Vegan Business Talk

In this episode I interview Jenny Goldfarb, founder of vegan meat company Mrs Goldfarb’s Unreal Deli in Los Angeles.

After becoming vegan, Jenny craved the familiar flavors of her family's New York Jewish delis from her youth.

The former tech entrepreneur began experimenting in her tiny kitchen, trying out the recipes on vegan and meat-eating family and friends.

Encouragement from them quickly led to Jenny shopping around her first plant-based meat products and getting placed in all the major Los Angeles delis.

The products – made in LA from whole ingredients from local farms – are now available in major grocery stores nationwide,

Jenny landed a spot on Shark Tank in 2019 where she got an investment from Mark Cuban, who recently went vegetarian, for more than double what she asked for.

The company took revenue from $10k in profits to $100k shortly afterwards and continues to expand.

In this interview Jenny discusses:

• How she got the attention of restaurant chains, grocers and one of the biggest food brokers in the US very early on

• Why she decided to go on Shark Tank, even though she’d already had several plant-based investors offering her money

• What’s involved in the application process and preparation period for the show

• The benefits of media coverage on the company’s bottom line after her Shark Tank appearance

• How Covid forced her to pivot the business from focusing on restaurant chains to getting products into retail outlets

• Why she uses both ‘vegan’ and ‘plant-based’ in her branding and marketing

• And more

Visit the Mrs Goldfarb’s Unreal Deli website

RESOURCES:

My Online PR Course for Vegan Business Owners & Entrepreneurs: Vegans in the Limelight

My book Vegan Ventures: Start and Grow an Ethical Business

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This episode is a recording of a live virtual event I hosted recently: Power Chat with Anne McKevitt.

From property developer and interior designer (with a homewares product line of 1600 sku’s) to prime time TV star (dubbed ‘Britain’s Martha Stewart’ by the media) and bestselling author of millions of books, Anne McKevitt’s skills and expertise in brand-building are sought after by the world’s leading entrepreneurial companies and A-list celebrities.

Her client list includes Beyonce and Jay Z, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mercedes, IKEA, and many, many more.

Her business and philanthropic work has also seen her consult with several heads of state including President George Bush, President Bill Clinton and the Obama administration.

Passionate about animal rights and protecting the planet, Anne – a vegan for 47 years – has been quietly influencing global corporations, political figures and high-profile entrepreneurs and personalities on the importance of compassion and sustainability.

In this interview, Anne discusses:

• The devastating accident that her bedridden for a year and how this was the impetus for her to start her first business at the age of 23

• The important strategy she learned early on in business that was key to her success

• How she was able to sell one of her businesses with a retail value of just under $1 billion

• The terrifying reason she left the UK nearly 20 years ago to move to Australia and out of the public eye

• Key mistakes business owners and corporations make with their brands and what to do instead

• How she helped global brands in genres including beauty, wellness, food, beverages, apparel, online services, aged care, utilities, TV, theatre and so many more to plan and grow their offerings and expand their customer footprint

• Her new venture Plant Future and how you can benefit from it

• And much more

Plus she responds to audience questions on building their brands.

Find out about Anne’s new venture for the vegan and plant-based business sector Plant Future

 

RESOURCES:

My Online PR Course for Vegan Business Owners & Entrepreneurs: Vegans in the Limelight

My book Vegan Ventures: Start and Grow an Ethical Business

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In this episode I interview Rebecca Ettridge, the owner of Wombat Café & Store, the Mornington Peninsula’s first 100% vegan café in Victoria, Australia, founded in 2016.

Wombat regularly raises and donates substantial amounts of money to Australian animal sanctuaries along with ongoing monthly payments to #paytherent, a grassroots Indigenous organization.

The café, which has expanded to a team of 16 employees, also funds the running costs of its own farm sanctuary, Plumfield Farm, which currently houses 92 residents.

Rebecca has managed all this by running the café remotely (she lives 3 hours away) since the business was only 18 months old, despite being told this couldn’t be done – and without any online sales.

In this interview Rebecca discusses:

• Why she decided to open a vegan café in a non-metropolitan area

• How she’s managed to retain staff in an industry that typically sees a high turnover

• How she’s able to run the business remotely so she can focus on working in her animal sanctuary

• The impact of Covid on the business

• Why she decided not to offer online sales or even have a website for the business

• Her use of the word ‘vegan’ in the café’s branding and marketing and how this changed over the years

• And more

Follow Wombat Café & Store on Instagram

Follow Plumfield Farm on Instagram

RESOURCES:

My Online PR Course for Vegan Business Owners & Entrepreneurs: Vegans in the Limelight

My book Vegan Ventures: Start and Grow an Ethical Business

Follow Vegan Business Media on:

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Connect with me personally at:

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In this episode I interview Izzy Shu, one of four co-founders of JOI (Just One Ingredient), a plant-based milk company with a difference.

When Izzy and her fellow co-founders met in grad school, they quickly realized their shared passion for healthier lifestyles and a quest to make the world more sustainable, and created a thesis project: An innovative solution to make plant-based milks cleaner, more accessible and more eco-friendly.

In 2016, JOI was created. The company offers concentrates made from whole, natural, raw ingredients which, when blended with water, create customizable, instant clean and nutritious plant-based milks.

Before founding JOI, Izzy worked in marketing and brand identity, as well as graphic and production design.

In this interview Izzy discusses:

• Why the company pivoted from hardware manufacturer to creating food products, despite investing time and money in the former

• How JOI is different to other plant-based milks and also to standard ‘instant milk’

• The benefits of a subscription-based sales model and a customer rewards program

• How Covid impacted the business – in a good way

• And more

Visit the JOI website

RESOURCES:

My Online PR Course for Vegan Business Owners & Entrepreneurs: Vegans in the Limelight

My book Vegan Ventures: Start and Grow an Ethical Business

Follow Vegan Business Media on:

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Connect with me personally at:

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In this episode I interview Jena Bautmans, the founder of Jenah St., a vegan handbag and accessories brand in Germany.

Before founding Jenah St. in 2019, Jena was the co-founder of Buckle & Seam, a men’s accessories company that uses animal leather.

While working in Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Pakistan, she experienced an awakening of how the land and people are impacted by heavy industries like fashion, which changed the way she looks at the world.

She decided to make a difference as a result of seeing how tanneries actually process animal leather and its impact on the environment, people and animals.

In this interview Jena discusses:

• Her diverse career journey from legal intern, marketing assistant and creative director to co-founder of a startup

• Her experience of being a female serial entrepreneur in a male-dominated startup space

• What she learned from founding Buckle & Seam that was useful in launching Jenah St.

• How she avoids the issue of over-production that is prevalent in mainstream fashion

• The company’s circular handbag program and how it benefits both the customer and the business

• How Covid-19 impacted her young business and how she handled it

• And more

Visit the Jenah St. website

RESOURCES:

My Online PR Course for Vegan Business Owners & Entrepreneurs: Vegans in the Limelight

My book Vegan Ventures: Start and Grow an Ethical Business

Follow Vegan Business Media on:

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Connect with me personally at:

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In this episode, I interview beauty industry veteran Tev Finger.

He started in the industry in 1990. Since 2006, Tev has helped to create, launch and grow beauty brands across the globe through his company Luxury Brand Partners (LBP).

He does this by partnering with key talent while focusing on unique distribution models and collaborating on product innovation, while staying on top of the latest consumer trends.

Based in Miami Florida, LBP products are currently sold in 23 countries across North America, Europe, Australia and Asia, and can be found in top salons and specialty retailers including Neiman Marcus and Net-A-Porter.

Some of the brands he’s built have sold to large corporations including Estée Lauder for billions of dollars.

Now a vegan himself, Tev is focusing his efforts on investing in cleaner brands and ideas to not only help the planet, but to help push the beauty industry as a whole to reach for higher, cleaner, more sustainable standards that haven’t been done before.

In December 2020 he helped launch R+Co Bleu, a clean, sustainable, vegan, luxury haircare line which is believed to be the first to introduce 100% PCR packaging.

In this interview, Tev discusses:

• How he decides which brands to launch and partner with

• How he decides which talent and influencers to work with

• What independent hair and beauty brands can do that conglomerates can’t and how to use this to your advantage

• The challenges he faced in creating R+Co Bleu, especially with sustainable packaging, and how he handled them

• The different aspects of hair and beauty products that appeal to different customers, and why this is important for brands to know

• Certifications including if and when to include them on your products

• And more

Visit the Luxury Brand Partners website

Visit the R+Co website

Visit the R+Co Bleu website

RESOURCES:

My Online PR Course for Vegan Business Owners & Entrepreneurs: Vegans in the Limelight

My book Vegan Ventures: Start and Grow an Ethical Business

Follow Vegan Business Media on:

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Connect with me personally at:

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In this episode, I interview Bonnie Brown and Paul Turcotte, co-founders of Passion Placement, a new employment platform focused on connecting people with mission-driven organizations doing work that matters to them.

Bonnie is a CPA, senior level executive and entrepreneur with over 25 years hands-on experience in finance, management, information systems and business leadership.

Paul is an entrepreneur and business executive who built, owned, operated, for 20 years, and sold a successful, high-volume, real estate brokerage of 70 sales associates with offices in Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts.

Passion Placement curates every job that the platform posts to make sure member companies are in support of sustainable living, animal advocacy or creating alternatives to animal-based products.

In this interview Bonnie and Paul discuss:

• How Passion Placement differs from other vegan job boards and platforms

• How the platform works for both job seekers and employers

• The kinds of jobs that are currently advertised on the platform including what’s in high demand right now

• The types of positions they anticipate will become more in demand in the future

• At what stage a business needs a Chief Financial Officer, whether fractional or full time

• The extra support with HR and business development that they’re offering with the debut of their second platform New Earth Partners

• And more

Visit the Passion Placement website

Visit the New Earth Partners website

RESOURCES:

My Online PR Course for Vegan Business Owners & Entrepreneurs: Vegans in the Limelight

My book Vegan Ventures: Start and Grow an Ethical Business

Follow Vegan Business Media on:

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Connect with me personally at:

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In this episode I interview Kati Ohens, co-founder of vegan deli meats company Plantcraft in New Zealand.

After a 20-year marketing, advertising, and software executive career, Kati exited her agency to start working in the mission-based space.

While working as a vegan transition coach, she noticed the gap in the alternative meat market, and the need for deli slices.

Kati met commercial banking executive Csaba Hetenyi, a fellow Hungarian, during a work project as they were looking at commercializing a new food tech IP.

As she learned about the technology, Kati discovered that it could be used to make groundbreaking, sustainable, plant-based meat alternatives, and in 2018 the pair founded Plantcraft.

The company is just about to launch its first products into the US market.

In this interview Kati discusses:

• The challenges of running a services-based business to a product-based business and she’s handled them

• The different roles she and co-founder Csaba’s have and how they complement each other

• The two most important criteria for business success

• How Covid impacted the business

• Marketing strategies that are working we, including where buyers are now looking to find new products

• Why ‘plant-based’ is on the packaging for the US market but may be different when the company launches in other markets

• How she got investors on board, including one that had never invested in a plant-based brand and was so keen that they returned for a second raise

• And more

Visit the Plantcraft website

RESOURCES:

My Online PR Course for Vegan Business Owners & Entrepreneurs: Vegans in the Limelight

My book Vegan Ventures: Start and Grow an Ethical Business

Follow Vegan Business Media on:

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In this episode, I interview Stephanie Miklosvary, founder of Lucky Chick, a vegan cosmetics brand in New York.

Stephanie founded and created the company in 2000 as she was putting her art degree to work as a shoe designer in New York City.

Nicknamed “Lucky Chick” by a friend for living in her LC (Lobby C) apartment, she decided to create a persona around her new name.

Inspired by art and self-expression, Lucky Chick Cosmetics makes a vibrant range of color-intensive glosses, lipsticks, shimmers and shadows to encourage people to treat themselves as the masterpieces they are.

In 2007, Stephanie put the business on hold for over a decade, and relaunched in 2018.

In this interview Stephanie discusses:

• Why she took a break from the company for over a decade and what motivated her to revive it

• The challenges she faced with the relaunch compared with the challenges when she first started the brand nearly two decades earlier

• How she landed a deal with luxury department store chain Neiman Marcus, only for it to be put on pause when Covid-19 hit

• How she got Lucky Chick products to be used by make-up artists on Dancing with the Stars

• The impact of Covid-19 on her business and relaunch, including some unexpected upsides

• How she got her products added to a beauty subscription box and the benefits of this kind of collaboration

• And more

Visit the Lucky Chick website

RESOURCES:

My Online PR Course for Vegan Business Owners & Entrepreneurs: Vegans in the Limelight

My book Vegan Ventures: Start and Grow an Ethical Business

Follow Vegan Business Media on:

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Connect with me personally at:

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In this episode I reveal a couple of situations I experienced recently when publicists pitched me their guests to be on this show, that I want you to avoid.

Making journalists’ jobs easy is super important when you’re doing your own PR (or pitching a guest on their behalf). I include podcasters and bloggers in the journalist category too.

I receive heaps of pitches from both PR agencies and vegan business owners and to be honest, most of them fall flat, because the person pitching hasn’t done their homework.

Also, even when I am potentially interested in having a guest on, things don’t always go smoothly.

So, in this episode, I share with you what doesn’t work, and then what does, so you can maximize your chances of landing yourself a guest interview on (the right) shows.

RESOURCES:

My Online PR Course for Vegan Business Owners & Entrepreneurs: Vegans in the Limelight

My book Vegan Ventures: Start and Grow an Ethical Business

Services: Work with me

Follow Vegan Business Media on:

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Connect with me personally at:

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