It's All Happening

0:00Danielle Calabrese:Welcome to the Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett. This is the podcast to discover stories behind your new favorite CPG brands. Each episode brings you behind the scenes of the brand and founder story, learn what sets them apart in the marketplace, and their strategy going to market. We talk about plans for growth, practical advice for an emerging brand founder, and where to shop products that are making waves in food, beverage, wellness, beauty, and beyond. You'll also hear from industry experts, brand builders, investors, and operators you should absolutely have on your radar if you're building a CPG brand today.

0:44Danielle Calabrese:I'm your host, Kelly Bennett, a Brooklyn-based brand strategist with a front row seat of what makes an emerging CPG brand stand out. Whether you're building a brand of your own or love supporting what's next, you're in the right place. This episode was made possible by our sponsor, Hummingbirds. Hummingbirds is a platform that connects everyday small creators with brands that drive user-generated content, build buzz at specific retailers, and captures competitive market share. It's a tool that I recommend to all of my clients that you should absolutely check out. Head to hummingbirds.com for all the details.

1:27Danielle Calabrese:Now let's dive into the new episode. Hi everyone. Welcome back to a new episode of Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett. Today I have truly one of my favorite people in CPG on the podcast, Danielle Calabrese. She is the founder of It's All Happening. Danielle, I'm so happy to have you on my podcast today. Oh, yeah, girl. The feeling is beautiful. So I'm here for it. Thank you. Of course, I genuinely love following you on Instagram, all your advice and insights and seeing how you work with brands behind the scenes. Also, we've had a shared client now, and I genuinely appreciate how you think about CPG, building brands, scaling, and just making it feel way more approachable for emerging brands in particular.

2:25Danielle Calabrese:So I would love to kick things off with what is It's All Happening, your agency? Can you give us an overview of what It's All Happening and how it all works? Yes, yes, absolutely. So I think I should start, I think I should preface like what my agency is with maybe just a little bit about my experience because that is important. So I've been around in CPG for about 17 years or so. I started off as a founder myself. That's how I got into this business. So I had a super small, scrappy, cold press juice delivery service in LA about 17 years ago with my best friend. And we launched this company and we had absolutely no clue what we were doing.

3:12And we just figured it out on our own. The business had this like huge PR moment. Like, I don't know if anybody listening remembers Daily Candy, but like, oh my gosh, yes. Daily Candy wrote about us and like the phone didn't stop ringing for two, for two years. Like we, we couldn't keep up. Like we couldn't make the juice fast enough. It was like in glass jars and raw cold pressed. And like, we would hand deliver it sometimes like into people's refrigerators if they weren't home. So like we had keys to people. It was very like, like the like milkman style. It was really, it was a fun time, but I got so burnt out.

3:51We were just like absolutely overworked. And I got an opportunity to go on to another juice company to like merge with some people that had significant funding behind the company. And I went on to, to launch, to launch that business. And that grew into, you know, a whole like seven year project. And that was like my entryway into the industry. So, you know, I stayed in beverage and like helped build many brands over the years. And, um, you know, I eventually wanted to go off on my own flash forward, you know, 17 years later. And I just wanted to like really reach more people and help more brands and have more autonomy and run my own business that wasn't an inventory-based business.

4:42And I started It's All Happening Agency about a year ago. And the way that I position myself is I'm a CPG food and beverage advisor. So I help early stage brands, usually first-time founders, usually people who are coming into this industry for the first time. I help them build go-to-market strategies and really launch strategically in a way that helps avoid those rookie mistakes that cost us so much time and money that I just see continually over and over and over happening. Um, so we built, you know, I, I built it's all happening to really solve that problem and help brands launch faster, smarter, um, and with less capital essentially.

5:36Um, because the idea is that we don't have to go back and do things over again, which is so common, you know, with, especially with the, with the first timer. So.

5:46Danielle Calabrese:Absolutely. So everything you just said, if people don't see the video, I'm literally nodding my head. And this is why you're one of my favorites in this space because you really cut to the chase. And I think there's so many people out there who try to overcomplicate and also really focus on first-time CPG founders who don't know the industry because they've never done it, right? We've all started somewhere and make it feel really overwhelming and really sidetrack them. And what I love what you do is that you have the personal lived experience. You have the, again, boots on the ground. You've done it yourself.

6:35Danielle Calabrese:And now you're really helping, especially first time CBG founders, really cut to the chase of saying, OK, there's a lot of things out there, a lot of TikToks out there. But truly, this is where I want you to focus so you're not spending way more time, money, energy, exhausting yourself to just do it correctly from the beginning. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So I just – my ideal client, Kelly, and like for anyone listening, is somebody who hasn't spent any money on their brand yet, right? Like they're just, they, they have this idea in their head that they want to get into CPG and they want to launch a brand and they, you know, they're, they're just like, okay, where do I start?

7:22Where do I go? And like, if I, and look, this doesn't always happen. Like, and it's okay. I will, I will still, there's still a place for you at my agency and with all of our other things that we do as well too. If you're, if you've already spent money and you've already started the process, but I I love it when people come and they may not even have a trademark yet. Like they may not even have a name. They haven't done branding. They haven't even started R &D. If I can help you at that stage before you really truly invested, there's so many things that we can work out to ensure that when you launch, you are so prepared and you know the end, right?

8:02Like I think in this industry, it's so important to think about, and it's okay if you don't have all the answers, but it's important to think about the end goal. And that could change too, right? Like you may start off and you're like, acquisition is my end goal. And you may realize that that's actually not what you want. Or you may start off thinking, I really just want a sustainable, profitable business. And I want to operate that for decades. And I want to pass it down to my kids or my family or whatever. And it's okay if things change, but I do think it's really important. That's where I always start with people, separate from unit economics.

8:43What is our long-term goal here? Where do you see yourself in five years, 10 years, 20 years? In 20 years, is this company sold? Have you offloaded it? Or are you still operating it in 20 years?

8:58Danielle Calabrese:It's so helpful for emerging brand founders to have those conversations early on and for you to help them flush that out because there's really buzzy headlines. There's, you know, the things that we're all talking about in the space of what's cool and happening, but really giving autonomy to the founder themselves and saying, okay, what do you actually want to build? What does that look like for you personally? Yeah, and to your point about buzzy headlines, like there are a lot of buzzy headlines out there about acquisitions, right? And that's oftentimes what pulls people into this industry that don't have experience.

9:39Like they come from other places like finance or tech or fashion or real estate or whatever. And they're like, they see the big, like the poppy acquisition headlines and they're like, ooh, I should start a beverage brand. But, you know, and that's all great. Like if acquisition is your, your end goal, but if you educate yourself on like what it actually took for those founders to get there and, you know, financially the type of money that they had to bring in and what they had to do to get that money and how they had to structure the business to be attractive to those investors. Like that, once you unpack that and actually learn about that, you may, it may, you may realize that, oh, this is, yeah, this isn't for me, you know?

10:24Exactly. So anyway.

10:26Danielle Calabrese:That's a great point. And so you obviously have a wealth of information and expertise, 17 years worth of hard-earned, learned experience. How do you structure that in the agency? Can you break it down of just how it works and different touch points of people starting to work with you or if they're pre-launch, if they've already launched, just helping people understand everything that It's All Happening offers. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So there's like, there's two, there's two arms. We work with people and we work with clients and brands one-on-one, meaning like on retainer basis, continually week over week.

11:14And then I also, this past year launched a program called the CPG School Launch Lab. And that is like a, you know, that's a virtual like group situation, almost like an accelerator, mastermind, masterclass, 10-week program. Yeah. So that is, you know, a little bit more affordable, like the price point is lower. It's in a group setting. You're with a group of founders, who's also in a similar stage to you. And essentially I take everybody through, you know, this launch process that I've used over and over and over, um, throughout, throughout the years. And, and look, every launch looks different, right?

12:02Like every launch looks different. And especially because of like tech these days, like there is a million ways you can launch your brand, But there is a true fundamental set of things that I personally believe are so important to understand and know about before you actually get your brand off the ground. Or if you're already off the ground, you just go back a little bit and educate yourself on these core elements, essentially. So that's what the 10-week masterclass launch lab program looks like. And then if you can afford it, if it's in your budget, I have a number of different ways that we work with clients one-on-one.

12:47So I do just like advisory services where we meet every week and we go through, I work with you on your profitability strategy and your pricing, your cost of goods and your gross margins. we build out pricing strategy and then I advise you, um, every step of the way. Um, we do co-packer searches. Um, we do, um, you know, essentially like I'm, I'm, I work as like your launch partner. One of my clients recently called me their quarterback. And I feel like, like I'm going to use that on my website now, because that's really like the best way to describe it is like, I'm your, I'm your strategic partner and I actually help you execute.

13:33Right. So like we're in there, I'm like, we're figuring out your, your cost of goods, your margin structure, your pricing strategy. Um, I'm on the calls with you, um, setting up your manufacturer, you know, helping you forecast, thinking about those long-term goals, visions, building your go-to-market strategy with you, you know, getting the website live, all of all of those things that it takes, like it's a heavy lift to launch a brand. You know this, like there is a massive checklist.

14:02Danielle Calabrese:There's so many things to do. And I could say this from seeing behind the scenes of a client that we share and you really help them cut through the noise and get super focused. And this was something that I thought was so helpful as far as understanding their numbers and understanding from a marketing perspective what would make sense for promotion and how that information made my side of the street when you introduced me for brand strategy. Having you also on the calls was such a game changer because you have that perspective of long-term vision. You have all of this experience. So your clients have such an advantage for you to be in the trenches with them.

14:56Danielle Calabrese:And again, just from my side of the street of working on the brand strategy, it was a huge, I keep saying advantage because it really genuinely was, of your insights and feedback and your eyes on it. It just made the whole process way more successful than if they did not have you. I saw it with my own eyes and I just really appreciate how you give that direction to founders. Thanks. I'm happy that it made it easier for you because that's like the whole point, right? Is like we cut through the noise and we just go straight to, I feel like as a founder, there's so much information out there, right?

15:38Especially like with AI now, it's just like, there's so much information at your fingertips.

15:44Danielle Calabrese:And what I see founders struggle with is the excess of information and they don't know which way to do because they have so much, sorry, which direction to go in because they have so many choices. Honestly, I would say that that is one of a problem that I see increasingly, especially over the last year, I've really started to notice it. There's just so much information out there. All you have to do is type it into, you know, chat GPT and like what spits out is what you think you could just go and launch a company with. Right. And then I think that was a percent literally are just like, you know what I mean?

16:31And don't get me wrong. Like I am all about leveraging AI. Like I fully, I fully am buying into that and I fully believe it. And I'm not saying that we shouldn't, you know, use AI, but like there is real life experience that AI is just never going to give to you. It's just impossible. Right. So, so anyway, I, I, I digress,

16:56Danielle Calabrese:but something to your point too, about AI, I had someone recently say, well, I was giving, giving AI these prompts and they gave me a strategy, but I don't even know if it's good or not. And I think that that's the bottom line of, yes, use these tools, help it flesh out ideas, but that at the same time, you have to talk to real people who are boots on the ground, who live, breathe and sleep this, who have the experience to help you say, that's actually great. Let's run with that. That's just crap. You could throw that away. Like that, having that person in your corner that you could genuinely talk to and be vulnerable with, and you could trust, I think that's the game changer.

17:44Yeah. Okay. So on that point, something interesting, I was at a dinner the other night with a client and we were talking about AI and I was chatting with his wife and his, she's a writer. And I said, so are you guys, are you guys using a lot of AI. She's a TV writer. And I was just so curious if they're using chat GPT and everything. And she was like, honestly, we don't use it at all. And the reason we don't use it is because AI will never give you something new. It will only repurpose what's currently out there. And I was like, oh my God, that is such an interesting perspective or such an interesting point that I never even thought of.

18:23And it's so true. It will never give you something new and innovative. It will only give you versions and pieces of what's already out there. And I thought that that point is like such a great point, right? It's never going to be new. It's only going to be repurposed, you know, such a great point.

18:44Danielle Calabrese:And when you're coming out with an innovative product and you have a great concept and you really want to build a standout brand, having someone that could help you understand what to use and what's not to use and what has been tired, but what feels fresh and new. Again, that's where an advisor, I just keep saying the word game changer because I don't know a better word. It really genuinely is a game changer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. So tell me more about the CPG School Launch Lab. I had the fortune of being a teacher or a guest speaker in it. And you truly put together such an incredible group of founders.

19:30Danielle Calabrese:I was super impressed. I've done many, many talks over the years and I've spoken in front of many different groups. This so far has been one of my favorites. Oh, yeah. It's true. And how engaged they were and the questions they were asking and how they were looking at it. I'm like, yes, they got their head on straight like this is where they should be focusing and the way that you structured it too I felt like they weren't that anxious feeling because they're not just googling and kind of crowdsourcing open-ended questions they were really walk through step by step, what to be focusing on when and why and how and who to talk to in such a great way, in such a curated way that I hadn't really seen before.

20:24Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, you obviously were such a huge piece of that as well too. But look, I just put the structure together and all these amazing people like showed up. They are the ones who are like creating these incredible brands. And I love so much working in the group setting because I find that the founders are just like very scrappy and very motivated because they want to make this happen.

20:50Danielle Calabrese:Right. And trying to do it on like strict budgets and strict timelines and everything. So like, I love how engaged everybody is. I agree with you. So Launch Lab is a 10 week program. I've got it split up into four modules. So there's the ideation, validation section. There's the creation section, the finance section, and the sales and marketing. So essentially what we do at the beginning and the first place we start is market research and just like figuring out, okay, cool, you want to launch a specific product. what is the market within those categories and those adjacent categories doing from a branding perspective, from a distribution, pricing, cost of goods, fundraising perspective.

21:40We look at all of those things in market research because it's really important to know your category and the adjacent categories as well too.

21:49Danielle Calabrese:That's a good point. And then we dive into profitability planning. you know so like what the pricing structure should be and like you know we do channel profitability analysis so I help founders figure out what channels they can and cannot afford to go into at the beginning with something keeping in mind that like maybe at the beginning your cost of goods most you know nine times out of ten is going to be a lot higher than what it will be in a couple years so we look at like the short term and then we look at the long term when you can afford to get in those different channels? D2C, Amazon, retail going direct, retail going with a distributor, what fare looks like, et cetera, from a profitability.

22:33And then do you have enough cash to be able to make more inventory and operate your business? If you don't, are you planning on raising money, et cetera, blah, blah, blah. Then we get into your section, which is what you and Nicole, trademarking, brand strategy. You guys come in and talk about these like really important components. So oftentimes people are trying to cut corners and skip these things. Trademarking is such a crucial thing. You could talk about this all day, right? And then building a strategy that is going to appeal to your ideal customer avatar, right? Then we get into actually building the brand.

23:19This is where it starts to get fun, right? We build out the supply chain. We find the co-packer. We start to think about branding. We talk about packaging. We start to build a go-to-market strategy. Oh, and I forgot to mention channel strategies a little bit earlier too. Then we get into the finance section. This time I'm actually bringing in a VC to talk about what VCs are looking for. Not saying that everyone's going to want to take it.

23:46Danielle Calabrese:But that's a cool perspective. I think it'll be fun and interesting. Springdale Ventures is going to come in, which will be fun. Oh, great. Yes, totally. Holly's been on the podcast. Yes. And then Sarah Dallavan does a Profit by Design workshop. She's such a good guy. I love her so much. I have my friend Matt Wallace from J Development. J or Jai Development. They're based out of Brooklyn. truly honestly my favorite r &d house i've worked with so many over the years um so he's going to come in to to lead a workshop about um r &d and then we get into sales and marketing this time around i'm bringing in two founders two different founder groups to do fireside chats about their experience one of them one of them specifically is going to be focused on social and the other one is going to be on like what, cause they're, they're like, you guys all know them.

24:41They're like, they're having a massive like viral moment constantly. And then another brand who's also become very visible over the last couple of months, they're going to do a fireside chat. So I want to bring in some like real life experience all too. And then we get into everything like, you know, funnel strategy and, and ads and retail merchandising and how to sell an alley ball from, um, from retail ready is going to be doing a workshop. She's such incredible. Frickin love her. Um, and then, yeah, I mean, we're going to be talking about like how to run a, run a fair storefront. And then at the end, I'm going to do something a little bit differently than what we did last time.

25:23We're going to do like little mini pitches as well. So you can do like an investor pitch or you could do a retailer pitch and just pitch to the group to be like, hey, this is if you're ready for it, right? You don't, it's not required, of course.