The Startup CPG Podcast

Ashley Waldman
Of the biggest wins I feel like I've had so far in the journey of building this was so I mentioned my oldest daughter is a flavored milk aficionado. And prior to having Jubilees, our option was just white milk that I put Hershey syrup in. And my biggest win was the day that she asked me specific even though we had the materials were the bad stuff, she asked me for cookie milk and I was like, we have won. We are here. We have arrived. Like I know this can work if she asks for it over the non healthy stuff. Like I know that we are here.

00:49
Caitlin Bricker
Hey everybody. This is Caitlin Brooker, editor at Startup cpg. Welcome back to the show. Today we have a very special episode with Ashley Waldman, founder of Jubilees. Jubilees is a picky eater approved flavored milk packed with protein, vitamins, hidden veggies, and zero added sugar. The timing couldn't be any better because Ashley just won the ones to watch pitch competition at Beverage Forum. A Texas native, Ashley started Jubilees in 2020 after discovering the sugar content in kids beverages. Now she's ready to transform the children's beverage industry and people are taking notice. We'll explore kids drinks and sugar, a conversation that might change the way you think about what you serve your little ones. Enjoy. Hey, Ashley, thank you so much for joining us today. I'd love for you to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about Jubilees.

01:44
Ashley Waldman
Hey, Caitlin, thank you so much for having me join. I am the founder of Jubilees. Jubilees is a healthy flavored milk for kids. So it's actually the only flavored milk that is sweetened exclusively with fruit juice, fruit puree, and actually hidden vegetables. It also has high protein, 100% vitamins, zero added sugar, and no artificial colors or flavors. And so I invented this brand because I was tired of fighting with my very picky eaters to eat healthy. It's a problem that is particularly challenging for us because my oldest daughter is autistic and she really struggles with a lot of food flavors and textures. But serendipitously flavored milk became the one thing we could consistently give her and she would drink it. And I realized that it gave me this, like, massive sense of relief because I was like, okay.

02:38
Ashley Waldman
Even on the days when she's only eaten popcorn, at least I know that she's gotten some nutrition from milk, which is just naturally very nutritious. But it still had a problem which was like, oh my God. Most milks on the market, flavored milks on the market just have an egregious amount of sugar. And they also do have some nutritional gaps. So that was really my mission in creating Jubilees is like, how can I plug those holes in conventional brands while still providing the value that I liked about them?

03:11
Caitlin Bricker
I love that. And obviously I brought some to show because I had to pre order I had the other one too.

03:20
Ashley Waldman
So chocolate chip is the most surprising thing. I get about that one all the time. It was funny. I'll give you an example. I was in the park the other day just like pulling a wagon around with a cooler, handing them out just to like get user, you know, consumer feedback. And I gave one to this 10 year old boy and he was drinking and he was like, oh, this is so good. And I was like, yeah. So the second ingredient that is actually carrot juice. And he was like, oh. And I was like, you liked it and you didn't even know. So I love seeing that light bulb moment. That's usually when I'm talking to other parents and moms and stuff about the brand. That's the most exciting moment is when I tell them that I let them try it.

03:55
Ashley Waldman
And then I tell them that and you can just see in their face like, what, are you kidding? And I'm like, yeah. And there's beet juice in the strawberry.

04:01
Caitlin Bricker
I love that so much. I mean, I have a daughter of my own, she's 15 months now. She will not drink regular milk. I think I was the same way as a kid. This might sound totally crazy, but when I was younger I would not drink milk. And I kind of, as I'm growing up, I compare it to like going to church. I drank milk and I went to church because it made my parents happy, not cause I enjoyed it.

04:25
Ashley Waldman
Yeah, yeah, I hear that story all the time.

04:28
Caitlin Bricker
Literally this milk, Evie is my daughter's name again. She won't take milk if I put it into a bottle for her. She won't take milk if I put into a sippy cup. Doesn't matter. The vessel, she's not into it. I gave her the chocolate, she hasn't tried the strawberry. Gave her the chocolate chip cookie in her sippy cup. And she looked at me like she knew I was up to something. She looked at me, she gave me a face. And then she took another sip and she didn't take her lips off of it, she dazzled it. And I was like, okay, great. And I'm sitting here looking at this and I'm like, great. She got her eight grams of protein. There's no added Sugar. And what is this? 100% of vitamin D and vitamin C. Amazing.

05:09
Ashley Waldman
Which, normally there's 0% in milk, but, you know, I mentioned, like, a big goal of ours was to fill. Mine was like, to fill some of the nutritional gaps. And we added. This is another secret. Don't tell your children. We added an algae based vitamin D. So that's how we reached a 100%. And then we added an acerola cherry extract, which is how we got the 100% vitamin C. So there's some other, like, fancy stuff in there, but yeah, as long as the kids just think it tastes great, like, that's all that matters.

05:39
Caitlin Bricker
I have tried this myself. I've tried all of your flavors. I love them. I would never guess that it's sweetened with fruits and veggies. Never. Like, I would just think it's regularly sweetened. And I really appreciate that about your beverages because I myself am on my no added sugar journey. But this is something that if I just needed a quick hit of protein, I would pick this up myself and just bring it to the gym or bring it on a walk or bring it to travel.

06:06
Ashley Waldman
Yeah, the added sugar, I mean, that was such an important focus of mine. When were doing formulation, I remember specifically one conversation in like, one of the last rounds of trials, and my formulator saying, like, if we could just add like one gram of sugar, I really think that would just take it over the line. But really interestingly, I was like, what about salt? So I'm. I know that sounds odd, but I'm actually like a big cook. I love to cook my cook all the time. And one trick I use a lot is actually one way to, like, amp up a flavor profile in something sweet and also vice versa is to add a little bit of salt. And the other benefit of it is also preservative. Yeah, it's also a preservative. Like, it helps to maintain the texture.

06:52
Ashley Waldman
So we added the little bit of sea salt, which is just in the chocolate, and it was exactly what it needed. So it didn't need sugar, it just needed a tiny bit of salt.

07:02
Caitlin Bricker
I mean, you think about a chocolate chip cookie, too. Like, a little bit of salt on top of a homemade chocolate chip cookie just hits the spot. So I guess this does make sense.

07:11
Ashley Waldman
Like, a gooey, freshly baked chocolate chip cookie with just like a little bit of flaky sea salt on top is like perfection to me.

07:18
Caitlin Bricker
Totally. So you went on this journey with jubilees knowing that you didn't want to have the added sugar in your beverage, Was there ever a point where you felt like, maybe I should pivot away from this? Or have you been strong on that path? So since the inception, since this thought was in your mind about starting.

07:35
Ashley Waldman
No, no, from the beginning. So it's interesting. Jublis is very much a story of, like, iteration over time. I didn't set out to start a flavored milk company actually. So the idea.

07:45
Caitlin Bricker
The beginning.

07:46
Ashley Waldman
I know, I know. So the idea started. I was literally weaning my oldest daughter breast milk, which she's now four. So that tells you, like, when it really started. And I was thinking, what am I going to give this girl to drink? I'm a huge beverage person. Like, if you look at my fridge, I've got kombuchas, I've got cold brew coffee, I've got tea, I've got all kinds of stuff coffees, like ollipops. I'm like so much on that train. So I was like, why don't I get a girl drink? I'm not like a just water and milk mom. Which if you. There's a lot of moms like that, totally fine, no shade. But I wanted something else. And so I started looking at the market and I just could not believe what we have normalized giving our children in terms of sugar.

08:22
Ashley Waldman
And I had just watched this documentary. I was on maternity leave, so I was watching a lot of TV and I watched this documentary about the addictive qualities of sugar. And they literally did all these tests on rats and stuff. And it was like, I'm misquoting this, but it was like on the level of like cocaine addiction, like sugar. So I was horrified. And so I said, okay, so what's out there? There are options on the market that are low sugar or no added sugar. And I created a spreadsheet where I collected thousands of Amazon reviews on all of these products. And the message was pretty clear. It is gross. It goes in the trash, it is a waste of money. And so I was like, ooh, okay, well, not that. So I said, okay, we like, clearly we can do better here.

09:09
Ashley Waldman
And I have the advantage of having a dad who's been in the beverage industry forever. He's owned and operated a non alcoholic BRNT company for more than 20 years. And I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur. So I went to him with this of like, hey, what if I created a drink for kids that was low sugar but actually tasted amazing? And he spent the next hour telling me all the reasons why the beverage industry is horrible. And I shouldn't do it because it's too hard. And I said, cool, sounds fun, I'll do it. So that's where it started, was like, I wanted to have low sugar and I want it to taste great. But then I started talking to moms about this idea. Like, is this something you'd be interested in? Like, what would you want in it?

09:43
Ashley Waldman
I mean, just my friends and something that came up a lot was, okay, you're telling me what's not in it, which is sugar, but what is it actually proactively offering nutritional wise. And this was like really before functional beverages, like really have reached the heights of today. But I think were like just starting to see the glimmers of it. And I was like, you're right, that is important. So I went to my formulator and I said, it has to taste amazing. Dessert flavored. I was the one who came with like the dessert profile. It has to have no added sugar, low sugar, and it has to have a lot of nutrition. And just naturally it ended up being 95% milk. And so fast forward by then. This was during COVID So it took about a year and a half to develop this formula.

10:25
Ashley Waldman
Cause we're like sending samples through the mail. And my daughter's older by that point and that's when she's like, get an affinity for flavored milk. And I had this problem of like the picky eating started and I still wasn't calling it a flavored milk. I was like, maybe a smoothie, I don't know. But then I found an industry report that said the flavored milk industry is the $57 billion industry and it has a category growth rate of more than 5%. It's supposed to be 90 billion by 2023, which is, by the way, 20 times the size of plant based milk and 30 times the size of ready to drink protein beverages. And I was like, ooh, I think it's a flavored milk. So that's kind of how we got here.

11:05
Ashley Waldman
I wasn't trying to be like the queen of flavored milk, but that's how we got here. And then it just was like the icing on top that my daughter also just in the timeline of building this brand, became like the queen of flavored milk. Also, it felt like kismet, like this was meant to be.

11:20
Caitlin Bricker
Wow, I love that so much. I mean, when I first came across your brand, it was through Food Navigator, right when I started at startup tv and you were named as, I think it was one of the 11 disruptors in dairy. And I was like, oh, my God, I have never seen something like this on the shelf. Not in the shelf stable section, in the kids section, and not in the dairy fridge where the milks and the yogurts are. And I just. My mind was blown. And I've basically been obsessed with your product since before I even tried it. The concept just blew my mind. The fact that nobody else had done this yet. And now here it is, live in action. I keep staring at them because they're just so cute.

12:01
Ashley Waldman
I mean, yes, I had the same feeling. And at first I thought that, like, the big differentiator was the no added sugar, which it is. It's very important. And so I was pushing, obviously pushing on that a lot. But again, as I've been in the market, people react more to the vegetables part. And so I'm actually in the process of getting a patent or a patent pending for the innovation of sweetening milk with vegetable and fruit juice because it is really novel. I didn't really think of that when I was going into it. I was just like, I wanted to have a lot of nutrition and I want my daughter to eat her vegetables. And so it's just been really exciting to see that, like, it started with just like a personal problem and has turned into something that people really react strongly to.

12:44
Caitlin Bricker
Well, I mean, if you start with a personal problem, I feel like, you know, you're destined to find a solution and you can just feel the passion coming off of you about this. So, like, you needed to hit your goal and here it is. You've launched. So tell me what the launch has been like for you.

13:01
Ashley Waldman
Surreal. I had this moment where I was two weeks from my launch date and I had already. Sorry, I don't mean to brag, but it's just like, I had this moment. I was like, I can't believe this is happening. Where it was like, I was two weeks from launch and I had already been selected by Sarpsius. Thank you. To like, start sample at this event with a hundred plus people and whole foods buyers. I had already heard back from my top three grocery targets, like natural food grocery targets that I think are like, premium perfect fit for my audience. I had also been reached out to by two major news organizations and a secret project TV show I can't super talk about. I was talking to my husband. I was like, I can't believe this is real. Like, I.

13:45
Ashley Waldman
I felt in my heart this was a good idea. But, like, seeing the validation just in getting responses from people in the Industry has felt amazing. So, like, the short answer is like, it's totally surreal, especially since I told you my story of, like, how long it took me to get here. Also, I want to say, like, it's real now. Like, I have to sell this. Like, I have to sell it. So it's both, like, so much stress because I literally have a warehouse full of 37 pallets of milk that I'm like, oh, shit, I have to sell those. But also, like, really exciting and motivating because I'm like, every time I get an email that's like, you got another online order. I'm like, yes, I did it.

14:25
Ashley Waldman
So it's really stressful, but, like, it's so fulfilling and exciting after so many years of dreaming about it. So that's my sense of launch.

14:34
Caitlin Bricker
I love that so much. And are you a one woman show right now?

14:38
Ashley Waldman
Mostly, yes. My dad is very much a key contributor, so I'm on the phone with him once a day, like just talking to her, whatever problem or question or idea I have. So he's a massive support system, I would say. And then I obviously worked with some partners. I have a legal, like, counsel I work with on, you know, trademark and the patent and my claims and things like that. I have a designer that I contracted for all my packaging. But yeah, that's it. I do everything else right now.

15:04
Caitlin Bricker
It's impressive. It's impressive. So going back to the no added sugar, do you feel like this is an issue within your household strictly when it comes to milk, or is this something that you tackle when it comes to other food and beverage products too?

15:20
Ashley Waldman
So I heard you say in conversation with Daniel, like, you're not an almond balm. And so I would say the same in that, like, I'm not militant about it, right? Like, I think it's all about moderation. So, like, my girls get treats, you know, obviously use that as a bargaining chip when you can. But the area where I am, like, very cognizant about it is, like, it's surprising to me how often sugar is added when it seems totally unnecessary. So, like, I was looking at macaroni and cheese the other day and, you know, comparing some conventional brands with some of the newer options out there, which I love. And I couldn't believe that there was like so much added sugar just in that. Another example of it is like, bread. Like some bread has just an unnecessary amount of added sugar. So I'm cognizant.

16:05
Ashley Waldman
So my answer is like, I am not a zero added sugar family, for sure. But I am cognizant about it in terms of my buying habits. I always look at it on the label and saying, like, does this seem necessary or not? If not, then, no. We get enough sugar in, you know, other ways. Like, we don't need it in our macaroni and cheese.

16:25
Caitlin Bricker
Very true. For my family, I kind of been the primary grocery buyer in my household. And back in July, I think it was, I saw a video of a woman online, and she showed her transformation after cutting sugar out of her life. No added sugar. So that included conventional sugar. It included honey. It included syrups, obviously artificial sugars, too. And after seeing her transformation photo, I was like, wow, I'm going to try this. And I literally started right away. And I was just shocked at how much sugar I was eating. I knew I was eating a lot of sugar. Like, I love a sweet treat. Can't leave a whole foods without a candy bar. Or, like, kombucha or just something, you know, just something to be like, you did it. You made it to the grocery store.

17:10
Caitlin Bricker
Now you can have this on your ride home. So I ended up doing it, and I am still very much doing it. Now we're in shelfie season, so I can't say no to everything. I have to, like, give it a little taste. But I had the same experience that this woman had, which about 23 days in, I looked at a photo of myself that I took before and then 23 days, and I was just amazed at how different my face looked. My face was not as red. I never feel bloated anymore. My period cramps went away completely. I have had period cramps my entire life. It was just transformative for me. And I hate feeling bloated. It's such a bad feeling. Like, I just want to feel comfortable in my clothes and, like, walking around.

17:55
Caitlin Bricker
And I experimented with this because I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant. Never thought that would happen to me. And of course, when you get this diagnosis, you're like, okay, what do I do now? Because I never had this knowledge before about pairing carbs and protein, et cetera. So now, just like you, I'm very conscious about it. I buy for myself. But, you know, like, if my daughter ever wanted something at the grocery store or if my husband wanted to buy ice cream, like, yeah, it's allowed in the house. They're allowed to do with. This is just, like, the path for me, what feels good for me. But my husband has noted that it feels good for him, too. And our, like, special treat every Night is just ate chocolate chips.

18:40
Caitlin Bricker
Like, we go hard on those, they are just like the best ever. So that's where I'm coming from with this. And it's just like, I don't want to become pre diabetic. I don't want to become diabetic myself. My family, I mean, we have a history of diabetes and high blood pressure, heart issues, et cetera. And I want to do what I can to avoid that for myself. Like, I'm 35 now. It's now or never for me. I feel like, especially now being a mom, I want to be here for as long as possible for my daughter. And taking control of my health is a way to do that.

19:14
Caitlin Bricker
And when you look at the American Heart association too, if I'm not mistaken, so don't quote me on this, but I believe that their suggested intake for added sugar for an adult male, I think it's nine teaspoons a day or 36 grams of added sugar. And for an adult woman, it's six teaspoons and 25 grams of sugar per day. I was eating that like in a sitting. Forget about a day. Like you think that you're shopping natural products, buying organic. You think it just comes with the territory that totally, you know, it's just not going to be loaded with sugar. It's just not the case. Like, you have to read a little deeper.

19:55
Caitlin Bricker
So I appreciate when brands like yours are coming out and you're doing the work for us because it's just one less thing to look for when you're in the grocery store.

20:03
Ashley Waldman
Well, it's clearly like something a lot of people are interested in growing interest. So obviously, as part of my marketing, I search for communities of people looking for this differentiator and there is hashtag into like groups of hashtags entirely dedicated to this topic. And I think what's really interesting is that like the people, the creators, I see the people commenting on this content, it really ranges a lot. Like, it's not any one demographic. It's young people, it's old people, it's moms. It's not moms, it's Gen Z. It's all over the place. And I find that really compelling. I don't know, I don't really have a good sense. I don't remember ever hearing discussion about no added sugar, like low added sugar forever diet culture, 90s, like always a thing.

20:52
Ashley Waldman
But like the zero added sugar part does feel like it's been a lot more novel and emerging, you know, just in the last few years. Do you feel that way or what? Do you. What is your sense of it?

21:01
Caitlin Bricker
I totally can confirm, yeah, These conversations were not happening amongst my friends or family until, I would say, the last year or so. My algorithm, when you go on social media, there's a lot more conversation about it. Maybe it's because I'm searching for it, maybe it's not, but it found me. You know that video that I saw of this girl who posted her transformation? I wasn't searching for it, but it found me, thankfully, at a good point in my life. Not during 90s diet culture conversations, because that ruined a lot of us.

21:36
Ashley Waldman
You know, speaking of which, though, like, on the 90s diet culture thing, I do think that the shift in that. So as I said, like, I think it used to be healthy meant like low calories or no calories. And it was really just about, like, cutting out. I'm so appreciative that I feel like the conversation and it's definitely informed my product and my brand has shifted to no, healthy is about what is the actual nutritional benefits of what you're consuming? Like, what is it actually made of? Like, Diet Coke was healthy because it had no sugar, it had no calories. But of course we know now. But what's inside of it? Like, what. What is all of that doing to your body? And I'm just so grateful that now the conversation about health is really focused on micros.

22:19
Ashley Waldman
And I think it started with protein. I really feel like, well, it probably didn't start, but I mean, I feel like I heard more about protein and then now it's expanded to, you know, a broader set of vitamins, a broader set of nutritional benefits. And I think I'm just so glad that's where we are.

22:33
Caitlin Bricker
I'm really glad that's where we are too, because I feel like it is such a pivotal time right now because, you know, it's very polarizing for people. But we have conversations happening on red dye right now and we kind of wonder, at least I wonder, like, okay, red dye is gone. What's the next big thing that we're going to go after? And maybe it's sugar, maybe it's not. There's just so much money to be made. It makes you wonder, what is it?

22:58
Caitlin Bricker
But being consumers, being creators, there really is just such a good opportunity here for us to take matters into our own hands, to shop for products that don't have added sugar in them, to create products that don't have added sugar in them, to make products that are balanced you know, I was just having this conversation with my coworkers because we're receiving so many products right now for the Shelfie Awards, and I have to be very conscious about what I'm eating because I have to look at my carbs and my protein. And added sugar, of course, because I'm still testing my blood sugars and postpartum to make sure that I'm on the right track. And you'll get a product that's loaded with protein. Great. It has a good amount of carbs in it, but there's no fiber.

23:43
Caitlin Bricker
So it just makes you kind of wonder, you know, what's going to be next? Like, what's the next big thing? Fiber is so hot right now. Protein is so hot right now. But where is the balance?

23:54
Ashley Waldman
Probiotics, prebiotics, right?

23:57
Caitlin Bricker
Totally.

23:58
Ashley Waldman
I feel like I know we've made it with sugar with the no added sugar. When Whole Foods sprouts, the natural grocers have like a filter and maybe they have this, but I haven't noticed a filter on their website for, like, just give me products with no added sugar.

24:13
Caitlin Bricker
You know, I've looked for that at Trader Joe's and have not been able to find it because their products turn around so quickly. I'm like, just tell me what to buy. I just want to treat. Just tell me what doesn't have added sugar. But yes, I would love to see something like that. To my knowledge, why local Whole Foods does not have that or Big Grocer does not have that, but I would love to see that. I would use that filter so easily. I think that would be a great addition.

24:40
Ashley Waldman
I want to say it was thrive market, but I might be getting it wrong where they have a feature. So I come from technology, so naturally I'm like very gravitated to those shiny objects, even in CPG space. And they have a feature where you can scan like a conventional product and it will suggest, like the better for you alternative, which I thought was just such a cool idea. I don't know if people care enough to go through all that effort. I don't know what the scanning user experience looks like, but yeah, I thought that was a pretty cool innovation.

25:08
Caitlin Bricker
That is really cool. Back in the day for me, there was ewg. You could look at ewg. There was like Dirty Dozen maybe. I'm probably getting these names wrong. But you could scan your personal care products or you could scan something to see if it was vegan or not. But these things have come such a long way. That would have been an amazing Tool to have for thrive market when I was in college and like, going down the rabbit hole of clean personal care products.

25:35
Ashley Waldman
Yeah, I know this is a little bit of a tangent, but it is something about you that I'm so interested in is that you talked about in conversation with Daniel about how such a big part of your journey was in the body care segment. And I'm interested, like, what is the no added sugar version in body care for you? Like, it cannot have this ingredient or is it, like, a few things?

25:54
Caitlin Bricker
That is a great question. There are so many things. But I feel like even in natural products right now, there are still two things that I am seeing that I wish I did not see. See, the number one thing for me is fragrance. And I know fragrance is it's loaded, right? It could either be naturally derived or it could be artificial. And it's proprietary, so you don't need to share what's in it. But, you know, the nose knows my headaches. No. So artificial fragrance for me is definitely a number one. I had a fragrance fruit wedding. It was literally on the Save the dates and the invitations to my wedding asked people not to wear perfume and cologne. I totally get it. Olfactory. It reminds.

26:40
Caitlin Bricker
You can smell something that will remind you of, like, a really great time in your life or a person. Get it, Respect it. I just can't do it. I can't do it for me personally. And then another one is phenoxy ethanol. It's a preservative. It started popping up, I want to say, around 2017ish, when parabens were getting a bad rap. So people were taking parabens out of their products, but they needed to replace it with another preservative. So phenoxy ethanol started showing up. And I was reading, you know, NIH articles and reading studies about it because I was like, what the hell is this? And why is it now showing up in products that I'm seeing on the shelf? And it was not good. I mean, concentration of 1%.

27:24
Caitlin Bricker
But even then, that kind of tells me, like, if it has to be in such a low concentration, like, I probably wouldn't want to be putting it on my skin. And something that really stood out to me about it was, I believe it was in the uk they encouraged people not to put phenoxy ethanol containing products in the nappy area, which is the diaper area for kids. So nothing's right, nothing's wrong, you know, but for me, those are two things that I stay away from myself and for my family. Like, again, Primary buyer for body care in my own household. Even now that I'm out of retail, like, I enjoy these things, but those two things I really do stay away from. But I feel like if you just stick to plants, you can't really go wrong.

28:05
Caitlin Bricker
And I do understand you can have plant derived fragrances, you could have plant derived preservatives, but yeah, that's me in a nutshell.

28:13
Ashley Waldman
All right, well, now, yeah, I'm adding that to my list of. I am admittedly, like not good at looking at the labels of the products I put on my body. I am generally like kind of a natural. Like, I don't really use a lot of products. I don't really wear a lot of makeup. I don't really like, generally consume a lot of that anyways. And that might be partially why I don't pay a ton of attention to it. But it's definitely something I want to be more educated about because it's just as important it's going on your body. So when we care a lot about what goes in our body. So it should really go both ways.

28:42
Caitlin Bricker
Yeah, I would agree with that. You can get into a rabbit hole so quickly, but once you do start identifying ingredients that you want to stay away from, you'll see them on the labels and then you start finding the products that you really just become an advocate for. An evangelist, even, like I would say I'm a jubilees evangelist.

29:00
Ashley Waldman
Personally, I love it.

29:04
Caitlin Bricker
You do? Honestly, like, you find these products and you're like, okay, nothing is wrong with this. It's doing good things for me, it's doing good things for the world. I love what the founder is doing. And then you just support them and you buy them and you use them all the time and tell your friends and family about it.

29:19
Ashley Waldman
I reacted to that jokingly, but I really have a. Sincerely. The thing I dream about most is seeing the recurring customers in the. In the advocates and people that feel just as excited about the problem that it's solving that I do. I know they're there because, you know, I mentioned talking to my mom friends, but I also did a lot of consumer research. They have platforms where you can go and find people in specific niches and just for whatever research purpose you're trying to do. So I probably end up Talking to about 100 different parents about this product. And it was just themes, again, were really salient. Like, I. It's so stressful to fight with my kid every single day. And it's not just once a day. It's first thing in the morning. No, you may not have X, Y and Z for breakfast.

30:04
Ashley Waldman
Like, come home from school and you realize they ate none of the good stuff in their lunchbox. And then it's like dinner. It's like, just have one bite. Just one bite. Just one bite. It is all day. And so I cannot wait to just hear more of the stories that people are like, I just thank you for helping me with this. I mean, that is why I do this. And that is what I'm so much looking forward to seeing more of as we grow. Like, it's obviously money is great, but it's just doesn't mean as much as saying, like, I help improve someone's life, honestly.

30:35
Caitlin Bricker
Right.

30:35
Ashley Waldman
That sounds dramatic. But like, as a mom who struggles with this every day, like, if you can just relieve a little bit of that stress, like, that's what keeps me going.

30:44
Caitlin Bricker
Totally. I could see why that would keep you going, because it drives me nuts when I have to fight with my daughter and she doesn't know very many words yet. So when she has the vocabulary to really fight back, it's going to be exhausting. I'm sure.

30:57
Ashley Waldman
I knew, like, one of the biggest wins I feel like I've had so far in the journey of building this was so I mentioned my oldest daughter is a flavored milk aficionado. And prior to having Jubilees, our option was just white milk that I put Hershey's syrup in. And my biggest win was the day that she asked me specifically. Even though we had the materials or the bad stuff, she asked me for cookie milk. And I was like, we have won, we are here. We have arrived. Like, I know this can work if she asks for it over the non healthy stuff. Like, I know that we are here.

31:36
Ashley Waldman
And actually this reminded me something I've heard Daniel say in another podcast, which is like, I feel like it used to be with healthier options, like, you just assumed and expected there would be some, like, degradation of the flavor and experience. You're like, okay, well, like, at least it's healthy. I feel like we've evolved to a place where actually you can have it all. Like, you can have the experience of having an indulgence and also have it better for you. Some of the products I really love that are coming out right now that do have some added sugar, but it's like very low. I don't know if you've seen, well, whims. You probably know because they were also at the same event that I was at in Parkin.

32:12
Ashley Waldman
I Think they have one gram of added sugar, I want to say, but they are delicious. Like, I would choose that over Reese's peanut butter cups or like a Snickers or whatever any day of the week. Like, they just feel. Another product I'm obsessed with right now is true fruit. Have you seen this again? It has, like, some added sugar, but it's.

32:29
Caitlin Bricker
Is it like the chocolate covered berries? Yes, Very good. I've tried them. They are delicious.

32:34
Ashley Waldman
$12 a bag. But I buy them every single week now because it's like two at night after the kids go to bed is like the one of the things I look forward to most. And also, like, my kids love it. They are always asking for the strawberries. And yeah, my point is like, again, I feel so fortunate that we have evolved to a state where, like, you really can have both something that is better for you and doesn't taste disgusting.

32:58
Caitlin Bricker
We're here. Like you said, we've arrived. Hopefully it's here to stay. I've seen that there's some conversation about the pendulum might be swinging back right now and like, 2025 might be the year of junk food and people are, like, going backwards because they are, like, craving the sodas, they're craving the candy, which, hey, you know, it might be true, but I guess we'll see how 2025 plays out.

33:24
Ashley Waldman
Well, apparently the cosmic candy is all the rage these days.

33:28
Caitlin Bricker
Cosmic candy. I don't know if I've heard of this.

33:30
Ashley Waldman
Oh, like the freeze dried. It's like freeze dried, I think.

33:34
Caitlin Bricker
Huh.

33:35
Ashley Waldman
It's very odd to me. It looks very strange. And I feel like the experience of eating it would be like I had one that was a freeze dried skittle and I took everything about like the chewy experience of a skittle and turned it into like this weird powder crunchy thing. And I was like, why? Why are we doing this? Why are we doing this?

33:58
Caitlin Bricker
So interesting.

33:59
Ashley Waldman
Staying on. I'm staying on the better for you train. That is squarely where I want to reside.

34:04
Caitlin Bricker
Me too. I mean, I feel like, yes, I used to be militant back in my days when I was, like, single and not a mom. But we only have so much energy to give now. Like, I can't care too much about everything, so I try to care about a lot of things but give them as much energy as I can. If that makes sense.

34:25
Ashley Waldman
Yeah, I would say it totally makes sense. My husband and I talk about this a lot. Like, I think generally my. One of our, like, life mottos is just anything is fine as Long as you do it in moderation. And that comes to even healthy habits, that comes to exercise, that comes to work, that comes to the food that you eat. Like, nothing is inherently bad. It's just as long as you have the appropriate boundaries and moderation, it's totally fine. But then of course there's like, if you can't do that, then maybe you really should like cut that out of your life. So I think that, you know, also makes sense. But I am absolutely of the mindset that like, you can't be a plus at everything.

35:00
Ashley Waldman
So figure out like, where your values are most concentrated and do those like, achieve highly in those areas and everything else. Give yourself a break.

35:09
Caitlin Bricker
That's great advice. Is that the type of advice that you'd give a founder or do you have any advice that you want to share with founders?

35:17
Ashley Waldman
I mean, yes, from the sense of like, the thing I probably struggle with most is, well, just not having enough time. So like, the solution is focus. I am pretty militant about having a prioritization system and like a way to group my tasks into like buckets of like, this is the. We have this concept at Google called like P0. Maybe it lives outside of Google too. But P0 is like, if you do nothing else, like, the P0 is the thing that you absolutely have to get done. So even if I show up at my Jubilee's desk today and I have a task list of like 20 things, there's really only one P0 on there.

35:53
Ashley Waldman
And not only does that force me to focus on the thing that matters, but also, like, even if I only get to the P0, I don't feel like a failure because there was 19 other things I didn't do. So I guess my advice is like, your most valuable asset is your time. And I would make sure that it doesn't have to be what I said, but just some way of making sure that you're not getting distracted by this random email or getting distracted by, you know, a comment on your social media post or like, whatever it is. Like, have some sort of norm that allow you to make sure that you are getting the things done that really matter and that you have a framework for knowing what really matters.

36:30
Ashley Waldman
Like, in that moment, what's going to drive the most leverage for you as a business. And I think that, which would be like, maybe another recommendation is to have like, very concrete goals. So, you know, I use a framework called smart, which is like specific, measurable, actionable. It's like reasonable and time based. So all of my goals are like I want to achieve X milestone by X time. And I make them like very reasonable. Like, I try to intentionally make them something that feels easy to achieve. And usually I like overachieve them. So that would be like my. This feel like very tactical and unsexy. But those are my. Yeah, that's my advice.

37:07
Ashley Waldman
That would be like the advice I would coach myself on perpetually is like, focus, have concrete goals, make sure you have a mech, a way to drive the thing that you think you should spend the most time on at this exact moment.

37:21
Caitlin Bricker
Love that. Very reasonable.

37:24
Ashley Waldman
Actually, the other thing I would say for sure is like, seek out as much information and advice and feedback as possible. There are so many people that have been, even, you know, outside of CPG that have been in your shoes, that are trying to do what you're doing. And the worst you can do is to not try to learn from them and repeat the same mistakes over and over again. And I think CPG specifically is. I mean, maybe other industries are like this, but I just feel like there's so many resources out, free resources out there, from podcasts to webinars to communities to everything to other founders. Like, if you're not tapping into that, like you're dead in the water. Like, you need to be brave enough and vulnerable enough to say, like, I don't know everything. I want to be proven wrong.

38:12
Ashley Waldman
Like, one thing I like to say a lot when I'm talking to people I wanted to join my team at work is the people I value most are the people who tell me they think I'm wrong. Because I want to know where my blind spots are. I want the opportunity to, like, make sure the decisions we're making are the right ones. So that's the third thing is, like, don't be scared to seek out what you don't know. Find your blind spots. Meet other founders, meet other people in the community. Take that call. Like, that is going to be the difference between your success or failure.

38:39
Caitlin Bricker
Great advice. And is there anything exciting that you want to share with us about your brand? Any news, Anything coming down the pipeline? Anything that you're able to share?

38:51
Ashley Waldman
Yeah, I mean, so as of yesterday, I got accepted into my first retail location and it's with like, one of my dream banners. I can't talk about it, the banner yet, but it's an Austin based natural grocery store that I've been shopping at literally since I was in college. It's like a key part of my personal history. So that was extremely exciting and I got it based on. I went on my first. I told you about this. Last week, the week before this, I went on my very first, like, sales route and I stopped by at like 10 different stores, talked to people and I met. I just happened to run into a category manager for this store, but I had actually been emailing him, so. And I didn't realize that it was the same person. So that's the really exciting thing.

39:35
Ashley Waldman
I think the second thing is I'm headed to Expo west and I have a bunch of really exciting meetings scheduled, from meeting with the Whole Foods team to KHI and UNFI and a reporter with Food Navigator. And so I'm really excited to do those things, but also just network with. Oh, I'm sampling also at another startup CPG event, which. Thank you. I'm so excited. I think there's supposed to be more than a thousand people there, which is just like mind blowing to me.

40:02
Caitlin Bricker
We sold out to 1200 last year.

40:04
Ashley Waldman
Oh, that's nuts. That is nuts. So that's going to be like a massive highlight and milestone for us. And then I think the last thing I'd say is we're going to be. So right now we're just selling through our website, but starting cross our fingers, next week, the very latest, the week after that, we're also going to be on Amazon. So I'm really excited to be huge. Yeah, very accessible to the broader community in that way.

40:26
Caitlin Bricker
So good. And other than Amazon or on those store shelves, where can people find you if they want to learn more?

40:33
Ashley Waldman
Yeah, I am on social. I've kind of been building my socials, you know, from even a year ago. And so I'm on TikTok. My handle is Drink Jubilees. And then Instagram, it's Drink Jubilees with no period. And then I'm also on LinkedIn. You can follow us on there. Are those all the places? What other social platforms are there? I think that's where I am.

40:53
Caitlin Bricker
I think that's good enough.

40:55
Ashley Waldman
TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. I'm on Facebook. Who's on Facebook? But I am on Facebook.

40:59
Caitlin Bricker
Not me, but there are people out there. You will find your people on Facebook. Well, thank you so much for joining us. It's been a pleasure. I'm really excited to see you at Expo. Really excited to see where your brand goes. Very excited to follow along on this journey.

41:17
Ashley Waldman
Yeah, thank you. It's really a dream to be talking to you. I mean, you know how much of a fan and advocate I am for Startup cpg. I wouldn't be where I am without you. So thank you for being here and doing what you do.

41:29
Caitlin Bricker
Likewise for you. Honestly, I wouldn't have these sitting in front of me if it wasn't for you. All right everyone, thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, do us a solid and leave us a five star review on ratethispodcast.com startupcpg I'm Caitlin Bricker, the host of the Founder Feedback Feature series and editor at Startup CPG. Feel free to find me on LinkedIn or reach out to me on Slack and get on my radar. I'm always keeping my eyes peeled for new and emerging brands to spotlight. If you're a potential sponsor who would like to appear on the podcast, please email partnershipsartupcpg.com and finally, as a reminder for anyone listening, if you haven't already, we would love for you to join our free CPG Community on Slack. You can sign up via our website@startupcpg.com see you around.