The Tidbit

A strategic partner is another business with whom you enter into an agreement that aims to help both of you achieve more success. But, of course, what that success is must be determined and agreed upon by both parties. On this episode, we explore the 4 key tenets of HOW to build a strategic partnerships with Erin Lenhardt and Sally Rogers, Co-Founders of Parsnip. Parsnip’s vision is to connect better-for-you brands with partnership opportunities. Tune in to learn more about growing your business reach through mutually-beneficial agreements and arrangements with likeminded brand partners.

Thomas Jefferson’s gardening efforts resulted in success and failure. He used his 1,000-ft kitchen garden as a laboratory, growing over 300 types of vegetables. His focus wasn’t profit or production, though; but rather knowledge. Jefferson exchanged seeds with people from all over the world and as a result, introduced new and unusual plants not found elsewhere. One of Monticello's emeritus scholars says that the garden became like an “Ellis Island” of introduced vegetables. On this episode, we explore Monticello's complex history with two academics-in-residence using the garden as an example to highlight the importance of lifelong curiosity, experimentation, and overcoming setbacks.

As your company grows and you can no longer fulfill demand, you have to make a decision: do you invest in a larger production facility, or do you outsource to a co-packer? We're joined on this episode by three incredible industry experts to discuss all of the reasons why co-manufacturing is a great business to get into, how you should do business with a co-packer so all parties are set-up for success, and challenges they have faced along the way. Tune in to hear from Matt Sebastionelli from Lucky Clover Packaging & CraftPack, and Marwan & Ryan from Maryland Packaging.

When I talk about the education and consulting side of our business at Cureate, I often say: you may know how to make jam, but not know how to run a jam business - that’s where we come in! A huge part in figuring out if your food business is going to succeed is understanding how to price your product, and all of the factors to consider when doing so. Grab a piece of paper and pen, because we’re about to discuss three tips on for determing your food cost (wholesale, and MSRP - manufacturer's suggested retail price).

We're joined on this episode by Rahaf Harfoush, a Digital Anthropologist and Best-Selling Author who researches the impacts of emerging technologies on our society. Tune in to hear our discussion around our belief systems of work, the historical tension between creativity and productivity, and how Rahaf became a Beyoncé-ologist while researching the principles highlighted in her latest book, Hustle & Float.

A topic that keeps surfacing these days is around self care and entrepreneurship. On The Tidbit, we're particularly interested in this discussion as it relates to the beliefs we tell ourselves, how the media exacerbates those beliefs, and how cultural collective consciousness norms keep us in race, gender, and/or socio-economic boxes. To discuss this intersection, we’re joined in-studio by Sarah Malphrus - the pastry chef at Rye Street Tavern by Andrew Carmellini in Baltimore, Maryland. Born and raised in Charleston, SC, she received a bachelor's degree in Gender & Women's Studies from Warren Wilson College before deciding to pursue a career in the hospitality industry. She's an avid collector of crystals, loves old cook books, supporting fellow pastry chefs, and smashing the patriarchy one slice of cake at a time.

If you’re an emerging CPG (consumer packed goods) business, and you’re looking to level up your game and get onto a retail shelf in a grocery store or corporate cafeteria, what do you need to do to be prepared? On this minisode we dicuss three tips for winning over a retail buyer. ★ ★ ★ Our mission includes the sharing of education and access to resources - and the best way to reach more listeners like you is to leave a review in iTunes. If you enjoyed this minisode, head over to your app and leave a little tidbit on what you’ve learned here on the show!

The 2018 Farm Bill was signed into effect in an unheard of (for this era!) bipartisan manner. Passage of the Farm Bill marks a watershed event for hemp, a crop planted centuries ago by America’s founding fathers - making it once again legal to grow and sell. Quoting Hemp is Now Legal. That's Huge for CBD Industry. a Vox piece states: "[This] Farm Bill opportunity isn’t just for farmers. The Drug Enforcement Administration’s lackadaisical approach to CBD has helped the CBD industry sell about $350 million worth of products last year, and experts believe it will easily hit $1 billion in sales by 2020.” Why do you think there’s such a craving for CBD-infused products? What benefits do you see hemp having across product lines? How does this reversal in policy affect new business strategies? On this episode we sit down with Erica Berger, award-winning journalist, speaker, and strategist to take a birds-eye view of the hemp and CBD industries to answer those questions posed.

What are the fields emerging in food & beverage broadly that we can begin to think up new ventures and new ways of approaching challenges that are encroaching upon us as a society? Our imaginations soar as we sit down with Jenn Goggin, a co-founder of Startle, an innovation studio for the food ecosystem. On this episode of The Tidbit we discuss new innovations across the food & beverage supply chain from smart packaging, to plastic-free products, to new retail models and technologies.

Many entrepreneurs struggle with creating tangible metrics around focused goals. On today’s minisode, we’re going to discuss the framework created by Google called OKRs - Objectives, and Key Results. It’s a system for tracking your desired objectives and keeping yourself accountable. To supplement this episode, we've created an OKR template digital download for food & beverage small business owners.