Most Downloaded Episodes: TRIP's Co-Founder Olivia Ferdi on TRIP's First 2 Years

0:04Olivia Ferdi:We've recently seen a huge increase in our number of listeners and followers, and it struck me that many of you may not have had a chance to explore the incredible back catalogue of guests that we've had on Brand Growth Heroes over the past five years. So I've carefully selected a handful of our most downloaded, most valuable and most timeless interviews packed with insights that scaling founders still rave to us about. From the slow burn visionaries to the speedy disruptors, we've had intimate interviews with founders like Perfect Head, Lucky Saint, Trip, Seedlip, Wild Deodorant, Strong Roots, Oddbox, Small, Bowl Bean, as well as massive international challenger brands like Waterdrop and Midday Squares, Olipop and Tony's Chocall Only and many, many more.

0:45Olivia Ferdi:Because remember, great thinking doesn't age. And I realised recently that I've never actually shared why I started Brand Growth Heroes. I started the podcast because it physically drives me nuts and I mean that literally that there's so much wisdom out there from founders who've been through it all yet so many of us are still struggling day to day making the same painful mistakes that thousands of others have made before us so if there's something in this episode that helps you with your business then that makes me happy and if you could take two minutes to pay it forward by sharing it with a fellow founder, clicking subscribe or follow and leaving me a quick review, it honestly helps me bring even more brilliant founders on this show to share their secrets with you.

1:32Olivia Ferdi:Olivia Ferdy from Trip. Welcome to Brand Growth Heroes. Thanks so much for joining us. How are you doing today? I'm really well. Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to be here. It's an absolute pleasure. So listen, thank you so much, first of all, for my fabulous box of goodies. My Trip, CBD oil and all of the drinks, which are absolutely gorgeous, by the way, if anyone out there hasn't tried them, you need to. They are fabulous. Tell us about Trip. What products do you make? Where can we find them? And then we'll go into how you came up with the idea and how you've driven this business to grow to a point that, you know, people are spending millions on buying Trip products across the UK in just two years.

2:10Definitely. So Trip is a range of CBD infused drinks and cbd oils um there is 15 milligrams of cbd in each of our four drinks and uh you can find them across the uk online and in retail whether it's from suffrage's food hall to sohouse bar to sainsbury's on your high street so uh definitely the beginning of something super exciting you know our mission is to bring um cbd and actually that moment of calm to your every day making that as accessible as possible and helping people discover what we think are these incredible benefits of the plant.

2:45Olivia Ferdi:So how did you come up with this idea? And also, I mean, weave into, how does it work? How does it give us that moment of calm? You said in our prequel, you said moment of softness, and that's certainly what it does for me or what your products have done for me. Yeah, that's the same feeling that I get. I think the way that CBD works is CBD is a cannabinoid and within our bodies our human bodies we have something called the endocannabinoid system or the ecs and essentially that manages everything it's like a central nervous system that manages everything from sleep appetite mood pain inflammation and when you give your body cbd those receptors for that system that basically work really hard every day to give you a feeling of balance and help you decompress if you've got too much pain or lack of sleep when you give your body CBD, that system has fuel to do its balancing job even more effectively, which is why when you take CBD, depending on if you're feeling a little bit of mental stress, or it could be, you know, physical tension, a lot of people use CBD before and after sports or for recovery, you can feel that effect within sort of 10-20 minutes, depending on the dose.

3:53It's a very personal thing. So you can actually use CBD, you know, one day for one particular purpose or in another moment for another, but it depends on the individual, which is why it's really exciting, I think, for people to discover the fact they can personalize how much they're enjoying and how they feel.

4:17Olivia Ferdi:Welcome to Brand Growth Heroes, the leading podcast for the founders of Challenger grocery brands. I'm your host, Fiona Fitz. My 25 years at global giants such as Nestle and Challenger brands such as Goo Chocolate Puds, Chobani and Strong Roots, as well as coached over 400 scaling brands, means I have the experience to ask the questions that truly matter and get you the insight that will inspire you to think differently and drive serious growth for your brand.

4:49Olivia Ferdi:Is it cumulative and not to go down a rabbit hole, I always say that, I've started saying that lately and then I do, but is it cumulative because my understanding of those receptors on the end of the neurons is that they are very plastic and that over time, if they get the same kind of message from what we're taking in, if it's a drug or a chemical or a food, they will get better at doing the job they're supposed to be doing. So I'm assuming if you take CBD oil every day, what did you call the system? The ECS. The ECS system is going to get better at doing its job. Absolutely. Yeah. That's why so many people enjoy it sort of as an everyday ritual.

5:29Olivia Ferdi:So I shouldn't be just doing it once in a blue moon. I should actually, I'm just thinking about my own life here. I should be doing this all every day so that actually I'm training the muscles of those neurons and those receptors. Definitely. So a lot of people have it as part of an everyday regimen as you'd sort of take a supplement in the morning or in the evening before bed. However, you know, you can reach for that top up around a specific moment because it has that effect within 10, 20 minutes. For me, for example, if I'm choosing not to drink alcohol one evening, you know, I'll be reaching for that drink, even though I have CBD every day, reaching for it to know that within that 10 minutes, I will have what I often reach for an alcoholic drink for to have that edge taken off.

6:09Yeah. Desperate, isn't it?

6:11Olivia Ferdi:Okay. So, so tell us then, how did you come up with the idea to leave your job in law, right? And your husband's job in finance. I mean, that's, that's a pretty big deal to leave comfortable jobs like that to set up a business in the unknown and go for it. Tell us. Yeah, it was a pretty unexpected, unexpected journey that got us here. But yeah, an absolute amazing rollercoaster since. Like you mentioned, my husband and I co-founded the business back in 2019, but it was a year earlier that when we were getting married, he actually suffered a football injury playing Sunday football. You can imagine I was losing my mind, had to have knee surgery just before our wedding.

6:50He was wearing a brace. He was in crutches. He was told he wouldn't be able to walk down the aisle. This is seven weeks before we're due to sort of, you know, get everyone together to celebrate something.

6:59Olivia Ferdi:Oh my goodness. And yeah, we were desperately trying to find ways, you know, he was resting the whole time. Couldn't, couldn't go to work. It was a total nightmare, but he was recommended CBD. Uh, we didn't know anything about CBD, but we had heard there are these amazing, um, all sorts of amazing benefits in recovery and a lot of professional athletes um use it for you know recovery from from injury and long story short through taking cbd seven weeks after knee surgery not only was he walking down the aisle dancing all weekend we've got the videos to prove it it was absolutely bonkers and sort of a lot of that is support for inflammation uh pain relief which basically allows you to sleep i think as well which is an incredible component of healing i think yeah um so we had this crazy weekend got back, couldn't believe what had happened, really did not know anything about CBD.

7:50And this was 2018. So, you know, a little look on Google, there was not much available in terms of product or in terms of information, but we dove into researching it. And actually what became clear is that the majority of people use it for an everyday wellbeing component or the stress relief. And like you mentioned, I was working as a lawyer at the time, long nights, just classic London, sort of burnt out situation. And I was starting to take CBD every morning on my commute. And for me, like I mentioned, it's just that sort of ease, that softening, because that's when I would find myself just getting overwhelmed with thoughts before arriving at work.

8:25And I was loving the effects, but really struggling through the flavors. For those that don't know, sort of oil-based tinctures was the most common format for CBD oil. And we're talking little brown bottles of brown liquid with very funky packaging, scary marijuana leaf branding everywhere. And it was pretty intimidating. And I think as a lawyer, it wasn't something I could have comfortably at my desk or something I could talk to people about and sort of ask, you know, do you know where to get better quality products? Because when you're going on a funny website and dropping, honestly, it was sort of 60, 70 pounds for a small bottle of CBD at the time.

9:00We realized there's got to be a better way for this because rather than that hold your nose medicinal moment, if we could create something that tasted as good as that calming feeling you could get, all of our friends and family could benefit from a product like this. And we realized that drinks in particular, CBD was totally new at the time. And it's amazing how much the awareness and demand has grown since we launched. But actually, if you could put it in a drink format and place it wherever you'd find a drink, whether that's on a bar, in a lunch spot at your office, you know people would quickly understand the potential of that sort of functional product

9:36Olivia Ferdi:so it's anchored in a category that they understand exactly exactly but we had this passion and desire and uh you can imagine yeah telling telling our parents as newlyweds we were going to chuck all our savings into something um in the cannabis space and leave our careers in law and finance um was a difficult difficult family discussion but absolutely here to tell the tale I'm thrilled to introduce Brand Growth Hero's newest partner, Jolson. Jolson is a leading B Corp certified commercial law firm that specializes in guiding the founders of scaling CPG brands. With long term relationships with clients like Little Moons, Trip, Eat Natural, Bear, Graze and Pulsin.

10:18Olivia Ferdi:Jolson is also famous for advising the Innocent founders in their landmark sale to Coca-Cola. and believe it or not, they still work with the Innocent founders at Jamjar Investments today. I'm especially impressed by how Jolson sets founders up for long-term success and by their commitment to championing female founders. Recently, I asked one of Jolson's managing partners, Phil Halesmith, to talk to us about how Jolson supports female founders on their scaling journey. We're fortunate to have worked with loads of female founders who've had some very successful businesses, raised huge amounts of capital and are happy to give back.

10:52And that's part of what we're trying to do in terms of running a regular program that supports them both here in the office, but also enabling them to actually access getting VC financing.

11:02Olivia Ferdi:If you'd like to find out more about Jolson's female founder club, Hercules, why not go to their website www.jolsonlaw.com or send a quick email to hello at jolsonlaw.com. Huge thanks to Brand Growth Heroes podcast sponsors, Jolson. Now let's get back to the show. Just an interesting one on, I love kind of highlighting for our listeners the idea that if consumers are not doing something currently or lots of consumers are not doing something currently, even though they have a need for a solution, it's usually because there's a barrier in the way. And one of the barriers that you identified was the taste, wasn't it?

11:41Olivia Ferdi:But the other barrier that you spoke to me about before we started recording, which I felt was not only the taste, so I kind of felt like I can hold my nose and I'll put up with it in the hope that this is going to deliver its promise, right? This brown bottle stuff that I bought in the local health food shop. But actually, another barrier that really put me off was I wasn't sure whether what they promised was in the bottle was in the bottle because I was aware in a very fuzzy way. I was aware that it was an unregulated industry. Who knows who was making it? Who knows where they were sourcing it and where their manufacturer was sourcing it from?

12:15Olivia Ferdi:How much CBD oil was actually, or how much of the right ingredients was in it and how much of the wrong ingredients weren't in it? I was very conscious of the fact that certainly on the Isle of Man where I live, if you have anything to do with marijuana on the island, you end up in prison. It's really, really serious here. So the whole thing just felt like I'm spending 60, 70 quid on a bottle of stuff and I'm just, I don't have the faith that the people who are making it are delivering me something safe. You come from a law background. So I presume that was an important thing for you to be able to deliver this, I don't know, product that held its promise and that was legal.

12:52Definitely. I think that's where brand comes in as well as product quality. So for us, like you mentioned, you know, with my legal background, it was essential in terms of ingredient sourcing, partnering with manufacturers, compliance processes, third-party testing finished products to verify every part of that supply chain, absolutely critical. And I think building a brand, especially given our personal experience and how we built the brand, it's always felt very, I guess, sensitive for any brand owner, but it's almost my legal reputation on the line. Can you imagine if something was to actually not be 200 % above board?

13:27So yeah, it's been a really important part of the process.

13:30Olivia Ferdi:But you know, so for me, as I think I'm probably a typical target consumer for you guys in the over four, the 45 plus age group, right? You know, high stress, three kids, trying to juggle everything, you know, slightly ADHD. So everything's really difficult for me anyway. I don't want to drink any more wine in the evenings. You know, it's just perfect. And because you, because now I, because I know this about you, that you were your ex-law law, And because I know that you do the third party testing and everything, all of a sudden I'm going to go and I'm going to become your most loyal consumer because I have that reason to believe now.

14:07Olivia Ferdi:And I suppose the reason I'm highlighting this again is because for all of those people scaling out there, this is when we talk about reason to believe, this is what we mean. You know, it's all those things. And you talked about a QR code. Tell us about the QR code for the reason to believe bit. Yeah, definitely. I think as the CBD market develops, consumers are self-educating very, very rapidly. The adoption rates are incredible as people see that relief within 10, 20 minutes of consuming something. So if you compare it to sort of a functional product with longer-term benefits, whether that's all sorts of things, could be gut health, it could be vitamin supplements.

14:41When you feel something, so immediately we get very excited, we compare it to discovering coffee or discovering alcohol or sugar. that's how excited we get in terms of the potential of this sort of product. But when you have people coming into this space, they are very keen to understand that educational quality and information aspect. So QR codes you can find on our packaging. I was mentioning particularly in the US where you've got that more advanced consumer and it just takes you straight to the lab reports. And it's something that we've always been incredibly transparent about. And if anyone listening ever has questions, something we've built the brand around is openness.

15:18It is literally a family business it's us on the instagram on the website you know drop us a question ask a report you know we can only build this category to to its full potential if we are here for the long haul and supporting our community in in their understanding and and them creating creating new rituals so it's it's really powerful but what you mentioned around um as well the kind of wanting that stamp of approval before you choose a product for us you know we've been so lucky to have this conversation but a lot of people i might not be able to have a conversation with so it was really about the design of the product on the shelf so hopefully from a distance when you see trip for the first time and you've never heard of cbd perhaps those pastel colors and the sort of calming clean aesthetic should hopefully speak to you from a very far distance on shelf and say to you something like this is a wellness product and a big part of our mission is ultimately destigmatizing the negative connotations around um cbd and and cannabis because you know trip is a total play on words.

16:18It's about being playful and engaging with people who are interested in this functional plant or open to try it. And actually for us, positioning the brand is something hopefully super clearly clean and wellness-based is an important part of that. We're going to actually champion making this plant as accessible as possible to those millions of people.

16:38Olivia Ferdi:You're hinting at the fact here at two things, and we should probably call those out. The first thing is, is that you are creating a category. And the second thing is, is that you're hinting at, is that I can hear from what you're saying that actually you have probably have a vision to be multi-category, cross-category, the ultimate destination for CBD across many grocery categories and even non-grocery categories. I personally would like now that we've been talking and I know just how high quality your product must be given, given the fact that you do third party testing and stuff. I would like a trip bath, please.

17:14Yes, exactly. I think we have established ourselves based on our personal experiences of authority on CBD and authority on authentic functional well-being. We're not here to just, you know, whack some CBD in an extra skew that we've got. And I think on that basis, what we position ourselves or the feedback we get from our incredible community is that, you know, trip represents a moment of calm in the everyday chaos. Whatever that looks like for you, if that's on the school run, if that's as you're trying to fall asleep, when you're socializing or you've got social anxiety. So being relevant in the future as well as now is essential for us and how we create experiences for our community.

17:53But the cross-category piece that you mentioned, I think, is really exciting because I don't think there's many other sort of functional well-being categories that can sit across those opportunities. So, for example, in our sort of nationwide grocery retail partner, we have the single beverages you'd imagine in a fridge where you have your grab-and-go lunch experience, you know, convenient, on-the-go, as we say. And then actually the multi-pack format in a totally different section of the shop. and also our oils in the well-being section right next to, you know, Rescue, Remedy and Echinacea. Because if we can talk to you across all the different moments of your shop or your lifestyle, I think it's the same when you find us on a menu.

18:35You can find Trip, you know, on a brunch menu at Bill's Restaurant but also in the spa at Sewer House. So if a person or a potential consumer gets to see us across all those different moments, they can start to understand And how we can fit in the future across different formats. But, you know, I'd like you in chewing gum.

18:56Olivia Ferdi:I'd like little melty leaves I could put on top of my tongue and just let them melt when I'm really, really about to scream at the kids. You know, as I said, like bath salts, I use the Westfield Lab. They've got a CBD oil bath salts. They are amazing. I mean, just divine. So like, but there's no reason that you guys couldn't be delivering all of this. And then it's like the go to across all the categories, even face cream. you know bring it on because if you trust us if you trust us as a cbd authority or expert in your well-being which is something we work very hard at it's that we can partner with you longer term as you experience different things you know it doesn't mean that you can only enjoy us as an alcohol alternative i think we've spoken about the fact that a lot of people enjoy us as a mixer sometimes you want to drink sometimes you don't whether you're looking for different moments in your day i think covid has um really shone a light on the fact that mental well-being and sort of stress relief and plant-powered opportunities to support that without relying on chemicals or anything like that is here to stay and the overwhelmingly positive experience people share online and on a website etc when they consume a trip product means there's a lot of exciting opportunity to to lean into that feedback if all of our consumers say please can you make us xyz we'd love to

20:18Olivia Ferdi:If this episode is inspiring you to think about new ways that you can drive growth for your business, don't forget to click follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast app and even leave a review. Your small gesture has a big impact on me and my business and will be truly appreciated. Let's talk about building your brand then and how you've had to build your community and use that in a very, well, build it in a very organic way. And we'll explain what we mean by that in a minute and use that to drive demand because it hasn't been the traditional challenger brand you know facebook ads in instagram ads um shopify subscription tell us tell us about this because you've really had to be innovative in the way you've thought about this yeah definitely i think that's why we've invested as well in the product aesthetic that it does a lot of the talking for us because um the context of that is essentially um because cbd is under particular regulation in America at a federal level, the largest American companies aren't able to take CBD products on their platform.

21:18So you go and you design this beautiful product that you think tastes delicious and it's going to change the world, but actually your traditional route to meet consumers when you're a totally new brand on the scene are completely restricted. So you can't just put your product straight on Amazon. You can't put pounds behind Google advertising. You can't put pounds behind Instagram or Facebook marketing. There's a lot of stores you can't even sell into that are American-owned chains. And I think that's a real challenge, definitely, but also has created unexpectedly somewhat of a unique opportunity and discipline for us where we invest so much in SEO content, educational content, such that if you Google CBD in the UK, even though we can't buy the advertising space from Google or Amazon at the top, we rank on the first page ahead of any other brand because people are looking for Trip as an authority on information around CBD.

22:13And it's a very, very powerful way to communicate with people when it's genuine rather than just traditional advertising spend. But very much the beginning because as soon as that does unlock, I'm very excited about putting pounds behind those sort of advertising platforms for sure.

22:28Olivia Ferdi:So you haven't been... Are you on Amazon? Are you allowed to be on Amazon now? We have just trialed with Amazon. They've opened a very small scale trial for a handful of CBD formats, but you can't advertise. You can imagine the number of products on Amazon and how hard it is. My understanding of Amazon is, you know, there's a lot of games we played around investing in the right kind of search terms, et cetera, and we can't do that. So, okay. So if you can't do all these things, how have you driven growth in the business? What has driven growth? I think it is a... product-based experience that drives peer-to-peer recommendations.

23:05So the power of people's experience on a personal level, when there's something that you reach for that has actually delivered in terms of making you feel, whether it's calmer or less stressed, the repeat purchase is insane. So four out of 10 of our consumers on our website, they return month on month, which is far far above the average. Without a subscription? Yeah, we can't do subscriptions. Yeah. So this is organic. And actually, yeah.

23:30Olivia Ferdi:So actually, this is the way we used to do this in the olden days. So, you know, I mean, genuinely, I've been in this industry since 1997. And until, you know, in the last three or four years, nobody was talking about advertising on Instagram or Facebook. I think few people were, but, you know, it wasn't a big deal. It wasn't a big deal. Yeah. That's how you did business. You had to deliver a brand and product experience that was so great. If you were going to be an insurgent brand anyway, that people would talk about it and they would recommend it. And you had to reach out on a platform and show up and talk about something in a meaningful way that meant something to consumers in their life.