The 2 P.M. Snack Brand Taking Over Grocery Shelves

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1:26Built Hospitality is available now for restaurant groups everywhere. Learn more at BuiltDining.com backslash hangout. That's BuiltDining.com backslash hangout. And check out what Built Hospitality is going to do for you and your restaurant. Not a lot of companies were targeting the 2 p.m. crash. A lot of companies were targeting pre-post workouts or morning, you know, breakfast snacks. So that's the whole thing for you is like you get to work. Yes. And you're starting to lose your mojo. Have this. And instead of having a coffee, let's have something a little better. Boom. Or have it with the coffee.

2:05Live from Amazon Business Studios in New York City with the restaurant guy and the finance guy. And joining us today is Jake Carls, the co-founder, CEO, president, chairman of Midday Squares, as we continue with our famous The Foodfluencer Series. Datsy, I love that you come to the show. Well-caffeinated. Well-caffeinated. I had my espresso. You know, I was in Italy for over Christmas. Well, why don't we spend time talking about that? Yeah. I mean, I was in Italy. And I got to tell you, I mean, every morning it was espresso, espresso, right? It's good for you. Bu espresso. Buon fervorio. Today, we're continuing our Food Fluencer mini-series, the CPG edition, where we're spotlighting the brands that are influencing what we eat, not just how we discover it.

2:54We've got a lot to talk about with our guests today. A lot to talk about, Jimmy. You know, but Jimmy, before we get into it, I'd like to talk to you about something. Please. Does everyone know, like does Jake know that he should be using Amazon Business? Because he knows Amazon, right? But he doesn't know Amazon Business. He may or may not know. We don't know. Does he know that midday squares could be buying all the stuff they need to operate their entire business, Amazon business? Does he know that? I think it's important that all business leaders should know how much Amazon business can do for their business.

3:25You know what they do? They streamline your purchasing. They have all sorts of innovative tech, unmatched selection. Jimmy, there's nothing you can't get on Amazon. Nothing. So what I wanted to tell Jake and everyone else listening out there, if you need something, and then we're not talking about buying, you know, like stuff for the house. We're talking about looking non-perishables. Yeah, but we're talking about for your business. We're talking about for your business. Like, we're talking about, like, I don't know, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, pads, pens, you know, bleach. What else do you need?

3:53What else do you need to run a business? Other than cleaning supplies and pens and pads. You need a lot more than that. You do? Probably need tables and chairs and tablecloths and flatware, silverware, glassware. I'm going to go on a limb. I don't know if that... Amazon Business has it all. They have all that. Has it all. Go to business.amazon.com, Jimmy. I go there. And I got to tell, I'm using Amazon Business for my personal. You know why? Write-off. I don't know. Exactly. It's a write-off, Jimmy. Okay. It's a full write-off, Jimmy. Yes. And the IRS, you can read Chatty and a 917. Yes. Oh, anyway, I just wanted to tell everyone that I'm loving Amazon Business and everything they're doing to help us reduce our costs and increase our efficiency.

4:30Because if I wasn't buying all this stuff, who would be buying it? Not you. Not me. Right. So that's why I'm doing it. It's a good thing you're doing it. All right. Keep this off. Thank you. Listen, today we have someone who literally turned a potential lawsuit with this little unknown company called Hershey's, Hershey's, damn it, into a viral promotion with half a million views. We have Jake Carls, the co-founder of Midday Squares, the functional chocolate brand that is literally disrupting the$8 billion industry through radical transparency, behind the scenes storytelling, and building one of the most engaging franchises in CPG that I've ever heard of.

5:05They sold over 55 million bars. They hit 35 million in annual sales. And Jake just made the Forbes 30 under 30. She shouts, when you talked about that facial kind of facelift and stuff, you're way late. Jake, 30 under 30, he's making things happen. This is what happens when you make friends first and sell chocolate later. We know what we should do. Let's bring Jake in. Ladies and gentlemen, here he is, Mr. Jake Carlson, co-founder, chairman of the board, chief executive office president of midday squares jake welcome to the show come on in how things up in canada i love it how you guys doing um you know things are great snowing it's cold it's negative i don't know 15 degrees today i'm gonna play some outdoor hockey tonight yeah but wait a minute are you in celsius or fahrenheit out there we're in celsius yeah so that's like 85 degrees in sun right i think isn't it jimmy you might be a little off isn't negative 15 like 75 five yeah i was never good with that a little off a little off but yeah fired up uh i don't know i like cold i like cold i play outdoor hockey so i i need the cold for the ice so i feel like in canada isn't it part of the isn't the law that doesn't everyone have to play hockey up until like they're 16 or 18 or no but no we have great hockey players out here we have a great team and uh you know great development too you know i played hockey my whole life i was a goalie transition to forward now because I don't want to hurt my knees anymore, to be honest with you.

6:32And no, I love it here. You know, we're based here and we're building. Well, let's get into a little bit, OK, because we know you got the great accent. You got that great accent. So you went the year from Montreal, right? Yep. Now, what do you mean you were the class clown? What does that mean? Yeah, I didn't do well in school. I was I was in high school and I was the one that caused trouble with the teacher. I pranked everybody. I had so much fun. I struggled academically. And in order for me to be myself, I just behaved like a clown and I had so much fun. And then, you know, when it came to graduating, I almost didn't graduate high school because my grades were bad, but I ended up, I ended up pulling it through and I ended up going to university and I went to study.

7:13You went to Western. Yeah. Western University in London. And you studied economics. Economics. And I tried to be an actuary. So I started, I studied actuarial science first. and it was actually so hard, but I chose it because I wanted to prove to people I was smart. That was the goal. It was like, you know, I'm no longer the class clown. You're smart. Jimmy, where's your line? Come on, Jimmy. It's actually my godfather. I figured I was going to let you do it. I'm smart. I'm smart. I was going to let you do it. Send Mikey this. Send Mikey do this. Send Mikey do that. I'm smart. I mean, Jesus Christ.

7:43But also, I mean, you wanted to be an investment banker. Yep. Jimmy is an investment banker. Jimmy's a banker. I'm a banker. Yeah. Jimmy's always wanted to be a banker, and he is a banker. Now I always want to be a restaurant guy. Actually, today, after reading about Jake and his company, I want to be a CPG. I want to be in the midday squares business. That's what I want to be. So let's get into it. So you went in, you graduated college, you got this whole banking thing, but you really, you never went into banking. You never became the actuary. You're an entrepreneur, right? Yep. So you started with outdoor fitness and boot camps, right?

8:20Talk about that. How does that, how is an actuary, investment banker, now you're doing boot camps, you co-founded Chase and Hunter Clothing Brand. How'd that go? Tell us how that went. Well, you know, when it came to looking for jobs in the third year of university in the summertime, I couldn't get a job. So I was sitting on my parents' couch and I was watching TV and I was sulking that, you know, I studied so hard and I couldn't even get a job in what I was studying. And I said to my parents, I said, I don't know what I'm going to do. And they said, you're going to get a job. And I didn't want to do the jobs that were available for me at the time.

8:52So I was flipping through the channels. I saw Shark Tank and I saw this guy, I don't know, entrepreneur out there. He was so excited. He was energized. He had so much on his, like, so much to lose. He had the mortgage on his house. He had kids to put, you know, he had to put food on the table. And I was 21 at the time and I was sulking, but I had no responsibility. I had love, family, luckily, thank God. And I looked at this guy, I was like, I want to be this guy. He had so much energy and momentum. And I was like, who is this guy? I can't even remember. I honestly can't even remember. It was almost 11 years ago, let's call it.

9:23But he was inspiring, right? And in that moment, I felt this energy that said to myself, I'm going to be an entrepreneur. And at the time I was jacked. I worked out a lot and that's all I did basically other than school studying. I was like, Jimmy also, all Jimmy does is work. Yeah. Jimmy, he's Jack. Show us how Jack you are. I've swat a lot of aggression along with a lot of pizzas. Yeah. But the margaritas with the good cheese. But anyways, we started a fitness bootcamp outside and then, uh, you know, I use social media at the time to get clients and it was for free first and then charge, charging$5 a head, $10 a head, $20 a head.

9:57I had 200 paying clients. I built a, you know, a great business on my parents' driveway and on the street. I had outdoor equipment. It was crazy. It was like, it was actually insane. And I had so much fun. I was working from like five in the morning till 9 PM. And I was filming myself. I was dancing. I had music. And all I did was capture people's having fun. That's all it was. I had no skill in terms of training. All I did was use storytelling to bring people together and want to be part of what we're doing. And then that did that for three years. And I shut that business because I lost passion.

10:28It felt like a chore. And I did another business, which was basically throwing parties on college campuses. That's always a good business. Yeah. And they try to sell clothing like Chase Hunter clothing to the students. And I would tell their stories. I'd do storytelling again. And I ended up building a great brand community out here in Canada. And then the problem happened is I was a horrible CEO. I was a horrible operator. So the business went, it closed. And I was 24, 25 years old at the time. And I basically felt like I was a loser because I was like, I have no job. I have no business. Don't talk that way.

10:59Not on this show. What are we giving out participation trophies? Yes, you're a winner. God damn it. We're winners. We're winners. I love that. I love the positivity. Yes. Yeah, so I was 25. I felt like a winner. And I was looking to figure my next move in life. It was a fork in the road. Where do I go work? What do I do? Do I start another business? I had low confidence because I just shot a business. And people around me were just like, maybe it's time to get a job type of thing. And I'll never forget my sister and brother-in-law approached me and they're like, yo. It was Leslie and Nick. Leslie and Nick.

11:28I love them dearly. And they approached me. They're like, yo, we want you to join us on this crazy journey that we're about to go on to build a, you know, better for you chocolate bar company at the time. And we're making this snack for about a year and a half, two years now. It's ready to go. It's ready to rock. And we need you to come blow it up. You are one of the best storytellers, noisemakers. We'll be good operators. So Leslie and Nick, back in 2018. Yep. Are making the, and it's midday squares. Yeah, at home. They're making in the kitchen. Yeah, it was a version of what we do today. and my sister was literally just making it for my brother-in-law to take for his afternoon because he loved chocolate and dark chocolate and she made him something that was just clean that he could take and that he thoroughly enjoyed it.

12:09So where was he taking it? He was working in software at the time. So what, they had no snacks at the software place? They had to make chocolate? He wanted better snacks. He wanted better. I'll tell you, the machine at the office isn't good enough for you. He wanted something better and what's wild is she came from fashion. He came from software and I came from from who knows what fitness outdoor boot camps, the whole nine yards. And and then, you know, they asked me, do you want to join? And I said, you know what? I think I got one more go at entrepreneurship. So I joined forces with them. The three of us came together.

12:40We launched this product August 4th of 2018. And the idea was when they were making it, when Leslie and Nick were made, they didn't have a name. It was just like Leslie special treat for Nick. It was originally that. And then they figured out it should be called midday squares because it was a midday snack and it was square formatted. That's all it was. It was really just your midday 2 p.m. snack after lunch that carries you through your afternoon. And squares are very different than the rectangular bars. Right. So it already sets yourself out. So, yeah, I see. I see you make you making love to it.

13:09Smell it. It smells good. It's chocolate. But anyway, so we made it in a condo kitchen. I'll never forget this. You know, their condo was, you know, we had a table. We turned their den into a shipping, a shipping room. and we would make bars from 5 a.m. every single day till 5 p.m. by hand. Everything was done by hand. We literally had tendonitis in our elbows and shoulders because we'd mix the dough. It was very hard. And then from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., we'd actually deliver products to the customer, hand deliver them to meet them because we couldn't afford shipping. And we just did that rinse and repeat.

13:40And as we were doing it, we were documenting the entire journey, showing everything like the The drama, the hype, the momentum. And yes, and that is the midday love. And long story short, it's been now seven years or so, and we're still going hard and we're still family. We made a lot more new products now, and we want to be the one day, the most trusted afternoon snack and the better for you space in the world. All right, let's jump into it. This is amazing. We're going to get to Leslie and Nick in a second. Forbes 30 under 30. 2023, though. I don't care. No, don't, don't. We don't get, you know, still.

14:19I mean, Jimmy, you ever been on the floor of 30 under 30? No. Crackley. Maybe we're about. He might have been qualifying. Maybe he's now 30. Maybe he's now, maybe he's over 30. 32. There you go. E.Y. Ernst & Young, Entrepreneur of the Year finalist. Twice. I can't even get it. They won't give me the award. Jimmy knows somebody. He'll make a few phone calls. Right? But just stay on after the show. He knows people. I'm like, Fast, you were named one of the fastest growing functional chocolate bars. Ever. Well, I had to be able, but still, right? Hopefully one day it will be ever. 126 ,000 Instagram followers.

14:56You have 28 ,000 followers personally. Could be even more now that you're on the show. Maybe it's up to 30 ,000, 35 ,000. I think it's going up. Check your phone right now. I'm telling you, Jake, you're probably more right now. It's on fire. 32 million views across TikTok, Instagram. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I got to tell you. so you are really crushing it right now right it's ups and downs but we're having fun i think are you on up mode right now because we're about to go enough i think this year's going to be an up i think we're going to get some serious momentum i think that we're launching new products we're we're coming in hot we're swinging we're going you know all gas no brakes right now i want to jump in um chatsy was highlighting some of the social media stats and followers you have across various platforms.

15:43And I think you mentioned while, you know, your sister and brother-in-law, let's say, were the creators of the product, you know, and you were approached to engage, you kind of felt the space was very crowded, but you realized that social media could be you and your company's secret weapon and a way to cut through all the noise. And how can you compete against the biggest players who have the ridiculous budgets? And you're like, you know what? We've been telling stories. You did it for your previous businesses and you could do that again. Fast forward today and you built an absolute content machine, Shati gave the number of 32 million views in a single year.

16:18Walk us through how you turned that initial instinct about social media being your secret weapon into a massive content operation. So 100%, Jimmy, what was interesting is when we started, my sister and brother, when they approached me, they said, you need to blow it up. I said to them, I don't care how good the product is. If no one knows what it is or you don't get attention of anybody, you're fucked. You're screwed, right? Because the world today, we live in an attention economy where people are scrolling through their phones. They're going through their computer. They're on the internet. They're looking for dopamine more and more and more, just the next thing, right?

16:51So I said to my partners, I showed them a deck. I literally showed them a slide deck. And there was two pages, I believe, or it was one page. I can't remember. But it was the Backstreet Boys and the Spice Girls on it. And I said to them, we are going to act like a boy or a girl band. But instead of selling records, we're going to sell chocolate. And they looked at me and said, what does that mean? I said, we are going to document and share our story. That way people become fans of us as humans, of what we're doing. And that will want them to support us and want to go to the store and be like, I know those people.

17:19I love those people. I want to support them and buy their product or I hate them. Can't stand them. I'm going to mess up their product. And what ended up happening was we just took the knowledge from Hollywood and artists and just applied it to the consumer world and just started documenting everything. And we showed drama. We showed therapy sessions. We showed the breakdowns. We showed milestones. And what that did was it made consumers feel close to us. That way we stood out from the 40 ,000 other products on the shelf. We didn't have to spend unlimited money on, you know, end caps or merchandising or all this stuff.

17:51We were able to get people to feel magnetic pull to our one product out of the 40 ,000 that was there and it shined bright to them. So the idea was just use storytelling as the forefront of the business and create great product that can get the repurchase. Because if you don't have great product, you're useless. Right. So you had the social media going. That got you the attention, right? So that got people taking phone calls. But I mean, you weren't, I mean, grocery store, nobody even talked to you. No, at the beginning, it was very hard. And we had one bagel shop, local bagel shop. He's not in business anymore.

18:22But the man saw our stories. Was that because he was buying your bars? No, no, no. I wish he was still in business. The guy was a legend. You know, his name's Jeremy. So shout out Jeremy if you're listening to this. Yeah, Jeremy. Love you, baby. But he took a chance. He was the first person to take a chance. that's in any business, the first person to really believe is something really critical for momentum. And he said, I'll take your product on consignment. I think it was consignment where you took one box. And what we did is we used all of our social media power at that time to sell it out as quick as we could.

18:48So people showed up. They sold it out within a couple hours. He's like, what the hell is going on? He ordered more. We did the same thing again. People started talking in Montreal. They're like, oh my God, this brand's hot. Next thing you know, we're in another local spot. We're in another local spot. The momentum's building. We're telling the story. case study after case study. And what happens is people love being part of a journey. They love watching hustle. They love watching people, you know, achieve things against odds. And what we did is we just utilize that and it ended up working in our, one of our first hires wasn't a food scientist or a food chemist.

19:20It was actually a videographer editor that could capture the content. And people thought we were out of our fucking minds. One of our first hires, we had no money. We were literally struggling. They're like, why the hell would you hire someone to create content when other things are so much more important in quotations. And I said to people, I said, you don't understand. We're living in a world where people are glued to their phones. If you can't capture it, you ain't selling your product. It doesn't matter if you have the best product in the world. And that was the moment I realized that content has to be at the forefront and values of this organization, not just at the marketing level, but at the sales level, at the finance level, at the quality and assurance level, at the manufacturing level, because we own our manufacturing.

20:01But let me tell you something. Manufacturing is one of the hardest things in the world. We are not just a manufacturing company. We're also a media company. So you're doing two different businesses under one roof, which makes it so complex. Very complex. I got to tell you, this is unbelievable. And today, you're in 9 ,500 stores? Yep. What makes it so what? I mean, I'm eating it. It's delicious. It is very good. How does it, like what makes this stand out? I mean, protein's the hottest thing going right now. My kids are like, they got to put, they got protein on everything. Everybody's got protein.

20:33But you guys were pushing fiber and protein quite a few years ago. Not a lot of companies were targeting the 2 p.m. crash. A lot of companies were targeting pre-post workouts or morning, you know, breakfast snacks. So that's, so the whole thing for you is like, you get to work and you're starting to lose your mojo. Have this. Instead of having a coffee, let's have something a little better. Boom. Or have it with the coffee. Like, let's get some protein. let's get some fiber it's a better snack and what so where's the pick me up is there a pick me up in this too like you're going the goal was not so much to energize boost you but to keep you full and keep you satisfied and that was a big one a lot of snacks are you know full of you know filler ingredients and things like that where you don't feel full should we be adding caffeine is that like a new idea that i just came up with and now i'm your partner yeah could you imagine we get requests all the time for caffeine um all the time but no cocoa had naturally has caffeine in it uh naturally dark chocolate.

21:29Yeah, chocolate's got caffeine. Yes. I mean, the ingredients are all delicious. I'm looking at it here. It looks unbelievable, right? Yeah. It's all organic. And then, yeah, and then the key to this whole business was, you know, we knew that there was a customer looking for these types of snacks that, you know, there was market data prior to this, that dark chocolate at the time when we started was growing like pretty fast year over year and that plant proteins at the time in 2018 were also growing year over year. So we just made a baby of these two categories. So people are like, oh, is this just a homemade snack?

21:59No, this was, yes, a homemade snack, but we also use data so we would have product market fit before having to make noise on the product in terms of storytelling and social media. So it was actually well thought through. It wasn't just guess and check. No, we're solving a problem for a lot of people at their offices or on the go at two o 'clock that need something to get them to dinner, but don't want something too much and don't want too much. And not junk food, right? Exactly. You nailed it. And something that's still tasty. And how many flavors you got now? Now you got the - We got five. We got five.

22:27You got the chocolate peanut butter. We got - Not peanut butter, Jimmy, the peanut butter. Peanut butter. We got cookie dough. We got the cookie dough. Cookie dough. And then we got brownie and almond. I want to talk about Hershey. And what could have been, what could have been a, maybe a lesson story has now proven to be a great relationship that you guys have with clearly one of the great chocolate companies in the world. And it's led to a lot of social media joy. it created a I mean a fun song that I gotta tell you we've been jamming to all day as we actually been waiting to play it but talk about the creation of the song I think that's fun one thing that we're really strong at is creativity right and you know when we were faced with some sort of you know uh you know let's say heart adversity at the time we decided instead of just you know being boring we decided to be loud which is what we were good at and what we did was we just created a music video in inspired of like a diss track but it wasn't really to put people down it was just good spirits to show we're bold and wild and crazy and fun and this is the energy of our brand and what it did was just amp people up it got people excited because you know the three of us don't sing we had to learn how to sing we had to actually create a music video which is really hard to do but the singing yeah well we had we did do the singing but it was you and leslie and nick we we had to learn how to sing and it was just a really cool moment in time, you know, it was, it was a moment where, you know, you're faced with adversity and you're usually have two options.

23:51You could either do, do nothing or have fun or something else. And we chose to have fun. And the fun is what the world wants, to be honest with you. People love joy. They love fun and they love energy. And, um, what we did was just made noise and, and it worked really well. And everyone loved it by the way, everyone respected it. And, uh, it was an ode to like, you know, when they used to do diss tracks in the nineties and the eighties. So it's just like, it was fun, you know, I thought I, when I listened to it, I heard great fun and I, and I I can't believe you guys, first of all, I can't believe you guys are the singers in it.

24:18That's awesome. I feel it brought, look, it made me smile as I thought, what a fun way to respond. And as I said, I think there's joy in what you guys created. And now that lives on. And clearly your fans, your customers really enjoyed what you did because it seemed to be feeding into your growth. Generally, storytelling is some of the most powerful tools that everyone has access to in this world, whether you are selling, you know, midday squares or you're selling plumbing services, you can tell your story. You know, your story is always one person away from your entire life changing. And I try to preach this more and more with university students and everyone is that, you know, you have access to the world today.

25:00You really do with the snap of a finger. And knowing that you have that access, why don't people, more people lean into that or more brands lean into that instead of just saying, hey, this is a chocolate bar with six grams of protein and four grams of fiber, that's really boring to anybody in the world. But if I start showing you a therapy session - Not to me, Jake. If I start showing you a B-roll of a therapy session of my partners and I talking through a really crazy concept that we're doing, a big decision we're about to make, and you see the behind the scenes and then the decision being made, and you see that whole process, you start to be, your antennas go on, your brain starts to release chemicals of oxytocin where you're like, you have trust and empathy and relatability for us, which makes you Now, not just a transactional customer, but a fan that's willing to go help us buy our products and tell people about it.

25:47So I would advise to anyone listening to this show, tell your story loud and proud because only you have control of your narrative. I love it. In terms of it's only you, right? So otherwise, somebody else is going to make a story about you. So for us at Midday Squares, what we love to do and empower ourselves is we document and we share. And, you know, we share the good and the bad. But at the end of the day, that is what sets us apart from a lot of brands out there because a lot of them are still scared to share their stories. So you guys, I mean, so it's like you said, you're a media company and a CPG company, right?

26:20We try. I mean, so you guys are making these delicious snacks that everyone's loving. You're in almost 10 ,000 stores making hundreds of millions of dollars, probably have fancy cars, probably got a Rolex on. I'll bet you. I'll bet you Jake's got a Rolex. Apple, Apple. You see, you see, Jimmy? Right there. There you go. You see? See, you know, he said Apple, but you heard, you heard Rolex. Well, it's a Rolex. Yeah. You know, yeah, he's got a Rolex, you know. You got your own podcast now, right? What's the podcast called? We had a podcast called Midday Squares Uncensored, and it was actually a really fascinating podcast.

26:55In the first two years. You said you had. What do you mean you had? We were doing it every week. And then as we built the business and scaled it, we actually had way less time to sit down. and you guys know how hard it is. Yeah, well, Jimmy and I have a lot of time. That's why we do a podcast every week. We got a lot of time. We got time. We got a lot of time. We got nothing but time. We might bring it back because what it was, it would show the behind the scenes of what it really looks like to build a CPG business, the good and the bad and like everything in between. And people loved it because we talked about bold things and it was fun.

27:26Was it you, Leslie and Nick on the podcast? Yeah, and we would just, it was our time when we'd sit together, the three of us as partners and we would talk about business. Like we never get those moments to just sit and have a good laugh, you know, or have a good moment of like a depth conversation other than making decisions based on our business. So this was a way to like not like it was like a it was like a therapy session, but live and people loved it and it was growing. And then we we stopped and we didn't stop our other media stuff. But that was one thing that got a podcast. It is a lot of work.

27:58And some people like, oh, start a podcast. it's it's it's not it's it's easy today to the barrier of entry of starting a podcast not very difficult but you know to actually continue doing it and put the time and energy it takes a lot but you guys are really big on social media and you found a real niche you said you found something that resonates and and like today like social media and food influencing is so big i mean people like literally get where they're gonna eat based on like food influencers telling them where they should go and try and things like that and i think it's a lot with cpg also like a lot of people get their new ideas of what's a new snack food or what's a new chocolate or what's a new this or a new that and they're they get it from influencers you got all these followers you're saying hey everybody check out midday square they believe you because look how good looking you are they're like you're like eat these midday squares and you're gonna look like jake the snake you know give me good you know right i have a mullet yeah he's a mullet you don't see that very you don't see that a lot, Jimmy.

28:55You don't see the mullet anymore. But it's like, so how are you leveraging others in this space, other influencers? Are you partnering with other folks, you know, and doing collabs? A hundred percent. So we work with a ton of creators across North America that are, you know, amazing and drive a ton of awareness and also direct sales for us, like revenue. So yeah, we find, you know, majority of our customers are, I would say, females between 25 and 50 years old. So we target... Wait, this is a very female... See, that's crazy to me. I never would have thought... Yeah, it's a more female product, female-dominated product in terms of our demographics.

29:31Why is that, do you think? Because Jimmy said he loves it. He's very masculine. Oh, thank you. You know, for us, you said it right. So food influencers and creators and individuals out there, they're really pushing our product. Our fans are actually developing more fans for us. So they go to the grocery stores and they actually fix our merchandise. They'll send us pictures. saying, we just fixed the shelf. They spent five minutes fixing the shelf. Could you imagine, you know, with the busy world that everyone's in and all this stuff that we have people going to stores across North America. Again, we're in 10 ,000 stores, around 10 ,000 stores, fixing our merchandise for our brand because they want us to win.

30:05That's the difference between a customer and a fan. And the way that we have that, that Delta, why we have that Delta is because we tell a story that's relatable to people. We tell a story that means something to somebody and that's been working for us. And when you look at budgets, you're right. We don't have a budget of some of these other great businesses out there. We have to get creative with our resources. Wait, wait, wait. Who's saying about budget? Jimmy, did you say budget? Jimmy said it before, earlier. You brought budget? I'm a finance guy. Oh yeah, all right. Jimmy's throwing budgets around now?

30:34That's all budgets. Look at Jimmy being all... I said, I made the comment that versus some of the competitors of MDS, they can't outspend them. They got MDS. Midday Squares. What are you, what, Jimmy just throwing out acronyms now? Yeah, it's a hot acronym. Are we allowed to call it MDS? Yeah, it's a hot name, MDS. It is? You know who's MDS? This guy, Michael David Shatzer. You don't get to own Shatzy and all of a sudden now claim MDS. Why can't I? That's my name. You're Shatzy. We've been using MDS for years. Look at this, Jake. You know what? You guys are prone to lawsuits. You're going to get to see some decision of my attorney right after this show.

31:14I'm telling you right now. I'll tell you guys this. is at the end of the day, I think that the winning brands going forward are going to be not just the ones who have the best product or services. It's going to be the ones who can get the attention the best. I think that's true. So wise. How old are you, Jay? He's 32. He's so wise at 32. But the truth is, is I think that what I find interesting about the world is it's not just about, so you can get attention. If you could just get attention, if you don't have a great product or you don't have product market fit for a certain market, you're too because they're not going to buy again.

31:46You might get an initial push that goes all the way to whatever dollars you want. But if you can't get them to rebuy, it's useless. It's more or less irrelevant, right? So I think at the end of the day, one thing is, is you now need more than ever product market fit and a great story. Before in the past, you just need a great product and you would just spend dollars on marketing. People would buy it, right? That has changed. You need both to succeed. Is there like a place where you see like, am I going to start going into like hotels and seeing this like in the, you know, like in the mini bars or in the, you know, in the lobbies where they sell things like, you know, like some of the, you know, you go into the convenience, you know, like stuff like that.

32:29And is it like, would restaurants, would like, would like restaurants start selling your stuff like QSR and fast casual? like you know qsr coffee shops yes uh and salad bars and juice bars like are you in starbucks like it seems like starbucks should have you i was gonna say how about we promote gregory's here where we've seen a huge up uptick in the last year is offices so offices have been ordering midday squares for their team uh you know all over north america we're seeing it in some of the biggest offices and it's it's a huge trial source so they're buying it to feed for free to their team and then their team season and they go buy it in the store you know for for their homes Yeah, we have snacks in our office.

33:07See what you do with MDS is it's like leveling up the snacks. Exactly. Showing your employees we care. We want you to have a better afternoon. We don't want you to eat just fill up on a hot food. We want your hot food to be hot. And I think that another big thing for us is going to be, again, coffee shops. We love that. It's like, again, people go, they need their 2 p.m. espresso or whatever it is. We can be a perfect pairing for that, right? And it's something that's clean and you feel good. And we're going to start going. But again, we're still in only 10 ,000 stores. Remember this, guys. That's a lot of stores, isn't it?

33:41But there's about 50 ,000 in North America that we can go into. So we have a long way to go. Just there's a lot of potential and there's a lot of work to be done. All right. So I'm going to take a quick break. OK, we have a quick break and don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with we got Jacques Carls, the founder and CEO, co-founder with Leslie and Nick. Midday Squares. It's a healthy treat, Jimmy. I like it. And delicious. It's very female-focused, but Jimmy and I seem to like it. Hot or not, the spice is right, and the brand of Quickfire. Don't miss, don't go away. We'll be right back with a lot more on Midday Squares as Jimmy likes to say.

34:21MDS, Michael David Shatsburg. Ah, sure of it. All right, here we go.

34:29All right, here we go. We're back. We're back. Jake, are you ready for a little hot or not? I'm hot right now. Alright, here we go. Jimmy, are you ready? I'm ready. Because you've got a little pond. I know. Alright, Jake, I'm going to ask you something. You just say, hot or not? Everything bagel seasoning on everything. Is everything bagel seasoning on everything? Not. Not. Not. Not. Pickle flavored products. Pickle flavored everything. Hot. Hot. TikTok or Instagram? What's hotter? Instagram. Truffle everything. Truffle everything. Hot. Is it retail or direct to consumer. What's hot right now?

35:03Retail. Is nostalgic childhood flavors making comebacks? Is that hot or not? Yes, hot. Very hot. Jimmy, he made funny faces. Jake made some weird faces. He lit up on that one. Lit up on that. Let's expand on that one. Yeah, yeah. What do you mean by that? Last in first out. Let's talk more about the nostalgic childhood flavors making a big comeback. Sorry, make it a run. Something's coming. Something's coming in early 26 that's nostalgic. Oh, is that like, what are you doing? Like Fruit Loops? I was going to go Cap 'n Crunch. Cap 'n Crunch? I mean, what did he hide? Cocoa berries. No, it's still a midday square, but it's nostalgic.

35:39No, like a midday square. You expand on that. S'mores. S'mores? S'mores. S'mores? I'll tell you this. I'll tell you this. There's no chocolate in our new innovation. There's no cocoa. It's s'mores sweet. It's something that we all had as kids, or a lot of us have had as kids growing up. and it's, I don't know, it's hot right now. It's so hot. All right. What do you think? So you're not going to tell us what it is? I can't. It's not out yet. Either way, I want to agree with you. I think there is something, I'm seeing it as well in terms of nostalgia and I think we all need some joy. I think you should take joy where you can find it and I think if you can come up with flavor profiles that make people think of a simpler time, that to me is good fun.

36:24I like it. It's so different for us And it's going to be a big test to Midday Squares if we could expand outside of a flavor profile into something else, which will allow our business to become the midday snacking business, not just the chocolate business. So Midday Squares, you want to own the midday snack. Yes, you nailed it. That's it. Dominate. How you do? You know what this is? Yes. All right, let's just go with a little. Here we go. Price is right. Chocolate showdown edition. Jake versus Jimmy. Okay. You're going to get the total price, closest without going over. Price is right. Rules are in effect.

36:59Go over. All right. And we're going to bring it to a chocolate edition, Max Brenner chocolate. The Max Brenner chocolate pizza serves two to three people. It's a warm chocolate fudge pizza crust. There's marshmallows, roasted hazelnuts, crushed Oreos with chocolate chunks on top. Okay. Drizzled with dark chocolate sauce and caramel. So it's this big chocolate pizza for two to three people. Okay. You get two scoops of vanilla ice cream. No, a side is two scoops of vanilla ice cream and a hot chocolate whipped cream. Okay, that is the chocolate pizza from Max Bradford. It's like a dessert course.

37:33Look at the face. Jake is just busted out of his body. Pizza, ice cream, and hot chocolate for two to three people. And he's supposed to guess the price of this? That's not a snack. That is a dessert course. Yeah. That's a lot. The trainer, the healthy trainer of Jake is like nauseous right now. Yeah. All right, so Jake, you take a guess. What was the price of something like this? Let me guess first. Oh, you guess first? Well, I'm trying to give Jake every chance to play here. I mean, I'm not sure that this is the right place. I'm seeing a dessert course, a pizza with a dessert pizza with ice cream and hot cocoa for three people.

38:11Two to three. Two to three people. I'm going$24.99. $24.99. Jake, what would you like to guess? I'm going to go$29.99. $29.99. I think Jake is closer, but I think Jake's over. How do you know? I'm guessing. Did you look at my... No, I knew nothing. I still think Jake is closer, but high. He's too high. Jake went over. Yes. $28. Jimmy, you win. Yes. I really got to be honest with you. I don't know that this was fair. I was going to go$9 a person for three people. I was going to go$27, and I went a little less. I was like, all right, that's a dessert course. Nine bucks a person. I'm going to say I'm a little disappointed in this Spice is Right.

38:51I think you're just disappointed because that's like the first time I've won in like six months. I'm happy for you, Jimmy. I'm happy that you won. Do I get a free dessert course at Max Benner's? Jake, a little quick fire here. What is your dream brand collaboration? Any brand. Who do you like to collaborate with Midday Squares with? I love Nike. Nike. Nike Midday Squares. because that's good because, Jimmy, it's got the whole health, wellness, wellness, right? I like that. Storytelling. Storytelling. Storytelling. Yeah. And then we could take a Midday Squares sneaker. You know? I've seen that.

39:30By the way, I think Nike literally could do some amazing things with MDS's colors. Yeah, I like these. I like these. I like the color schemes. Hey, look at this. We could make a whole sneaker. It could be hot, hot, hot, hot. That's hot. If you had to delete either Instagram or TikTok forever, who are you keeping? Which one are you keeping? TikTok or Instagram? I'm keeping Instagram. Instagram. Yeah, you love Instagram. I'm keeping it. Jake, what's your Uber rating? 4.9, I think. But do you think or do you know? Because Jimmy's a 4.86. 4.87. I've got rallied. I'm checking right now. I'm checking right now.

40:06Can you pull it up on your phone so we can verify and validate? 4.86. 4.86? 4.77. I've got higher than you. Yeah, well, that higher than me is very easy. You know, I got to be honest. I found out why I got... 4.87. That's a very good rating. Oh, shit. Jamie won. If I call an Uber and it says anything less than three minutes away, I cancel. That's why you have a 4.6. Let me ask you. When it comes to food fluencers, is there somebody that you or some Instagram person that you, like, love to follow? Is this something that you're, like, loving? I've been watching, he's a friend now, Bobby Parrish, Flav City.

40:49He has a lot of good stuff on, like, food and stuff, in my opinion. And he's done some good stuff with Midday Square, so I'm a fan. There we go, Bobby Parrish. Bobby Parrish. Way to go, Bobby. Three and a half million followers? Yeah, he's cool. I teach you what to buy at a grocery store. Is that who I should be following? Yeah, you should follow him. He's a rock star. So he tells you what to buy at a grocery store? Yeah, he's got some good insights, honestly. Like, I'm a fan of his. Grab a bag of protein and download my app. Wait, does he sell stuff? Yeah, he sells. He has his own brand now, too.

41:23I think it's called Flav City. Very smart guy. Oh, my God. Yeah, look at this guy. Aldi, Costco. Three and a half million followers. He's got more followers than you, Jake. Yeah, he's a rock star. He's been at it for a long time. He's been going. He's consistent. All right. Jake, listen, I want to thank you so much for joining us on the podcast and sharing the MDS, the Midday Square story. By the way, when you guys take over all Midday Snacks, guess what you don't have to change? Your acronym, you'll still just be MDS. Midday Snacks. MDS, baby. You'll still be MDS. Making chocolate bars from it, from making chocolate bars in a condo kitchen to disrupt in the$8 billion industry.

42:02This is good stuff you got going on. You've shown us that being a CPG founder, today means a content creator, a storyteller, a community builder, and yes, you're a freaking influencer. I think Shatsy already said, if you want to get in touch with Jake, you can go to MiddaySquares URL www.middaysquares Shatsy reminds me, I don't need to say www. You can only say MiddaySquare I think of Hollywood Squares. It's cool. Hollywood Squares is cool. But MDS is cooler. Sorry, Hollywood Squares, but you've been trumped. If you want to reach out to Jake, Shatsy already shared his Instagram account. You can also email the podcast team at brandedstrategic.com.

42:42We make the introduction. Jake, super excited to see an ICR. Shatsy, close us out, please. Alright, anyone listening, if you haven't tried Midday Squares, go out and find them. There are 9 ,500 stores, including Costco, Target, Whole Foods. And if you haven't subscribed to our newsletter, the Hospitial Headline, I highly recommend it because we will have all sorts of special features on there. Cheers, everybody. Cheers, everyone. Thank you. Appreciate y 'all.

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