The Startup CPG Podcast

Jessi: Hi, Seth. Welcome back to the show today. I am so excited to have you back here and to catch up. How are you today?

Seth: I'm great, Jessi. It's nice to reconnect.

Jessi: Yes, absolutely. Yeah, it has been a while. I was looking back through my notes on the last time you had come on the show. And it was over a year ago, we had chatted like right after the Coca Cola decision. And then we chatted again, less than a two weeks after the decision to launch Just Ice Tea. So there's so much to catch up on, which I'm very excited about.

Seth: Feels like it was a lifetime ago.

Jessi: Yeah, I bet. I'd love to start out by if you maybe could catch us up a little bit on Just Ice Tea, because that's kind of where we've left the podcast listeners. And so I'm curious about how is Just Ice Tea going? How many stores are the teas in now? Yeah, would love to hear more about what's happening.

Seth: Yeah, a lot has happened. So a year ago, we were just launching in Whole Foods. We had already launched in Sprouts, and then Whole Foods was next. And we launched chain-wide in Whole Foods, and then with that really started to penetrate the larger natural food, I don't call it universe, but... the sector. And as we speak today, we're distributed, I'd say an ACV of around 69% into the natural foods channel, which is good. Yeah. The top selling brand in whole foods, top selling tea brand in whole foods and sprouts. And we're now starting to expand into more mainstream channels as well. So we'll do in terms of dollars, around $16 million in sales this year, gross sales. And the other notable development is that we have discontinued our mushroom jerky. So I think when you and I spoke last year, that was the larger part of our business because we had in the tea business and now it's been eclipsed and so our product lines are just ice tea which is over ninety percent of our business and now our carrot snacks we've actually just redesign the packaging for that so we're still committed and believers in that product line and that is going back into the market with a new design.

Jessi: Excellent. Thank you for the update. There's lots to dig into there for sure. On Just Ice Tea with the revenue numbers you mentioned, and I know that time adjusts the dollar values in everywhere, but I'm curious for you, what would be a comparison for how long it took Honest Tea to get to this type of level in time?

Seth: Yeah, it's about seven or eight years into Honesty's history. We were in about 5,000 stores, primarily Natural Channel. But we're also, we have now launched with Big Geyser, our distributor in New York City, as well as with Canada Dry, the Mid-Atlantic distributor network for that market. And so those kind of yardsticks took Honesty quite a while to get to. And we were able to leapfrog a lot of the earlier part of the distribution channel, you know, and rather than, you know, we had a real patchwork we had built with honesty. And so we're able this time to just go, I'd say right to the premier partners. And that's certainly been beneficial for the brand and for our efforts, more effective launching.

Jessi: Yeah. What does it look like to scale so quickly, like in comparison from the past, like between hiring and manufacturing? Like, I'm curious what it's like to scale so fast. And is there anything you've had to be careful of with scaling so fast?

Seth: It's certainly more expensive, right? Because in a way, we've compressed or condensed lots of the growth that, you know, was stretched over seven or eight years. So, you know, there's been a lot of trade spend, a lot of allowances and discounts we had to expend in order to get up and running with partners. And so that's been unwelcome, but I'd say real. On the other hand, what's been welcome is a lot of that growth can be really challenging. And so it's obviously welcome that the product is moving more quickly off the shelf. I think with Honest Tea, we had by year seven or eight, we certainly were in 5,000 accounts, but we weren't seeing the same kind of velocity. So that's really been beneficial now and of course one of the big reasons we've been able to do all this is because we have a team that is experiencing and frankly has done it before they did it without a lot of them so they knew exactly especially with honesty leaving the marketplace exactly how to execute and capitalize on that the boy that was being created by honesty so that's been really gratifying I think the other thing I'll say, because I've certainly been able to stay in touch with the different partners, whether it's the bottling plants or the distributors, and I just have a higher level of appreciation for all the partners. I think the first time around, I was probably a little too scared or just tense or nervous to really appreciate them. And so this time around, I'll have a longer conversation with a partner just about life and just really appreciate what they're doing. And it's just been more joyful.

Jessi: Yeah, that's that's a really interesting insight to really kind of savor the relationships along the way a little bit more this time. And I know you did so much work, too. We talked about last time you were on the show, one of the big points you made was around the karma of doing, you know, of what comes back to you. And it sounds like you're continuing to see that trend of the good relationships that you're continuing to build on them.

Seth: Very much so. And I just, I feel a lot of gratitude. And, you know, I think, you know, as weird as the world is these days with all the tension and just kind of irrational stuff happening, it's just nice to feel like you've got people you work with who you trust and value and appreciate. And I just, I don't take any of that for granted.

Jessi: Yeah. I'm curious, can you share with us about kind of the setup of the team, either change in anything that's had to shift to kind of support just Ice-T, but I'm curious about how you have set up the team at this point, what it's looking like.

Seth: Yeah. So, you know, we have sales leaders who some focus on the natural channels, some focus on mainstream channels. And then we have some area managers there, I would say more junior, but they're out in the trade, really going store to store, building displays or helping to secure the cooler space. That's just so critical for us. A beverage like ours needs to be consumed cold and in the right stores in the right place is important. Our marketing team is lean. We just have a few folks. And so we're doing a lot of it ourselves, whether it's the social media or the public relations or sort of working with some designers who we've worked with in the past, good partners there. And then on the operations side, again, pretty light. We have just a few folks handling logistics and ordering and procurement. This time around, we don't have a CFO. We did that at Honesty. This time around, we just work with an outside accounting firm and we're able to Because we have NetSuite, which is a very comprehensive software, we're able to get useful financial statements, but not having to do as much data entry. So that's a positive thing. Yeah, and that's pretty much it. So it's a relatively lean team. We have about just under 30 people. And our expectation is we should be able to grow next year without hiring any major new senior folks. We'll add some more people on the ground in certain markets, but still trying to keep it lean.

Jessi: Yeah. Oh, that's super helpful to hear how everything's set up. And I'm also curious, it plays a little bit into hiring. And then also you mentioned trade spend before. I'm curious if you can share a little bit about what the strategy has been and will be in promoting the product. Like, are you using field marketing in addition to trade spend? Like what did you learn from last time around and what are you learning now about the best ways to help the product move on the shelves? Cause you mentioned it's moving so well.

Seth: Yeah, I've always been a believer in demos, like for our product, which has that different taste and is a values-based product, we always want to try to make that personal connection with our consumers. So that's really important. The trade spend that happened last year, so much of it was like we had to move quickly to grab that shelf space. So we definitely did more promotions on price than we normally would, or we wanted to be on display in a new chain when we're just landing. We're cutting back on that we're certainly gonna do some targeted promotions with some retailers but we won't be just giving you know and the way these guys work like you wanna find kiki is sort of a required advertising where you have to be on promotion and those are just painful introductory periods are you just giving product away but you're not making any money but it's part of the cost of doing business to get up and running with these guys.

Jessi: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. In the past when we've had you on the show, you've talked about kind of seasonal field marketing. Is that still the strategy of kind of like summertime is the big focus?

Seth: We had a great crew of interns this summer. They just did a fantastic job of introducing the product to people. And so we keep a leaner team on through the year. They'll shift more maybe to food service. November, December are not popular months to sample iced tea in a grocery store. They got their pumpkin spice and eggnog going, but we'll shift to food service focus and supporting other chains is where we're new.

Jessi: Right. That makes sense. Yeah. Your episode with us on field marketing and demos is one of our most popular episodes. I'll make sure to link it in the show notes because folks have really appreciated learning from that. So it's exciting to hear that you're continuing that strategy with the teas as well.

Seth: And it's funny because every once in a while there'll be a question, well, how do you what's the financial return on that? And it's like, I can't give you an exact number. I do know if it's successful, there's a tail on it, meaning it's not just what you sell in the store that day. It's, you know, how many people you introduce the brand to, how many ongoing consumers you create as a result of doing that.

Jessi: So, yeah. Has there been any big insights or learnings from the field marketing team and the interns this summer that were out in the field?

Seth: Yeah, I mean, we're always getting feedback on packaging, on taste profiles. We always want to try to gauge, do people know about this brand? How aware are they about our history with respect to Honest Tea? And so that kind of feedback is really helpful just to understand like, oh, okay, well, we learned that when the consumer understood this was from the founders of Honest Tea, that was a meaningful point of reference. So we started creating a point of sale that say from the founders of Honest Tea, you know, we want to help them make that connection, even if we're not in the store doing it. So we get a lot of guidance and insight from talking to the consumer so much.

Jessi: Yeah, that's interesting. And I assume that you did so much work all those years to build consumer awareness around tea and there wasn't as many teas in the stores. Now there are other options. People have more awareness. Has it been interesting to connect with consumers again in a different market and environment for tea?

Seth: Yeah, I mean, one thing that's really surprised me is how few glass bottle teas there are. And so it's weird, you think about the world and where people are always concerned about plastic, and then you look at the shelf, and there's all these plastic bottles of tea, like, wait a minute, what? No, I understand not everybody, but why would somebody be offering a glass bottle tea? And ironically, it's actually less competitive now, if you're a glass bottle tea, and I was just, you know, I'm still very much want to get out into the trade. So this past week, I was in Wilmington, Delaware, working with our new distributor there. And yeah, I'd go into several accounts and they'd say, oh, I've always, you know, I've been looking for a glass bottle of tea. They didn't even taste the product. They just want a glass bottle of tea in the store. So I'm happy to give them a sample. But yeah, that that's, you know, interesting. It's as a just a competitive difference. One of many.

Jessi: You also mentioned food service a few moments ago. That has been really popular in our community, talking about food service. We've been learning about food service on the show. I'm curious if you can share a little bit about the food service strategy and what that looks like.

Seth: Well, so far it's really been dependent on our distributors. So we have some great food service accounts that our distributors go out and service. You know, we don't have an exclusive food service distributor yet, but we have seen, just as with Honesty, this product has a lot of appeal. in the grab-and-go type of stores. So right now, we're just dealing mostly with independents, but we certainly are starting to talk with larger chains that have an interest. And we think that'd be a great vehicle because ultimately, when it's working, then your food service really becomes a form of sampling.

Jessi: Yeah, yeah. That's so interesting. And for Honest Kids, which is still in so many food service areas.

Seth: I've been seeing Honest Kids in more and more stores now. It's not just McDonald's, Wendy's, Subway and Chick-fil-A and Arby's, but also Sweetgreen and Kava. It's almost become like the default kids drink, which is really fun to see.

Jessi: Yeah, that's very cool. So yeah, lots of potential in the food service area, it sounds like. Yeah, yeah. Thinking about operations and scaling so quickly, you were able to get initial samples and everything out really quickly and then to grow so quickly. Is that something that you strategically knew the right manufacturers to work with to say, okay, they're going to be able to scale with us quickly? Was there any challenges on the manufacturing side scaling up? I'm curious about that side of it.

Seth: Well, we've just got great partners, bottling plants and suppliers, both for the tea leaves and the glass. And we just said, look, guys, this is going to be a crazy year. We know we're going to go try to grow aggressively, but we don't know how much we're going to grow. And we sort of thought we'd get to around $11.5 million in sales, which on the one hand, if you say, I haven't sold any and i'm gonna try to do eleven and a half million that sounds like a lot on the other hand we know getting to sixteen is just unexpected so they've had to be really nimble and we've done our best to give them as much forecasting as we can but again it's not always possible. But yeah, they've just been great partners. And of course our team has been nimble too and able to, I don't want to say call in favors, but you know, I think when you grow this quickly, you do have partners who want to keep your business. And so they want to demonstrate, you know, that they are good partners. And, and so we don't take any of that for granted. It's really been a benefit to have them.

Jessi: Yeah, that makes sense. And I'm sure for the tea growers that you partnered with, because those were such important relationships and there was a lot of concern initially around them not having a place to sell their tea. And so on that side, I assume that your tea growers were just ecstatic to grow really quickly and be able to continue their relationships.

Seth: Well, especially with honesty going away, where they were like, what's going to happen here? We've made these investments in this whole kind of supply chain. And with honesty going away, what does the future look like? So this was really heartening for them. And of course, I think we've talked about how Spike and I went to visit Tea Garden in Mozambique, which was just really powerful and inspiring to see what can happen on the ground. And so, you know, we're actually still working we're now raising money to help create a pathology clinic in mozambique and we're working with some local rotary clubs that will help fund it um so it'll be our fair trade dollars plus local rotary clubs helping to fund because this part of mozambique where we source is one of the poorest provinces in one of the poorest countries in the world so um you've got malaria typhoid aids all happening here and with the lack of access to clean water so really being able to help this community address medical needs is just a critical thing. So we're really excited about that project.

Jessi: Yeah. Wow. That sounds really amazing. Did you have to find more tea farms to work with? Because Just Ice Tea has a lot of different lines. Were you able to, for the most part, use existing relationships?

Seth: Oh, no. I mean, yeah, we keep in mind with Honest Tea going away, there was a lot of capacity available. So we certainly went back to existing suppliers, but we also have been expanding this community in Mozambique as a new supplier. We didn't work with them at Honest Tea, so it was exciting to see them come in.

Jessi: Yeah. Oh, that's really cool. Is there anything else that you found either the same or like really different and surprising about, you know, being back in the beverage world?

Seth: Well, it has been fun. I will say I'm impressed. I see some of our partners have gotten stronger and more capable. So for example, Big Geyser, you know, was, I would say a really strong independent distributor in New York City, but now I'd say they really are the leading distributor in New York City. They've just upped their game and whether it's the technology or the people or the culture, it's really great to see. And of course, we're so happy to be with them again. It's interesting to see what's going on on pricing. I see some retailers taking more price on our product than is desirable. And then we haven't raised our price. So when I see them taking more price, that's frustrating. So one of the strategies to deal with that is just getting our product more widely distributed. When you're only in a few stores and people want your product, the retailer can charge what they want. But hopefully when we can create a more competitive environment that'll help keep things in line and of course we think we'll sell more tea if the tea is priced lower. Another way to take it, if someone's going to take price on our product, we should be benefiting from it. And if we're not raising the price, I don't want the retailer to be getting an inordinate margin, doesn't seem fair to the consumer or fair to us.

Jessi: Right, yeah. I'm also curious what you're seeing resonate with consumers on the flavor side. I can't remember which one of the social channels that I saw it on, but I think it was you kind of walking through some of the Honest Tea flavors and then the new Just Ice Tea flavors. It was a really cool video. I'm wondering what you're seeing as far as what consumers are resonating with as far as flavor or herbal versus black tea, those kind of things.

Seth: Well, it's funny. The top sellers for Honest Tea are still pretty much what's leading with Just Ice Tea. Our Peach Oolong Tea is our top seller, and that was a popular one with Honest Tea. Our Honey Green was popular with Honest Tea. That one is not as popular with Just Ice Tea, but it may be the formulation needs a little tweaking. And then the herbals, which I love and many people love, actually still are kind of toward the lower side So people really love them, but they're definitely not as popular as the caffeinated teas, the black tea and the green tea.

Jessi: Very interesting. I'm doing my part to make the herbals as popular as possible. The berry hibiscus, which is one of my favorite drinks of all time. I love it. I was telling Seth before we started recording, I buy it every chance that I see it. So I'm doing my part to make it popular.

Seth: Thank you. My wife is too.

Jessi: It's so good. I want to shift to talk a little bit about the cosmic choose and also about the jerky. I wonder if you can tell us a little bit about the decision to discontinue the jerky, like what goes into a decision like that? How do you think through like that? Because I think folks could gain some value from, you know, learning how to make a hard decision like that.

Seth: Well, and in fact, the decision got easier once we got back into the tea business. So we love the mushroom jerky product. I mean, Spike and I were driving up to New York just a few weeks ago, and we were sharing a bag of the salt and pepper mushroom jerky and just shaking our heads because it was so good. We're like, this is an amazing product. But it wasn't selling enough in the marketplace, the velocity, you know, we would sell anywhere between two to three pouches per SKU per week. And that's just not enough to create a real business on. And so then we go and launch the tea and literally are selling 240 bottles per store per week. Wow. Okay. That's, that's enough to make a business on. And so, you know, one way to describe it was we could have worked really hard to become a top, top two top brand. in the category, and it still wouldn't have been a viable business. And so I think I mentioned it in one blog, that would be like a long walk to a small house, like all that effort, and you still didn't make enough revenue to really cover, you know, what you need to build an organization. And looking back, why didn't it work? I think mushrooms, which definitely went through a renaissance during the pandemic, kind of cooled, the demand for mushrooms cooled off a bit. After the pandemic we love the product we love the supplier but people just aren't it maybe mushrooms are a little polarizing so people are sort of excited about mushrooms and so it's just a very small category that. Initially i think i hope you've been well we could grow the category but even if we did it still just didn't feel material enough and. Right now, even just what we're selling in tea, and we're only one brand, but our tea sales are larger than the entire category of plant-based jerky in the natural channel. So for us, it was a hard decision because we love the product, and the mushroom jerky checked all the boxes around sustainability. It's a water-efficient crop. It was organic. It's low energy product. There's no waste because we're using the whole mushroom. There's a great supplier story. And amazing for a chef to create a chef-crafted product line because the mushrooms absorb the marinade so well. So all of those things were in its favor, but the dollar volume just wasn't compelled. You know, when we think about, do we want to spend money investing in a demo and T where we get, you know, literally we'll sell cases in a day versus mushroom jerky where we'll sell. If we're lucky, we'll sell a case a week. It just was a hard decision emotionally, but an easy decision from a business perspective.

Jessi: That makes sense. Yeah, that would be it's just the brand that you launched, you know, Eat the Change with. So that makes sense. There'd be that kind of emotional connection. But then, yeah, when you line up the dollars and cents, it just it just didn't make sense anymore.

Seth: Yeah. And I think it's often the case that your first product is rarely the one that sort of leads you across the finish line that becomes your most successful. And whether you look at brands like Vitamin Water, another classic one is Happy Baby. I was on the board of Happy Baby and their first product line was frozen baby food. And obviously it was the shift to pouches that was the big breakthrough for them. You start in one place and you just have to keep iterating. You have to listen to the market, listen to the consumer. And if you're lucky, you iterate towards a place that where you get that traction.

Jessi: Yeah, absolutely. And speaking of iterations, I also want to talk about the packaging iterations that you're making on Cosmic Shoes. I'm curious if you can share about the decision to kind of change the packaging and the thinking that goes into educating consumers and all of that.

Seth: And that's really exciting because we just got our first picture today of the new package on the shelf. We launched the carrot chews. We are big believers in them. I mean, everyone, not everyone, but almost everyone who tastes them says, wow, this is a really tasty product. And I understand why it's a needed product because kids aren't eating enough vegetables. And so here's a snack that I can put in my kid's lunchbox that has the nutrients, has the vitamin A, has the fiber of carrots and is much healthier compared to what are called fruit chews where there's really no fruit. So we were about the sales again the velocity wasn't great and so we had to look at it and say well it's currently configured this is not compelling enough and in fact the characters did get discontinued from sprouts because the velocity wasn't good enough and it was hard to blame him we just said yeah we gotta do better. And what we felt was that we needed to do a better job on the package explaining what the product is and the carrots on their own. And we heard this from buyers too. And I'm really grateful that the whole foods buyer said, look, we, we still think this has merit. We're not ready to give up on it, but we want you to redo the packaging and put more emphasis on the fun part. You know, these are fun snacks. And so we did, we, we made it look much more. I don't know it's kind of a fine kind of retro almost like gumball type of treatment big language and then on the front of the package we had language that says this is more than a fruit you as it is in the first year it's it's more than and on the back it says it's carrots and explains what it is. We also toned down the carrot imagery on the front because that was probably a little not attractive, especially to the younger consumer. So we tried to just make it fun and inviting on the front and then explain on the back why it is useful. And hopefully this is replicating the success of Honest Kids, where the goal is to make it attractive enough to the kid, but compelling to the parent who ultimately is the shopper in this equation.

Jessi: Right. Yeah. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. The chews are really so interesting. Like getting to try them. I was like, this tastes like better than a, like a so-called, like you said, a so-called fruit chew, but it's like actually good for you. And it's made from carrots somehow. Like my mind was just like kind of blown for a while because they're so interesting. So I'm really excited for this. packaging update and to see how consumers connect with. And I hope our listeners get to try the shoes themselves because they're just, they're really good. And it's, it's such a unique, cool product. So I'm, I'm really excited to see what's next.

Seth: But I hope others feel the same way.

Jessi: For these changes and then the growth with Just Ice Tea, you also recently raised $14 million. I'm curious if you can talk a little bit about, you know, raising money and kind of what you'll be using the money from the raise for.

Seth: Sure. Yeah, we've grown quickly. We're happy about that and gratified by the response. And we see an opportunity to grow, you know, I'd say continue accelerating that growth, but it takes resources to do that. And so We, you know, talked with our investors are really mostly our existing investors. I mean, I've over the year, I was approached by some folks who wanted to invest it if we ever did raise more money, but primarily our existing investors said, you know, we think you're onto something here, let's accelerate. And so we decided it made sense, especially because we haven't talked about it, but we're launching a can line, which is a new product line. That'll be hitting the stores really, I guess, early next year. And that's going to take resources too. And so we had our existing investors put forth funds to expand the business further. And so we'd love to be able to keep the kind of growth rate we have happening this year. I'd say for us next year is about getting broader distribution beyond the natural channel. certainly continuing to grow the natural channel but really expanding beyond that as well and then of course really spending the can line and seeing that launch we think the can line has great potential as a take home package that glass bottles are often consumed in store or in restaurant cans will be putting in multi packs that people can take home.

Jessi: Yeah, I was going to ask, I'm super curious about more on the canned line. Did that come from like consumer feedback to do multi-packs or how did that originate?

Seth: Well, so at Honest Tea, we had a plastic bottle, which we decided did not make sense for our brand, given our commitment to environmental, planet-friendly food. And so we wanted to find another way for people to have the product in places where glass wasn't welcome. But also as a way to democratize the product, the can package will be priced lower than the glass bottle. The glass bottle is that premium product and the cans can be a lower priced product and hopefully expand the reach and audience.

Jessi: Oh, interesting. Yeah, that makes sense. And have retailers been excited about the idea as well?

Seth: Yeah, we've gotten a great response from retailers. We showed this product at Expo East and really got a nice feedback on it.

Jessi: Oh, that's so exciting. Yeah. Very excited to see that out in the market. And you said that'll be launching next year?

Seth: Yeah. We're doing a pilot run this month and that'll, you know, we'll be sending out samples and that kind of thing. You know, you'll start to see it on shelves, uh, effectively really next year. Yeah.

Jessi: Awesome. I also wanted to make sure to chat a little bit about the fact that we just passed the 10 year anniversary of Mission in a Bottle, a book that's connected with so many people. And so I just, I don't know, I wanted to give you the chance to, if there was any stories from the book that have been resonating with you lately. from the past or any stories that, you know, people bring up to you all the time from the book. I just wanted to take a moment to celebrate that 10 year anniversary.

Seth: Thank you. Yeah, it's, you know, just to share that it is a comic book, so it makes it a fun read. And I still have, I literally have a copy on my desk. I often will turn to it just I'm like, all right, wait, where was Honest Tea at this point? And for example, how many employees did, you know, I learned when Honest Tea was at 23 million in sales, it had 52 employees. So, all right, well that we're, we're obviously much more efficient now. We're on that pace, but we have a much leaner head count. That's a good data point. The other one that is funny now is the pricing. I mean, our glass bottles are literally twice as expensive today as they were when the book was written. So, you know, that just shows you how the world has changed that way. And so much of the book is still relevant and it's fun. Whether I go to a conference or on LinkedIn, someone will reach out and say, I've just read the book and I thank you so much for, you know, most cost effective education I've received about this industry. Yeah, so it's been fun to have it out there. And it is especially now where people will reach out to me and ask for advice. And I am locked in on building this business, so I don't have the ability to sit with everybody. But I can point them toward the book, which does contain all the advice and lessons we wanted to share. And it basically acts as a proxy for someone speaking with me, which is good for them and good for me.

Jessi: Yeah. Oh, that's so cool. And I'm curious for you just as a leader, you know, we talked about growing really quickly. And is there anything else from a leadership perspective that you've been thinking about lately or just any insights for brands that are experiencing quick growth? Anything that really comes to mind just from a leadership perspective that you've found really important recently?

Seth: Sure. I mean, the one I shared with our team today is like, this is a crazy world. There's all this tension, all this haterade out there. That's just, and then we have employees going through health challenges. And I like, so we really leaned into providing mental health support and counseling. And part of it is it's available in our benefits package, which is great. But even for employees who aren't on our benefits package, I said, I just, we've got to support our employees all the way around. And of course we're in this different universe than. at the time where honesty where people always came to the office, you know, people are now working from home and at different conditions. And so for the most part, that's a useful thing. But when you let work into your home, then we also have to let accept their lives coming into work. And so what that means is I can't expect someone just to be a good and focused employee from nine to five. They're probably working more than those hours, but they're also going through all types of stuff. that doesn't get checked at the door when they start working because they're not coming in the door and so we got to support our employees in all of who they are and all that they're going through and so for us that was a really important step to take and i think that is that's kind of the way the world is evolving because a lot of people don't have you know social family networks to fall back on or I mean, it's great when they do or, you know, church or religious communities they can lean on. And so we've got to help at least offer to support them in all the things going on in life.

Jessi: Yeah, I really appreciate that. I was joining a call for something the other day. I don't even know that it was work related, but the person starting the call was just saying, you know, we're all joining these things remotely. Sometimes we're at home, sometimes we're at the office. And it's just important to mark, you know, the connections and communities, even if it's just a conference call with five other people, like, let's just mark that we're all here in this together. And I thought that was a really important note and challenging times. And so hearing that you're thinking about that as a leader is is really cool. Also curious, how are you prioritizing these days with so much growth, with people being so excited? How do you prioritize? Do you have any tips for entrepreneurs on what they should focus on when so many people are telling you what to focus on or trying to pull on your attention? How do you focus and decide what's my next step?

Seth: Certainly, there's always a dynamic. It's always shifting based on the needs of the business. I always talk about there's three core tasks every entrepreneur has. The first is to create and communicate that vision about what you're trying to build and hopefully instill it in others and make them effective messengers. The second is to hire the people to execute that vision and to hire and manage them. Put them in the best position that fits their talents, skills, and ambitions. Then the third is to make sure they have the resources to execute that. Often, but not always, often that means raising capital. You've got to make sure they have the money. If you have a great team and you have a great vision, but you don't have the money to execute it, then that's not productive. Those are certainly the three core tasks. Once you do that, then I try to model the behavior I want to show. As I said, I was in the market this week going up and down the street with our distributor trying to build sales because sales is the imperative for our business. It is our lifeblood. We have to be selling tea. And so if i have time i'm gonna get out the street go door-to-door with the distributor and i'll learn about the trade i'll learn about how our brand is received and how our reaction to the product that taste the packaging all those things so that's active active listening by by selling. And then one thing we do as a company just is, as we get toward the end of the year is annual reviews with the people who are on direct reports. And so I want to be as productive and thoughtful as I can in helping to, you know, give feedback on their performance, understand what they're, where I can help them and hopefully, you know, use those, use those reviews to both give an example of how to give feedback to employees, but also certainly learn and listen as well, how I can do a better job.

Jessi: Yeah, that's very helpful to hear. And I appreciate the thoughtfulness you put into modeling behavior and just being out in the market. Like I think I saw a recent post where, you know, you visited like 30 stores or something. You're out there on the ground to connecting with consumers. And I really love that.

Seth: It's fun to do that. And it's, it is, if you can really, I mean, it's tiring, it's hard work, so you can't do it every day. But being able to do that just helps make sure we understand what's going on. And I've certainly seen people who they won't know, you know, what their retail price is, or they don't know who they're being merchandised next to, or, you know, they won't have spotted a new competitor. We may not always win, but it's not going to because it's not going to be because somebody surprised me, like, you know, I missed out on what was happening in the marketplace.

Jessi: Right. Yeah, absolutely. Well, is there any other final thoughts you wanted to leave us with or any other things coming up that we didn't cover? It's been so great to just hear an update on everything and to hear some of your learnings from the past year plus. And so I just want to give you a chance if there's anything else you wanted to share today that we didn't cover.

Seth: You know, I guess as you get towards the end of the year here, I just sort of salute and hats off to everyone building an enterprise. It's, it is, it's a, it's a hard environment, you know, and, and these big distributors, you know, the big warehouse distributors are, it's tough to make money with these guys, especially in that first year. We'll check in a year from now and I'll tell you how it goes in the second year. No, don't get discouraged by that. I mean, I do think it can't be a pushover. You've got to make sure you take a stance on things, but you've got to just be super, super careful these days around margins because it's so easy. You can lose money so many different ways. So really important to just be mindful of that. And you've got to find ways to sell that don't always involve discounting.

Jessi: Yes. Those are some great notes to end on, and I encourage everyone, if they haven't already, you know, go to eatthechange.com. There's a store locator to find products near you if you want to try the teas, if you want to try the chews. And then, you know, I'll make sure that Seth's LinkedIn is in the show notes so you can follow, because Seth, you share some great insights and wisdom on LinkedIn as well. So yeah, I hope everyone follows and checks out the products. This has just been so great to have you back on the show. So thank you so much for sharing with us today, Seth. I really, really appreciate it. Thanks, Jesse. I enjoyed it. If you enjoyed today's episode, the best way you can say thank you is by leaving a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. We seriously appreciate it so much, and it helps new people find the show. I'm Jessi Freitag, your host and producer. I'd love to connect with you on LinkedIn, or you can reach out anytime to podcast at startupcbg.com with your feedback, ideas, or just to say hi. Special thanks to our podcast assistant, Stephanie Roberts, Also be sure to check out more free resources from Startup CPG, our Slack community, webinars, databases, the blog, the magazine, virtual and in-person events, and more. All available at StartupCPG.com. Our intro and outro music for today's episode is by the Super Fantastics, the band of our Startup CPG founder, Daniel Scharff, which you can find on Spotify for more great tunes. On behalf of the whole team at Startup CPG, thank you so much for being here and see you next week.