Brand Builder

In honor of National Ice Cream Day, we're talking to Dream Pops CEO and Co-Founder David Greenfeld. Dream Pops is a plant-based frozen dessert, packed with superfoods, but made without dairy, gluten and soy. Its innovative shape and consistency make it remarkably snackable (which we love), and with a 3-star Michelin chef concocting the flavors, it's downright delicious.

It’s summer, and hopefully for you that means spending some time in the great outdoors. And whether you're hiking, camping, or glamping, we've found a new must-add item to your outdoor gear checklist - Kuju Coffee.  This week, we have brothers and co-founders Jeff and Justin Wiguna of Kuju, a premium, single-serve pour over coffee brand. 

Life isn’t easy. Life isn’t perfect. But life is good. That’s the motto that has propelled Life is Good - the lifestyle clothing brand that celebrates optimism - from a $200 initial investment in 1989 to a $100M company today.

Today's media landscape moves at lightning speed. The PR tactics you used 18 or even 12 months ago just aren’t as effective today. Each year you have throw out your playbook and start fresh.  This week’s guest is Sabina Gault, the CEO of Konnect Agency. She's here to tell you how to design campaigns that succeed in today’s media landscape, and how to continually evolve your approach, so that you can make PR work for you without wasting time and money.

Building a brand isn’t just about the tactical and strategic. It’s also about the abstract and esoteric. Things like leadership, culture, personal development, even psychology - they all play a part, and they can all be difference-makers. That’s why we’re bringing you this live conversation with Ryan Holiday, a bestselling author, media strategist, and the former marketing director of American Apparel.

Dave Gerhardt, the VP of Marketing at Drift, shares his unique approach to marketing, and explains how to grow your business from $1M to $10M in just 12 months. 

Kurt Seidensticker thought he was building a paleo running company. Turns out he was building a billion dollar beauty brand. We talked to Kurt about his unconventional path to entrepreneurship (he spent his early career teaching astronauts to fly the space shuttle), his successful influencer marketing strategies, and why #wesprint is his team’s internal motto.

There's a "hidden cost" to menstruation - 86% of women have had their period at work and didn't have access to menstrual products. 64% of women have left work for that reason. School attendance for young girls decreases by 2.4% among young girls who don't have access to menstrual products. To Claire, these stats are unacceptable. What's worse, they all stem from one fact about how our society deals with menstruation - We don't talk about it. Meet the woman who wants to change that.

Ask yourself - as a leader, are you coming from a place of fear and uncertainty? Do you look for fault and blame in others, cling to an opinion and fixed worldview, and believe in scarcity over abundance? Or are you open to outside interpretations, curious about the world around you, and committed to learning more about yourself and those around you? In other words, are you leading below or above the line?

This week we’ve got Daina Trout, the CEO and co-founder of Health-Ade Kombucha. One of the most fascinating things about the Health-Ade story is that they’ve successfully scaled the small batch, artisanal production that makes for great kombucha. It’s pretty crazy - they are the fastest growing company in all of refrigerated beverage, yet they still brew in 2.5 gallon glass jars. (They just have 250,000 of them.)

“What we’re going after is almost once in a generation.” Dosist CEO Gunner Winston has big plans for the brand. What really drives dosist is a strong brand identity, one that elevates benefits over features, taps into customer aspirations, and has more in common with Nike, Apple, and Starbucks than your typical cannabis company.

We’ve interviewed a lot of great jerky brands on Brand Builder: Country Archer, Field Trip, Chomps, all progressive brands who have helped people  see the category in a whole new light. But every single one of these brands give props to one brand that did it first and paved the way for the rest - KRAVE. So of course, we’ve been dying to get Jon Sebastiani, the founder of KRAVE jerky on the podcast for a while now. The wait is over, as Jon joins us for this interview.

To celebrate our 100th episode, we're launching The Brand Builder Playbook, featuring advanced tips to help you skyrocket sales, grow your brand, and become a household name. Listen to the episode, and then download the free Brand Builder Playbook for more in-depth details plus two exclusive bonus tactics. www.snacknation.com/playbook 

This week on Brand Builder we have a conversation about how to get close to the customer, and why that’s so important. It all stems from the idea of infinite supply - that in the era of nearly infinite consumer choice, the way consumer brands innovate has to change if they want to survive. 

There are things you’re doing right now that are hurting your business. It’s ok. You’re not the only one. It can be hard to keep up in the constantly shifting landscape of social media platforms, direct to consumer retail channels, marketing best practices, and latest and greatest growth hacks. Luckily, we've got a marketing expert to help you identify and avoid these mistakes. Joining us is Erik Huberman, the founder and CEO of Hawke Media.