Podcast appearances and mentions of sara polon

This week Rabbi Pont is joined by Sara Polon (a.k.a. Soupergirl) and Marilyn Polon (a.k.a. Soupermom), the mother/daughter team behind the delicious, kosher, vegan, and responsibly sourced soup brand, Soupergirl. Listen in to hear how a budding stand-up comedian turned her passion for fixing our broken food system into a soup company with the help of her worried Jewish mother. The story is fanscinating and the soup is delicious. Find out where you can get a bowl at https://www.thesoupergirl.com. 

Sara Polon, Co-Founder and CEO of Soupergirl -- a natural, plant-based, kosher, and sustainably sourced soup company -- joins this episode of Change@Work. The comedian-turned-food entrepreneur and host, Chris Thornton discuss Sara's journey to soup-making, the challenges and joys of being a small business owner in the food and beverage industry, and the role consumers play in creating a more sustainable and equitable future when buying packaged foods.

Sara Polon joins the show to talk to us about the ethical issues in food production in the USA. We get into Sarah's background, and how she is approaching building a conscious company moving forward. Get Soupergirl here: https://thesoupergirl.com/Jordan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanscheltgen/Jordan's Twitter: https://twitter.com/jordanscheltgenSara's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-polon/Get weekly actionable social media advice on our Newsletter: https://mindyourmarketing.beehiiv.com/subscribeHire our agency: https://www.cavesocial.com

Sara shares her journey of starting Soupergirl during a recession with no prior knowledge of the industry. She talks about her experience appearing on Shark Tank, her company's expansion into grocery stores, and working alongside her mother to build the brand. Sara also discusses the importance of maintaining Kosher standards in her business and how it has influenced her product development. She shares valuable insights into the challenges of running a successful food business, as well as her commitment to using sustainable and locally sourced ingredients. Don't forget to check out our Jews Shmooze merchandise, T-shirts and a mug, to show your support for the podcast! Visit our store at ⁠https://rb.gy/qp543⁠ and grab your favorite design today. To keep up with our latest episodes, follow us on Twitter @Jews_Shmooze. If you're interested in sponsoring an episode, reach out to us at JewsShmoozeMarketing@gmail.com. You can also listen to Jews Shmooze on the phone at UK: 44-333-366-0589, IL: 972-79-579-5005, or USA: 712-432-2903.

Sara Polon is an entrepreneur who is on a mission to upend our broken food system – starting with soup. As the co-founder and CEO of Soupergirl, she has lead the company from its humble beginnings as a local soup delivery business, to a multi-million dollar national food company. Sara, via Soupergirl, is trying to redefine the notion of “quality” as it pertains to food. She is eager to start and engage with consumers regarding the “story of the food” – from the farm to their plate. She also enjoys volunteering, hiking, plant-based cooking, and biking.     COOL RECIPES MENTIONED IN THE PROGRAM Aguas Frescas Orange Creamsicle Ice Dream Blueberry Ice Dream Strawberry Ice Dream

Fixing the broken food system is no piece of cake—but one brand believes they can do it, one bowl of soup at a time.  Welcome to Building While Flying! This weekly podcast is brought to you by the Sasha Group. We're the small-to-medium-sized business arm of the VaynerX family of companies. We help ambitious companies build strong brands that flex with the times through strategy, branding, media, and marketing. In ever-changing times, businesses and brands have to shift and adapt. And across all sectors, there is an air of experimentation. Business owners are trying new things out in the wild;  building the plane while flying. Our pilots, Katie Hankinson and Mickey Cloud, will be talking to a diverse range of business leaders and founders. They'll explore how these guests tackle various challenges while staying resilient and committed to growth. Through these real-life examples of strategies put into practice, we hope to inspire you to experiment and develop your own strategies as we all navigate these uncertain times together.  Sara Polon and her team have a bold mission: to make the world better with soup. Sara Polon is a former standup comedian turned self-taught soupmaker. She and her mother started Soupergirl in 2008, with a mission to fix the broken food system, and share everything they've learned along the way. Their soups are truly one of a kind—made with seasonal ingredients, kosher, vegan, gluten-free, and radically delicious. In their conversation, Sara and Mickey first dive into Sara's background in comedy, and how those skills help and impact her as a business owner. Then Sara goes deep on the current food system, people's different approaches to food, and how Soupergirl is making a difference, and will continue to do so. Sara also talks about meeting your consumers where they are, and shares how the COVID-19 pandemic forced her and her team to refocus their vision and channel strategy from retail to DTC. At the end of the day, Sara says, as long as they remain focused and understand their vision, we will get there. If you're craving some soup after listening, head to the Soupergirl website to find where you can buy some near you, or to order some for delivery right to your door. Other In-flight Topics: Standup comedy in New York City Starting a business with your mother Infusing comedy background as a business owner Defining your approach to food Fixing the broken food system How the COVID-19 forced them to refocus their channel strategies How to meet your consumers where they are The challenges of communicating a values-focused brand story The importance of listening to your consumers Links:  Website: https://thesoupergirl.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesoupergirldc/ Store locator: https://thesoupergirl.com/find-in-stores/ Order soup for delivery: https://thesoupergirl.com/enter-zip-code/ What previous career did you have to being an entrepreneur and what lessons did you carry over?

Nick and Sara discuss her previous career and how she became an entrepreneur. She tells us about creating her soup and her very interesting journey with Shark Tank. Listen to who her mentor was and how their relationship developed.

In this episode I interview Sara Polon, co-founder of Soupergirl, a plant-based soup brand in Washington DC. Sara is a former standup comedian who founded Soupergirl in 2008 with her mother, Marilyn, aka Soupermom. Sara Polon (right) with her mother Marilyn. The pair have been featured regularly on national television, including Shark Tank and NBC’s Today Show. Last year Soupergirl received a $2 million dollar investment from Arborview Capital and Seth Goldman, Board Member of Beyond Meat. More recently, the company has become plastic-neutral through its partnership with rePurpose Global in a further step to fulfill Soupergirl’s goal of saving the planet - one bowl of soup at a time. In this interview Sara discusses: • Why she gave up stand-up comedy to make soup and the skills her former career has brought to Soupergirl • How she got Soupergirl’s products into WholeFoods, Costco and other retailers • How she handled the roasting she and Marilyn received on Shark Tank in 2018 and what they learned from the experience • The advantages of being on the show, despite not getting a deal • The benefits the company has gained from media coverage • How she secured a $2 million impact investment (including how long it took) • And more Visit the Soupergirl website RESOURCES: My Online PR Course for Vegan Business Owners & Entrepreneurs: Vegans in the Limelight My book Vegan Ventures: Start and Grow an Ethical Business Services: Work with me Follow Vegan Business Media on: Facebook   Twitter  Instagram  Connect with me personally at: Facebook  Twitter  LinkedIn

Sara Polon graduated from University of Pennsylvania where she studied history. Her career path then took many meandering twists and turns including working at an Internet start up, leading tours through the Middle East, and several years as a stand-up comic in New York. In 2008, after reading Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, she founded Soupergirl along with her mom, Marilyn Polon (aka Soupermom /Chief Anxiety Officer). Sourcing seasonally from local farmers, the company makes a wide variety of healthy, kosher, all-natural, vegan soups that can be found all over the east coast. You can find Soupergirl products at the company's two DC area retail locations, Whole Foods stores from Kentucky through Virginia, Giant, Lidl, Wegmans, Peapod and Costco Warehouse from Massachusetts down to Washington, DC. The company also ships soup nationwide via their Souper Meals program.   Soupergirl has received national press, and has been featured in such publications as the Washington Post, Food and Wine, O Magazine, and more. The soup duo was most recently seen on ABC's Shark Tank, NBC's Today Show, and CBS' The Dish. You can find out more and order Soupergirl's delicious soups at soupergirl.com.    This was such a fun and inspiring conversation. Sara shares how her company started in 2008 with her mom carrying bags and pounds of onions and tomatoes and all kinds of vegetables up and down the stairs to the small kitchen they rented at a restaurant across the street. When I asked what was the key ingredient that has helped her stay the course, she said it was gratitude. I couldn't agree more, as gratitude has been shown to rewire our brain for the positive. I've tried many of Soupergirl soups, and all I can say is that it is obvious that love, intention and attention are stirred into each batch. I can't recommend her soup enough.    Connect with Sara Polon Website: thesoupergirl.com Facebook: facebook.com/sara.polon Twitter: @thesoupergirl Instagram: @thesoupergirldc LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sara-polon   Enjoying the show? For iTunes listeners, get automatic downloads and share the love by subscribing, rating & reviewing here!   *Share what you are struggling with or looking to transform with Julie at podcast@juliereisler.com. Julie would love to start covering topics of highest interest to YOU. Please also let us know if you are interested to be a guest on her show to discuss where you are stuck, and do live coaching with Julie on her podcast.   Join host Julie Reisler, author and multi-time TEDx speaker, each week to learn how you can tap into your best self and become your You-est You® to achieve inner peace, happiness and success at a deeper level! Tune in to hear powerful, inspirational stories and expert insights from entrepreneurs, industry thought leaders, and extraordinary human beings that will help to transform your life. Julie also shares a-ha moments that have shaped her life and career, and discusses key concepts from her book Get a PhD in YOU Here's to your being your you-est you!    You-est You Links: Subscribe to the Podcast  Learn more at JulieReisler.com Become a Sacred Member at The School of Sacredology Join The You-est You® Community for Soul Seekers on Facebook Subscribe to Julie's YouTube Channel Book Julie as a speaker at your upcoming event Amazon #1 Best selling book Get a PhD in YOU Download free guided-meditations from Insight Timer Julie's Hungry For More Online Program (10 Module Interactive Course)  

SouperGirl's Sara Polon discusses how to bring a food product to market as she explains successfully breaking into the DTC landscape and wholesale retailers. She also gives helpful advice on how to differentiate your product through value marketing and effective communication to your consumers. Lastly, get the inside scoop about her experience on Shark Tank!

Before co-founding Soupergirl with her mother, former stand-up comedian Sara Polon was not in a good place. This painful two-year period in her late twenties was one of depression and its physical manifestations. It was also one of the most important and defining. From pain came self-discovery, rejection of certain expectations, renewed attention to physical health, and deepened relationships – all of which now live in her company’s products, story, values, and mission.

Sarah Polon is the founder of Soupergirl, a Washington D.C.-based company that sells healthy, vegan soups with locally-sourced ingredients.  It was Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, that inspired Sarah to quit her job and start a food business to educate her community on the importance of connecting with the food they eat and properly nourishing their bodies. The post 451: How to Break Into the Vegan Food Industry Making Soups With Sara Polon, Soupergirl [Espresso Shots] appeared first on Time4Coffee.

Soupergirl co-founder, Sara Polon joins today's podcast. She chats about the chain's strategy regarding the pandemic, but also about her appearance on "Shark Tank," her future plans for the business and what it's like to work with your mom.Bradley Cooper also shares the latest coronavirus news and updates.

Sarah Polon is the founder of Soupergirl, a Washington D.C.-based company that sells healthy, vegan soups with locally-sourced ingredients.  It was Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, that inspired Sarah to quit her job and start a food business to educate her community on the importance of connecting with the food they eat and properly nourishing their bodies. The post 390: What To Do If You Want to Start a Food Business w/ Sara Polon, Soupergirl [K-Cup DoubleShot] appeared first on Time4Coffee.

Sarah Polon is the founder of Soupergirl, a Washington D.C.-based company that sells healthy, vegan soups with locally-sourced ingredients.  It was Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, that inspired Sarah to quit her job and start a food business to educate her community on the importance of connecting with the food they eat and properly nourishing their bodies. Today, Soupergirl has two brick-and-mortar shops and delivers soups all over the country. The post 388: Why Soupergirl Listened to Her Gut & Built a Soup Business w/ Sara Polon, Soupergirl [K-Cup DoubleShot] appeared first on Time4Coffee.

Sarah Polon is the founder of Soupergirl, a Washington D.C.-based company that sells healthy, vegan soups with locally-sourced ingredients.  It was Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, that inspired Sarah to quit her job and start a food business to educate her community on the importance of connecting with the food they eat and properly nourishing their bodies. Today, Soupergirl has two brick-and-mortar shops and delivers soups all over the country. The post 385: What It’s Like to Build a Vegan Soup Business w/ Sara Polon, Soupergirl [Main T4C episode] appeared first on Time4Coffee.

Danielle talks with former comedian, soup savant and Soupergirl founder Sara Polon about maximizing flavor while minimizing meat consumption and food waste. Sara has taken her mindfully sourced vegan soup company national, and we’ll talk about her journey toward world soup domination, getting some tips along the way for making delicious vegan food.

Sara Polon is saving the world, one bowl of soup at a time. The entrepreneur who recently was on Shark Tank and the TODAY Show has a lot to say, but for a change, this entrepreneur isn’t talking with us; she’s talking with our friend Adam Yee of the My Food Job Rocks Podcast! This first-ever Business for Good Podcast showcase involves trading an episode with another podcast. They recently showcased our episode with Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey, and now we’re reciprocating by showcasing their fascinating and fun interview with our friend Sara Polon, cofounder of Soupergirl. In this interview, you’ll learn more about the food industry--the topic of Adam’s podcast--but especially about Sara’s decision to start a new chapter of life devoted to conscious capitalism and how she grew from one plant-based soup shop to having national distribution and multi-millions in revenue. Enjoy!

A lot happened this year. I started a company with two amazing people, I moved to Sacramento, I reconnected with old friends and I made new ones. So some updates for My Food Job Rocks. Lots of fun things happened this year. I was able to talk to some really amazing guests that made its mark in the food science community. I would say the past 100 episodes focused much more on innovative technologies, and startups, as well as having even better technical people on the show, in all sorts of disciplines from blockchain to clean meat. This was also the year where half of my guests weren’t people I had to hunt down and beg to be on the show. A big chunk of this years’ guests were actually from PR firms! And there were some really cool people. Susie Fogelson from the Food Network, Alan Reed from the City of Chicago, Claudia Sidoti from Hello Fresh, and so many more awesome people were pitched to me and I learned so much from them. However, this podcast has gotten a bit tough to manage. On the article, a Better Bet, I sprinkled throughout the article that the point of My Food Job Rocks was to develop a network so I could have the resources needed to create a great company when I was 30. However, things happened 4 years earlier and I’m now co-founder of a rising startup. The podcast’s initial purpose is done, so what now? I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t know. I still have a lot of fun doing it, and I find the learning experience like a routine. For me, it’s like jogging, or reading, or stuff like that. I learn and take away so much. Especially interviewing these CEO’s, I can now ask questions that are stumping Better Meat Co. For example, I asked Shelby Zitelman from Soom Foods and Sara Polon from Soupergirl, “how did you get your first sale?” And their answers were so good, I clipped them for our Smart Snack Bites (add bites). I learned a lot from that question, no one really expects their first sale, but when they do, it’s such a memorable experience. So what does that mean for next year? No idea actually. I’ll still be maintaining the blog, because it’s an outlet for me to talk, and it’s an outlet for me to share. Share my challenges and share my story so others can not make the same mistakes I did. Recording and writing helps me think clearer, talk better, and show people I’m a legitimate person, so I keep on doing it. We have a survey launching this week. It’s not about improving stuff, well it is, but the questions will be focused more on content variety. What do you want me to talk, or write about in the future? Who do you want me to interview? What would you want a T-shirt about Food Science to say? Stuff like that. I also find the My Food Job Rocks blog as great way to give food industry professionals an opportunity to write and show what they’re made of, and the growth of the people who have wrote for My Food Job Rocks has made me so proud. Veronica Hislop still writes, Julia Lamphear who wrote the Why Series, has her own Non-Profit, Faseeh Rahman who participated in our Food Science Global event is now posting food safety clips on LinkedIn and is getting so many opportunities! Carrie Ardnt, our latest guest poster used to just post her amazing packaging analysis posts on linkedin and they’d be swallowed in the abyss, but I wanted them to be achieved because they have value. These posts do so well on social media. Giving people who want to write the opportunity to write and see how their work is helping people is very valuable. If you’re interested, you know where to find me. However, I’m a tough boss because I want you to fall in love with writing on a consistent basis. What’s also nice is that my articles are actually being found in google. My name is also googleable, which definitively means I’m the best Adam Yee on the internet, right? Anyways, a handful of articles get a dozen views daily. Did I expect these articles to be searched so much? Sorta, I had a good hunch about them. Basically, here are the top 5 articles on My Food Job Rocks Food Science vs Nutrition Why You Shouldn’t Be a Food Scientist. What is Food Science, a Beginner’s Guide Resume Tips for Beginning Food Scientists The Graduate Student Series If you like stats like I do, I’ll have you know that David Despain’s podcast about being a CFS is actually the most viewed shownotes. Dr. Gabriel Keith Harris’ has the most downloads. In certain periods, Veronica’s articles also get a lot of views. For instance, this month, the Cotton Candy article is very popular. A couple of months back, Banana was trending and a couple of months before then, peanuts. The fruits of My Food Job Rocks’ labor has bore its benefits, not just in credibility. Heck, I think it saved me from a dark time when all of my friends left me in Phoenix. I have an article on Friday that’ll explain all of that. Many know the lessons of being consistent, and My Food Job Rocks is proof that if you do something everyday for two years…you’ll get better at it. But more importantly, people will respect you for it. Being consistent allowed me to get speaking gigs. Not just in IFT, but in San Francisco, and soon, perhaps some other conferences in the works. This was a lot of work, putting one block at a time, every week until it’s finally building to something pretty cool. To end on this, I wanted to talk about skills. Particularly, 5 of them These 5 skills are designed to get you through a startup, but now that I’m reviewing them, these skills will help you in any aspect of your career. As I think about these skills, these skills allowed me to excel at my last job, and is proving their worth at Better Meat Co. If you want to rise to the top, or want to survive the startup world, I suggest working on these skills. We’ll be analyzing why they’re important, and how you can get better at them. Top 5 Skills Autonomy Autonomy is the ability for you to confidentially do your job and deliver results without the help or permission of your equals or superiors. This is a very tough skill to master as it requires a lot of confidence in your craft. In school, you had to ask permission to do something, all the way to perhaps college. I would even guess that people who are We all go through this slope when it comes to acquiring a new skill. According to Wikipedia, we call this the four stages of competence. I actually learned about this when scanning through the brochure at my last job where it talked about how to sell nutrition products to your friends and family. The four stages are: Unconscious incompetence The individual does not understand or know how to do something and does not necessarily recognize the deficit. They may deny the usefulness of the skill. The individual must recognize their own incompetence, and the value of the new skill, before moving on to the next stage. The length of time an individual spends in this stage depends on the strength of the stimulus to learn.[5] Conscious incompetence Though the individual does not understand or know how to do something, they recognize the deficit, as well as the value of a new skill in addressing the deficit. The making of mistakes can be integral to the learning process at this stage. Conscious competence The individual understands or knows how to do something. However, demonstrating the skill or knowledge requires concentration. It may be broken down into steps, and there is heavy conscious involvement in executing the new skill.[5] Unconscious competence The individual has had so much practice with a skill that it has become "second nature" and can be performed easily. As a result, the skill can be performed while executing another task. The individual may be able to teach it to others, depending upon how and when it was learned. Everyone deals with this when it becomes a skill. Yet learning how to be automomous this can become a problem, A bad boss who helicopters around you can traumatize you into always asking your superiors if your option is the right option to do. A bad boss can really affect your career just because they can cripple your ambitions. You never know if what you do is right and it really affects your psyche. It’s a really terrible thing. The best way I found to solve this is to read books about this type of stuff. Reading helps you understand different perspectives. In many books, the saying “It’s better to beg for forgiveness then ask for permission”. What helps in this regard is to publish or ship something on your own. By creating something where you can give out or even better, sell on your own will give you more confidence in terms of doing work. What giving out or selling something does is validates that what you do is valuable to whomever you’re giving it to. Knowing you have full control over what people find valuable, and not your superiors makes your job a lot easier. Resourcefulness Phil Saneski and I have had a great talk on the power of resources. The podcast has also given me a very powerful resource pool and I’ve used some of my guest’s services and products to get work done at the startup. Using your resources is directly connected to how well you network. As many know, networking is an art and takes time to cultivate, but the benefits is like your garden actually growing food for you to eat. Podcasting, or in general, interviewing, is the ultimate networking tool because you cater to two people in particular: the people you’re interviewing have a close connection to you and if it was a good, legitimate interview, they remember that. But also the people who read or listen to your stuff. Yet let’s look at this through a microscope. With podcasting I learned how to cold call people to get on the show, advertise on social media, leverage and work together on other networks to amplify value on both sides, learned how to not be afraid of my own voice, to be consistent and deliver value every single week. Those are the skills, the crevices that get filled when you do a podcast and all of it, helps with being resourceful. Humility Back in college, I had a huge ego. I didn’t want to be wrong, and I made people cry. It took a lot of time working with different people to slowly break that down. Working in the multicultural center chipped it down, working with young, high school educated workers in the factory chipped it down, supervising coworkers who were older than me and were in a company longer than I was chipped that down. My coworkers are sometimes very surprised when I admit I’m wrong when the data shows that I’m wrong. Humility is a vital skill, and it requires a great amount of confidence and self-awareness for it to actually work. When you’re humiliated, shame or the perception of shame overwhelms you and you are paralyzed, or worse, you make things worse. Working on being shameless improves so many things. When shame stops affecting you, two things happen: you can share everything, and you have the vision that surpasses you being right or wrong. In the grand scheme of things, does your opinion matter? This is a big question. Nobody wants to look incompetent, or weak, or embarrassed, but everyone’s gone through this before. You won’t ever be fired for admitting your wrong if no damage has been done. In most cases, you’ll be thanked for your humility. Training for humility is hard, but it of course, involves risks. Failing high risk generally builds up humility but only if you can reflect on why your call was a bad one. I was fortunate enough for my CSO at Isagenix to throw me into very high risk situations. Sometimes, they didn’t work out the way I planned, so I reviewed what went wrong and tried again. Having a sort of Nihilistic or Stoic mindset when it comes to humility also works wonders. Reading books from Ryan Holiday, or Seth Godin helps wonders in understanding Humility. Understanding humility will help you put yourself out there more, and will allow you to sympathize with anyone. Curiosity This is a skill that always pops up on almost every interview with a passionate food scientist. They are generally curious on how things work. But on this episode, I want to emphasize the importance of learning the whole process. For the food industry, that means learning literally everything. This was resonated from Alan Reed from the Chicagoland Food and Beverage Network. This guy got an MBA and did marketing, but he was so interested in the whole process, he recently took a role of Executive Director. Will Holsworth started in Pepsi, where Pepsi knows the importance of knowing the whole process and many food companies develop leadership programs to explore the whole process. Maybe you don’t have the luxury to do this, but that doesn’t matter. You can still talk to your colleagues about learning what’s going on. You can still force yourself to attend meetings that bridge the knowledge gaps. You can still listen to My Food Job Rocks podcasts to see a glimpse of the day in the life of what goes in your food. Curiosity killing the cat is a threat. It doesn’t work anymore because now, the floodgates on gaining knowledge is now infinite. Even if someone will harm you for their knowledge, there are many ways to get around it, connect the dots, and create a different recipe. Secret formulas don’t make sense any more because brand is associated with flavor. Who cares if your product tastes like Coca Cola or your product tastes like KFC’s chicken? Will coke or KFC lose market share because you found their formula? Maybe 50 years ago, but now, their brands are so strong, it doesn’t matter. Instead, what if you just learned the process, or how the flavors work in products and make your own masterpiece? This takes curiosity to dive in and find our how to do things. Curiosity isn’t about copying products, it’s about discovering systems. Curiosity allows you to connect the dots and create innovation for the sake of innovation. Craft There is a difference between treating your profession as a job versus treating your profession as a craft. Treating your profession like a job is just doing the same thing, waiting to just be done, get money and spend it on whatever. And the cycle repeats. Treating your profession as a craft means that you want to improve the work you do enough where people will notice and love what you do. A job is a cyclical process, you do things for the sake of compensation, and that’s fine. A craft is like a spiral. You do things, but every day, every week, or every iteration, you want to improve. Making your job your craft delivers a lot of things that help see your life as a bit more palatable. For one, you deviate from the fact that you aren’t doing it for the money anymore. Most artists don’t do things for the money, you don’t have to either. Perhaps the payoff of improving your craft is appealing. That one day, you will get what you deserve through hard work and improvement. But most of all, improving on your craft gives you a sense of purpose. By slowly imporving what you do to make people’s lives’ better, for a chance to be the best of it is a very satisfying goal, that gives your life meaning. It’s a blessing if your job and your craft is one and the same, but it doesn’t have to be. In fact, I would say that if it wasn’t for podcasting, I wouldn’t have ever made food science my craft. Podcasting allowed me to dive deeply into this meta-learning state, reading more about the art of crafting. Now both food science and podcasting are a craft to me, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Having a craft means having a goal where you will keep on improving it until you get to that goal, and then achieve a bigger goal. For podcasting, it was “make 6 episodes”, then “get sponsors” then “get 100 episodes”, and now, “get 300 episodes”. For Food Science, I started my job in a granola bar factory. The goal was to “get a product development job”, then it was “make really good products”. Then it was “start your own company”, now it’s “make an impact”. All of these skills can be cultivated all at the same time very easily. All you need to do is start something you’re passionate in. Someone last week came up to me and talked about trying to change the healthcare system. Instead of drugs, he wants turmeric, medicinal mushrooms, etc to solve our health problems. He mentioned in his question to the speakers “when can something like turmeric-mushroom mix, be sold in the stores instead of drugs?” Afterwards we talked, he said that he knows that our healthcare system is a big problem. I told him if he wanted to fix it, of course, he did. After I told him the story of the podcast, and the Better Meat Co, and how that all got started, all I said was “If you can’t sell your own turmeric-mushroom mix, what makes you think you have a shot of changing the healthcare system?”. People have the power to change things, but sometimes the problem is so big, nobody starts. This is the current issue with climate change. We’re getting close, we need more help. So finally, this is the final ask. You might be able to work for 8-12 hour a day, but afterwards, you have 8-12 hours to make an impact. You just have to start something. A blog, a podcast, an event every weekend, a food stand in a farmer’s market. Elon Musk said it takes 80 hours to change the world. There was a lot of backlash from his post, but I am a firm believe you have to work hard to make an impact. So do more than the 100 people I’ve interviewed. A lot of people don’t make an impact in their life. If you don’t want to, that’s fine, there are many people like you. But for those who do want to leave an impact, we need you. We need more heroes. And we’re all here, happy to support you. And I'll be so happy when I can say "Welcome to the community"

After living in New York as a Comedian, Sara Polon, hit rock bottom and took a hard look at the direction she was going in life. Sara had an Ah-HA moment when she read the book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which inspired her to get involved in the local food movement. After all she grew up on her Mom’s natural, freshly cooked and delicious soup, she got the idea to come back to her hometown in Washington DC. In 2008 she started Soupergirl with her mother to bring locally inspired, nutritious, and delicious soup to the hungry citizens of Washington, DC, and beyond. This mom-daughter duo can tell you, in clear conscience, that their soups are very healthy. They believe if you can’t pronounce something on the ingredient list, it should not be in the soup. Their soups are all plant-based and kosher filled with fresh, local veggies, grains, beans, and other wholesome goodness.  The mission at Soupergirl isn’t just about soup - it’s about our food system. Soupergirl believes in real, responsible food and supports their local farming community. So that the planet, consumer, community, farmers, and laborers all win. As they grow, they believe they can inspire even bigger changes. One spoonful at a time. Recently, they were featured on ABC’s Shark Tank. What was the first soup that you made? Sara started the business with her mother back in 2008. She does not remember the first soup she made. She started her business by hosting gatherings on weekly basis and her mother would cook all the test recipes she had prepared. Sara would then share samples with all the guests, gather their opinions about different soups and that is how she was able to build the basis of her brand. She developed a database of 100 different soups. She launched her business in November 2008. Why did you choose soup to start your business? According to Sara, soup is the perfect food with high nutrition. It contains less fat and if it is prepared properly, it can have all the necessary proteins, fibers and nutrients in it. Sara wanted to get involved in the local food movement by being able to cook differently. She wanted to make an impact and she felt soup was a great way to incorporate healthy food in the lives of people around her. How did you transition from being a comedian to being in the food business? When Sara was doing comedy, she was working for different companies. She was not really passionate about her work and it was slowly starting to get to her. She has always had a very short attention span. Her breakthrough moment came when she was on a flight and read Michael Pollan’s book ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma’. She had never understood the importance of local food movement before. After reading the book, she felt a need to get involved in the local food movement. She was considering a few different options around that time. She wanted to start her own business and her ideas revolved around incorporating comedy and health together. How did you start the business? Sara initially had a partner who backed out in the early stages of her business. After that, she got her mother involved in the business who was willing to help her. Though her mother had no idea what she was getting into. Were you ever skeptical or in doubt about succeeding in your business? Sara thinks when you are a small business owner, there is a constant struggle against self-doubts. Sometimes, in the morning she has this energy and feels like she is going to conquer the world today and then later in the day she feels tired or demotivated due to various reasons. The food industry is very hard, there is a lot of competition. How do you maintain your mindset and focus? Sara believes in herself and in her business. She believes her business is meant to grow because she is staying true to her passion towards food. She also performs meditation that helps her control her stress. Why do you think the food system is broken? People are far removed from where their food comes from. We usually go to the supermarket and everything is neatly packaged in there. We are not connected with how that food item gets to our shopping cart or to the supermarket shelf. We need to be connected with how the food we buy from the supermarket is prepared, who prepared it, how it was farmed. With her business, she is trying to create awareness among people to be more involved with their food and its story. What do you think has had the biggest impact on your growth? Sara thinks her customers have had the biggest impact on the growth. They have promoted the business as well by spreading the word about the business. Sara has a community of fans which many brands do not have. Sara considers herself to be lucky to have such fans. How did you come up with this name for your brand? Sara brainstormed with her family and friends for the name. She had a vision of the illustration. She knew people will be able to relate with the name and that it adds flavor, it adds humor and relates to what she was trying to do. Did you ever have a business plan? Sara initially had a business plan but she was never able to finish it. It has gone through several iterations over the years. Sara believes business plan needs to be a living documentation, it needs to change with time. How has your business changed ever since you aired on Shark Tank? Sara has decided to ship her products nationwide. Every person in the country can now get her food. She was able to set up meetings with major grocery chains and was able to put her products in their stores. What is your favorite soup? It really depends on Sara’s mood and time of day. She usually prefers her ginger butternut soup. In summers, she prefers the chilled watermelon gazpacho. Sara also says there is nothing like a lentil soup with simple vegetables. What is the best advice you have ever been given? The best advice she has ever been given is to never stop believing. Someone said to her that her biggest challenge was going to be staff. She believes anticipating your company's needs, hiring people and planning accordingly is very important for company’s prosperity. You have to be proactive and think three steps ahead. What are you proud of? Sara is not where she wants to be, it keeps her hungry and it keeps her motivated. She says she is not proud of anything as yet. How can we connect with you? thesoupergirl.com

After a stint of being a comedian, Sara Polon started to spiral downhill and it wasn’t until she decided to do a triathlon, that she started to move her life around. But how did she decide to feed herself? With her mother’s soups of course. And that’s kind of how Soupergirl started. With constantly changing innovative flavors such as Split Pea Mint and Mexican Black Bean Sweet Potato and speedy delivery service, Soupergirl is growing fast. Soupergirl has been featured in the press multiple times and has critical acclaims of the taste and health benefits of the Polon’s family soup. Rumor has it, they’ll be appearing on Shark Tank very very soon. Check the show notes for more details. Anyways, super insightful interview with Sara Polon. I learned a ton about passion, motivation, and high pressure processing. A quick note, we talk about Alexa during this interview and while editing, Alexa added 5 apples to my shopping cart… NEW Sponsor - FoodLabelPro.com Is your product packaging compliant with the new FDA rules?  The compliance deadline is January 1st, 2020. At FoodLabelPro.com we will upgrade your current panels for only $50. FoodLabelPro.com also provides package and claim reviews, laboratory analysis, shelf life testing, printer/graphics services, and menu analysis.   We are your one-stop shop for food packaging: FoodLabelpro.com. Sponsor - BAKERpedia This episode is brought to you by BAKERpedia – your one-stop, resource that answers all your questions on industry trends, ingredient information, food safety and more. It’s shared knowledge, freely available, always. BAKERpedia.com – we do all the thinking so you can focus on your business. Show Notes James Altucher – Comedic Journey We want Soupergirl to be happy, fun and approachable Washington Post Article about Soupergirl When someone asks what you do for a living, what do you tell them in a sentence or less?: I’m Soupergirl, I deliver whole food, vegan soup to the masses “Sara Polon is going to clean your colon” We rebranded the cleanse concept and put it as more on the meal If you eat four soups a day, you’ll eat less but you’ll feel more energized New and innovating flavors every week Beet Gaspatcho Peach Gazpacho We try to get traditional flavors and give them a twist Lay’s Do Us a Flavor Queso Chips Frieka Bulgar New flavors work when you pair something new to something old My mom cooked from scratch. We started this company because we saw how many things are low quality and had so many preservatives Why did you start Soupergirl?: After I stopped doing Comedy, I slowly slid to rock bottom. I signed up for a triathalon and paid attention on what I eat. Michael Pollan – Omnivore’s Dilemma We first started in the kitchen. I just invited people to my apartment. When we started delivering, we got press because we were authentic. We started catering, then selling to Costco, then ship How did you get a first customer?: We had a launch party. I asked 6 friends who didn’t know each other and they spread it their friends and it brought 100’s of people. The invite went viral and got forwarded to the press. Daily Candy – begged them to not get the scoop What is the hardest part of the business?: Growth is hard. You have to keep people interested, loyal and still have great quality What are ways to manage growth: Try to hire proactively. Some of the worst mistakes I’ve made was reactively hiring. For example, we hired a kid to deliver soup and he got a hit and run and didn’t tell anyone. What is the most important skillset you can have?: Leadership. You need to learn how to delegate. Do you have any books about leadership?: Actually. No. It’s more about people. How do you choose advice?: You have to be passionate about it. If you're not passionate about the business, the advice you take can destroy you. Passion will sort out the right advice Soupermeals Any stories about your soup?: One of our customers got her bloodwork done and the Soup meals gave her the best blood results Cancer treatments, harsh illnesses Parents use their soup for kid’s diets Food Trends and Technology: For trends, plant-based. For technology, clean meat High-pressure Processing (HPP) – Our gaspacho is HPP HPP increases shelf life from 10 days to 95 days HPP used in Hummus and things HPP can have your product explode your product The biggest challenge a food producer needs to face: If you have an idea and you want to cook something, there’s not a lot of shared kitchen spaces to try a product. There’s barely any guidance for this. You need a lot of physical assets that are hard to get. More people are getting sick in food because your food comes from everywhere Maker’s Space shuts down Cottage Industry Laws One thing in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: The future. Things are changing so rapidly. The tension between retail, farmer’s market, so much technology is going on. Trends will boom, but there are niches that will never go away Coconut Oil Who inspired you to get into food?: My mother and Michael Pollan What’s your favorite kitchen item?: Just a knife and a cutting board. I also use my Vitamix. However, to make soup, you just need a knife and cutting board Food Mills Why are you closed on Friday and Saturday?: I’m Jewish and we’re a kosher company so I have to follow the law. Sometimes it’s frustrating, but I’m glad that it forces me to have a vacation How many of your customers are orthodox jewish?: A lot of my customers are not orthodox and vegan. Most of my customers just love good food. How do you like working with your mother?: I’m really lucky. My mom is so energetic How do you make vegan challah?: We make a water challah. We get it from a kosher bakery Any advice to get into the food industry?: Life is short, do it! Regret is the worst feeling in the world. Start small, don’t invest too much until you’re ready. You get to the point: Do this, or do nothing else. Every time I’ve had a Where can we find you for advice?: Our website. Just send me a message. Twitter: @soupergirl Supergirl Like This Episode? Then You Might Like Hugh Thomas - Ugly Drinks: Also exploding in the US, Ugly Drinks is a snarky, CPG brand that is just fun and enjoyable. I learn a ton about marketing from Hugh and this would give you the best steps to start small. Lisa Tse - Sweet Mandarin: Lisa heads Sweet Mandarin, a very popular restaurant and sauce line in the UK. It seems like in the restaurant world, press is king.  

Where do the most effective social change agents focus their efforts? Soupergirl founder Sara Polon and Community Wealth Partners CEO Amy Celep join hosts Billy and Debbie Shore to discuss their motivations and strategies for changing the world. Celep works at the systems level helping other organizations accelerate the pace of social change. She cites KaBOOM!, the national nonprofit dedicated to children’s play, as an example. “We helped [them] say, ‘what we need to do is not just build playgrounds and the infrastructure for play, we need to shift the cultural norm in this country,’” she explains. Polon started Soupergirl to shift the cultural norm through individual decisions. By using only plant-based ingredients sourced largely from sustainable local farms, she is giving consumers better choices that could help fix our broken food system. “Our mantra is changing the world one bowl of soup at a time,” she says. Both guests are story-tellers who changed careers in order to drive change. Formerly a stand-up comedian, Polon knew she wanted to shift to fixing the food system after reading Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. “We’re trying to be so careful about what we put in the soup. Knowing where the food comes from, who grew it, what’s the story of it… we work every day to make sure we stay true to those values,” she says. Celep was formerly a television news producer. “I wanted to tell stories, but the stories you tell on local news were not the stories I wanted to tell. I wanted to tell stories about people changing the world,” she says. Listen to these two dynamic, purpose-driven women share their stories about why and how they are changing the world. R

Tune in for the debut episode of The Leap, as host Sarah Gordon talks to The Soupergirl! Soupergirl is Sara Polon, a former stand up comedienne turned soup-maker. After reading Michael Pollan's book, the Omnivore's Dilemma, Sara decided to get involved in the local food movement. She thought about being a farmer but she can't even keep her house plants alive. Tune in to hear how she made the leap into small business and what advice she has for aspiring food entrepreneurs.

C&L sits down with Sara Polon, of the acclaimed Soupergirl, to talk soup for breakfast, superpowers and her career as a comedian. Listen up.