The Rectified Podcast

Most founders try to fix slow sales with more marketing. Marise May built Cha’s Organics the other way around, by refusing to cut corners on a single ingredient.

Marise is the co-founder of Cha’s Organics, the Montreal food brand she started 20 years ago with her husband Chanaka, with no savings and no financial backing. Today, their organic spices, coconut milk, heirloom rice, and coconut rolls are sourced from long-term partner farms in Sri Lanka and sold in health food stores across Canada, and their coconut milk is carried nationally at Costco Canada.

In this episode, she explains:

• Clean means clean: why they leave out gums, fillers, anti-caking agents and preservatives, even in a staple like coconut milk, where the recipe is just coconut and water.

• The product line that didn’t sell: why their first Ayurvedic tea line was too hard to market, and the lesson that it’s better to bring the best than the most unusual.

• Premium in a price-sensitive aisle: why they waited years to launch heirloom rice, and the supply-chain gap during COVID that made it the right moment.

• What it takes to get into Costco: the right product at the right price, a supply chain you can guarantee, and an audit she says is harder than the fair trade one.

• Product before marketing: why no amount of social media can fix a product that doesn’t work, and the resilience it took to keep going for 20 years.

Follow Cha’s Organics:

Cha’s Organics on the web: https://chasorganics.com

Cha’s Organics on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chasorganics/

Sponsors:

Omnisend- Email and SMS marketing built for ecommerce. Use code SANDY for 30% off your first three months: https://omnisend.com/sandy

Metricool- Schedule all your content in one place. Use code RECTIFIED for a 30-day free trial of any tier: https://i.mtr.cool/RSBQOY

Find me here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandydedeian/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sandydedeian

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandydedeian/

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

00:56 Why the ingredients come first

04:55 The first product line that didn’t sell

09:55 The farming traditions behind every ingredient

18:03 The story behind their heirloom rice

21:42 Selling a premium version of a basic staple

26:13 Expensive mistakes and the coconut milk win

28:20 How Cha’s got into Costco

31:48 Costco’s audit is harder than fair trade

35:59 Zero savings and 10 years to build a team

42:56 Advice for anyone starting a brand

45:35 Why design keeps her going

Most small businesses spend Black Friday slashing prices and still get lost in the noise. The brands that actually win don’t just discount harder. They build a smarter offer, and they lock it in weeks before the sale.

Nora Arzoumanian has spent over two decades scaling e-commerce for product brands and currently leads e-commerce at Mobilia. In part four of our holiday series, she breaks down how to design a Black Friday offer that actually converts in a crowded market, and the month-long game plan to pull it off.

In this episode, she explains:

• Why a generic “X% off” gets ignored: the simple offer that wins when every brand is fighting for the same dollar.

• The offer that quietly kills conversions: make people do the math and they just leave.

• The VIP play that works every time: early access and the Sephora Rouge model for your most loyal customers.

• The November calendar: what to run all month, and why the discount has to get bigger on the day itself.

• One offer, every channel: keeping it consistent across your site, email, SMS, and ads without the chaos.

  
  

Mentioned in this episode:

Omnisend: Go to https://omnisend.com/sandy and use code SANDY for 30% off your first three months

Metricool: Go to https://i.mtr.cool/RSBQOY and use code RECTIFIED for 30 days free on any premium plan

Follow Nora:

Nora on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noraarzoumanian/

Find me here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandydedeian/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sandydedeian

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandydedeian/

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

00:53 Why your offer makes or breaks Black Friday

01:34 Why a generic “X% off” falls flat

04:07 Black Friday offer mistakes to avoid

07:13 VIP early access and the Sephora Rouge model

11:36 Converting the people who never bought

13:34 Bundles vs. a straight discount

14:57 Starting early and ramping the discount

17:57 Building your November calendar

20:52 Keeping the offer consistent across channels

26:11 When to change a promo mid-month

31:13 What to nail in November

Most founders believe they need outside money before a major retailer will take them seriously. Sarah Takforyan started with $1,000, reinvested every dollar of profit, and never looked back.

Sarah is the founder of La Boîte à Bonbons, the Montreal brand behind c’est BONBON, which she launched in 2016 and has grown into a multi-million dollar business sold across Canada and the US. This holiday season her candy lands in about 70 percent of Nordstrom’s flagship stores, and her advent calendar made Wirecutter’s top 25 for the second year in a row.

In this episode, she explains:

• The channel she almost cut: in January 2020 she was about to shut down her online store, and in April it brought in more revenue than all of 2019.

• The most expensive project in the business: what the end of the de minimis exemption did to cross-border online sales, and how she now ships to American customers with duties included.

• How wholesale really scales: distributors in Quebec, Faire everywhere else, and the curated trade show that led to Nordstrom.

• Email without the spam: one email a week for most of the year, because roughly 80 percent of online sales happen between September and December.

• Reinvest everything: growing on very little debt, and borrowing only to automate in ways that make her team’s work better.

Follow C’est Bonbon:

La Boîte à Bonbons on the web: https://laboiteabonbons.ca/en

La Boîte à Bonbons on Instagram: https://instagram.com/laboiteabonbons

Find me here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandydedeian/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sandydedeian

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandydedeian/

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

00:59 The online store she almost shut down

07:05 From Quebec shelves to Nordstrom

10:35 The tariff change that cost the most money

13:36 Why the original recipe failed here

18:01 Grow fast or grow steadily

19:06 Email marketing without the spam

23:52 Faire, distributors and the trade show behind Nordstrom

28:13 Selling sugar in an anti-sugar market

30:48 From $1,000 to multi-million

Every product brand eventually faces the same decision: cut your ingredient costs and grow faster, or protect the formula and grow slower. Pierrich Picard has been refusing the first option for almost ten years.

Pierrich is the founder of Gutsy, the Montreal fermented beverage brand he started in 2017 and has grown into more than 1,000 stores across Quebec and Ontario, with a ginger beer that was named best in the world last year.

In this episode, he explains:

• The margin trap: an ingredient swap can cut your costs by 90 percent, which is why so many clean brands quietly reformulate once investors get involved.

• Why "natural" means almost nothing: natural flavour is unregulated to the point where he found solvents listed inside one.

• What refusing costs you: protecting real ingredients has limited his growth by a multiple, and he explains what he gets back for it.

• National TV is not a sales channel: his Dans l'oeil du dragon appearance grew in-store sales 82 percent in a week with no deal signed, and the relationships mattered more than the money.

• Clout is not revenue: the brands with the loudest communities are often the ones without the sales, and he has stopped competing for attention.

Follow Gutsy:

Gutsy on the web: https://gutsydrinks.com/

Gutsy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gutsydrinks/

Find me here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandydedeian/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sandydedeian

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandydedeian/

Sponsors:

Metricool- Schedule all your content in one place. Use code RECTIFIED for a 30-day free trial of any tier: https://i.mtr.cool/RSBQOY

Chapters: 

00:00 Intro

01:16 Did prebiotic sodas take the gut health market

02:25 Why clean brands quietly change their ingredients

04:34 Fermented versus added probiotics

06:36 The side product that became best in the world

09:39 Dans l'oeil du dragon: 82% in a week, no deal

11:12 The darker side nobody shows

14:36 How it started in Nicaragua

15:48 The investor who wanted cheaper ingredients

17:00 What saying no costs you in margin

23:55 What natural flavour is allowed to mean

26:58 Starting on tap instead of in cans

30:46 Small shops, big chains, shelf space politics

40:07 Ten years in: becoming more himself

44:02 Three things for founders in a hard season

You pour money into ads during the holidays and watch it disappear. Your traffic goes up, your spend goes up, but the sales don't follow. If that's the frustration, this episode is the fix.

In Part 3 of our monthly Holiday-Ready E-Commerce series, I sit down with e-commerce expert Nora Arzoumanian (20+ years scaling product brands) to break down paid ads and creative for Q4, how to stop wasting budget and actually get traffic that converts before the costs spike in November.

Here's what you'll learn:

– Why your holiday ad costs explode, and how to spend less by starting now

– How to warm up your audiences and build your funnel before the rush

– Where your budget should go in October vs November

– Why turning ads on and off is quietly killing your results

– What's working in creative right now: UGC, video, and static

– Why the creative, not the targeting, now drives everything

– ROAS, CPM, CPC, CPA explained simply

🎧 Catch up on the series:

Part 1 – Website & Conversions: https://youtu.be/NukNBBi4BxI?si=rGp-jmpJVI2POImX

Part 2 – Email & SMS: https://youtu.be/YqIGwUHZ3HY?si=XifCJ3lBKdfJPIJu

Find me here: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandydedeian/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sandydedeian LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandydedeian/

New episodes drop monthly through December. Subscribe so you don't miss Part 4.

Chapters

0:00 – Why your holiday ads aren't converting

3:19 – Start now: test before costs spike

8:34 – Where your budget should go, month by month

12:56 – What creative actually works right now

31:47 – The ad metrics that matter (ROAS, CPM, CPC, CPA)

43:59 – The 3 things to do before the holidays

Most product founders didn't get into business to be on camera. They wanted to make the thing and let it speak for itself, and then they found out it doesn't. Christopher Dedeyan is a professional speaker who trains entrepreneurs to communicate. In this conversation, he breaks down why the people who look effortless are the ones who practised the most, how to get clear on your message before you worry about making content, and why an introvert should aim to go up two points instead of trying to become another Tony Robbins.If you'd rather just make your product than talk about it, this one is for you.Christopher's last appearance on the show is still the most watched episode I've ever put out. If you haven't seen it, watch that one next: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bndPDdONBnEChristopher on the web: https://www.christopherdedeyan.com/Christopher on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christopherdedeyan/Play for Profit (English): https://link.amazon/B0hrHZaKUPlay for Profit (Armenian edition): https://newmag.am/en/book/play-for-profitFind me here: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandydedeian/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sandydedeian LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandydedeian/pters02:01 Why Communication Matters06:06 Frameworks Without Robot Mode11:05 Clarity Before You Pitch16:13 Communicating On Screen22:32 Introverts And Energy Range27:32 Build Real Self-Esteem30:17 Social Media For Founders34:26 Sports Meets Business43:46 Faith And Morning Rituals46:02 Three Communication Tips

Last holiday season, shoppers spent over $1 trillion, and the brands that cashed in weren't the ones with the biggest ad budgets. They were the ones who owned their audience. Your social followers can disappear with an algorithm change, but your email and SMS list is yours, and it's the most profitable channel most product brands ignore.

In Part 2 of our monthly Holiday-Ready E-Commerce series, I sit down with e-commerce expert Nora Arzoumanian (20+ years in e-commerce) to build your email and SMS plan for Black Friday, from the automations that make money on autopilot to the exact campaign calendar that wins Q4.

Here's what you'll learn:

– Why email is a goldmine and social traffic is just borrowed

– When SMS is worth it (and how to use it without burning your list)

– Abandoned cart done right: the 3 to 4 email sequence that recovers the sale

– How to build your list now with pop-ups and lead gen, before the rush

– How to plan your Black Friday email calendar and how often to send

🛠️ Tools mentioned:

Shopify (affiliate):  Start free, build for $1/month, earn up to $13,000 in credits as you sell: https://shopify.pxf.io/rectified

Metricool: Schedule all your content in one place. Use code RECTIFIED for a 30-day free trial of any tier: https://i.mtr.cool/RSBQOY

Find me here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandydedeian/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sandydedeian

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandydedeian/

🎧 New to Nora? Watch her first episode here: https://youtu.be/ZgzgOkBwfjY?si=AsHFHkAJ48sZosAT

New episodes in this series drop monthly through December. Subscribe so you don't miss one.

Chapters

00:00 Email Matters More

03:14 Abandoned Cart Basics

10:12 Build Your List Now

12:57 Clean Up Unengaged

15:02 Subscriber Value Math

17:35 Core Email Automations

24:33 Holiday Campaign Planning

30:53 Email Frequency Strategy

34:28 SMS During Black Friday

44:23 Deliverability And List Health

48:21 Convert Followers To Email

Reese De Luca ran ads for three months. They brought in one order. He hasn't spent money on ads since, and today about 75% of his sales come from standing behind a table and talking to people.

In this episode, Reese breaks down how he built Skincare for Weirdos from a single pimple patch into a full four-step routine without investors, loans, or an ad budget. We talk about why he almost named the brand Patchy and what changed his mind, how being called a weirdo growing up became the most valuable asset he owns, why his pimple patches aren't even in his top five sellers anymore and why that was the plan, the discipline of making every product earn its place on the table, how he built a booth people stop at instead of scroll past, and the 25 years of fashion and design experience that let him skip the $20,000 branding agency invoice.

If your product is good but your brand could belong to anyone, this one is for you.

🎯 FREE LIVE WORKSHOP – August 20: I'm walking you through the 3R Strategy, the exact framework I use with private clients to break through growth plateaus. Live on Zoom, kept small, completely free. Save your spot: https://learn.rectified.co/break-through-your-growth-plateau

Skincare for Weirdos on the web: https://skincareforweirdos.com/Skincare for Weirdos on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skincareforweirdosSkincare for Weirdos on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skincareforweirdos

Find me here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandydedeian/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sandydedeian

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandydedeian/

Chapters: 

02:46 Origin of the Weirdoverse

08:32 Product Development Process

15:30 Pop-Ups as Growth Engine

18:40 Shopify POS and Email Flows

23:38 Social Content Mix

29:39 Wholesale Growth Plan

33:38 Advice for Founders

36:08 Funding Without Debt

Last holiday season, shoppers spent over $1 trillion, and most small businesses lost their share before the season even started. 

In Part 1 of our monthly Holiday-Ready E-Commerce series, I sit down with e-commerce expert Nora Arzoumanian (20+ years scaling product brands) to break down exactly how to turn your website into a machine that converts before the Q4 rush hits. 

If you're a product business, this is the foundation everything else is built on; fix this first, before you spend a dollar on ads.

🛠️ Tools mentioned:

Shopify (affiliate):  Start free, build for $1/month, earn up to $13,000 in credits as you sell: https://shopify.pxf.io/rectified 

Metricool: Schedule all your content in one place. Use code RECTIFIED for a 30-day free trial of any tier: https://i.mtr.cool/RSBQOY

Find me here: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandydedeian/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sandydedeian L

inkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandydedeian/

🎧 New to Nora? Watch her first episode here: https://youtu.be/ZgzgOkBwfjY?si=AsHFHkAJ48sZosAT

New episodes in this series drop monthly through December. Subscribe so you don't miss one.

Chapters

01:24 Series Kickoff With Nora

04:32 Conversion Rate Benchmarks

07:50 Analytics And Funnel Drops

14:00 Product Page Trust Builders

19:07 Checkout Friction Fixes

25:25 Homepage Placement Strategy

28:41 Holiday Conversion Mindset

36:24 SEO GEO Priorities

41:45 Map Customer Journey

44:09 Post Purchase Delight

46:12 Three Holiday Priorities

Every big grocery chain told Emma Lukian no. Every co-packer in Quebec told her no. Even the Dragons on Dans l'œil du dragon told her she'd never find one. Six years later, Good Big Nice kimchi is in almost 800 stores across Quebec, including Metro, IGA and Super C.

In this episode, Emma breaks down exactly what was blocking her from big retail for four years and how she finally cracked it. We talk about the real cost of getting on a big banner shelf (including the $7,000 per SKU listing fee nobody warns you about), why she had to stop looking for a co-packer and start looking for a partner, what happened when a four-month warehouse strike wiped out one of her biggest sales channels, and the moment she realized she'd been tracking revenue while having no idea how much money she was actually making per jar.

If your product is selling but you can't seem to break into bigger retail, this one is for you.

🎯 FREE LIVE WORKSHOP – August 20: I'm walking you through the 3R Strategy, the exact framework I use with private clients to break through growth plateaus. Live on Zoom, kept small, completely free. Save your spot:

Good Big Nice on the web: https://www.goodbignice.com/Good Big Nice on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodbignice/

Find me here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandydedeian/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sandydedeian

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandydedeian/

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

02:52 First Store Breakthrough

09:30 Funding the Scale Up

15:42 Kebwich Collab Challenge

20:06 Budgeting for Big Retail

23:17 Metro Strike Supply Shock

28:12 New Flavor Pikliz Launch

33:58 Marketing Needs a Strategy