hustle, and is a wealth of information about entrepreneurship and marketing.

In the episode, you’ll learn:

• Why grit outweighs experience as a CPG startup founder
• What it takes to go from 1 store to over 12000
• How to use a small budget when educating consumers is your biggest hurdle

And plenty more...

Kate has some hilarious stories of the early days and lessons learned which I think you’ll really enjoy, so let’s go on and get after it.

David and Goliath - Malcolm Gladwell

Crush It! - Gary Vaynerchuk

We have Terra's Kitchen's CEO/Co-founder, Mike McDevitt, on the show today. Terra’s Kitchen is a meal prep company out of Baltimore and they are sweeping the nation with their one of a kind meal prep delivery service.

They were founded in 2016 and already have a run rate of $20 million a year. Pretty phenomenal.

Their business model is unique to the industry, which allows them to offer up to 60 different meal choices at a time. Terra's Kitchen is set up in a really interesting way, allowing them to focus heavily on customer acquisition and retention, which is primarily what you’ll hear more about from Mike in a second.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to growth hack digital advertising without sacrificing your brand
• Why analytics should be your marketing teams best friend (if it’s not already)
• How to make sure your marketing dollars are used as efficiently as possible

And so much more.

Mike is an extremely savvy marketer and outstanding business man, and you’ll have plenty to learn from his approach to growing Terra’s Kitchen

Book Recommendation:

How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life - Russ Roberts

On the show today, we have Luke Lahman, who is the field marketing manager for E&J Gallo. If you’re not already familiar, Gallo is the largest producer of wine in the world, and they own and distribute a number of the popular wine and spirit brands you’ll see at most liquor and grocery stores, like Barefoot, Apothic, and New Amsterdam Vodka.

From being on the front lines to training and managing over 30 salespeople, Luke has spent his career in the industry and where he’s really making a name for himself.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to hire and motivate a strong sales team
• What’s a recipe for success when it comes to in-store marketing
• What trends are emerging in the wine and spirits industry

And plenty more… So let’s go chat with Luke.

We have Eric Pierce, Director of Business Insights for New Hope Network. If you’ve been following the podcast, we had Eric on the show back at episode 19.

It’s been one of our most popular episodes so we asked Eric to come back on the show to share some more insights on trends and he graciously obliged.

Eric is incredibly talented in helping entrepreneurs and companies uncover opportunities in the market, and I always walk away from our conversations feeling more in tune with what’s happening emerging in the industry.

In this episode, Eric answers the following questions:

• What trends are providing big growth potential in food and beverage?
• How can you test new product concepts without breaking the bank?
• Could retailers benefit from thinking more like Zara or H&M?

 And plenty more…

 So let’s go chat with Eric..

Today, we're talking with Ben Fenton of Boulder Food Group about the do's and don'ts if you're looking for outside investment for your food or beverage company. Ben is a VP over at BFG, which if you're not familiar with this firm, is a venture capital group that partners with early stage food and beverage brands, and they partner with some brands like Barnana, Birch Benders, Chameleon Cold-Brew and plenty more. In this episode, you'll learn:

• What firms like BFG consider potential red flags when assessing potential brand partners
• Which metrics on your income statement are the most important to investors
• What founder attributes make you more marketable to VC's

...and plenty more. If seeking outside funding is on the horizon for your company, you'll have plenty to learn from Ben in this episode.

Book Recommendations:

The Book of Joy - Archbishop Desmond Tutu Dalai Lama

Today we’re talking with Koel Thomae, Founder of Noosa Yoghurt.

I’m sure you’ve seen the Noosa brand in the thousands of stores they’re in across the country, and today, Koel discusses what it was like growing the business with an extremely tight budget.

Before partnering with an investment firm, Koel and her business partner had bootstrapped their way to a projected $100M a year in revenue. Everyone loves to talk about big investments and overnight successes, which is why I wanted to dig into the early years of Noosa, what it was like growing the company in the early stages to where it is now.

In the episode, you’ll learn 

• How flexibility in your growth strategy can actually be a good thing
• Why tactically picking your retail partners is essential in scaling a food startup
• How to market a brand with a small team and small budget

And plenty more…

Books Mentioned in the Episode

Penguin Bloom

On the show today, we have Tripp Hughes, Director of Brand Management for a company whose marketing I absolutely love, Organic Valley.

Organic Valley seems to have figured out the recipe behind viral marketing content, and before the interview, I wondered how they consistently put out content that was on brand, and always felt so genuine.

You’ll get to hear more about it in just a second, but Organic Valley’s business model is extremely unique. With some context, you'll start to understand why their marketing is so strong.

In the episode with Tripp, you’ll learn…

• Why transparency is crucial in building a successful company
• How to empower your team to create great marketing that’s on-brand
• Why listening to your customers is essential to launching strong campaigns

And plenty more…

Book Recommendation:

Let My People Go Surfing - Yvon Chouinard

It’s episode number 38, and definitely one of my favorite interviews we’ve done, and I don’t say that often.

We have Brandon Rhoten on the show, who get ready for this title, is the VP, Advertising, Social Media, Media, and Digital Marketing for Wendy’s. It’s a mouthful, and I don’t know how he does it, but everything you see with a Wendy’s logo on it, is the work of Brandon and his team.

This episode is all about how Wendy's went from middle of the pack, to a front runner with one of the strongest brands in the industry. Of course, we discuss the insane amount of publicity they've received from Carter's quest to 18 million Retweets - and more importantly, how to create a culture where partners and employees can do work that gets those kinds of results.

Brandon has a history of transforming brands, and since joining the company in 2011, he’s done the same for Wendy’s in an industry that’s notorious for commoditizing it’s products.

To give you a little more context, since Brandon joined Wendy’s, their stock price has increased nearly 200%, not to mention the 15 consecutive quarters of positive same-store sales they’ve had – which is unreal in that industry.

In this episode, you’ll learn

• Why leaving silos between marketing teams is a big mistake
• How to sell a brand when your competitors are selling a commodity
• Why consistency is crucial across every customer facing platform
• And so much more.

Yes, this is a food marketing podcast, and yes, we talk about food marketing, but the a lot of the advice in this episode is universal to building a great brand in any industry. So grab a pen a paper, and get ready to jot down some notes, because Brandon is about to lay down some knowledge on you.

On the show today, we have Katie Washburn, Manager of Marketing Partnerships for Suja Juice. Katie has been with Suja since they were just local San Deigo brand selling a few hundred bottles per week, to where they are now bottling 800k bottles per week. 

Today’s episode is all about influencer marketing. We’ll be diving into how Suja’s launched their midnight tonic last October with an influencer campaign that was so successful, it crashed their website and they sold out of the product in just three days.

On the episode, Katie discusses

Why a follower count isn’t the only thing you should look at when selecting influencers

How to build an influencer program that’s sustainable for the long term

What platforms you should focus on for the most effective influencer marketing…

And of course, what made the launch of their midnight tonic so ridiculously successful. If you’ve had influencer marketing on your radar or you’re thinking it’s time to up your game, you are in for a treat.

The Leader Phrase Book - Patrick Alain