The Journey

Plot twits might be fun to read about in a story, but when it’s your life that’s getting upended or dramatically changed, you might not like it as much. Dashed dreams are among the hardest to pivot away from, because where do you go? Nadine Fonseca, co-founder and CEO of Mighty Kind, knows all too well the mental struggles that come with finding out that you have to leave a precious dream behind. 

“After injuries and rehabilitating physically and kind of mentally from that, it was a real struggle to figure out who I was and who I wanted to be,” Fonseca says. “I spent a lot of time just working jobs to work jobs and I think just trying to figure out, was I an entertainer? Was I an academic? What was I meant to do with the rest of my life?” 

This wasn’t the last time that Nadine came face-to-face with a seemingly impossible question that forced her to change course. At this point, Nadine has changed and pivoted so many times throughout her life and her career that she barely even bats an eye when the world throws a wrench in her plans. But how did she get to that place? And how did her path ultimately lead to Mighty Kind, a kids magazine that puts tough topics front and center? Find out right here on The Journey. 

Main Takeaways:

• Pivoting At The Least Convenient Time: Changing your business plan at any point is inconvenient at best, but sometimes re-doing work is worth a herculean effort. Being objective about what’s going to work for your business long-term and being honest about what you can handle will go a long way in helping you see hard changes to make. 
• Just Because You Can ‘Do it on Your Own’ Doesn’t Mean You Should: Maybe you thought about your business one way, but now, as you get closer to launch, you’re realizing you don’t have the bandwidth, or maybe even the right skill set to do it all on your own. The solution is simple, you need to get help, and there’s no shame in that. The smartest and most successful leaders can identify their blindspots and bring in the talent to fill them, which benefits the entire company.
• Pivoting and Thriving: Those who are the most pliable are the least breakable. At every point, being able to shift the business toward what you can see is going to work better is a good investment. When an opportunity arose out of a crisis, Nadine found that being nimble and shifting the business to digital turned out to be the best move. 

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This season of the Journey is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by UPS. To learn how UPS can help your small business, go to UPS.com/pivot.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When we’re growing up, we’re always told that we can be what we want, we can do what we love, and we can have anything as long as we work for it. The harsh reality, though, is that for many people, the options are limited. When it comes to things like jobs, homes, or other huge aspects of life, there’s no Cheesecake Factory menu of choices for most people to select from. This is especially true in healthcare, where major industries, governments, and regulators have made it nearly impossible to choose the healthcare you want — or to choose anything at all. 

“I had a boss who was doing a really important speech, and I knew that he was typically a little bit nervous about speaking in public and he had Propranololl, which is a beta beta blocker and took it and crushed the speech and it was no big deal,” Hilary Coles says. “And it made me think about how many people would never say yes. So few people are given the opportunity to speak, right. And then how many people wouldn't even be able to say yes to that? I think a light bulb really went off then, it was a very impressionable moment for me to think through how you design your life and what capacity, or, or limits you set for yourself based on what you think is possible. What do you choose for yourself when you think that you're not gonna be a good lover in a relationship because you're not in control of your sexual function, what kind of an employee are you gonna be when you have untreated depression and no one to talk to you about and don't feel comfortable sharing that. Like, what are the limits that you set for yourself?”

Coles is the co-founder & SVP Brand & Innovation at hims & hers, a company that is bringing the power of choice back into the world of healthcare. But it’s not just in business that options matter. Throughout Coles’s life, she has found that having options, being given opportunities, and opening up doors is necessary to find success. And when those options aren’t there for you, maybe you just have to create them yourself. This is The Journey.

Key Takeaways:

• The Same, But Different: Every person is unique, but their basic needs are all the same. Businesses are similar. Each company has differentiating factors, but at the end of the day, the goal is to meet the needs of and solve problems for customers. When you recognize what those needs are, you will be able to serve them better.
• Freedom To Choose: Too often, businesses or entire industries put a cap on consumers by limiting the options available to them. Instead, when you open the door to consumers and provide them choices, they feel more empowered and have a better experience, thus making them more loyal.
• Keep Knocking: Your ideas might be bold, and they might push boundaries, and when they do, you’ll likely get shut down again and again. It’s important to have conviction and keep pressing forward, even if it means creating a path for yourself.

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This season of the Journey is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by UPS. To learn how UPS can help your small business, go to UPS.com/pivot.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The world of innovation is full of many unique challenges and conundrums, but perhaps none so painfully true as this: those who have access to the money don’t always have the ideas… and those who have the ideas often find themselves struggling to find the money. This problem is uniquely pronounced in one particular industry: beauty. 

“The brands can't come up with true innovation and a lot of brands don't take the consumer's feedback early enough for it to really make a difference in the end product,” Patricia Santos says. “They would see consumer research reports that say like 90, 95% of women say this helped reduce fine lines and wrinkles and things like that. But by the time they're doing those studies, that formula is done. They never asked anybody before that. That thing is on the manufacturing line and getting boxed up and sent. Millions of them are already millions of them and made so I thought, well, a real way to make a difference is to bring the customer in way before that. You wanna ask her what she thinks of a product before you actually make it, and if she hates it, hey, that's a great way to prevent returns. And that's a great way to prevent failed products and not invest so much money launching a product that people are actually going to not like.”

Santos is the Co-Founder of Volition Beauty. She saw this problem first-hand when she was a newly-minted business school graduate navigating the cut-throat world of venture capital – and it bothered her, because the more she encountered the problem, the more she realized that she might have an answer. 

“Okay, this is definitely a problem that should be solved,” Santos says. “And I want to solve it in some way, shape, or form.”  

Volition Beauty is on a mission to democratize beauty by putting the power back in the hands of those who use it. Seems simple, right? Santos will tell you that it was much harder than it sounds, but what she’s found in return has been greater than anything she could have expected. This is The Journey. 

Main Takeaways:

• If You See Something, Change Something: From where you sit in your office job, in your home, in your own business, or anywhere else, you may ome across a problem or a situation that you think needs to be changed. Don’t assume someone else is working on changing things, put the onus on yourself to formulate a solution and then bring it to light, because that’s the only thing that actually makes change happen.
• Ask The Audience: Your consumers are almost always your best resource. They can be a source of feedback, ideas, and even solutions to problems you have been struggling with — or didn’t even know exist. Tap into the customer base regularly and noot only will your business do better, your customers will feel more empowered and connected to you as well.   
• Stay Open, Stay Ready: Whether it’s adapting your initial business plan or adjusting on the fly to nail a big pitch, you have to keep your eyes and ears open to opportunities and be ready too jump on them when they arise. 

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This season of the Journey is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by UPS. To learn how UPS can help your small business, go to UPS.com/pivot.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In finance, there’s a term commonly used when analyzing different investment options called “opportunity cost.”

Opportunity cost is what businesses use to analyze the potential benefits — and potential costs — of choosing one option over another. But for today’s guest, the discussion of opportunity cost doesn’t start and end in boardroom finance meetings. 

“You should always think about the opportunity cost of not making a decision,” Julian Reis says. “Let’s say, for example, you're working at a bank and you're earning a decent salary. If you quit and try to make it on your own, what's the worst thing that could happen? My view [is that] the worst thing that could happen is you go back to the banking industry and get another job... Once you understand that dynamic, [I think] everyone should be going off and starting their own company and taking that risk [and] it gives you some comfort knowing that there is a protection underneath you.”

For Reis, the CEO and Founder of SuperOrdinary, weighing opportunity costs is a way of life. Understanding the true implications of seizing or passing on an opportunity is how he’s been able to spot macro trends, understand when to make career leaps, as well as when to make business investments.

SuperOrdinary is a worldwide team of experts working with best-in-class beauty and personal care brands to establish their influence globally. From the shops of Spain to LiveStreaming events in the heart of China, SuperOrdinary’s global reach is, well, super. But getting to that point was no easy feat, it took testing and iterating, and, of course, educated leaps of faith. Learn exactly how Julian built SuperOrdinary into the global standout it is today on this episode of The Journey.

Main Takeaways:

• Opportunity Costs Matter: Everything has an opportunity cost. Without understanding these costs, you can’t live your life or lead your business with intent. When considering a decision, always entertain what you could be losing by not making that choice.
• Expanding Globally, Means Acting Locally: Developing relationships in countries around the world requires having local teams on the ground. These teams build trust with local communities and businesses, and they help you understand cultural nuances you may otherwise miss.
• When to Go International: Not every brand is designed to go international — in fact, most aren’t. According to Julian, there are several criteria you need to consider before expanding. For example, is your product a good fit for that culture? Do you have the infrastructure to support international distro? Can you afford to burn money before you find your foothold in that new market?

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This season of the Journey is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by UPS. To learn how UPS can help your small business, go to UPS.com/pivot.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The 10,000 hour rule, popularized by author Malcom Gladwell, states that it takes about that many hours of dedication in order to achieve mastery in a given task. Thinking innovatively about creating new business opportunities is helped by understanding as much as you can about that industry, the players, the way they interact, who has the power and what people want. With that kind of foundational knowledge, it’s much easier to see where and how you can completely flip an industry on its head. For Jeremy Cai, the founder of Italic, disrupting the traditional, set-in-stone manufacturing industry took some guts, creativity, and a deep knowledge gleaned through generational experience. Because of his mastery of the industry, he zeroed in on one key element of the supply chain that he was eager to eliminate.

“What if we could actually remove the biggest middleman by far in the supply chain (which is the brand)?” Cai states. “Brand offers a lot. I don't think there's going to be a world where we live without brands, but I do think there's a lot that they add that [is] just fluff and you're actually paying for a story versus the actual product.”

Italic says goodbye to the biggest middleman, the brand name. But that’s easier said than done. To achieve his goal of bringing high-quality goods directly to consumers, Jeremy had to tap into his insider’s knowledge about the way that the manufacturing business is structured in China and then get those traditional companies to take a leap of faith with him. They say you have to jump and grow wings on the way down when you take that leap. Jeremy’s wings are still growing, and each new lesson is just another feather helping him soar a little higher. Hear how he’s earning those feathers right here on The Journey.

Main Takeaways:

• No Pain No Gain: When you hear successful founders talk about their struggles, it is often with a smile that they recall these difficult times. Why is that? There seems to be something about the need to work hard and experience some level of suffering in order to fully reap the benefits of success. The passionate entrepreneur enjoys a bit of the blood, sweat, and tears involved in building their business. 
• Finding Your Natural Habitat: The sign of someone with an entrepreneurial spirt could be their difficulty falling in line working for someone else. Some people are more naturally bent toward being entrepreneurs. This said, even if you’re not a natural, it is possible to cultivate entrepreneurial traits and empower yourself to make great business decisions. 
• What Excited You?: Maybe you can technically run a company without passion but you won’t do as well as someone who has that fire. Being passionate about the work that you do is a prerequisite for the most meaningful kind of success. It’s okay to bow out of something that’s not feeding your soul anymore in order to pursue something that really matters to you. 

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This season of the Journey is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by UPS. To learn how UPS can help your small business, go to UPS.com/pivot.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Have you ever been sitting around a campfire with friends, or riffing with your partner about some great business idea you had when you were walking the dog, or driving to the grocery store? We all get ideas that pop into our head when we see a need, have an unfilled want, or notice the way something we’re interested in could be done better. Sometimes it’s easy to spit-ball with a close friend about big, potentially life-changing ideas like, “Hey, we should start a band!’ But we all know the unspoken truth when we say those things out loud — we’re probably never going to start that band and someday end up on a stadium tour. It’s those ideas that we really believe in, the ones that could actually be something real, that, ironically, we hold a little closer to our chest. They are harder to talk about. 

Andrew Suzuka, the founder and creator of Otamot Foods, was no stranger to having good ideas and turning them into entrepreneurial successes. In fact, when the idea for Otamot Foods first popped into his head, Andrew was already running his own company. But success in one area didn’t make Andrew any more willing to share the new ideas he had brewing. 

”You have to have a lot of self-confidence, but you also have to have enough self-awareness to know that you don't know everything and you have to pull in people and you have to share your ideas with people,” Suzuka said. “And it's probably, I would say the number one challenge of being an entrepreneur is sharing your idea before it becomes something. And if you can get over that, you're on your way.”

Andrew had to walk a long path to get over that fear. Today, he knows collaboration is the only way forward, but what did it take to get to that realization? Who did he finally lean on, and how did all of this ultimately lead to Otamot landing on the shelves of Whole Foods? Let’s jump into this week’s episode of The Journey. 

Main Takeaways:

• Sharing is Caring: No matter how great of an idea you have for a business, nothing significant will come from it without extreme dedication and investment of time, money and energy. You don’t need to worry about someone “stealing” your idea; the chances that they’ll take it to the finish line are almost nil. The power of sharing a good idea is getting early feedback on what could make it better and what could make it really work well. 
• Be Nimble: Everyone talks about pivoting, but especially in the Consumer Packaged Goods space, being nimble and being able to negotiate with all of the different parties involved in getting your product to market is a useful skill. 
• Your Support Network Should be Multi-Tiered: It’s important too have all sorts of people in your network, including outside mentors, industry advisors, and company board members, all of whom can help you make important decisions about your business. Make sure that you’re still tapping into your original support network as your business scales. Your close friends and family can offer support and perspectives that really help and uplift you.

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This season of the Journey is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by UPS. To learn how UPS can help your small business, go to UPS.com/pivot.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Here are three words that might ring a bell: The scientific method.

In its most basic form, the scientific method follows these steps:

First, you identify the problem or question. Then you hypothesize a solution or outcome. From there, you design and run an experiment to test this prediction. And finally, you analyze the results from your test to see if your hypothesis was correct.

The scientific method is the basis of all scientific thinking, but, even when we don’t recognize it, this process is also the basis of human thinking. Everyday we hypothesize, test our hypotheses, and draw conclusions. 

It’s easy to see how this same process can be — and should be — applied to a growing business. And it’s a methodology that today’s guest has leveraged time and time again.

“[In math], you start with a problem and a solution -- it's up to you to figure out the stuff in between in the most efficient way possible. And that is entrepreneurship to the T... and leveraging the scientific method, which is just a hypothesis-based single variant test, is critically important, particularly in the world of software and technology.”

That’s Adam Callinan, the co-founder and President of BottleKeeper, a company producing an innovative insulated bottle designed to keep glass bottles and aluminum cans cold. 

Since its founding, BottleKeeper has skyrocketed; today it is a multi-million dollar company consistently growing dramatically year over year. But it didn’t start that way. Early growth was slow, and it took careful testing and iterating again and again to achieve the success the company has seen. So what tools and mindsets did Adam and his cofounder lean into in those first couple of years that set them on the road to success? And what have they changed since launching that’s continued to allow them to grow far more than they could have imagined? Find out on this week’s episode of The Journey.

Main Takeaways:

• Test, Iterate, Test Again: Throughout his entrepreneurial journey, Adam turned to the scientific method as a way to test and verify his business assumptions. But don’t forget to retest those assumptions as the business grows and changes. For example, for years, Adam had built the business with the philosophy that he would never hire anyone else, but he was forced to revisit and retest that assumption as the company grew and new opportunities presented themselves.
• Leverage Video: For many consumers, seeing is believing. Find the best way to communicate how your product works and why the consumer needs it. For Adam, this meant focusing on video. (Bonus Lesson: Don’t wait until you have big marketing dollars to spend on making the perfect materials. Instead, take a page from Adam’s book and write, shoot, and edit those first ads yourself.)
• Get a Patent… and Be Prepared to Enforce It: Copycats will inevitably come to market after they see your success. Be prepared by filing for a provisional patent as soon as possible, and then filing for the actual patent once you can afford it. More in the episode about what this process looks like and why your patent is only as good as your enforcement of it.

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This season of the Journey is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by UPS. To learn how UPS can help your small business, go to UPS.com/pivot.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You might have heard someone tell you to “protect your yes.” Meaning, you should not feel obligated to agree to do things, participate, or take something on that you truly don’t want to do. If it doesn’t fulfill you in one way or another, why do it? In business, sometimes you can’t protect your yes, though. Sometimes, if you don’t say yes, you don’t have customers. But you can’t say yes to everything… Or can you…?

“We did just about anything,” Paul Rathnam says. “I said no to nothing. Like my dad taught me growing up, just say yes to everything and figure it out later. So, I often quoted things like plumbing and stuff. I had no clue how to do it. And then I'd go to the plumbing store and ask them how to do it. And they kind of have somewhat of an idea anyway, the story of my life. 

Rantham is the owner of ModPools, a multi-million dollar company that builds swimming pools out of shipping containers. And, as you can tell, he took saying yes to a whole new level. But while Paul was busy saying yes, throughout his life, he heard a lot of nos. And even though his just-say-yes strategy eventually paid off, saying yes to everything had its pitfalls. We’ll get into all of that on this episode of The Journey.

Main Takeaways:

• Exceeds Expectations: Throughout your life, people will place expectations or limits on you. But you should never let what other people think dictate where you wind up. Even if you lack certain skills in one area does not mean you can’t be brilliant somewhere else. Find your passion and let that guide you beyond what anyone else thinks is possible.
• Yes To All: Saying yes to every request is a strategy that many entrepreneurs have tried. When you say yes, you gain business and accounts. But if you say yes, you have to be willing to do all the work necessary to do the job properly, otherwise you’ll be left with not just dissatisfied customers, but a bad reputation as well.
• All It Takes is One: Whether it’s an idea, a design, or a word of encouragement, sometimes all it takes to keep going is one small thing. When you are on the brink or struggling, that one small thing could be right around the corner. Persevere and be open to wherever that one spark could turn into a wildfire.

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This season of the Journey is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by UPS. To learn how UPS can help your small business, go to UPS.com/pivot.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We’ve seen it time and time again — entrepreneurs build a business driven by an existing passion for a product or service. They then leverage that knowledge of an industry’s pain points to find new and exciting ways to innovate within it. But we’ve also heard stories of the exact opposite. The entrepreneurs with absolutely no industry experience that fight tooth and nail to break into a market they know nothing about.

The cofounders of Blk & Bold fall into that latter camp, building an online coffee company with zero knowledge of coffee roasting, no experience making a D2C website, and a nearly nonexistent interest in specialty coffee.

They dove into their industry blind, but they saw a market gap ripe with opportunity - an opportunity that could not only drive business value but create meaningful social impact. 

“We knew we wanted to do good,” Rod Johnson says. “We didn't want to just build a business to line our pockets and go sit on a beach and drinking drinks with umbrellas. We want to do something else. We want to make sure that we can have profound impact. We just didn't know profound would manifest into working with Ben and Jerry's and Congresswoman and Corey Bush. That was definitely not on my vision board. And I just want to continue to avail myself to be a servant making black and bold a servant to those opportunities.” 

Johnson is the Co-founder of BLK & Bold. Before founding the company, he admits to preferring tea over coffee, but when his friend — and now co-founder — came to him with an idea for a new kind of coffee company, Rod knew it was a vision he couldn’t ignore. 

So how did Rod and his co-founder break into the 102 billion dollar US coffee market with no knowledge of the industry? How did they make Blk & Bold stand out among competitors? And how have they turned their own experiences growing up into a social good mission that’s impacting the nation? Find out all that and more on today’s episode of The Journey.

Main Takeaways:

• Create Synergy with other Do-Good Brands: Serving the community and giving back through your business can result in unforeseen benefits, including the opportunity to work with other great brands that care. There is a lot of synergy behind building a community around doing good, and when you partner with others, your reach is expanded exponentially. 
• Natural Curiosity Can Compensate for Know-How: Even if you’re not an expert in a field that you’re interested in starting a business in, you can still do it! Interest and curiosity will take you down all of the right rabbit holes to fill in your knowledge and become a subject matter expert in your industry. Plus, experimentation will allow you to learn by doing, and maybe even find a way of doing something that no one else in the industry has thought of because they have blinders on.
• Unseen Value of Long-standing Co-founder Relationships: The depth that comes from having a long-standing relationship with your co-founder can really come into play and shine when times are tough. A deeper personal understanding as to how the other person deals with unforeseen circumstances or hiccups can lead to better advice, powerful encouragement, and quicker solutions.

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This season of the Journey is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by UPS. To learn how UPS can help your small business, go to UPS.com/pivot.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In a book there are chapters that, together, create not just a story, but an entire world or reality that you can transport yourself into. Each of our own lives is made up of similar chapters that form the whole story of who you are and what you have become. Entrepreneurs often take elements of their own story and inject them into the businesses they start and the work they do. Few have done that as well as Michael Chernow, the founder of multiple businesses, including The Meatball Shop, Seamore’s, and now, Kreatures of Habit.

“Authenticity is not duplicable right?” Chernow says. “No one can take your authenticity away from you and you can't create it. You can't just fabricate it. It either is, or it's not… The business of businesses is storytelling, and also the business of businesses is relationships, two things that I believe wholeheartedly in. If you're not able to tell a story with your business, it's not good. Human beings for hundreds of thousands of years have always sat around a fireplace and told stories and listen to stories and some of the best times in my life, right? Like those moments where you're engaged and, you know, someone's telling a great story and people are laughing and crying and those are the moments in life that really make memories. And so how do you do that with a business?” 

To understand who Michael is, you have to peel back his layers. And with each layer you uncover, you realize that Michael’s unique life experience, his likes, interests, hobbies, and routines, they not only make up who he is, they reveal the throughline that runs across all of Michael’s business ventures. He has woven together not just one story, but many in a way that is authentically Michael. And we’re getting into all the layers right here on The Journey.

Main Takeaways:

• Finding Lasting Inspiration to Start a Business: If you have a deep connection with the purpose behind the business that you’re creating, you may have an advantage as you hit the market and launch. When you have personally felt the need for what you’re solving, you can bring a solution to life authentically. The mission or purpose behind your company will shine through the products and marketing tactics and carry you through tough times. 
• Authenticity Matters as a Founder: Founding a business will take everything from you — all your time, energy, and abilities. Approaching all of it with an authentic reason for “why” will give you a strong foundation to build from. When you and your resources are stretched thin — as they often are in a start-up — you can’t fake it or mask your feelings about what you’re doing. IF you are personally connected to the why of the business, you can share that enthusiasm through your work and your team will be more likely to buy in and work through cchallenges. 
• Serial Entrepreneurship vs Founding and Staying: What it takes to found a new business isn’t always what it takes to keep running it. Some people are more drawn to going through the process of getting a new company built, staffed and launched than to sticking with a passion project for your whole life. There’s no right or wrong way to found a company, but know where your skills and passions lie and if you’re hankering for the next start-up project, maybe serial entrepreneurship is for you! 

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This season of the Journey is produced by Mission.org and brought to you by UPS. To learn how UPS can help your small business, go to UPS.com/pivot.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.