#61 - Poppy Dionian Smith & Maja Turner - FATSO [NAM & Brand & Content Manager]

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1:27hello and welcome back to the founders today i'm joined by the wonderful poppy and maya from fatso so ladies if you'd like to tell everyone how long you have been there and what your role is in the business please so poppy starting with yourself okay hello um my name is poppy obviously from fatso i am our national account manager so i look after the majority of the stockists in the uk from all things wholesale, retail and a lot of different things. It's in a startup world it often is and I've been there for over a year and a half now. My name's Maya so I'm the brand and content manager at FATSO.

2:00So I manage all things collaborations, social activations, partnerships and all. It's quite an all-round role to be honest. Me and Poppy started pretty much at the same time so about just over a year and a half now. Yeah and how big is the team now? So you both joined was it employee one two like what's the the setup of the business like how how big is it now and when you first joined we're actually a team of five and when we joined we were kind of phasing out um we aren't the first round of like founding team but I would say for now we've actually seen a lot of growth so we are employees I think we were like three and four but generally speaking now we're kind of one and two because we're like the second round and we've now just grown to five we were four for the majority of this year amazing and if anyone hasn't heard of fatso what is it who the founders like how did it come about like who wants to do set i mean it sounds like this one for maya so uh yeah give us the brand story like what's the background yeah um so uh the founder is ella mckay so she's she founded the company based on the fact that dark chocolate is all around quite posh quite dull um doesn't have much character so she wanted to create a brand that has you know it doesn't take dark chocolate too seriously and just brings the fun to that side of chocolate.

3:15So we're all about fun inclusion. So we've got like salted pretzel, almond, honeycomb. We've got sweet tart, which is our cherry almond shortbread. And we've just brought out a new flavor called Drunken Monkey, which is banana chips, salted cracker and spiced rum. It's absolutely delicious. But yeah, so we're all about kind of keeping that premium side of chocolate, but you know, bringing bring the fun side of it we're super ethical so i'm sure poppy you can give some background on all the ethical ethical parts of the business um so yeah for us it's all about having that sustainability and ethics at the heart of what we do and we work with one supplier out in columbia called luca they're a hundred year old family-run business it's sort of selling the ceremonial side to cacao and obviously over the years have kind of grown and expanded into being a massive um exporter um for chocolate so yeah we work with them solely they have something called the chocolate dream which we directly contribute to as part of fat so but i don't know if you want to get into the ethics now we can i'm sure it will come up yeah let's let's do it like i think it's it's so important like you said i think chocolate and food i mean it seems like we go through these phases of everyone going like oh everything needs to be super healthy everything's ultra processed like it's like well sometimes you just want a good quality like yeah chocolate you want good chocolate and that you can do the business part better but actually like not everything needs to be high protein low fat low like it's like just give me some actual chocolate exactly we was actually having a quite a big discussion over this in the office a bit of a politics chat over this because there's so many like healthy chocolate brands now like not even just chocolate brands but you know like the candy and like it's all oh it's really low carb high high in protein low in sugar but then you look at the back of the pack and it's got like all these horrible e-numbers and preservatives and stuff that you like people just assume it's healthy So you may as well have a big chunky bar of like actually good quality chocolate that's good for your brain.

5:10And I mean, you can actually enjoy it rather than eating this weird fudgy, airy chocolate, you know. Yeah. And like I said, Poppy, so from the ethical side as well, I'd love to understand that because it's such a core part of supporting the right businesses and voting with your money to support that. Tony's are known for Open Chain and what they've done there. but obviously with you guys working direct with this one producer Luca and the family I'd love to understand that side because I think it's so important in chocolate because it's one of these industries where there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes in the wider business no so it's exactly that so for us it was all about being able to have integrity when it comes to our supply chain so Luca I think they're fourth gen now and they basically work across six growing like cacao growing regions of Colombia and for them they have like this whole scheme where it's like they encourage different farmers to do their process and practice to learn how to grow all of the cacao in a way that is better for more regenerative and really support the like growing communities around it and they have a three-pronged socio-economic and environmental approach to like how they interact with different farmers so basically to be a lucro farmer you have to do all of their training um and then they guarantee that basically they'll always purchase cacao from their from those farms once they've done it so with cacao obviously there's a bit of an issue where like with any commodity right when you're growing it there's not always the chance that someone will actually buy it if it's bad season if it doesn't like perform and one of the problems is then obviously they're left with all of this that they can't sell and that's their livelihood um i think it's a larger conversation about farming in general but with cacao it's obviously the same so whereas a lot of different companies will use different purchasing groups across like africa or America depending on like obviously where you're growing it or where you're buying it from our commitment to lucre means that we can directly see the impact of what we're doing with our money and we know that there's no malpractice involved in our supply chain they're slave and child labor free and you can look into them and I would encourage anyone that's like slightly nerdy about chocolate and supply chains to actually go and have a look because the level of visibility that they have from their farmers is unlike anything I've ever seen and I come from a coffee background so I like for some reason I really like commodities apparently um and it was really inspiring to see how seriously they take what they do um and how from the people the planet and the environment side they're all really switched on and it's just it's just nice to be able to say that we don't have to compromise on anything when we're buying chocolate um you know that they're being paid fairly you know that we're supporting their livelihoods and it's a part of something a lot bigger with us but it also is that the quality is there as well it's not like you're having pants chocolate because of that yeah no i think like you said with with coffee with um like the specificity around oh it's grown in this region this temperature by this farmer and all of that and i mean citizens of soil do it with olive oil and their sourcing it's like yep these are the growers and all that i think it's so important and customers like myself and obviously sounds like you too um it's really important when you're buying things to have that kind of story and it's actually it's really nice to know who you're supporting rather than like the big machine or the big industry but how did you two first come across fatso obviously i'm sure it's slightly different stories but um yeah what was it about fatso when you saw the opportunity or how did you end up getting this role because yeah i mean it's such a cool looking brand like if anyone listening has not seen the brand yet like go and check it out because it's amazing but yeah i'd love to know your story about how you got into the business we all know that brand is important right but what if i told you it can impact growth and customer acquisition costs by up to 50 percent against ordinary are a brand agency who help founders marketing departments scaling teams ensure their brand is the most powerful tool for growth from brand strategy tone of voice and visual identity to helping you get retail ready with ongoing brand growth retainers they really are the full circle agency for growing your brand being the team are absolutely fantastic just imagine what they could do for your brand so what are you waiting for see how they can be your grand growth partners at against ordinary.com yeah um so i mean i'm i'm quite a massive foodie myself i i actually started off founding my own company a few years ago called cocktail party and it was essentially a uh kind of at-home bar service so you do lots of house parties and create bespoke cocktails for the parties and stuff so i'd already had quite a bit of a passion for that kind of food industry.

9:30So I'd always loved it. And I love cooking at home and whatnot. So I went to uni, studied marketing. And yeah, I wanted to be in the startup environment that kind of allowed me to experiment with social activations and just be a bit more disruptive, because I think there's so many companies now, they're so stuck in their old ways. And if you want to work in marketing, you have to be with a company that want to try new things and also has a great product and I think the thing is with Fatso is it's such an aesthetically pleasing brand it's not just the actual product itself that is so tasty and obviously obviously amazingly ethical you have that appeal of the look which makes my job so you know I mean wouldn't say easy but it makes it a lot easier when you have a great product and it looks great yeah I love that that actually finding the job itself did you approach the brand was there did you see the advertise like how did you get into the business itself?

10:25Yeah so I'd actually seen it before in Liberties for the first time and tried it there but I actually got approached I got approached by a recruitment company and I was like this is perfect it's kind of exactly what I was looking for and I'd I'd been in I kind of gone through a few different types of businesses before like retail bit of what like marketing for recruitment companies and I just wanted to get back into food so um as soon as i got approached by this company i was like it's perfect no i love it and how about yourself poppy like what was your um your route into fat so like what did you did you again see it and go or you approach that what was your route in i so i came out of university and wanted to do like a massive i wanted to do the classic kind of like sales-based grad scheme my degree was very theoretical i studied social sciences and a lot within that kind of studied a lot about environmental policy and csr so for me i've always been very sold on the idea of working for a brand that is like it's in terms of what's important to me in the workplace is working for a brand that I believe truly cares and like wants to build something that's not just a good product but also has that kind of background to it and it's something that I could be really proud to be a part of but I knew that at 21 22 when I graduated that I maybe wasn't going to walk into a job in that sort of sector straight away so I wanted to go and build like my kind of corporate knowledge after especially studying business for so long I wanted to take everything I'd learned and applied it so went into a really big like food tech and vending company did like a grad scheme in sales there but I worked in wholesale because I am also a food and drink lover and a very nerdy about it so I worked with the like they had their own roastery so I used to sell it's a bit odd and it's very niche but I used to sell coffee all about like health and well-being of staff to like big corporate accounts and like companies across the UK that the food and tech vending side would also work on so like out of my grad scheme I was the only one that worked with like the product side and after doing that for I progressed quite quickly there for a couple different reasons but I kind of fell into managing some of the bigger accounts so I got quite fast tracked a little bit which I'm grateful for but it meant that I'd kind of felt like I'd learned all I could from that position and was kind of looking for a new job and got approached actually by the same recruitment company that I think found my as well but different recruiters and she was like I initially looked at and I was like fatso it's immediately piqued my interest because being the food and drink now that I am I was surprised I hadn't heard of it before so I immediately ordered like the range to my flat and my flatmate and I sat there and we ate the chocolate we did like a tasting of it and I was like immediately just bought in I was like I think this is brilliant the recruiter was like have a word with the founder Ella and I remember hopping on a team's call with Ella and just thinking like I have a lot to learn from her and I thought that actually this sounds like something I want to be a part of and I'm early enough in where I get to have like I get to witness a business hopefully grow and hopefully when we smash it Maya in fact there will be a household name that everyone knows and I'll be like wow I got to be a part of that so yeah I found I kind of fell into it and it was the best like I'm so grateful that that was the case because I'm loving it I think I think we're very very lucky in the sense that we've come in at this point because it's on that cusp now of whatever we do now to you know push it we'll be the people to to be part of that so yeah very lucky and you you were saying uh before we kicked off that um being a team of five you're four females and uh one new one guy in there now so uh how's it been working with bella as a founder and that that experience there and building the team because obviously you've been there over a year now i imagine it's been a a lot of trial and error lots of getting things right like what's what's your year been like it's been I would say stressful but in all the right ways of stressful you know there's been so much going on and so many new things and I think working with Ella we're very lucky to have such a small team where we can work so closely with her um so kind of you know any sort of question that we have or any query that we have she's she's always there do you know I mean so we're lucky to be so close-knit with her but it's been it's been it's been a year I would say that probably hasn't it we've had we've had so many exciting new um great MPD coming that we've been working on um new trade shows we've been doing um and just overall trying lots of new things um which again is something that um Ella's really kind of open to is experimenting with different things so yeah I definitely agree I think it's been so refreshing to be a part of a team that's like the energy in the office is is just always really good whenever we sit down and have meetings we're all laughing we're all enjoying it I think we're all so we all care so much about FATSO that it's just such a good environment because we know that we're all still like super aligned on the journey of wanting to make this happen and Ella is great to work with in terms of like founders because I think sometimes with founder-led companies there's always that like hesitation because obviously it's their child but to be honest between Ma and I we definitely think of FATSO as our kind of child as well like I know that when we're seeing it and And when we're thinking about it, we all have that kind of ownership, I guess.

15:34We all take it like when it comes to deals and when it comes to things we're working on. We're all very involved. So it's just it's really good. Yeah, no, I love that. I think as well, when you're such a small team, and especially if it's like a solo founder business, there's a lot of trust in employees. And that's essentially why the unfounders became a thing. It's like to build out the business itself. Ella can't do everything. So she needs to find people like yourself who are clearly passionate about it, live and breathe the brand. And so imagine what does a typical week or month look like?

16:03No, literally every single day is all over the place. But yeah, obviously two very different roles, but it sounds like everyone's kind of involved in different things. So Poppy, in terms of customers, when you're speaking to new customers, firstly, where can people find the brand and find the products if they want to get hold of it? So our bread and butter that we've kind of built over the last three years is like independent retail. so your farm shops delis coffee shops um anywhere that you'd think that people that run the business will care about what they put on the shelf that's like kind of hopefully where you should find fat so if i've done my job well um we're obviously in the premium retail side so like your liberties and your morley's and some hospitality now as well so hopefully in room um in some really lovely hotels which we're like a couple we've got coming up hopefully there'll be more there but for us that's been like a really good one as well like in mini bars as in-room amenities like a guest um there's a hotel in oxford called the store that when you walk in as you go into the room you get a bar of our morning glory on the pillow which is a really nice touch um but yeah not grocery we're not quite that mainstream yet um but for us it's been building those like special relationships because for us we're a business of people and the kind of like customers that we do have its businesses where they care so yeah they can find it we're over 300 stock is strong now um so our distribution is growing and for you like a typical week is it i guess speaking to your current customers finding new customers like what would a kind of a typical week look like like what's this week been like for you this week i've been it's been quite like an office and outreach week so i'll be there like seeing if i can book meetings with different hotels um from where now i now have a team member jimmy um who's been super great because obviously i think you can probably imagine and if you've done it yourself for so long on your own um looking after 300 different accounts that have a like difference in um like sell-through and difference in like the actual value of the account it's quite hard to manage especially when you just have so many and logistically we do all of the logistics as well so I'm also order processing making sure deliveries are getting there on time like it's a lot so this week I was in the office mainly doing a lot of logistical um and some like forecasting because we're at that time of year now but i'll either i try we are like core office days are tuesday wednesday thursday so we try and like align on those for me i might be out and about in central london um or using a zip car and going out and visiting our stockist further like slightly further afield because i'm we're all based in london so yeah it it honestly depends next week i'm away so it was also prepping for some annual leave which always feels a bit like but yeah yeah yeah i think everyone listening will know that feeling of like I've got all this to do but I'm also away next week so I've got even more to do yeah but how about yourself Maya so what's a like a typical week look like for you from the brand and marketing side typical week I mean it does change because especially when you have like different occasions coming up obviously you have we're having the big Christmas push now this is like these next two weeks are gonna be pretty hectic but I mean it does vary like I say I mean some weeks will be more focused towards influencer outreach trying to find different brands to partner with or collaborate with in some ways or some weeks could be more focused towards like photography shooting this week I would say it's been I was really quite struck with that horrible flu last week um so we had a couple of days out and then Ella was also away so it was like double double whammy of work so it was quite hectic um so it's been it's been a lot of a lot of backlog work and and um we we did a really cool shoot last week with Notes the coffee brand yeah So we're doing a bit of like an introduction to us being in the store.

19:42So I've been editing some content. We did a pretty cool shoot last week. But yeah, it definitely varies. I forgot to say that we do a lot of samplings. So like normally once or twice a week, I'll be handing out chocolate to the people depending. So like this afternoon, I'm off to Hackney to go and give out some chocolate at our lovely stockist Hackney Essentials, which is on Columbia Road. So yeah, from four to six, I'll be handing out chocolate. That's amazing. I think it shows how varied, especially as a small team, you do just end up like doing more than your job title. I've always said like when you're an unfounder in particular, it's like everything you live and breathe with the brand.

20:15It's like you'll do whatever you can to help it succeed. And we haven't really touched on it yet, but the name must be quite a good conversation opener. Like obviously, Poppy, you said you saw it. You're like, oh, never heard of that. You get drawn in and think about chocolate, think about like what you can and can't say. Think about all these like different things. yeah actually having the brand called fatso it's such a good like hook from the off um like i'd love to touch on that side when the brand obviously with ella creating it like what what was the vision for the for the name and the is there is there much pushback from customers or retailers so do you know what i'd be lying if i said when i joined i didn't think it was going to be a problem because obviously it incites that kind of conversation but it's not as much of a problem as you think and i feel like people are really surprised because I think actually some people be like oh I understand it so great but other people like there is like obviously a little bit they're like oh god that's outrageous like you need to change the name and some people when I'm sampling especially they'll be like fatso but for us it's all about like an ethos so for us fatso is kind of like live it we define it as living life to its fullest and celebrating more of what matters it's that approach that we want and like change the connotation of fatso would you say that's fair Maya?

21:23Yeah, I would say so. Yeah, it's all about living life from a full. And I mean, I was the same when I started. I was like, oh, but it's eye catching. I think in the marketing sense, we see it as like, oh, someone's going to see that and be like, what does that mean? Why are they calling themselves that? Or like, you know, it stops people's attention. So I think I would say maybe more of a positive aspect for me because, you know, you want people to stop and look. But I think yeah sometimes it is it is a worry that the more big corporate companies they're probably not want to like go ahead because they think people might see it as something disrespectful or rude or you know but it's like we're trying to change the way that people look at that people should be indulging I mean on the right things and the right food so yeah we say life's serious enough like chocolate doesn't need to be too and I just think that we're also quite certain in the idea that if people really have a problem with it they're probably not our target audience and fatso does polarize but hopefully it resonates with the right people um and i think that's something about trying to build like a household name and trying to build something that's a bit different people will love it or they'll hate it and that's kind of the point yeah it's that it's that balance like you get the people the people who really get it and believe in it and then try and go wow it's amazing see the brand story see the history see the like sourcing all of that it's like oh like you buy into it even more and it's like you then they'll tell their friends they're like yeah fatso have you had some they're like what what do you call me yeah it's like all those kind of moments yeah but then when you actually see the bars as well that you're saying about working with certain customers like I'm near Southampton and in Winchester there's an amazing place called Open House Deli and they've got it on the counter there and again it's such a good selection like the brands from the olive oils to the bold beans to like whatever else they've got it's such an amazing deli selection and I remembered like just walking past it on the counter and you can't not pick it up like you have to see it and go wow what is this like from the name from the branding it's so visual and then it is just a thick chunky bar so i mean yeah yeah it's very clever a different a different type of product i think also because the brand has so much personality in its actual brand name but also in each character of flavor it's it's very easily giftable to like different people in your life because people might buy it being like oh i'm gonna give this and you know it's like because of the name it's fatso or people might gift it because the name's sweet tart or you got home run or King's Ransom you know there's like so many different characters that you can link to different people you know yeah I think Morning Glory in the hotel definitely is like yeah like yeah it's a good one it's brilliant and for me that was always like that was always my favorite one as well up until Drunken Monkey um but yeah I think people hopefully the name grabs them but they stay because it genuinely does taste really good um so yeah that's what I like taking things right the way back like we've kind of touched on your your working journey to to where you are when you were when you were growing up when you're going through school college uni like whatever your your route in education was when you were really young what was the thing you were like when I grow up I want to be doing this because I can't imagine Evie really like I'm going to work for a chocolate company called fat so like so yeah I don't know Maya if you want to take that one first but what did you think you were going to be when you were younger oh I mean I don't know I was watching like Legally Blonde thinking I was going to be a lawyer in a pink suit that is the least thing I would want to do now.

24:38I mean, I actually grew up cooking a lot with my grandma and always loved cooking and being around food and trying new things. I'd be like, if they ever gave me the kids menu at a restaurant, I'd be like, no, I want the adult menu and I want something fancy, you know? So I'd always love that kind of trying new types of combinations of food and all that sort of stuff. So I always kind of wanted to get into something foodie. I wasn't sure if I wanted to be a chef, but I liked the idea of kind of taking photos of food I'm always that person in a restaurant like oh I gotta get a nice picture you know so I guess there's a lot of links there as to kind of how I how I got here yeah love that how about you Poppy funnily you said about Legally Blonde I always kind of wanted I think I always be an actor but specifically in some kind of like police like you know like I would watch like all of the police films or like police series or like suits and kind of just be like yeah I want to be an actor but specifically in some kind of weird a tv show and that obviously kind of changed as I got older I always thought I was going to go down the art route that was my plan up until I ended up getting into my uni degree and then I decided actually I think I'd rather do something a little bit more practical but yeah just I never I always wanted to be a part of a business that was that kind of ethnic sustainability focus that was my goal as of like adult dreams but yeah when I was a kid it was always an actor and then in your kind of journey and your career learnings up to where you are now is there any kind of moments working with previous employers or um I mean even my like doing your own business I always say like starting a business was the best thing I ever did closing it was the second best thing I ever did like I learned so much in their time there's so much I look back on and go wow I did so many things wrong but I would do it all again because it's got me to where I am now I've learned so much you've fumbled your way through so I don't know if there's any lessons or learnings that you're you've kind of kept with you I think I always I needed some sort of experience marketing wise because I actually set up when I was in uni with my ex-partner.

26:32And then I realized that actually that kind of cocktail side of things wasn't really my passion. And I think I was very lucky in the sense that I had, I got to manage that whole marketing side, literally from a business being nothing to something. So I got to, you know, set up all the social profiles, start doing, you know, social ads and whatnot that I'd never even dreamt of doing at that level. So I think it gave me a big step up in terms of like finding work. And I think this job was probably the most, you know, that means the most to getting this job. Whereas my other jobs were kind of, you know, in like retail and like I said, like recruitment, which wasn't really relevant.

27:10It's definitely, it definitely stirred my brain to wanting to be in this industry for sure. And Poppy, for you working with various employers or kind of stepping into sales, was there anything that you've gone, oh, that was actually really helpful learning and lesson, like I've taken that with me into here? I would say that the biggest lesson in regards to work that I've ever learned was probably actually from my dad. I watched my dad do what he had to do and like not love his job. He got dropped off there at 15 and worked there until like he ended up buying his way into business and then running it solely for like 40 years.

27:46But he hated what he did. And he was always super passionate. and I'm really lucky that he's always kind of said to me that he wants me to be able to do something I love and something I'm proud and like wake up every day wanting to do and he never wanted any of us because I'm one of three um but he never wanted any of us to kind of do something we didn't love so I've kind of always had this idea of like I want to make sure that what I'm doing I'm proud of and like love and that's kind of guided me I think to the point where then I'm a part of FATSO because I'm really fortunate to say now that I do really love what I do and my other job I think I learn about being part of like a team and how much the people you work with really do make a difference in the day-to-day um and not to underestimate that as well so that's probably another thing I've learned is that like the people around you in the world of work are equally as important as like how you turn up because I think if you're around people that are inspiring and that you're learning from you're only gonna grow so yeah I try and like I'm super lucky that everyone I work with are fun so it's great and now having a an employee I guess are you now have you moved to managing them are you are you working with them like how's that been for you is this the first time in that position or is this something that you've done previously it's kind of like a soft launch of management because I am not a manager in like terms of people but I've kind of from where I've been with the business now for a long period of time I'm kind of more responsible for the strategy and I think my development will be going into that kind of management role and I've always wanted to manage people and my kind of development will be along the sales and hopefully into like that person management of a team so I can't wait till Fatso's grown up where I get to have like my own team and be able to like sort of watch them all grow fat so as well like something I've also learned from my I had a very good first manager that I'm super lucky to have had because I know that management can be quite difficult but he installed some really good lessons about management and like how to work with others so yeah hopefully I get to use that and be a good manager because I feel like what is it managers are more responsible for your mental health than most other things in life so obviously you spend so much of your time at work so yeah a good manager can make a real difference yeah no absolutely like i've can look back on some of my jobs even let's say like nando's when i was there like many many years ago um still one of the best managers i've ever worked for and obviously with with pact it's the same thing now like i absolutely am bought into what we're doing and at the same stage as like you i'm going to be needing to hiring a sales team very soon so i'm going to be taking that level of like right i need to to manage these people so i'm always very very conscious of that but yeah i've done it in the past with restaurant side and had teams and love it but um it's just a a nice learning and experience to kind of build people together and go like you want them to succeed because you all want to succeed and it's a really nice feeling for fatso what are we looking at for for christmas is there anything you can tease is there any like activations content any bundles like what's what are we keeping an eye out for for christmas time because obviously you can't have christmas without chocolate yeah 100 % I mean we already do have a really lovely mini bar gift box where you get four of our lovely little bite-sized chocolates in there for kind of like a lovely I would say like an introduction to the brand so that we do definitely focus on that during Christmas but we do have two very exciting things coming but I can't share what it is but it is coming very soon you'll be seeing something very exciting towards the end of November um and something very exciting for Christmas too but unfortunately I can't share too many details I always try it I always I always try and then it's like oh I have to edit it out but no I love it I'll have to get it off there I'll be like tell me give me the yeah but yeah again for for Poppy is there any any other places like obviously you mentioned these great independents um D2C is that a big part of the business obviously you can you've got the online store yeah d2c and deli is a good one for us but to be honest the bulk of our business is b2b and at the moment so for us we're i've been told that i'm allowed to say that we're hopefully launching into the rosewood which is a really nice hotel um so we'll be in the room at the rosewood um and we've got a couple of other ones that we're moving forward with between now christmas so basically if anyone's listening between now christmas fat so hopefully we'll be in some really cool places so yeah it's one to watch for sure but it's like for christmas we're going into our season now so it's just really exciting it's like it's going to be a very busy q4 that sounds very salesy but yeah yeah i think we're we're kind of on that like we're in a crazy busy period now and then it will tail as we get nearer christmas and then january for us is january is our christmas like yeah everyone's like back to be healthy like i just need some fruit i need some vegetables it's like here you go have everything that must be really good for you yeah january it will be madness so i can't wait completely flipping this now let's talk about a tough day at the office when something didn't go to plan this can be a previous business if you don't disclose that fatso but otherwise it's just i think there's so much learning in when things go wrong and how you you pull together or how you get through it and uh in a startup something's always going wrong so uh yeah i don't know who wants to take that one first or if it's gonna be the same thing like no we both had to get involved in this one trying to think i mean i would say i wouldn't say there's been like one really specific bad thing but i would say in my time of the kind of like focusing and managing more campaigns and activations I would say there's been a few times where you put so much time and so much effort into one specific activation and it's just not landed and it's just no one's watched it and you're like my god hours and hours and hours of your time that you put into it and then you could do like some little whim um content and it just goes like that and you're like I spent so much time on this you know um but I'd say that happens a lot and again it's like the whole thing about experimenting it's kind of there is a lot of things that don't land and you kind of just have to take it on the chin and try again but yeah yeah um Poppy can you think of anything else it could have been could have been a previous role could have been an account you were excited about it didn't happen like this I feel like every day there's something that's like that didn't quite come off or there was a couple one I actually to To be honest, last week was a bit of a difficult week in the office because we were both poorly and we felt like probably it was quite bad.

33:45Like we'd had some news about like maybe activations of where we've launched into Stockist, maybe not performing as well from like the sales throughput. So it's always a bit disappointing when you think, oh yeah, this is going to go really well. And it's like in sales as well, you deal a lot with. Yeah, I think this deal is a sure bet. You've sold it, you put it in your pipeline and then it gets pulled last minute and you're like, great. and I think with startups it's so you have very high highs and really low lows because it moves so quickly so it's like one week I feel like the whole office is on the top of the world because we've had all of this really good news and we're like this is great but then for me in sales it's like oh if I've lost a deal I'm like I don't want to take away from like the general excitement in the office because there's so many different things going on um but yeah it's when you maybe don't get the listings that you want but it's like fortunately with us everything does move really quickly that it's like you don't really have time to sit in woe is me like I didn't get the deal I wanted because you've got to move on to the next thing because you've got like at the end of the day you've got to keep the lights on so it's like okay quickly what's next um so yeah it's just typical typical sales things but that's like as a part of this team there's so much more going on that like you don't really you have your time and then you kind of move on from it yeah no I think that's it it's the it's the expectation the hope the the excitement and the disappointment when something doesn't happen or when something like does happen and you're like oh it hasn't quite happen to the level I wanted like you said like the content piece I think every everyone working in content or brand will go yeah I know exactly what you mean like that one campaign you spent like weeks planning and done all of that and then you've done like a five second reel when it's blown up music question this is one I ask everyone you can have separate answers or there could be an office anthem but this is what is one track that really kind of represents you and your working experience that comes to mind when you think of it oh I don't know do you have one I've got to think for a sec the worst part is i really tried to think about this and i'm still stumped um what would describe my let's start with the office music like who who's in charge of the playlist who what what's the vibe in is it silence is it you're too busy doing calls and working something about that i think we all have such different vibes of music it's a good day when my is in charge but we have a sonos and it kind of has a mind of its own yeah it will suddenly You start playing something and we're like looking at each other like, who put this on?

36:01Whose taste is this? No judgment, but also judgment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We like a lot of like, kind of like gentle, like not R &B, but we like a nice beat in the office, I think. Ella loves Taylor Swift. So if Ella's in charge of the song or something. So do you? You love your Taylor Swift. Not quite to Ella's level though, but I'm partial to a bit of Taylor Swift. Who isn't? But yeah, is it like the Tom Misch vibe? Is it that? Oh yeah. yeah got a bit of use of days in there lots of neo-soul a little bit jazz a little bit of it always depends on the vibe i mean sometimes it's like you know really upbeat got a bit of house on but then it's like other days it's like everyone's just in their chill vibe yeah i feel like something like not nine to five maybe by dolly parton is that like a terrible idea as a suggestion for my we've had dolly parton we've got we've got queen we've got uh lots of like the classic kind of like yeah every kind of classic cliche businessy song you could think of they're all in there yeah i would i would say a good a good fleet with mac maybe dreams that's what that gets played a lot in our office and it's one of my favorite songs and i think because we do have that kind of like iconic retro vibe i feel like that goes quite well so yeah i can see that and it is a banger so yeah i think that's amazing and if people want to speak like find out more from you is linkedin the best place or email like where's the best place to contact you either if someone's listening go okay i've seen the brand now it looks amazing i want this where do i get it yeah well definitely hit up our instagram which is so.fatso but yeah you can also shop which is www.sofatso.com if you want to shop fatso but yeah if you want to get in touch with me directly yeah linkedin will probably be the best place yeah linkedin for me as well and if it's anything sales related it's a really good email it's poppy at sofatso.com so you can email me um that's absolutely fine anything sales related or just in general if you want to talk about chocolate always happy to have a chat yeah i'll put all your links in the in the show notes and everything but um yeah i think what what you're all building with that so is just it's brilliant like the brand looks stunning the chocolate's amazing i think it's very nice that you you are leaning into that like look if you want to indulge like indulge properly like do it in the right way because you've got not only is it a great looking brand and tasty chocolate but it's got the ethics and it's got all kind of the backstory behind it.

38:19So it ticks a lot of boxes, even though the name is polarizing and people are like, oh, can you even say that? So yeah, I think it's a really, really smart business and it sounds like everything's getting very exciting and growing. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, definitely. Thank you. Amazing. Well, yeah, I've absolutely loved this. Thank you so much for sharing. Thank you for having us. I had a great time. Yeah, it's the first of a podcast. This is the first of a podcast, isn't it? Yeah, no, it's great. And yeah, I'll put links to the website. If you're listening and you haven't tried Fats I've seen it like please go and check out right now because yeah the brand is stunning and you should be trying it thanks so much to everyone listening we will see you on the next episode goodbye