Jake Karls, Co-founder & "Rainmaker" of Mid-Day Squares joins Chris Meade in this episode to explain what a Rainmaker title is all about - in other words, he builds relationships and makes noise. Jake wanted to be able to have the freedom of exploring different passions. To be unapologetically himself. Growing up surrounded by other ambitious and hardworking entrepreneurs in his family, going through challenging times, uncertainty and resilience is what inspired Jake to build something of his own.

Mid-Day Squares manufactures functional chocolate bars: Everything a chocolate bar isn't, everything a protein bar wishes it was.

In this episode Jake talks about:

Why having a business therapist helps strengthen relationships with his family

Planting seeds for the future

Viewing competition, including a lawsuit with Hershey’s

Building a community of moms

Understanding how your customers actually use your products

Hiring challenges and obstacles, including letting the wrong employees go

Sign up for Chris' weekly newsletter Cross Commerce here, and connect with him on Twitter and Linkedin.

Chris Meade is the co-founder & CMO of CROSSNET, the world’s first four-way volleyball game. Chris was honored with Forbes 30U30 for the 2021 Sports category. CROSSNET combines elements of the childhood game four square and volleyball in a competitive game to 11, win by 2. CROSSNET is now available at 3000+ retail stores such as Walmart, Target, DICKS, Academy Sports, Sam’s Club and 20+ other retailers.

BrüMate Founder, Dylan Jacob grew the company to $20M relying only on freelancers, but wishes he hired a full time CFO much sooner. 

Through his entrepreneurial journey, Dylan had a few quick wins but no major achievements. He was focused on constantly pushing the boundaries of innovation and was motivated to create a product and a brand that people would love. From BrüMate’s inception to getting to $20M in revenue, Dylan focused on outsourcing everything from finance to shipping. 

A few lessons from Dylan covered in this episode: 

Find team players and experts in their field (ie. operations, and warehouse fulfillment). Hire the right people as soon as finances allow you so that you can focus on keeping the company moving forward. 

iOS changes - From 2016-2019, Dylan focused on omnichannel - including building their retail footprint to nearly 10,000 stores. It’s imperative to understand what channels impact which part of the funnel.

As BrüMate grows, the team is always focused on innovation, product launches, and continued growth. 

Tune in to hear about the many obstacles Dylan had to overcome to achieve the accolades he has today, and to learn the secrets to real growth and success.

Sign up for Chris' weekly newsletter Cross Commerce here, and connect with him on Twitter and Linkedin.

Chris Meade is the co-founder & CMO of CROSSNET, the world’s first four-way volleyball game. Chris was honored with Forbes 30U30 for the 2021 Sports category. CROSSNET combines elements of the childhood game four square and volleyball in a competitive game to 11, win by 2. CROSSNET is now available at 3000+ retail stores such as Walmart, Target, DICKS, Academy Sports, Sam’s Club and 20+ other retailers.

Chris sits down with Patrick Arnold Shriver Schwarzenegger, co-founder of Mosh — a better-for-you protein bar designed to provide clear fuel for your brain. Learn how his celebrity status and influence impacted the launch of his brand, and hear about the challenges he still faced in spite of those benefits. In this episode, Patrick shares secrets, mistakes, and a few things he wishes he would have done differently when launching MOSH. "It’s amazing to be sold out. It's another to not have inventory for months at a time." You won’t want to miss this episode and learn about the struggles behind a celebrity-led CPG brand.

Chris sits down with email guru Chase Dimond to talk about the biggest mistakes brands are making in the world of email & sms marketing. You won't want to miss this.

Sign up for Chris' weekly newsletter Cross Commerce here, and connect with him on Twitter and Linkedin.

Chris Meade is the co-founder & CMO of CROSSNET, the world’s first four-way volleyball game. Chris was honored with Forbes 30U30 for the 2021 Sports category. CROSSNET combines elements of the childhood game four square and volleyball in a competitive game to 11, win by 2. CROSSNET is now available at 3000+ retail stores such as Walmart, Target, DICKS, Academy Sports, Sam’s Club and 20+ other retailers.

Chris and Lucas share some of the biggest lessons they've made from nearly catastrophic events. They've both messed up big time, so listen closely, and avoid costly mistakes.

Make sure you're subscribed, because Chris will be bringing you big lessons each week from other entrepreneurs.

Lucas is going to be talking to vendors and tech partners in the ecommerce ecosystem to keep your store fine tuned and winning.

Chris Meade woke up to a big box retailer definitely know of discounting Crossnet 50% at the end of season. Which is totally reasonable.

What hurt was when 35 new sellers were competing with us on Amazon for the buy box. We had no choice but to buy them all back.

Lesson learned - always negotiate buy backs with your retail buyers.

The second lesson he share is the first time Greg and I ordered a container. Nobody told us you had to have protective packaging.

Turns out weeks at sea isn’t the greatest thing for your product’s packaging. When we got our shipment, everything was damaged and destroyed.

We had no choice but to pay retail for new boxes and stickers and redo everything ourselves.

Lesson learned - Use one company that can get the products across borders and to your doorstep.

After the big retail summer season, comes our BFCM season, which is great for us when we make sales directly through the website. Especially when we’ve already collected the POs from all the retailers.

What isn’t so great, is when our Black Friday deals over discounted what the retailers were able to do.

Buying ads to send traffic to retailers isn’t fun. It’s low ROI, but it’s a great way to build rapport and relationships with buyers.

Lesson Learned - Have a special package for retailers or your website to avoid the feeling of competition.

Sign up for Chris' weekly newsletter Cross Commerce here, and connect with him on Twitter and Linkedin.

Chris Meade is the co-founder & CMO of CROSSNET, the world’s first four-way volleyball game. Chris was honored with Forbes 30U30 for the 2021 Sports category. CROSSNET combines elements of the childhood game four square and volleyball in a competitive game to 11, win by 2. CROSSNET is now available at 3000+ retail stores such as Walmart, Target, DICKS, Academy Sports, Sam’s Club and 20+ other retailers.

Lucas Walker is a serial entrepreneur founding Venngage, Treats Happen, and Rolled Up. Connect with him on Twitter, and LinkedIn.