Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / Fave hits: Becoming the fastest growing non-alc bev brand in the states, with Poppi Co-Founder Allison Ellsworth

Transcript

Fave hits: Becoming the fastest growing non-alc bev brand in the states, with Poppi Co-Founder Allison Ellsworth · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  Hey, it's Dune here. This is just a quick message to let you know that the Female Startup Club team are taking some time over the holiday period to rest, recharge, and sip on champagne. During this time, we're bringing you a roundup of our favorite episodes from the year, like Jing from Fly by Jing and Alison, the founder of Poppy.
• 0:22
  So many crackers in here, so if you miss them the first time around, I hope you love them. I'm looking forward to being back in your ears in the new year and wishing you and your family a super cute holiday season packed with love and joy. This is Alison Ellsworth for Female Startup Club.
• 0:51
  Hey everyone, it's Dune here, your host and hype girl. On today's episode, we're learning from Alison Ellsworth. She's the founder of Poppy. Now there's some seriously cool insights in this episode. We're talking through her approach to raising money in the early days and why you should not take any stupid money. Her recent moment of partnering with JLo, which is mind blowing stuff and her explosive growth after going on Shark Tank plus everything in between.
• 1:20
  This is an episode that shows you the power of having a truly, truly great product. I've come off feeling so inspired and really charged for my own journey. This is the kind of thing that really lights me on fire, so I hope you love it too. If you haven't heard of Poppy before, it's the leading prebiotic soda and the fastest growing non-alc beverage brand in the U.S.
• 1:40
  After appearing on Shark Tank in 2018, Poppy launched nationwide in retail and quickly became an Amazon bestseller. Now, before we get stuck into it, just take a moment. Give yourself a pat on the back for wherever you are in the journey. Entrepreneurship is tough and it requires so much hustle. So wherever you are in the journey, well freaking done. You deserve a pat on the back. Let's get into it. This is Alison for Female Startup Club.
• 2:11
  Alison, hi, welcome to the Female Startup Club podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to have you here. I don't know if you know this, but today your episode is number 200. So it's a bit of a celebration for me and I'm very honored to have you kind of join me for this special milestone. That's so exciting. Number 200. Woo woo woo.
• 2:36
  200. It's crazy. Can you introduce us to who you are and for anyone who might not know yet who your brand is or what your brand is rather?
• 2:46
  Yeah, of course. So like you said, my name is Allison Ellsworth and I am the founder and chief brand officer at Poppy. And you might ask, you know, what's Poppy? Well, we are a prebiotic soda and it is infused with apple cider vinegar, but we like to say our vinegar is in stealth mode. So you can't taste the vinegar, but you get all the functional benefits.
• 3:09
  And so it tastes amazing. We're 20 calories or less, four to five grams of sugar for the entire can, clean ingredients, all natural, nothing artificial, all plant-based, vegan, kosher, all the fun non-GMO stuff, right? But it really did start. And the reason I created this came from a personal health story of mine. So I did not ever think I was going to own a beverage company and or be running one, but here we are.
• 3:37
  that's amazing. I am. I'm a big fan of apple cider vinegar, just as a side note. So I'm sure I would absolutely love your products. And I was actually comparing your drink to what a can of Coke has in terms of sugar. And a can of Coke has something wild, which I didn't realize of like 39 point something grams of sugar. And so I
• 4:00
  Yeah, that blows my mind. That's so cool that you've got this drink that's like kind of like positioned as a soda, but it's like healthy. It's you're drinking something that's good for you. Well, we see if you see kind of the evolution of soda, right? Like our goal is to take on big soda and eventually replace like a cocoa, Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, you know, root beer in every household across America and eventually the world. But I would say like if you look at the evolution of soda and kind of how it went, but back in
• 4:29
  You know, in the 60s, you had the refreshment. It was like high sugar and it's in that iconic bottle. And then you get in the diet craze. And then, you know, the 70s and 80s were like Diet Coke hits, but it's all artificial. It's like really bad ingredients. They're like finding out, you know, cause this cancer and like all of these things. Right. And then it moves into where they tried to do like the zero sugar, but it doesn't taste good. It didn't like hit right. People were just kind of like, yeah, what's this? I'll just drink Diet Coke. And so now we really see like everyone's ready for disruption, like the soda category.
• 4:58
  aren't raising, like I'm not raising my kids on Coke, right? Like we are the next generation, the current generation's like next soda. And, but the best thing is we taste amazing. We have full flavor and on top of it, like you said, we're four to five grams of sugar. And so I give my kids poppy, everyone drinks it. It's great. Just in general, you don't have to drink it just because it has health benefits, but it's just, people are desperate for something different.
• 5:25
  And I think it's just a movement across everyone's just like, what's better for you, especially with like COVID hitting people, like health and wellness really, I think it's top of mind for a lot of people. And so just people that maybe typically wouldn't go there so quick are kind of like, maybe I should reevaluate like what I'm putting into my body.
• 5:43
  Absolutely. Gosh, 100%. Yeah, I imagine actually COVID was kind of like, for lack of a better word, like a good time for you because you essentially were able to provide something that people could consume daily without feeling guilty about.
• 5:56
  Right. Yeah. And, you know, and I think it's interesting, just like I can kind of jump into how we actually got started. But I previous to this used to work in oil and gas research. So, so far away from where we are today. And I was traveling on the road. I myself didn't feel great all of a sudden. And I maybe was, you know, working too hard. I wasn't really paying attention to what I was putting into my body.
• 6:23
  But on top of it, I just like my stomach always hurt, you know, that bloating feeling. And you're just like, oh, I'm tired. My skin was breaking out. And it's just like I think it does hit a lot of women. I know this can hit men, too, but it's just like something that I just feel like you always hear women like I'm always bloated or I can't eat this or do that. And, you know, it wasn't anything like crazy, but I just didn't feel good. And so I would go to doctors and they'd be like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, here's a pill.
• 6:48
  And I was like, this isn't working. And so I went to the internet, like, you know, everyone does Google. Yeah. And, um, I just started like researching, like, how do I heal my body through food? Like started looking at my diet. And one thing that like kept coming up over and over again was drinking apple cider vinegar to detox and reset your body. And I had heard of it and I was like, okay, maybe I should do this. But I started kind of
• 7:15
  getting to the point where I was like really desperate to just like feel better. And so I just started drinking it every single day. And within two weeks I was shocked at how amazing I felt like my stomach felt better. I also had more energy. It was like all of these things started to kind of just like line up. But one thing that kept like hitting me in the back of my mind is like, I can't drink this every single day. Like this is not sustainable. Anyone that's had straight vinegar, whatever,
• 7:41
  Like it's not enjoyable. Well, I was like, I put it in like a big thing of water and you drink it all day. It was, it's just like, I am also a big fan of like balance in your life. Like I like cookies and I like having a pizza from time to time. Like.
• 7:56
  I don't want to be just so restricted. And I think like fad diets are not amazing. Like any of that stuff. So I was like, is this sustainable? Like, am I going to drink this big thing of vinegar every day? Like, probably not. Like, it's great for now, but I don't think I'm going to do this forever. So I went to my kitchen and I was like, how do I create something that tastes good? Like, how do I make this taste good? But I also didn't want it to be 39 grams of sugar, like a Coke, right? Right. Yeah. And so...
• 8:23
  I spent like three months in the kitchen and just started playing around. I love to cook. It's like my happy place. It's literally where I spend like all of my extra time. And I just started cooking and playing around. And I kind of came up with the first version. Looking back now, we call it like our rocket fuel. Like it was way too much vinegar. It was like, it was just like, it was still pretty strong, but you know, I started giving it to neighbors and people were just like really interested in it and I'd have a neighbor come by and give her mason jars and she'd be like,
• 8:51
  Well, I've been drinking this for a week and started seeing results. And she was feeling amazing. And so she's like, can I just start buying it? We make it. And I got a full time job. So this is full hobby, you know, for myself, for friends, family. And then I was married with my husband and we decided to.
• 9:07
  sick of traveling and we wanted to settle down. And so we built a house in Dallas, Texas. And I was like, okay, I don't want to go back to work. I'm pregnant. Like I'm just gonna start selling this at the farmer's market on the weekends, just like a total like hobby. Like let's take it. And within the first week we sold out. Like I was like, okay, we'll make double. We sold that triple within, this is the crazy part. The third weekend was,
• 9:31
  We had the Whole Foods buyer come by our booth. She was just there with her mom. You know, Whole Foods is in Austin. We're in Dallas. And she's like, look, I don't do this often, but here's my card. Like, you guys have to be Whole Foods. This is a fantastic product. And, like, I've told that story a few times, and nobody's ever – I've never heard that happening to anyone else. It was, like, one of those moments that was, like, really life-changing for us. And –
• 9:54
  I looked at my husband, I was like, literally, that was a Whole Foods fire. They wanted to be in Whole Foods. We didn't have UPCs. We didn't have nutrition. I mean, I'm like putting these in like jars. You're like bottling this yourself at home. In my kitchen, like straight up grassroots style, you know, but there was just something that I think you get as an entrepreneur, you're doing something like this gut feeling that
• 10:17
  that you just know you're on the right path. And I told him we got like a job offer and I was like, I'm not gonna take it. Like, I don't wanna go back out on the road. Like I'm pregnant, I'm quitting and I'm gonna do this full time. And he was like, you're crazy. We just bought a house.
• 10:33
  you're pregnant, like you can't quit your job. And I was like, no, I'm doing it. Like, I believe in this. And so it's something like just as women too, like I think it can be really scary. You're like, I'm starting a family. Like I have to choose. I think that's so 1950s, right? Like you can do both. You can, like, I started the company pregnant. Like it just didn't even like phase my mind. I was like, yeah, I can do this. Like women are superhuman. Like, I don't know. Like I honestly look back and I'm like, wow. Yes, absolutely.
• 11:01
  How did I do that? Nice job, me. Yeah, exactly. Right. Like, like give yourself a pat on the back sometimes and just like, you can do it. Like you can be amazing and like have everything. And so I will say, though, it kind of got to the point where I was like getting even more pregnant. It was like six months in and I was like, OK, now husband who is now CEO and he's my partner, Poppy and everything like in life. I was like, you got to quit your job. He's like, you're crazy. Yeah.
• 11:28
  We're literally, that was baby. Like you can't. And so like wrap it up. You've got to wrap that up. Yeah. I convinced him to quit as well. We did something like a little crazy where we immediately took our life savings, maxed out our credit cards. And we opened up our own like little production facility. And we set it up similar to like a brewery. We had a friend at the farmer's market. It was like, that ran like a local brewery in Dallas. And he's like,
• 11:57
  I'll give you a list of equipment. And so we just started like sourcing equipment. I think we spent like 20 or 30,000 of like our personal money, credit cards type of situation. And we opened up our own production facility. I think we were in like,
• 12:12
  a thousand, maybe 1500 square feet. It was this like teeny place warehouse and like the hood of Dallas, no air conditioning, you know, and we were just like, let's do this. And so we started manufacturing, we got into whole foods. So it took us about from the time she came to the farmer's market to the time we got into whole foods. It can take a while. It took us about 10 months. So
• 12:35
  Everything like I remember like being on the bottling line, going into labor, strapping the baby to me and being back on the battling bottling line like two weeks later. It was just like, oh, my God, a whirlwind. You know, my husband got a second job to pay like our mortgage at night. Like it was just the full on grind of startup life. But you just like don't it doesn't phase you when you have that gut feeling. You know, you're doing something right. Like just.
• 13:05
  Take it a day at a time. Know that you are doing something right. And like, don't give up. And don't let people around you bring you down either. Like, just go. Like, hustle. Go. It's like, you know. Just go. So I always try to tell people that because it's hard.
• 13:22
  Yeah, I mean, it sounds hard. Two weeks later after having a baby, that's incredible for one. But it's kind of funny that you're talking a lot about like you had this gut feeling and then you have this brand that is also for your gut and like to make you healthy from the gut inside out. Like that's so cool. That's like a little bit of magic there, I feel. It is. And it's just like...
• 13:44
  things like kind of doors like open for a reason and some stuff, you know, doesn't happen for a reason. And it's just like, it's, I don't know. I hate to say that some of it can be luck, but I think it's a lot of combination of luck and hard work and perseverance. And then like, just staying true to who you are and knowing when something's working, like stick with it. But I mean, it was one of those things that like, we got to a point where we put our life savings in and we were like, okay, we need more money.
• 14:11
  We were growing in the Dallas area, just like locally. We're in like all the coffee shops. We had gone into all the Whole Foods and like central markets and just like all the key accounts in the Dallas Fort Worth area. And so I did what a lot of people do is you go to your friends and family.
• 14:25
  right? You just reached out and I had like my sister and my dad, they invested $60,000. And so up until this point within the first year and a half, we'd had about like $90,000 that got us through like our first almost two years to where it kind of took us to the point where it allowed us to grow. We still didn't pay ourselves. Like,
• 14:50
  anything, anything that we made at the farmers markets, we invested back into bottles, labels, ingredients, manufacturing. Um, we still delivered stuff. I mean, I, I did deliveries with babies strapped to me with the boxes and think like, it was just like, it was just like one of those things that people was like respected it. Cause they're like, wow, look, these guys hustling. This is a fantastic product. Like no one's ever going to like fault you for that. Right. Yeah. But you do get to the point where you're like, okay, you know,
• 15:17
  We need help. We probably need to take it up a level, be a little bit probably more professional, you know, that stuff. So we got to remember like, okay, we need more money. And I was online one day and I saw an open casting call for shark tank. And I was like, okay, like, it's like make or break. We were to the point where we were doing really well, but if we didn't have money, we're
• 15:42
  figure out or what we take on is what people say is like stupid money where we had people interested. They weren't going to bring any strategics to the table with it. And I think that people can get a little bit blindsided by stupid money sometimes where it's,
• 15:56
  You when you take on investment, it's different with your friends and family. It's like my sister and my dad, like I'm stuck with them for life already was. I knew what I was getting into. But when you start just taking on investment from people that just have money and they don't bring any other value other than that, it's not a great partnership. Right. Maybe like later on, once you're an established brand and it is all you need is capital because you've kind of figured everything out.
• 16:21
  But at the beginning, it's almost like a marriage or a partnership. And you want to be really careful with that. Don't get blindsided by the fact that people just are trying to give you money. And it almost happened to us. We almost took on an investment right before we went on Shark Tank. And it was one of those things too. It was like, this just doesn't feel right. Like.
• 16:38
  This guy's great. He was fantastic, a fantastic person, but he couldn't bring anything to the business. And so other than money. And so we went on to Shark Tank and it's it's quite a process. It can take like six months or longer to get onto the show. And they keep you very blind the entire time. They're like, OK, thank you. That was great. And then you two weeks later, like you made it the next. Now we need you to do this, this and this.
• 17:03
  I imagine it's costly too, right? You've got to like commit to getting ready for that, especially if you get onto it and have to build a set and all that kind of thing, you've got to really take that leap. Well, no. So it's great. They have it all. Like you do all the prep stuff to get on is like, Oh, we'll do some interview now film yourself like routine. So like that part's like not bad. It doesn't cost you money. And then you actually fly out to LA and then you film it like in LA. And by this time, yeah,
• 17:31
  We were, you know, we started back in 2016 when it was like in my kitchen and we got into Whole Foods to really growing. So by this time when we were going on Shark Tank, I was pregnant with my second. Once again, me and my husband are crazy. Everyone always tells us like, you know, but I'm just like, we believe in family. We believe in business. So we kept like powering on. And so like as the process with Shark Tank kept taking like longer and longer and longer to the next stage, I'm like, I'm getting very pregnant here.
• 17:59
  The point where like, okay, you're going to be on in June, I think it was like 26th of like 2018.
• 18:06
  It's like, okay, cool. I'll be nine months pregnant, but I'm still going. So it ended up flying out. But the good thing about being nine months pregnant on national TV is it keeps you really calm. Like I was like, I can't go into labor. I can't let myself like go there because, you know, wanted to make sure the baby's healthy and all that stuff. You're holding on. Yeah. So, but my husband, on the other hand, Steven, he was like sweating bullets.
• 18:33
  was very stressed out. Like if you ever see our episode, he's just like his face and he just like, he's just so embarrassed. He can't watch it back. Like he can't, but the whole process is like, they don't tell you the sharks until the night before. And then we found out the night before that Rohan Oza was going to be on the show. So for people that don't know who that is, he is just the sharks of all sharks for beverage industry. He's behind some of the biggest deals like buy and,
• 19:02
  vitamin water. He used to be head of marketing at Coke. Like he, this guy, like they call him the brand father. Right. And so he just has years and years and years of experiences built his, his, um, career on building brands and he just understands the beverage industry. So I was like, okay, he, no matter what he offers us, like, we're going to say yes. Like it was like one of those moments, you know, and we go on and looking back, he told us like,
• 19:29
  that he knew the second he tried our product. Of course, he is like one of the best negotiators I've ever met still to this day. And so we're like, oh, we're definitely not getting a deal. Like the way if you look back on the show and like every single shark started falling out and then he like offers a deal and we're like, deal. Like, we'll take it. You can't take it back. No, take it back. Exactly. Exactly. And it was funny because after the fact, I guess,
• 19:55
  Mark Cuban dropped out and we were kind of bummed. He was like, oh, he's Dallas. That would have been nice. But Rohan said that you're in there for like 45 minutes and they're just yelling at you. And it's really crazy. But I guess Bethany Frankel was on the episode and Mark Cuban had asked him like,
• 20:09
  Hey, you want to do a deal together? And Rohan was like, no. And so they were like, oh, if Rohan's not going to invest, we're all going to drop out. They dropped out. But in return, he wanted it all for himself. That's so clever. He said that he had been looking for a shelf stable soda that he himself knew that it was the future. Right. And he knew that before we even knew that. And so he said that he had been searching for years and years and years for something like Poppy.
• 20:35
  Well, at the time it was called Mother Beverage, but Poppy. And so little did we know that. So he said the second he tried it and heard it, he was like, oh, this is like what I've been searching for because he loved the taste. But our branding was not great. You know, I was looking at it before this episode. Yeah, very different, very different. The name was Mother Beverage and I named it after the mother of vinegar, you know, but we learned really quick that you couldn't brand or you couldn't trademark.
• 21:03
  the word mother. Right. And then on top of that, I think there was like, we'd found out like later on there was a brand called like mother kombucha. And it was just like one of those things that we weren't really like married to that name. Like it wasn't like a global name kind of a thing. So Rohan was like, look, we love the liquid, but we need to go through a full rebrand. So we got the deal. And then we literally took the next eight months to go through a restructuring of
• 21:30
  changing the name, changing the packaging, changing the logos, changing just like everything about the company. We worked really close with Rohan's team from we did consumer studies. And a lot of people go back and forth on whether you should do like consumer studies. And you definitely want to do it when you feel like you're in a good place, not just to do it, to do it.
• 21:50
  We did it for do we be in bottles should be going to cans like that was like we weren't sure what to do there. But we found, you know, cans are more sustainable. Hands are on the rise now. They're like, cool and fun. It was the right decision. But then we were like, OK, do we do color or do we do white? Because white really has this like healthy halo like vibe to it. But color it.
• 22:13
  It screams taste. It screams fun. And so for me, I was like, well, vinegar already has like that thing where people are like. And it pops literally on the shelf. Yeah, it pops. It literally pops on the shelf. And so we were like, OK, well, what do we do here? And so we went back and forth for a really long time with what to do.
• 22:31
  And we finally came down to the name Poppy, which to your point, it pops off the shelf. It's a play off a soda pop, like that old school soda pop. And then I love that, you know. Yeah. And then it's just poppy and fun. And so we decided to go color and all those things. But yeah.
• 22:49
  It was all the right decisions. And like we took the time. I always try to recommend to people is like, take the time to figure out what your brand is. Even if, you know, you're trying to hit dates to launch, but you want to come out the gate, like really strong. And previous mother wasn't a brand. It was just packaging we threw on. I was hustling and trying to get at the farmer's market. And like, that's okay too. But you do want to get to that point where you have like serious guidelines that you go for. So like what we talk about with like brand guidelines are...
• 23:17
  We have certain colors, like for example, like our strawberry lemon here, like it's yellow and pink. Yellow and pink is the only thing that we'll ever use with these two colors. Never going to put the pink with the orange. You're not going to put the pink with blue. Like you want it to be super strong and iconic. So when someone sees this pink and yellow, they think, oh, poppy strawberry lemon. And I know it sounds crazy, but think of like Nike and they're saying like, just do it. Like everyone knows that saying. And you have two brands, like you have...
• 23:44
  Nike and you have Asics, right? Asics are both fantastic shoes, but who has the better brand? Nike does. And so like, you want to think of like how important branding is when it comes to your product. You really want to spend the time and really focus on like, what's your brand voice? For example, you know,
• 24:02
  Like Poppy, you want to think of it as a person. So we think of Poppy like it's the cool kid at the party, but it's not the kid that's too cool that you're not friends with them. It's, you know, the trendsetter, but you're not the mean girl trendsetter. You're the one that's like just happens to be cool.
• 24:18
  You want to be like, we're funny, but lessly cool effortless. Cool. You want to be funny, but you don't want to be juvenile, right? Like you, it's, you really want to think of like, what's your personality? What's your tone of voice? What are your taglines? And you want to stick to them and you internally feel like, oh my gosh, we've said this 500 times. Our tagline here is be happy. Right. Like how many times you say it?
• 24:41
  You just keep saying it. Like, just do it for Nike. It's like a jingle, right? You get it into the people's head and then it, you know, a million times over, then someone will remember it. Exactly like a jingle. Exactly. And you don't want to stray. You don't want to, like...
• 24:57
  do crazy stuff. Now on Instagram, you can have fun with memes and you can do different stuff, but in general, when you're in like retail, you want to have like your POS be all the same. So it's recognizable. You want people to like, Oh, I know that. Right. Versus, wow, this is different everywhere we go. So all those things are really important when you're building a brand. And I don't think people realize how important a brand is versus, you know,
• 25:22
  just kind of doing what you want and just taking that time to really get it strong will elevate you over your competitor. So I love to always give that advice.
• 25:32
  I really feel like at the moment, you guys are, you're obviously in a phase of growth because you're doing all this amazing stuff, but it really feels like you're focusing on brand versus like hard sell shove in your face. And what I mean by that is like when I saw your recent party at the Hamptons, which looked so cool and so fun and so colorful. And then when I think about the JLo thing, which we also need to talk about. And when I think about your TikTok, like everything feels like.
• 26:00
  created for community, created for brand awareness and not like, Hey, here's my products. Like here's an ad. You should buy it kind of thing. Like it feels brand awareness and brand building is this phase that you're in at the moment, which is so cool. Yeah. And I think you literally like hit the nail on the head with the, what everyone is wanting right now is like to be authentic.
• 26:23
  And that's what's really important to me, like as a founder and chief of brand and head of creative is I want us to come across as authentic and not like just a product. We're building a brand. We don't want to be a product. And so that opens so many doors for people to want to be involved and be part of your journey. And just like TikTok is something that gets really scary for brands because they're like, oh, it's just a bunch of kids on their dance scene.
• 26:50
  But me as a founder, I just knew it was like the way of the future. And so we did start off by doing a lot of the trends and trying to dance with the cans. And I was like, this just isn't working. And so one day I sat down and I told my story of like, hey, you know, my name is Allison. And I got a deal on Shark Tank for my product Poppy. And it started because I had health issues. And I just kind of went through that whole story. And I posted 10 o'clock at night. I went to bed and I woke up the next day and it had like over a million views. Our sales on Amazon went through the roof.
• 27:20
  And today I'm still like one of the highest converters we've ever worked with. And I'm like, oh, that's crazy because I was just being authentic and real. That's authenticity for you. And so we cracked the code for us on TikTok. Now that doesn't work for every brand and you have to find what works for you.
• 27:38
  But we found just like on TikTok in particular, just being ourselves and talking about the product, why I started the company, why we picked the colors, right? Talking about these little how-tos and stuff, like people really connected with it. But then you might need a different strategy on like Instagram, right?
• 27:54
  We're really curated. It's pretty. It's photo shoot, like high gloss a little bit more, but that's more what Instagram's used to. And so you have to be okay with trying new things and not quite listening to like what everyone else is doing and having a little bit of fun. And that's the fun part of a startup is you can do that and you don't have to be part of the corporate cog to get everything approved and, you know, test approvals. Yeah.
• 28:21
  Yeah. And all that stuff. So like have that fun when you can. And I'm always like, yes, no death of joy. 100%. Like as being a founder and like my husband is CEO, like that's something that's really important to us with company culture and building coffee is like, I don't want us to ever be that.
• 28:37
  even when we get really big and continue to grow. Right. So totally, totally. It's just, it's a crazy ride. It is a crazy ride. I want to talk about the recent crazy thing that is JLo. I was just like dying for you. That's the coolest thing I've ever seen. Um,
• 28:55
  what happened there? Was this like a planned thing or did she just like pick up a poppy and dance with it? I don't understand. So it's kind of like it was a combination. So we honestly just been so lucky with so many celebrities organically becoming fans of poppy. Like here we focus a lot on influencer marketing. We seed a lot of people. So we send out a ton of poppy and just like, like how much are we talking? Like hundreds or like thousands a month?
• 29:23
  I mean, there's sometimes we'll do like a thousand a month and then the next month, maybe like 500. And then if we're doing a big launch, we'll do like 2000 or something like that. Wow. Okay. Right. And it depends. You'll do like a curated mailers, what we call them for like a certain like celebrity. Like if you're giving it to like Madonna, right? Like you don't just send her a boss. Yeah.
• 29:41
  So it just depends. But with JLo, it was funny because we've just have so many organic fans. And so it was one of those organic fans that she kind of her team reached out and we knew that she loved Poppy. I wanted to get it on set for her music video, Cumbria El Paso video. And it was in Miami. Miami is one of our big markets. And so like we made some calls and I was like,
• 30:09
  Get Poppy on set. I know she likes it. I knew she was a fan from us, like, CD before. Like, and sometimes you just, like, never know what's going to happen. And so we got a call. It was like, hey.
• 30:19
  we got some pictures and there's like X's on it. It was like, look, JLo's like drinking the poppy and cause they didn't want us to like use the pictures. Right. And I was like, how do we work with JLo? Like, I was like, how did we make this happen? And they were like, listen, like most of the people that we work with one, they have to love poppy. Like, I don't want to do it just to pay someone and it's contractual. Like it's one on it's unauthentic. And so I found out she loved it. And so then just
• 30:44
  at that time, the conversation of a partnership came up out of that, but it was not like a big endorsement campaign. It was like, Hey, we're on set. She loves Poppy. She did this really cool content. Like, do you guys want to work with her? And so it was like a really quick thing. Cause and it was easy because we knew she loved it. So we're like, uh, yeah, it's JLo. She has a hundred million followers on Instagram. Amazing. Like let's make this happen. And so it happened like over a weekend. It's like every woman's dream. Yeah. I mean, it was just like, I was just like, who doesn't love JLo? Like,
• 31:12
  I don't know if you can get better. Like, honestly, are you allowed to share? Like when you say you work together from that, like you you agreed to work together. I assume that means you paid for it to be able to use that content. Are you allowed to share like ballpark what that kind of thing costs or is that like off limits?
• 31:31
  unfortunate is off limits I try to like how they always say like don't kiss and tail because yeah okay within the business of what we're doing it's not necessarily about the contracts and who you work with it it's relationships and working with people and I would love to work with JLo again someday and so it's like
• 31:47
  once you like getting the nitty gritties of like what you paid for this, like, I'm sure she's doing all sorts of deals and it's very dependent on, I'm sure she, it's a product she loves versus a product she just wants to get paid for, which, you know, you never know that's between her and her team, but we really get to the point where you build the relationships and that's the more important part. And so we tend to not talk about price when it comes to those things. Fair enough. Fair enough. Just wanted to try my luck. No, I know it's fine. I get it.
• 32:16
  That is so cool. I think that is like, I guess as an entrepreneur, you hit so many lows, but you also hit so many highs and that's surely got to be up there as like pinnacle poppy moment. I mean, it really was. It was funny. It was just like opportunities like that just are really natural and easy. And I know it sounds crazy when things like a deal with JLo would be like natural and easy. But when you are doing what you believe in,
• 32:41
  and you have a strong brand, and you have core values, and you have good company culture, like, that just, like, gets out into the universe, right? And I feel like that's something that people continually say about working with us is, like, how much they enjoy it, and Poppy's one of their favorite partners, and they truly enjoy the product, and why we get so many people to naturally post versus paid. And so just, like, keep all those things in mind, I think, for anybody out there when you're building stuff, like...
• 33:08
  It doesn't come overnight. I mean, like I talked about at the beginning where we're hustling and not paying ourselves and babies strapped to us to now we're the fastest growing non-alcoholic beverage in the nation and our categories of fastest growing.
• 33:23
  Yeah, it's incredible. It's like they say it takes 10 years to reach overnight success. Exactly. And you're just like, you don't see all the hard work, but it doesn't feel like hard work if you're doing something that you love. A hundred percent. So there's many a time that I would have loved to given up, but I just kind of have that personality where I'm just like...
• 33:44
  screw it. Like, let's see what happens. Endurance is, is I think a good word for that. Yeah. And I love having a partner. Like, I don't know. I wouldn't be able to do this like without my husband. Like he is the, I hate to say like typical CEO, but like, he is like such a perfect CEO in the way of like, he's great with,
• 34:04
  the finances and the pros and cons and the contracts and like the boring stuff. And I love doing the brand and the marketing. You're like, you need that person and whether it's your partner, but like when hiring people, like you need to find those people that like that fill in those gaps that aren't, you're not good at, right. It doesn't have to be another founder or whatever, but like, it's okay to let go of the reins. It's okay for you to not be good at everything. I have a degree in sociology.
• 34:29
  from a art school like the University of North Texas. I was a dance major for the first two years and I was like, oh, I don't really need to agree in dance to teach and or to dance. I was like, this is silly. So I went to my counselor. I was like, listen, how do I get out of college really quick and graduate? And they're like, well, sociology, if you take some of us from a master. So I like signed up.
• 34:49
  I got out and I was just like, I'm so I'm not like one of those people. Yeah, I still started this company and we've grown. And it's like, that's OK that I don't I don't have an MBA from Harvard. Right. And I think that it's nice to hear as well is that you don't have to have all of these things like perfectly lined up to be successful as long as you have drive. Yeah. And hustle. It's so important for people to hear that because.
• 35:15
  You know, I think that can get lost. People see like all these shiny things and they're like, oh, that person, it just makes sense for that person. And they need to understand that that's not the journey for everyone. And you don't need to have that MBA, like you said. I wanted to ask you, if you were to go back and start this business again tomorrow, what would you like do more of in the beginning? And what would you have done less of in the beginning? Yeah.
• 35:43
  Yeah, I think us opening our own manufacturing facility so quick, there was a lot of pros and cons behind that. One, now as we're scaling, we have five different manufacturers across the U.S. and we're growing really quick. We understand how to make our product.
• 35:58
  Like we've made it ourselves. We know it. Like Steven to this day is still on site to like onboard our manufacturers because he understands it's more than our operations manager who worked for Pepsi for 20 years, right? We know that, but I will say it is a lot of capital.
• 36:14
  to do your own manufacturing. And we used to always say, if we could have spent more time building the brand and the business from the beginning, rather than putting caps on bottles, which we were and doing deliveries ourselves, could we have even been further along? And so-
• 36:29
  You can look at it both ways like, oh, wow, this great thing came out of it that we know how to make our product, but you don't want to get stuck in the weeds. And I think like a lot of entrepreneurs think that it's like it's OK to bring on people to help you. It's good to find manufacturers that can make your product for you.
• 36:46
  And you always think that there's some obstacles to get there, but it's probably one of the steps you want to take quicker or sooner than later because you don't want to be stuck in the weeds. So you can grow your business and focus on that. That makes sense. Totally. Totally. Yeah, I really I think that's it's good to hear that that's kind of like what you would do differently if you were to do it all again.
• 37:09
  So if you were to paint the picture of where the business is today and what fun things you want to shout about that's coming up in the future, what does that look like? Like, how big is your team? What's going on? Yeah, we're growing so quick. Like going back to the fact that truly are we are the fastest growing beverage in the nation right now. Like no big deal.
• 37:29
  Ah, crazy. It's crazy. I think we hired like 17 people this month, February. Oh my God. Wow. Yeah. February of 2020. It was me and Steven. Now we have 60 people that work for us and they're all over the U S we have 30 of them in New York right now, blitz in the streets. My husband's out there with them, with our president and everyone's out there like blitzing. I have a
• 37:53
  that's amazing. And it's just like crazy, crazy with like how quickly we're growing. But I will say it's still really hard to find great people that get what we're doing and
• 38:03
  You know, I love taking time to hire the right people. Right. So you want to find the right people, take your time. But we're going so quick and I love to see like the Poppy family grow. It's really fun to see that. And the crazy thing with like COVID is like there's some people in our team for like a year and I've never met them. I've seen them on Zoom 100 times, but it's crazy. It's weird with that. So I'm ready for that to be over.
• 38:26
  But we launched three new flavors in May. We call it like our classics line. We did a cola, a root beer and a doc pop like a Dr. Pepper. And it was so successful. We sold out like 30 days. We were like, oh, it's fine. We'll make some. And then you have COVID restraints with manufacturing right now. That's hard to get line time. Just sourcing is just stressed across all categories in all industries.
• 38:52
  And so we haven't been able to like produce it again. So we're producing it this week. I'm so excited. So it'll be hitting the market again in about 30 days. And it was so successful that we sold out and people are wanting our same product, but in those traditional flavors. And so I'm really excited for that, for their horizon. And then just, I think our growth, I think we're on track to be like in over 25 locations next year, going from like,
• 39:21
  2000 last year to 10. So you'll be in the UK. Not yet. Not until after the, I know not until after COVID we're looking and going and doing a test in Canada at the end of this year, but it's a little easier because we're connected, but maybe we can, you know, we have a great relationship with whole foods. I know you guys have a few up there.
• 39:39
  We do. We do. I can see you in Whole Foods. I will be lining up. Maybe that's where we have to like that might be like the one way in before we get going to do it. Please look into that. I know we'll have to we'll have to ship you some anyways. If you haven't if you haven't tried it, you truly don't understand. Oh, my gosh. I really want to try. You don't understand until you try the product. So good.
• 40:01
  I, the thing is, is that I'm an apple cider vinegar drinker, like daily drinker. And I went from doing the whole like shotting it, which I then became like, Hey, I actually can't do this. It's too rough on my stomach to then just, I drink a glass really, really quickly. But my husband, I tried to get him to drink it too, but he just hates the smell. He cannot stand it. He can't be near me when I'm drinking it.
• 40:22
  And I'm just like, this is what we need. Like, this is fun. I so want this in my life. It's so true. Please come to London. It's so true. And it's so funny because there's a couple other brands out there that have tried to like, I think like even like Trader Joe's has tried to do and I'm not like ripping us off in general. It's like people see the value of having an apple cider vinegar drink. But something I still pride myself on to this day is the fact that I still personally make every single new flavor. So we don't use a formulation house.
• 40:50
  I have a little lab here in our office and I will spend four months on a new flavor or two weeks, depending on where it comes. And so I know it tastes good, you know, not to toot my own horn, but like I know like our product tastes fantastic. We've done a couple of studies. We've done like surveys and stuff like that. And people always say like our product tastes amazing.
• 41:10
  If kids drink it, it tastes amazing because kids won't touch things that don't taste good. I know, right? It's true. It's so funny. We have a three and a four-year-old and I give them drinks to try all the time. I'm like, try this. Our competitors are like, Poppy's better. Or they're like, Mom, do you make this? I'm like, no, I don't make every beverage out there.
• 41:32
  That's really cute. They have no idea. So what is your key piece of advice for women who are on the entrepreneurial journey, but a little bit earlier on?
• 41:42
  Yeah, I think I know it sounds crazy and it sounds, you know, like my favorite saying is doing something is better than nothing by an infinite amount. So whether it's just at night or the weekends or you wake up an hour early, like just doing something is better than nothing. So you don't have to just start and quit your job and go crazy like we did, but you
• 42:05
  You also have to know that could be in the future if you truly believe in it. But just doing something. Just try. And I know it sounds just so common. It's like every advice you ever get. But you just got to just do something that's better than nothing. Yeah, 100%. The compound effect of doing just a 1% action every day, you're going to look back and be like,
• 42:27
  Whoa, we're here now. This is crazy. Yeah, and get help. Like, you don't have to do everything by yourself, but get help from people that believe in you and don't bring you down. Like, you don't need that naysayer, like, telling you, it's like, that's silly. You don't want to do that. Like, you don't want to surround yourself with that. But like, it's okay. Be like, hey, girls, like, I'll buy you guys pizza and wine. Like, come over. I need help. Like, surround yourself with a community and people that love you and love what you're doing. And just having a support system is always really nice. You don't have to do everything by yourself.
• 42:58
  That's so cool. I love that. We wrap up every episode with a series of six quick questions, some of which we might have covered, some of which we might not have, but I ask them all the same. So question number one is what's your why? Why are you doing what you're doing? So for me, it's my family, my kids. I don't understand how people can work so hard if it's not for something like that, but that's me personally for their future.
• 43:25
  Amazing. Question number two is what has been the number one marketing moment that made the business pop poppy? It was definitely our viral TikTok moment.
• 43:39
  I think that video has over 15 million views, over 400,000 comments, which means people are actually engaging with it. Changed our whole strategy in the company. And it was a major moment in the company history. Oh my gosh. Everyone needs to get on TikTok immediately. It's just crazy. The power of TikTok. It blows my mind. Blows my mind. It's insane. Powerful. Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? What are you reading or listening to or subscribing to?
• 44:06
  So something you might not see me, but I am obsessed with the news. Every morning I listen to two podcasts from both sides of the left and the right. I love to know both sides. I don't want to be blindsided by just what one person is saying. I want to know all views. And I think that's really important to make my decisions in life. And I love that.
• 44:29
  podcasts on marketing like pat lincone at the table like stuff like that anything you could do just while you're doing the dishes is listen to those type of things or even like a good audio book but i like to do more of that kind of stuff than like a watch trash tv or something which i know love people love to do too so that's okay
• 44:49
  Totally. So I'm going to link that podcast that you mentioned in the show notes. I haven't actually heard that one before, so I'm going to check it out. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals and habits that keep you feeling happy and motivated and successful? Huh? You mean like,
• 45:10
  Actually taking me time. Yes. That's a hard one, honestly. And I think I get blindsided by it a lot because I do have kids and I want to focus on them and then the company. So for me, it's probably like getting my nails done or something simple like that to taking that me time in the morning. It's my coffee. And at night, I'm all about balance. And I love to have like a little dessert every night. So.
• 45:38
  live your life. Love that for you. Have some balance. 100%. Love that journey, right? Love that journey. Yeah. Question number six is if you were given a thousand dollars of no strings attached grant money, where would you spend that in the business? And it's kind of like, obviously for the stage that you're at, a thousand dollars isn't a lot, but it's like, where's your most important spend of a dollar?
• 46:03
  Yeah, I think if it was not attached, we're not worried about like with marketing, I would probably like give back to my team and like do something fun with going and doing like a team building event or a culture building event to, I think, having those relationships and building that camaraderie like it within the company is really, really important and can get lost, especially with everyone work from home.
• 46:26
  Absolutely. That's so true with the whole remote thing now, making sure that you're bringing people together, R.I.L., to bond, no matter whatever it is, you know, whether we send them something cute and we do a Zoom happy hour or something like that. Like I definitely would love to give. I love giving back to the team and rewarding for hard work.
• 46:45
  The poppy vodka slushies. I know. Hey, I'm all about it. Poppy's a great mixer. I'm excited for the day I can try. I know, right? I have to try. Yes. I will have to try. And question number six, last question is how do you deal with failure? What's your mindset and approach when things do not go to plan as they inevitably won't all the time? Fail and fail quick. And it's okay. And I failed quickly.
• 47:13
  multiple times, but crying is okay. Getting upset is okay, but don't stay there long and just pick yourself up and keep going because it will 100% happen and it's not the end of the world. For sure.
• 47:31
  Alison, this was so cool. Thank you so much. I am just, I love what you're doing and I think you're amazing. And I think Poppy is amazing. And I'm just so excited to be following your journey from here. Hey, I appreciate so much. It was wonderful talking to you today and, you know, UK Poppy, it sounds like some great goals to me. Absolutely.
• 47:57
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 48:22
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 48:44
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.
• 49:01
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 49:26
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 49:48
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.