Plant-Based Profits Show

In the last decade, vegan cuisine has come a long way. The once-ubiquitous dry, packaged veggie burger is no longer the poster child for a vegan or vegetarian diet. It has grown into a sophisticated, innovative cuisine that has been praised by publications such as Food & Wine Magazine and many others. Today, our guest Dreena Burton, who has been at the forefront of vegan blogging and cooking for a long time, has been recognized for making healthy food taste delightful. Her cookbooks are the defining moments of almost fifteen years of recipe creation that bring wonders to your table – hearty, healthful eating that looks and tastes fantastic. Dreena Burton has been vegan for more than 25 years, during which time she has written five cookbooks reflecting her experience as a plant-powered chef and stay-at-home mom of three beautiful children. Burton pursued her true passion for authoring recipes and cookbooks after working in marketing management for several years. She had made appearances on television and radio and contributed to sites including KrisCarr, Forks Over Knives, Engine 2 Diet, and PCRM.  Dreena has also written for Yoga Journal, VegNews, alive magazine. She has won several blog awards, including VegNews, VegBloggy, and Vancouver's Ultimate Mom Blog. In today's episode of the Plant-based profit show, Dreena provides guidance and answers for everything from pleasing picky eaters to filling a vegan pantry to packing school lunches and dealing with difficult social situations, all based on her personal experiences. She shares stories from her journey towards a plant-based diet, including how an unhealthy relationship with food goes back to when she started dieting at just nine years old. Dreena tells us that she always thinks about their nutrition and taste buds as a mother of three girls. Her delicious dishes can please and inspire even the pickiest diners and offer lifelong vegans the imaginative, healthful cuisine they've always desired. Dreena has become a master at helping families navigate and embrace eating plant-based through her cookbooks.     SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS       LinkedIn- Dreena Burton - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dreena-burton-878ab727/       Facebook – Dreena Burton - https://www.facebook.com/DreenaBurtonPlantPoweredKitchen/ Instagram - Dreena Burton - https://www.instagram.com/dreenaburton       Official Website – Dreena Burton's Website - https://dreenaburton.com/ ·        Twitter – Dreena Burton - https://twitter.com/dreenaburton

Do you ever have trouble determining whether or not your favourite dishes are as healthy as you think it is? Eating healthy can be a frustrating and often overwhelming challenge, thanks to false advertising and an endless supply of "healthy" items on the grocery shelf. We exist in a world where we can't agree about what truly defines health. We live in a skeptical world when it comes to health trends. We must simplify everything and get to the fundamentals, eating healthy whole foods – and that’s exactly what Kimberly & Jasmine Chamberland, the mother/daughter duo brings to our table with Big Mountain Foods. Kimberly founded Big Mountain Foods, a plant-based and allergen-free food company based in Vancouver, in 1987. She takes pride in using real, fresh ingredients in all of her products. Each item is vegan, gluten-free, nut-free, and soy-free, as well as non-GMO certified. Kim’s mom was a devote of the Hare  Krishna movement and raised her on a vegetarian diet. Jasmine grew up around Big Mountain Foods as her mother started the business in her early twenties making veggie burgers. After years of watching Kimberly work, the veggie-patty machine with so much love, care, and attention Jasmine realized that she needed to be a part of it as well.  They proudly offer plant-based products that are delicious, healthy and a lot of fun to eat. The wonderful thing about Big Mountain Foods is that it isn't just about a product you can get at the supermarket. Every day, Jasmine goes to work believing that she is contributing to the betterment of the world. Their items aren't just another vegan option; they’re part of a movement that's empowering people to feel healthier and positive about themselves and their environment. In today’s episode of the Plant-based profit show, Kimberly talks about the biggest challenges in bringing specialized products to the marketplace and the hurdles that she went through in establishing a female-owned company. Jasmine gives us more insight into Canada’s Big Mountain Foods and how they recently expanded into a new manufacturing facility in Vancouver. They speak about how they get a long shelf life without adding a preservative and tell us ways to finance the significant expansion without funding. We are eager to converse more about the outstanding achievements this mother-daughter duet brought to the stores.

When we talk about being a vegan, we often think of our health as being all bright and fresh. Today, we are going to meet someone who had a different experience. Our guest today, Maria Cebrian, had been a vegetarian and vegan on-and-off for ten years before fully committing to the lifestyle five years ago. She would go vegan for some months, only to start to feel a bit tired or foggy. If we have to put it the right way, she was never a perfect vegan and was often nutrient deficient. Our guest Maria decided to go vegan when she heard about how animal agriculture impacts the environment and how animals are treated – she knew this wasn't right. When Maria's co-worker, Hava Horowitz, shared her idea of creating a multivitamin specifically tailored for vegans, she absolutely loved it. That was precisely what Maria needed to solve all the nutrient deficiencies. That's how an all-in-one pill that was good for both vegans and the planet came to the world with the name Terraseed Multivitamin. In today's episode of the Plant-based profit show, Maria recalls her early vegan being days where everything seemed blurry. Her life felt dull because of all the nutrient deficiencies. She later describes how magically they came to the blooming idea of multivitamins, but the thought of adding more waste to the world made them rethink their decision. She says in the show that it was both a real hassle and a bummer. They knew they had to do things differently. And a question of how to get everything a vegan needs in just one pill a day without generating more waste rose. The answer came in the form of a beautifully designed, fully compostable packaging, becoming that most sustainable supplement available. In January 2021, Tarraseed became the first vegan company ever selected into Techstars Startup-Accelerator Program. Later in the show, Maria talks about her passion for mountain running and her memorable experiences. Moving forward, Maria gives away some fascinating details about her multivitamins and her ambassador program – her innovative social media techniques and everything she has learned.

If you're considering opening a vegetarian or vegan restaurant, you'll be riding a much larger wave than a ripple. The number of people moving to a plant-based diet worldwide is steadily increasing, and they're making different choices at the grocery store and in their dining habits. But veganism has evolved as more than just a hot food trend – it is now a worldwide movement. In this podcast, our guest James McInnes, the Founder and CEO of Globally Local, will go over some of the most critical details to consider before starting a plant-based restaurant or café, as well as some innovative ways to connect with other plant-based food entrepreneurs. James founded Globally Local in 2014 as a grassroots vegan company that delivered organic vegetables and fruits from local farms to consumers' doorsteps. In 2015, after partnering with future wife Vasiliki – the couple started to create vegan meal kits, through which they discovered that people enjoyed their vegan fast food recipes.  In 2016, Globally Local brought what is now known as the Famous Burger to the London, Ontario Ribfest, where it quickly sold out due to high demand. The success of this vegan option caught the attention, and the resulting chaos drew widespread media coverage across North America. Soon after, the food truck was introduced, bringing vegan fast food to neighbourhoods and vegfests across Ontario, where customers flocked in droves. The couple opened Canada's first vegan fast-food restaurant in 2017. They opened the world's first 24-hour vegan drive-through six months later.   In 2018, the company scaled quickly by opening a food manufacturing facility, where it produced its own proteins and dairy alternatives, allowing for price parity with conventional fast food.    After becoming the first vegan fast-food chain publicly listed in April 2021, they have recently announced plans to open five new Ontario restaurant locations this Summer. Globaly local is currently being traded on Toronto’s TSX Venture Exchange, a stock exchange for emerging companies. In our conversation, James takes us through the extreme challenges they have faced in the last year, preparing the company to go public during the pandemic.   In today’s episode of the Plant-based profit show, McInnes shares the stories of his earlier life and past businesses and how their hurdles prepared him for the company he runs today. He discusses their commitment to producing high-quality fast food and veganism, as well as the many fascinating facts about Canada's first fast-food chain that you might not know.    SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS       LinkedIn- James McInnes - https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-mcinnes-he-him-86894a2       Facebook – James’s Globally Local - https://m.facebook.com/globallylocal/         Instagram - James’s Globally Local - https://www.instagram.com/globallylocalfastfood       Official Website – James’s Globally Local Website- https://globallylocal.ca/ ·        Twitter – James’s Globally Local - https://twitter.com/glfastfood   

Nafsika Antypas is an entrepreneur, activist, TV host and nonprofit founder. In less than five years, she went from new vegan to executive producer and host of her own TV series Plant-Based by Nafsika and the founder of the vegan cheese line Nafsika's Garden. This week I speak with her to hear more about her mission to bring veganism to the masses as the buzz surrounding the first and only mainstream vegan lifestyle TV show grew. Changing one's way of thinking overnight takes a lot of determination. It is only possible when one is driven by a deep intent – a vision that shakes the individual to their core and gives them a new sense of meaning. Nafsika, had a similar epiphany nearly a decade ago when watching Vegecated on Netflix while breastfeeding and decided to go vegan overnight.  In 2014 she founded the non-profit People Against Violence, supporting victims of violence seeking guidance and assistance through a 24-hour hotline staffed by licensed counsellors. However, as a committed vegan, Antypas believes that the best way to make the planet a more humane environment is to encourage people to go vegan. Nafsika earned her certification as a Fitness & Lifestyle Coach in 2017, and she now helps people live a healthy, more compassionate lifestyle. Because, as Nafsika claims, "one cannot live a life of love and compassion if not practicing it every day."   In today's episode of the Plant-based profit show, I speak with Nafsika about what made her decision to become vegan and her motivations, projects, and success in bringing plant-based inspiration to households worldwide. She explains how she aims to unite plant-based food with entertainment, and for her, veganism is not just a diet; it is a way of life. She goes on to shares some valuable advice she would give someone who is considering changing to a plant-based lifestyle and quick notes on daily meals. Nafsika tells how she enjoys spending time with her family, including two young, healthy boys, and happy to educate just about anyone who would listen about why it's more beneficial to switch to a plant-based diet.

Our guest today, Ashley Nickelsen, was born and raised in the often-forgotten NYC borough, Statin Island. She was an only child and the love of her parent’s life. Ashley says her family was lower middle class and often talked about the family having “money issues.” Her father was a hardworking and grateful man who worked three jobs to keep everything afloat. She was a self-proclaimed “Over involved college student” as she poured all her time and energy into her job as a Resident Assistant while studying for her degree in biochemistry and food science at NYU. The love for her role as a resident assistant led her to pursue a master’s in counselling while taking on a job as Student Resident Director.  Ashley has fought two significant fights of her young life as she lost her precious parents to cancer within a few years of each other. As depressed as a young girl in her 20s can be due to caring for two suffering parents, Ashley became hooked on snacks high in sugar and dangerous for her health. With a background in food science & nutrition and in search of a better snack to feed herself and her parents, she developed a bar that not only had a clean ingredient profile but also served a purpose. She wanted a snack that boosted energy recharged the brain, and lowered stress levels. As a tribute to her parents, who were battling, Ashley came up with the first Protein Bar with a Purpose™. When it came to naming the bar, she wanted to honour her parents in some way, so she decided to incorporate the family mantra her parents would often say, “Be BOLD, TENACIOUS & RESILIENT,” otherwise known as BTR in her house.” That’s how it all began. As a simple idea in a hospital cafeteria and – BTR Bar was born. In today’s episode of the Plant-based profit show, Ashley takes us through her journey of founding and growing her young business as a solopreneur. She also shares some of her innovative social media marketing techniques and exciting news on future launches. It fits well when we say that Ashely’s entire career has been dedicated to her parents and every inspiration, they have given her.

Our guest today is Derek Sarno is the Executive Chef and Director of Plant-Based Innovation for Tesco, the world's third-largest food retailer. Derek is the co-founder of Tesco's Wicked Healthy variety of foods and Good Catch Foods, two companies that have been built to promote global plant-based culinary creativity and innovation. Sarno was also the former Senior Global Executive Chef at Whole Foods Market, where he supervised national recipe production and catered all of the company's main executive leadership events. Derek has operated many highly acclaimed restaurants and catering companies since graduating from culinary school. He learned to meditate and cook various foods at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery where he spent a few years farming. Derek, passionate about food and veganism, strives tirelessly to make the movement more appealing to today’s world. In today’s episode of the Plant-based profit show, Derek talks about his love for food and journey to a plant-based diet. He further shares how he co-created Wicked Healthy with Chad (his brother) and how their relationship as kids has evolved over the years. He gives us more insight into the importance of spirituality and meditation in his decision to become a plant-based chef. Moving forward, Sarno tells us about the innovative Wickedly meaty projects and other exciting endeavours he has on the horizon. Derek's entire career has been dedicated to making the planet a better place through cooking. His genuine sincerity and inspirational drive shine through in this episode! SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS       LinkedIn- Derek Sarno- https://www.linkedin.com/in/derek-sarno-bb96763       Facebook – Derek Sarno - https://www.facebook.com/derek.sarno       Instagram - Derek Sarno - https://www.instagram.com/dereksarno/?hl=en       Official Website – Derek Sarno’s Wicked Healthy Food - https://wickedhealthyfood.com/       Twitter – Derek Sarno - https://twitter.com/wickedhealthy?lang=en      

Your taste buds never lie to you. Today we have someone on the show who has introduced a new vegan product to North American grocery stores. It all started when our guest, Emily Griffith, tasted an acai bowl made with sprouted Buckwheat many years ago in Sidney, Australia.  Emily has developed a love for traveling, surfing, smoothies, snowboarding, fitness, and website design but as a kid, she was always trying out different business ideas on her neighbors. She started her first real enterprise, a marketing, and graphic design business in college when she made posters for a climbing gym in exchange for a pass. After college, she worked at a couple of large digital marketing agencies for 3 years in Chicago and Sydney while continuing to work on her freelance business and growing it to 6 figures in revenue. After years working in marking Emily decided to take a crack at starting a brand in the food space once she became obsessed with the taste and health benefits of Sprouted Buckwheat. She called the brand, Lil Bucks Sprouted Buckwheat. Lil Bucks offers a range of crispy snacks and fillings made from sprouted buckwheat, a popular Australian superfood rich in protein, fiber, and magnesium. The company buys organic buckwheat from farms in Minnesota and North Dakota. The product is organic, free of most allergens, and of course vegan.  In today’s episode of the Plant-based profit show, Emily shares what she was doing when she received the call that she was awarded a 4 years academic scholarship that included fully paid tuition, a semester studying abroad, and a and living stipend for outstanding academic acheement.  Emily goes on to tell how her amazing brand is disrupting different areas of the grocery store, starting with breakfast and snacks but has plans to move into single-serve and savory catagories. As the show progresses, Emily discusses how she had to learn the food business from scratch and was thankful for being accepted into a food start-up incubator that offered a class "Starting a Food Business 101". She received some of her first significant funding when she won a pitch competition co-sponsored by Bel Brands which also helped her develop an operations, packaging, and distribution strategy.  At the end of the show, I will share a coupon code for Lil Bucks that Emily has provided for Plant-Based Profit Listeners. Lil Bucks will close a very successful crowd investing campaign on the popular investing site, Republic, on April 22, 2021. If you are listening to this in the first week the show comes out there is still time to get in. COUPON CODE To check out Lil Bucks, use the coupon code “PBPS20” for 20% off your first order -- the code is now live on the Lil Bucks website!  SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS   Republic Crown Investing - https://republic.co/lil-bucks#        Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/lovelilbucks/       Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lovelilbucks/?hl=en       Official Website - https://www.lovelilbucks.com/

The great thing about food is that it makes it to our plates, delights us with its flavor, and helps our bodies to function normally as a natural fuel. Unfortunately, the majority of people are unaware of how much food is wasted on a daily basis, with the discarding of misshaped or bruised fruits and vegetables. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, almost 1.3 billion tonnes of food are thrown away each year around the world. By managing food sustainably and reducing waste, we can help businesses and consumers save money, provide a bridge in our communities for those who do not have enough to eat, conserve resources for future generations, as well as help in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. With the same thoughts in their heart and mind, Dr. Darren Burke and retired NHL Hockey player TJ Galiardi gave birth to Outcast Foods – An innovative plant-based technology company that turns food waste into sustainable nutrition. Outcast Foods, located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, collaborates with farmers to collect imperfect produce destined for the dump and turns it into vegan protein powder to be sold on its own or as an added ingredient in a variety of foods. Outcast Foods is on to something big, as it's tackling many food-related concerns at once. The business is fast expanding, working with large Canadian retailers such as Sportcheck, Sobey's, and Well.ca to distribute its powders directly to customers, as well as food processing firms such as Happy Planet Foods, Greenhouse Juice Co., Earth Animal, v-dog, and Nestlé to include its powders in their edible products. In today’s episode of the Plant-based profit show, TJ, and Darren talk about how they combined their passion for plant-based diets with their desire to reduce food waste, which gave rise to Outcast Foods. We get more insight into how these two vegan superpowers have joined forces to push their beliefs to a different level, and turn their mission to get everyone involved in helping them save the world. They tell us about their past professions and share the story of how they first met. Outcast Foods recently secured $10 million of venture-backed funding to further reduce food waste by upcycling and has many more plans to grow in coming years. Here is my conversation with TJ and Darren. SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS       LinkedIn- Dr. Darren Burke- https://www.linkedin.com/in/doctorburke/       Facebook – Dr. Darren Burke - https://www.facebook.com/doctorburke/       Instagram – Dr. Darren Burke - https://www.instagram.com/darren_burke/?hl=en       Official Website – Darren’s Outcast Foods - https://outcastfoods.us/        Twitter – Dr. Darren Burke - https://twitter.com/doctorburke?lang=en          

Kailey Donewald It is evident that a well-balanced diet and a healthier lifestyle go hand in hand. What you eat, and what you don't eat, play a role in preventing much of the world's most common chronic ailments and diseases. Kailey Donewald, founder and CEO of Sacred Serve – a plant-based gelato, has spent her whole life with asthma and allergies. Living in Bali, Indonesia, she didn't know it was the food she was consuming that was making her ill until she was 25 years old. While living in Bali, Kailey adopted a raw vegan diet while attending a retreat and within the span of two weeks her asthma and allergies miraculously went away. It turns out she had a dairy food sensitivity, which was damaging her body - Since no doctor has ever asked about her diet, she felt inspired to spread the message that our bodies have an amazing and inherent capacity to cure themselves; all we have to do is give them the right fuel.   Kailey is a dedicated health activist who has spent the last ten years practicing under leading experts in the areas of yoga, meditation, Eastern medicine, and herbal therapy in countries like India and Indonesia. She discovered the strong connection between food and illness here, having cured herself of many chronic diseases using only a nutrient-dense, plant-based diet. Sacred Serve was created as a result of her travel, culture, and food inspiration.   In today’s episode of the Plant-based profit show, Kailey shares her health journey while telling us the power of food and lifestyle in the steps of healing. She gives us more insight on the key factors of stress and anxiety, and how much a more active lifestyle helped her feel lighter, more energetic, less stressed, and all-around happier in her own skin.     SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS       LinkedIn- Kailey Donewald- https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaileydonewald/         Facebook – Kailey Donewald - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=6830869       Instagram - Kailey's Sacred Serve - https://www.instagram.com/sacredserve/?hl=en       Official Website – Kailey’s Sacred Serve - https://www.sacredserve.com/       Twitter – Kailey Donewald - https://twitter.com/kaileydonewald?lang=en        

  Blakes’s Seed-Base is offering Plant-Based Profit Show listeners a 20% discount! Promo Code PROFITS20 https://www.blakesseedbased.com/discount/PROFITS20 The number of emergency room visits and hospitalizations caused by life-threatening allergies don’t just occur in the movie. They are as real as any other disease we may have. From being rushed to the hospital at the tender age of 3 and having his throat swell shut, to being called "EpiPen guy" by his football teammates at the University of Wisconsin, Blake Sorensen's entire life was affected by his deathly nut allergy.   While studying for his MBA at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, Sorensen put on his superhero cape when he was challenged to come up with a business that met a social need. His frustration in not being able to find allergy free snack food at gas stations on long drives to school gave him the idea to create a snacks for people with allergies like him and that is when Blake's Seed-Based was born. In today’s episode of the Plant-based profit show, Blake shares his beautiful turn in life where he was no longer scared to join his teammates fueling up on bars, trail mix and cookies. He describes that day in his social entrepreneurship course where he was challenged to identify and solve a social need. He excitingly talks about how he was left to face his weakness and turn it into a helping hand for people with allergies. In today’s show Blake shares with us how he benefitted from the knowledge he gained from his mother, who worked as a dietician, and made his first bars using a food processor in his own kitchen in Indiana and how his Brand, Blake's Seed-Based became the voice he needed. Let’s dig further into the show as we talk about a former Mr. Football who loves innovation and brought a line of snack bars back home for all of us.   SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS LinkedIn- Blake Sorenson - https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakesorensen   Facebook - Blake's Seed Based -https://www.facebook.com/blakesseedbased/   Instagram - Blake's Seed Based -  https://www.instagram.com/blakesseedbased/ Official Website – Blake’s Seed Based -https://www.blakesseedbased.com/ YouTube - Blake's Seed Based- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCphR6b6f1azt0243qKuUIpg  

Many of us love a salad, but let’s face it, a pizza tastes better. Fruit salad is delicious, but nothing quite hits the spot like chocolate fudge cake. Rewind ten, even five years ago and a vegan’s diet would mostly consist of salad, pitta bread, and houmous. Gone are the days where we’d pay $15 for a salad in a restaurant because that was the only option. When you think of mac and cheese, ramen, Philly cheesesteak, and fried chicken, do you think vegan? If not, now you can. Lauren Toyota has been shaking up the internet and what it means to be vegan, on her YouTube channel and blog, Hot for Food. On her channel, create and post impressive recipe videos, proving that everything can be made vegan. She is also uniting vegan and comfort foods in her first-of-its-kind cookbook. Lauren Toyota is a Canadian TV personality who has worked for nearly ten years in the broadcast industry. For Toyota, being on air from a young age was always a dream come true – presenting, producing, and editing. In Vancouver, she was a MuchMusic VJ, working alongside A-listers like Selena Gomez, Pitbull and Justin Bieber. Although the broadcast path gave her endless opportunities, like traveling the world, she later on decided on becoming a host and producer, and now works as a full-time YouTuber/Blogger. Lauren and her unique vegan recipes have been featured in Laika Magazine, Women’s Health Magazine, BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, Thrive, and Clean Eating Magazine. She was also Food Network Canada’s first and only vegan blogger and contributor, regularly sharing exclusive recipes for Meatless Monday. For Toyota, being in the food industry almost seemed like her destiny. Even prior to becoming a vegan, she was always interested in modifying and experimenting with recipes. As a child, she had aspirations of being a chef and working in a restaurant. Although more casual and less glamourized than TV, Lauren says her social media platforms are for passionate food people to have an infinite resource of vegan recipes. In today’s episode of the Plant-based profit show, Lauren Toyota reveals having hundreds of thousands of combined followers, fans, and subscribers, from YouTube to Twitter to Instagram. – making herself an inspirational, influential voice of a generation. Lauren speaks to the value of delicious vegan comfort food as a means by which to effectively encourage people to take the blinders off. We will also chat with Toyota about her journey from being a VJ to a YouTube star and, most recently, her brand new cookbook Hot for Food – All Day. Here is my conversation with Lauren Toyota! SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS   LinkedIn- Lauren Toyota - https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurentoyota/   Facebook - Lauren Toyota - https://www.facebook.com/itslaurentoyota   Instagram – Lauren Toyota - https://www.instagram.com/laurentoyota/?hl=en   Twitter – Lauren Toyota - https://twitter.com/laurentoyota   Official Website – Lauren Toyota - https://www.laurentoyota.com/   Official Website – Hot for Food- https://www.hotforfoodblog.com/  

Among thousands of all human differences, food is one of the few things that connects us together. We all need to eat to survive. Sometimes, we need help figuring out what to eat and when.  Enter the field of nutrition and dietetics, and our guest – Dr. Pamela Fergusson. She is a registered dietitian with a Ph.D. in nutrition and over 15 years of experience in changing lives in North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia for organizations such as UNICEF and the World Food program. She has been a member of the Dietitians of Canada Leadership Team and Sustainable Food Systems Leadership Team, as well as the advisory boards of Balanced and Conscious Eating Canada.   In today’s episode of the Plant-based Profits show, we sit down with Pamela as she describes how to help your children love eating healthy and being vegan.  She shares great advice for someone looking to transition to a more plant-based diet with their family. Pamela also shares how she was able to grow a thriving private practice by levering social media, focusing on a plant-based niche, and embracing virtual consultations.  Pamela is an ultramarathoner who has completed her own unsupported, self-styled iron-distance triathlon, with no clocks or no crowds, covering 140.6 miles in a day, by herself.  We are thrilled to have her as our guest today!

Most of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, going to circuses and zoos. Most of us bought our beloved "pets" from pet stores and caged beautiful birds. We wore wool and silk, ate McDonald's burgers, and went fishing every weekend. We never considered the impact of these behaviors on the animals involved.  However, millions of people are now re-examining their beliefs and asking, “Do animals have rights?” John Oberg is here to give an answer to that. He’s an animal advocate, influencer, and social media professional, dedicated to making the world a kinder place for animals by utilizing the power of social media. In today’s episode of the Plant-based profit show, we catch up with John Oberg, one of the most sought-after social media experts in the plant-based movement, who has launched his own independent, patron-funded project for animals. In 2019, he had over 200 million impressions of his content on social media.  On the show today, John shares the journey that led him to veganism. He reveals his top tips for utilizing social media to help make the world a more compassionate place, and how to take a step back and reflect on animal rights. John will also give us some great advice for the new generation of activists trying to change the world.

According to Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret, the main cause of global warming is not fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas - it’s animal agriculture.  In this groundbreaking feature-length environmental documentary from intrepid filmmaker Keegan Kuhn, he uncovers the most destructive industry facing the planet today and investigates why the world’s leading environmental organizations are too afraid to talk about it.   In today’s episode of the Plant-based profit show, we talk to Keegan Kuhn, Co-director of Cowspiracy and What The Health and several other acclaimed documentaries, who is a videographer, award-winning documentary filmmaker, and professional musician living in the east bay of San Francisco. Keegan’s film career has taken him as far as the remote interior of Alaska to document modern homesteaders, to the high deserts of the American west filming the nation’s remaining wild horses, to rural agricultural communities and dirty urban streets. He is motivated by a deep desire to shed light on vegan-themed stories and major issues around social justice. 

The most dedicated people are often not those who shout the loudest. Instead, they work tirelessly and quietly to build movements, bringing a consistent, dedicated presence to a worthy cause. From the child who asks their parents where meat comes from, launching their family on a vegan journey, to the attorney arguing cases to improve the lives of billions of factory-farmed animals – being a compassionate vegan takes many forms.  Each person who lives a vegan lifestyle or marches for animal rights is one more voice speaking up for animals. And, lucky for us, we have Matt Tullman to bless this world. Matt is a long-term policy geek, entrepreneur, biohacker, and venture capitalist. He co-founded and currently serves as CEO of No Meat Brands, which owns a growing portfolio of wellness companies, including No Meat Athlete, Complement, 80/20 Plants, and Plant Bites.   In today’s episode of the Plant-based profit show, Matt shares his story and how the sickness of a loved one inspired him to look deeply into what it means to live well as a human, the pillars of health and happiness, and the power of plant-based nutrition. He describes how he started the nutrition supplement company - Complement, the motivation behind it, the way he connected with Matt Frazier and built a relationship with him while guiding golden principles for the business. Matt is passionate about bringing ideas to life—from creating new businesses to building furniture and digital artifacts. He loves learning, designing, prototyping, and challenging himself physically. He’s also a big fan of hugs, positivity, meditation, and giving back.

Numerous vegan staples, including tofu, rice, quinoa, black beans, and seitan, originated in communities of color, but today communities of color face much higher rates of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease.  Vegan Fine Brands is a Black-owned vegan company led by its founder and CEO, Dr. Steven Smith, who spent years living in food deserts with little to no accessibility to nutrient-dense foods and saw how damaging this was for underserved communities.  That’s why Dr. Smith started Vegan Fine Brands in 2016  - to offer customers a wide selection of delicious foods that are good for their health and the health of the planet. In today’s episode of the Plant-Based Profit show, we get to know all the insights about Vegan Fine Brands’ retail experiences, and how the company is not only surviving during the ongoing pandemic but also has just announced an equity crowdfunding raise which will help the company expand and franchise in order to bring their one-of-a-kind retail experience to millions across the country. Steven Smith will further talk about Vegan Fine Brand’s plan to expand into e-commerce, which will bring a vast array of healthy, plant-products to consumers in a one-stop-shopping experience they can’t get anywhere else, all under one roof.

Many people say they can’t go fully vegan because they could never give up  cheese, but a common comeback you hear more and more is “Have you tried Miyoko’s?”  Miyoko Schinner is the tenacious, award-winning vegan celebrity chef and fearless CEO of Miyoko’s Creamery. The publication of her groundbreaking book, Artisan Vegan Cheese, is credited as having kicked off the start of the vegan cheese revolution.  Under Schinner’s visionary leadership, Miyoko’s has replaced animal dairy products on the shelves of more than 10,000 retailers nationwide, including Target, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Kroger, and Safeway. In today’s episode of the Plant-Based Profit show, Miyoko explains her stance of using the term vegan in products, and how companies can leverage the growing popularity of the plant-based movement. She reveals the most important things to keep in mind to successfully launch a new business. Miyoko also shares the stories of her earlier life and past businesses, and how their failures prepared her for the successful company she runs today. Eating is a form of activism and Miyoko is blazing a trail for the future of food, built on a celebration of what it means to be vegan.

Like many families, Dawn Hilton-Williams’s early childhood memories were marred by premature deaths brought about by chronic diseases, and like other families, she mourned the losses, normalized them, and moved on. However, it was her husband Anthony's health scare that changed her life, business, and family for good. She founded Herban-Eats and became the VEGUCATOR-IN-CHIEF. Dawn, is a passionate vegan whose mission is to fundamentally improve wellness, prevent chronic diseases and poverty from flowing and ruining human lives. From guidance and live demonstrations to countless vegan product and service solutions, Dawn works closely with plant-based clinicians and many other health and wellness partners to help people transform from daily poor health conditions to happy healthy lives. Dawn has over 20 years of professional cooking experience, has a plant-based nutrition certificate from the T. Colin Campbell Center for nutrition studies at eCornell, and in 2019 she authored her first book titled "Flava My Plate", a healthy wealthy vegan cookbook and guide to delicious vegetarian food. A few years ago, when Dawn’s husband Anthony felt sick, she immediately decided to make some positive changes to her health. Previously she had been reading studies on the relationship between diets rich in animal products and illnesses such as cancer and heart disease, but wasn't ready to change her lifestyle, not until Anthony's health problems. Her research helped defeat her worries about meal planning, caring for herself, parenting, running a company, and taking care of Anthony. In today’s episode of the Plant-Based Profit show, we take a deeper insight into Dawn’s family and professional life. From tv and social media-based cooking show appearances, cooking classes, and demos to podcasting, coaching, writing, public speaking, and vegucation 101 presentations, Dawn works to raise awareness about the direct correlation between chronic disease and diet; with a targeted focus on reaching people in minority communities who are disproportionately impacted by their negative effects.  We will further discuss how she is hoping to spread the word even more about the health benefits of a vegan diet with help from the Black-owned small business Impact grant from Beyoncé’s BeyGOOD Foundation and the NAACP that she was recently awarded.  Social Media Links ·   Instagram Profile - https://www.instagram.com/dawn_hiltonwilliams/?hl=en ·   Facebook Profile - https://www.facebook.com/dawn.hiltonwilliams ·   Official Website - https://www.herban-eats.com/

In today’s world where consumers are much more health-conscious and mindful about what they are putting into their body, it’s no wonder why terms like plant-based, vegan, meat-free, and organic are all over food packages now.  Starting with just one small dehydrator in his kitchen, food innovator Bruce Namenson has tapped into this rapidly growing market and created two premier raw plant-based packaged food brands, Organic Living Superfoods and Healthy Truth, to offer hundreds of delicious, totally 100% vegan superfoods.   In today’s episode of the Plant-based profit show, we sit down with Bruce and talk about how he first got the idea to start his own brand. We’ll learn how he won the trust of non-other than six-time Super Bowl Champion, Tom Brady, to create the TB12 line of plant-based food products. Having faced major life and career-ending challenges, Bruce also reveals his darkest days and how he was able to rise from the ashes with a mission of helping others get healthier through clean, honest, plant-based superfood snacks, powders, and bars. 

Whether you are interested in becoming a vegan and are wondering where to start, or are a skilled chef looking to create a bigger variety of delicious and plant-based meals, the Happy Pear is the answer to all your questions. Happy Pear twins David and Stephen Flynn are the chefs and writers of the best-selling cookbook “The Happy Pear” filled with recipes and stories from their past 10 years experience in owning natural food stores, wholefood cafes, dinner restaurants, superfood sprout farms, self-labeled products, online stores, health education seminars, and online courses to make the world healthier and happier. In spite of growing up on a standard Irish diet of whatever was put in front of them, and having the idea that ‘real men eat meat,’ they have started a food revolution by making fruits and vegetables sexy, and they are taking as many people as possible on the road for this beautiful journey. In today’s episode of the Plant-based profit show, David and Stephen Flynn share with us how they developed an encyclopedia of plant-based cooking over 20 years and are helping others to make healthy cooking simple, creative, utterly attractive, and mouth-watering. They also share their journey in becoming a successful pair of vegan entrepreneurs and how to align being healthy with happiness. The twins give us an insight into their new book, The Happy Health Plan, which is their first health and lifestyle book and includes over 80 delicious plant-based recipes, health plans, meal plans, and shopping lists. 

Businesses are recognizing that plant-based eating is not a fad and veganism is a fast-growing movement. To help the cause, Helene Greenberg, launched the Triangle Vegfest in October 2014 in Durham, NC, and she has since expanded to host vegfests in other states on the East Coast to spread the vegan message.  Her events help educate the community about easy ways to reap the health benefits of a plant-based diet, provide a place for vegan-friendly companies to market their products, and encourage local restaurants to offer more vegan-friendly menu options. In today’s episode of the Plant-Based Profit show, we learn about the upbringing of Helene Greenberg in a household of working parents and the struggles she faced as an early vegetarian teenager. We’ll talk about her passion for animal rights, and how she continues to channel this passion to help grow the vegan community through her events. We also learn more about her work in helping vegfests pivot in the middle of a pandemic and go online through VirtualVegfest.com

Leather bags have dominated the fashion industry for a long time, but Vegan leather bags have started gaining mass cultural popularity as a newer, more conscious lifestyle. Now you must be wondering, what’s so great about vegan leather? Well, Just about everything. In addition to being an ethical, sustainable, and animal cruelty-free alternative to traditional leather, it has a wider range of styles, lower cost, more efficient production, and is eco-friendly – plus it’s in vogue. In this episode of the Plant-Based Profit show, Paras Doshi, founder of US fashion retailer “Doshi,” talks about his purpose of providing smart, stylish, and high-quality vegan products to encourage people with moral, religious, or environmental beliefs to seek vegan products.   We’ll talk more about the origins of the vegan fashion movement and how it can be traced back to the hippie era of the 1960s.  We will also explore its increasing popularity today to meet the needs of smart, social, and environmentally friendly professionals and fashion designers.  So, hold on tight and enjoy an insider scoop with Paras Doshi, while he reveals how sustainable vegan leather is made and is replicating the smell, touch, and feel of leather. He tells us about Microfiber PU, and what other chemicals go into vegan leather. Doshi further discusses the First Five For the World initiative and how it is a very clear, open, direct, and measurable way to make a positive impact on animals, people, and the environment. Finally, he predicts the future of Vegan leather.  We start the show with Paras sharing what his childhood was like growing up in southern California with immigrant parents.

Manhattan-born, but raised in Miami, Jenny Goldfarb never really shook off her New York-Jewish deli sensibilities. It may be because it runs in the blood - beginning with her great grandfather, an immigrant from Romania who spoke no English coming into America but went on to own several delis in his lifetime. Though Jenny eventually found herself living in the West Coast with her husband and their three daughters, she never lost her love for authentic East Coast deli sandwiches.  Growing up eating meat her whole life, Jenny’s journey into a plant-based lifestyle started when a friend introduced her to videos of how animals suffered in service of the food industry. Dodging doubts from her husband and in-laws, Jenny nevertheless pursued her newfound passion of going vegan, which led her to create her own food vlog, Count Your Colors. Her hubby, a 3-time Emmy winning film editor, gamely supported her on this. Her vlogs didn’t exactly turn her into a Youtube star, but Jenny felt that she was doing her contribution in making the world a better place. But it wasn’t until she made her own vegan corned beef using easy to find ingredients that things really picked up speed.  Encouraged by friends and family, Jenny slowly scaled up the production of her vegan corned beef business and soon found her way into Whole Foods. Just when she thought that her food business had finally found it’s turning point, she decided to pitch for Shark Tank. Before she knew it, Jenny found herself standing in front of the sharks! She deftly handled the challenging questions from the sharks and walked away with a cool $250,000 investment from Mark Cuban, more than double what she was asking for.  Today Jenny shares the amazing story of how she grew her vegan food business, Mrs. Goldfarb’s Unreal Deli from her kitchen to a thriving business that allows her to still be a full-time mom and wife and do her part in protecting animals. Plus a whole lot of practicality on how she continues to maneuver her business in this pandemic.   

If you think that veganism only applies to food, then this podcast episode will open a whole new side of the plant-based lifestyle to you.  We’ve known for a long time that fashion can be bad for both animals and the environment, but more than recycling fashion items or even avoiding fast fashion, one entrepreneur has changed the animal-free-fashion game by creating a whole fashion brand catered to men.  Joshua Katcher educates us on the relationship of masculinity, meat, animals, and fashion.  Joshua’s portfolio includes being a production media practitioner, entrepreneur, author, designer, activist, artist, and educator.  Not only that, he’s the founder and co-founder of two other successful businesses in other industries, all plant-based.  How he fits everything he has to do in a day is nothing short of amazing. We’ll learn more about Brave GentleMan, which offers a full line of high-quality luxury vegan and sustainable shoes for men. His business started – not from head to toe – but toe to head.  How does one start a shoe business, let alone a vegan one?  Joshua gives us a glimpse of what he did to turn his vision into sales.  He also tells us about the challenges he encountered and the lessons he learned the hard way so that you can avoid making them.  We’re excited to show you this increasingly popular side of plant-based entrepreneurship.  For those who are on the edge of dabbing into vegan business concepts that go beyond food into other industries, take a lesson from Joshua Katcher and Brave GentleMan.

We’ve had guests who made the shift to a plant-based diet due to health, sustainability, and/or compassion for animals, but today we’re going to hear the point of view from a butcher who grew up vegetarian.  Yes, you heard it right, a real-life butcher.  Only this butcher doesn’t cut and prepare just any kind of meat, he prepares the kind of meat we love – a plant-based one.  We have in this episode, Mitchell Scott, one of the founders of Very Good Butchers – a vegan butcher shop headquartered in Victoria, BC, that promises high-grade vegan meat from quality produce. For all of you who are thinking of starting a company but feel really intimidated with all the steps you need to do and the paperwork, you need to have – Mitchell shares a very useful tool for all startups – Google.  They literally Googled how to form a corporation a month after their first Farmer’s Market success.  If you think that was fast, wait until you hear the rest of their story and how they were able to get to IPO in just 3 years!  We’ll find out more about how they grew without spending huge money on marketing and influencers.  Mitchell also shares his key strategies for growth and what their plans are in the future.  At the end of the Podcast, we have a nice holiday surprise for you from The Very Good Butchers.

There are people in this world whose very DNA consists of a unique and unmistaken entrepreneurial sequence.  Sometimes they deviate from being entrepreneurial and their DNA reminds them that it’s not for them.  That’s the case of Andy Levitt – Founder and CEO of The Purple Carrot – the first 100% plant-based meal kit company in the market.  His entrepreneurial DNA was revealed at the young age of 11 when he had an idea to use his skill and know-how to write a book about solving a rubic’s cube.  Although he successfully finished the book, complete with hand-drawn illustrations, no publishing company said yes to his idea.  He credits that experience as an important lesson on failure and rejection, which is normal as an entrepreneur, and as unfortunate as that sounds, it’s a lesson that’s actually a blessing learned early and often. That’s just one of the many things Andy shared with us in this interview. He also shares lessons on starting a business from scratch, looking for investors or funding, and then selling a business.  He provides insights on how to actually put a business on the market, dealing with failed talks, and how deals succeed or fail.  Andy doesn’t just talk about funding and selling a business, he also talks about creating meaningful partnerships between firms and other brands that can help propel your brand forward.  Andy started and has grown Purple Carrot while being a husband and a father to 4 young kids which has forced him to better manage his stress and anxiety in recent years.  This is another fascinating take on entrepreneurship.

From a junk food joke to now a snack food genius – Samy Kobrolsy created a snack food on a dare that many thought was impossible - making pork rinds without pork. Yes, Samy, a Muslim, invented vegan pork rinds and turned it into a massive business that’s selling millions of dollars in nearly 1,000 stores nationwide.  But just like snacks that are taken in between meals, we’ll find out the before-meal of Samy’s story – how Snacklins started, how it grew, and their after-meal story – about his plans in the future.   We’ll dive deep into Samy’s first-hand experience on SharkTank. He shares how his company was accepted, what they needed to do to prepare, how he won over Mark Cuban, and his very valuable tips to those who are thinking of jumping in the tank.  From working as a radio DJ for 8 years to packing vegan pork rinds in snack bags and pitching his own business over national TV, Samy Kobrolsy definitely has some interesting experiences we all can learn from and be inspired by. 

Ian Brandt was born in 1975 and grew up in Philadelphia, as a child, Ian disliked the idea of stuffing animals in little boxes as veal, it seemed inhuman, and as time went by he gradually stopped consuming meat and became fully vegan at the end of college. Ian loved being in the kitchen and while he was young, he was always in there with his grandmother and aunt; he wasn’t really into the other things kids his age were into and preferred hanging around the kitchen. In our conversation, you will see that Ian never learned his culinary skills but through self-development and constantly trying, he was able to attain the height he’s found himself now.  When Ian’s partner was pregnant they became skeptical about feeding their child dairy milk after reading books by John Robbins where they learned that being completely vegan could help reduce many health risks. Ian’s enterprunership journey began in 1998 after finishing college when he started the second-ever food cart on the streets of Salt Lake City. He also brought his vegan food cart to the farmers’ market, and summer concert series in the area. During that time Ian learned a lot about vegan food preparation and got first-hand experience in customer relationship management. A year after starting his food cart business he opened up Sage Café named after his son, a vegan based café which afforded people the opportunity to eat healthy. Several years later, after seeing the desire for vegan comfort food, Ian got the idea of opening a vegan diner. When an opportunity showed up to open a diner, he took it and the vertical diner was born, a diner where everything was prepared with organic ingredients and where people can actually eat better comfort food.  In this episode, he says he doesn’t see veganism as a trend but a necessity, and that it is high time people stop eating animals. Ian also touches on some of the challenges he faced one of which includes keeping product cost low and having enough kitchen space. These challenges are one of the reasons why he bought an off-site commercial kitchen to create, prepare, and store the food for his two restaurants. He now uses this space to create and prepare food for other restaurants including his sought-after plant-based meat alternatives called Tender Tigers.  After the tremendous success of the Vertical Diner in Salt Lake, 2019 Ian open a second location in Portland, Oregon to much fan fair. 

Shawn Stratton is the director of the International Vegan Film Festival and World Tour. He started the festival in 2018 to inspire, educate, and entertain audiences with vegan-themed films from around the world. Shawn is also an international leadership consultant, professional speaker, bestselling author, Ironman, and Ultramarathon competitor. Shawn has a bachelor’s degree in Experiential Education and a Master’s in Leadership. He devoted 15 years to leading teams on wilderness expeditions around the world into some of the harshest environments, and, most recently, eight years consulting with corporations on leadership and team development. His first book, Teams on the Edge: Stories & Lessons from Wilderness Expeditions, was an instant bestseller. Shawn came to veganism for health concerns after watching several influential documentaries. He and his family, including 3 young daughters, live in Ottawa and have been eating a plant-based diet since 2015. www.shawnstratton.com

Welcome to Part 2 of our interview with Seth Tibbott, the founder, and chairman of Tofurky.  We left off part 1 with Seth talking about how Tofurky got free advertising for their products in the early days, and we’ll start part 2 with a continuation of that story.  Seth tells us how they never paid for marketing and for any of the product placements they got on popular tv shows, game shows, late-night acts, and mentions in magazine articles and newspapers including the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. We know that holiday sales are big for Tofurky, but how do they create sales throughout the year? Seth reveals what he learned from the Turkey industry playbook.  Although he remains largely the man behind the Tofurky name, little do people know that he stepped down from running the company several years ago for his stepson Jamie to take over as CEO and president. Seth explains why he did this and also shares what his thoughts are about selling equity to capitalists and how his views on taking outside investment have evolved. We also learn how Tofurky was able to adapt quickly to fulfill the sky rocking demand for their product while keeping workers safe during this pandemic.

What vegan product line has graced our Thanksgiving for more than two decades and is a cultural icon?  It’s none other than Tofurky, and on this episode, you’ll get to hear from the amazing man who made it all happen – Seth Tibbott.   Seth shares his vegan journey, from living in a tipi and teaching kids environmental education to founding a business with just $2,500 of his savings that is now worth more than $100M.   For those of you who are thinking about working with family and perhaps struggling with that decision, we’ll learn how Seth kept Tofurkey as a family-owned business.  He shares how they made it work for their business, which included working with his mother, brother, wife, and sons in various stages of the business and in many different capacities and roles. We’ll also learn how Seth overcame a lack of funds for any marketing or PR, and how educating potential customers on how the product is best prepared, eaten, or added to other recipes was a key success factor.

One of the toughest, most consequential battles in America is the one between meat and vegetables for space on the plates of Americans.  One particular chef from Philadelphia fought that battle on television and won.  He proved how vegetables can be the only food group that occupies your plate while still satisfying AND thoroughly impressing everyone at the table...even non-vegans. In this episode, we interview Rich Landau, a popular restaurateur, and owner of Vedge in Philadelphia, one of the top-rated vegan restaurants in the country.  In fact, Food & Wine magazine recently named Vedge one of the “most important restaurants of the decade."  He is also the winner of FoodNetwork’s popular cooking competition Chopped and made him a hero to vegans. Rich will talk about his passion for cooking and how he and his wife Kate demonstrate how vegetables can easily be anyone’s first option if cooked right.   For aspiring restaurateurs, this episode is full of very practical business advice coming from an owner who never took in a partner or investment.  We’ll also get an update on how the restaurant industry is doing from a business owner’s point of view during these unprecedented times. Oh, we almost forgot.  He’ll share a secret to his very famous and very delicious, sought after, brussel sprouts.  You definitely want to take notes for that!  

Josh Balk is Vice President of Farm Animal Protection for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). What happens when a 15-year-old boy watches a video on how farm animals are treated, caged, and butchered?  Well, if they are anything like our guest today, Josh Balk, they go undercover at slaughterhouses and gather audio and video evidence to stop the inhumane and barbaric practices of the industry.   They channel their passion for animal advocacy and partner with a childhood friend to create JUST, one of the most popular plant-based food companies in the world. In this podcast episode, we’ll get a glimpse of Josh’s childhood, which was a combination of 2 passions – animals and baseball.  He had big dreams of becoming a professional baseball player, but at the same time, he had big dreams about fighting for animal rights.   We’ll learn about Josh’s early work with Compassion Over Killing, as well as his current work with the Humane Society in the US where he lives and breathes his vegan advocacy.  We’ll talk about how Josh is helping connect plant-based companies with venture-capitalists and assisting plant-based restaurant startups.  We’ll also share the story of how Josh co-founded JUST, the revolutionary company that is helping to take plant-based foods mainstream.   A man that looks up to Abraham Lincoln for his resilience and focus, paired with empathy and kindness, is somebody we all can learn from.

We’ve usually heard from very successful plant-based entrepreneurs who grew their businesses from nothing into huge life-changing and life-saving companies.  In this show, we’ll hear from someone who specializes in helping plant-based entrepreneurs become successful through great marketing and PR.  It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it, and that somebody is Lorie Amos – Founder and CEO of Scout 22.  In the show, we will learn about why Lorie started one of the world’s first boutique marketing and PR agencies that focus on working with conscious capitalists with a specific niche of plant-based businesses. We’ll learn important insider tips on marketing, correct some vegan misconceptions, and get advice on when best to contact PR or marketing agencies if you have an idea for a business. Since Lorie started her hard work on promoting vegetarianism and then veganism to her own family who are all meat-lovers, something that many of us can relate to, we’ll explore what she learned are the best ways to convince family to transition to this life-changing movement.  Her journey to vegetarianism and then to veganism may have started because of vanity but it then transitioned to a passion.  A teenage girl who wanted to simply lose some pounds, she ended up keeping the diet habit and made it into a lifestyle after a lot of shocking discoveries she learned through the years.  So if you’ve ever feared failure, and it stopped you from doing the things you want, Lorie’s story will help put things in perspective for you.

re trying to adapt to the COVID reality we have now.  We are joined by popular plant-based business and marketing coach Stephanie Redcross West, who’s become an inspiration to so many plant-based entrepreneurs.   She’ll share with us marketing strategies that businesses need to take on to succeed and ways to adapt your business to thrive amidst the pandemic.  Stephanie has had quite an entrepreneurial journey!  She shares the story of transitioning from corporate rockstar to starting her OWN successful marketing agency for vegan companies. There are a lot of nuggets of wisdom and proven tactics in this episode...a virtual gold mine...from making childhood dreams a reality, to goal-s hitting strategies, additional business revenue streams, and steps you can take right now to make your businesses known, heard, and sought after.  Take a listen to Stephanie Redcross West, founder of the Vegan Mainstream.

Have you ever wished you could walk into a popular fast food restaurant chain with your family that actually had really tasty AND healthy food...one that didn’t have you trying to figure out what was vegan or not?    In this episode of Plant-Based Profits, we welcome Rio Infantino, the founder of Copper Branch, one of the world’s largest whole foods plant-based restaurant chains shaking up the fast-food industry.  With a string of successful businesses to his credit, including a dry cleaning business and 16 Subway franchises, Rio will share his lessons learned as a serial entrepreneur.  What would compel you to quit a successful business and go work at McDonald's for two years? How does someone go from owning dry cleaning stores to a fast food restaurant chain serving whole food, plant-based meals?     We’ll explore Rio’s entrepreneurial spirit at age 16 when he bought some cleaning supplies and started a cleaning that grew so quickly that he had a team of employees to manage and was able to sell the business by age 19.   What contributed to his incredible work ethic and how was that passed down to him by his family, including his mother who still works full-time in her senior years?   We will also be joined by Trish Paterson, Copper Branch’s new CEO who is also the owner of the first Copper Branch franchise in Ontario.  She’ll share some of the strategies they have developed to beat the pandemic slowdown that has affected so many businesses.     Rio Infantino - Bio Copper Branch was founded on the idea that food should always empower our bodies and our lives. President and founder, Rio Infantino, has had, for many years, a very strong idea of how food should be sourced and served.   Rio Infantino has over 30 years of combined experience in the restaurant industry. His true franchise experience began with Subway restaurants in which he was a multi-unit franchise owner for over 20 years, owning as many as 15 locations at one time. Throughout his career, his health and lifestyle were severely negatively impacted. Weighing up to over 350 pounds and in physical despair, Rio’s health was a major concern. After several years of feeling stressed, overweight and out of shape, Rio finally decided his life needed to change. From that moment on, he has made a commitment to bettering his health and was fed up with serving food that he was not proud of, and that had no true nutritional value.   Today, he is incredibly healthy and a strong advocate for a plant-based, whole foods diet. And so finally, with his new-found health and intense years of operational training, he started to work on the project that was Copper Branch.   Copper Branch took several years to fully develop before opening the first location. Rio would work tirelessly establishing his contacts, working out his marketing and concept plan, and of course, working with many different chefs to establish a 100% plant-based menu that was not only delicious, but that had the capability of expanding to many locations and be served fast! Years went into this development until Rio was finally confident in opening the first Copper Branch location -that opened September 2014 in Montreal, Quebec. Ever since then, Copper Branch has been on a mission: to inspire and educate communities with our 100% Plant-Based, Power Food menu. To nourish and bring joy to our community and respond to many people’s demand for actual healthy foods in the fast-food market.   Our goal is to branch across the globe, touching upon as many different communities as we can and inspiring the Food Revolution. We are proud to be part of this movement and want to continually be a game-changer and inspire our customers with new and great-tasting menu items.   Trish Parterson - Bio:   Trish Paterson is an accomplished executive who brings over 30 years of experience across multiple industries.  Trish is a community leader and philanthropist who brings strategy, passion and a genuine love of everything plant-based to her role as CEO of Copper Branch.   Trish oversees operations and provides the strategic road map for the company’s growth.  When Ms. Paterson is not speaking at corporate gatherings, community events or schools about the Copper Branch story, she can be seen hands-on in the Copper Branch restaurants because that is “where the most important people are - our staff and our customers “   Throughout her career, Trish has earned a reputation as a transformational hands-on leader who builds strong partnerships and teams with a focus on making change happen.    Trish is a dedicated mother of 3 boys and resides with her husband Sean in Raglan, Ontario where they have been known to host large plant based gatherings. Trish is a graduate of Carleton University. 

Early on while growing up, our next guest already knew he wanted to be a successful entrepreneur or an Olympic skier.  He even sold bales of hay at the age of 8.  As he’s in our show, you’ve probably guessed that the Olympic skier part didn’t pan out.  But he’s not just a successful entrepreneur.  He’s an entrepreneur who helps OTHER entrepreneurs. He’s Chris Kerr, one of the most highly respected plant-based venture capitalists in the world.   Have you ever thought of employing your high school classmates? Chris will discuss some of his first businesses he started while still in high school.  He’ll also share with us how he became a vegan, how he became a prolific investor in early-stage, plant-based food companies, and the story of why he founded the plant-based seafood company Good Catch.     One key vegan ingredient has been a game changer in allowing vegans to enjoy delicious pizza completely guilt-free...vegan cheese!  We’ll learn how 14 pizza boxes and one 4-year old little girl helped Chris get vegan cheese into Wholefoods.   Chris reveals what capitalists look for before investing in a company, as well as the first steps taken to make them grow.   

Have you ever thought back and wondered if you played it too safe when you were young? What if you had just quit school and lived out of your car traveling for 10 years living off the grid?    Maybe your whole approach to relationships and life in general would have changed.  Maybe you would have been forced to be much more creative and resourceful in order to fund your wandering lifestyle.  And maybe….just maybe... you would have built an innovative renewable energy company that leads in providing clean energy to households and companies in your country, and created the first all-vegan professional football club in the world. All that happened to our guest, Dale Vince, the founder and owner of Ecotricity, not only Britain’s greenest energy company, but the world’s first green energy company.   In this episode of Plant-Based Profits, we explore Dale’s amazing vegan journey as a hippie with no money, no equipment and no training, to a world-changing innovator in both renewable energy AND sports.  Starting from the beginning, we’ll learn how he hated school and had a real problem with authority and petty rules.  We’ll explore how he became a dedicated vegan New Age Traveller where he would then learn the skills and make connections that helped him to launch something so much bigger than himself.  How did this hippie traveler build a company from zero to now earning at least £165M off of his windmill trailer and crane truck?  We’ll take Dale on a trip down his memory lane from his early childhood and find out how he started thinking green and living green. 

Have you ever had a great idea for a new product but stopped short because you started to doubt yourself and wonder if it was just too crazy, or the market wasn’t ready for it?     We all know that dairy milk alternatives are hugely popular, and chances are that you’ve probably picked-up any one of the many Silk products from your local grocery store.  In this episode of Plant-Based Profits, we’ll be talking with Steve Demos, the founder of White Wave, the company responsible for Silk Soy Milk in a time when Tofu was a strange new food in America, let alone, Soy Milk.   First we’ll explore how entrepreneurship started with Steve at a very young age.  Was he born an entrepreneur or did he learn to be one?     Then we will share how the dairy alternative revolution almost never happened...how he was literally one set of jumping jacks away from possibly never founding White Wave and getting his hands into tofu-making.   We’ll learn how he started everything with just $500 and turned that into $14M, and then into $100M, in just 3 years, eventually selling for more than $300M!  How did he create such a successful world-changing business that set morality as priority #1 in an age where capitalism was anything but?  Steve will discuss a concept he learned called “Right Livelihood” that made him go back into capitalism with something to prove.    And if you think that hiring through intuition is a crazy thing that has no place in business, Steve will reveal how you can (and should) trust your gut.

In this first episode, hosts Shawn Stratton and Ronnie Gandiza give themselves a short introduction, explain why they started the Plant-Based Profits Show podcast, and share what to expect in the first few episodes.