Cravings by Chrissy Teigen

0:00Welcome to the Emerging Brands podcast. Sharing the stories behind brands you'll want to shop next. I'm your host, Kelly Bennett. I am a New York City-based brand strategist for CPG Food and Beverage Brands. In each episode, I'll take you behind the scenes of founders that are building better-for-you products and bringing them to market. it. Also, I talk to brand builders, retailers, industry experts, and tastemakers who help bring those cool products to your shopping cart. You will hear stories of real-life founders, their launch strategies, and practical advice you could use to grow your own brand or simply discover what's next on shelf.

0:42And the best part is you could shop all the brands featured on the show. This podcast is brought to you by Glimpse. Glimpse is an AI powered deduction management tool that disputes and recovers invalid deductions, winning brands, thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours back to founders so that they can focus on what really matters most. If you're a brand selling and retail, go to tryglimpse.com backslash trial for 30 days free and let them know I sent you. Now let's dive into the new episode. We're live. This is a very special episode of Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett. I'm literally here sitting in the cravings booth with Chrissy Teagan iconic thank you so much for thank you don't me to hold it okay cool hi everyone thank you so much for taking the time there's literally a whole line of people waiting to meet you

1:50wait that's so perfect leave that in please

1:58literally flying off the shelves no we got down and sat on the ground because I It felt like everyone was watching us. And now we're just on the floor being watched and things are falling on us. Yes, but it's so perfect. So I know that you just went through a really big rebrand and packaging. I would love to hear the inspo. I mean, your packaging is gorgeous and so fun. It's a really nice play of modern and nostalgic. So can you give us a little bit of the inspo? Thank you for saying that because that's exactly what we were going for. I think it represents everything that I've always wanted it to from the beginning.

2:31um I think a lot of brands us especially um it's really hard to design your packaging because one you're like okay well I want to see what does well right and then you go and see what is doing well and it's really like basic simple stuff so you're like okay well I want to be a little bit you know I want to be reflective of my personality I want it to be colorful and loud and fun um but then you like doubt yourself and you're like well but that's not what they're doing and they've been out for 20 years so I don't want to like just and then everyone used the word disturb right like no you need to just disrupt the category just just like disrupt everything and I'm like okay I wasn't that confident when we first did our branding I think and I just wanted to do what I thought would work what other people would like right and then I did that and then I just you know So sit there and when you are looking at your own product all day, every day, and you want to be super excited for it.

3:31And you want to be so proud of it. It should be really reflective of what you want people to see in you as a company and as people and as a family. So we sat on our first packaging for a few years. And then finally, like, I got the confidence to just be like, guys, I don't think this is us. and yeah we changed everything and Hana from Sappic Design we did a full rebrand and it is just so fun so playful yeah we love it and all of your flavors I know that you're super hands-on with deciding what actually goes into the box aside from beautiful packaging yeah can you give us a little bit of what's inspiring the recipes the flavors I know you're an avid home cook I watch your cooking videos and everything that you're doing.

4:24Thank you. Can you tell us what is inspiring the flavors and the story you've wanted to tell? Yeah, well, like specifically, we'll just use this one as an example. This was in my third cookbook. And actually, I didn't have desserts in any of my cookbooks until our third cookbook because I didn't like dessert, honestly. Really? Yeah, it was really daunting to me. I love a really long like braised recipe or like I just love I love savory foods and then when I got pregnant with Miles my world started to change I started to really love sweet things and especially sweet and salty and so we lean into this sweet and salty very hard but yeah it just didn't seem authentic to me to have a dessert section in a cookbook when I just didn't love it until I did love it.

5:13And also, like, with that pregnancy, I lost all my spice intake and only wanted sweet things. So then I moved into the world of sweets and decadence and just loved it so much. You went all in. I dove all in. So what made you want to get into CPG? It's actually, it's really fun because I love the grocery store. You do? Yes. And I love where we are right now at Expo West. is everything to me. It's fun. People are so passionate about what they have to offer. And people's dreams are all in this like whatever 10 foot or five foot booth. Yes. And I remember the first time that I came here, we didn't have a product yet.

6:00How long ago was that? Oh, God. Seven years, maybe. Okay. Yeah. And walked up and down the aisle. Sorry, I'm so long winded. No, no, no. This is amazing. Thank you. Walked up and down the aisles. And I remember seeing a little salsa company. And it was like the booth was no frills. And if you're like familiar with trade shows, you know that like company is in their like first few years. It is so hard to fund this kind of stuff. Right. And so when you see somebody with like a dream and their entire dream is just on this little table. And he had I remember a baby. He was rocking a baby with his foot.

6:35And he was the only one in the booth. And I like even thinking about it now, I can get so emotional. But like, I just thought it was so beautiful. The passion that he had for what he was making, his story behind why he was doing it. He did. He wasn't looking to be a fucking billionaire from it like everybody is now. He just wanted to have like a beautiful, stable family business. And I just thought that was so beautiful and so cool. and then I also like going up and down the aisles I learned about like you know the white labeling and and and all the different things you can do in this world and I knew that I wanted to be really a part of it I didn't want to have like a ghost writer per se in the in the category right like I really started to love every aspect of figuring out this really difficult industry and it's its own niche I tell people that all the time it's exhausting it's its own lingo yeah it's its own world it's its own lingo it's its own people like the superstar is here you're like oh my god is target is is Gelson's here like it's so funny because it's actually I love to compare oh sorry I love to compare it to my friends who are all in the beauty world who are like you know yes I'm selling you know um whether it's makeup or or hair care or or or anything um it's just such a it's a parallel world to it but so different and I find it to be so much more fun um I mean it's food it's delicious it's fun yeah excited yeah yeah it's way cooler to me like I've tried the makeup thing before I had like a I had a collaboration with Becca or something but it wasn't really a big part of it I didn't do like you know I picked the colors and but I wasn't like looking at formulas and things.

8:20And this world is just so, it's ever changing. There's trends that change just like with fashion, just like with beauty. People don't really realize how, how like cool this world is. I agree. I love it. Me too. I'm so glad you love it because I nerd out about this so much. I nerd out too. And it's a fucking, just for anyone out there listening to, like it is a hard world to like I connect I just connected this week with a brand that was like kind of publicly saying the difficulties of this and in their three-part video series I had never felt so seen or heard yes yeah so I'm actually gonna meet Kristen I'm looking for her right now Amazing.

9:12So funny. But yeah, shout out to Glownuts, you guys. I'm a huge fan of their product. And what I love about this industry is it's really cool to be able to champion other brands. I really fucking, I don't just eat cravings all day. Let's be real. I eat a multitude of different foods. My kids do. So when I walk up and down these aisles, I am genuinely excited to stop and see Yum Earth or see Glownuts as much as I'm excited to see my own booth here. I know that you have a new product coming out that's so exciting. I got a sneak peek here in the booth. We're so proud of it. It's our new sticky sweet carrot cake.

9:47It is, man, it was, I think, probably one of the hardest things to get right for us. Like, usually, like with the cookies and the pancakes, it maybe went through, like, two, three, four reiterations. But this was like, oh, my God, it needs to be perfect because it was the cake at our wedding. Oh, this is the cake from your wedding? Yeah. Yeah, so there's even a picture from the wedding on the side of the box. So this is super perfect. Yeah, I love, I mean, I love the warmth of carrot cake. I love the warm spices. It's very fall to me, and fall is my favorite food, my absolute favorite food season.

10:27I'm a soup girl, I'm a stew girl, carrot cake. So that was really exciting to get right because, like, it was challenging, but it's also, like, when it finally comes out, obviously it's the most personal to you and it's the most exciting and you love it so much. Our pancakes and banana bread are our babies. That keeps us going. People see it on the shelves probably so often that that is... It becomes a staple. It becomes their staple, yeah, which pasta sauce, we went into that world now. Yes, I just saw that too. And it's really fun, yeah. But we cannot, obviously, we don't want to be like all things to all people.

11:02I think that's like a big mistake that we made in the very beginning and a probably mistake a lot of brands make. And so we're keeping it like keeping it small. To me, this is like our family business still. And I just love being a part of it so much. Like I really do. That's so cool. And I love getting to talk to like everyone out there that's also like getting into this world or has been in it and is experiencing challenges. Do you have like a little quick piece of advice for someone who's just getting started? It's so hard. I will say go with your gut. I think going with your gut a lot of times will save you a lot of money as a company in the end.

11:40We've done obviously a big rebrand and don't be afraid to ask questions. Like I have so many mentors that I know I can hop on a Zoom with and they're going to cry with me. Lead us into like new possibilities. Have you tried this? Have you tried this? nobody should have to do this world alone because it's really hard I didn't go to business school I don't pretend I know everything but I love asking questions and I love being in a room with like people that are on so many different ends of this like whether it's saying hi or talking to like our packaging people um or getting to you know talk to buyers of course but like all the behind the scenes people of it all like it's just such a robust fun world and like i appreciate every person at every level of it and i think that's what's really cool too is obviously like yeah tip out there is honestly don't like you know make sure that you like embrace and love on everyone around you because everyone is a part of the team like you may have an office with this many people in it but like when it comes to like the factories and the and the uh there's just so incredibly the community there's and they're all like excited for you like we have some people that like come by to say hi that do like the smallest things for us that are like we make the plastic bags that go in they go into your uh we manufacture the plastic bags that are in your boxes and they're just like so proud for you that you're like fuck yeah that's so awesome thank you thank you for being as excited as I am but also like god I love you so much like you're like every piece of it comes together somehow so cool yeah is there any retailers that we could look for cravings oh my god so many we're all over the place um we have Gelson's we have sprouts we have Kroger uh we have like really exciting places that we're going into in the next year that I don't know if I could say They were on Thrive Market, Safeway Albertsons.

13:50I mean, it's so hard because there's so many umbrellas now of stores, right? HEBs, so many things. We love all of them. Thank you so much for taking time. There's literally a huge line to meet you. I'm sorry. No, thank you. This was amazing. Yeah, if you guys ever want to do anything together where I can help anybody in this industry or if you ever want to have like a super raw crying talk about how difficult it can be, I'm down for any of it. Amazing. Thank you so much. Thanks, everyone, for listening. See you on the next episode. This episode was brought to you by Glimpse. As we know, building a brand is not as sexy and glamorous as it looks on social media at times.

14:25A lot of those unsexy problems come into play when brands start to scale in retail distribution. Founders are always incredibly excited to see their products on shelves at major retail chains, but they don't realize all the hard work that starts to begin. Retailers and distributors are known for their processes of deducting amounts from invoices. Most of the time, those are totally valid. Promos, slotting fees, free fills, and all the things that brands agree to to be part of the retail experience. But sometimes those deductions are invalid, costing brands thousands to millions in fees. Actually finding those needles in the haystack though and fighting to win back lost revenue, it's a costly, manual, and time-consuming issue.

15:21And that's where Glimpse comes in. Glimpse is an AI-powered deduction management tool that disputes and recovers invalid deductions. Winning brands thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours back to founders so that they can focus on what really matters most, scaling their businesses. With a team of in-house deduction experts who come from some of the most successful and profitable CPG companies. And custom built AI with 100 % accuracy and precision. you'll recover money that you never should have had leaked in the first place if you're a brand selling in retail go to try glimpse.com backslash trial for 30 days free and let them know i sent you thank you again for listening to this episode of the emerging brands podcast it really means so much to me that you listen to this show share it with your friends and support it if you are a cpg food and beverage founder, and you're ready to launch a brand, people want to shop head to withkellybennett.com for the details.

16:36And as always, thank you so much for listening, shopping the brands featured on the show and following brands I'm working with. It means so much. See you on the next episode.