Mitch Jacobsen, CEO of Rviita Energy Tea, Discusses the Process of Creating and Distributing a Food & Beverage Product in British Columbia

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[01:12] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Canada's Podcast, the number one podcast for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs.
[01:25] SPEAKER_03: With Mitch Jacobson from Reveda, and a little bit about Mitch because he actually produces his
[01:32] SPEAKER_03: product here in British Columbia, but Base Camp Head office is out of Alberta.
[01:36] SPEAKER_03: So we are entirely a Western Canada company here with Mitch.
[01:42] SPEAKER_03: So with no further ado, I'd like you to introduce yourself Mitch and say welcome.
[01:47] SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you so much, Angela.
[01:49] SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much for having me on the podcast.
[01:51] SPEAKER_02: It's an absolute honor.
[01:52] SPEAKER_02: You guys do so much for local entrepreneurs and I really appreciate the opportunity.
[01:56] SPEAKER_02: So my name is Mitch Jacobson.
[01:58] SPEAKER_02: I'm the founder of Reveda Energy Tea in your right where a Western Canadian company
[02:02] SPEAKER_02: where our product is actually made in Burnaby, but we're currently headquartered out of
[02:07] SPEAKER_02: Calgary, Alberta. I've lived in both places, so really passionate about both provinces and helping
[02:12] SPEAKER_02: as many people as we can in those provinces. So what is Reveda? So Reveda is a blend of
[02:18] SPEAKER_02: black or green tea, so natural caffeine from black or green tea,
[02:22] SPEAKER_02: fruit juices and some organic honey. And it's really low calorie, healthy afternoon, pick me up.
[02:27] SPEAKER_02: I created this company with my business partner Robyn Carly because one, we're really
[02:32] SPEAKER_02: passionate about health and fitness, but we're working downtown and we can never find a
[02:36] SPEAKER_02: health alternative to coffee and energy drinks, working those really long days.
[02:40] SPEAKER_02: And then we had a really close friend of ours. He actually suffered a minor heart attack
[02:43] SPEAKER_02: from chemical sugar filled energy drinks. And so that was really what the catalyst for the
[02:48] SPEAKER_02: idea was is why did someone producing a healthy alternative with clean, natural ingredients?
[02:53] SPEAKER_02: So we got to work three years ago and we launched the company back in October.
[02:58] SPEAKER_03: Oh wow. So October 2019 you launched?
[03:01] SPEAKER_02: October 2019, so there's a couple of years in the making, very new company, but we're very
[03:05] SPEAKER_02: fortunate that we've had a great response from our customers and it's been a great start.
[03:11] SPEAKER_03: So I've had the privilege of learning a little bit more about your entrepreneurial journey.
[03:15] SPEAKER_03: So let's just dive in a little bit deeper. So you came from like you can engineering degrees,
[03:21] SPEAKER_03: that right?
[03:22] SPEAKER_02: petroleum engineering degrees.
[03:24] SPEAKER_03: So how does the petroleum engineer turn out to be an energy drink producer?
[03:29] SPEAKER_03: How did it have what was that path?
[03:32] SPEAKER_02: A great question. So you know it's been funny and Rob's a geophysicist and Carly,
[03:37] SPEAKER_02: she's a nurse. So none of us have any related experience whatsoever to the centricion.
[03:42] SPEAKER_02: You know my one takeaway from that is don't allow that I don't know excuse to get the best
[03:47] SPEAKER_02: if you just take a day by day and you're willing to make mistakes the amazing what you can
[03:52] SPEAKER_02: accomplish. So yeah I was working in oil and gas downtown, I loved the industry but I was always
[03:56] SPEAKER_02: like I said really passionate about health and fitness and going to the gym and putting the
[04:00] SPEAKER_02: right things in my body. So it kind of started really just screwing around in my kitchen,
[04:04] SPEAKER_02: you know mixing some ingredients together. I figured out pretty quick that I am not a fruit
[04:09] SPEAKER_02: scientist and not know what I was doing. So early on in our journey we decided to hire a food
[04:15] SPEAKER_02: scientist actually based out of Vancouver and we worked with them over the course of kind of
[04:20] SPEAKER_02: the first two years. So yeah to answer your question, you know petroleum engineer, we had to get
[04:25] SPEAKER_02: some professional help to come up with the formula. You didn't have any background in that.
[04:29] SPEAKER_03: Now you have more than one formula. Now in all fairness I that that Mitch you were absolutely
[04:35] SPEAKER_03: charming and sent me some samples to test. So I've had the privilege of being able to take some
[04:41] SPEAKER_03: some of the drinks that I was rock climbing and hiking and things which are awesome but how many
[04:45] SPEAKER_02: how many flavors do you have? We originally launched with one flavor with called Divine Berry and it
[04:50] SPEAKER_02: was a strawberry black tea and then in February we launched midnight blackberry and that was you
[04:56] SPEAKER_02: know just a great seller. I think it was a great alternative to the original. It was a slightly
[05:00] SPEAKER_02: sweet reason. That was the same amount of calories and actually just this last week we launched our
[05:04] SPEAKER_02: two new skews. So it's elderberry, royal elderberry and speechless peach green tea. So it's
[05:11] SPEAKER_02: that's our biggest innovation yet because instead of just using caffeine from black tea or she's
[05:16] SPEAKER_02: using green tea this time mix with peach and so far everyone would say it's our best yet.
[05:20] SPEAKER_03: So let's talk about the drink itself a little bit because this is not red bull, right? This is
[05:27] SPEAKER_03: this is more natural ingredients but it has that same effect. Is that right? That it's got that
[05:33] SPEAKER_03: punch of some caffeine and some other nutrients in there to give you sort of a lift? Exactly
[05:39] SPEAKER_02: brilliant question. You're right. This is not red bull. We are a natural product and we wanted to
[05:45] SPEAKER_02: use queen simple ingredients. You read our ingredient label in the back and everyone's going to be
[05:48] SPEAKER_02: able to understand them all. So what we found early on is you got coffee on this one side which is
[05:52] SPEAKER_02: you know a natural caffeine source and then you got the energies of the world on the total
[05:57] SPEAKER_02: precedent of the spectrum right? They got chemicals full of sugar. What's bridging that gap? What is
[06:02] SPEAKER_02: queen natural ingredients that you know what you don't want to drink coffee in that afternoon because
[06:06] SPEAKER_02: you want something different you want something more refreshing so that's what we're invited is.
[06:10] SPEAKER_02: So the caffeine actually comes from tea and I didn't know this until I got into this but tea
[06:14] SPEAKER_02: naturally contains amino acids such as alfine and some tannins and what those amino acids do is
[06:21] SPEAKER_02: they actually combine with caffeine to prolong the effects and reduce the crash. There's a lot of
[06:26] SPEAKER_02: research showing the benefits of combining alfine and caffeine and so one of the number of feedback
[06:32] SPEAKER_02: we get from our product is this natural caffeine that they get from the tea. They're not experiencing
[06:36] SPEAKER_02: that same crash they would get with to an energy drink or from coffee. So with the coffee from tea
[06:42] SPEAKER_02: and then we just sweetened it with a little bit of organic honey so only six grams of sugar
[06:46] SPEAKER_02: for serving and only 30 calories for the entire package. Awesome and so to talk to me about the
[06:52] SPEAKER_03: packaging a little bit you've gone with a soft package. How did you get them off with that?
[06:57] SPEAKER_02: Great great question and you know this is where my engineering background you know helped us a
[07:03] SPEAKER_02: little bit. One of the things I noticed you're being an oil and gas is everyone or a lot of times
[07:08] SPEAKER_02: people just look at they don't look at the life cycle of a product when they consider environment
[07:13] SPEAKER_02: how environmental sustainability is. So cans and glass bottles they're great because oftentimes
[07:19] SPEAKER_02: they're infinitely recyclable but if you look at the life cycle of those products they're really heavy
[07:24] SPEAKER_02: they take up a lot of space their energy efficiency over the life cycle maybe isn't the bad because
[07:29] SPEAKER_02: because there'd be another solution and one of these packages that we saw trends all this problem
[07:35] SPEAKER_02: which was taken off in Asia and Europe is the flexible beverage pouch. No one's really using it in
[07:39] SPEAKER_02: North America yet but it's a brilliant packaging because it can be shipped flat doesn't take up as
[07:43] SPEAKER_02: much space shipping so there's so many carbon emission savings over the life cycle of the product
[07:49] SPEAKER_02: and then it's also recyclable so we were just really excited about this we truly believe it's the
[07:55] SPEAKER_02: best packaging for the environment but we want to introduce it to the North American market which is
[08:00] SPEAKER_02: why it looks a little bit different it drinks exactly like a water bottle but it can be
[08:05] SPEAKER_02: it's shipped flat and when you're done with it you can actually reuse it as a nice pack or you
[08:08] SPEAKER_02: can just roll it up doesn't take a lot of space when you're hiking or mountain climbing.
[08:13] SPEAKER_03: Well and I hadn't and that's how I've used it so far so thank you for that but also I hadn't
[08:17] SPEAKER_03: thought of the idea of reusing it as an ice pack that's that's pretty brilliant.
[08:22] SPEAKER_02: Yeah thank you it's kind of a secondary bonus we actually just partnered with some meal prep
[08:27] SPEAKER_02: companies who now instead of having to ship these disposable ice packs with their food that
[08:32] SPEAKER_02: they're shipping out they're just using a ravita so someone gets a drink they can reuse it
[08:36] SPEAKER_02: again as an ice pack and then there's less of those ice packs they're actually going into the garbage
[08:40] SPEAKER_03: so really excited about some of those initiatives. Well and sorry I just go to go down that rabbit hole
[08:45] SPEAKER_03: a little bit you said you're partnering with some people on some projects as far as providing meals.
[08:50] SPEAKER_02: Yeah so we have there's some meal prep companies in Toggery so one of them is NutriMills so they're
[08:56] SPEAKER_02: you know meal prep companies so someone will order their entire meals for the week and normally how
[09:01] SPEAKER_02: this company would do it as they would ship you your meals with say you know FedEx or UPS but they
[09:06] SPEAKER_02: have to put it in you know an insulated container with ice packs but now instead of using
[09:11] SPEAKER_02: an ice pack they're putting ravita in there so they're displacing the ice packs which usually
[09:16] SPEAKER_02: just get thrown out so it's great because less waste. Okay these people get a drink and then
[09:20] SPEAKER_03: they can reuse the pack again. So just on that tiny example of this that did the ravitas go frozen
[09:30] SPEAKER_03: then and serve as ice packs during the during that delivery process. You betcha so they freeze
[09:36] SPEAKER_02: the ravita throw it in the meal so at the time it gets there stotto you have your afternoon
[09:40] SPEAKER_03: picking up and your meals are cold. That's so awesome. Cool I'm a little bit curious about this
[09:46] SPEAKER_03: you know actually producing your products in Burnaby. Tell me a little bit about the advantages of
[09:52] SPEAKER_02: BC production. So BC has some amazing manufacturing in the Burnaby and Vancouver area so I know
[09:59] SPEAKER_02: it's a real hard hub for food manufacturing and we've looked for different manufacturing
[10:04] SPEAKER_02: opportunities all over the country and we found that you know Vancouver and Burnaby can
[10:08] SPEAKER_02: generally comes back to be the best and because our packaging is so specialized there's really not a
[10:13] SPEAKER_02: lot of people during this type of manufacturing because it requires specialized equipment so that's
[10:19] SPEAKER_02: why we're we're based in Burnaby. Actually went to high school and predicted to so BC is near and
[10:24] SPEAKER_02: dear to my heart and we absolutely love being out there in the lower main land. Well and when you
[10:30] SPEAKER_03: were doing your research as far as production you were just looking at Canadian options or were
[10:35] SPEAKER_03: you kind of looking further afield for production opportunities. So we look kind of all over
[10:40] SPEAKER_02: North America we gave interview some companies in the United States but we what we found was
[10:46] SPEAKER_02: you know Vancouver is super strong with their food science and their manufacturing and being a
[10:50] SPEAKER_02: Canadian company it was so important to us that we are actually made in Canada we take a lot of
[10:55] SPEAKER_02: pride in being a local company and we want to provide opportunities and employment to people in
[11:01] SPEAKER_02: our own country and especially over in the west coast here so that was something that both
[11:05] SPEAKER_02: and the factored into our decision so you're keeping everything in. Well I'm also a little bit curious
[11:11] SPEAKER_03: as far as your view on you know there's rumors and of course real life practical challenges
[11:18] SPEAKER_03: right now with supply chain management. Are you experiencing any particular challenges there as
[11:24] SPEAKER_03: far as either in your production or in your distribution? So we sure did initially went to
[11:30] SPEAKER_02: in COVID-19 first hit it was some scary months and we were wondering you know are we going to be able
[11:34] SPEAKER_02: to get production runs but what fortunately happened was a lot of the food manufacturers especially
[11:39] SPEAKER_02: in Vancouver they were deemed of course an essential service and so we didn't see too much of an
[11:44] SPEAKER_02: interruption in our supply chain. Right. There was some delays unpackaging and ingredients but
[11:48] SPEAKER_02: overall you know we didn't end up shorting any stores we were able to get product to our customers
[11:54] SPEAKER_03: when they needed it. Thanks and so Mr. Petroleum Engineer you've probably learned an
[12:00] SPEAKER_03: awful lot about the food industry in the last year and a half. What have been some of the most
[12:07] SPEAKER_03: surprising both challenges and opportunities that have ridden to the surface view? That is such a
[12:14] SPEAKER_02: great question. Like I said you know being in the petroleum industry you don't you know I you go
[12:20] SPEAKER_02: to grocery stores you know four or five times a week but you never really think about how the food
[12:23] SPEAKER_02: actually goes there. So going into this business I didn't even know what a distributor was but
[12:28] SPEAKER_02: didn't know how to go into the shelves and grocery stores. That's something about where we started
[12:33] SPEAKER_02: so I think the biggest thing I've learned is about the distribution game so how do you get your
[12:38] SPEAKER_02: product to stores? How do you get it into people's hands and how that whole supply chain and value
[12:43] SPEAKER_02: chain piece actually works and I got to say there's some incredible distributors that on the west coast
[12:48] SPEAKER_02: here especially you know we're using one that's called a Calgary Vancouver based and done
[12:52] SPEAKER_02: an incredible job for us. So that I'd say that's my number one learning is how to deal with
[12:57] SPEAKER_02: distributors and make sure that you're getting your product as widely distributed as possible so you
[13:01] SPEAKER_02: can help as many people as possible. And the biggest challenge is just making sure you have enough
[13:06] SPEAKER_02: margin to support you know your distributors and your brokers and your stores because everyone
[13:10] SPEAKER_02: you know needs to make money and we need to create jobs and opportunities and you got to make sure
[13:14] SPEAKER_02: that you're managing that at the end of the day so that you can stay in business. Mitch did you
[13:20] SPEAKER_03: have any professional insight or incubation program or mentors in that process to make sure
[13:28] SPEAKER_03: you know I mean that's a key comment you made about having enough margins to cover each one of those
[13:34] SPEAKER_03: pieces you know and the food supply chain is not simple right it's not a digital exchange.
[13:42] SPEAKER_03: This is very quick with one platform it's actually quite complicated. What were your best
[13:48] SPEAKER_02: sources of information mentorship advice along the way? You know what you know why it was really
[13:55] SPEAKER_02: born out of a single book so it was called the beverage Bible it's called the beverage Bible and
[14:01] SPEAKER_02: it's just this incredible book that I read I got it off of Amazon you know at the very beginning
[14:06] SPEAKER_02: and it sort of explained some of those points but you know what a lot of it is just
[14:10] SPEAKER_02: worded by trial and learned by making mistakes so we've made a ton of mistakes but I think
[14:15] SPEAKER_02: the screwing things out has been my greatest mentor because we have just learning from
[14:21] SPEAKER_02: distributors, learning from retailers and you know the sobies and the co-ops of the world those
[14:27] SPEAKER_02: store managers have been incredible you know a lot of times I just have to come to them with
[14:30] SPEAKER_02: humility and they say hey I don't know how this works can you help me and they've been really great
[14:35] SPEAKER_03: in supporting us with that. And so tell me a little bit about where you can find your products are
[14:40] SPEAKER_03: in those bigger stores like those grocery stores or tell me a little bit about where we find you.
[14:46] SPEAKER_02: You bet so we're pushing almost 200 stores between Alberta, BC, Manitoba and Saskatchewan now.
[14:54] SPEAKER_02: So in the Vancouver area we're in choices markets we're in the corner safeway we're going to
[14:59] SPEAKER_02: hopefully start popping up into more sobies and safeways through OPC and Alberta we're in
[15:10] SPEAKER_02: foods throughout the few provinces. So very fortunate that a lot of these you know big chain
[15:15] SPEAKER_02: retailers have supported our local business and brought us into their their local program and
[15:20] SPEAKER_03: we got distribution through that. So if you could give or offer any insight or advice um you know
[15:27] SPEAKER_03: obviously food manufacturing whether it's artisan boutique or new products or innovative
[15:33] SPEAKER_03: products like you where we're having to get you know higher proteins and higher you know nutritional
[15:39] SPEAKER_03: value into a smaller package there's going to be I think there's going to be a wave of startups and
[15:45] SPEAKER_03: pivots into those sectors and as people are watching your story could you offer any insider advice
[15:53] SPEAKER_03: to those people who are in that rethinking stage from what you've learned. Absolutely.
[15:59] SPEAKER_02: Yeah you know it's such an amazing space to be in a food and beverage space I think there's more
[16:03] SPEAKER_02: opportunity in this than ever before and the number one piece of advice that I would give you
[16:08] SPEAKER_02: is one you have to have the highest quality product absolutely. It's got a taste amazing it's got to
[16:13] SPEAKER_02: have amazing ingredients but you know what that's actually the easiest part that's the smallest part
[16:17] SPEAKER_02: of the equation the biggest part is once you get it in the source how are you going to make sure
[16:21] SPEAKER_02: people are buying your product because just because you have the most amazing product doesn't mean
[16:25] SPEAKER_02: someone's going to grab it off the shelf you're going to make sure your packaging stand out you
[16:29] SPEAKER_02: going to make sure your your marketing is in mind what are you doing with your social media how
[16:33] SPEAKER_02: are you supporting the stores. So I think really reverse engineering your business strategy and what I
[16:38] SPEAKER_02: mean by that is start with your marketing and who's going to be buying your product and then really
[16:42] SPEAKER_02: design your your package and your product and your brand so that it applies to those people so that
[16:47] SPEAKER_02: once you get your amazing product on the shelves people are going to be buying it and you're going to
[16:51] SPEAKER_02: be able to support the the sobies and co-ops and save on food in the world because that's what
[16:57] SPEAKER_02: really matters is doesn't matter how great your product is if it doesn't move it's not going to be
[17:01] SPEAKER_03: successful. Right and Mitch who's your people who's your buyer who's your key audiences. Yeah so
[17:08] SPEAKER_02: our target market is sort of that you know that 20 to 50 year old health conscious consumer and what
[17:13] SPEAKER_02: we found that's really interesting is we see 60 to 70% of our target demographic is women we really
[17:19] SPEAKER_02: appealed you know to the feminine and we tried to come across you know really you know neutral and
[17:25] SPEAKER_02: are in our branding and our marketing so we're really going after you know anyone who really cares
[17:29] SPEAKER_02: about what they're putting in their body, it's about health of fitness go into the gym and we're
[17:34] SPEAKER_02: we're finding two that we have you know on even broader influence that we thought so a lot of
[17:38] SPEAKER_02: people who would normally drink really sugary energy during stay know at the end of the day that's
[17:42] SPEAKER_02: probably not the best thing to put in their body. So you've seen some people who probably maybe
[17:47] SPEAKER_02: normally wouldn't you know shop at a health food store but they want to try our product because
[17:51] SPEAKER_02: they want to help the alternative. Thankfully society is shifting towards you know more health
[17:56] SPEAKER_02: conscious buyer people are carrying more about their bodies than ever before and we're trying to
[18:00] SPEAKER_02: provide a great product a great energy product that's incredible alternative to what's out there
[18:05] SPEAKER_03: in the market. So one question a little bit about trends that you see so and I know you're in this
[18:12] SPEAKER_03: launch and and you know getting really out of the gates in many respect with a with a range of
[18:19] SPEAKER_03: products and flavors but trends that you see coming in the pipeline that maybe other people
[18:25] SPEAKER_03: or are aware of that you are cognizant of given your individual match background. What do you see
[18:31] SPEAKER_02: kind down the pipeline? So I think what I just talked about you know that health conscious consumer
[18:36] SPEAKER_02: that's been a trend for a while and that's going to continue you know when we're in grocery stores
[18:41] SPEAKER_02: we're amazed that the type of questions we're asked by just the everyday consumer like hey
[18:45] SPEAKER_02: what's in your natural flavors? Where are you organic coming from? Where is this ingredient coming from?
[18:50] SPEAKER_02: So I think that health consciousness is going to go to a whole new level where people aren't just
[18:54] SPEAKER_02: going to look at you know how much sugar how much calories are in a product but they're actually
[18:58] SPEAKER_02: going to ask okay where does this ingredient come from? Why are you putting this in? I don't know what
[19:02] SPEAKER_02: this ingredient is so I'm not going to buy that product. So I think that's the future wave of
[19:06] SPEAKER_02: consumer buying in grocery stores and number two I think environmental sustainability it's already
[19:12] SPEAKER_02: a trend but I think it's going to become ever more relevant in people's minds and people are
[19:17] SPEAKER_02: going to start looking more at the life cycle of products. They're going to look at you know aluminum
[19:21] SPEAKER_02: cans that's great they're infinitely recyclable but you know these box-type mines where the aluminum
[19:26] SPEAKER_02: comes from are those the best things for the planet? How are these cans being transported? How are
[19:37] SPEAKER_02: so I think just that overall heightened sense of awareness of the consumer is going to increase
[19:42] SPEAKER_02: you know especially over this next you know three four five ten years people are going to ask
[19:47] SPEAKER_02: more and more questions and they're going to want to put better and better products into their
[19:51] SPEAKER_03: body. You're not the first person to suggest those two trends to by the way is both the food
[19:57] SPEAKER_03: source up until consumption and then the you know the post-consumption what happens on the other side
[20:06] SPEAKER_03: and I was talking to some some other companies who are obviously in the tech and innovation space as
[20:12] SPEAKER_03: well in food production and they were talking about like this microchip that could be placed on
[20:17] SPEAKER_03: packaging where a consumer can kind of you know with their phone hover over it and actually
[20:22] SPEAKER_03: pop up the whole entire story of match and you know you're you're founding ingredients and
[20:30] SPEAKER_03: whether grown and and almost like so it's interpreted out of contact oh but it's almost like
[20:35] SPEAKER_03: contact tracing the concept all the way from you know seed to consumption to where the cans or
[20:43] SPEAKER_03: the packaging going or not cans that just the you know your packaging going afterwards is a really
[20:49] SPEAKER_03: cool maybe value added opportunity for you coming out of the gate. Why I think growth is such an
[20:56] SPEAKER_02: amazing idea I'm going to write that down to you we've actually been talking about you know
[20:59] SPEAKER_02: sustainable barcode on our our package that sends people to our story because we always say here
[21:05] SPEAKER_02: you know and we have you know our company meaning is people don't buy what you do or what you have
[21:09] SPEAKER_02: they buy why you do it people want to buy the story they want to buy you know the bigger mission and
[21:13] SPEAKER_02: the bigger purpose and we want to make sure that we're constantly grounded in that and that's the
[21:18] SPEAKER_03: message that we're getting out of to our customers. So what what are you reading or what are your
[21:24] SPEAKER_03: sources of innovation and and business now are you listening to podcasts or reading media or
[21:33] SPEAKER_03: going to conferences at some point learning to keep you abreast of what's happening in your world.
[21:40] SPEAKER_02: Absolutely so huge proponent of reading I try and have a book in my hand every day you know all
[21:44] SPEAKER_02: of us are divided here do but I'd say probably the biggest source of innovation for us is customer
[21:50] SPEAKER_02: feedback so it's you know before COVID when we're standing in grocery stores given out samples
[21:55] SPEAKER_02: you'd be amazed what people would say right and they'd give you feedback and you'd start to think
[21:59] SPEAKER_02: about it and you'd go home because you know ultimately you know our customers are what make
[22:04] SPEAKER_02: provide a possible so we need the lessons of them so that's our biggest source of innovation is
[22:08] SPEAKER_02: we are constantly hearing trends we're hearing continual suggestions with you know new flavor ideas
[22:14] SPEAKER_02: new you know packaging improvements so for us you know innovation always comes back to you know
[22:20] SPEAKER_03: cruising join our product who you created for and I heard you said so you were doing some
[22:25] SPEAKER_03: in-store demos before yeah great and what's that how are you gaining customer feedback now today
[22:32] SPEAKER_02: what's your what's your strategy so it's you know we can't sample in stores anymore so you know
[22:38] SPEAKER_02: when COVID first hit you know we really upset about that because other than main marketing
[22:42] SPEAKER_02: and so we sat down we said okay well how can we do this without actually standing in a grocery store
[22:47] SPEAKER_02: and so one of the first things you did is said why don't we support the people in the front line with
[22:50] SPEAKER_02: COVID and so we put out some posts on Instagram we said hey anyone in Calgary in an area who is
[22:56] SPEAKER_02: you know working in a hospital or working on the front lines we're going to personally deliver
[23:00] SPEAKER_02: samples to your house so instead of actually sampling in a grocery store now we're just doing
[23:04] SPEAKER_02: you know direct-to-use samples in the Calgary in area and we can not believe the overwhelming
[23:09] SPEAKER_02: response we got and it felt so good because not only are we helping these people
[23:13] SPEAKER_02: on the back end you know they're coming back to us and they're saying hey you know I love the
[23:17] SPEAKER_02: blackberry flavor but you know what about peach could you guys we're going to peach flavor
[23:21] SPEAKER_02: take them one footer we got a peach launch to market so that if sampling in stores we're just
[23:25] SPEAKER_02: doing more you know online opportunities and deliver and opportunities and is there any major
[23:31] SPEAKER_03: pithets that you've had to make within your internal sort of back-of-house business systems
[23:38] SPEAKER_02: in 2020 in this unexpected stringed environment we sure did so you know what I was just telling
[23:46] SPEAKER_02: you know Robin Carly the other day is difficult as COVID has been and it's you know obviously it's
[23:51] SPEAKER_02: been all her industry many families and Canada and the US you know it's been a blessing in a way
[23:58] SPEAKER_02: for us because it's forced us to reevaluate so many things about our business the forces that
[24:02] SPEAKER_02: take a high-level look about what we were doing when COVID hit and then pivot and change our
[24:07] SPEAKER_02: distribution strategy so we were direct distributing through a lot of stores you know when COVID first
[24:12] SPEAKER_02: hit which means you know we're actually delivering you know hand delivering it or you know FedEx
[24:16] SPEAKER_02: in it through a store we surely after that we realized we need some help so we we hired an amazing
[24:22] SPEAKER_02: calorie distribution company here that's helping us now with our distribution and it's really
[24:27] SPEAKER_02: just changed everything for us and then as far as marketing because we can't do you know the more
[24:31] SPEAKER_02: hand-to-hand marketing stuff where we're giving out samples now we're doing it all online so we're
[24:36] SPEAKER_02: you know we're shipping samples to people we're using you know coupons things like that we're doing
[24:41] SPEAKER_02: giveaways with stores you know to help them support their sales so it's actually allowed us to
[24:47] SPEAKER_02: spend a little less time in stores and just be a little bit more strategic with our marketing efforts
[24:52] SPEAKER_02: and we've had a larger reach and we're able to help more people so as much bad as come out of COVID
[24:57] SPEAKER_03: it's been a blessing in disguise in some ways when if you could wave a magic wand and three amazing
[25:04] SPEAKER_03: things they well let's go to two amazing things could come from us participating in this podcast
[25:10] SPEAKER_03: together what what would they be what leads or opportunities which you'd love to just fall into
[25:17] SPEAKER_02: your lab right now do you know what that's a great question so number one is you know our biggest
[25:22] SPEAKER_02: challenge is always how do we get the word out there we want to tell our story you know to have
[25:27] SPEAKER_02: maybe you know a different retail chain here our story and want to potentially partner with us
[25:32] SPEAKER_02: or you know customers that want some samples that we could send them to you or are interested in
[25:37] SPEAKER_02: ordering us from us online you know we want to help people and we want to get our story out there
[25:40] SPEAKER_02: so that's number one and and number two like I said we're a purpose you know mission driven company
[25:46] SPEAKER_02: and if our story inspires someone else to make a great change in their life or maybe start a
[25:50] SPEAKER_02: business or maybe make some positive you know health changes in their life you know that's our
[25:56] SPEAKER_02: ultimate reward and that's our ultimate paycheck is helping people so it would be the two big
[26:00] SPEAKER_02: things that would be great to come out of the hard gas well and I would love I have somebody that
[26:05] SPEAKER_03: I'd love to connect you with who is all about that second purpose driven mission who has been on a
[26:11] SPEAKER_03: previous podcast so I will connect you guys if you're going to love each other's energy and you
[26:17] SPEAKER_03: just never know what what might pop out of that so sharing each other stories here in Canada but
[26:24] SPEAKER_03: what amazing business things are happening on the ground Mitch it has been an absolute pleasure
[26:29] SPEAKER_03: learning about the evolution of your product and thank you again for the opportunity to
[26:34] SPEAKER_03: taste it and I would encourage anybody else to fry who is you know in that fitness
[26:40] SPEAKER_03: market to give it a try and look forward to it thank you so much for having me and thank you for
[26:46] SPEAKER_02: all you do for a Canadian small business we're really fortunate to have your podcast and it's been an honor