[{"_1":2,"_3":-5,"_4":-5},"loaderData",{"_5":6,"_7":8},"actionData","errors","root",{"_137":-5,"_138":-5,"_139":140,"_141":142,"_143":144},"routes/clips.$id.$slug",{"_9":10,"_11":12},"clip",{"_13":14,"_15":16,"_17":-5,"_18":19,"_20":-5,"_21":22,"_23":24,"_25":26,"_27":28,"_29":30,"_31":32,"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_44":45,"_46":-5,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":-5},"canonicalUrl","https://howleaderslead.com/clips/2285/learn-from-people-whove-done-what-youre-doing","id",2285,"title","Learn from people who’ve done what you’re doing","subtitle","transcript","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.680\nI have leaned on mentors like yourself, David.\n\n2\n00:00:04.680 --> 00:00:09.000\nAnd David has been privy to more than one or two phone calls\n\n3\n00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:12.360\nabout asking for advice with how to grow a team\n\n4\n00:00:12.360 --> 00:00:16.460\nand how to lean into the team that I do have.\n\n5\n00:00:16.460 --> 00:00:17.640\nI read a lot of books.\n\n6\n00:00:17.640 --> 00:00:20.600\nI listened to a lot of podcasts, including this one.\n\n7\n00:00:20.600 --> 00:00:23.280\nAnd I try to learn from people who have done it before me\n\n8\n00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:26.080\nbecause I haven't run a business before.\n\n9\n00:00:26.080 --> 00:00:29.880\nAnd this is my first time managing a team\n\n10\n00:00:29.880 --> 00:00:31.480\nand making business decisions.\n\n11\n00:00:31.480 --> 00:00:34.560\nAnd even we're launching in Albertsons in Texas,\n\n12\n00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:36.800\nRalphs in Southern California and Stater Brothers\n\n13\n00:00:36.800 --> 00:00:39.880\nin Southern California, three really important brands\n\n14\n00:00:39.880 --> 00:00:41.320\nfor our business.\n\n15\n00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:43.720\nI've never launched in a conventional grocery store before.\n\n16\n00:00:43.720 --> 00:00:47.200\nEven this is something completely outside of my wheelhouse.\n\n17\n00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:49.280\nI've only launched a natural grocery stores\n\n18\n00:00:49.280 --> 00:00:50.520\nwith the milk so far.\n\n19\n00:00:50.520 --> 00:00:54.640\nSo I am leaning on my brokers, my other advisors.\n\n20\n00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:56.780\nAnd I'm saying, tell me about your learnings.\n\n21\n00:00:56.780 --> 00:00:59.840\nWhat have you seen when you've launched a natural product?\n\n22\n00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:03.480\nIn a conventional space, where can I be strong?\n\n23\n00:01:03.480 --> 00:01:05.400\nLike, what do we need to lean in on?\n\n24\n00:01:05.400 --> 00:01:08.400\nI am asking a ton of questions.\n\n25\n00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:12.760\nAnd I always will take the opportunity to speak to somebody,\n\n26\n00:01:12.760 --> 00:01:15.760\nespecially another founder within the space\n\n27\n00:01:15.760 --> 00:01:18.040\nbecause there is always something to learn.\n\n28\n00:01:18.040 --> 00:01:20.240\nAnd it's not always easy because we're really busy, right?\n\n29\n00:01:20.240 --> 00:01:23.680\nLike I'm a mom, I'm pregnant, I'm running this business.\n\n30\n00:01:23.680 --> 00:01:25.840\nI've got a really small team.\n\n31\n00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:28.760\nTime is my most valuable asset right now.\n\n32\n00:01:28.760 --> 00:01:30.800\nAnd there is just not enough time in the day.\n\n33\n00:01:30.800 --> 00:01:33.200\nI put my son to bed, I get back on email.\n\n34\n00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:34.920\nI'm on email at 6.30 in the morning,\n\n35\n00:01:34.920 --> 00:01:37.120\nsometimes even earlier, ask my team.\n\n36\n00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:40.280\nBut carving out that 30 year, 45 minutes\n\n37\n00:01:40.280 --> 00:01:44.520\nto speak to another founder, I always find something valuable.\n\n38\n00:01:44.520 --> 00:01:46.160\nAnd if you don't find something valuable,\n\n39\n00:01:46.160 --> 00:01:47.440\nit's because you're not engaged\n\n40\n00:01:47.440 --> 00:01:49.440\nand you're not asking the right questions.\n","pretty_transcript","start_time",766000,"end_time",874999,"keywords","mentors, mentorship, advisors, brokers, podcasts","slug","learn-from-people-whove-done-what-youre-doing","origin","cms","mux_playback_id","6CagoMVhlQAv575g4FeSZ01jg6kxVP8lWucV00pguotQ4","mux_asset_id","n5vukJ3PusYyBSrUKfK3yGvbafpwtY7JII2HPAPgjYw","leader_id",71,"episode_id",220,"updated_at","2025-02-26T20:10:46.000000Z","meta_title","meta_description","og_image_media_id","web_url","https://www.howleaderslead.com/clips/2285/learn-from-people-whove-done-what-youre-doing","og_image_url","leader",{"_13":36,"_101":102,"_103":104,"_105":106,"_25":107,"_108":109,"_62":110,"_59":110,"_111":112,"_69":113,"_39":114,"_115":-5,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_116":117,"_89":118,"_44":119,"_120":121,"_122":123,"_46":-5,"_124":125,"_126":127,"_93":128,"_51":-5},"episode",{"_13":38,"_15":52,"_27":53,"_17":54,"_55":56,"_18":57,"_20":58,"_59":60,"_61":-5,"_62":60,"_63":-5,"_64":65,"_66":67,"_68":-5,"_69":-5,"_70":71,"_72":73,"_74":-5,"_35":36,"_39":75,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_76":77,"_78":79,"_80":81,"_82":83,"_84":-5,"_85":-5,"_86":87,"_88":-5,"_89":-5,"_46":-5,"_90":91,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_51":-5},"og_image_media","Never Lose the Startup Mindset","never-lose-the-startup-mindset","David and Brittany talk about the disruptive power of flax milk, making tough product quality decisions at 2am, and how to start building a brand from the ground up.","summary","

Today's guest is Brittany Fuisz, the Founder and CEO of Malibu Mylk.

Building something from scratch is not easy. In fact, the majority of businesses that launched don't make it past five years. So what is it that allows some companies to thrive while others fail? Whoever leads the business in the mindset they approach their work with is a key ingredient in the success of a company. And in my conversation with Brittany, you're about to see a unique mindset on full display as she tells a story of launching Malibu Mylk. Brittany has what I call a startup mindset, and what I mean by that is incredible passion to make something big happen and truly change the world.

They're not willing for someone to tell them what to do. They think outside the box, they give themselves the permission to charge forward and they attack every unknown and challenge with optimism.

In this episode you’ll learn:

What’s going on in the milk category
How to build a brand from scratch as an outsider
How a celebrity’s advice sent Brittany down an unexpected career path
How Brittany scaled the success of her blender to something that could be mass-produced
How to respond to setbacks in quality
What it really takes to be ready for a meeting with Whole Foods
How the Malibu Mylk subscription model works
The formula for a great culture
How to embrace pushback that improves the brand
PLUS, Brittany shares a promo code for getting your own batch of Malibu Mylk!

Get your first order of Malibu Mylk 20% off when you use the promo code LEAD20 at checkout.

Take your learning further. Get proven leadership advice from these (free!) resources:

The How Leaders Lead App: A vast library of 90-second leadership lessons to stay sharp on the go

Daily Insight Emails: One small (but powerful!) leadership principle to focus on each day

Whichever you choose, you can be sure you’ll get the trusted leadership advice you need to advance your career, develop your team, and grow your business.

","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.100\nWelcome to How Leaders Lead, where every week you get to listen in while I\n\n2\n00:00:07.100 --> 00:00:07.840\ninterview some\n\n3\n00:00:07.840 --> 00:00:09.600\nof the best leaders in the world.\n\n4\n00:00:09.600 --> 00:00:13.070\nI break down the key learning so that by the end of the episode, you'll have\n\n5\n00:00:13.070 --> 00:00:13.680\nsomething\n\n6\n00:00:13.680 --> 00:00:17.480\nsimple that you can apply as you develop into a better leader.\n\n7\n00:00:17.480 --> 00:00:20.120\nThat's what this podcast is all about.\n\n8\n00:00:20.120 --> 00:00:25.720\nToday's guest is Brittany Fuse, the founder and CEO of Malibu Milk.\n\n9\n00:00:25.720 --> 00:00:29.160\nBuilding something from scratch is not easy.\n\n10\n00:00:29.160 --> 00:00:33.220\nWhoever leads the business and the mindset they approach their work with is a\n\n11\n00:00:33.220 --> 00:00:34.120\nkey ingredient\n\n12\n00:00:34.120 --> 00:00:36.360\nin the success of a company.\n\n13\n00:00:36.360 --> 00:00:40.850\nIn my conversation with Brittany, you're about to see a unique mindset on full\n\n14\n00:00:40.850 --> 00:00:41.680\ndisplay as\n\n15\n00:00:41.680 --> 00:00:45.080\nshe tells the story of launching Malibu Milk.\n\n16\n00:00:45.080 --> 00:00:48.200\nBrittany has what I call a startup mindset.\n\n17\n00:00:48.200 --> 00:00:54.080\nWhat I mean by that is she's absolutely passionate about what she's created.\n\n18\n00:00:54.080 --> 00:00:57.700\nShe's going to make sure that it is a success and she's willing to do\n\n19\n00:00:57.700 --> 00:00:58.920\neverything it takes\n\n20\n00:00:58.920 --> 00:01:00.440\nto make it happen.\n\n21\n00:01:00.440 --> 00:01:05.160\nI'm telling you, this startup mindset is a real asset to any leader regardless\n\n22\n00:01:05.160 --> 00:01:05.720\nif they're\n\n23\n00:01:05.720 --> 00:01:09.640\nin an actual startup or running an established business.\n\n24\n00:01:09.640 --> 00:01:14.550\nYou see, the great leaders I know, the ones who help businesses thrive, they\n\n25\n00:01:14.550 --> 00:01:15.320\nnever lose\n\n26\n00:01:15.320 --> 00:01:17.360\nthe startup mindset.\n\n27\n00:01:17.360 --> 00:01:21.430\nThere's a lot for us to learn from this founder story and I'm excited for you\n\n28\n00:01:21.430 --> 00:01:22.960\nto listen in.\n\n29\n00:01:22.960 --> 00:01:28.320\nHere's my conversation with my good friend and soon to be yours, Brittany Fuse,\n\n30\n00:01:28.320 --> 00:01:28.760\nthe founder\n\n31\n00:01:28.760 --> 00:01:33.200\nand CEO of Malibu Milk.\n\n32\n00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:40.800\nYou know, Brittany, you've literally built the Malibu Milk brand from scratch.\n\n33\n00:01:40.800 --> 00:01:44.200\nTell us about the brand and what inspired you to create it.\n\n34\n00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:50.560\nYeah, Malibu Milk is the world's tastiest, healthiest plant-based milk.\n\n35\n00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:54.160\nIt's made from the whole ground organic flax seed.\n\n36\n00:01:54.160 --> 00:01:58.970\nI really started this journey a few years ago, about three years ago and it was\n\n37\n00:01:58.970 --> 00:01:59.760\nconnected\n\n38\n00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:01.400\nto me trying to get pregnant.\n\n39\n00:02:01.400 --> 00:02:06.240\nI was struggling to get pregnant like many young couples do and I went to see a\n\n40\n00:02:06.240 --> 00:02:06.800\ndoctor\n\n41\n00:02:06.800 --> 00:02:11.350\nhere in LA, a fertility doctor and she recommended I take a really hard look at\n\n42\n00:02:11.350 --> 00:02:12.200\nmy diet and take\n\n43\n00:02:12.200 --> 00:02:15.960\na really hard look at the things I was consuming.\n\n44\n00:02:15.960 --> 00:02:19.980\nShe ended up recommending an autoimmune protocol, an elimination diet where I\n\n45\n00:02:19.980 --> 00:02:20.920\nhad to eliminate\n\n46\n00:02:20.920 --> 00:02:22.480\nall major allergens.\n\n47\n00:02:22.480 --> 00:02:28.710\nSo dairy, nuts, gluten, soy and you can imagine when you've eliminated dairy,\n\n48\n00:02:28.710 --> 00:02:30.360\nnuts and soy,\n\n49\n00:02:30.360 --> 00:02:35.490\nyou've wiped out the entire milk aisle, both traditional cow's milk and plant-\n\n50\n00:02:35.490 --> 00:02:36.800\nbased milk.\n\n51\n00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:42.110\nSo I was pretty discouraged and frustrated and I was looking for an allergen-\n\n52\n00:02:42.110 --> 00:02:43.200\nfree, really\n\n53\n00:02:43.200 --> 00:02:47.260\nhealthy option because when you're trying to get pregnant, I think it's one of\n\n54\n00:02:47.260 --> 00:02:47.680\nthose\n\n55\n00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:50.770\ntimes in your life when you're all of a sudden, hyper aware of what you're\n\n56\n00:02:50.770 --> 00:02:51.560\nconsuming because\n\n57\n00:02:51.560 --> 00:02:55.040\nyou're going to be building another human being.\n\n58\n00:02:55.040 --> 00:02:58.650\nAnd I was literally driving in the car one day and I had this kind of light\n\n59\n00:02:58.650 --> 00:02:59.400\nbulb moment\n\n60\n00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:03.440\nand I thought, \"What if I make milk for flax seed?\n\n61\n00:03:03.440 --> 00:03:05.440\nI've always loved flax seed.\n\n62\n00:03:05.440 --> 00:03:10.260\nI would add it to smoothies or oatmeal, constantly looking for ways to get more\n\n63\n00:03:10.260 --> 00:03:11.080\nfiber in omega\n\n64\n00:03:11.080 --> 00:03:13.000\nthrees into my diet.\"\n\n65\n00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:17.060\nSo I went home that day, I pulled out my blender and I have a pretty good\n\n66\n00:03:17.060 --> 00:03:18.120\nunderstanding of\n\n67\n00:03:18.120 --> 00:03:21.520\ncooking because I went to culinary school several years ago and I started\n\n68\n00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:22.440\nplaying with a few\n\n69\n00:03:22.440 --> 00:03:24.560\nreally simple ingredients.\n\n70\n00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:28.990\nFlax seed, Himalayan salt, a little bit of organic vanilla extract and I was\n\n71\n00:03:28.990 --> 00:03:29.560\ngetting\n\n72\n00:03:29.560 --> 00:03:36.080\nthis incredibly creamy milk because flax seed is a natural emulsifier.\n\n73\n00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:42.380\nAnd so at that point, I was really excited and I think I did what any aspiring\n\n74\n00:03:42.380 --> 00:03:43.680\nentrepreneur\n\n75\n00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:44.680\nwould do.\n\n76\n00:03:44.680 --> 00:03:48.160\nI reached out to Whole Foods to the local buyer here in Southern California.\n\n77\n00:03:48.160 --> 00:03:49.160\nOh, come on.\n\n78\n00:03:49.160 --> 00:03:50.640\nYou don't just create a product.\n\n79\n00:03:50.640 --> 00:03:53.120\nOh, I'm going to call Whole Foods now and get distribution.\n\n80\n00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:55.040\nI mean, come on, give me a break.\n\n81\n00:03:55.040 --> 00:03:56.040\nBut I did.\n\n82\n00:03:56.040 --> 00:03:57.400\nYou know what they say, David?\n\n83\n00:03:57.400 --> 00:03:58.920\nThey say ignorance is bliss.\n\n84\n00:03:58.920 --> 00:04:05.250\nSo I didn't know all of the stuff that I didn't know about CPG and margins and\n\n85\n00:04:05.250 --> 00:04:06.840\npricing.\n\n86\n00:04:06.840 --> 00:04:10.960\nAnd I figured it would take six to eight months to get on this person's\n\n87\n00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:12.120\ncalendar and I could\n\n88\n00:04:12.120 --> 00:04:13.960\nfigure all of that other stuff out.\n\n89\n00:04:13.960 --> 00:04:16.440\nI want to ask you about that later because I want to come back.\n\n90\n00:04:16.440 --> 00:04:17.440\nThat's your first account.\n\n91\n00:04:17.440 --> 00:04:20.040\nBut how do you, I love your brand name Malibu milk.\n\n92\n00:04:20.040 --> 00:04:21.040\nIt sounds, that's cool.\n\n93\n00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:22.840\nHow'd you come up with that?\n\n94\n00:04:22.840 --> 00:04:23.840\nSo I grew up in Malibu.\n\n95\n00:04:23.840 --> 00:04:25.240\nI was actually born in Ohio.\n\n96\n00:04:25.240 --> 00:04:29.190\nSo I have nice Midwestern roots, I like to say, but my parents were\n\n97\n00:04:29.190 --> 00:04:30.360\nentrepreneurs.\n\n98\n00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:35.260\nThey moved out to California when I was about seven for their business and we\n\n99\n00:04:35.260 --> 00:04:36.120\nwent from,\n\n100\n00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:40.850\nif you can believe it, a little tiny town in Ocarber, Ohio to Malibu,\n\n101\n00:04:40.850 --> 00:04:42.000\nCalifornia.\n\n102\n00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:47.880\nAnd so I had the good fortune of being from seven to 18 in Malibu.\n\n103\n00:04:47.880 --> 00:04:52.360\nIt was a wonderful place to grow up and I loved the alliteration of Malibu and\n\n104\n00:04:52.360 --> 00:04:53.120\nmilk.\n\n105\n00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:56.960\nAnd Malibu, it's such a health conscious place.\n\n106\n00:04:56.960 --> 00:05:01.580\nYou know, a lot of my friends were coming to school with homemade breads and\n\n107\n00:05:01.580 --> 00:05:02.200\nproduce\n\n108\n00:05:02.200 --> 00:05:03.800\nfrom their parents' gardens.\n\n109\n00:05:03.800 --> 00:05:08.070\nAnd so, you know, that's where I really learned about health and wellness was\n\n110\n00:05:08.070 --> 00:05:08.680\nwhen we moved\n\n111\n00:05:08.680 --> 00:05:09.680\nto Malibu.\n\n112\n00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:13.200\nSo it just seemed fitting for this organic flax milk.\n\n113\n00:05:13.200 --> 00:05:14.720\nI love that, David.\n\n114\n00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:15.720\nIt makes a lot of sense.\n\n115\n00:05:15.720 --> 00:05:18.770\nObviously, you know, you know, I grew up drinking whole milk like, you know,\n\n116\n00:05:18.770 --> 00:05:19.400\nmost people in\n\n117\n00:05:19.400 --> 00:05:24.520\nmy generation and now all you'll find in my fridge is still common milk.\n\n118\n00:05:24.520 --> 00:05:26.200\nWhat's going on in the milk category?\n\n119\n00:05:26.200 --> 00:05:29.450\nAnd you talked a little bit about how you're differentiating yourself, but tell\n\n120\n00:05:29.450 --> 00:05:29.920\nus about\n\n121\n00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:32.600\nthe dynamics of the milk category itself.\n\n122\n00:05:32.600 --> 00:05:37.750\nSo the milk category right now is really interesting because the dairy milk\n\n123\n00:05:37.750 --> 00:05:39.080\nindustry is valued\n\n124\n00:05:39.080 --> 00:05:41.120\nat $800 billion.\n\n125\n00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:43.000\nIt's a huge number, right?\n\n126\n00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:44.400\nBut it's actually shrinking.\n\n127\n00:05:44.400 --> 00:05:51.950\nSo the amount of people consuming cow's milk has declined drastically, like 40%\n\n128\n00:05:51.950 --> 00:05:52.960\nper capita\n\n129\n00:05:52.960 --> 00:05:54.840\nsince 1975.\n\n130\n00:05:54.840 --> 00:05:59.940\nMeanwhile, the amount of people who are drinking plant-based milk, so not milk,\n\n131\n00:05:59.940 --> 00:06:00.720\nsoy milk,\n\n132\n00:06:00.720 --> 00:06:03.800\nflax milk is growing rapidly.\n\n133\n00:06:03.800 --> 00:06:09.000\nAnd over 50% of American consumers drink plant-based milk regularly.\n\n134\n00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:10.320\nIt's like yourself.\n\n135\n00:06:10.320 --> 00:06:14.180\nAnd what's really interesting is when you dive in and you look at the different\n\n136\n00:06:14.180 --> 00:06:14.760\nplant-based\n\n137\n00:06:14.760 --> 00:06:20.500\nmilks and you want to understand the nutrition behind them, the growing methods\n\n138\n00:06:20.500 --> 00:06:22.280\nbehind them,\n\n139\n00:06:22.280 --> 00:06:24.240\nthey're actually all very different.\n\n140\n00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:27.570\nAnd that was one of the things that I dug into as well when I was considering\n\n141\n00:06:27.570 --> 00:06:28.080\nflax.\n\n142\n00:06:28.080 --> 00:06:31.010\nSo take almond milk, for example, because you know, David, you said you do\n\n143\n00:06:31.010 --> 00:06:31.640\nconsume almond\n\n144\n00:06:31.640 --> 00:06:33.120\nmilk.\n\n145\n00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:37.680\nAlmond milk is made by blending almonds with water and then you strain the\n\n146\n00:06:37.680 --> 00:06:38.800\nalmonds out.\n\n147\n00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:42.340\nSo most of the nutrients and the protein that are found in those almonds are\n\n148\n00:06:42.340 --> 00:06:43.200\nactually thrown\n\n149\n00:06:43.200 --> 00:06:46.640\nout and you end up with almond-flavored water.\n\n150\n00:06:46.640 --> 00:06:48.520\nThere's not a lot of nutrients.\n\n151\n00:06:48.520 --> 00:06:50.760\nIt's mostly just water.\n\n152\n00:06:50.760 --> 00:06:55.040\nAnd the problem is almonds are incredibly unsustainable.\n\n153\n00:06:55.040 --> 00:07:00.000\nIt takes 20 gallons of water to produce one single glass of almond milk.\n\n154\n00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:01.600\nIt's a lot of water.\n\n155\n00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:06.240\nWater is a natural resource that we need, you know, we depend on.\n\n156\n00:07:06.240 --> 00:07:07.240\nAlmond milk is not.\n\n157\n00:07:07.240 --> 00:07:10.990\nSo when you're considering, okay, well, I'm not really getting a lot of\n\n158\n00:07:10.990 --> 00:07:11.880\nnutrition from\n\n159\n00:07:11.880 --> 00:07:15.880\nthis almond milk and it's also quite the strain on our natural resources.\n\n160\n00:07:15.880 --> 00:07:18.160\nAll right, let's see what other choices there are.\n\n161\n00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:19.320\nLet's go to oat milk.\n\n162\n00:07:19.320 --> 00:07:21.160\nOat milk is having a heyday right now, right?\n\n163\n00:07:21.160 --> 00:07:25.440\nA lot of people are leaning into oat milk.\n\n164\n00:07:25.440 --> 00:07:29.420\nOat milk is interesting because, you know, they say no added sugar, but the\n\n165\n00:07:29.420 --> 00:07:30.040\ntruth is the\n\n166\n00:07:30.040 --> 00:07:34.740\nway that the oats are processed in oat milk, it ends up gram for gram having a\n\n167\n00:07:34.740 --> 00:07:36.040\nhigher impact\n\n168\n00:07:36.040 --> 00:07:40.000\non your blood sugar than a can of Coca Cola.\n\n169\n00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:41.680\nOat milk is filled with calories.\n\n170\n00:07:41.680 --> 00:07:43.840\nIt's filled with carbohydrates.\n\n171\n00:07:43.840 --> 00:07:47.790\nAnd most of the oats in this country are covered in glyphosate, which is\n\n172\n00:07:47.790 --> 00:07:49.240\notherwise known as\n\n173\n00:07:49.240 --> 00:07:51.480\nweed killer or Roundup.\n\n174\n00:07:51.480 --> 00:07:52.960\nYou're kidding me.\n\n175\n00:07:52.960 --> 00:07:55.360\nNo, no, I'm very serious.\n\n176\n00:07:55.360 --> 00:07:58.920\nAnd so all right, almond milk is out.\n\n177\n00:07:58.920 --> 00:08:00.440\nOat milk is out.\n\n178\n00:08:00.440 --> 00:08:03.440\nSoy milk, most soy is genetically modified.\n\n179\n00:08:03.440 --> 00:08:05.640\nYou know, there's all this movement with non-GMO.\n\n180\n00:08:05.640 --> 00:08:08.140\nYou want not I don't even know if people really know what it means, but they\n\n181\n00:08:08.140 --> 00:08:08.880\nknow they want\n\n182\n00:08:08.880 --> 00:08:09.880\nit, right?\n\n183\n00:08:09.880 --> 00:08:11.320\nWhat is what is GMO non-GMO?\n\n184\n00:08:11.320 --> 00:08:13.440\nWell, I know I want the non-GMO.\n\n185\n00:08:13.440 --> 00:08:14.840\nMost soy is GMO.\n\n186\n00:08:14.840 --> 00:08:16.440\nIt is genetically modified.\n\n187\n00:08:16.440 --> 00:08:18.880\nThat means it can cause hormonal imbalances.\n\n188\n00:08:18.880 --> 00:08:20.480\nNot good for your health.\n\n189\n00:08:20.480 --> 00:08:25.400\nWe are using 100% organic flax seed.\n\n190\n00:08:25.400 --> 00:08:30.640\nWe're not adding anything that's, you know, no weed killer, no oils, most oat\n\n191\n00:08:30.640 --> 00:08:31.440\nmilk, a\n\n192\n00:08:31.440 --> 00:08:35.340\nlot of soy melts have oils in them because it gives them a thicker texture and\n\n193\n00:08:35.340 --> 00:08:35.720\nhelps\n\n194\n00:08:35.720 --> 00:08:37.360\nthem froth better.\n\n195\n00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:38.720\nWe're not adding any oils.\n\n196\n00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:41.920\nWe're just keeping our ingredients as clean as possible.\n\n197\n00:08:41.920 --> 00:08:46.340\nAnd the beautiful thing about the flax flower is the only water required is\n\n198\n00:08:46.340 --> 00:08:47.720\nnatural rainfall.\n\n199\n00:08:47.720 --> 00:08:51.840\nSo from a health point of view, it's the best choice for you.\n\n200\n00:08:51.840 --> 00:08:55.620\nAnd from a mother earth point of view, it's the best choice for our planet as\n\n201\n00:08:55.620 --> 00:08:56.080\nwell.\n\n202\n00:08:56.080 --> 00:08:57.640\nWow, that's so interesting.\n\n203\n00:08:57.640 --> 00:09:01.800\nYou know, Brittany, you're already getting accolades for being a great brand\n\n204\n00:09:01.800 --> 00:09:02.440\nbuilder.\n\n205\n00:09:02.440 --> 00:09:03.800\nAnd you got a great brand name.\n\n206\n00:09:03.800 --> 00:09:04.800\nWe just talked about that.\n\n207\n00:09:04.800 --> 00:09:09.320\nYour packaging is absolutely beautiful and very distinctive on the shelf.\n\n208\n00:09:09.320 --> 00:09:14.190\nWhat advice can you give to others who want to build brands and make them stand\n\n209\n00:09:14.190 --> 00:09:14.480\nout?\n\n210\n00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:15.480\nGet started.\n\n211\n00:09:15.480 --> 00:09:19.440\nYou know, I think it's one of the hardest things is, well, where do I start?\n\n212\n00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:21.000\nAnd what do I do next?\n\n213\n00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:24.850\nAnd there's not really a roadmap for when you get started, but you have to\n\n214\n00:09:24.850 --> 00:09:27.360\nstart somewhere.\n\n215\n00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:29.600\nAnd you have to just keep going.\n\n216\n00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:33.520\nAnd I, for a long time, was trying to, I had a day job.\n\n217\n00:09:33.520 --> 00:09:34.720\nI had a full time day job.\n\n218\n00:09:34.720 --> 00:09:38.620\nAnd I was like, well, I can do both, you know, I'll kind of do a little bit of\n\n219\n00:09:38.620 --> 00:09:39.480\nthis project\n\n220\n00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:41.720\non the side here and there.\n\n221\n00:09:41.720 --> 00:09:43.680\nFor me, it was really hard to do.\n\n222\n00:09:43.680 --> 00:09:46.120\nAnd I'm pretty type A and I'm pretty cool oriented.\n\n223\n00:09:46.120 --> 00:09:50.700\nAnd yet, until, you know, I didn't have the full time job anymore until I was\n\n224\n00:09:50.700 --> 00:09:51.240\nable to\n\n225\n00:09:51.240 --> 00:09:54.600\nreally focus on this, it just didn't move forward.\n\n226\n00:09:54.600 --> 00:09:58.980\nI needed to sit down every day in front of my computer at 8 a.m. and say, all\n\n227\n00:09:58.980 --> 00:09:59.680\nright,\n\n228\n00:09:59.680 --> 00:10:01.600\nhow am I moving this forward today?\n\n229\n00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:02.880\nAnd I knew nothing.\n\n230\n00:10:02.880 --> 00:10:04.960\nI knew nothing about the industry.\n\n231\n00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:09.580\nI mean, when I say nothing, I have no family that's worked in consumer packaged\n\n232\n00:10:09.580 --> 00:10:10.240\ngoods like\n\n233\n00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:11.240\nthis.\n\n234\n00:10:11.240 --> 00:10:15.160\nI was coming in totally blind, but what I had was a passion.\n\n235\n00:10:15.160 --> 00:10:21.020\nAnd I also think that the blindness, in a way, one of my early investors and\n\n236\n00:10:21.020 --> 00:10:21.880\nadvisors\n\n237\n00:10:21.880 --> 00:10:24.920\nsaid, you know, make sure that you're kind of leaning into that.\n\n238\n00:10:24.920 --> 00:10:28.590\nIt's your newness and your ignorance to the category that's giving you such a\n\n239\n00:10:28.590 --> 00:10:29.880\ngreat perspective\n\n240\n00:10:29.880 --> 00:10:34.820\nbecause it's different than somebody who's, you know, been in the industry for\n\n241\n00:10:34.820 --> 00:10:35.440\na really\n\n242\n00:10:35.440 --> 00:10:36.600\nlong time.\n\n243\n00:10:36.600 --> 00:10:39.850\nHaving a beginner mindset, I think works in any business and for any person,\n\n244\n00:10:39.850 --> 00:10:40.400\nyou know,\n\n245\n00:10:40.400 --> 00:10:43.470\nand it's obvious, Brittany, that you don't sit around and wait for others to\n\n246\n00:10:43.470 --> 00:10:43.920\ntell you\n\n247\n00:10:43.920 --> 00:10:44.920\nwhat to do.\n\n248\n00:10:44.920 --> 00:10:48.760\nTell us what you think makes a great self-starter.\n\n249\n00:10:48.760 --> 00:10:53.160\nAnd what would you tell others on how to cultivate a skill like that?\n\n250\n00:10:53.160 --> 00:10:55.400\nOh, that's such a great question.\n\n251\n00:10:55.400 --> 00:10:58.400\nYou know, I think having goals does help.\n\n252\n00:10:58.400 --> 00:11:02.540\nHaving realistic goals and putting your mind to something, you can then break\n\n253\n00:11:02.540 --> 00:11:03.400\nthose goals\n\n254\n00:11:03.400 --> 00:11:06.640\ninto things that you're just going to achieve today, you know, or that week.\n\n255\n00:11:06.640 --> 00:11:11.280\nOkay, this week, I'm going to achieve X, Y, and Z or one, two, and three.\n\n256\n00:11:11.280 --> 00:11:15.960\nYou know, for me, the first step was finalizing this formula.\n\n257\n00:11:15.960 --> 00:11:20.890\nI had this idea, I made this, you know, great kind of product in my kitchen,\n\n258\n00:11:20.890 --> 00:11:21.840\nbut I really\n\n259\n00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:24.040\nneeded to hone in on the formula.\n\n260\n00:11:24.040 --> 00:11:25.760\nAnd it was really hard to do alone.\n\n261\n00:11:25.760 --> 00:11:31.130\nSo I had like an intern sort of friend come over and just sit with me and write\n\n262\n00:11:31.130 --> 00:11:31.880\ndown different\n\n263\n00:11:31.880 --> 00:11:35.280\nrecipes as we tinkered and honed in on the recipe.\n\n264\n00:11:35.280 --> 00:11:36.380\nThat was first and foremost.\n\n265\n00:11:36.380 --> 00:11:38.440\nThat was before I met with Whole Foods.\n\n266\n00:11:38.440 --> 00:11:40.240\nThat was before I did anything else.\n\n267\n00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:43.610\nI wanted to have a formula that I was like, okay, this is unique, this is\n\n268\n00:11:43.610 --> 00:11:44.280\nspecial.\n\n269\n00:11:44.280 --> 00:11:50.610\nAnd then I would also say do your homework because it's so easy nowadays with\n\n270\n00:11:50.610 --> 00:11:51.720\ntechnology\n\n271\n00:11:51.720 --> 00:11:55.360\nto understand your consumer at the very beginning.\n\n272\n00:11:55.360 --> 00:11:58.640\nI did a huge survey monkey with everyone that I knew.\n\n273\n00:11:58.640 --> 00:12:00.080\nI created a survey monkey.\n\n274\n00:12:00.080 --> 00:12:01.080\nIt was free.\n\n275\n00:12:01.080 --> 00:12:02.760\nIt didn't cost me a single dollar.\n\n276\n00:12:02.760 --> 00:12:07.230\nI sent it out to family in Ohio, to friends on the East Coast, to friends on\n\n277\n00:12:07.230 --> 00:12:08.640\nthe West Coast.\n\n278\n00:12:08.640 --> 00:12:13.640\nI wanted to understand how people were drinking and buying plant-based milk.\n\n279\n00:12:13.640 --> 00:12:14.640\nWhat did they like about it?\n\n280\n00:12:14.640 --> 00:12:15.960\nWhat did they not like about it?\n\n281\n00:12:15.960 --> 00:12:17.440\nWhat were they paying for it?\n\n282\n00:12:17.440 --> 00:12:19.920\nWere they buying flavors like vanilla or chocolate?\n\n283\n00:12:19.920 --> 00:12:20.920\nDid they just want it plain?\n\n284\n00:12:20.920 --> 00:12:23.560\nDid they want it sweetened, unsweetened?\n\n285\n00:12:23.560 --> 00:12:26.120\nFigure out what your consumers are looking for.\n\n286\n00:12:26.120 --> 00:12:30.050\nMake sure that there's a need that actually exists, but do your homework, do\n\n287\n00:12:30.050 --> 00:12:30.840\nthe research\n\n288\n00:12:30.840 --> 00:12:33.240\nand then build around that.\n\n289\n00:12:33.240 --> 00:12:36.640\nI think that's really important when you're a self-starter.\n\n290\n00:12:36.640 --> 00:12:39.160\nYou didn't have any consumer package goods experience.\n\n291\n00:12:39.160 --> 00:12:40.960\nYou've never run a company before.\n\n292\n00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:44.450\nHow have you gone about building the skills that it takes to run this business\n\n293\n00:12:44.450 --> 00:12:44.880\nthat you\n\n294\n00:12:44.880 --> 00:12:46.180\nnow have?\n\n295\n00:12:46.180 --> 00:12:51.040\nI have leaned on mentors like yourself, David.\n\n296\n00:12:51.040 --> 00:12:56.100\nDavid has been privy to more than one or two phone calls about asking for\n\n297\n00:12:56.100 --> 00:12:57.040\nadvice with\n\n298\n00:12:57.040 --> 00:13:02.280\nhow to grow a team and how to lean into the team that I do have.\n\n299\n00:13:02.280 --> 00:13:03.440\nI read a lot of books.\n\n300\n00:13:03.440 --> 00:13:06.560\nI listen to a lot of podcasts, including this one.\n\n301\n00:13:06.560 --> 00:13:10.570\nI try to learn from people who have done it before me because I haven't run a\n\n302\n00:13:10.570 --> 00:13:11.200\nbusiness\n\n303\n00:13:11.200 --> 00:13:12.800\nbefore.\n\n304\n00:13:12.800 --> 00:13:17.720\nThis is my first time managing a team and making business decisions and even we\n\n305\n00:13:17.720 --> 00:13:18.680\n're launching\n\n306\n00:13:18.680 --> 00:13:22.300\nin Albertsons in Texas, Ralphs in Southern California and Stater Brothers in\n\n307\n00:13:22.300 --> 00:13:22.840\nSouthern\n\n308\n00:13:22.840 --> 00:13:27.120\nCalifornia, three really important brands for our business.\n\n309\n00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:29.760\nI've never launched in a conventional grocery store before.\n\n310\n00:13:29.760 --> 00:13:33.040\nEven this is something completely outside of my wheelhouse.\n\n311\n00:13:33.040 --> 00:13:36.520\nI've only launched in natural grocery stores with the milk so far.\n\n312\n00:13:36.520 --> 00:13:41.490\nI am leaning on my brokers, my other advisors, and I'm saying, \"Tell me about\n\n313\n00:13:41.490 --> 00:13:42.800\nyour learnings.\n\n314\n00:13:42.800 --> 00:13:47.410\nWhat have you seen when you've launched a natural product in a conventional\n\n315\n00:13:47.410 --> 00:13:48.080\nspace?\n\n316\n00:13:48.080 --> 00:13:49.640\nWhere can I be strong?\n\n317\n00:13:49.640 --> 00:13:51.200\nWhat do we need to lean in on?\"\n\n318\n00:13:51.200 --> 00:13:54.720\nI am asking a ton of questions.\n\n319\n00:13:54.720 --> 00:13:59.390\nI always will take the opportunity to speak to somebody, especially another\n\n320\n00:13:59.390 --> 00:14:00.400\nfounder within\n\n321\n00:14:00.400 --> 00:14:04.040\nthe space, because there is always something to learn.\n\n322\n00:14:04.040 --> 00:14:06.240\nIt's not always easy because we're really busy.\n\n323\n00:14:06.240 --> 00:14:09.480\nI'm a mom, I'm pregnant, I'm running this business.\n\n324\n00:14:09.480 --> 00:14:12.120\nI've got a really small team.\n\n325\n00:14:12.120 --> 00:14:15.890\nTime is my most valuable asset right now and there is just not enough time in\n\n326\n00:14:15.890 --> 00:14:16.600\nthe day.\n\n327\n00:14:16.600 --> 00:14:18.920\nI put my son to bed, I get back on email.\n\n328\n00:14:18.920 --> 00:14:20.760\nI'm on email at 6.30 in the morning.\n\n329\n00:14:20.760 --> 00:14:25.940\nSometimes even earlier, I ask my team, but carving out that 30 or 45 minutes to\n\n330\n00:14:25.940 --> 00:14:26.320\nspeak\n\n331\n00:14:26.320 --> 00:14:30.440\nto another founder, I always find something valuable.\n\n332\n00:14:30.440 --> 00:14:33.150\nIf you don't find something valuable, it's because you're not engaged and you\n\n333\n00:14:33.150 --> 00:14:33.520\n're not\n\n334\n00:14:33.520 --> 00:14:35.320\nasking the right questions.\n\n335\n00:14:35.320 --> 00:14:39.040\nMifting gears, I'd love to hear a story about your upbringing that will tell us\n\n336\n00:14:39.040 --> 00:14:39.520\nthe most\n\n337\n00:14:39.520 --> 00:14:42.200\nabout the kind of leader that you are today.\n\n338\n00:14:42.200 --> 00:14:48.300\nAs a little girl, I used to play, I had one of those treehouses in my nothing\n\n339\n00:14:48.300 --> 00:14:49.200\nfancy, just\n\n340\n00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:54.390\na regular old treehouse that you can buy, I think, preassembled and pop in your\n\n341\n00:14:54.390 --> 00:14:55.800\nbackyard.\n\n342\n00:14:55.800 --> 00:15:00.330\nI would have these clubs and I always wanted to be the leader of the club and I\n\n343\n00:15:00.330 --> 00:15:00.920\nwould make\n\n344\n00:15:00.920 --> 00:15:05.330\nthe club rules and I would invite certain people to be in the club and they had\n\n345\n00:15:05.330 --> 00:15:06.000\nto follow the\n\n346\n00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:07.440\nrules.\n\n347\n00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:15.220\nI think for whatever reason, from this really early childhood age, I understood\n\n348\n00:15:15.220 --> 00:15:15.960\nthe idea\n\n349\n00:15:15.960 --> 00:15:23.280\nof structure and how that could be effective in any sort of setting where you\n\n350\n00:15:23.280 --> 00:15:24.640\nwanted there\n\n351\n00:15:24.640 --> 00:15:29.440\nto be rules and you wanted to have progress.\n\n352\n00:15:29.440 --> 00:15:35.770\nI remember doing that at eight, nine years old and then as I grew in school, I\n\n353\n00:15:35.770 --> 00:15:36.440\nalways\n\n354\n00:15:36.440 --> 00:15:40.760\nwelcomed the opportunity of leadership from a really young age.\n\n355\n00:15:40.760 --> 00:15:42.840\nI was class president multiple times.\n\n356\n00:15:42.840 --> 00:15:45.960\nI ended up being student body president at my high school.\n\n357\n00:15:45.960 --> 00:15:47.880\nI was captain of my volleyball team.\n\n358\n00:15:47.880 --> 00:15:53.070\nI was consistently leaning into these leadership opportunities and maybe part\n\n359\n00:15:53.070 --> 00:15:53.960\nof it is because\n\n360\n00:15:53.960 --> 00:15:58.360\nI'm a control freak, I don't know.\n\n361\n00:15:58.360 --> 00:16:04.080\nI think it also gave me really valuable opportunities to learn.\n\n362\n00:16:04.080 --> 00:16:06.760\nEven more so, I'll tell you another story, David.\n\n363\n00:16:06.760 --> 00:16:09.280\nMy parents were entrepreneurs.\n\n364\n00:16:09.280 --> 00:16:12.000\nIt was ingrained in me from early childhood.\n\n365\n00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:18.130\nWhen we moved out to California from Ocarber, Ohio, I think our population was\n\n366\n00:16:18.130 --> 00:16:18.960\nless than\n\n367\n00:16:18.960 --> 00:16:21.120\n20,000 people in Ocarber.\n\n368\n00:16:21.120 --> 00:16:22.600\nReally tiny, tiny town.\n\n369\n00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:24.520\nEverybody knew everybody.\n\n370\n00:16:24.520 --> 00:16:30.250\nMy parents somehow got the guts and the motivation to move out to California\n\n371\n00:16:30.250 --> 00:16:31.320\nwhere they knew no\n\n372\n00:16:31.320 --> 00:16:37.780\none and it was for their business and it was because they were chasing\n\n373\n00:16:37.780 --> 00:16:39.320\nopportunity.\n\n374\n00:16:39.320 --> 00:16:41.480\nI didn't know fear.\n\n375\n00:16:41.480 --> 00:16:45.160\nI saw that you take risks.\n\n376\n00:16:45.160 --> 00:16:46.640\nYou take risks.\n\n377\n00:16:46.640 --> 00:16:48.560\nYou leap and the net will appear.\n\n378\n00:16:48.560 --> 00:16:52.120\nThat was a quote that I remember seeing in my mother's office, like always\n\n379\n00:16:52.120 --> 00:16:53.080\ngrowing up.\n\n380\n00:16:53.080 --> 00:16:56.690\nShe's a best-selling author and her and my father built this incredible\n\n381\n00:16:56.690 --> 00:16:57.440\nbusiness.\n\n382\n00:16:57.440 --> 00:16:58.960\nIt wasn't easy.\n\n383\n00:16:58.960 --> 00:17:01.840\nThere were a lot of really scary ups and downs.\n\n384\n00:17:01.840 --> 00:17:07.020\nI think being privy to that as a child, seeing the ups and downs, knowing how\n\n385\n00:17:07.020 --> 00:17:08.080\nhard they were\n\n386\n00:17:08.080 --> 00:17:12.600\nalways working, but they were working from home.\n\n387\n00:17:12.600 --> 00:17:16.680\nBeing able to see that firsthand was incredibly valuable.\n\n388\n00:17:16.680 --> 00:17:21.360\nYou've also had some excellent and relevant prior business experience.\n\n389\n00:17:21.360 --> 00:17:24.160\nHow's that background helping you now?\n\n390\n00:17:24.160 --> 00:17:28.760\nI did study business at Georgetown University.\n\n391\n00:17:28.760 --> 00:17:31.800\nActually on my team call every week, we're all working remote.\n\n392\n00:17:31.800 --> 00:17:35.520\nWe even have a team member in another state and we have a weekly team call\n\n393\n00:17:35.520 --> 00:17:36.280\nearly in the\n\n394\n00:17:36.280 --> 00:17:37.440\nweek.\n\n395\n00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:42.200\nWe start out this call with a personal question and it can be anything.\n\n396\n00:17:42.200 --> 00:17:45.640\nA different person on the team chooses the topic every week.\n\n397\n00:17:45.640 --> 00:17:48.600\nMaybe it's what's your favorite flavor of ice cream?\n\n398\n00:17:48.600 --> 00:17:52.560\nIt's been a real question or what are your New Year's plans?\n\n399\n00:17:52.560 --> 00:17:58.070\nOne of the most recent questions from my new national director of sales, she\n\n400\n00:17:58.070 --> 00:17:58.760\nasked, \"Who\n\n401\n00:17:58.760 --> 00:18:04.080\nwas a teacher or professor that was really influential in your life?\"\n\n402\n00:18:04.080 --> 00:18:07.200\nIt was a great question because it took us all back.\n\n403\n00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:10.960\nWe're all thinking about these people who we haven't thought about in a while.\n\n404\n00:18:10.960 --> 00:18:14.040\nI thought about my teacher at Georgetown.\n\n405\n00:18:14.040 --> 00:18:15.040\nHe taught entrepreneurship.\n\n406\n00:18:15.040 --> 00:18:16.960\nHe was just a part-time teacher.\n\n407\n00:18:16.960 --> 00:18:18.660\nHe was doing it for fun.\n\n408\n00:18:18.660 --> 00:18:22.740\nHe would teach one class a semester on entrepreneurship.\n\n409\n00:18:22.740 --> 00:18:26.160\nI thought about him and I thought about that class and I thought about what I'm\n\n410\n00:18:26.160 --> 00:18:27.680\ndoing now.\n\n411\n00:18:27.680 --> 00:18:29.600\nIn the class, we had to make a business plan.\n\n412\n00:18:29.600 --> 00:18:32.300\nI can't even remember what my business plan was.\n\n413\n00:18:32.300 --> 00:18:33.400\nI have no idea.\n\n414\n00:18:33.400 --> 00:18:36.360\nIt definitely had nothing to do with milk.\n\n415\n00:18:36.360 --> 00:18:40.160\nI ended up reaching out to him as a result of this team call last week.\n\n416\n00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:41.600\nI sent him a note on LinkedIn.\n\n417\n00:18:41.600 --> 00:18:43.720\nI found him on LinkedIn.\n\n418\n00:18:43.720 --> 00:18:44.760\nI reached out to him.\n\n419\n00:18:44.760 --> 00:18:46.360\nI asked if he's drinking plant-based milk.\n\n420\n00:18:46.360 --> 00:18:47.360\nHe is.\n\n421\n00:18:47.360 --> 00:18:52.080\nWhat kind of milk he's drinking and I'm sending him some alibou milk.\n\n422\n00:18:52.080 --> 00:18:57.600\nEven then, even it, I must have been 20 years old when I took that class, it\n\n423\n00:18:57.600 --> 00:18:58.520\ngot my mind\n\n424\n00:18:58.520 --> 00:19:00.440\nthinking in the right way.\n\n425\n00:19:00.440 --> 00:19:02.600\nIt got me thinking differently.\n\n426\n00:19:02.600 --> 00:19:07.270\nIt got me considering that there were options outside of just the normal\n\n427\n00:19:07.270 --> 00:19:08.520\ntrajectory of getting\n\n428\n00:19:08.520 --> 00:19:12.200\na job and then working for other people, which I did do.\n\n429\n00:19:12.200 --> 00:19:15.960\nOne of my mentors who's been incredible is Padma Lakshmi.\n\n430\n00:19:15.960 --> 00:19:18.800\nShe's the host of Bravo's Top Chef.\n\n431\n00:19:18.800 --> 00:19:22.800\nShe's been incredible and I actually met her randomly at it.\n\n432\n00:19:22.800 --> 00:19:26.460\nI bumped into her physically at a store in New York City and then I backed up\n\n433\n00:19:26.460 --> 00:19:27.080\nand I realized\n\n434\n00:19:27.080 --> 00:19:30.360\nit was her and I went over to my mom and I said, \"I just bumped into Padma\n\n435\n00:19:30.360 --> 00:19:31.000\nLakshmi.\"\n\n436\n00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:33.200\nI was a huge fan.\n\n437\n00:19:33.200 --> 00:19:36.680\nI still am of Top Chef and my mom said, \"Go introduce yourself.\n\n438\n00:19:36.680 --> 00:19:38.720\nTell her that you want to work in food.\"\n\n439\n00:19:38.720 --> 00:19:40.520\nI said, \"No, no, I don't want to bother her.\n\n440\n00:19:40.520 --> 00:19:41.520\nI'm not gripping Malibu.\n\n441\n00:19:41.520 --> 00:19:42.520\nYou don't bother celebrities.\n\n442\n00:19:42.520 --> 00:19:43.960\nYou leave them alone.\"\n\n443\n00:19:43.960 --> 00:19:44.960\nBut I did.\n\n444\n00:19:44.960 --> 00:19:47.800\nI went up to her and I had these little business cards because I had a little\n\n445\n00:19:47.800 --> 00:19:48.360\nfood blog and\n\n446\n00:19:48.360 --> 00:19:53.410\nI said, \"If you have any time, I would love some advice for an aspiring food\n\n447\n00:19:53.410 --> 00:19:54.320\nperson.\"\n\n448\n00:19:54.320 --> 00:19:56.920\nShe called me a week later.\n\n449\n00:19:56.920 --> 00:19:59.120\nI remember it like it was yesterday.\n\n450\n00:19:59.120 --> 00:20:01.160\nI was driving in the car on the freeway.\n\n451\n00:20:01.160 --> 00:20:05.710\nShe called me and she said, \"My number one piece of advice for you, you need to\n\n452\n00:20:05.710 --> 00:20:06.080\ngo to\n\n453\n00:20:06.080 --> 00:20:10.000\nculinary school if you want to do anything in the food world.\"\n\n454\n00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:12.400\nI said, \"No, no, I don't want to go to culinary school.\n\n455\n00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:13.560\nI had just finished Georgetown.\n\n456\n00:20:13.560 --> 00:20:14.560\nI was done with school.\n\n457\n00:20:14.560 --> 00:20:16.720\nI was not interested in being a cook.\n\n458\n00:20:16.720 --> 00:20:18.080\nI didn't want to be in a kitchen.\n\n459\n00:20:18.080 --> 00:20:22.580\nI knew I wanted to do something with food, but something more editorial or\n\n460\n00:20:22.580 --> 00:20:23.960\nproduct development\n\n461\n00:20:23.960 --> 00:20:27.600\nwise or restaurant development wise.\"\n\n462\n00:20:27.600 --> 00:20:28.600\nShe was adamant.\n\n463\n00:20:28.600 --> 00:20:31.400\nShe said, \"This is the number one piece of advice I could give you.\n\n464\n00:20:31.400 --> 00:20:36.330\nIf you want to be able to have any authority, you need to go to culinary school\n\n465\n00:20:36.330 --> 00:20:36.400\n.\"\n\n466\n00:20:36.400 --> 00:20:40.480\nBut at the time, I had a full-time job, I quit.\n\n467\n00:20:40.480 --> 00:20:43.360\nI enrolled in culinary school a week and a half later.\n\n468\n00:20:43.360 --> 00:20:48.100\nI started in January, it must have been like 2010 or something, and I started\n\n469\n00:20:48.100 --> 00:20:48.760\nat Le Corden\n\n470\n00:20:48.760 --> 00:20:51.200\nBlue here in LA.\n\n471\n00:20:51.200 --> 00:20:54.760\nIt was one of the best pieces of advice that I was given.\n\n472\n00:20:54.760 --> 00:20:56.200\nCulinary school is hard.\n\n473\n00:20:56.200 --> 00:21:02.610\nI was on my feet eight hours a day in chef whites, but I learned the basics of\n\n474\n00:21:02.610 --> 00:21:03.760\ncooking.\n\n475\n00:21:03.760 --> 00:21:05.920\nI learned about flavors.\n\n476\n00:21:05.920 --> 00:21:08.600\nI learned about developing my palate.\n\n477\n00:21:08.600 --> 00:21:14.740\nI wouldn't have been able to pull out my blender eight years later and come up\n\n478\n00:21:14.740 --> 00:21:15.280\nwith\n\n479\n00:21:15.280 --> 00:21:20.340\nthis flax recipe and understand the way flavors worked without that culinary\n\n480\n00:21:20.340 --> 00:21:22.000\nschool experience.\n\n481\n00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:24.440\nThat's a great story.\n\n482\n00:21:24.440 --> 00:21:28.680\nYou develop this recipe from scratch, and then you've got to commercialize it.\n\n483\n00:21:28.680 --> 00:21:33.160\nTell us how you went about the process of commercializing this product.\n\n484\n00:21:33.160 --> 00:21:37.200\nI'd love to hear how you did land that Whole Foods account.\n\n485\n00:21:37.200 --> 00:21:41.960\nCommercializing your recipe is challenging because all of the ingredients that\n\n486\n00:21:41.960 --> 00:21:42.400\nyou're\n\n487\n00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:46.160\nbuying at the grocery store, they don't necessarily translate.\n\n488\n00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:51.200\nYou can't necessarily buy those wholesale in bulk.\n\n489\n00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:55.720\nIf you're looking to develop a food recipe, go to a conference.\n\n490\n00:21:55.720 --> 00:22:00.790\nGo to one of these huge conferences where all of the ingredient suppliers are\n\n491\n00:22:00.790 --> 00:22:01.400\nthere,\n\n492\n00:22:01.400 --> 00:22:02.720\nand they all give out samples.\n\n493\n00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:06.340\nYou walk the floor, and you get samples, and you're getting samples of\n\n494\n00:22:06.340 --> 00:22:07.160\ningredients that\n\n495\n00:22:07.160 --> 00:22:11.520\nyou can buy in bulk and that you can use to mass produce.\n\n496\n00:22:11.520 --> 00:22:16.560\nThat's the best way to figure out how to bring something at scale.\n\n497\n00:22:16.560 --> 00:22:20.890\nThen there's another piece of talking to a manufacturer and trying to explain\n\n498\n00:22:20.890 --> 00:22:21.280\nto them\n\n499\n00:22:21.280 --> 00:22:26.070\nwhat you were doing with your blender and how that can translate to the large-\n\n500\n00:22:26.070 --> 00:22:26.560\nscale\n\n501\n00:22:26.560 --> 00:22:31.960\nequipment that they're using for blending and pasteurization and all of that.\n\n502\n00:22:31.960 --> 00:22:33.640\nYou might need to bring in an expert.\n\n503\n00:22:33.640 --> 00:22:38.600\nThere are consultants, and some of them are crazy expensive, and some of them\n\n504\n00:22:38.600 --> 00:22:39.200\nwill rip\n\n505\n00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:44.070\nyou off, but ultimately you want to find someone, a scientist, who knows what\n\n506\n00:22:44.070 --> 00:22:44.520\nthey're\n\n507\n00:22:44.520 --> 00:22:49.520\ntalking about and can help you scale this recipe and understand the equipment.\n\n508\n00:22:49.520 --> 00:22:52.680\nI am not a scientist, so know what you don't know.\n\n509\n00:22:52.680 --> 00:22:57.840\nFind someone who knows the things that you don't know who can help you, because\n\n510\n00:22:57.840 --> 00:22:58.000\nthere's\n\n511\n00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:01.480\ncertain things where you are going to need an expert.\n\n512\n00:23:01.480 --> 00:23:05.040\nDid you ever have any quality issues with the manufacturing process?\n\n513\n00:23:05.040 --> 00:23:06.040\nYes.\n\n514\n00:23:06.040 --> 00:23:07.040\nYes.\n\n515\n00:23:07.040 --> 00:23:08.040\nTell us about that.\n\n516\n00:23:08.040 --> 00:23:11.080\nI'll tell you a really, really great story.\n\n517\n00:23:11.080 --> 00:23:17.880\nMy first production run was in December of 2018.\n\n518\n00:23:17.880 --> 00:23:20.310\nIt was supposed to be earlier, because I had already met with Whole Foods a few\n\n519\n00:23:20.310 --> 00:23:20.640\nmonths\n\n520\n00:23:20.640 --> 00:23:23.350\nearlier, they wanted the product, and they said, \"Can we get it in the next\n\n521\n00:23:23.350 --> 00:23:23.720\ncouple\n\n522\n00:23:23.720 --> 00:23:24.720\nof weeks?\"\n\n523\n00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:25.720\nI said, \"No.\n\n524\n00:23:25.720 --> 00:23:30.120\nLet me go find a manufacturer, but we can do the next couple of months.\"\n\n525\n00:23:30.120 --> 00:23:33.600\nI was supposed to have the manufacturing run in November.\n\n526\n00:23:33.600 --> 00:23:36.920\nIt just kept getting pushed back, and this is how it goes with manufacturing.\n\n527\n00:23:36.920 --> 00:23:40.400\nIt's one of the most frustrating things, especially when you're small.\n\n528\n00:23:40.400 --> 00:23:42.000\nThey walk all over you.\n\n529\n00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:45.240\nThey treat you like crap until you're one of their best customers.\n\n530\n00:23:45.240 --> 00:23:47.720\nThey kept pushing my run back, kept pushing it back.\n\n531\n00:23:47.720 --> 00:23:49.840\nFinally, I got a date.\n\n532\n00:23:49.840 --> 00:23:50.840\nThey said, \"All right.\n\n533\n00:23:50.840 --> 00:23:55.000\nWe're going to start batching your product at 9.30pm on a Tuesday.\"\n\n534\n00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:58.680\nLuckily, it was close enough that I was able to drive to the facility.\n\n535\n00:23:58.680 --> 00:24:00.520\nIt's 9.30pm.\n\n536\n00:24:00.520 --> 00:24:01.520\nI'm there.\n\n537\n00:24:01.520 --> 00:24:02.520\nI'm alone.\n\n538\n00:24:02.520 --> 00:24:03.520\nIt's dark.\n\n539\n00:24:03.520 --> 00:24:04.520\nIt's cold.\n\n540\n00:24:04.520 --> 00:24:09.840\nI'm in this huge plant trying to process this milk.\n\n541\n00:24:09.840 --> 00:24:11.560\nI have no idea what I'm doing.\n\n542\n00:24:11.560 --> 00:24:16.160\nI'm looking at things like pH and bricks, and I don't even know what they mean.\n\n543\n00:24:16.160 --> 00:24:19.080\nI'm there with their night shift, their night team.\n\n544\n00:24:19.080 --> 00:24:25.050\nI ordered everybody pizza because I wanted them to keep working and be happy\n\n545\n00:24:25.050 --> 00:24:26.200\nand full.\n\n546\n00:24:26.200 --> 00:24:28.400\nThen, we ran three flavors.\n\n547\n00:24:28.400 --> 00:24:33.120\nI had my original, which recently shifted to my slightly sweetened.\n\n548\n00:24:33.120 --> 00:24:35.600\nIt's a product you can still buy today on our website.\n\n549\n00:24:35.600 --> 00:24:38.480\nI had my unsweetened, and then I had a barista.\n\n550\n00:24:38.480 --> 00:24:42.040\nI wanted a flavor that was specifically made for coffee.\n\n551\n00:24:42.040 --> 00:24:46.880\nThat was a little sweeter, that would froth a little more.\n\n552\n00:24:46.880 --> 00:24:51.500\nThe first we ran the unsweetened, then we ran the original, which had a little\n\n553\n00:24:51.500 --> 00:24:51.880\nbit of\n\n554\n00:24:51.880 --> 00:24:53.640\nsugar.\n\n555\n00:24:53.640 --> 00:24:57.720\nWe recently shifted that to organic date sugar, so it's refined sugar-free.\n\n556\n00:24:57.720 --> 00:24:59.040\nThen we ran the barista.\n\n557\n00:24:59.040 --> 00:25:00.040\nLast.\n\n558\n00:25:00.040 --> 00:25:03.200\nAt this point, it was probably 3.30 or 4 in the morning.\n\n559\n00:25:03.200 --> 00:25:07.160\nI was exhausted, and I hadn't slept.\n\n560\n00:25:07.160 --> 00:25:08.760\nThe barista is running.\n\n561\n00:25:08.760 --> 00:25:12.950\nIt's on the equipment, and they bring out the first couple of bottles for me to\n\n562\n00:25:12.950 --> 00:25:13.560\ntaste.\n\n563\n00:25:13.560 --> 00:25:17.700\nWhen David, I kid you not, I tasted this product, and it tasted like rotten\n\n564\n00:25:17.700 --> 00:25:18.280\neggs.\n\n565\n00:25:18.280 --> 00:25:20.600\nIt smelled like rotten eggs.\n\n566\n00:25:20.600 --> 00:25:22.720\nI was just horrified.\n\n567\n00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:26.640\nI'm just like, \"Oh my God.\"\n\n568\n00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:29.530\nThey're looking at me, the quality control team, and they're like, \"Well, what\n\n569\n00:25:29.530 --> 00:25:29.760\ndo you\n\n570\n00:25:29.760 --> 00:25:31.680\nwant to do?\"\n\n571\n00:25:31.680 --> 00:25:37.320\nThey wanted to know if I wanted to keep filling it, or if I wanted to toss it.\n\n572\n00:25:37.320 --> 00:25:43.350\nIf I tossed all of the liquid that had been put in these very large tanks, at\n\n573\n00:25:43.350 --> 00:25:43.800\nleast I\n\n574\n00:25:43.800 --> 00:25:48.630\nwould save money on the bottles, because we wouldn't be using the bottles and\n\n575\n00:25:48.630 --> 00:25:49.960\nthe labels.\n\n576\n00:25:49.960 --> 00:25:51.320\nAgain, it's 4 in the morning.\n\n577\n00:25:51.320 --> 00:25:53.280\nI haven't slept.\n\n578\n00:25:53.280 --> 00:25:57.810\nI had to make this really hard decision, because we're talking about thousands\n\n579\n00:25:57.810 --> 00:25:58.800\nof dollars worth\n\n580\n00:25:58.800 --> 00:26:00.720\nof product.\n\n581\n00:26:00.720 --> 00:26:02.360\nThis is my only chance.\n\n582\n00:26:02.360 --> 00:26:05.040\nYou only get one trial run with these folks.\n\n583\n00:26:05.040 --> 00:26:10.940\nThe next run is 10 times more expensive, and you need to have 10 times more\n\n584\n00:26:10.940 --> 00:26:11.880\ngallons.\n\n585\n00:26:11.880 --> 00:26:13.400\nI decided to toss it.\n\n586\n00:26:13.400 --> 00:26:17.080\nI knew I couldn't present anybody with a milk that smelled like rotten eggs if\n\n587\n00:26:17.080 --> 00:26:17.600\nI wanted\n\n588\n00:26:17.600 --> 00:26:19.320\nto be a business for very long.\n\n589\n00:26:19.320 --> 00:26:22.200\nI told them to throw it out.\n\n590\n00:26:22.200 --> 00:26:23.680\nThat was the end of the run that day.\n\n591\n00:26:23.680 --> 00:26:26.440\nI got in my car, and I cried the whole way home.\n\n592\n00:26:26.440 --> 00:26:31.600\nI was devastated, and I thought this isn't going to work.\n\n593\n00:26:31.600 --> 00:26:37.760\nI had dumped all of this money that I had, money that I'd been saving for a\n\n594\n00:26:37.760 --> 00:26:38.600\nhouse or\n\n595\n00:26:38.600 --> 00:26:39.960\nsomething in my life.\n\n596\n00:26:39.960 --> 00:26:44.000\nI had dumped all of this money into this business.\n\n597\n00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:48.560\nHere it was for the morning, and I was just crying home sobbing.\n\n598\n00:26:48.560 --> 00:26:51.520\nI got home, and I slept.\n\n599\n00:26:51.520 --> 00:26:53.760\nI had the unsweetened and the original.\n\n600\n00:26:53.760 --> 00:26:56.840\nI remember my husband came and woke me up around 11 a.m.\n\n601\n00:26:56.840 --> 00:26:58.960\nIt's like I tasted them.\n\n602\n00:26:58.960 --> 00:26:59.960\nThey're good.\n\n603\n00:26:59.960 --> 00:27:00.960\nCome downstairs.\n\n604\n00:27:00.960 --> 00:27:02.960\nI'm no go away.\n\n605\n00:27:02.960 --> 00:27:07.880\nI was just so upset about this barista flavor.\n\n606\n00:27:07.880 --> 00:27:12.040\nI came downstairs finally, and I tried the other two flavors, and they were\n\n607\n00:27:12.040 --> 00:27:13.040\nreally good.\n\n608\n00:27:13.040 --> 00:27:15.200\nThey were really on point.\n\n609\n00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:17.840\nThen I got a call from the manufacturer.\n\n610\n00:27:17.840 --> 00:27:22.050\nTheir head scientist, who doesn't work the night shifts, was calling me to let\n\n611\n00:27:22.050 --> 00:27:22.520\nme know\n\n612\n00:27:22.520 --> 00:27:27.430\nthat the egg smell was completely normal, and it was just sulfur, and it would\n\n613\n00:27:27.430 --> 00:27:28.200\ndisappear\n\n614\n00:27:28.200 --> 00:27:30.640\nwithin two to three days.\n\n615\n00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:32.240\nEven then, I was even more devastated.\n\n616\n00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:34.080\nI didn't actually have to throw it out.\n\n617\n00:27:34.080 --> 00:27:37.360\nIt would have just gone away.\n\n618\n00:27:37.360 --> 00:27:41.200\nThe truth is, the product actually didn't froth correctly.\n\n619\n00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:43.160\nI had a couple of bottles that I had held.\n\n620\n00:27:43.160 --> 00:27:44.680\nIt wasn't frothing correctly.\n\n621\n00:27:44.680 --> 00:27:46.280\nIt wasn't where it needed to be.\n\n622\n00:27:46.280 --> 00:27:49.000\nThrowing it ended up being the right decision.\n\n623\n00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:54.490\nIt's these moments where you're at your wit's end because you're exhausted and\n\n624\n00:27:54.490 --> 00:27:55.320\nyou've spent\n\n625\n00:27:55.320 --> 00:27:59.120\nall this time and this money and you see no way out.\n\n626\n00:27:59.120 --> 00:28:02.360\nThat was a tough day, but it ended up working out.\n\n627\n00:28:02.360 --> 00:28:04.680\nYou're obviously resilient.\n\n628\n00:28:04.680 --> 00:28:08.430\nI would like to hear the story now, how you now go to Whole Foods and you sell\n\n629\n00:28:08.430 --> 00:28:08.840\nthem on\n\n630\n00:28:08.840 --> 00:28:10.840\nthis product.\n\n631\n00:28:10.840 --> 00:28:14.440\nI did get the meeting with Whole Foods about a week and a half after I asked\n\n632\n00:28:14.440 --> 00:28:15.200\nfor it, which\n\n633\n00:28:15.200 --> 00:28:16.440\nwas really fast.\n\n634\n00:28:16.440 --> 00:28:17.800\nIt's still really fast.\n\n635\n00:28:17.800 --> 00:28:21.680\nThat doesn't happen in this industry ever.\n\n636\n00:28:21.680 --> 00:28:26.590\nI panicked and I called a friend who has products in Whole Foods and I said, \"I\n\n637\n00:28:26.590 --> 00:28:27.120\nthink\n\n638\n00:28:27.120 --> 00:28:28.640\nI need to cancel this meeting.\n\n639\n00:28:28.640 --> 00:28:29.640\nI'm not ready.\n\n640\n00:28:29.640 --> 00:28:32.120\nI don't have a packaging provider.\n\n641\n00:28:32.120 --> 00:28:33.960\nI don't have a manufacturer.\n\n642\n00:28:33.960 --> 00:28:35.440\nI don't understand distribution.\n\n643\n00:28:35.440 --> 00:28:36.440\nI don't have a distributor.\n\n644\n00:28:36.440 --> 00:28:38.080\nI don't know margins.\n\n645\n00:28:38.080 --> 00:28:39.080\nI knew nothing.\"\n\n646\n00:28:39.080 --> 00:28:40.440\nHe said, \"Don't cancel the meeting.\n\n647\n00:28:40.440 --> 00:28:42.600\nYou might never get this chance again.\"\n\n648\n00:28:42.600 --> 00:28:45.840\nI do know now, if you cancel on a buyer, it might be your only shot.\n\n649\n00:28:45.840 --> 00:28:47.240\nA buyer says, \"They'll take a meeting.\n\n650\n00:28:47.240 --> 00:28:48.240\nYou may get work.\"\n\n651\n00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:49.240\nHell or high water.\n\n652\n00:28:49.240 --> 00:28:50.720\nYou figure it out.\n\n653\n00:28:50.720 --> 00:28:52.840\nI took the meeting.\n\n654\n00:28:52.840 --> 00:28:58.560\nI had mock bottles made from this mock bottling company in Texas.\n\n655\n00:28:58.560 --> 00:29:02.360\nI went in with little plastic bottle samples from my kitchen.\n\n656\n00:29:02.360 --> 00:29:05.360\nI let the buyer taste the milk.\n\n657\n00:29:05.360 --> 00:29:09.420\nWithin a few minutes, she said, \"I want this product in stores in the next\n\n658\n00:29:09.420 --> 00:29:11.560\ncouple of weeks.\"\n\n659\n00:29:11.560 --> 00:29:16.240\nIt's a moment in your life you don't ever forget.\n\n660\n00:29:16.240 --> 00:29:20.930\nIt ended up being perfect timing because I got to go into my first production\n\n661\n00:29:20.930 --> 00:29:22.240\nrun knowing\n\n662\n00:29:22.240 --> 00:29:24.240\nthat Whole Foods would be a customer.\n\n663\n00:29:24.240 --> 00:29:27.520\nUsually, you're going to produce all this product and hope to God you can sell\n\n664\n00:29:27.520 --> 00:29:27.840\nit, but\n\n665\n00:29:27.840 --> 00:29:31.520\nI already knew Whole Foods was going to buy it.\n\n666\n00:29:31.520 --> 00:29:33.320\nThat was really incredible.\n\n667\n00:29:33.320 --> 00:29:38.110\nThe product ended up launching at Whole Foods on my birthday the following year\n\n668\n00:29:38.110 --> 00:29:38.640\n, just a\n\n669\n00:29:38.640 --> 00:29:39.640\ncouple months later.\n\n670\n00:29:39.640 --> 00:29:43.520\nThe timing was really special.\n\n671\n00:29:43.520 --> 00:29:47.380\nNow, you're going into traditional grocery stores and you've got distribution\n\n672\n00:29:47.380 --> 00:29:47.720\nin New\n\n673\n00:29:47.720 --> 00:29:49.720\nYork and California.\n\n674\n00:29:49.720 --> 00:29:51.880\nYou're really starting to take off.\n\n675\n00:29:51.880 --> 00:29:54.960\nYou also created a subscriber model.\n\n676\n00:29:54.960 --> 00:29:57.720\nWhat drove that thinking and how's that doing?\n\n677\n00:29:57.720 --> 00:29:59.200\nThat's a great question.\n\n678\n00:29:59.200 --> 00:30:03.430\nOne of my lead investors had said to me, \"Well, why aren't you selling this\n\n679\n00:30:03.430 --> 00:30:04.080\nproduct\n\n680\n00:30:04.080 --> 00:30:05.080\nonline?\"\n\n681\n00:30:05.080 --> 00:30:10.680\nAt the time, all I had was refrigerated cold, heavy plastic bottles.\n\n682\n00:30:10.680 --> 00:30:11.920\nI said, \"What do you mean?\n\n683\n00:30:11.920 --> 00:30:13.440\nWhy am I not selling this online?\n\n684\n00:30:13.440 --> 00:30:15.400\nThese are impossible to ship.\n\n685\n00:30:15.400 --> 00:30:16.400\nIt's a nightmare.\n\n686\n00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:17.400\nThey need ice.\n\n687\n00:30:17.400 --> 00:30:18.400\nThey said, \"No, no.\n\n688\n00:30:18.400 --> 00:30:22.440\nI see an opportunity here to sell this online.\"\n\n689\n00:30:22.440 --> 00:30:30.030\nI went home that weekend and I set up on my little Wix website, a shopping\n\n690\n00:30:30.030 --> 00:30:31.320\nbutton.\n\n691\n00:30:31.320 --> 00:30:38.480\nI started shipping cold milks from my garage, which was a total nightmare.\n\n692\n00:30:38.480 --> 00:30:41.400\nLet me tell you, \"Oh my God, the amount of problems.\"\n\n693\n00:30:41.400 --> 00:30:45.580\nWe did it for the first few months because we needed to make sure that people\n\n694\n00:30:45.580 --> 00:30:46.480\nwere willing\n\n695\n00:30:46.480 --> 00:30:48.880\nto order flax milk online.\n\n696\n00:30:48.880 --> 00:30:52.000\nWhat's been incredible is people were willing.\n\n697\n00:30:52.000 --> 00:30:57.920\nWhat was happening is they would discover the milk locally at a grocery store,\n\n698\n00:30:57.920 --> 00:30:58.120\nmaybe\n\n699\n00:30:58.120 --> 00:30:59.960\ntheir own vacation in Southern California.\n\n700\n00:30:59.960 --> 00:31:03.760\nWe had one customer who was buying it here at Whole Foods and then he moved up\n\n701\n00:31:03.760 --> 00:31:04.640\nto Seattle.\n\n702\n00:31:04.640 --> 00:31:07.740\nHe was obsessed with the product and him and his wife make so many smoothies\n\n703\n00:31:07.740 --> 00:31:08.280\nevery morning\n\n704\n00:31:08.280 --> 00:31:11.040\nand they were going through a bottle a day.\n\n705\n00:31:11.040 --> 00:31:15.600\nHe started ordering it and ordering it and he couldn't get enough of it.\n\n706\n00:31:15.600 --> 00:31:22.720\nI figured out a way to manufacture the product with the same exact formula but\n\n707\n00:31:22.720 --> 00:31:23.480\nin a shelf\n\n708\n00:31:23.480 --> 00:31:25.800\nstable carton.\n\n709\n00:31:25.800 --> 00:31:28.080\nThe only difference is the carton.\n\n710\n00:31:28.080 --> 00:31:33.280\nWe did our first production run for that product just over a year ago.\n\n711\n00:31:33.280 --> 00:31:38.620\nNow we have a shipping partner who's at a warehouse and they ship these milks\n\n712\n00:31:38.620 --> 00:31:39.160\nall over\n\n713\n00:31:39.160 --> 00:31:40.160\nthe country.\n\n714\n00:31:40.160 --> 00:31:44.360\nWhat's really cool is a ton of customers have subscribed.\n\n715\n00:31:44.360 --> 00:31:48.600\nYou go on once, you sign up, you say, \"Okay, I want a six pack of milk to come\n\n716\n00:31:48.600 --> 00:31:50.080\nonce a month.\"\n\n717\n00:31:50.080 --> 00:31:51.480\nYou don't have to worry about it again.\n\n718\n00:31:51.480 --> 00:31:53.280\nIt arrives at your front door.\n\n719\n00:31:53.280 --> 00:31:55.320\nYou literally get to forget about it.\n\n720\n00:31:55.320 --> 00:31:59.010\nYou know that your milk will arrive once a month at your front door and it's\n\n721\n00:31:59.010 --> 00:31:59.560\nready to\n\n722\n00:31:59.560 --> 00:32:03.810\ngo and it doesn't take up a whole bunch of room in your refrigerator because\n\n723\n00:32:03.810 --> 00:32:04.280\nthese shelf\n\n724\n00:32:04.280 --> 00:32:08.800\nstable cartons you store in your pantry until you open them and then you put\n\n725\n00:32:08.800 --> 00:32:09.560\none in your\n\n726\n00:32:09.560 --> 00:32:11.280\nrefrigerator at a time.\n\n727\n00:32:11.280 --> 00:32:14.600\nPeople are loving it, we're shipping it all over the country.\n\n728\n00:32:14.600 --> 00:32:17.650\nWe get inquiries all the time if we can ship international which we're not\n\n729\n00:32:17.650 --> 00:32:18.160\ndoing quite\n\n730\n00:32:18.160 --> 00:32:23.120\nyet but there really is no other product quite like this.\n\n731\n00:32:23.120 --> 00:32:28.560\nSo people love that they can subscribe, buy it online and it's been incredible.\n\n732\n00:32:28.560 --> 00:32:32.270\nI noticed that you've just gone into these coffee brand basically where you\n\n733\n00:32:32.270 --> 00:32:33.160\nhave a flax\n\n734\n00:32:33.160 --> 00:32:38.680\nplus oat milk coffee and a flax plus oat milk matcha.\n\n735\n00:32:38.680 --> 00:32:46.320\nIt's interesting, your position these things as your digestion's new bestie.\n\n736\n00:32:46.320 --> 00:32:48.240\nDoes that mean it helps you go to the restroom?\n\n737\n00:32:48.240 --> 00:32:50.480\nIt's just exactly what it means, David.\n\n738\n00:32:50.480 --> 00:32:53.520\nNow that's a bold positioning, I've got to tell you that.\n\n739\n00:32:53.520 --> 00:32:57.480\nI don't know if anybody that has ever come up with that kind of positioning for\n\n740\n00:32:57.480 --> 00:32:58.160\na product.\n\n741\n00:32:58.160 --> 00:33:00.960\nNow what gave you the courage to do that?\n\n742\n00:33:00.960 --> 00:33:04.360\nSo my mother got another personal story here.\n\n743\n00:33:04.360 --> 00:33:10.000\nMy mother was talking to me about her bathroom struggles and she was having her\n\n744\n00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:10.760\ncoffee in\n\n745\n00:33:10.760 --> 00:33:13.860\nthe morning and adding Malibu milk and I was like add more Malibu milk, you\n\n746\n00:33:13.860 --> 00:33:14.360\nneed more\n\n747\n00:33:14.360 --> 00:33:16.200\nfiber, you need more fiber.\n\n748\n00:33:16.200 --> 00:33:19.760\nAnd I realized with talking to some friends that there's a ton of people who\n\n749\n00:33:19.760 --> 00:33:20.640\nhave digestive\n\n750\n00:33:20.640 --> 00:33:24.480\nissues that this is not an isolated problem.\n\n751\n00:33:24.480 --> 00:33:28.680\nAnd the problem is you need more fiber in your diet.\n\n752\n00:33:28.680 --> 00:33:31.290\nAnd people are having their coffee in their morning, they're trying to get\n\n753\n00:33:31.290 --> 00:33:31.880\nthings going\n\n754\n00:33:31.880 --> 00:33:35.320\nand I figured, well, let's create a Malibu milk coffee.\n\n755\n00:33:35.320 --> 00:33:38.520\nLet's load it with fiber so that it will work.\n\n756\n00:33:38.520 --> 00:33:43.790\nSo these are the number one way to go number two if they're gentle, yet\n\n757\n00:33:43.790 --> 00:33:45.080\neffective and they\n\n758\n00:33:45.080 --> 00:33:46.080\nreally work.\n\n759\n00:33:46.080 --> 00:33:50.160\nAnd they're just like, I got to ask you, you got this great brand.\n\n760\n00:33:50.160 --> 00:33:52.060\nIt's people already like the base products.\n\n761\n00:33:52.060 --> 00:33:55.730\nAnd now you're coming up with the number one brand that helps you make number\n\n762\n00:33:55.730 --> 00:33:56.080\ntwo.\n\n763\n00:33:56.080 --> 00:33:58.360\nAre you worried about people making fun of you?\n\n764\n00:33:58.360 --> 00:34:01.840\nAre you worried about it diluting the power of this great tasting brand that\n\n765\n00:34:01.840 --> 00:34:02.640\nyou've already\n\n766\n00:34:02.640 --> 00:34:03.640\ncreated?\n\n767\n00:34:03.640 --> 00:34:04.640\nNo, not at all.\n\n768\n00:34:04.640 --> 00:34:05.720\nPeople are loving it.\n\n769\n00:34:05.720 --> 00:34:09.580\nI've never gotten more laughs, smiles, people want to tell me all about their\n\n770\n00:34:09.580 --> 00:34:10.840\nbathroom routines.\n\n771\n00:34:10.840 --> 00:34:11.840\nIt's hilarious.\n\n772\n00:34:11.840 --> 00:34:14.690\nYou've got to be kidding me because I saw that and I thought this woman's crazy\n\n773\n00:34:14.690 --> 00:34:14.920\n.\n\n774\n00:34:14.920 --> 00:34:19.290\nI got to go back to marketing school because I meant the last thing I would\n\n775\n00:34:19.290 --> 00:34:20.080\nhave done when\n\n776\n00:34:20.080 --> 00:34:23.360\nI was running Pepsi and say, hey, this is the number one product that's going\n\n777\n00:34:23.360 --> 00:34:23.760\nto make\n\n778\n00:34:23.760 --> 00:34:25.320\nyou go number two.\n\n779\n00:34:25.320 --> 00:34:26.320\nYeah.\n\n780\n00:34:26.320 --> 00:34:29.800\nI thought KFC's original recipe was that.\n\n781\n00:34:29.800 --> 00:34:32.120\nOh my God, that's so funny.\n\n782\n00:34:32.120 --> 00:34:36.400\nLet me tell you, it's a different day and age in marketing, David.\n\n783\n00:34:36.400 --> 00:34:41.480\nPeople are being more bold and you got to be bold if you want to stand out.\n\n784\n00:34:41.480 --> 00:34:46.320\nYou're in the process of building a small but mighty team.\n\n785\n00:34:46.320 --> 00:34:50.800\nTell us about the most recent hire you've made and why you hired that person.\n\n786\n00:34:50.800 --> 00:34:51.800\nYes.\n\n787\n00:34:51.800 --> 00:34:54.440\nSo the most recent hire was super recent.\n\n788\n00:34:54.440 --> 00:34:57.880\nI needed a new national sales director.\n\n789\n00:34:57.880 --> 00:35:02.670\nIt's really tough when you are a young company like mine because you want\n\n790\n00:35:02.670 --> 00:35:04.760\nsomebody with experience,\n\n791\n00:35:04.760 --> 00:35:09.160\nbut somebody who has sales experience is often coming from a team where they\n\n792\n00:35:09.160 --> 00:35:10.000\nwere one of\n\n793\n00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:12.320\nfive salespeople.\n\n794\n00:35:12.320 --> 00:35:16.130\nSo you're asking them to come into this little company, take a risk for\n\n795\n00:35:16.130 --> 00:35:17.080\nthemselves and their\n\n796\n00:35:17.080 --> 00:35:22.280\nfamily and do all the work, a lot more work than they've ever done before.\n\n797\n00:35:22.280 --> 00:35:27.690\nAnd so it's a really particular sort of person who is willing to do that, who\n\n798\n00:35:27.690 --> 00:35:28.680\nis eager to\n\n799\n00:35:28.680 --> 00:35:33.560\njoin a startup and who's willing to do the amount of work it takes.\n\n800\n00:35:33.560 --> 00:35:37.000\nThe most recent sales hire is incredible.\n\n801\n00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:39.080\nShe has beverage experience.\n\n802\n00:35:39.080 --> 00:35:44.670\nShe worked at a canned beverage company before this and prior to that, coconut\n\n803\n00:35:44.670 --> 00:35:45.080\nwater.\n\n804\n00:35:45.080 --> 00:35:49.200\nAnd she's a mom and it's funny because I'm a mom.\n\n805\n00:35:49.200 --> 00:35:55.910\nI get how hard it is to balance career and family and I breastfed my son for a\n\n806\n00:35:55.910 --> 00:35:56.680\nyear.\n\n807\n00:35:56.680 --> 00:36:01.960\nAnd it's really, really hard to be a mom and to work full time.\n\n808\n00:36:01.960 --> 00:36:05.400\nAnd this woman that I hired, boy, is she on it.\n\n809\n00:36:05.400 --> 00:36:10.760\nShe has the sort of drive and ambition that I hope I have myself.\n\n810\n00:36:10.760 --> 00:36:16.690\nWe are on emails all the time, weekends, way past, kids bedtime early in the\n\n811\n00:36:16.690 --> 00:36:17.920\nmorning and\n\n812\n00:36:17.920 --> 00:36:21.040\njust constantly going after it.\n\n813\n00:36:21.040 --> 00:36:24.320\nAnd that has been an incredible addition to my team.\n\n814\n00:36:24.320 --> 00:36:29.270\nAnd I am so grateful that she has joined our team and that she is as amped up\n\n815\n00:36:29.270 --> 00:36:29.880\nabout it\n\n816\n00:36:29.880 --> 00:36:31.160\nas I am.\n\n817\n00:36:31.160 --> 00:36:35.190\nAnd the truth is for these first few employees, the opportunity is also huge\n\n818\n00:36:35.190 --> 00:36:36.000\nbecause they\n\n819\n00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:37.520\nget equity.\n\n820\n00:36:37.520 --> 00:36:42.620\nAnd if things go the way that I'm working my butt off to make sure that they do\n\n821\n00:36:42.620 --> 00:36:43.200\n, this\n\n822\n00:36:43.200 --> 00:36:46.520\nis going to be a great payday for her in the end.\n\n823\n00:36:46.520 --> 00:36:47.920\nShe'll do very, very well.\n\n824\n00:36:47.920 --> 00:36:50.440\nAnd everything that she does is so measurable.\n\n825\n00:36:50.440 --> 00:36:52.160\nThat's the other beautiful thing about a small team.\n\n826\n00:36:52.160 --> 00:36:55.210\nWhen you're in a big team, sometimes other people get credit for what you're\n\n827\n00:36:55.210 --> 00:36:55.840\ndoing and\n\n828\n00:36:55.840 --> 00:36:58.000\nit's hard to know really who did what.\n\n829\n00:36:58.000 --> 00:36:59.320\nThat's not happening at Malibu Mill.\n\n830\n00:36:59.320 --> 00:37:00.760\nIt's like, we know exactly what you're doing.\n\n831\n00:37:00.760 --> 00:37:04.080\nWe know if you're hustling and everybody on my team is hustling.\n\n832\n00:37:04.080 --> 00:37:09.480\nAnd because we're all working so hard together, there's no task too small.\n\n833\n00:37:09.480 --> 00:37:12.480\nWhen we started shipping milks out of my garage, I was shipping them.\n\n834\n00:37:12.480 --> 00:37:16.800\nI was boxing them up, loading them in my car, driving them to FedEx.\n\n835\n00:37:16.800 --> 00:37:18.360\nThere is no task too small.\n\n836\n00:37:18.360 --> 00:37:23.040\nThere was a point when my milks, there was something on the label that had been\n\n837\n00:37:23.040 --> 00:37:23.800\nmisprinted.\n\n838\n00:37:23.800 --> 00:37:27.430\nI had to go down to our distributor's warehouse at three in the morning with a\n\n839\n00:37:27.430 --> 00:37:28.240\nlabel gun and\n\n840\n00:37:28.240 --> 00:37:29.960\nlabel 3,000 bottles of milk.\n\n841\n00:37:29.960 --> 00:37:31.360\nI did that myself.\n\n842\n00:37:31.360 --> 00:37:33.800\nThere is no task too small.\n\n843\n00:37:33.800 --> 00:37:37.050\nAnd you need to be willing to own that and show your team that if you want them\n\n844\n00:37:37.050 --> 00:37:37.600\nto behave\n\n845\n00:37:37.600 --> 00:37:38.600\nthat way as well.\n\n846\n00:37:38.600 --> 00:37:42.290\nAnd so you really jumped into this business without having a whole lot of\n\n847\n00:37:42.290 --> 00:37:43.000\nexperience\n\n848\n00:37:43.000 --> 00:37:44.840\nin managing people.\n\n849\n00:37:44.840 --> 00:37:46.920\nWhat are you learning about yourself as a leader?\n\n850\n00:37:46.920 --> 00:37:48.960\nBecause you have to lead your team.\n\n851\n00:37:48.960 --> 00:37:51.120\nYou also have to lead your broker network.\n\n852\n00:37:51.120 --> 00:37:53.600\nYou have a big leadership job.\n\n853\n00:37:53.600 --> 00:37:54.600\nI do.\n\n854\n00:37:54.600 --> 00:37:57.960\nAgain, I think it goes like lean on your network.\n\n855\n00:37:57.960 --> 00:37:59.480\nLearn from your network.\n\n856\n00:37:59.480 --> 00:38:00.480\nRead.\n\n857\n00:38:00.480 --> 00:38:03.080\nI know there is not always a lot of time to read, especially when you are a\n\n858\n00:38:03.080 --> 00:38:03.640\nbusy founder\n\n859\n00:38:03.640 --> 00:38:04.640\nand a parent.\n\n860\n00:38:04.640 --> 00:38:08.320\nWe have all got our long list of things that we are doing.\n\n861\n00:38:08.320 --> 00:38:09.960\nBut it is the constant learning.\n\n862\n00:38:09.960 --> 00:38:11.760\nI am constantly learning.\n\n863\n00:38:11.760 --> 00:38:15.560\nThe phone calls I have had with you and the advice you have given me.\n\n864\n00:38:15.560 --> 00:38:17.240\nInvaluable advice.\n\n865\n00:38:17.240 --> 00:38:20.240\nAnd it is about being willing to ask.\n\n866\n00:38:20.240 --> 00:38:28.060\nBecause a lot of us have access to smart people who have built something, even\n\n867\n00:38:28.060 --> 00:38:28.840\nif it is not\n\n868\n00:38:28.840 --> 00:38:30.520\nexactly what we are trying to build.\n\n869\n00:38:30.520 --> 00:38:32.360\nThey have built a team.\n\n870\n00:38:32.360 --> 00:38:33.440\nReach out and ask.\n\n871\n00:38:33.440 --> 00:38:36.880\nAnd maybe you will get a no or maybe they will not make the time.\n\n872\n00:38:36.880 --> 00:38:41.920\nBut even if you get a yes one out of ten times, it is worth the ask.\n\n873\n00:38:41.920 --> 00:38:42.920\nAbsolutely.\n\n874\n00:38:42.920 --> 00:38:47.230\nIt is so important to create a work environment where people really feel valued\n\n875\n00:38:47.230 --> 00:38:47.320\n.\n\n876\n00:38:47.320 --> 00:38:51.010\nHave you articulated what kind of culture you want to have and your team on\n\n877\n00:38:51.010 --> 00:38:51.600\nboard?\n\n878\n00:38:51.600 --> 00:38:54.120\nOr is it just by the fly?\n\n879\n00:38:54.120 --> 00:38:57.000\nI would say it is somewhere in the middle.\n\n880\n00:38:57.000 --> 00:39:04.440\nLast year we set out a list of brand and team ethos that we wanted to guide the\n\n881\n00:39:04.440 --> 00:39:05.280\nteam and\n\n882\n00:39:05.280 --> 00:39:06.840\nguide the year ahead.\n\n883\n00:39:06.840 --> 00:39:11.540\nWhat is really fun about doing it this way with a small team is everybody on my\n\n884\n00:39:11.540 --> 00:39:11.920\nteam\n\n885\n00:39:11.920 --> 00:39:15.400\ngets to choose something that they want to be a part of this.\n\n886\n00:39:15.400 --> 00:39:17.840\nSo I am not sitting there high in my D.O.\n\n887\n00:39:17.840 --> 00:39:18.840\nI am the founder.\n\n888\n00:39:18.840 --> 00:39:21.760\nLet me choose these seven things or five things.\n\n889\n00:39:21.760 --> 00:39:25.080\nI am reaching out to my team and saying okay we are having this call.\n\n890\n00:39:25.080 --> 00:39:29.620\nWe are going to talk about our brand ethos and our goals, who we want to be and\n\n891\n00:39:29.620 --> 00:39:30.320\nthe culture\n\n892\n00:39:30.320 --> 00:39:32.680\nthat we want going forward.\n\n893\n00:39:32.680 --> 00:39:34.200\nAnd they all get to contribute.\n\n894\n00:39:34.200 --> 00:39:39.810\nAnd it is such a beautiful thing because some of their ideas are so helpful and\n\n895\n00:39:39.810 --> 00:39:41.040\nso inspirational\n\n896\n00:39:41.040 --> 00:39:43.440\nand they are different than the ones that I had.\n\n897\n00:39:43.440 --> 00:39:46.320\nOne of my top ones was no task too small.\n\n898\n00:39:46.320 --> 00:39:49.770\nEvery single person on my team when they go into a grocery store, if the milk\n\n899\n00:39:49.770 --> 00:39:50.080\nis not\n\n900\n00:39:50.080 --> 00:39:54.560\nproper on the shelf, if it is missing, if the tags are wrong, I want all of us\n\n901\n00:39:54.560 --> 00:39:55.040\nto stop\n\n902\n00:39:55.040 --> 00:39:58.920\nand go back, ask for the dairy buyer and fix it.\n\n903\n00:39:58.920 --> 00:40:01.240\nAnyone on the team at all times.\n\n904\n00:40:01.240 --> 00:40:03.570\nLet me tell you, it is not always easy to do, especially if you are shopping\n\n905\n00:40:03.570 --> 00:40:04.320\nwith a toddler\n\n906\n00:40:04.320 --> 00:40:07.080\nand you have all your stuff for the week in the cart.\n\n907\n00:40:07.080 --> 00:40:11.280\nBut that is really important and I think everybody on the team lives that\n\n908\n00:40:11.280 --> 00:40:11.960\nbelief and\n\n909\n00:40:11.960 --> 00:40:13.920\nit is really powerful.\n\n910\n00:40:13.920 --> 00:40:17.610\nYou obviously are really smart and you are really passionate, purposeful in\n\n911\n00:40:17.610 --> 00:40:18.000\nterms of\n\n912\n00:40:18.000 --> 00:40:19.000\nthe brand you are building.\n\n913\n00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:24.760\nShare a story of how you make sure that you get healthy debate to make healthy\n\n914\n00:40:24.760 --> 00:40:25.680\ndecisions\n\n915\n00:40:25.680 --> 00:40:29.640\nbecause I can see you being like, hey, we have to get it done this way now.\n\n916\n00:40:29.640 --> 00:40:32.000\nYeah, it is such a good point.\n\n917\n00:40:32.000 --> 00:40:35.920\nI guess you would call me type A, strong personality.\n\n918\n00:40:35.920 --> 00:40:41.280\nI think it is who you hire and letting them know that their voice matters.\n\n919\n00:40:41.280 --> 00:40:43.720\nEvery voice on my team matters.\n\n920\n00:40:43.720 --> 00:40:46.080\nIf I wanted to do it alone, I would be doing it alone.\n\n921\n00:40:46.080 --> 00:40:47.080\nI do not want to do it alone.\n\n922\n00:40:47.080 --> 00:40:51.410\nI started alone and let me tell you, it is very lonely and it is totally\n\n923\n00:40:51.410 --> 00:40:52.480\noverwhelming.\n\n924\n00:40:52.480 --> 00:40:55.640\nTwo heads are better than one, three heads are better than two.\n\n925\n00:40:55.640 --> 00:40:57.160\nI let my team know that.\n\n926\n00:40:57.160 --> 00:40:58.160\nWe do have debates.\n\n927\n00:40:58.160 --> 00:41:01.960\nI will tell you a story, David, about a debate we had in the last six months.\n\n928\n00:41:01.960 --> 00:41:06.520\nWe were using vanilla flavor in our vanilla milk.\n\n929\n00:41:06.520 --> 00:41:11.160\nVanilla flavor is one of those things that can get a bad rap because natural\n\n930\n00:41:11.160 --> 00:41:11.880\nflavors,\n\n931\n00:41:11.880 --> 00:41:15.640\neven though they are called natural, are not necessarily natural.\n\n932\n00:41:15.640 --> 00:41:19.110\nThey can be derived from animals, they can be derived from a whole bunch of\n\n933\n00:41:19.110 --> 00:41:19.720\ndifferent\n\n934\n00:41:19.720 --> 00:41:22.760\nthings, but they taste really good.\n\n935\n00:41:22.760 --> 00:41:27.160\nThey can give you the essence of sweetness without any added calories.\n\n936\n00:41:27.160 --> 00:41:30.840\nIf you are sourcing them correctly, you can source them organically, you can\n\n937\n00:41:30.840 --> 00:41:31.160\nuse all\n\n938\n00:41:31.160 --> 00:41:33.040\nvegan natural flavors.\n\n939\n00:41:33.040 --> 00:41:37.100\nWe were using a vegan organic natural vanilla flavor in our vanilla milk and it\n\n940\n00:41:37.100 --> 00:41:38.320\ntasted great\n\n941\n00:41:38.320 --> 00:41:40.880\nand it was affordable.\n\n942\n00:41:40.880 --> 00:41:44.960\nMy head of operations came to me and they said, \"I really think we need to\n\n943\n00:41:44.960 --> 00:41:46.760\nswitch to organic\n\n944\n00:41:46.760 --> 00:41:49.840\nvanilla extract.\"\n\n945\n00:41:49.840 --> 00:41:53.000\nIt is his job to cut our costs.\n\n946\n00:41:53.000 --> 00:41:54.000\nHe is head of ops.\n\n947\n00:41:54.000 --> 00:41:59.800\nIt is his job to make our costs go down and help improve our margins.\n\n948\n00:41:59.800 --> 00:42:04.370\nHere he was coming to me saying he wanted to swap one of our ingredients on our\n\n949\n00:42:04.370 --> 00:42:05.040\nbest-selling\n\n950\n00:42:05.040 --> 00:42:09.040\nproduct to a much more expensive ingredient.\n\n951\n00:42:09.040 --> 00:42:12.440\nVanilla extract costs more than silver by the pound.\n\n952\n00:42:12.440 --> 00:42:14.600\nIt is so expensive.\n\n953\n00:42:14.600 --> 00:42:16.080\nI thought he was out of his mind.\n\n954\n00:42:16.080 --> 00:42:21.120\nI really thought he was out of his mind, but he presented his case and then we\n\n955\n00:42:21.120 --> 00:42:21.640\nwent to\n\n956\n00:42:21.640 --> 00:42:23.840\nthe board and discussed.\n\n957\n00:42:23.840 --> 00:42:26.560\nAt first, I was really adamant against doing this change.\n\n958\n00:42:26.560 --> 00:42:33.060\nI just didn't see it being the best choice from a cost standpoint, from a taste\n\n959\n00:42:33.060 --> 00:42:34.720\nstandpoint,\n\n960\n00:42:34.720 --> 00:42:40.930\nand ultimately he convinced me and we ended up going with organic vanilla\n\n961\n00:42:40.930 --> 00:42:42.040\nextract.\n\n962\n00:42:42.040 --> 00:42:48.360\nThe reason being is because at Malibu milk, we are all about transparency.\n\n963\n00:42:48.360 --> 00:42:49.480\nI am a mom.\n\n964\n00:42:49.480 --> 00:42:51.080\nI am pregnant again.\n\n965\n00:42:51.080 --> 00:42:52.880\nI was a nursing mom.\n\n966\n00:42:52.880 --> 00:42:56.930\nI will be a nursing pregnant or I guess a nursing non-pregnant mom in the near\n\n967\n00:42:56.930 --> 00:42:57.760\nto immediate\n\n968\n00:42:57.760 --> 00:42:58.760\nfuture.\n\n969\n00:42:58.760 --> 00:43:05.280\nWe are incredibly concerned with the quality of ingredients that we are using.\n\n970\n00:43:05.280 --> 00:43:10.280\nWe want our customers to be able to trust us without any questions, without any\n\n971\n00:43:10.280 --> 00:43:11.360\nhesitation.\n\n972\n00:43:11.360 --> 00:43:14.880\nNatural flavors give some people pause.\n\n973\n00:43:14.880 --> 00:43:19.070\nWe wanted to eliminate any pause that anyone would have for any reason with Mal\n\n974\n00:43:19.070 --> 00:43:19.880\nibu milk.\n\n975\n00:43:19.880 --> 00:43:23.920\nWe switched from natural flavors to organic vanilla extract.\n\n976\n00:43:23.920 --> 00:43:26.840\nIt is the right decision because of who we are as a brand.\n\n977\n00:43:26.840 --> 00:43:29.240\nWe should tell that story on your website.\n\n978\n00:43:29.240 --> 00:43:33.320\nThat is how we make decisions at Malibu milk.\n\n979\n00:43:33.320 --> 00:43:34.800\nThis has been so much fun.\n\n980\n00:43:34.800 --> 00:43:36.080\nI want to have a little bit more fun.\n\n981\n00:43:36.080 --> 00:43:38.720\nI always do a lightning round of Q&A.\n\n982\n00:43:38.720 --> 00:43:40.800\nAre you ready for this?\n\n983\n00:43:40.800 --> 00:43:43.840\nThe one word to best describe you.\n\n984\n00:43:43.840 --> 00:43:45.340\nDriven.\n\n985\n00:43:45.340 --> 00:43:50.240\nIf you could trade places with one person for a day, who would it be and why?\n\n986\n00:43:50.240 --> 00:43:51.240\nOprah.\n\n987\n00:43:51.240 --> 00:43:56.760\nI would love to just be within her mind.\n\n988\n00:43:56.760 --> 00:43:58.560\nShe has built a so incredible.\n\n989\n00:43:58.560 --> 00:44:00.480\nI would like to see how she did that.\n\n990\n00:44:00.480 --> 00:44:04.880\nWhat is something about you that few people would know, Brittany?\n\n991\n00:44:04.880 --> 00:44:09.360\nI bungee jumped off the second highest building in the world in Macau, China\n\n992\n00:44:09.360 --> 00:44:10.960\nwhen I was 18\n\n993\n00:44:10.960 --> 00:44:12.960\nyears old.\n\n994\n00:44:12.960 --> 00:44:13.960\nI am into Macau.\n\n995\n00:44:13.960 --> 00:44:16.560\nI think I know what building you are talking about.\n\n996\n00:44:16.560 --> 00:44:19.360\nYou have any hidden talents?\n\n997\n00:44:19.360 --> 00:44:22.640\nI am an epic skier.\n\n998\n00:44:22.640 --> 00:44:26.490\nIf you could get advice from one leader to help you grow your business, who\n\n999\n00:44:26.490 --> 00:44:26.760\nwould it\n\n1000\n00:44:26.760 --> 00:44:31.520\nbe and why?\n\n1001\n00:44:31.520 --> 00:44:35.030\nMaybe somebody at a big dairy company, CEO of a big dairy company, I would love\n\n1002\n00:44:35.030 --> 00:44:35.920\nto see\n\n1003\n00:44:35.920 --> 00:44:42.080\nwhat they are doing and how they are adjusting to declining dairy sales.\n\n1004\n00:44:42.080 --> 00:44:46.320\nWhat is your favorite Malibu product?\n\n1005\n00:44:46.320 --> 00:44:50.160\nIt changes all the time, but right now I am really excited about our slightly\n\n1006\n00:44:50.160 --> 00:44:50.920\nsweetened,\n\n1007\n00:44:50.920 --> 00:44:54.700\nwhich again just has a little bit of date sugar, so no refined sugar, super low\n\n1008\n00:44:54.700 --> 00:44:55.880\nin calories,\n\n1009\n00:44:55.880 --> 00:44:59.760\nbut it is a little sweet and it is phenomenal in every fabulous product.\n\n1010\n00:44:59.760 --> 00:45:01.200\nI will vouch for that myself.\n\n1011\n00:45:01.200 --> 00:45:02.200\nThat is fantastic.\n\n1012\n00:45:02.200 --> 00:45:05.280\nA couple more questions and we are going to wrap this up here.\n\n1013\n00:45:05.280 --> 00:45:09.270\nYou had one child about a year and a half ago and now you are pregnant with a\n\n1014\n00:45:09.270 --> 00:45:09.960\nsecond.\n\n1015\n00:45:09.960 --> 00:45:13.440\nHow do you just grasp with all of this that is ahead of you?\n\n1016\n00:45:13.440 --> 00:45:15.920\nThat is just so many different demands.\n\n1017\n00:45:15.920 --> 00:45:18.840\nIt is a really hard thing.\n\n1018\n00:45:18.840 --> 00:45:23.960\nI have a therapist that I see via Zoom once a week.\n\n1019\n00:45:23.960 --> 00:45:25.680\nI think that is really important.\n\n1020\n00:45:25.680 --> 00:45:27.400\nI walk every day.\n\n1021\n00:45:27.400 --> 00:45:31.240\nI try to get three miles in a day to clear my head.\n\n1022\n00:45:31.240 --> 00:45:35.960\nI go to bed at 9 p.m. every night because I need the sleep.\n\n1023\n00:45:35.960 --> 00:45:38.880\nI eat pretty healthy and I take care of myself.\n\n1024\n00:45:38.880 --> 00:45:42.850\nI think there are certain things that give when you are in the stage of life\n\n1025\n00:45:42.850 --> 00:45:43.400\nthat I am\n\n1026\n00:45:43.400 --> 00:45:46.720\nin and working like that and have young children.\n\n1027\n00:45:46.720 --> 00:45:50.120\nFor my husband and I, we are both founders and we are both working this hard.\n\n1028\n00:45:50.120 --> 00:45:51.120\nIt is our social life.\n\n1029\n00:45:51.120 --> 00:45:52.600\nThere is no social life anymore.\n\n1030\n00:45:52.600 --> 00:45:54.240\nIt is out the window.\n\n1031\n00:45:54.240 --> 00:45:56.960\nIs your husband as he started his own company as well?\n\n1032\n00:45:56.960 --> 00:45:58.600\nHe started his own company before me.\n\n1033\n00:45:58.600 --> 00:45:59.800\nHe has a tech company.\n\n1034\n00:45:59.800 --> 00:46:00.880\nSo you are both founders.\n\n1035\n00:46:00.880 --> 00:46:01.880\nWhat is that like?\n\n1036\n00:46:01.880 --> 00:46:02.880\nAlso hard.\n\n1037\n00:46:02.880 --> 00:46:03.880\nBut you know what?\n\n1038\n00:46:03.880 --> 00:46:09.760\nIt is actually really nice because in my darkest hours when I have moments that\n\n1039\n00:46:09.760 --> 00:46:09.760\nare\n\n1040\n00:46:09.760 --> 00:46:14.120\nreally tough and I had a tough moment a couple of weeks ago where I was upset\n\n1041\n00:46:14.120 --> 00:46:14.600\nabout something\n\n1042\n00:46:14.600 --> 00:46:17.880\nwith the business and I was emotional, really emotional.\n\n1043\n00:46:17.880 --> 00:46:22.580\nHe is able to give me business advice and he knows how hard it is and he knows\n\n1044\n00:46:22.580 --> 00:46:23.040\nwhat\n\n1045\n00:46:23.040 --> 00:46:26.190\nit is like to fundraise and he knows what it is like to build something from\n\n1046\n00:46:26.190 --> 00:46:26.640\nthe ground\n\n1047\n00:46:26.640 --> 00:46:27.640\nup.\n\n1048\n00:46:27.640 --> 00:46:33.350\nSo he is my best friend and I am able to give me more relevant advice than\n\n1049\n00:46:33.350 --> 00:46:34.320\nalmost anyone\n\n1050\n00:46:34.320 --> 00:46:36.360\nelse in my life because he is right there with me.\n\n1051\n00:46:36.360 --> 00:46:39.480\nHe is a few steps ahead of me because he has been doing it a little longer.\n\n1052\n00:46:39.480 --> 00:46:40.840\nHe is doing something different.\n\n1053\n00:46:40.840 --> 00:46:41.840\nIt is tech.\n\n1054\n00:46:41.840 --> 00:46:45.760\nBut in a lot of ways I am really grateful for his help and support.\n\n1055\n00:46:45.760 --> 00:46:46.760\nAbsolutely.\n\n1056\n00:46:46.760 --> 00:46:51.560\nIf you could give leaders and entrepreneurs just one bit of advice, one thing\n\n1057\n00:46:51.560 --> 00:46:51.920\nbased on\n\n1058\n00:46:51.920 --> 00:46:55.160\nyour journey so far, what would it be?\n\n1059\n00:46:55.160 --> 00:46:57.120\nListen, you are going, going, going.\n\n1060\n00:46:57.120 --> 00:46:58.120\nYou are so fast.\n\n1061\n00:46:58.120 --> 00:46:59.120\nYou have your own ideas.\n\n1062\n00:46:59.120 --> 00:47:01.320\nYou have your vision to stop and listen.\n\n1063\n00:47:01.320 --> 00:47:03.320\nListen to your team.\n\n1064\n00:47:03.320 --> 00:47:04.760\nListen to your mentors.\n\n1065\n00:47:04.760 --> 00:47:08.080\nListen to other people within the space.\n\n1066\n00:47:08.080 --> 00:47:09.080\nStop and really listen.\n\n1067\n00:47:09.080 --> 00:47:11.120\nOtherwise you are going to miss something.\n\n1068\n00:47:11.120 --> 00:47:13.120\nBrittany, you are not going to miss much.\n\n1069\n00:47:13.120 --> 00:47:14.120\nYou are on top of your game.\n\n1070\n00:47:14.120 --> 00:47:16.200\nYou are doing a great job.\n\n1071\n00:47:16.200 --> 00:47:19.400\nCongratulations on all the success you have had.\n\n1072\n00:47:19.400 --> 00:47:24.170\nMalibu milk is on its way to national distribution and big time fame just like\n\n1073\n00:47:24.170 --> 00:47:24.680\nyou.\n\n1074\n00:47:24.680 --> 00:47:26.560\nSo thank you very much.\n\n1075\n00:47:26.560 --> 00:47:27.560\nThank you David.\n\n1076\n00:47:27.560 --> 00:47:29.480\nI really appreciate it.\n\n1077\n00:47:29.480 --> 00:47:41.270\nWell, it is crystal clear that Brittany is 1000% passionate about making Malibu\n\n1078\n00:47:41.270 --> 00:47:41.960\nmilk\n\n1079\n00:47:41.960 --> 00:47:43.640\na success.\n\n1080\n00:47:43.640 --> 00:47:48.160\nAnd I feel the same way about David Novak leadership and how leaders lead.\n\n1081\n00:47:48.160 --> 00:47:52.100\nWe have really applied a startup mindset because that business has basically\n\n1082\n00:47:52.100 --> 00:47:53.440\nbeen a startup.\n\n1083\n00:47:53.440 --> 00:47:57.060\nI am just as passionate as she is about making the world a better place by\n\n1084\n00:47:57.060 --> 00:47:58.200\ndeveloping better\n\n1085\n00:47:58.200 --> 00:47:59.200\nleaders.\n\n1086\n00:47:59.200 --> 00:48:03.800\nBut I also applied a startup mindset to a very established business.\n\n1087\n00:48:03.800 --> 00:48:08.960\nIn 1997, PepsiCo spun off its restaurant brands, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC.\n\n1088\n00:48:08.960 --> 00:48:11.520\nNow these brands have been around for decades.\n\n1089\n00:48:11.520 --> 00:48:15.330\nBut I brought the team together and said, look, we are starting a brand new\n\n1090\n00:48:15.330 --> 00:48:16.040\ncompany.\n\n1091\n00:48:16.040 --> 00:48:20.170\nWe have these brands that have tremendous equities, but let's treat them like\n\n1092\n00:48:20.170 --> 00:48:20.440\nthey are\n\n1093\n00:48:20.440 --> 00:48:21.600\nbrand new.\n\n1094\n00:48:21.600 --> 00:48:23.360\nWhat if this was a startup?\n\n1095\n00:48:23.360 --> 00:48:28.520\nHow would we really launch Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC all over again?\n\n1096\n00:48:28.520 --> 00:48:32.720\nAnd we looked at this business with a fresh set of eyes and we uncovered all\n\n1097\n00:48:32.720 --> 00:48:33.280\nkinds of\n\n1098\n00:48:33.280 --> 00:48:34.600\nopportunity.\n\n1099\n00:48:34.600 --> 00:48:39.750\nAnd I have to tell you, thinking like an entrepreneur, thinking like a founder\n\n1100\n00:48:39.750 --> 00:48:40.960\nreally, really was\n\n1101\n00:48:40.960 --> 00:48:45.000\npowerful in terms of unlocking the potential we had in brands who had been\n\n1102\n00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:47.040\naround for years.\n\n1103\n00:48:47.040 --> 00:48:50.730\nSo let me ask you, are you thinking about your business like an entrepreneur\n\n1104\n00:48:50.730 --> 00:48:51.320\nwould?\n\n1105\n00:48:51.320 --> 00:48:56.600\nThe energy and the passion that self-starter approach to your work.\n\n1106\n00:48:56.600 --> 00:49:00.080\nLet's bring some of that back into your life this week.\n\n1107\n00:49:00.080 --> 00:49:03.560\nThis is important because your mindset and how you approach your work\n\n1108\n00:49:03.560 --> 00:49:04.840\nsignificantly impacts\n\n1109\n00:49:04.840 --> 00:49:06.080\nyour business.\n\n1110\n00:49:06.080 --> 00:49:08.160\nSo do you want to know how leaders lead?\n\n1111\n00:49:08.160 --> 00:49:13.000\nWhat we learned today is that great leaders never lose the startup mindset.\n\n1112\n00:49:13.000 --> 00:49:16.620\nThanks again for tuning in to another episode of How Leaders Lead where every\n\n1113\n00:49:16.620 --> 00:49:17.360\nThursday you\n\n1114\n00:49:17.360 --> 00:49:21.360\nget to listen in while I interview some of the best leaders in the world.\n\n1115\n00:49:21.360 --> 00:49:25.250\nI make it a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can\n\n1116\n00:49:25.250 --> 00:49:26.080\napply to your\n\n1117\n00:49:26.080 --> 00:49:30.080\nbusiness so that you will become the best leader you can be.\n\n1118\n00:49:30.080 --> 00:49:30.960\nSee you next week.\n\n1119\n00:49:30.960 --> 00:49:40.960\n[BLANK_AUDIO]\n\n1120\n00:49:40.960 --> 00:49:52.960\n[ Silence ]","

David Novak 0:03

Welcome to How leaders lead where every week you get to listen in while I interview some of the best leaders in the world, I break down the key learning so that by the end of the episode, you'll have something simple that you can apply as you develop into a better leader. That's what this podcast is all about. Today's guest is Brittany Hughes, the founder and CEO of Malibu milk. building something from scratch is not easy. Whoever leads the business and the mindset they approach their work with is a key ingredient in the success of a company. And in my conversation with Brittany, you're about to see a unique mindset on full display as she tells the story of launching Malibu milk. Brittany has what I call a startup mindset. And what I mean by that is she's absolutely passionate about what she's created. She's going to make sure that it is a success, and she's willing to do everything it takes to make it happen. I'm telling you, this startup mindset is a real asset to any leader, regardless if they're an actual startup or running an established business. You see, the great leaders, I know, the ones who help businesses thrive, they never lose the startup mindset. There's a lot for us to learn from this founder story. And I'm excited for you to listen in. Here's my conversation with my good friend, and soon to be yours. Brittany fuse, the founder and CEO of Malibu milk.

You know, Brittany, you've literally built the Malibu milk brand from scratch. Tell us about the brand and what inspired you to create it?

Brittany Fuisz 1:44

Yeah, Malibu milk is the world's tastiest healthiest plant based milk. It's made from the whole ground organic flax seed. I really started this journey a few years ago, about three years ago. And it was connected to me trying to get pregnant, I was struggling to get pregnant Like many young couples do. And I went to see a doctor here in LA, a fertility doctor. And she recommended I take a really hard look at my diet and take a really hard look at the things I was consuming. And she ended up recommending an autoimmune protocol, an elimination diet where I had to eliminate all major allergens, so dairy, nuts, gluten soy. And you can imagine when you've eliminated dairy nuts and soy, you've wiped out the entire milk aisle, both traditional cow's milk and plant based milk. So I was pretty discouraged and frustrated. And I was looking for an allergen free, really healthy option, because when you're trying to get pregnant, I think it's one of those times in your life when you're all of a sudden hyper aware of what you're consuming, because you're going to be building another human being. And I was literally driving in the car one day, and I had this kind of light bulb moment. And I thought, what if I make milk fruit, flaxseed. I've always loved flaxseed, I would add it to smoothies or oatmeal, constantly looking for ways to get more fiber and omega threes into my diet. So I went home that day, I pulled out my blender. And I have a pretty good understanding of cooking because I went to culinary school several years ago. And I started playing with a few really simple ingredients, flaxseed, Himalayan salts, a little bit of organic vanilla extract. And I was getting this incredibly creamy milk, because flaxseed is a natural emulsifier. And so at that point, I was I was really excited. And I think I did what any aspiring entrepreneur would do. I reached out to Whole Foods to the local buyer here in Southern Cal Oh, come

David Novak 3:48

on, you know, just create a product. I'm going to call Whole Foods now and get distribution. I mean, come on, give me a break

Brittany Fuisz 3:54

today. But I did you know what they say David, they say ignorance is bliss. So I didn't know all of the stuff that I didn't know about CPG and margins and pricing and, and I figured it would take you know, six to eight months to get on this person's calendar. And I could figure all of that other stuff out.

David Novak 4:13

I want to ask you about that later because I want to come back at your first account. But how'd you I love your brand name Malibu milk. It sounds that's that's cool. How do you come up with that?

Brittany Fuisz 4:22

So I grew up in Malibu. I was actually born in Ohio. So I have nice Midwestern roots, I like to say but my parents were entrepreneurs. They moved out to California when I was about seven for their business. And we went from if you can believe it, a little tiny town in Oak Harbor, Ohio, to Malibu, California. And so I had the good fortune of being from seven to 18 and Malibu. It was a wonderful place to grow up. And I loved the alliteration of Malibu and milk and Malibu. It's such a health conscious place. You know, a lot of my friends were coming to school with us homemade breads and produce from their parents gardens. And so, you know, that's where I really learned about health and wellness was when we moved to Malibu and so it just seemed fitting for this organic flaxmill.

David Novak 5:13

I love that name. It's great. It makes a lot of sense, obviously, you know, you know, I grew up drinking whole milk, like, you know, most people in my generation. And now all you'll find in my fridge is silk, almond milk, what's going on in the milk category. And you talked a little bit about how you're differentiating yourself, but tell us about the dynamics of the milk category itself.

Brittany Fuisz 5:32

So the milk category right now is really interesting, because the dairy milk industry is valued at $800 billion to huge number, right, but it's actually shrinking. So the amount of people consuming cow's milk has declined drastically, like 40% per capita since 1975. Meanwhile, the amount of people who are drinking plant based milk so not milk, soy milk, flax milk, is growing rapidly. And over 50% of American consumers drink plant based milk regularly, just like yourself. And what's really interesting is when you dive in, and you look at the different plant based milks, and you want to understand the nutrition behind them, the growing methods behind them, they're actually all very different. And that was one of the things that I dug into as well when I was considering flax. So take almond milk, for example. Because you know, David, you said you do consume almond milk. Almond milk is made by blending almonds with water, and then you strain the almonds out. So most of the nutrients and the protein that are found in those almonds are actually thrown out. And you end up with almond flavored water. There's not a lot of nutrients, it's mostly just just water. And the problem is almonds are incredibly unsustainable. It takes 20 gallons of water to produce one single glass of almond milk. A lot of water, water is a natural resource that we need, you know, we depend on almond milk is not so when you're considering. Okay, well, I'm not really getting a lot of nutrition from this almond milk and it's also quite the strain on our natural resources. Alright, let's see what other choices there are. Let's go to oat milk. Oat Milk is having a heyday right now, right? A lot of people are leaning into oat milk. Oat Milk is interesting because you know, they say no added sugar. But the truth is the way that the oats are processed and oat milk, and ends up gram for gram having a higher impact on your blood sugar than a can of Coca Cola. Oat Milk is filled with calories. It's filled with carbohydrates. And most of the oats in this country are covered in glyphosate, which is otherwise known as weed killer or Roundup. No, no, I'm very serious. And so Alright, almond milk is out. Oat Milk is out soy milk, most soy is genetically modified. You know, there's all this movement with non GMO you want. Now I don't even know if people really know what it means. But they know they want it right. What is what is GMO non GMO? Well, I know I want the non GMO, most soy is GMO, it is genetically modified. That means it can cause hormonal imbalances, it's not good for your health. We are using 100% Organic flax seed, we're not adding any thing that's you know, no weed killer, no oils, most oat milks, a lot of soy milks have oils in them, because it gives them a thicker texture and helps them frost better. We're not adding any oils, we're just keeping our ingredients as clean as possible. And the beautiful thing about the flax flower is the only water required is natural rainfall. So from a health point of view, it's the best choice for you. And from a mother earth point of view. It's the best choice for our planet as well.

David Novak 8:56

Wow, that's so interesting. You know, Brittany, you're already getting accolades for being a great brand builder. And you got a great brand name. We just talked about that. And your packaging is absolutely beautiful and very distinctive on the shelf. What advice can you give to others who want to build brands and make them stand out?

Brittany Fuisz 9:14

Get started? You know, I think it's one of the hardest things is, well, where do I start? And what do I do next? And there's not really a roadmap for when you get started, but you have to start somewhere. And and you have to just keep going. And I for a long time was trying to I had a day job. I had a full time day job. And I was like, Well, I can do both. You know, I'll kind of do a little bit of this project on the side here and there. For me, it was really hard to do and I'm pretty type A and I'm pretty goal oriented and yet until you know I didn't have the full time job anymore until I was able to really focus on this. It just didn't move forward. I needed to sit down every day in front of my computer at 8am and say alright, how am I moving this forward today, and I knew nothing, I knew nothing about the industry. I mean, when I say nothing, I have no family that's worked in consumer packaged goods like this, I was coming in totally blind, but what I had was a passion. And I also think that the blindness in a way, one of my early investors and advisors said, you know, make sure that you're kind of leaning into that it's your newness and your ignorance to the category that's giving you such a great perspective, because it's different than somebody who's, you know, been in the industry for a really long time.

David Novak 10:36

Having a beginner mindset, I think works in any business and for any person, you know, and it's obvious, Brittany, that you don't sit around and wait for others to tell you what to do. Yeah, tell us what you think makes a great self starter? And what would you tell others on how to cultivate a skill like that?

Brittany Fuisz 10:53

Oh, that's such a great question. You know, I think having goals does help. Having realistic goals and putting your mind to something, you can then break those goals into things that you're just going to achieve today, you know, or that week, okay, this week, I'm going to achieve X, Y and Z or one, two, and three. You know, for me, the first step was finalizing this formula. I had this idea. I made this, you know, great kind of product in my kitchen. But I really needed to hone in on the formula. And it was really hard to do alone. So I had, like an intern sort of friend come over, and just sit with me and write down different recipes. As we tinkered and honed in on the recipe. That was first and foremost, that was before I met with whole foods. That was, before I did anything else, I wanted to have a formula that I was like, Okay, this is unique, this is special. And then I would also say, do your homework, because it's so easy. Nowadays with technology. To understand your consumer at the very beginning, I did a huge survey monkey with everyone that I knew. I created a survey monkey, it was free. It didn't cost me a single dollar. I sent it out to family in Ohio, to friends on the east coast to friends on the West Coast. I wanted to understand how people were drinking and buying plant based milk. What did they like about it? What did they not like about it? What were they paying for it? Were they buying flavors like vanilla or chocolate? Did they just want it plain? Do they want it sweetened, unsweetened, figure out what your consumers are looking for? Make sure that there's a need that actually exists. But do your homework, do the research and then build around that? I think that's really important. When you're a self starter,

David Novak 12:36

you didn't have any consumer packaged goods experience. You've never run a company before. How have you gone about building the skills that it takes to run this business that you now have?

Brittany Fuisz 12:46

I have leaned on mentors like yourself, David. And David has been privy to more than one or two phone calls about asking for advice with how to grow a team and how to, you know, lean into the team that I do have. I read a lot of books, I listen to a lot of podcasts, including this one. And I try to learn from people who have done it before me because I haven't run a business before. And you know, this is my first time managing a team and making business decisions. And even we're launching in Albertsons in Texas, Ralph's in Southern California and stater brothers in Southern California, three really important brands for our business. I've never launched in a conventional grocery store before even this is something completely outside of my wheelhouse. I've only launched a natural grocery stores with the milk so far. So I am leaning on my brokers, my other advisors and I'm saying, Tell me about your learnings. What have you seen, you know, when you've launched a natural product in a conventional space? Where can I be strong? Like what do I need to lean in on? I am asking a ton of questions. And I always will take the opportunity to speak to somebody, especially another founder within the space. Because there is always something to learn. And it's not always easy, because we're really busy, right? Like I'm a mom, I'm pregnant. I'm running this business, I've got a really small team. Time is my most valuable asset right now. And there is just not enough time in the day I put my son to bed I get back on email, and I'm on email at 630 in the morning, sometimes even earlier asked my team, but carving out that 30 or 45 minutes to speak to another founder. I always find something valuable and if you don't find something valuable, it's because you're not engaged and you're not asking the right questions.

David Novak 14:35

Shifting gears Yeah, I'd love to hear a story about your upbringing that will tell us the most about the kind of leader that you are today.

Brittany Fuisz 14:41

As a little girl, I used to play you know, I had one of those tree houses in my nothing fancy just a regular old tree house that you can buy I think pre assembled and pop in your backyard. And I would have these clubs and I always wanted to be the leader of the Bob and I would make the club rules. And I would invite certain people to be in the club. And they had to follow the rules. So I think for whatever reason, from this really early childhood age, like, I understood the idea of structure, and how that could be effective in any sort of setting where you wanted there to be rules, and you wanted to have progress. You know, I remember doing that eight, nine years old. And then, you know, as I grew in school, like I always welcomed the opportunity of leadership from a really young age, I was class president multiple times, I ended up being student body president in my high school, I was captain of my volleyball team, like I was consistently leaning into these leadership opportunities. And maybe part of it's because I'm a control freak, I don't know. But I, you know, I think it also gave me really valuable opportunities to learn and, and even more, so I'll tell you another story, David, my parents were entrepreneurs. So it was ingrained in me from early childhood, when when we moved out to California, from Oak Harbor, Ohio, I think our population was less than 20,000. People in Oak Harbor, a really tiny, tiny town, everybody knew everybody. And my parents somehow got the guts and the motivation to move out to California where they knew no one. And it was for their business. And it was because they were chasing opportunity. And so I didn't know fear, you know, I saw that, you take risks, you take risks, you leap and the net will appear. That was a quote that I remember seeing in my mother's office, like always growing up, and she's a best selling author. And her and my father built this incredible business. And it wasn't easy. You know, there were a lot of really scary ups and downs. And I think, being privy to that, as a child, seeing the ups and downs, knowing how hard they were working, you know, they were always working, but they were working from home. And so being able to see that firsthand, was incredibly valuable.

David Novak 17:16

You've also had some excellent and relevant prior business experience. You know, how's that background helping you now?

Brittany Fuisz 17:24

I did study business at Georgetown University. And actually, on my team call every week, we're all working remote, we even have a team member in another state. And we have a weekly team call early in the week, we start out this call with a personal question. And it can be anything and then a different person on the team chooses the topic every week. So maybe it's, you know, what's your favorite flavor of ice cream? That's been a real question, or what are your New Year's plans? And one of the most recent questions from my new national director of sales, she asked who was a teacher or professor that was really influential in your life? And it was a great question, because it took us all back, right. And we're all thinking about these people who haven't thought about in a while and I thought about my teacher at Georgetown, he taught entrepreneurship. And he was just a part time teacher, you know, just kind of doing it for fun, he would teach one class a semester on entrepreneurship. And I thought about him. And I thought about that class. And I thought about what I'm doing now. In the class, we had to make a business plan. And I can't even remember what my business plan was, I have no idea. It definitely had nothing to do with milk. But I ended up reaching out to him as a result of this team call last week, I sent him a note on LinkedIn, I found him on LinkedIn. And I reached out to him, I asked if he's drinking plant based milk he is and what kind of milk he's drinking, and I'm sending him some Malibu milk, but you know, even then, even it, however, I must have been 20 years old when I took that class. It got my mind thinking in the right way. It got me thinking differently. It got me considering that there were options outside of just the normal trajectory of getting a job and then working for other people, which I did do. One of my mentors who's been incredible as Padma Lakshmi. She's the host of Bravo's Top Chef. She's been incredible. And I actually met her randomly at it. I bumped into her physically at a store in New York City. And then I backed up and I realized it was her and I went over to my mom and I said, Oh my god, I just bumped into Padma Lakshmi, and I was, I was a huge fan. I still am a top chef. And my mom said, go introduce yourself, tell her that you want to work in food. And I said, No, no, I don't want to bother her. You know, I grew up in Malibu, you don't bother celebrities. You leave them alone. But I did. I went up to her and I had these little business cards. I had a little food blog and I, I said, you know if you have any time, I would love some advice for an aspiring food person. And she called me a week later. I remember like it was yesterday. I was driving in the car. on the freeway, she called me and she said, my number one piece of advice for you. You need to go to culinary school if you want to do anything in the food world. And I said, No, no, you know, I don't want to go to culinary school I had just finished Georgetown, I was done with school, I was not interested in being a cook, I didn't want to be in a kitchen, I knew I wanted to do something with food, but something more editorial or product development wise, or restaurant development wise. And she was adamant. She said, this is the number one piece of advice I could give you. If you want to be able to have any authority, you need to go to culinary school. And at the time, I had a full time job. I quit. I enrolled in culinary school a week and a half later I started in January, it must have been like 2010 or something. And I started at Le Cordon Bleu here in LA. And it was one of the best pieces of advice that I was given in culinary school is hard, you know, I was on my feet eight hours a day and chef whites. But I learned the basics of cooking, I learned about flavors I learned about developing my palate. And I wouldn't have been able to pull out my blender, you know, eight years later, and come up with this flax recipe and understand the way flavors worked without that culinary school experience.

David Novak 21:22

Great story. And you develop this recipe from scratch. And then you've got to commercialize it, tell us how you went about the process of commercializing this product. And then I'd love to hear how you did learn that Whole Foods account.

Brittany Fuisz 21:36

So commercializing your recipe is challenging, because all of the ingredients that you're buying at the grocery store are they don't necessarily translate, you can't necessarily buy those wholesale in bulk. So if you're looking to develop a food recipe, go to a conference, go to one of these huge conferences where all of the ingredients suppliers are there. And they all give out samples and you walk the floor, and you get samples. And you're getting samples of ingredients that you can buy in bulk, and that you can use to mass produce. So that's the best way to figure out how to bring something at scale. Then there's another piece of talking to a manufacturer and trying to explain to them what you were doing with your blender, and how that can translate to the large scale equipment that they're using for blending and pasteurization and all of that. And you might need to bring in an expert, there are like consultants, and some of them are crazy expensive, and some of them will rip you off. But ultimately, you want to find someone as sort of a scientist who knows what they're talking about and can help you scale this recipe and understand the equipment. I am not a scientist. So know what you don't know and find someone who knows the things that you don't know who can help you. Because there's certain things where you are going to need an expert. Did you

David Novak 23:01

ever have any quality issues with the manufacturing process? Yes, yeah. Tell us about that.

Brittany Fuisz 23:07

I'll tell you a really, really great story. My first production run was in December of 2018. And it was supposed to be earlier because I had already met with whole foods a few months earlier, they wanted the product and they said can we get it in the next couple of weeks? I said no. Let me go find a manufacturer. But you know, we can do the next couple of months. And so I was supposed to have the manufacturing run. In November, it just kept getting pushed back. And this is how it goes with manufacturing. It's one of the most frustrating things, especially when you're small. They walk all over you, you know, they kind of treat you like crap until you're one of their best customers. So they kept pushing my run back, kept pushing it back. Finally I got a date. And they said Alright, we're going to start batching your product at 9:30pm on a Tuesday. Luckily, it was close enough that I was able to drive to the facility. But you know, it's 9:30pm I'm there. I'm alone. It's dark. It's cold. I'm in this huge plant trying to process this milk. I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm looking at things like PAH and bricks and I don't even know what they mean and, and I'm there with this their night shift their night team. I ordered everybody pizza because I wanted I wanted them to keep working and be happy and you know, full and then we ran three flavors. I had my original which recently shifted to my slightly sweetened. It's a product you can still buy today on our website. I had my unsweetened and then I had a barista I wanted a flavor that was specifically made for coffee that was a little sweeter, that would froth a little more. And we first we ran the unsweetened then we ran to the original which had a little bit of sugar. We recently shifted that to organic date sugar so it's refined sugar free, and then we ran the the barista. Last and at this point, it was probably 330 or four in the morning, I was exhausted, you know, I hadn't slept. And the barista is running, it's on the equipment, and they bring out the first couple of bottles for me to taste. And David, I kid you not, I tasted this product, and it tasted like rotten eggs. It smelled like rotten eggs. And I was just, like, horrified. And I'm just like, Oh, my God. And so, you know, they're looking at me the quality control team. And they're like, Well, what do you want to do. And they wanted to know if I wanted to keep filling it. Or if I wanted to toss it, if I tossed all of the liquid that had been put in these very large tanks, at least, I would save money on the bottles, because we wouldn't be using the bottles and the labels. And again, it's four in the morning, I haven't slept. And I had to make this really hard decision, because we're talking about 1000s of dollars worth of product. And this is my only chance, like, you know, this is the you only get one trial run with these folks, the next run is 10 times more expensive, and that you need to have 10 times more gallons and, and so I decided to toss it, I knew I couldn't present anybody with milk that smelled like rotten eggs if I wanted to be in business for very long. So I told them to throw it out. And you know, that was the end of the run that day. And I got in my car and I cried the whole way home, I called I was devastated. And I thought this isn't going to work. And I had dumped all of this money that I had, you know, money that I'd been saving for a house or you know, something in my life, I had dumped all of this money into this business. And here it was for the morning, and I was just crying, I'm sobbing. And I got home and I slept. And then and I had the the unsweetened and the original and, and I remember my husband came and woke me up around 11am. And he's like, I tasted them like they're good. Like, you know, come downstairs and go away. I was just so upset about this barista flavor. And then I you know, I came downstairs finally, and I tried the other two flavors, and they were really good. I mean, they were really on point. And then I got a call from the manufacturer, their head scientist who doesn't work, the night shifts, was calling me to let me know that the egg smell was completely normal. And it was just sulfur. And it would disappear within two to three days. So even then I was even more devastated. I didn't actually have to throw it out, it would have just gone away. But the truth is, the product actually didn't froth correctly. Like I had a couple of bottles that I had held. It wasn't frothing correctly, it wasn't where it needed to be throwing, it ended up being the right decision. But, you know, it's these moments where you're just, you're at your wit's end because you're exhausted, and you've spent all this time and this money and you see no way out. And that was a tough day, but it ended up working out.

David Novak 28:02

You're obviously resilient. And, and I would like to hear the story. Now you now go to Whole Foods, and you sell them on this product.

Brittany Fuisz 28:09

Yeah. So I did get the meeting with Whole Foods about a week and a half after I asked for it, which was really fast. It's still really fast. Like, that doesn't happen in this industry ever. And I, I panicked. And I called a friend who has products and Whole Foods, and I said, I think I need to cancel this meeting. I'm not ready. I don't have a packaging provider. I don't have a manufacturer, I don't understand distribution. I don't have a distributor, I don't know margins, like I I knew nothing. And he said don't cancel the meeting, you might never get this chance again, you know, and I do know now if you cancel on a buyer, it might be your only shot. Like when a buyer says it'll take a meeting you make it work Hell or High Water like you figure it out. So I took the meeting, I had mock bottles made from this mock Bottling Company in Texas. And I went in with little plastic bottle samples from my kitchen. And I let the buyer taste the milk. And within a few minutes, she said I want this product in stores in the next couple of weeks. And and you know it was really, that's a moment in your life you don't ever forget. And it ended up being perfect timing because I got to go into my first production run, knowing that whole foods would be a customer. Usually you're going to produce all this product and hope to god you can sell it but I already knew Whole Foods was going to buy it. So that was really incredible. And then the product ended up launching at Whole Foods on my birthday, the following year. So just a couple months later. That's good timing. Yeah, it was really special.

David Novak 29:43

And now you're now you're going into traditional grocery stores and you've got distribution in New York and California and big you know, you're really starting to take off in you also created a subscriber model. Yes. What drove that thinking and how's that doing?

Brittany Fuisz 29:57

That's a great question. So one of my lead in Esther's had said to me, Well, why aren't you selling this product online? And at the time, all I had was refrigerated cold, heavy, plastic bottles. And I said, What do you mean? Why? Why am I not selling this online? These are impossible to ship. It's a nightmare. You know, they they need ice they'd be. They said, No, no, I see an opportunity here to sell this online. And I went home that weekend. And I set up on my little Wix website, a shopping button, and I started shipping cold milks from my garage, which was a total nightmare. Let me tell you, Oh, my God, the amount of problems. But we did it. We did it for the first few months, because we needed to make sure that people were willing to order flax milk online. What's been incredible is people were willing, and what was happening is, they would discover the milk, you know, locally at a grocery store. Maybe they're on vacation in Southern California, we had one customer who was buying it here at Whole Foods, and then he moved up to Seattle. And he was obsessed with the product. And him and his wife make so many smoothies every morning and they were going through like a bottle a day. And he just started ordering it and ordering it and he couldn't get enough of it. And so I figured out a way to manufacture the product with the same exact formula, but in a shelf stable carton, and the only difference is the carton. And we were we did our first production run for that product just over a year ago. And now you know, we have a shipping partner who's at a warehouse, and they ship these milks all over the country. And what's really cool is a ton of customers have subscribed, you go on once you sign up, you say okay, I want a six pack of milk to come once a month. And you don't have to worry about it again. And it arrives at your front door. You literally get to forget about it. And you know that your milk will arrive once a month at your front door and it's ready to go. And it doesn't take up a whole bunch of room in your refrigerator because these shelf stable cartons you store in your pantry until you open them. And then you put one in your refrigerator at a time. People are loving it. We're shipping it all over the country. We get inquiries all the time, if we can ship International, which we're not doing quite yet. But you know, there really is no other product quite like this. So people love that they can subscribe, buy it online. And it's been incredible.

David Novak 32:28

I noticed that you've just gone into these coffee brand basically where you have a flax plus oat milk coffee. Okay, and a flax plus Oh, milk matcha Yes. And it's interesting. You're positioning these things as as your digestions, new bestie. Okay? Does that mean it helps you go to the restroom, if that's exactly what it means, David, I know, that's a goal positioning, I gotta tell you, I don't know if anybody that has ever come up with that kind of positioning for a product. Now, what gave you the courage to do that?

Brittany Fuisz 33:00

So my mother got another personal story here. My mother was talking to me about her, you know, bathroom struggles. And she was having her coffee in the morning and adding Malibu milk and I was like add more Malibu milk, you need more fiber, you need more fiber. And I realized with talking to some friends, that there's a ton of people who have digestive issues, that this is not an isolated problem. And I you know, the problem is you need more fiber in your diet, and people are having their coffee in their morning, you know, they're trying to get things going. And I figured, well, let's create a Malibu milk coffee, let's load it with fiber, so that it will work. So these are the number one way to go number two, and yet effective, and they really work.

David Novak 33:46

And seriously, I gotta ask you, you got you got this great brand. It's people already liked the base products. And now you're coming up with the number one brand that helps you make number two, are you worried about people making fun of you? Are you worried about it, diluting the power of this great tasting brand that you've already created?

Brittany Fuisz 34:03

No, not at all. People are loving it. I've never gotten more laughs smiles. People want to tell me all about their bathroom routines. It's hilarious.

David Novak 34:11

You gotta be kidding me because I saw that and I thought this woman's crazy. I gotta go back to Marketing School because that meant the last thing I would have done when I was running Pepsi is say, Hey, this is the number one product this is gonna make you go number two. So I thought I thought KFC is original recipe was that

Brittany Fuisz 34:32

let me tell you, it's a different day and age in marketing, David, you know, people, people are being more bold and you got to be bold. If you want to stand out. You know,

David Novak 34:41

you're in the process of building a small but mighty team. Tell us about the most recent hire you've made and why you hired that person.

Brittany Fuisz 34:50

Yes, so the most recent hire was super recent. I needed a new national sales director. It's really tough when you are a young company like mine, because you want somebody with experience, but somebody who has sales experience is often coming from a team where they were one of five salespeople. So you're asking them to come into this little company, take a risk for themselves and their family, and do all the work a lot more work than they've ever done before. And so it's a really particular sort of person who is willing to do that, who is eager to join a startup, and who's willing to do the amount of work it takes the most recent sales hire is incredible. She has beverage experience, she worked at a canned beverage company before this, and prior to that coconut water. And she's a mom. And you know, it's funny, because I'm a mom, I get how hard it is to balance career and family. And you know, I breastfed my son for a year. And it's really, really hard to be a mom and to work full time. And this woman that I hired, boy is she on it, she has the sort of drive and ambition that that I hope I have myself, we are on emails all the time, weekends, way past kids bedtime, early in the morning, and just constantly, you know, going after it. And that has been an incredible addition to my team. And I am so grateful that she has joined our team and that she is as amped up about it as I am. And the truth is for these first few employees, the opportunity is also huge because they get equity. And you know, if things go the way that I'm working my butt off to make sure that they do like this is going to be a great payday for her in the end, you know, she'll do very, very well. And everything that she does is so measurable. That's the other beautiful thing about a small team, when you're in a big team. Sometimes other people get credit for what you're doing. And it's hard to know really who did what, that's not happening at MALBA milk like we know exactly what you're doing. We know if you're hustling. And everybody on my team is hustling. And because we're all working so hard together, there's no tasks too small, you know, when we started shipping milks out of my garage, I was shipping them I was boxing them up, loading them in my car, driving them to FedEx, like, there is no task too small, there was a point when my milks, there was something on the label that had been mis printed, I had to go down to our distributors warehouse at three in the morning with a label gun and label 3000 bottles of milk I did that myself, there is no task too small. And you need to be willing to own that and show your team that if you want them to behave that way as well.

David Novak 37:38

And so you really jumped into this business without having you know, a whole lot of experiencing managing people. What are you learning about yourself as a leader, because you know, you have to lead your team, you also have to lead your broker network, you have a big leadership job.

Brittany Fuisz 37:53

I do. I again, I think it goes like lean on your network, learn from your network. Read, I know, there's not always a lot of time to read, especially when you're a busy founder and a parent. And, you know, we've all got our long list of things that we're doing. But it's the constant learning, like I'm constantly learning, you know, the phone calls I've had with you and the advice you've given me invaluable advice. And it's about being willing to ask, you know, because a lot of us have access to smart people who have built something, even if it's not exactly what we're trying to build, they've built a team, reach out now ask and maybe you'll get a no or maybe they won't make the time. But even if you get a yes, one out of 10 times, it's worth the ask.

David Novak 38:41

Absolutely. And it's so important to create a work environment where people really feel valued. Have you articulate what kind of culture you want to have? And is your team on board? And? Or is it just by the fly?

Brittany Fuisz 38:54

I'd say it's somewhere in the middle. We We last year, we set out a list of brand and team ethos that we wanted to guide the team and guide the year ahead. And what's really fun about doing it this way with a small team is everybody on my team gets to choose something that they want to be a part of this. So I'm not sitting there high and mighty Oh, I'm the founder let me choose these seven things or five things. I'm reaching out to my team and saying, Okay, we're having this call, we're going to talk about our brand ethos and our goals who we want to be and, and the culture that we want going forward. And they all get to contribute. And it's such a beautiful thing because you know, some of their ideas are so helpful and so inspirational and they're different than the ones that I had and one of my top ones was no task to small, every single person on my team when they go into a grocery store. If the milk isn't proper on the shelf, if it's missing if the tags are wrong, I want all of us to stop, go back as for the dairy buyer and fix it, you know anyone on the team at all? all times. And let me tell you, it's not always easy to do, especially if you're shopping with a toddler, and you've got all your stuff for the week in the cart. And, but that's really important. And I think everybody on the team lives that belief. And it's really powerful.

David Novak 40:13

You know, you obviously are really smart, and you're really passionate, purposeful in terms of the brand you're building. Sharon's story storia how you make sure that you get healthy debate, to make healthy decisions, because I could see you being like, Hey, we gotta get it done this way. Now,

Brittany Fuisz 40:29

yeah, it's such a good point, you know, I am, I guess you would call me type a strong personality. I think it's who you hire and letting them know that their voice matters. Every voice on my team matters. If I wanted to do it alone, I'd be doing it alone. And I don't want to do it alone, I started alone. And let me tell you, it is very lonely, and it is totally overwhelming. And two heads are better than one three heads are better than two. And I let my team know that. And we do have debates. I'll tell you a story, David, about a debate we had in the last six months, we were using vanilla flavor, and our vanilla milk. Vanilla flavor is one of those things that can get a bad rap. Because natural flavors, even though they're called natural, aren't necessarily natural, they can be derived from animals, they can be derived from a whole bunch of different things. But they taste really good, they can give you the essence of sweetness without any added calories. And you know, if you're sourcing them correctly, you can source them organically, you can use all vegan natural flavors, we were using a vegan organic, natural vanilla flavor in our vanilla milk, and it tasted great. And it was affordable. And my head of operations came to me and he said, I really think we need to switch to organic vanilla extract. And it's his job to cut our costs. He you know, he is head of ops, it is his job to make our costs go down, and you know, help improve our margins. And here he was coming to me saying he wanted to swap one of our ingredients on our best selling product to a much more expensive ingredient. Vanilla extract costs more than silver by the pound, it is so expensive. And I thought he was out of his mind, you know, I really thought he was out of his mind. But he presented his case. And then we went to the board and discussed and at first I was really adamant against doing this change, I just didn't see it being the best choice from a cost standpoint, from a taste standpoint. And ultimately, he convinced me and we ended up going with organic vanilla extract. And the reason being is because at Malibu milk, we're all about transparency. I am a mom, I am pregnant again. I was a nursing mom, I will be a nursing pregnant or I guess a nursing nonpregnant mom in the near to immediate future. We are incredibly concerned with the quality of ingredients that we're using. We want our customers to be able to trust us, you know, without any questions without any hesitation and natural flavors give some people pause. And we wanted to eliminate any pause that anyone would have for any reason with Malibu milk. So we switch from natural flavors to organic vanilla extract. And and it's the right decision because of who we are as a brand.

David Novak 43:26

You should tell that story on your website. I mean, that's, you know how we make decisions that Malibu milk you know, that's great. You know, this has been so much fun. And I want to have a little bit more fun. I always do a lightning round of q&a. So are you ready for this? I'm ready. Ah, the one word that best describes you. Driven? If you could trade places with one person for a day, who would it be and why?

Brittany Fuisz 43:50

Oprah I'd love to just be within her mind and every you know, the universe she has built is so incredible. I'd like to see how she did that.

David Novak 44:00

What's something about you that few people would know Brittany?

Brittany Fuisz 44:04

I bungee jumped off the second highest building in the world and Macau, China when I was 18 years old.

David Novak 44:12

I've been to Macau I think I know we're building your dog. You have any hidden talents.

Brittany Fuisz 44:18

I am an epic skier.

David Novak 44:22

If you could get advice from one leader to help you grow your business, who would it be and why?

Brittany Fuisz 44:30

Oh, maybe maybe somebody had a big dairy company CEO of a big dairy company. I'd love to see what they're doing and and how they're adjusting to declining dairy sales.

David Novak 44:41

What's your favorite Malibu product?

Brittany Fuisz 44:46

It changes all the time but right now I'm really excited about our slightly sweetened which again just has a little bit of date sugar so no refined sugar super low in calories but it is a little sweet and it's phenomenal.

David Novak 44:58

It is every fabulous product. I will voucher that myself as fantastic, you know, a couple more questions and we're gonna wrap this up here, you know, you had one child about a year and a half ago. And now you're pregnant with a second, how do you just grass with all of this that's ahead of you that that's just so many different demands.

Brittany Fuisz 45:15

It's a really hard thing. I have a therapist, that I see via zoom once a week, I think that's really important. I walk every day, I try to get three miles in a day to clear my head. I go to bed at 9pm Every night, because I need the sleep. I eat pretty healthy. And I take care of myself, I think there are certain things that give when you are in the stage of life that I'm in and working like that and have young children and, and for my husband and I were both founders, and we're both working this hard. It's our social life. There's no social life anymore. It's out

David Novak 45:53

the window is your husband is as he started his own company as well.

Brittany Fuisz 45:56

He started his own company before we actually he has a tech company. So you're both founders. What's that like? Also hard. But you know what, it's actually really nice, because in my darkest hours, when I have moments that are really tough, and I had a tough moment, a couple of weeks ago, where I was upset about something with a business, and I was emotional, really emotional, he is able to give me business advice. And he knows how hard it is. And he knows what it's like to fundraise. And he knows what it's like to build something from the ground up. And so, you know, he's my best friend, and I'm able to, he's able to give me more relevant advice and almost anyone else in my life because he's right there with me. And he's a few steps ahead of me because he's been doing it a little longer. And he's doing something different. It's tech, but in a lot of ways, I'm really grateful for his help and support.

David Novak 46:45

Absolutely. If you could give leaders and entrepreneurs, just one bit of advice. One thing based on your journey so far, what would it be?

Brittany Fuisz 46:55

Listen, you're going going going so fast, you've got your own ideas, you have a vision to stop and listen, listen to your team. Listen to your mentors, listen to other people within the space, stop and really listen. Otherwise, you're gonna miss something.

David Novak 47:11

Brittany, you're not gonna miss much you were on top of your game, you're doing a great job, and congratulations on all the success you've had. And Malibu milk is on its way to national distribution and big time fame just like you. So thank you very much.

Brittany Fuisz 47:26

Thank you, David. I really appreciate it.

David Novak 47:36

Well, it's crystal clear that Brittany is 1,000% passionate about making Malibu Milka success. And, you know, I feel the same way about David Novak leadership and how leaders lead we've really applied a startup mindset because that business has basically been a startup and I'm just as passionate as she is about making the world a better place by developing better leaders. But I also apply to startup mindset to a very established business. In 1997, PepsiCo spun off its Restaurant Brands, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC. Now these brands have been around for decades. But I brought the team together and said, Look, you know, we're starting a brand new company, we have these brands that have tremendous equities, but let's treat them like they're brand new. What if this was a startup? How would we really launched Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC all over again. And we look at this business with a fresh set of eyes, and we uncovered all kinds of opportunity. And I have to tell you, thinking like an entrepreneur, thinking like a founder, really, really was powerful in terms of unlocking the potential we had in brands who'd been around for years. So let me ask you, are you thinking about your business like an entrepreneur would the energy and the passion, that self starter approach to your work? Let's bring some of that back into your life this week? This is important because your mindset and how you approach your work significantly impacts your business. So do you want to know how leaders lead? What we learned today is the great leaders never lose the startup mindset. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of how leaders lead where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the best leaders in the world. I make it a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can apply to your business so that you will become the best leader you can be. See you next week.

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