Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / Episode 65: Nicole Centeno, CEO & Founder Splendid Spoon

Transcript

Episode 65: Nicole Centeno, CEO & Founder Splendid Spoon · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:01
Speaker 1: Hey, Hurdlers, Emily a Body here. You are listening to
0:04
Speaker 1: episode sixty five of Hurdle, a podcast that talks to
0:08
Speaker 1: everyone from entrepreneurs to top CEOs and athletes about how
0:12
Speaker 1: they've gotten through tough times hurdles of sorts by leaning
0:16
Speaker 1: into wellness. Today, I'm going to be chatting with Nicole Santano.
0:20
Speaker 1: She is the CEO and founder of Splendid Spoon. It's
0:25
Speaker 1: a plant based ready to eat meal delivery service. They've
0:29
Speaker 1: got smoothies and they've got soups, and trust me, they're
0:32
Speaker 1: pretty delicious. Before we get to her story, a quick
0:36
Speaker 1: shout out to my sponsor, Athletic Greens. I literally just
0:40
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0:44
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0:47
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0:51
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0:53
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0:57
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1:01
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1:06
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1:09
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1:14
Speaker 1: slash hurdle to grab yours today, all right now chatting
1:20
Speaker 1: about Nicole, She's totally down to earth. I actually really
1:24
Speaker 1: loved sitting down with her just last week to record this.
1:27
Speaker 1: In today's episode, she talks to me about how she
1:29
Speaker 1: knew from a young age that she was fascinated with food,
1:33
Speaker 1: and even when she was working as a media strategist
1:36
Speaker 1: at big companies like Kande Nast, there was a part
1:39
Speaker 1: of her inside that was just so ready to figure
1:42
Speaker 1: out how to make that passion a bigger part of
1:44
Speaker 1: her day to day. But her relationship with food hasn't
1:47
Speaker 1: always been a positive one, and you'll hear her get
1:50
Speaker 1: really honest with the disordered eating she had back in college.
1:54
Speaker 1: We talk about how she was able to get away
1:56
Speaker 1: from that, how she was able to make a positive
1:59
Speaker 1: change in her life and reframe that relationship with food.
2:03
Speaker 1: We also talk about what it was like going to
2:05
Speaker 1: culinary school and building Splendid Spoon from the ground up.
2:09
Speaker 1: You know, you hear it a lot from the entrepreneurs
2:11
Speaker 1: that I have on this show that starting from scratch
2:14
Speaker 1: can be super intimidating, and for Nicole it definitely was.
2:19
Speaker 1: What's even harder to imagine is that she talks about
2:22
Speaker 1: today going through a divorce with her husband while this
2:26
Speaker 1: company was just about to launch, and the stresses and
2:29
Speaker 1: the pressure that that put on her. It's pretty admirable. Actually,
2:33
Speaker 1: she talks about leaning into the business, finding her strength
2:36
Speaker 1: from something that she was so passionate about to get
2:38
Speaker 1: through some of these really tough times. Now. I do
2:41
Speaker 1: want to touch on something really quick in today's episode,
2:44
Speaker 1: Like I said, Nicole talks to me about her time
2:46
Speaker 1: with an eating disorder, and she also mentions that she
2:50
Speaker 1: didn't really talk to anyone about it. So if you're
2:53
Speaker 1: listening to this and you feel like you're struggling with something,
2:56
Speaker 1: talk to someone, reach out to a friend, reach out
2:59
Speaker 1: to a non I misshelpline. There is someone there that
3:03
Speaker 1: wants to listen to you, that wants to help you,
3:05
Speaker 1: and just know you're not alone. I also want to
3:08
Speaker 1: just take a quick second and shout out all of
3:10
Speaker 1: the hurdlers that came to the Hurdle Run Club at
3:12
Speaker 1: the Santa Monica Pere this morning. It was so so
3:16
Speaker 1: awesome to get to interact with you guys in person.
3:18
Speaker 1: I know when I put that call out on social media,
3:21
Speaker 1: I got a lot of messages asking if I would
3:23
Speaker 1: do this in other cities. Trust me, it's definitely on
3:26
Speaker 1: my radar. But for now New York, I can promise
3:29
Speaker 1: you I'm coming for you. So if you want to run,
3:33
Speaker 1: if you like what you're listening to, if you have
3:35
Speaker 1: any other feedback, you always know where to find me.
3:38
Speaker 1: It's at Emily Body and at Hurdle Podcasts on Instagram
3:41
Speaker 1: and Twitter and Facebook, and also always always via email.
3:46
Speaker 1: It's Emily at Hurdle dot us. I'm telling you I'm
3:50
Speaker 1: gearing up for a big week here out in Los Angeles.
3:53
Speaker 1: I'm doing seven different hurdle podcasts. So excited. That's a
3:58
Speaker 1: total understatement to fill you guys in on what's to come.
4:01
Speaker 1: And that's different. Now with that, let's get to hurtling today.
4:10
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here with Nicole Santano. She is the founder
4:13
Speaker 1: and CEO of Splendid Spoon. Hey, hey, let's shaken.
4:18
Speaker 2: It's hot.
4:19
Speaker 1: It's hot, the hot day to be shaken. I know
4:22
Speaker 1: you were telling me you just got back from Austin. Yeah,
4:25
Speaker 1: hotter in Austin hotter on par.
4:27
Speaker 2: Well, it's said eighty nine in Austin and eighty nine
4:31
Speaker 2: in New York. But it I did not believe the
4:34
Speaker 2: temperature reading. It felt like two thousand degrees in Austin.
4:38
Speaker 1: Oh, the worst, the worst, and the humidity just gets Yeah,
4:41
Speaker 1: yeah it was.
4:42
Speaker 2: It was hot, But I love Austin.
4:44
Speaker 1: Where are you from, Massachusetts? Okay, not Austin, Austin not
4:49
Speaker 1: nearly as hot. No, when did you make the jump
4:52
Speaker 1: over to New York City?
4:54
Speaker 2: I went to school in Boston, so I spent my
4:56
Speaker 2: entire life in New England up until after college, and
5:00
Speaker 2: then I moved to New York.
5:01
Speaker 1: Okay, So before we get into this here, I think
5:04
Speaker 1: it's important to let the hurdlers know what Splendid Spoon is.
5:08
Speaker 1: So why don't you give them the rundown.
5:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, Splendid Spoon delivers ready to eat, plant based, super
5:15
Speaker 2: clean lunches and breakfasts right to your home. So it's
5:18
Speaker 2: ready to drink smoothies, ready to eat soups and stews,
5:22
Speaker 2: and everything's designed to create a routine for you in
5:26
Speaker 2: the middle of your busy work week.
5:28
Speaker 1: Okay, So was it always breakfasts and lunch because I
5:32
Speaker 1: think I think, I recall it used to just be soups.
5:35
Speaker 2: It used to just be soups. It started with just soups, okay,
5:38
Speaker 2: So it was just lunch or soup for breakfast often.
5:41
Speaker 1: Do okay, So give me a snippet of what some
5:44
Speaker 1: of these soup flavors entail, and then we can kind
5:47
Speaker 1: of reach out into the other offerings that you guys have.
5:50
Speaker 2: It's a I mean, it really runs the gamut. So
5:51
Speaker 2: there's everything from like a really light fennel consumme that
5:54
Speaker 2: has a lemon peel and a bit of spice to
5:57
Speaker 2: a really hearty Moroccan lentil that it kind of has
6:00
Speaker 2: like a tagine vibe. Our Lentil Kale is super popular.
6:05
Speaker 2: We have a reddit too, so we have over forty
6:08
Speaker 2: different flavors.
6:09
Speaker 1: Wow.
6:09
Speaker 2: And then on the smoothie side, everything is way lower
6:13
Speaker 2: in sugar than pretty much anything else out there that
6:16
Speaker 2: you can get, and especially in the ready to drink format,
6:20
Speaker 2: so you can literally pull a bottle out of your
6:22
Speaker 2: fridge and gulp it down on your way to work.
6:24
Speaker 1: And is this all delivery based or can you buy
6:28
Speaker 1: them places? Or where do people get.
6:29
Speaker 2: Splendid spoon it's all delivery based. Okay, So you can
6:32
Speaker 2: go to splendidspoon dot com you can order. We deliver everywhere,
6:36
Speaker 2: so literally every state in the continental US.
6:38
Speaker 1: Which is awesome, awesome. And when I order splendid Spoon,
6:41
Speaker 1: if I was to open my laptop right now and
6:43
Speaker 1: click order, how fast does it arrive at it.
6:46
Speaker 2: Comes with it? It's about a week.
6:49
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, okay, cool. So these are the basics.
6:51
Speaker 2: Those are the basics.
6:52
Speaker 1: So let's dial it back before we were delivering nationwide. Yeah,
6:57
Speaker 1: were you always into Have you always been a plant
7:00
Speaker 1: based diet? Not a girl?
7:02
Speaker 2: Definitely not. I love food as many of us do,
7:08
Speaker 2: but I think I've always been driven by food and
7:12
Speaker 2: the sensory experience, and like so many of my memories
7:15
Speaker 2: around food, Like I have a memory of wiping butter
7:19
Speaker 2: off of the butter plate in my grandmother's house because
7:22
Speaker 2: I just loved that like sweet salty, creamy flavor. And
7:26
Speaker 2: I grew vegetables in a garden with my mom and
7:29
Speaker 2: made strawberry jam, and I just have always been very
7:33
Speaker 2: interested in food. I studied biology when I was in college,
7:36
Speaker 2: is like a way to figure out how it all
7:39
Speaker 2: works for food. Yeah, So I Actually I ended up
7:42
Speaker 2: what got me really excited about biology was working in
7:46
Speaker 2: my independent studies were in a biochemistry lab, so I
7:49
Speaker 2: looked at diet therapies as treatment for epilepsia because it's
7:53
Speaker 2: an ancient diet. It's an ancient ritual really to put
7:56
Speaker 2: people on different fasts or different diets when or having
8:00
Speaker 2: symptoms of disease. And it was really powerful. I mean,
8:04
Speaker 2: it really showed me just how powerful what you eat
8:06
Speaker 2: can be on how you live and how you feel.
8:09
Speaker 2: And so that really catalyzed something in me. At that time,
8:13
Speaker 2: I also had an eating disorder, so that was also
8:17
Speaker 2: like a very scary, dark experience with food, and I've
8:23
Speaker 2: seen food from all those different angles. So part of
8:27
Speaker 2: my recovery after school was going to culinary school. Actually,
8:31
Speaker 2: it was like when I wanted to go to culinary school,
8:34
Speaker 2: I knew that I had regained that healthy relationship with
8:38
Speaker 2: food again where I could enjoy it for pleasure and
8:40
Speaker 2: I wasn't in that dark place of counting calories and
8:45
Speaker 2: reward versus punishment. So food in every format, good and bad,
8:51
Speaker 2: has been really important for my personal growth.
8:54
Speaker 1: It's got to be so interesting to feel as though
8:56
Speaker 1: you want nothing to do with food while also learning
8:59
Speaker 1: about food all the time.
9:00
Speaker 2: It's you know, I think for me at that formative age,
9:04
Speaker 2: like college adolescens, like your early twenties, there was something
9:07
Speaker 2: about I was the eating disorder was all about control.
9:11
Speaker 2: It was all about like how to regain a sense
9:14
Speaker 2: of control and a sense of order. I had chosen
9:18
Speaker 2: a science degree over my English degree because I wanted
9:21
Speaker 2: to be challenged more and it really challenged me. And
9:25
Speaker 2: studying then also food as fuel versus food as pleasure
9:30
Speaker 2: was also a really sort of grounding force for me.
9:35
Speaker 2: And it wasn't until I got out of culinary school,
9:38
Speaker 2: or that I was in culinary school, that I was
9:40
Speaker 2: really able to kind of process all of that and
9:43
Speaker 2: understand that food is not one or the other for
9:45
Speaker 2: any human being. It's never just food. It's never purely emotion.
9:50
Speaker 2: It's always a mix of both.
9:52
Speaker 1: So you went to college with the idea that you
9:54
Speaker 1: wanted to study biology specifically to get into food.
9:57
Speaker 2: Or no, I went to college like to go to college. Yeah,
10:02
Speaker 2: I went to college. I went to a liberal arts
10:04
Speaker 2: school because I wanted to learn about lots of different
10:07
Speaker 2: things and also honestly because that's what I had been
10:09
Speaker 2: told to do my whole life was like, you go
10:12
Speaker 2: to college, we will help you. You will have some
10:15
Speaker 2: semblance of student loans. But like as my parents were
10:19
Speaker 2: like determined to put me into college, and then after
10:22
Speaker 2: that it was always very clear that I would be
10:25
Speaker 2: on my own, and so I trusted that advice and
10:29
Speaker 2: believed that it would give me some foundation of being
10:31
Speaker 2: on my own. So that was why I went to college.
10:35
Speaker 2: And I had always excelled in the humanities, like I
10:37
Speaker 2: had always excelled in writing, and so I chose an
10:41
Speaker 2: English degree. But I just didn't feel I felt like
10:47
Speaker 2: I wanted more of a challenge, I guess, And the
10:49
Speaker 2: other part of me that had always stimulated curiosity was
10:52
Speaker 2: like how do things work? Why are systems designed the
10:56
Speaker 2: way they are, and how does that relate to how
10:59
Speaker 2: we live and our nature? So biology was like an
11:03
Speaker 2: easy move for me in that sense.
11:07
Speaker 1: So on the personal side, then what were some of
11:09
Speaker 1: the steps that you took to kind of overcome and
11:13
Speaker 1: get out of this eating disorder?
11:14
Speaker 2: Then, like I mentioned, for me, and I think a
11:17
Speaker 2: lot of people with disordered eating habits, it comes from
11:20
Speaker 2: a loss of control or the perception that you don't
11:23
Speaker 2: have control, and a thing that you can control is
11:28
Speaker 2: what you put into your body and how your body
11:30
Speaker 2: appears and all of that. And so the big moment
11:35
Speaker 2: for me that changed that was when I almost failed
11:38
Speaker 2: organic chemistry. Okay, as this very concrete moment where I
11:42
Speaker 2: was like, oh my god, like I have developed this
11:47
Speaker 2: coping mechanism because it somehow feels good in a way,
11:53
Speaker 2: but materially it's hurting me, Like I just almost failed. Yeah, laugh,
11:59
Speaker 2: And I actually went in and negotiated with the teacher
12:04
Speaker 2: until he agreed to give me a D minus.
12:07
Speaker 1: Wow.
12:08
Speaker 2: I was like, I show up in this class every day.
12:10
Speaker 2: I may not be mentally present, but I'm there and
12:15
Speaker 2: he was like, fine, okay, D minus. And then so
12:20
Speaker 2: it was a huge wake up call for me where
12:22
Speaker 2: I was like, this is not this is not the plan,
12:26
Speaker 2: this is not this is clearly not working. It gave
12:30
Speaker 2: me the ability to step back and also just realize
12:34
Speaker 2: some of the other objective facts that like my back
12:38
Speaker 2: hurt all the time, because what happens is it puts
12:40
Speaker 2: a ton of stress on your kidneys, and my teeth
12:45
Speaker 2: were kind of looking weird, you know. It was just
12:47
Speaker 2: like it it kind of like lifted the fog from me,
12:53
Speaker 2: and I didn't tell anyone about it until I spent
12:57
Speaker 2: like days. I did end up skipping a ton of
13:00
Speaker 2: classes and spend days in the library reading about eating disorders.
13:04
Speaker 2: I confided in my general chemistry teacher because I had
13:08
Speaker 2: done really well in general chemistry and for whatever reason,
13:12
Speaker 2: he was like he had been a great coach and
13:15
Speaker 2: kind of mentor, and I confided in him and that helped.
13:18
Speaker 2: And then I found a therapist and I just went
13:20
Speaker 2: to therapy and like, did it Yeah? Yeah, I mean
13:24
Speaker 2: it took a long it was, But that's often the
13:27
Speaker 2: story of my life is like there's an inflection point
13:31
Speaker 2: and I all of a sudden the site line of
13:35
Speaker 2: sight becomes clear, and I just.
13:37
Speaker 1: Go, yeah, I can, I can understand that. I mean
13:40
Speaker 1: it's interesting. Obviously, not telling people is one thing, But
13:44
Speaker 1: did you have friends that were concerned about you? I mean,
13:47
Speaker 1: were you looking any different? No?
13:50
Speaker 2: I Mean the other really sad thing is like, I'm
13:53
Speaker 2: I've always been a very small build.
13:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, and.
13:59
Speaker 2: It was not like I was gaining or losing tons
14:02
Speaker 2: of weight. And I've always been small anyway, So I
14:05
Speaker 2: don't think anybody know. I actually I had shared this
14:07
Speaker 2: with one of my best friends from college very recently,
14:10
Speaker 2: and she said, I had absolutely no idea. I had
14:13
Speaker 2: absolutely no idea. And I think it's common in that
14:17
Speaker 2: college environment for a lot of young women to have
14:19
Speaker 2: disordered eating habits, and so that sort of like that
14:25
Speaker 2: area of what's normal gets really gray. So yeah, no one,
14:33
Speaker 2: no one said anything, And it was only the people
14:36
Speaker 2: I chose to confide in who ended up knowing about
14:39
Speaker 2: it. It was very very few people.
14:41
Speaker 1: So we realized, this isn't the move.
14:43
Speaker 2: It wasn't the move. And I had started to love
14:47
Speaker 2: food again and a lot of what I did in
14:50
Speaker 2: my spare time was cook learned to cook through different
14:53
Speaker 2: cookbooks and plot out the various restaurants that I would try,
14:57
Speaker 2: the chefs that I would try over New York City
15:00
Speaker 2: and when I traveled. And so I thought, what about
15:05
Speaker 2: going to culinary school? Like it was this kind of
15:08
Speaker 2: I didn't find cooking out of cookbooks enough and I
15:12
Speaker 2: wanted to learn proper skills, and so that was that
15:16
Speaker 2: was the path that I chose. So I went to
15:18
Speaker 2: the French Culinary Institute here in Manhattan. I did it
15:20
Speaker 2: at night so that I could stay at Conde nast
15:22
Speaker 2: and work full time and pay for the expensive tuition
15:26
Speaker 2: that is culinary school. And I absolutely loved it, like
15:32
Speaker 2: totally first time that I was doing something hard, that
15:39
Speaker 2: I was putting extra hours in and I felt totally fulfilled.
15:43
Speaker 2: So that was a huge signal to me. And I didn't, again,
15:46
Speaker 2: like I often don't have a specific plan, but I
15:54
Speaker 2: knew that I was on the right track. And at
15:57
Speaker 2: that point when I graduated, I just did whatever I could,
16:01
Speaker 2: just stay in contact with food. I kept my day job,
16:03
Speaker 2: but I had like catering businesses pop ups. I was
16:06
Speaker 2: teaching cooking lessons to kids and cooking lessons to my friends,
16:10
Speaker 2: and spending all of my spare time getting up at
16:14
Speaker 2: four or five in the morning before work to cook
16:17
Speaker 2: at like a pizza kitchen so that I could sell
16:20
Speaker 2: things on the weekend, and then going to work full time,
16:24
Speaker 2: coming back planning out my next food gig, and having
16:28
Speaker 2: a food gig every single weekend. And at a certain point,
16:32
Speaker 2: I was like, I think I should choose whether or
16:35
Speaker 2: not I'm putting my energy into one or the other.
16:38
Speaker 2: Do I really want to continue pursuing a career in media,
16:42
Speaker 2: or do I want to take a chance with something
16:44
Speaker 2: that really makes me feel alive, and I took the chance.
16:50
Speaker 1: So what did taking that chance look like? In practice?
16:54
Speaker 2: Practically it meant having a big conversation with my boyfriend
16:59
Speaker 2: at the time and agreeing to downsize our apartment, moving
17:04
Speaker 2: to a much smaller place. It meant that, or maybe
17:09
Speaker 2: we had already moved. I mean there was there was
17:11
Speaker 2: like the practicality of financially what would that mean? And
17:16
Speaker 2: and that was I think that's often the big hurdle
17:18
Speaker 2: for people is like how do I pay for rent?
17:21
Speaker 2: Especially in New York City? And so I wouldn't have
17:23
Speaker 2: been able to do it if I didn't have that
17:25
Speaker 2: partnership at the time. For sure was a huge component
17:28
Speaker 2: for me. And then I was still kind of like
17:33
Speaker 2: stumbling along. But when I got pregnant with my first son, Grover,
17:38
Speaker 2: that was a really big another big inflection point for me.
17:42
Speaker 2: Where I got pregnant, I didn't know or didn't remember
17:48
Speaker 2: what it was I was supposed to be eating. I
17:50
Speaker 2: did what everyone does, which is google prenatal care, and
17:55
Speaker 2: all of the noise flooded in of like how much
17:58
Speaker 2: fool aid, how much CALC have you been taking your
18:00
Speaker 2: prenatal et cetera, et cetera. And it reminded me, honestly
18:05
Speaker 2: of the noise in my head when I had an
18:07
Speaker 2: eating disorder, of like not feeling grounded, feeling like everyone
18:12
Speaker 2: has an opinion of what I should be doing to
18:15
Speaker 2: take care of my body, and it was overcomplicated. And
18:20
Speaker 2: I knew from having gone through that experience and from
18:22
Speaker 2: having studied biology that it was it was not for me,
18:26
Speaker 2: like that world of minutia and super foods and perfecting
18:32
Speaker 2: every single bite. It just wasn't for me. And I
18:35
Speaker 2: also knew that I was eating a lot of croissants
18:38
Speaker 2: and drinking a lot of lattes, drinking a lot of wine,
18:42
Speaker 2: eating out at you know, New York City restaurants, and
18:46
Speaker 2: I wasn't having salads or carrots or I don't think
18:49
Speaker 2: I was having one serving a vegetables to day honestly, wow.
18:53
Speaker 2: And unless you counted potatoes, real starch, and so that
19:00
Speaker 2: balance for me had gone from very restrictive to very
19:06
Speaker 2: just pleasure based. And I'm happy that that happened, but
19:11
Speaker 2: I was also it was also eye opening to me
19:14
Speaker 2: to realize, again, food isn't just one or the other,
19:17
Speaker 2: like it is also fuel. It does actually turn into
19:21
Speaker 2: the cells of your body. And that is no more
19:24
Speaker 2: apparent than when you are pregnant and there's a baby
19:27
Speaker 2: growing inside of you. So I needed to figure out
19:29
Speaker 2: a way to just get more vegetables into my diet.
19:32
Speaker 2: I needed to figure out a way to eat a
19:34
Speaker 2: little bit more plant based, because all you have to
19:36
Speaker 2: do is read a few books on why plant based
19:41
Speaker 2: is better for you to realize just how easy it
19:45
Speaker 2: is to transform your health. Right, Like, every serving of
19:48
Speaker 2: vegetables that we eat reduces our likelihood for heart disease
19:51
Speaker 2: by four percent, and cardiovascular disease is the number one
19:55
Speaker 2: killer of adults in the US. So it's like it's
19:59
Speaker 2: really actually quite simple, but it's hard because we're pressed
20:03
Speaker 2: for time. And so that was the big hairy beast
20:07
Speaker 2: that I wanted to tackle, was this idea that being
20:11
Speaker 2: healthy takes a lot of time, takes a lot of expertise,
20:15
Speaker 2: takes a lot of fancy ingredients. I don't believe that
20:19
Speaker 2: that's true, And I think that the common wisdom of
20:23
Speaker 2: our moms and grandmothers is often the most grounding force.
20:28
Speaker 2: And it's like, eat a few more vegetables, have a
20:30
Speaker 2: wholesome meal at least once a day and try to
20:36
Speaker 2: like chill out a little bit. Yeah, So I created
20:39
Speaker 2: these vegan soups for myself, and this is why the
20:42
Speaker 2: business started with soups.
20:43
Speaker 1: I was.
20:44
Speaker 2: I just imagined, what would my mom make for me.
20:46
Speaker 2: She'd make me soup. She would say, like, take care
20:49
Speaker 2: of yourself once a day and have a nice bowl
20:53
Speaker 2: of soup nicole. And so I made these really beautiful
20:59
Speaker 2: vegetables and I had one every day, and I realized,
21:04
Speaker 2: this is it. This is the idea, this is the thing.
21:08
Speaker 2: This is what's actually changing how I feel and how
21:10
Speaker 2: I perform and how much stress I have. Because as
21:15
Speaker 2: soon as I took care of that one meal a day,
21:18
Speaker 2: I felt proud of myself. I felt like I was
21:20
Speaker 2: taking care of my body. I did not feel like
21:22
Speaker 2: everything had to be perfect. I was okay with still
21:25
Speaker 2: going out to eat at night. And it freed up
21:29
Speaker 2: all of that mental space to just focus on building
21:33
Speaker 2: my business, which I think is a huge thing. You know,
21:36
Speaker 2: like we have so much decision fatigue, and taking care
21:39
Speaker 2: of that meal in the middle of the day, it's huge.
21:42
Speaker 1: I've been thinking a lot lately about this idea of
21:45
Speaker 1: decision fatigue because I think especially in the summer when
21:48
Speaker 1: we're traveling and we're all over the place and we're
21:51
Speaker 1: trying to be healthy. But it's like, I just made
21:53
Speaker 1: like so many decisions when it came to getting an
21:55
Speaker 1: uber to go to the airport, to getting on my flight,
21:57
Speaker 1: to pet what I was going to pack, to where
21:59
Speaker 1: I was going to stay, to all these things, and
22:00
Speaker 1: so by the time you get there, it's like, I know,
22:03
Speaker 1: I'm gonna feel good if I eat one thing, but God,
22:06
Speaker 1: I'm so tired of making all these decisions, like just
22:08
Speaker 1: give me a cheeseburger.
22:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you're tired. Your body is also stressed, and
22:15
Speaker 2: your body sends all sorts of chemical signals to your
22:18
Speaker 2: brain to say, like donate the curd deitay with hummus,
22:24
Speaker 2: like boring. That's not going to make you feel better
22:27
Speaker 2: and that's not going to fill you up. Go for
22:29
Speaker 2: this thing instead. And so when we put that undue
22:32
Speaker 2: pressure on ourselves when we're really pressed for time, we're
22:36
Speaker 2: setting ourselves up for failure because the chemicals in our
22:41
Speaker 2: body are working against us, and you really the only
22:44
Speaker 2: way to defeat that is to pre plan, and that's
22:48
Speaker 2: next to impossible for most of us.
22:55
Speaker 1: A quick break from today's episode to give Athletic Greens,
22:58
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23:01
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23:04
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23:07
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23:10
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23:12
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23:16
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23:19
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23:21
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23:33
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23:44
Speaker 1: back to it. So you decide that you want to
23:54
Speaker 1: start a company that sells these soups that are making
23:58
Speaker 1: you feel so much better.
24:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, I mean, I had a catering business at
24:03
Speaker 2: the time, So there was I was I had did
24:05
Speaker 2: have income. It was catering business, and I was running
24:09
Speaker 2: pop ups and things like that. So I basically took
24:12
Speaker 2: that business and transformed it into Splendid Spoon and really
24:16
Speaker 2: focused it on plant based delivered to you. I had
24:21
Speaker 2: a bike messenger and I brought soups to people on
24:24
Speaker 2: a monthly or weekly subscription. I had a spreadsheet of
24:28
Speaker 2: like the five people at Conde Nasty who wanted it,
24:32
Speaker 2: and the people all over Brooklyn, and then I slowly
24:35
Speaker 2: just started to really build and that's where things started
24:40
Speaker 2: to That was when things started to really shift for me.
24:43
Speaker 1: So when the things start to shift, I mean you
24:46
Speaker 1: probably started doing this in your apartment, yep, and then
24:50
Speaker 1: there got to be a point where you couldn't do
24:52
Speaker 1: this in your apartment anymore.
24:54
Speaker 2: Well, when I first started, because of the catering gigs
24:57
Speaker 2: and everything, I was renting space at a pizza kitchen
25:00
Speaker 2: called Polyg's in Green Point. So I had that space,
25:03
Speaker 2: which gave me, you know, all the proper licensing and everything,
25:07
Speaker 2: and but that was still just a couple of gallons
25:10
Speaker 2: of soup at a time. And so I quickly moved
25:13
Speaker 2: to an incubator space in Queens that's no longer there.
25:16
Speaker 2: It was called the Organic Food Incubator, and that was
25:20
Speaker 2: a big shift for me. Yeah, there was kind of
25:23
Speaker 2: like a domino it was. It's interesting talking to you
25:26
Speaker 2: about it because there was this sort of domino effect
25:28
Speaker 2: once I really like got the that click for the
25:32
Speaker 2: idea and the problem that I was solving and the
25:35
Speaker 2: person that I was solving for things started to really
25:37
Speaker 2: kind of like click.
25:39
Speaker 1: And it's also interesting to me because obviously, like this
25:41
Speaker 1: is a very niche thing to make. It's not like
25:44
Speaker 1: you just decided like I'm going to make plant based
25:47
Speaker 1: meals or I'm going to make like salads, like right,
25:50
Speaker 1: I mean salads is also very niche, but like soups
25:52
Speaker 1: is very specific.
25:54
Speaker 2: Totally well I did. I mean I've always wanted you know,
25:59
Speaker 2: part of my process us still today and it was
26:02
Speaker 2: then is always like trying to align on focus and
26:07
Speaker 2: trying to align on Okay, if the decisions that I
26:10
Speaker 2: make today will affect where this business is in five years,
26:15
Speaker 2: what do I want the business to look like in
26:16
Speaker 2: five years? And I knew I wanted a national business.
26:21
Speaker 2: I knew I wanted to eventually reach millions of people
26:25
Speaker 2: and help them improve their life by eating just a
26:28
Speaker 2: few more servings of food and creating actual habits. And
26:32
Speaker 2: while that's simple, right and niche, it's there's such broad
26:40
Speaker 2: market opportunity there, and in order for me to do it,
26:43
Speaker 2: it gave me kind of the boundaries to decide, if
26:46
Speaker 2: I'm going to be national, then I probably need a
26:48
Speaker 2: product that can be produced by someone other than me
26:53
Speaker 2: in a kitchen, so I can't like invent I'm not
26:55
Speaker 2: going to invent something, and I need a distribution model
27:00
Speaker 2: that will allow me to reach lots and lots of
27:03
Speaker 2: people quickly. And so that started me on the route
27:07
Speaker 2: to direct to consumer also versus just going like to
27:11
Speaker 2: grocery stores one at a time totally.
27:13
Speaker 1: And so was it just mega overwhelming when you were
27:15
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how to eventually do that?
27:18
Speaker 2: Hugely? Yeah, And I think the things that helped were,
27:24
Speaker 2: you know, I mean people talk about it as like
27:26
Speaker 2: luck or chance. I do think that one of the
27:29
Speaker 2: traits of an entrepreneur is just continuing to hack away
27:35
Speaker 2: at that vision and at that focus. And one of
27:39
Speaker 2: the things that I did was I always went out
27:42
Speaker 2: to networking events with other food folks, and I spoke
27:46
Speaker 2: on panels about like Brooklyn. It was It's astonishing to
27:50
Speaker 2: me that anybody wanted me on a panel, given how
27:51
Speaker 2: little I knew at the time, But I spoke on
27:55
Speaker 2: panels and kind of like just focused on someone will
28:00
Speaker 2: every time I did this, someone in the room would
28:02
Speaker 2: be a valuable resource to me. And one of those
28:05
Speaker 2: panels that I spoke on Fresh Direct was in the
28:07
Speaker 2: audience and they tried my soups. I was pregnant with Grover,
28:13
Speaker 2: and the very next day I went over to the
28:15
Speaker 2: Fresh Direct offices and brought them samples of other flavors
28:19
Speaker 2: and asked them if they wanted to carry it, and
28:21
Speaker 2: they said yes.
28:22
Speaker 1: Which is a big deal.
28:23
Speaker 2: Which is a big deal. Yeah, it was all of
28:25
Speaker 2: a sudden a really good size volume, and that allowed
28:30
Speaker 2: me to actually hire staff to fulfill the orders, and
28:35
Speaker 2: even if it was part time staff. And then that
28:39
Speaker 2: allowed me to start talking to co packers and say,
28:42
Speaker 2: these are the pos that I have, this is the
28:45
Speaker 2: traction that I have, this is how it's selling. Will
28:48
Speaker 2: you take a chance on me?
28:50
Speaker 1: I think also that point you made about like you
28:52
Speaker 1: never know who's in the room is so important. I
28:56
Speaker 1: experienced the most random thing this morning. I was on
28:58
Speaker 1: the subway going to the office, and it's like a
29:00
Speaker 1: very crowded subway and the train like jolts to stop,
29:03
Speaker 1: and I like shift forward a little bit and I
29:06
Speaker 1: bump into the man next to me. It wasn't an
29:08
Speaker 1: aggressive bump. It was a light bump, and he literally
29:12
Speaker 1: turned around and like accosted me as though I got
29:15
Speaker 1: totally ruined his life and was just like, maybe you
29:19
Speaker 1: should hold on to something so you don't bump into me,
29:22
Speaker 1: And the train car is completely quiet, yells at me.
29:25
Speaker 1: I'm like this little thing standing next to him, and
29:28
Speaker 1: I just looked at him and I said, I'm sorry.
29:30
Speaker 1: I hope your day gets better, and I just went
29:33
Speaker 1: on because a greetings like frustration with frustration never really
29:38
Speaker 1: results in a positive solution for anyone. But I always
29:41
Speaker 1: keep in mind when someone greets you with that kind
29:44
Speaker 1: of hostility unexpectedly, that nine times out of ten, probably
29:48
Speaker 1: ten times out of ten, you are not the reason.
29:50
Speaker 2: Why they're upset, oh for sure.
29:51
Speaker 1: And so I don't know what he was dealing with,
29:53
Speaker 1: obviously it was something that made him very upset, but
29:56
Speaker 1: I just tried to meet it with kindness. And so
29:58
Speaker 1: again this idea like you know ever know who is
30:00
Speaker 1: in the room or when you're gonna see them again,
30:03
Speaker 1: or how it's gonna play out, Like I don't know
30:05
Speaker 1: if this man's actually going to walk into my weework later,
30:07
Speaker 1: Like you never know what's gonna happen with someone that
30:09
Speaker 1: you can come to contact with.
30:11
Speaker 2: It's so funny because one of the early angel investors
30:16
Speaker 2: that I spoke with, maybe it was a seed investor,
30:20
Speaker 2: told my business partner at the time that I really
30:24
Speaker 2: rubbed him the wrong way.
30:26
Speaker 1: Oh goodness.
30:27
Speaker 2: And I was like so annoyed, and I was like,
30:32
Speaker 2: maybe it's because I'm a woman, you know, I just
30:34
Speaker 2: went down that like dark hole. Yeah, And then I
30:39
Speaker 2: said to myself, you know what, that's his thing, and
30:44
Speaker 2: it's my decision how much emotion I want to place
30:48
Speaker 2: on his words, how I want to perceive it, and
30:51
Speaker 2: how I want to take that comment. And I chose
30:54
Speaker 2: to follow up and basically like not a pologize, but say,
31:02
Speaker 2: I understand that you felt that I rubbed you the
31:04
Speaker 2: wrong way. This was how it was intended. And we're
31:09
Speaker 2: excited about X, Y and Z stay in touch. And
31:13
Speaker 2: this person has turned into a really great kind of
31:17
Speaker 2: like not a mentor, but a resource for me in
31:20
Speaker 2: the space. He didn't end up investing, but he's really
31:24
Speaker 2: well known in the space, and he's invested in a
31:27
Speaker 2: lot of successful brands, and I'm now able to run
31:31
Speaker 2: different scenarios by him, which is really valuable when you're
31:35
Speaker 2: raising capital or when you're thinking about different financing options.
31:38
Speaker 2: And so I think back about that moment a lot,
31:41
Speaker 2: because I really could have had a very knee jerk
31:43
Speaker 2: reaction and kind of like thrown the middle fingers in
31:46
Speaker 2: the air and been like see and never and just
31:49
Speaker 2: ignored it and not responded. And I do think that
31:53
Speaker 2: there's something to be learned, something to be gained from
31:57
Speaker 2: every situation. And I also think that one of the
32:01
Speaker 2: skills or one of the responsibilities that most CEOs have
32:05
Speaker 2: and also early founders is to always take the high
32:09
Speaker 2: road because you're you don't have any bridges yet. Yeah,
32:13
Speaker 2: you're like out there on your own building a new
32:16
Speaker 2: village around you. And as much as you can turn
32:21
Speaker 2: those lemon situations into lemonade, like.
32:25
Speaker 1: It will always serve you totally. And again, like what
32:28
Speaker 1: you pointed out, which I think is really special, is
32:30
Speaker 1: just this concept that you are in control of how
32:33
Speaker 1: you feel, right, and sometimes it feels really hard to
32:36
Speaker 1: own that statement. But you have the opportunity to, you know,
32:41
Speaker 1: decide what happens.
32:42
Speaker 2: Next, right right, Yeah, exactly.
32:45
Speaker 1: Okay, So we're in mass production mode and we're making
32:48
Speaker 1: soups and they're shipping everywhere, and it's crazy. Is it crazy?
32:54
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean it's so. I mean, at the time,
32:57
Speaker 2: it felt like one step forward, two steps back. The
33:01
Speaker 2: first two years, even though I was working with Fresh Direct,
33:04
Speaker 2: were slow moving. So even though we went from you know,
33:09
Speaker 2: a couple hundred thousand dollars to a few more hundred
33:12
Speaker 2: thousand dollars, it was still like very hand to mouth.
33:15
Speaker 2: And at that time, I was newly had a new baby,
33:22
Speaker 2: hadn't built out my team yet, my marriage was really tough,
33:28
Speaker 2: and I also had gotten a book deal. So it
33:35
Speaker 2: was a lot. And then at the end of that
33:38
Speaker 2: second year of the business, I oh, I had had
33:43
Speaker 2: another baby, and I chose to end my marriage and
33:50
Speaker 2: I started to build out my team, and so it
33:55
Speaker 2: was a lot. It was like a storm. I mean,
33:57
Speaker 2: I don't know that I hear the story about people
34:01
Speaker 2: where it's very sequential and it's like, and certainly you
34:05
Speaker 2: can look at our revenue traction and it has that
34:08
Speaker 2: sort of like really easy looking upward trajectory, But that
34:12
Speaker 2: was not my experience of it. My experience of it
34:15
Speaker 2: was it was a major storm and every day was
34:19
Speaker 2: a bit of a battle.
34:20
Speaker 1: I can only imagine how difficult it's got to be
34:24
Speaker 1: going through a divorce while trying to keep your duck
34:29
Speaker 1: center road to continue building your business.
34:32
Speaker 2: Yes, it's a strange. It's a very strange reality. And
34:36
Speaker 2: for me, the a lot of what was hard during
34:41
Speaker 2: my partnership was and I should say that my ex
34:45
Speaker 2: and I have a very good relationship. He's a wonderful dad,
34:47
Speaker 2: and we've done an amazing job to turn a difficult
34:51
Speaker 2: situation into a really positive co parenting experience. So that's,
34:56
Speaker 2: you know, kind of the silver lining, I guess you
34:58
Speaker 2: would say. But at the time during my marriage, it
35:04
Speaker 2: was my entrepreneurial spirit, shall we say, was really tough.
35:10
Speaker 2: And I understand it, like, it's really hard to be
35:13
Speaker 2: with someone who believes that something that does not exist
35:17
Speaker 2: should exist, and that something that you requires you to
35:22
Speaker 2: not sleep and require lots of blood, sweat and tears. Literally,
35:27
Speaker 2: that that is worth fighting for in the midst of
35:30
Speaker 2: also having a baby. I mean, it is nonsensical, it
35:35
Speaker 2: doesn't really make any sense. And then during my breakup
35:42
Speaker 2: that the startup then turned into my source of stability,
35:46
Speaker 2: which was another really strange thing. It was like, this
35:49
Speaker 2: thing that I've been told and have experienced is very unstable,
35:53
Speaker 2: very scary, is now my source of stability.
35:58
Speaker 1: I think it's really special that you had that to
36:02
Speaker 1: lean into, though. I think a lot of the time
36:04
Speaker 1: what so many of us struggle with is we're upset
36:08
Speaker 1: about something, we're going through something, and instead of positively
36:11
Speaker 1: channeling our energy into something else, whether it be a
36:15
Speaker 1: project or a hobby or working out, we kind of
36:18
Speaker 1: go the opposite way, and it can be a little
36:21
Speaker 1: bit negative. So rather than you know, maybe even reverting
36:25
Speaker 1: into the other ways that you were trying to find
36:26
Speaker 1: control when you were back in college, instead of that,
36:29
Speaker 1: we're going all hands on deck with this business exactly.
36:33
Speaker 2: And exactly you know. Yeah, that's growth, right, yeah, right.
36:37
Speaker 2: I mean you come up with the same problem or
36:39
Speaker 2: the same feeling that you've had in the past, and
36:41
Speaker 2: you treat it differently.
36:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's.
36:43
Speaker 2: It's always hard, it's always easier to follow the path
36:46
Speaker 2: that you know, to do the thing that feels like
36:50
Speaker 2: the path of police resistance. And that's not in my experience,
36:55
Speaker 2: that's not how you actually grow.
36:57
Speaker 1: Nothing changes if nothing changes exactly bam. Okay. So we're
37:01
Speaker 1: leaning into the business, and it's it's helping you get.
37:05
Speaker 2: By, it's helping me get by, and it's also the
37:11
Speaker 2: difficulty of being a mom of two babies and going
37:15
Speaker 2: through the divorce also helped me to let go of
37:19
Speaker 2: some of my responsibilities at work. I started to delegate,
37:22
Speaker 2: I started to admit that I needed more than just
37:26
Speaker 2: me and a couple part time workers. I started to
37:30
Speaker 2: dig into my ability to create partnerships and that was
37:35
Speaker 2: where we started to really see big growth these days.
37:39
Speaker 1: So how when was this all happening?
37:41
Speaker 2: So that was in twenty fifteen. Ok we launched the
37:45
Speaker 2: direct to consume like Splendidspoon dot com as you know
37:47
Speaker 2: it now, launched the very end of twenty fifteen.
37:51
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, wow, that's a lie at one time. Yeah,
37:55
Speaker 1: and then so from that point until now, what would
38:01
Speaker 1: you say, I mean, obviously we're leaning into the building
38:03
Speaker 1: of this company, but since then, what would you say,
38:06
Speaker 1: aside from launch has been one of your proudest moments
38:08
Speaker 1: owning this company and starting this scratch.
38:11
Speaker 2: It's the people and it's the food that make me
38:13
Speaker 2: the most proud, and that the people are both my
38:18
Speaker 2: team and the community. Like it's not any specific milestone necessarily,
38:22
Speaker 2: although I'm proud certainly of our growth and of raising
38:26
Speaker 2: a Series A and those milestones I'm certainly objectively proud of. Yeah,
38:32
Speaker 2: but what really makes me feel alive, what really makes
38:35
Speaker 2: me feel like I'm doing my life's work, is when
38:40
Speaker 2: I jump into our private Facebook community and I see
38:43
Speaker 2: people resolving problems together, coming up with ideas together, offering
38:49
Speaker 2: us as a business suggestions on how to make our
38:51
Speaker 2: product better, and seeing my team collaborate. Coming into an
38:56
Speaker 2: office of bustling people having spirited disagreements and solving problems
39:04
Speaker 2: and coming up with creative solutions like that is the
39:10
Speaker 2: that is like there's nothing else. The only thing like
39:12
Speaker 2: it is being a parent.
39:13
Speaker 1: And I'm kind of thinking back now to what you
39:15
Speaker 1: were talking about earlier, and you were saying that you
39:17
Speaker 1: noticed that you started to feel differently when you started
39:20
Speaker 1: to eat plant based Yeah, for at least for that
39:23
Speaker 1: that suit meal every day. Yeah, what would you say
39:25
Speaker 1: that you actually noticed during that energy.
39:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, energy was the biggest one. Pride and like a
39:34
Speaker 2: decrease in stress was the other one, because I was
39:37
Speaker 2: really worried that I wasn't eating properly, and I knew
39:40
Speaker 2: because of my science background that I could be eating better.
39:43
Speaker 2: For sure. I think we all know, like, oh, like,
39:46
Speaker 2: as much as we don't want to label food as
39:49
Speaker 2: good or bad, it is objectively true that eating processed
39:55
Speaker 2: food all day or pizza for every meal is not.
40:00
Speaker 1: Doing you any favors totally.
40:02
Speaker 2: And so as soon as I added that plant based
40:06
Speaker 2: meal that I knew was super clean, was made with
40:09
Speaker 2: amazing ingredients that also tasted really good, it just it
40:14
Speaker 2: solved so many issues for me.
40:16
Speaker 1: Yeah. And would you say that you're hearing a lot
40:17
Speaker 1: of that same kind of feedback from your consumer.
40:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say that convenience is the number one
40:22
Speaker 2: reason that people come to us. It's convenience and trust
40:25
Speaker 2: that things taste really good.
40:27
Speaker 1: What has been one of the best pieces of advice
40:30
Speaker 1: that you've received in your career.
40:33
Speaker 2: It's actually the best piece of advice that I received
40:36
Speaker 2: was from my mom when I went to college, and
40:38
Speaker 2: it was literally just to be true to myself. She
40:41
Speaker 2: gave me the Doctor Seuss book all the polics, Oh
40:44
Speaker 2: the places you go, And if you read that book,
40:47
Speaker 2: it's basically like life is hard, but it's a journey
40:51
Speaker 2: and you will find yourself on that journey.
40:54
Speaker 1: All right. So the way that I wind down the
40:56
Speaker 1: podcast every time, right now, you have an opportunity to
40:59
Speaker 1: offer yourself a piece of advice going through that hurdle
41:02
Speaker 1: moment right now. Back in college, things are pretty hard.
41:06
Speaker 1: What do you tell yourself?
41:08
Speaker 2: Reach out to a friend, Yeah, your girls, your people,
41:12
Speaker 2: your people, reach out to reach out to more people,
41:16
Speaker 2: for sure, That's what it would be.
41:18
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for hanging out with me today.
41:20
Speaker 2: Thank you, this has been so nice.
41:21
Speaker 1: Please take a moment and leave a quick review by
41:24
Speaker 1: clicking the link with the description to this episode. We
41:27
Speaker 1: all face multiple hurdles in life. I want to hear
41:29
Speaker 1: about yours. Reach out to me at Emily at Hurdle
41:32
Speaker 1: dot us. Connect with the podcast on Instagram and Twitter
41:35
Speaker 1: at Hurdle Podcast Nicole. Where do they find you? Where
41:38
Speaker 1: do they find splendid Spoon.
41:39
Speaker 2: At splendid dot spoon on Insta and I am at
41:43
Speaker 2: Nixon N I C C E N T.
41:45
Speaker 1: Also on Insta amazing, another hurdle conquered. Catch you guys
41:50
Speaker 1: next time.