Juicy Brick

22 Dec 2025 · 38 min · 10 chapters

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In short

Juicy Brick’s end-to-end food & beverage innovation process, how to spot white space and trends, and founder advice for launching without wasting cash.

Guest backgrounds

Grace Bryan, London-based co-founder and CEO of Juicy Brick. Previously founding member at Smith & Sinclair (alcohol cocktail gummy company), where she helped grow the business to acquisition; worked on brand partnerships/white labeling with companies like Tanqueray and Bombay Sapphire for duty-free sampling.

Key claims

Juicy Brick ideates, develops formulations/claims/packaging, and oversees production for product line extensions across many consumables (from baby purées to canned drinks and alcoholic drinks). LinkedIn posting weekly drives inbound leads; “consistency” is the main growth lever. Trends can be detected by watching early launches and pop culture.

Notable examples

cottage cheese “reinvention” (including whipped cottage cheese dips); Kato’s whipped cottage cheese dips; future influence predictions from K-culture to West African flavors (tamarind, hibiscus, jollof, tiger nut milk, Afrobeats).

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

Tap a time to open that second in VO

Introducing Grace Bryan and Juicy Brick

1:47 to 2:28

Host Kelly Bennett introduces guest Grace Bryan, co-founder of Juicy Brick.

“Welcome back to a new episode of Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett.”

Exploring the Role of Juicy Brick

2:28 to 4:29

Grace discusses the services offered by Juicy Brick in food and beverage innovation.

“like well what a wonderful day it is thank you well you're making my morning too we had met up in New York City.”

Grace's Career Journey to Juicy Brick

4:29 to 8:12

Grace shares her diverse career background leading up to founding Juicy Brick.

“And I love how full circle your agency is of idea to production.”

Building Juicy Brick's Client Base

8:12 to 11:15

Grace explains how she leveraged relationships to build Juicy Brick's clientele during COVID.

Networking Success on LinkedIn

11:15 to 14:01

Grace discusses her strategic approach to networking on LinkedIn to grow her business.

“So it sounds like you really leveraged the relationships you had built at the startup to then start Juicy Brick.”

Building Connections on LinkedIn

14:01 to 19:06

Learn how to effectively use LinkedIn for networking and brand promotion.

“I have a hard time being consistent with things like that, but I love reading it.”

Trend Spotting and Innovation Insights

19:06 to 26:42

Discover how to identify trends and innovate based on market cues.

“you, I mean, you are really on the cutting edge of trends and predictions and white space and how brands can innovate.”

Advice for Aspiring Founders

26:42 to 28:00

Get essential tips for bringing a product idea from concept to reality.

“And I also just signed a client who's going to be launching a West African inspired drink.”

Founders' Advice: Taking the Leap

28:00 to 34:27

Explore essential advice for founders on launching their brands and overcoming hesitation.

“So from idea to taking those next steps.”

Founders' Advice: Taking the Leap

35:01 to 36:46

Explore essential advice for founders on launching their brands and overcoming hesitation.

“and glamorous as it looks on social media at times.”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

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 Hummingbirds. Hummingbirds is the go-to platform built for creator-powered retail activations. They're connecting everyday creators with CPG brands to generate shelf-level awareness, drive in-store momentum, and generate authentic content in markets that matter the most. Go to hummingbirds.com for all the details and let them know I sent you. 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.

1:35If you're a brand selling in 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. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to a new episode of Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett. Today, I have a industry expert, insider, someone that I genuinely love hearing her insight on CPG and all things innovation. Grace Bryan is here. She is the co-founder and CEO of Juicy Brick. she is based in London she's worked with global CPG brands and Grace I'm so happy you're on the

2:20Grace Bryan:podcast today I feel like I'm having a fan moment like I listen to these and I'm like oh my god I'm gonna be on one and now I'm living my best life and I'm actually on one with the Kelly Bennett like well what a wonderful day it is thank you well you're making my morning too we had met up in New York City. We had such a great time over cocktails and talking about CPG. And I just love when I meet someone where we could pull out our phones and show each other like cool new brands and supermarket finds. And I genuinely love talking with you. So for someone who isn't familiar yet with Juicy Brick, could you walk us through what exactly your creative agency does and how you work within food and beverage?

3:13Grace Bryan:Definitely. So we are a, well, we're juicy brick and we're a food and beverage innovation agency. But when you take away all the gobbledygook of what that means, it's simply we ideate and look at white space. We curate sort of, you might have a base idea, but we put meat on the bones of that. We look at the competitor. So we're basically really fulfilling what that idea is and what product you're gonna make. Then we take that through to development, which is, you know, creating the physical product that's making the recipe, the formulations, the packaging, any back of pack claims, anything that we want to shout about, anything to do with the final actual physical pack outs, not just the packaging side of things.

3:55Grace Bryan:And taking that all the way through to, right, you are pre-production now, and then all the way through to production. So making the product, overseeing that production run, and then handing that product over to you. So it's a very niche area, I would say, of your pre-startup or your product line extension, but making sure that it's the best it can possibly be to set you up for success rather than trying to find some loopholes and do stuff, you know, maybe a bit wonky to begin with, doing it right, but making sure it is exactly as you want it to be. and then you know setting you off for success but we do that in numerous different markets so we say food and beverage because anything that you can consume we would like to make and that's everything from baby purees to mouth sprays to frozen street food condiments confectionery canned drinks alcoholic drinks so anything that you can consume we want to help you bring that to life.

4:56Grace Bryan:Incredible. And I love how full circle your agency is of idea to production. So what was your background prior to co-founding Juicy Brick? I know that you've worked in global startups and CPG brands, but what were you doing before this idea came to life in your own for your own agency so my career has been a mash-up of random stuff and I I'm a real believer of just saying yes to stuff sometimes like you kind of have to put it all around and I think that's how you know people that are really senior in these massive companies that see the most success I think it's because they've bounced around to different industries and different categories and even you know different fields and my career absolutely is that so I started off in events and did everything from the back of house of running events to actually venue finding and representing venues I worked in a casino I did this fancy thing called livery halls in London which is super old school and very fancy and then I went into hospitality side of things off the back of the casino so I did work for a consultancy agency that did everything from literal architectural architectural design to you know floor plans of what the format was going to be all the way through to day-to-day running of hospitality restaurants fast food hotels pubs and then from there I actually met someone called Melanie who we both know um who is I actually did I don't know do you know her yet I know I did a little introduction but I don't know whether we've connected yes yay see we love connecting love connecting we I met Melanie at a networking event and she was in the process of starting up juice uh Smith and Sinclair which is a alcoholic cocktail gummy company which as you can imagine is rather niche right and not something that everyone necessarily understood at the beginning but I was one of the founding members of the team that I was actually the first member um and at that stage when I say startup I mean we were in the trenches of a startup we handmade gummies we hand packed them we would jump in Ubers to go to market stands and sell in rain we would go anywhere that would have us we would go and we would show up and have like gummies on silver trays and walk around sell the story try and get investment and then we essentially grew that business to acquisition um which was amazing but throughout that process you know we learned what being a startup was and that was everything from cash flow which every cpg person big or small will know how hard cash flow is yeah i feel like when you're starting up a hundred pound goes a really long way and then you get to bigger stages and you're like why is my million pound not doing what my hundred pound is right right and you know it's bitter all the way through to you know issues with formulation and paying loads of money for a production run with someone that you really trusted to do the product and they sold you all of this we're amazing and we're experts and we do this and then you get the product and you're like what on earth is this isn't what we paid for um so that startup experience really has stayed with me for good and bad reasons right i was gonna say for better or for worse it stayed yes a little bit of both um but the side of the business that I ran at Smith & Sinclair was the brand partnerships and kind of white labeling of anything that we did and with that side of the business we we saw huge success so we would offer the gummies as you know tools for sampling for gifting and we had brands like Tanqueray and Bombay Sapphire work with us on you know quite a large scale to utilize the products that we had created but under their brand and in their flavors so you know with Tanqueray we did um and this kind of overlap with Juicy Brick but we did gummies that tasted like all six of their different uh gin variations and they use that in global travel retail which is duty-free to sample their products so you know quite often if we were traveling we'd go into Catwick or Heathrow Airport and someone would be there using the gummies that we made to promote the product which is always cool that's that never oh that's so incredible to be in an airport and seeing the product that you made being sampled like seeing a product in the wild that you worked on I think is like the coolest feeling yeah I think CPG is really good at that you get the full circle effect which so many jobs you don't get you you do your piece of work and then you don't see it but that that job satisfaction of like on shelf that's cool or right someone that you really respect you know yeah I love um Nate who does um express checkout express checkout like he's great if he ever mentions a brand that we're working on I'm always like I feel like a celeb shout out right there you know it's it's such a good feeling and so with all of that side of stuff when the business was acquired that side you know was wasn't really you know physically worth anything and they wanted the gummies so we then were like well you know it's middle of covid who who's employing we've just come from an industry needs product um you know what what's next for all of us and myself and my three other business partners were like well you know there is something here we could we could give it a go and we all agreed that we wouldn't take a wage and we had enough money for three months to like survive and if after three months it worked we'd do it and if it didn't we gave it a go and you know we gave it a shot to see if it's something that would work and after the first month we had five clients we had new projects we had people out reaching to us and it just worked it just really really worked and I think actually people that we had worked with the Diageos of the world they actually liked that we was an agency and not a brand with a product they liked that they had our full attention and weren't sort of competing with what we were going going to sell on our own websites and brands.

11:11Grace Bryan:They liked that we were a service for them. I love that. So it sounds like you really leveraged the relationships you had built at the startup to then start Juicy Brick. And the clients that you were working with really liked that they would also have that arm of innovation that they can work directly with your team in creating new products. And that totally makes sense of it's not necessarily another brand creating a product. It's an agency working for them. So that's a really clever pivot too of showing your work and saying, wait, we can actually now do this fully for you. So what did that look like?

11:53So you said starting out five clients right off the bat, epic. And so So that was during COVID. Now we're 2025. What has been the trajectory of Juicy Brick?

12:06Grace Bryan:I mean, it's always, these questions are always so good because you, I feel like when you have an agency and you will feel this as well as a freelancer, like you don't reflect until someone I know you're, you're head down, you're head down. I just concentrated, but I really think the thing that's been so game-changing for us massively is pivoting from just alcohol so straight off the bat doing Smith & Sinclair we were known for alcohol and that's kind of where the most of the interest was and that's where we were able to pivot those existing clients and be like right listen you know you've got this new brief we could help with that and you know this is why and kind of like two two three years ago we were like why why are we just doing this for alcohol and it was kind of like an unconscious thing that we just did and we're like we're an alcohol agency and that's what we're going to do and there was a conversation of well what's the plan for the year ahead and I think someone just said what about food and we were like that does seem like a very obvious thing that way for no reason other than just not doing so we just started to you know put our feet on the ground in that space connecting on LinkedIn I mean I will rave about LinkedIn until I was I'd like to ask how you started networking in a new industry because there are a lot of service providers within CPG who listen to this podcast.

13:25And I try to bring on more service providers because there aren't that many spaces for us to skillshare and talk this stuff out. So you were doing outreach on LinkedIn or networking on LinkedIn?

13:39Grace Bryan:LinkedIn, like if anyone in any category is like, I don't know how to meet people with LinkedIn. like you've got to you've got to be strict with yourself you need to post regularly you need to find your voice and your niche like what what are you talking about don't keep plugging your product people don't want to be sold to all the time but right for me we we're in food and beverage and I am you know constantly looking at what's new what's happening in this space what's the the latest what's the industry changes so I just post every Friday three things that I found that are interesting and I started doing this probably like two years ago now and I religiously did it every Friday probably bar a few for whatever reason but right I just posted that regularly and I started getting more followers and I started getting more sort of connections and I think people would repost it and it was opening me up to this network but I also spend hours and I make no joke hours a week on LinkedIn you know finding new contacts trying different messages figuring out you know I what does not work is just a blanket message to every single person like you need to be personal about it so it takes time you know it takes hours to create these individual messages and you know you have to trial and error the way that people will respond to you you know sometimes I tried attaching pictures of previous work I tried no attachments I tried you know making up a spoke deck and you just have to trial and error it but LinkedIn is a free platform that anyone can use and you just need to learn how to make it work for you and and that is honestly the only sales tool that we have really um to find new clients outside of recommendations right no i appreciate you saying that and also touching upon and it's so funny you just said this because i was brainstorming before the podcast of signature series and something to that you were speaking about is three things that caught your attention on trend every Friday.

15:39I love stuff like that. I love consuming stuff like that. I have a hard time being consistent with things like that, but I love reading it. But seeing what works for you, what works for your brand. I'm really glad that you said that. That was like a light bulb moment when you, when you talked about that.

15:57Grace Bryan:Yeah, I mean, you have so many subjects. You could talk about a million things so many things yeah so great everything you say is great um but I do think consistency is really a big part of being successful on LinkedIn particularly I think certain people who have great profiles that have got these amazing CEO roles in huge companies they can post once a year and it'll get you know so many views but if you're a founder or a startup like there are so many great examples on LinkedIn as to who's doing well and I think you just need to be consistent and I think you need to not let your feelings get hurt when you feel like no one's consuming them because it's not like Instagram people don't always like stuff on there and people don't always interact but what you will come to learn as I have is people are secret stalkers you know LinkedIn is like I just want to scroll I don't necessarily want to interact with you but over time so many people have messaged me I've been like oh just so you know I really like your Friday post or in person they'll say oh I always read your Friday post and every so often someone will write on it and I'm like people are reading this they are they are even if they're not engaging they are yeah and LinkedIn I just it's a low engagement platform I think I don't think people are there to like connect and do what we do on Instagram which is like you know a heart and fire emojis that's not right right but if you can utilize it you can make it a sales tool in a really really easy way but consistency and time that you spend on it is essential and that's how we really pivoted to work with food brands and you know reaching out to everyone from you know small startups that I'm like I just love your product and I would just love to connect and that's another thing as well with LinkedIn is don't always have to do the hard sale maybe just connect and just get your name on the radar and be like I love your company or I love the brand and I would love just to say hi and hear more about what you do and on the call you can mention it but just be at peace that they might not you know do something with you but there are so many examples in my career where I've done that and I'm like actually now we're working together or it's a great reminder I was just uh I co-hosted a sneak peek event of new products coming to market next year.

18:18Thank you. And it was so great. And I had that moment. I was thinking about it. Literally

18:23Grace Bryan:everyone in that room, by and large, I met on Instagram or LinkedIn, the whole room to my co-hosts, to my clients. I mean, it really is incredible from the podcast, LinkedIn, Instagram, maybe a dash of TikTok. Everybody. But did we meet on LinkedIn? I think we originally met on LinkedIn or Instagram. I forgot. But it's just so incredible how you really could build community and network. I mean, you're in London. I'm in New York City. We were able to meet up. It's just so incredible the tools that we have access to now to really build a business. I wanted to also ask you, I mean, you are really on the cutting edge of trends and predictions and white space and how brands can innovate.

19:17Where are some of your favorite places to find those gut instincts or those barometers of where you feel like things are heading? Do you have any favorite spots or is it mostly listening and reading publications? I would just love to hear a little bit more because you're

19:35Grace Bryan:really good at it well thank you you're welcome you know the whole juicy brick team we're very much it's the ground and again annoyingly the answer is consistency i think right the more you're ingrained into the community what's going on the quicker you start to see that's going to be a trend because you're seeing it clearer when you're on the outskirts and you're looking it's harder to put the dots together but when you're really in it like if i see three for example best example cottage cheese yes so many brands all things butter which I don't think you guys have in the US but it's a UK um butter brand which I'm obsessed with uh then just come out with cottage cheese and I'm like I've now seen in the past two weeks three new cottage cheese brands and I'm like okay so cottage cheese is now just going to be reinvented it's like the most heritage products and we know i have to give a shout out to kato my client she's doing a whipped cottage cheese dip so it's herby ranch buffalo and french onion dips but the hero ingredient is whipped cottage cheese and exactly what you just said there flavors like flavored cottage cheese so we've kind of got the first wave coming through which is cottage cheese high protein in a cooler brand cool packaging and the next thing will be flavors and you know once you that's just a great example of it but when you start to invest time like i have google alerts i spend as you i've told you hours on linkedin linkedin is a really good source of trends by the way because you'll get the first launch of it from the word um the person who's launching it so whoever's part of it you can see it from them and then they'll give you whatever perspective you know that you probably isn't in the press release or probably isn't on you know someone else's instagram so again it's a really good one but then you know there are so many great publications out there i really love trend hunter i think they do a great job of you know highlighting really cool stuff that's coming out but like just really short and sweet um i mean again nate love what he's doing um i love uh dye line chloe who i do a like a podcast youtube series with again met on i think actually that's how I first connected or your name first got on my radar probably from Chloe because you did a um like a trend uh webinar or something along those lines every other month we do a webinar which is kind of like a random food and beverage subject that we just really like we did one recently that was about butter and I genuinely think we can talk for about four hours about butter I'm obsessed yes I'm obsessed but also obsessed with Chloe so shout out to Chloe because love her um but like just just following people in the industry that talk about it following publications I would also say don't just stick to food and beverage like that's I think a real common oh and indie CPG I love her she's great as well she's great but don't just stick to food beverage like there is so much innovation happening across different categories so wellness and beauty there is so much happening in that space that you can get inspiration from and that could be packaging that could be wording you know a lot of the stuff now is like you know clean label stuff we're going into clean label and food and beverage so what can you take from that space right pet food I talk about pet food a lot because like for example I just went to a show in Paris called FI Europe which is kind of like an ingredient show and the show is advertised as you know, human food and ingredients with a pet show, with a pet food show attached to it, because so much pet food is now becoming human food.

23:25Grace Bryan:Wait, I'm obsessed. Yeah. I'm dying to work on a pet food brand. I know. I would love that as well. We were talking with a very, very, very cool, huge global IP brand, but they decided not to go ahead. And we were so close to doing a pet food product, which would have just been ultimate. But we've got other ideas. So if anyone's out they're looking for pet foods yes um but yeah so you know pet food there's so much happening so when I walked around the show like there were so many signs of also available you know for pet food or you know this works in pet food or whatever and I thought that was really interesting but a lot of innovation whether it's like the types of food or the way that it's made the ingredients that it's using there's a lot in there and it's good to lean into that as well and then also one area which I could not talk about more enough is like pop culture there is so much reference in pop culture that will tell you what's coming in so in our latest trend report uh which is available on the juicy book website if you'd like to see it okay let's link it in the show notes um one of the trends that we put in there is kind of like the next global favor so at the moment we're very much in Korea anything K I mean I just watched Demon Hunters and now I'm obsessed um we're in Koreatown right now we love anything with a K in front of it then we're gonna go I think to South Asia and really look at like Indian flavor notes especially with wellness being so heightened so you know those beautiful natural ingredients tamarind I think we're gonna see a lot of and then after that where we featured in our trend report is actually Africa and you know sort of the sub countries within the continent of Africa and where that sort of influence I think starts is where we're seeing the music industry change so Afrobeats is now becoming one of the leading you know categories of music that you can have and what that means is you know these amazing you know singers rappers artists are now becoming our mega stars people like Thames, Burner Boys, Dave right they're now becoming these mega stars and that means that culture comes with it so where we start looking at fashion things like kente which is a material and a print in Ghanaian culture that could then start to come down into fashion which I think we're already starting to see that trickle in and then from there it goes into food and beverage so if we're gonna see these you know mega stars start coming through well maybe they'll start be you know creating brands whether that's beverages or food that leans into their heritage or leans into ingredients things like tiger nut milk or hibiscus um dishes like jollof rice nigerian or ghanay and which one's better i'm not involved my partners are ghanayen so i feel like i need to stay ghanayen right but you know all of these things will start to trickle through and now we're starting to see those brands start to come through the first real wave of you know disruptive cpg so there's a drinks brand called we are chaps and they have a great brand of beverages that's in the uk um there's a new restaurant in the uk which is a chain that's called africana kitchen and they're kind of taking uh core african dishes and giving them a little bit more of a westernized twist and i think we'll just start to see more of that we've had so many inquiries of late which are leaning into ingredients like i'm probably going to say it's wrong but for noah which is a grain which can be sort of substituted for um porridge um in the morning and i think more oatmeal and so i think we'll start to see that that come in more but you have to look at other categories to really see what's coming through and what's going to be next because until you sort of see the wider picture i think it's too late because it's happening like cottage cheese it's happening right now it's happening right now i love like i said your perspective and your point of view and how you connect the dots.

27:22And I also just signed a client who's going to be launching a West African inspired drink. And so what you're just saying now, I'm like, yes, I knew it was going to be like, it's exactly what you just hit on. So I'm going to send her this episode of like, you're onto something. But I I'm really excited about that too. And I love how you're connecting the dots with pop culture. So I'll definitely link that trend report. Do you have any advice? I mean, I'm sure you have tons of advice and this could be a whole other episode, but for the really more like smaller founders or just, you know, first time in CPG, maybe they're cooking up something in their kitchen right now or just starting to R &D that has this bigger vision of what they want to create, what advice would you share with them on helping them turn this into something?

28:21So from idea to taking those next steps.

28:25Grace Bryan:I think strip out anything unnecessary, like at the founder startup, you're just beginning stage, you will have amazing ideas, which you will be able to bring to life, but does it need to be done right now I think we get really carried away with like the brand world and we should because the branding as we now know is essential to launch right but there are so many other ideas that might be like merch on a website which is so great and if you're funded do it but when you are cash strapped and you're trying to figure out how to get this off the ground you need to really think about what why are you doing it and is it essential because the nice to haves are the most exciting part of stuff because it's fun and it's bringing your brand to life and I'm not saying you can't do it you absolutely can but do you need it for the launch or is there a way of doing it that's like pre-order and we'll you know once we've got hit x amount we'll we'll actually produce it but I think it's really easy in this day and age specifically to get a bit carried away with what that launch looks like and forgetting that you're trying to you know strap up with all the cash that you've got this amazing brand and it's easy to get carried away or you know things like is there an alternative to what you're trying to do that might be cheaper just for the first round it's really not the end of the world um if you have to change that direction slightly um that's a great point too and and also discernment as a founder who's bootstrapping because there's so many, you know, glossy things that you could be focused on.

30:05So I really love that advice of focusing on the bigger picture, following through on the main things that you need, and then peppering in all the fun stuff to really bring the brand world to life. Yeah.

30:18Grace Bryan:And I also think, you know, the idea of perfection, I just don't believe in perfection. I don't think perfection exists. I think someone, probably a man made that word up. and was like perfection this is what it is I don't think it exists and I think sometimes we can wait and wait and wait to be like just want that to be done or like I just need this to be done and I just want you know that final thing sometimes just do it like just do it jump in the deep and I was just talking to um someone who I met on uh startup CPG and they're launching a they want to launch a beverage brand and we were having a conversation and you know you could so see he wants to do it but it's that like oh I've got to do I've got to start and honestly if you feel passionate about it just do it just do it if it doesn't go well you tried and you did it for the plot it's going to be a great story one day but don't hesitate to try because you will spend years and years thinking about this idea and not doing anything about it and sometimes you have to take a risk sometimes it won't work and like I said you've just got to do it for the plot but But like, unless you try, you don't know.

31:27So it's like, sometimes just jump, just do it.

31:30Grace Bryan:Just give it a go. I'm so glad that you're saying that. And that's something too I'm emphasizing and I'm sure that you do too when someone reaches out to work with you, that you need to make sure that you're working with founders who want to execute on their visions and ready to take action. Because also that's like what's most fulfilling as a service provider too, of like, you want to work with those founders who are in it and who want to move. And that's really also, I think, from a founder perspective, how you attract the right strategic partners of showing them your passion, your commitment, and getting people who are bought into your vision because they feel that from you too.

32:09And they get it and they want to help you do it. So taking those opportunities when they come.

32:15Grace Bryan:100%. If you don't believe in it, why will anyone else? Yes, exactly. if you're just a nervous nelly about the whole thing and you're constantly doubting why would someone take on your product why would it happen like you just need to have like this unrelenting belief that you're going to be great and a bit delusional too right oh you've got it you've got to be delulu to find a salulu like it's so true delusional equals solution you know you've got to just believe in it and honestly like i said like we have such a fear that things won't work out and honestly you just need to be okay with like it might not just just just be okay with it because you cannot spend your life wanting this perfect vision it's not going to happen just go with it and like I said just do it for the plot do it and you know give it a go don't do it if you don't believe in it that's the difference right you believe in it and you're just pivoting around oh I don't know I don't know if you believe in it you have got more than someone else has and you need to go for it if you're like I'm not sure then you you've got the answer right there but if you've got this unrelenting belief that you're like this could be good just do it just do it give it a go chance it and I love it see where where it could be I mean I I'm very much that person so it's if someone is a nervous person they're not going to like that advice but I just think life is too short sometimes and you know you've just got to give it a go and see where you land.

33:44Grace Bryan:And if you believe in it, someone else will believe in it. That's honestly how I feel like passion drives other passion. So you just need to be really confident with that. Take the leap, give it a go. I love that. Well, that is a perfect way to end this conversation. I could talk to you for hours, but I know I have to let you go. I will absolutely link the trend report and thank you again for everything that you do and all the cool products you're bringing to market. And I'm just so excited to see what the new year brings. Thank you so much. It's been an honor being on this podcast, the highlight of my year.

34:21Thank you. All right. Thank you everyone for listening and I'll see you on the next episode. This podcast is brought to you by Hummingbirds. Hummingbirds is the go-to platform built for creator-powered retail activations. They are connecting everyday creators with CPG brands to generate shelf-level awareness, drive in-store momentum, and generate authentic content in markets that matter the most. Go to hummingbirds.com for all the details and let them know I sent you. 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.

35:07A 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.

36:03And 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 tryglimpse.com backslash trial for 30 days free and let them know I sent you.

36:57Thank 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. And 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.

From the publisher

Grace Bryan is the Co-Founder and CEO of Juicy Brick, a London-based creative innovation agency dedicated to building high-impact food and beverage brands. After spending over a decade navigating the challenges of CPG startups and global corporations, she recognized a critical gap.

Grace and her team created Juicy Brick to fill this need, offering a full-service model that starts with trend-led whitespace exploration and extends through product development, brand shaping, and operational setup. Their expertise ensures brands are both culturally sharp and commercially powerful, allowing founders to focus on their vision while Juicy Brick handles the heavy lifting.

Inside the Episode:

  • How Grace's decade of experience in CPG startups and global brands led her to create a full-service innovation agency.

  • Breaking down the process of building a powerful brand, from identifying market whitespace to sourcing production partners.

  • How Juicy Brick uses trend-led exploration to find untapped product opportunities in the crowded food and beverage industry.

Download their trend report!

This podcast episode was made possible by Hummingbirds — the go-to platform built for creator-powered retail activations—connecting everyday creators with CPG brands to spark shelf-level awareness, drive in-store momentum, and generate authentic content in the markets that matter most. Learn more!

This podcast episode was made possible by Glimpse — the AI-powered deduction management tool helping CPG brands recover lost revenue from invalid retail deductions. With in-house experts and custom-built AI, Glimpse saves founders time, money, and countless hours so they can focus on scaling. Try it free for 30 days at tryglimpse.com/trial.

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