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UNiTE Food is a Yorba Linda, California-based company that produces globally inspired protein bars. The brand offers unique flavors such as Churro, Mexican Hot Chocolate, and PB & Jelly, aiming to bring diversity to the wellness industry. Each bar provides around 10 grams of protein and is gluten-free, catering to health-conscious consumers seeking both nutrition and nostalgic tastes. Clara often relied on protein bars during her busy career but found the available flavors uninspiring. Drawing from her diverse culinary background, she recognized a gap in the market for culturally diverse flavors. Clara's father is an entrepreneur. Her family immigrated from Sudan when she was five years old. When they arrived in the United States, her father started a plumbing supply distribution business, which is the business Clara worked in earlier in her career. The idea for UNiTE was something Clara started thinking about in 2018 or 2019 while she was still working in her family's plumbing business. She began experimenting with different recipes and products in her kitchen in the early days of the pandemic in 2020.Clara often visits ethnic markets to learn about new flavors for new products. She also studied flavors and what people were eating when she traveled abroad.  QUOTES “If I'm anything, I'm a very curious person. I'm curious about how the world works and I'm curious about why segments of the population aren't being served.” (Clara) “If you focus on your customers, they will reward you with loyalty. And if they reward you with loyalty, your revenue will grow. If you create value, why would somebody leave you?” (Clara)“For me, it was about making sure we were taking care of our customers. That was the winning strategy. It sounds really simple, but it's way harder to execute.” (Clara)“Business is a framework. Once you understand product liability, you understand how to insure against it. You learn about the certifying bodies in your industry. It's hard and it's not (hard).” (Clara)“It's really about building relationships. Mutually beneficial relationships.” (Clara) “When you're over 40 and you created a new business, you're usually not doing it for money, you're doing it to try to make the world a better place.” (Clara)“I wanted to find common ground. Let's find flavors that will resonate with lots of people.” (Clara)“The essence of the UNiTE brand is to seek to understand and seek to find common ground instead of focusing on how we're different.” (Clara)“At the end of the day, consumers want authenticity and they want brands that create products that are meaningful to them. (Clara)“I don't really worry about copycat brands. I worry more when they stop copying me.” (Clara) TRANSCRIPT 00:01.49vigorbrandingAll right. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Fork Tales. I’m Michael Pavone. Our guest today is Clara Paye. And I’ve known Clara for a long time. ah She is from Unite Foods. ah Unite’s line of nutritious bars are built around the concept of global flavors, but also comfort foods. Clara has started a brand that’s redefining what protein and nutrition bars can be, and I’m happy to have her as a guest. Clara, welcome. 00:25.55Clara Paye _ UNiTEThanks, Michael. Good to be here. 00:27.85vigorbrandingSo again, I know you, I think pretty well, and I’m excited to excited for this. This will be fun. So um I want to go back. I mean, you have a fascinating story. So before we get into Unite, I want to talk about you. How did you, you know, where where do you come from? Where do you, where did you work? You know, talk a little bit about what got you, got you here. 00:46.86Clara Paye _ UNiTEWell, it’s definitely not been a linear path. It’s been really a path led by my own curiosity in the world. And so I think if I’m anything, I’m a very curious person. I’m curious how the world works. I’m curious why, you know, segments of the population aren’t being served. So my journey really started, you know, undergrad, I went to USC and I really went undeclared and thought I but wanted to be a lawyer and. 01:10.72Clara Paye _ UNiTEgot into one political science class and I was like, no, I definitely don’t want to do this. And so kind of was looking around like what else is out there, found the business school at USC, and more importantly, found the entrepreneurship program, which was number one in the nation at the time. And, you know, and I knew I didn’t want to study accounting or finance, and that’s what business was to me in my mind back then. And finding this entrepreneurship route really like kind of opened up the world to me and was like a light bulb. 01:34.45Clara Paye _ UNiTEyou know My dad is an entrepreneur. and We immigrated from Africa and the Sudan when I was five years old. And in Africa, he had an automotive parts distribution business. And when he immigrated to the U.S., he started a plumbing manufacturing and hardware distribution business. And so, you know, having a dad that had kind of modeled entrepreneurship, it was demystified for me. And so I was like, oh, that’s really interesting. You know, I’ve been an entrepreneur kind of since I was a little girl, whether, you know, the classic lemonade stand or side popsicles or, you know, drawing pictures and trying to sell them to my aunts. Like, you know, I always had that entrepreneurial 02:07.53Clara Paye _ UNiTEstart and you know funny and but like at USC I remember them taking a poll of all the entrepreneurship kids and how many of them had like a lemonade stand or something similar as a kid and it was like 95% of the class raised their hand right like it’s something almost innate where you know that entrepreneurship bug grabs you was even a little kid and 02:15.32vigorbrandingMm 02:24.37Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd so, you know, going into the entrepreneurship program, it was kind of like and equated to like Ted Talks, where you just got to like hear and listen to these really successful entrepreneurs that had launched and they were normal people with good ideas that they just implemented. 02:36.22vigorbrandinghmm. 02:38.93Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd I thought I would you know be an entrepreneur straight out of undergrad. I wrote a business plan um and for the apparel industry back then. this is I’ll date myself, but I graduated in 1999 and in 1998, 99. I wrote a business plan for plus size clothing for teenage girls. So I saw that there was this huge segment of the population where kids were kind of, you know, Americans were growing in size. and there weren’t really anything fashionable for young girls to wear if they were plus size. They had to shop, you know, especially in jeans, they had to start in the, you know, shop in the women’s Husky department, women’s department or the boy’s Husky department. And it really wasn’t anything fashionable. And I wrote this great business plan. All my professors told me to do it. And like the only person I knew that had any money was my dad. 03:21.66Clara Paye _ UNiTEyou know, being 21 years old and or, you know, barely 21 and asking him to fund, you know, I needed like $30,000 back then to launch this business. And my I was going to do it with my best friend whose father had just invested in the jeans manufacturing plant. 03:34.66Clara Paye _ UNiTEShe had done the entrepreneurship program the year before. It was like this home run idea. The internet was just coming online and we were going to do it all online. We didn’t need storefronts. You know, we’re kind of kind of revolutionize all of these things. 03:44.94Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd my dad’s like, what? Huh? Like watch yourself humming products. Yeah. 03:48.78vigorbrandingYeah. 03:50.42Clara Paye _ UNiTELike, this is a business that already exists. And he just didn’t see it, didn’t understand. But it’s it’s ironic that like that business would grow on to be like that segment specifically, um where I did all my research at this mall, like, went on to become a billion dollar business, like Torrid went into the same free mall with the same concept. And so that was kind of like always in the back of my mind, my entire career. So from age 20 to now, like, gosh, like, why I should have done that, like, I should have done something like that, you know, why didn’t I try and um I’m telling a really long part of the story so we can edit this, but it’s really like, you know, for me, it was really about that early experience in entrepreneurship that I held on to, but then I would go on. 04:22.93vigorbrandingOh, it’s great. 04:29.89Clara Paye _ UNiTEand work in cosmetics, worked for advertising agencies, you know, um and then eventually my dad lured me into the family business, which was like, you know, about five years after college, I wanted to get my MBA and he said, hey, I’ll make you a deal. You and your best friend want to come work for me, get your and MBAs and I’ll pay for them. And you just have to stay the time that you’re studying. And, you know, we did this executive MBA program where we worked our nine to five and then we went to school from like six to 10. 04:53.31Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd those are long days, but they were really fun because I got to take what I was learning in the MBA program and immediately apply it to my family business, which was, again, the plumbing and hardware distribution business. And so not that I was in love with plumbing and hardware, like, trust me, if I never see another supply line in my life, it’ll be too soon. But um it was really about this unique experience that I got to learn and apply, learn and apply. And it was just Really? um Really what set me up for like, you know in that curiosity to like really make an impact in my family business Where you know, sometimes when you join a family business you get told well, this is how we’ve always done it So this is why you have to do it this way and for me I got to kind of redefine everything Because of this MBA program that I was doing and my dad trusted, you know, he always had a high regard for education And so was like, okay. Well, yeah, let’s try it and really got you know got in and 05:45.11vigorbrandingThat’s fantastic. i mean You bring up a really interesting point, though. Being a so a sibling of an entrepreneur, you you kind of do realize, or you maybe you don’t realize that it’s it’s not easy, but you you know it’s it’s doable, right? If you watch your father do it, like my father had a couple small sporting goods stores. So I thought, well, if you want to start a business, you just go out and start it. You just do it. and You know, my story is I’ve never been smart enough to know what I can’t do. So I’m like, Oh yeah, I can do that. And just, you know, and sometimes you pass, sometimes you fail, but you know, it’s like, Oh, I can try that. Oh yeah, I’ll do that. So, but, but I think our parents really do make it easier for us if they’ve done that, you know, and you sort of, I don’t want to say you take it for granted, but it’s sort of like, it seems doable. It seems attainable, you know, and next thing you know, you you’ve got something special. And I’ll say this, it had to be interesting, difficult, and maybe very educational for you. 06:34.52vigorbrandingah being a young woman in and the and the plumbing supply distribution business. I mean, what was that like? 06:40.78Clara Paye _ UNiTEah You know, it was it’s a very old industry. It’s you know very much like there’s very little product innovation. And so for me, being a curious person, I was always trying to learn. I always wanted to go to like plumbing school. So like I could like learn about the products a little bit more because they’re actually really complex. And if you ever go down a hardware store aisle and you go down the plumbing fittings or the plumbing section, I mean, there’s literally thousands and thousands of SKUs and so many different parts to like toilets and you know faucets and it’s it’s a very confusing um you know you have to have like a lot of deep knowledge in the industry to really make an impact so for me you know i knew i was never going to have that right what i could bring to the table was really an outside the box way of thinking about this industry like you know we created the company’s first website and started selling you know online and really trying to 07:28.80Clara Paye _ UNiTEUm, quantify customer experience, right? Like it wasn’t just about like place, you know, filling orders. It was like, what was the experience of that order for your customer? And so I’ve always been a customer centric leader. So I think it’s because I came up through marketing and entrepreneurship. You know, I really care about the customer and I really care about like the person that’s opening the box, whatever that box is, you know, and so. 07:51.58Clara Paye _ UNiTEFor me, it was all about aligning the business to be customer-focused, because my thesis was, if you focus on your customers, they will reward you with loyalty. And if they reward you with loyalty, your revenue will grow. 08:01.84Clara Paye _ UNiTEright It’s a win-win. 08:02.46vigorbrandingmean 08:03.15Clara Paye _ UNiTEIf you create value, why would somebody leave you? So it’s when you’re not creating value and you’re creating problems for the customer that you know you have that attrition. 08:13.25Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd so for me, it was really about um making sure that we were taking care of our customers. And and that was the winning strategy. I mean, it sounds really simple, but it’s way harder to execute when you get to scale. 08:26.05vigorbrandingThat’s great. I mean, it makes total sense. So basically, you do all your own plumbing now, is that what you’re saying? 08:31.81Clara Paye _ UNiTEnot at all 08:32.01vigorbrandingYeah, I knew about it. Okay, so now let’s jump into something that I know you’re very proud of and should be. the that You founded Unite, okay? and And so let’s talk about that. You founded in March of 2020, right? 08:44.85vigorbrandingIn the middle of that thing called the pandemic with COVID. um but Obviously, that was a part of the story. That’s what sort of infused the story. Can you talk a little bit about that? 08:53.69Clara Paye _ UNiTEYeah. So, you know you know, I’d been ideating on it for like probably a year and a half before that and really trying, you know, it was working in the plumbing business at my, you know, and the family business that I was kind of like stuck behind my desk. And especially when I became a mom, like I was always just like looking for quick fuel to get me through my day. And that was like kind of when I had the epiphany for Unite and really our main point of differentiation is that we use global flavors. 09:15.38Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd so I had this unique experience, again, just just like the plus sized clothing where I was like, wait a minute, like there’s this whole population of people out there, like half the population are immigrants, people like me, or people that are just like really interested in other cultures and really interested in other foods. 09:31.28Clara Paye _ UNiTEYou know, I live in LA, like there’s, you can eat Thai, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, whatever you want, any time of day you want, you know, it’s all, you know, and that’s what makes America unique is that we are this melting pot of cultures. 09:38.69vigorbrandingYeah. Yeah. 09:42.73Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd it very similarly, I saw this demographic shift where, you know, America was just going to continue to grow in, in multiculturalism. And so I was like, okay, if you’re in wellness and you are diagnosed with something like for me, it was a gluten intolerance. Like, and you go and try to find diet compliant food and you go to the shelf and like nothing resonates with you. Like that’s a huge miss. And so I think it was because 10:08.08vigorbrandingbut 10:08.18Clara Paye _ UNiTEYou know, i I’m not, everybody that has created protein bars up to that point wasn’t diverse, didn’t have the life experience I had. So I just kind of used my own life experience it to develop it. 10:18.38Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd I developed them in my kitchen, like really, like, you know, as I got my cuisine on out and was like, what would I put in my protein bars? And for me, it was like almond butter and dates and, you know, let’s sweeten it with all natural things. 10:25.68vigorbrandingMm hmm. 10:28.41Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd I i can’t use sugar, alcohols or Stevia. Like I i just, they’re not palatable to me. So I just use natural things. and literally googled what do nutritionists say should be in a protein bar and like made those my macros like it’s not that hard you know you don’t have to like spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to figure it out and um created my first recipes and found a co-packer to make them and I knew you know because I didn’t want any food liability I wanted a really strong co-packer to be the producer for them found one that ah you know where they saw the vision they understood what we were about and supported us and got our product launched and 11:05.31Clara Paye _ UNiTEYou know, Expo West was this trade show, you know, it was a trade show in the food industry. It’s the largest natural products convention in the entire world. And if anybody hasn’t been to it, just imagine seven convention centers all smashed together in Anaheim, hundreds of thousands of people, like 3000 plus exhibitors. It’s literally and figuratively like Disneyland. Like it’s just, it’s a zoo. It’s, there’s so many people. And we got our little 10 by 10 booth and at the, you know, they have this like new products part of natural expo that opens a day before or used to. 11:35.43Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd we got our booth set up and we were ready to rock. 11:37.30vigorbrandingMm hmm. 11:37.51Clara Paye _ UNiTEWe were going to go show our bars. We had this whole warehouse full of new bars to show buyers. 11:39.71vigorbrandingand 11:41.83Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd that’s how it’s going to get people excited. And then the pandemic. And that was the first thing to get canceled. And literally we got this call like shows not going to happen. So break down your booth. 11:51.86Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd you know, and it was like such a wild time. 11:52.43vigorbrandingYep. 11:55.64Clara Paye _ UNiTEum And people were really, you know, unsure of what was going to happen. And, you know, ah brands were not able to get into stores to pitch or any buyers, everything kind of went on hold because every grocery store was worried about safety for their employees and how to keep cleaning products on shelf and Lysol wipes. 12:13.52Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd like nobody was really thinking about like protein bars, right? 12:16.49vigorbrandingRight, right. 12:16.43Clara Paye _ UNiTELike we’re all trying to, you know, that’s what like, I think we all were baking banana bread every day in this power now and like, you know, consoling ourselves with chips and margaritas at, you know, noon. so 12:26.31vigorbrandingYeah. Well, I remember like for us, I mean, you know, one of my companies is Quench, which is a CPG food and beverage. I said, you know, COVID was truly the greatest sampling program in the face of the earth, food and beverage. If you made a product at that time, if you had an established product, you people bought it, people ate it, they put in their pantry, they stacked in their shells. I mean, it was phenomenal time for food. I mean, unfortunately, it was you were too new, right? You couldn’t even take advantage of it. You didn’t even get a chance to get out of the starting gate. so That’s how to be extremely disappointing. But I think it’s amazing too. Like, okay, so you you come from one industry and and you learn a lot just in business and dealing with people from one industry. But then you you applied to this startup that you didn’t, you’ve never really, you were never in the food business. So you don’t learn how to be a manufacturer, you had to learn about safety, you had to learn about ingredients, legal and and everything and anything. I mean, it’s just, ah it’s an amazing undertaking. How did you how did you learn so much? 13:21.18Clara Paye _ UNiTEYou know, like business is a framework. So once you understand product liability, you understand how to ensure against it, right? And you learn that, you know, you have to look, what are the certifying bodies in your industry, right? 13:35.40Clara Paye _ UNiTELike in, you know, for electrical companies, it’s like UL listing, you know, in food, it’s SQF. 13:35.85vigorbrandingMm hmm. Mm hmm. 13:40.84Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd it’s not like the information isn’t that hard to find. So I think it’s like, you know, once you have a framework of, it’s, you know, the product is a widget almost, right? Like how you deal with Lowe’s is how you deal with Target. 13:49.40vigorbrandingMm 13:52.55Clara Paye _ UNiTELike it’s a big box. 13:52.83vigorbrandinghmm. 13:53.59Clara Paye _ UNiTEThey care about many of the same things, right? You have to understand what’s going to happen on the back end of your business. You have to understand how to get that product there on time and in full. And that’s what matters to them. 14:04.49Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd so I, you know, it’s hard and it’s not. And so for me, I’ve always really relied on my network, Michael, like, like if I don’t know the answer, I know somebody that I know must know the answer. 14:16.44vigorbrandingMm hmm. 14:17.09Clara Paye _ UNiTESo I spent a lot of time. I don’t want to say networking, but I think it’s really about building relationships, like mutual like mutually beneficial relationships with people, trust. 14:26.75vigorbrandingSure, trust. 14:29.50Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd when I got into the food space, I was like, I just need to great advisors around me. I need people. 14:33.78vigorbrandingMm hmm. 14:33.82Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd I didn’t want like consultants. I wanted people who were also running their businesses, who were going in the trenches, doing it with in in real time. 14:38.08vigorbrandingSure. Skin the game. Yep. 14:41.79Clara Paye _ UNiTEand so you know, having a ah YPO forum of YPO, you know, food CPG people was like one of the ways that I accomplished that and like really creating a forum of people around me that were doing the same things as I was. 14:50.42vigorbrandingMm 14:56.01Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd, you know, there’s a lot of symbiotic um experience there. And we all got to go through COVID together. So it was something I did early on, you know, it was like grabbing people who wanted to go on this journey with me. 15:02.72vigorbrandinghmm. Mm hmm. 15:06.56Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd so, You know you’re I think networking is like kind of like a bad word sometimes like people think it’s like you’re using people when you say networking but you’re doing networking right you’re actually at creating value for other people first right and that out it works. 15:13.24vigorbrandingwho yeah 15:20.16vigorbrandingThat’s right. Yeah. Absolutely. All right. So now let’s talk. You created the, the you had a product, you you got shut down and covered. So let’s talk about the Unite name. You created a brand and I’m a big brand guy, you know that. I love brands and and I love what you did here. I love the name and I’m not just saying that because you’re here, but this is something I did not know. I read an article and I read about the I in Unite. I should have looked and realized that the lowercase I, but to talk about the brand and how you came up with the name. 15:45.47Clara Paye _ UNiTEYeah, I mean, so for me is all about that what I was trying to do. So this is like the mission part of like this journey when like you’re over 40 and you’re creating new business. Usually you’re not doing it just for money. You’re really doing it because you feel like something’s missing in the world and you want to make the world a better place. At least that’s my journey. 16:01.60Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd for me, it was like, how can I use food as this instrument of inclusion to improve the lives of people, see people who haven’t been seen, welcome them into wellness, right? And kind of create cultural bridges, right? Where like somebody who I think food is has this unique way of binding people, right? Like it’s the cultural equivalent of bringing your, you know, 16:23.95Clara Paye _ UNiTEyour dish to a potluck and like you know kind of like do you like it you know kind of like yeah having that like you know there’s a moment where you’re like are you sure it’s kind of a little strange or like you know when when people used to come to my home and like be like you know my mom made this thing you don’t have to eat it it’s you know you might not like it and then people loving it and you’re like oh Okay, it’s good. Like it’s safe. Like everyone’s accepted now. And so I think for me, it was like how, you know, food can, can also divide people. But if people make fun of somebody’s food or make fun of flavors, you know, and I think it also can unite. And so I wanted to use it as like, you know, let’s, let’s find common ground. Let’s find flavors that like will resonate with lots of people. And so like the flavors we choose typically are not just like country specific. They’re like region specific. 17:04.98Clara Paye _ UNiTESo like, you know, churros are eaten in Spain, in Mexico, and like all over Latin America, right? Baklava is eaten in North Africa, in Greece, in Russia, in Croatia, right? 17:15.03Clara Paye _ UNiTEBubble tea, which sounds like just an Asian, Asian flavor. And yes, it was born in Taiwan, but you know, like but the British drink milk with tea. the in Indian people drink milk with tea, and the Middle East drink milk with tea. 17:25.54Clara Paye _ UNiTELike those flavors are, can resonate with lots of different people. 17:29.23vigorbrandingYeah. 17:29.53Clara Paye _ UNiTESo, and then there’s peanut butter and jelly, and that’s the one where people are like, 17:31.64vigorbrandingYeah. 17:32.95Clara Paye _ UNiTEhuh like you know that’s like that’s not global but it’s like my american heritage is just as important and so i want all people to feel represented and the reason the eye is small and as i think because if you’re trying to connect two sides you yourself have to get smaller to understand the other side and so that you you know to understand the other you know and we live in such a time of division and so like really having a name like unites like it’s really the essence of the brand 17:37.39vigorbrandingyeah 17:58.39Clara Paye _ UNiTEis to, you know, ah seek to understand and seek to find common ground and instead of like how we’re different. 18:05.96vigorbrandingI love it. i mean You obviously have a propensity for for marketing. it’s it’s It’s very smart and very sound, the thinking behind it. and and I’ve had the products that are fantastic. and again I’m not just saying that they’re your your products are absolutely delicious, so you should be very, very proud of that. 18:21.31vigorbrandingum you know and now So we talk about the flavors, so ah we do a food trends presentation every year and we always come up with all these funky flavors and and we we I shouldn’t say funky, we we we learn about things that are popping in different parts of the world and starting to you know bubble up and and and ah you know we we try to grab onto them, I mean all of us as manufacturers, as restaurants, as ah marketers And we try to understand these flavors and how to bring them forth and and introduce something fresh. how do How do you go about finding flavors? How do you go about deciding what the next flavor is going to be? 18:54.83Clara Paye _ UNiTEit’s really intuitive for me but like you know my my hero flavor is churro and like that one was really you know born out of you know I live near Disneyland I live like 15 minutes away and I have small kids and so we were always at Disneyland always the line at the churro cart was kind of like around the corner right and like churro was like definitely this very familiar flavor and like churros are you know they’re eaten they’re They’re not just different for different sake. Many people have had a churro, whether it’s at a fair or at Disneyland or at a carnival. Churro was like not that um outside the box for most people, and it was very approachable. and so like That Disneyland car, just like looking at the lines, I was like, yeah, that could be a really good flavor. How come nobody you know hasn’t really done that? and then 19:44.35Clara Paye _ UNiTEyou know, I would visit ethnic markets a lot to look at the flavors. 19:47.44vigorbrandingSure. 19:47.62Clara Paye _ UNiTESo I go to Hispanic markets, I go to Korean markets, I go to Japanese markets, you know, I live in an area again, where I’m blessed by diversity. And so I study, you know, when I travel, what are people eating? 19:59.01Clara Paye _ UNiTEWhat, you know, what are people, you know, what do people enjoy? And I really, I mean I the first flavors are really like things that I loved so I just wanted to create things you know flavors and then I tested them on my friends and I probably Michael I probably made like 15 or 20 different flavors before I started right like and kind of like chose the heroes from um the ones that I made and in my kitchen. 20:17.81vigorbrandingMm-hmm. Now, is there one that you you loved and thought, oh, everyone’s gonna love this and didn’t make it? Is there a flavor that you kind of, what is it? 20:26.76Clara Paye _ UNiTEYeah it was a ah green tea matcha 20:30.55vigorbrandingUh-uh. 20:30.44Clara Paye _ UNiTEflavor and so but green tea powder sometimes can be fishy and it’s like sounds so weird but like it just didn’t work in in scale right and so and there are macho bars out there but I never think that they taste great and so you know I wanted it to have like good product integrity and so like that was like a 20:35.42vigorbrandingOkay. 20:39.37vigorbrandingNot it. 20:45.81vigorbrandingMm-hmm. 20:48.56Clara Paye _ UNiTEyou know, one that like I thought would be, you know, cause if you, if you look at the Starbucks menu, like ah so many, you know, those, those are great flavor cues too. Like, you know, Starbucks spends a lot of time in flavor development. And so you can just, you can take cues from adjacent industries. 21:01.68vigorbrandingSure. We got to work with a lot over the years ah through Quench. We worked with the Hershey Company and we worked with the scientists. And I was always blown away because we’d go in the, and back, this would be like early 90s, we’d go in these rooms or they’d have to swipe a card for the door to open. It seemed very like, 21:17.81vigorbrandingUh, sign sci-fi, you know, and it would it be lab technicians and they’d put drops and they’d be like, here, taste that. What does it taste like? I’m like, well, I taste apple pie. They’re like, wait for it. I’m like, Oh, I taste whipped cream. Wait for it. Oh, I can not taste crust. Like they could do this. I mean, it was like better living through chemistry. They could do all this stuff. 21:36.54vigorbrandingand what it came down to obviously was and this is what is so hard with what you do is now you have to source the ingredients now you have to make sure it’s not a chemical thing and then you have to understand can you can you afford that flavoring at a price point that will be palatable to the consumer so there’s so much involved in all of what you do yeah 21:56.81Clara Paye _ UNiTEThere is so much like, look, all business is hard, but the food business is particularly hard, right? Because you’re, it’s a living, breathing thing, right? And for me, it came down to simplicity. Like I always wanted simple ingredients um because I wanted people to be able to understand what was going into the bar, right? Like I wanted it to be real food and natural. And um so when you have those kinds of like, 22:22.56Clara Paye _ UNiTEBarriers, you know, it’s it helps you and it hurts you right? Like I can’t put in a bunch of processing You know like many large companies can because that’s not the brand value that I’m trying to create or the kind of product I’m trying to create. 22:30.08vigorbrandingRight. Mhm. 22:34.50Clara Paye _ UNiTESo yeah, it’s very hard um You know, we do get a lot of those scientists taking pictures at our booth every year at all the Expos and so people and we have been copied, you know and that’s like just anytime you’re successful at something people are gonna copy you and so 22:45.84vigorbrandingSure. Mhm. 22:50.21Clara Paye _ UNiTEBut I think at the end of the day, consumers want authenticity. They want you know brands that are creating products that are meaningful to them and will reward those brands. So I don’t really worry about like copycats. I worry more about when they stop copying me. 23:07.91vigorbrandingbut you know and But to your point, and you know weve we’ve been doing a food trends report for over 15 years, and what you are doing and and how you’re doing it is very on trend. It’s not easy. It’s not inexpensive. i mean it’s ah it’s ah you know you there’s you could You could have cut corners along the way on your product, but you don’t do that. I just think that that’s going to pay dividends in the long run. i think that’s such a It’s hard to stick to your ethos, but I think you do a fantastic job of that. so I think it’s something to be proud of. and so and My next thing is, I did not know this, but the I in Unite stands for invite. and I did not realize on the back of every bar there’s an email address that you can people can send directly to you for suggestions on new flavors. Have you have you learned anything from these? Have you gotten anything interesting in the emails? 23:52.30Clara Paye _ UNiTEYes, I love those emails, like those emails come to me. And so I get to interact with the people that write those emails. And, you know, the most meaningful ones are when people will give me a flavor suggestion, but then they’ll also say, thank you for making a bar for us. 24:07.73Clara Paye _ UNiTEYou know, thank you. And it’s exactly what I wanted to do. 24:09.63vigorbrandingThat’s super cool. 24:10.64Clara Paye _ UNiTEwhen I, when I set out was like, make the invisible feel seen. 24:12.05vigorbrandingYeah. 24:14.77Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd you know, I know what it’s like to not feel seen. You know, I know what it’s like to like, kind of be in the shadows, like being a woman in the plumbing industry. Perfect example, right? Like you don’t really belong here or you don’t like, you know, somebody that looks like me typically doesn’t work in plumbing, right? 24:29.33Clara Paye _ UNiTElike It’s a very old, old, you know, antiquated kind of industry. And so like when I get those emails, I get really excited and people do have some great ideas and ideas of like things that we’ve actually developed, you know, and just haven’t launched. And, you know, so it’s fun to know that like, it is also on trend for people. 24:49.00vigorbrandingThat’s fantastic. So I mean, ah um I’m being italian Italian. My wife’s Greek. So yeah, yeah, her mother makes us baklava. So it’s phenomenal. So I love that. I’m really proud to see that you have a baklava in your in your flavors. So you have you have baklava, you have peanut butter and jelly, you have chiro, bubble tea, Mexican hot chocolate. What’s your what’s your favorite? 25:09.34Clara Paye _ UNiTEYou know, it’s like asking me which my favorite kid is. 25:12.05vigorbrandingah We all have one. 25:11.94Clara Paye _ UNiTEum i and I mean, is our hero. 25:12.61vigorbrandingCome on. We all have one. On any given day, we all have one. A favorite kid. 25:18.32Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd churro was like the first bar where I was like, okay, we really have something. 25:19.02vigorbrandingUh-huh. That’s the baby. 25:21.72Clara Paye _ UNiTEYeah. But I really also very much like baklava. And it’s similar to churro in that, you know, it’s got kind of like some of the the same kind of spices with the cinnamon. 25:28.18vigorbrandingMm-hmm. 25:29.41Clara Paye _ UNiTEBut baklava has never been done outside of baklava. 25:31.48vigorbrandingMm-hmm. 25:32.33Clara Paye _ UNiTELike, think about it, Michael. Like, you’ve never seen a baklava ice cream. You’ve never seen a baklava cracker. 25:35.23vigorbrandingNope. 25:36.56Clara Paye _ UNiTELike, you’ve never seen a baklava popcorn. Right? Like it was very unique. 25:40.80vigorbrandingYeah. 25:41.16Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd, you know, when I, before I launched, you know, many of the, the manufacturing partners I met with in the beginning were like, these price flavors are too strange. Like nobody’s going to buy these and like to be, you know, have come full circle and and be like, no, they’re great. 25:54.00Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd like Baklava just won a good housekeeping award this year when they’re, you know, best snack award. Churro won the same award last year. 25:59.19vigorbrandingAwesome. 26:00.98Clara Paye _ UNiTESo it’s like, it’s incredibly validating when, you know, people. like like the product and like, you know, um appreciate it. And it’s got organic honey in it. It’s just really tasty bar. 26:12.34vigorbrandingThat’s great. Well, like I said, you’re the products are amazing. And in a way, I like i look at these flavors and in a way they are they’re kind of all comfort foods, too, right? I mean, they’re, they’re, yeah, they’re all international flavors, but they’re almost like international comfort flavors, you know, it just it kind of feels that way. 26:28.40Clara Paye _ UNiTEWell, they’re nostalgic flavors. 26:30.16vigorbrandingYeah. 26:30.11Clara Paye _ UNiTESo they’re foods that you ate in childhood. 26:32.21vigorbrandingRight. 26:32.26Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd so that was also really important to me. That was also one of the barometers is like childhood flavors. 26:36.76vigorbrandingPerfect. 26:38.45Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd ironically, I mean, I didn’t develop these for kids, but like kids love our bars and like, duh, they’re childhood flavors, right? Like they’re really for adults, but you know, so we’ve had this like wide range of like consumer interest in our, in our products. And so for me, it’s like about taking you back to kind of like a simpler time. I think, you know, health food specifically is sometimes punitive. Like, Oh, I don’t really like this mushroom powder, but I’m going to drink it because like, i my you know, my, 27:03.59Clara Paye _ UNiTEpodcast said that I’m going to get muscles if I drink it. you know and I’m like more on the other side of wellness. We’re like, let’s make it fun and let’s make it like food you want to eat, not food you have to eat. 27:09.80vigorbrandingMm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, that’s great. All right. Well, let’s have some fun here. So, you know, being the research guys that we are and the marketing guys where we came up with our own flavors. So we decided to go around the world. I want your opinion on if these are going to be winners or not. So we’ll start in India, a gulab jambu. It’s very popular dessert. It’s often served during celebrations. It’s fried dough soaked in a rosewater syrup, often garnished with almonds and cashews. 27:40.04Clara Paye _ UNiTE10 out of 10. I think that would like a home run flavor. I’ve actually, you know, my Indian friends have also suggested ah exact flavor and it’s always kind of been in my mind. 27:45.01vigorbrandingYeah. 27:48.94Clara Paye _ UNiTEThe rosewater is the one that’s like, can be polarizing. So, you know, we try to have things that are like, you know, broad appeal, but yeah, I think 10 out of 10 would be a great flavor. 27:57.57vigorbrandingPlus, I’ll say this, I hate to be the total American here, but pronunciation can also be a barrier to people buying something if they can’t if they can’t figure out how to say it. 28:04.52Clara Paye _ UNiTEFor now, right? 28:06.08vigorbrandingAll right, now we’ll head to Spain, a creamy caramel flan. 28:09.66Clara Paye _ UNiTEI love flan and I think flan is another one of those foods that’s mistaken for like just Latin Americans because lots of people eat flan or you know it’s called sometimes creme caramel it’s called like different things in other regions of the world you know so yeah another great flavor you guys are good at this don um don’t start a bar company Michael. 28:15.09vigorbrandingMm hmm. 28:26.72vigorbrandingyeah Yeah, yeah. We would never if we, you know, they’re yours. These are all yours if you want to do them. So you have some friends, we have some employees in Brazil. So um Bolo de Rolo. It’s a light sponge cake. It’s rolled up with a layer of tangy guava jam. 28:43.47Clara Paye _ UNiTEThis one I’ve never heard of, I’ve never had. 28:45.94vigorbrandingright 28:46.23Clara Paye _ UNiTEI’ve not not been to Brazil, so it really piqued my interest. I love guavas. I think tropical fruits, you know, we see that in beverage now. 28:54.85vigorbrandingRight. 28:55.48Clara Paye _ UNiTEYou know, there’s all kinds of great beverages that have popped up with tropical fruit flavors. 28:56.09vigorbrandingMm hmm. 29:00.70Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd definitely in terms of what global flavor trends, guava I think is still underrated because I love guavas. 29:04.97vigorbrandingMm hmm. 29:07.99Clara Paye _ UNiTESo yeah, I think, you know, it’d be interesting to to get the um the sponge cake kind of consistency in a bar because bars tend to be a little bit drier and a little bit harder to to make soft because water stability issues. 29:20.76Clara Paye _ UNiTEBut I think that’s super intrigued. I want to go to Brazil, so that’s on my list. 29:24.27vigorbrandingYeah, there you go. There’s an excuse for R and&D. It’s a write-off. um you know Yeah, it’s ah that that’s that’s that’s fun. OK, so we go to Italy ah for some almond biscotti. 29:37.61Clara Paye _ UNiTEI mean, I love biscotti, but I think if you’re craving biscotti, eat a biscotti. 29:41.08vigorbrandingYeah, I agree. 29:41.18Clara Paye _ UNiTEyou know 29:42.08vigorbrandingYeah, I don’t think that works in a bar, right? 29:43.73Clara Paye _ UNiTEWell, you know like people tell me, like oh, you should make a hummus flavored bar. I’m like, what? Why don’t you just eat hummus? 29:49.24vigorbrandingYeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. 29:50.94Clara Paye _ UNiTEyou know For me, it’s about taking some things. Because biscotti is not unhealthy, like typically. like you know If you had one, it’s like it’s fine. 29:55.05vigorbrandingNo. 29:57.11Clara Paye _ UNiTEIt’s like a treat. So I typically try to take like higher calorie, higher density things to make them healthy and approachable. 30:02.75vigorbrandingoh 30:05.67vigorbrandingYeah, you’re you’re almost bringing a dessert together to a degree, right? 30:05.58Clara Paye _ UNiTEso i probably Exactly. 30:08.59vigorbrandingYeah. 30:08.51Clara Paye _ UNiTEa 30:09.42vigorbrandingYeah, that totally makes sense. And you know what’s funny? You you just said something that that really kind of stuck with me. though The beverage industry does do a lot of flavors. And it’s really kind of accelerated. I mean, as a company, we were early on with with flavored beverages in the tea category. 30:24.27vigorbrandingAnd we were we had a brand that we worked with for like 15 years. We helped build what’s called Turkey Hill Iced Tea. Excuse me. And it was the first refrigerated tea. a lot of There was teas out there that were shelf-stable, but we were in the refrigerator. Well, the proliferation now of beverages in the refrigerator. You go to a convenience store with just walls of beverages. So there’s a lot of unique flavorings that you see popping up. And I guess that’s that would be a good place to see, I don’t know, what’s acceptable, right? like what are what are What are consumers interested in? 30:53.61Clara Paye _ UNiTEYeah, I think um it’s a good, again, like I got to take a lot of flavor cues from like a Starbucks or like, you know, what are people drinking? 31:01.08vigorbrandingyeah 31:02.11Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd like, what are the flavor cues in beverage that we can borrow from, right? Or we that can inform some of us. I think in beverage, it’s a little bit easier because the flavoring is just like props added to something versus like you’re trying to really create something authentic in food. 31:13.60vigorbrandingYeah, yep, yep. 31:19.97Clara Paye _ UNiTEBut gosh, I’m just happy I have a shelf stable product. Like I can’t imagine distributing a refrigerated or frozen product. 31:25.52vigorbrandingYeah, yeah, yeah. 31:26.11Clara Paye _ UNiTELike knowing what I know now, it’s like just a whole nother level of of anxiety. 31:30.73vigorbrandingYeah, well in flavoring to own on that side is it’s amazing how if you had some foot, it’s not obvious as a flavor to like what happened to potato chips, right? So we have a snack food category of snack foods. I mean, adding just a new flavor a new fun. It’s it’s amazing how much velocity you get and how much traction we actually did it across the tuna category. 31:49.35vigorbrandingAnd you would think, you know, tuna, we started adding sriracha or different types of hot or or or Thai chili or, I mean, just all these kind of unique flavors. 31:54.20Clara Paye _ UNiTEMm 31:57.94vigorbrandingAnd it’s amazing how it can really ah get you more more ah shelf presence. 31:59.66Clara Paye _ UNiTEhmm. 32:03.65vigorbrandingAnd it also then, ah it creates ah an atmosphere of trial. So it’s ah’s it’s an awful lot of fun for that too. So um so as an entrepreneur who who’s growing and developing a brand that’s still a relatively young brand, ah you just created it four years ago. 32:17.34vigorbrandingWhat are some of your biggest challenges? 32:20.85Clara Paye _ UNiTEIt’s sad to say, Michael, but like there’s a lot of predatory behavior for emerging brands in the food space, right? 32:26.57vigorbrandinghe 32:26.47Clara Paye _ UNiTEWhere I think this industry like depends on the turn to a certain degree of like brands to fail, to come in to shoot their shot. And like when they fail, it doesn’t matter because there’s like so many other brands behind them trying to get in that same shelf space. 32:39.58Clara Paye _ UNiTESo I think it’s just being the underdog. like If you look at the shelves that we’re on, we’re competing with behemoths, right? Like billion dollar brands, multi-billion dollar brands, like that control the entire food supply. 32:48.42vigorbrandingMm hmm. Mm hmm. 32:51.38Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd we’re like on the same shelf and like, how can we actually compete to build brand awareness? Like, you know, so you just do it with a radical authenticity. You do it by creating value for the consumer, creating something different, creating a better product. 33:05.17Clara Paye _ UNiTEBut it’s really like having come from a larger company where like, you know, you have some kind of street cred because you are a larger and you’re eight It’s easier to grow a larger company, but to grow from scratch has been like humbling. 33:17.69Clara Paye _ UNiTElike it’s There’s a lot of people who want to put their hand in your pocket, who want to you know take advantage of you, and you have to be astute. 33:18.13vigorbrandingYeah. 33:24.66Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd again, you have to surround yourself with people that are smart, that will help you avoid the landline, help you clear those paths. but You know, I, um, I also started, um, a nonprofit called included for, you know, people of color in food CPG just because I feel very passionately it’s called included included CPG, um, for people to kind of like not make the same mistakes that I made or kind of try to pull it forward somehow by clearing the path for, you know, I don’t want people to, you know, make the mistakes that we, we’ve made or could have potentially made. 33:49.99vigorbrandingMm hmm. 33:56.73vigorbrandingMm hmm. That’s you’ve you’ve always been one to give back. And I think that’s very admirable. I mean, we were walking around. It was it was it this we were just talking about with the included CPG. 34:09.40vigorbrandingWe were walking around. He was exposed. You had a special section and they they they don’t you had them donate space. What was that for? 34:16.71Clara Paye _ UNiTEum Yes for emerging brands and no for included and so we do do that at the fancy food show and at Expo West every year and so we kind of run kind of a mini incubator accelerator For these brands and help them get that space and be ready to pitch and you know, you have to be market ready So it’s not like for a brand that’s like pre-launch it’s like, you know if you have some kind of like established brand presence and really hoping to elevate them to the next level because those trade shows are so expensive and it’s so primitive and so anything that we can do to 34:18.69vigorbrandingOh, OK. 34:43.19vigorbrandingYeah. 34:46.50Clara Paye _ UNiTELevel the playing field to like help an emerging brand win is like I just it just lights me up I like it makes me so happy because These are the people improving the food systems. 34:57.16Clara Paye _ UNiTEThese are the people that are bringing healthy Products to market. 34:57.35vigorbrandingRight. 35:01.02Clara Paye _ UNiTEThese are the people who are you know, taking their family recipes and trying to share them with the world 35:06.90vigorbrandingWell, I mean, I admire you because you’re able to, I could see you walking into those shows and asking for them to give you all this space. And I know how you are. You do with a smile, but you’re pretty emphatic and I’m sure you always get your way. 35:19.64vigorbrandingCause I know I sit in meetings with you and when I’m, and when I miss a meeting, I have to answer to you, but you do with a smile, but you always hold people accountable and you get what you want. And I do respect that. So sure. 35:29.41Clara Paye _ UNiTEWell, I mean, it’s been a great partnership with New Hope and the Specialty Food Association. And it just, it aligns with their value. So they actually are great partners. And so it’s a, you know, and it’s a team. It’s not just me. There’s like five other founders on the leadership team have included. So, you know, we, we are really working hard to improve um the food systems. 35:51.19vigorbrandingwhat So what ah what do a lot of these folks, i mean thankfully they have you ah to sort of open up the door for them, literally to bring them into the into these shows. so like What do you see a mistake made by ah want to be entrepreneurs? what What do they do wrong? Or what do what do you think and in the brand creation process? What do you what do what do you think that they they do wrong a lot? 36:11.05Clara Paye _ UNiTEI mean, it’s probably something we did wrong too, but it’s like trying to pretend you’re a big brand when you’re not, right? Like, yes, you can get on that shelf, but are you ready? Can you support it the same way a big brand does? 36:20.43vigorbrandingMmhmm. 36:22.89Clara Paye _ UNiTEDo you know all the levers to pull, right? 36:24.66vigorbrandingMmhmm. 36:25.09Clara Paye _ UNiTElike And it’s hard to say, like, it’s hard when the opportunity knocks not to take it, right? 36:30.71vigorbrandingSure. 36:31.30Clara Paye _ UNiTESo it’s like that discipline of knowing, you know, What is the actual contribution margin of this account? And, you know, is it just like, or does it accomplish something else? So I think it’s like biting off a little bit more than you can chew. 36:44.02Clara Paye _ UNiTEum And then the one that I pay attention very closely to is quality. I think quality can sink your company so fast. You know, one quality issue, one copacker issue, one whatever issue. 36:53.05vigorbrandingyeah 36:54.04Clara Paye _ UNiTESo if you’re not paying attention to your product, you know, so closely, um that can really be a landmine because you can always create more brands. But you know, if your brand name is like tainted, it’s hard for you. 37:07.44vigorbrandingRight. I mean, some people might not even know like that. I think people assume because you have a brand, that you actually make it yourself. And you know, there are co-packers out there and a lot of brands use co-packers and you’re handing off your basically your baby and your promise, you know, a brand is a promise, your promise to the consumer to someone else to make. Obviously, there’s there’s checks and balances there. But it it is a, you know, there’s there’s places along the way that you have to count on a lot of partners. And it’s a, I’m sure it’s a difficult business, you know, 37:36.97Clara Paye _ UNiTEI think you have to think of your co-man relationships as kind of like your investors because they’re investing their line time, their energy you know to develop your brand as well. 37:40.66vigorbrandinghere Yep. 37:44.95Clara Paye _ UNiTESo it is a partnership. You’re not just like, you know. Um, taking and giving, right? is It’s truly a partnership but if done right. And like, yeah, I like to, I like to actually preface a lot of my buyer meetings by saying, Hey, by the way, I don’t make this in my garage. 37:56.50vigorbrandingMm 37:57.57Clara Paye _ UNiTEI, you know, because like the, the bias is if you’re like an emerging, I have a dream person and you’re like, make as far as in your garage and like packaging them up and sending them out. 38:01.10vigorbranding-hmm. 38:07.22Clara Paye _ UNiTEI thought there’s anything wrong with that. But like, when you’re trying to pitch a fortune, you know, 100 company, they got to make sure that, you know, you have your ducks in a row. 38:09.52vigorbrandingRight. eat Yeah. Yeah. 38:14.95Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd so that’s a good qualifier. 38:17.32vigorbrandingYeah, Target doesn’t want you like ah to think you’re baking the night before. That’s funny. But I mean, yeah, it’s ah yeah’s it’s true. And it’s amazing all of the the hurdles, I’ll say, that you have to go through. So you have a great, yeah there’s a quote that you like to talk about. lot Winston Churchill, success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. And you’re always enthusiastic. You want to talk a little bit about some of those things that you had to bump up against, some of your failures, some of the things that you had to pivot. 38:44.24Clara Paye _ UNiTEOh, there’s so many, Michael. I mean, every, if it’s, if it was easy, everyone would do it, you know, like I say that, but it’s like, it’s so true. 38:49.31vigorbrandingSure. 38:51.46Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd like, you know, and every entrepreneur I talk to in the food space or any space, it’s like, you gotta be able to take those hits and get back up. 38:57.56vigorbrandingOh, yeah. 38:59.18Clara Paye _ UNiTEBut the getting back up is really hard, right? 39:02.31vigorbrandingMm hmm. 39:02.73Clara Paye _ UNiTEEspecially when there’s like, you could do something else with your time. You could do something else with your energy. 39:06.20vigorbrandingGreat. 39:07.24Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd that’s where like a mission becomes really important. And it’s like, what’s actually driving you? 39:11.03vigorbrandingMm 39:11.36Clara Paye _ UNiTECause if it’s money, you’ll give up. There’s way easier ways to make money. 39:15.17vigorbrandinghmm. 39:15.47Clara Paye _ UNiTELike if I wanted to go make money, I’d just take my money and invest it in real estate or whatever. I’m like, yes, we do that too. but It’s really about mission for me. And so what drives you to like make the world a better place, have a lasting impact, create products that resonate with people. 39:31.82Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd so success is just a barometer. It’s just an outcome of you living that up. But like, you know, there are times, I mean, I think if you’re not ready to throw in the towel every month in your business, are you even an entrepreneur? 39:42.90Clara Paye _ UNiTELike, you know, like it’s just, it’s the getting back up. 39:43.50vigorbrandingRight. 39:46.20Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd it’s like that loss of enthusiasm is what gets you. And like another way to send that is like burnout. If you’ve burned out, it’s too late. So I make sure that I don’t burn out. 39:52.89vigorbrandingYep. Yeah, that’s very smart. That’s actually very sage advice right there. Because look, these businesses, no matter how ah exciting they are, or how long you’ve been doing them, you do hit those those troughs, you do hit the burnout phase. I mean, personally, I started my first agency 33 years ago. And it’s, you know, ah yeah well and during this whole time with COVID, there’s so much change. And and and you know You think, well, you’ve been doing this for a long time. Everything think just should be on autopilot. No. I mean, I probably worked harder in the last couple of years. I did maybe in some of the middle years. I don’t know. It’s just just a different time. So yeah, the entrepreneur thing, I think everyone takes it for granted or everyone looks over and says, oh, you’ve done that. Or you have money because of this. And ah most people don’t realize those days and those sleepless nights and those weekends and the you know the the fears of everything from bankruptcy to lawsuits to everything else. We all go through it. right i mean every 40:45.92vigorbrandingi get to I’m very fortunate i get to talk to a lot of founders, I get to talk to a lot of entrepreneurs, and a lot of successful people, and they all have the same they all have those same stories. Every one of them has that nightmare, like, yeah, there was this time when, and you know you didn’t think there was a tomorrow. so it’s ah ah you know it’s ah It’s good to hear, it because your story, you’ve seen it all all the way around from your father to to starting up now and what you’re doing. and I love that you stick to your guns. because ah Again, you can cut corners. You could do things faster, cheaper, but not better. And I think that what you do is ah is really remarkable. And i again, I know it’s going to pay off in the long run. So so what’s what’s next for you tonight? I mean, are there any new flavors? If you can’t talk about it, I understand. But if theres is there anything new products or flavors or anything exciting on the horizon? 41:29.86Clara Paye _ UNiTEYeah, there is a new flavor. It’s called Hot Fudge Sunday. We’ll be launching soon. And so we’re really excited about that flavor, another nostalgic childhood treat. 41:35.70vigorbrandingAwesome. Yep. 41:38.67Clara Paye _ UNiTEAlso some different, you know, we’re looking at different formats, kind of some adjacent things. So definitely an innovation pipeline out there. 41:43.72vigorbrandingthat 41:44.39Clara Paye _ UNiTESo hoping to launch some other products. But really, I want to win at bars first and, um you know, really own our category and really, you know, make sure that our velocities stay up and and everything is is good with bars. 41:59.13vigorbrandingFantastic. All right, so one last question. And you can’t be one of your bars. But if you had one last final meal, what would you eat? Where? Why? 42:09.00Clara Paye _ UNiTESuch a good question. I mean, I’m a California girl, so it’d probably be an In-N-Out cheeseburger, ah you know, and and yeah some french fries and egg steak, animals for sure, animal style. 42:15.08vigorbrandingThere you go. All right. I respect that answer. That’s a great answer. Animal animal style, I hope. 42:25.41Clara Paye _ UNiTEum You know, it’s kind of like, that’s the meal when we travel abroad or something and you get back, you’re like, oh, I just want an In-N-Out burger. 42:26.67vigorbrandingah 42:30.92vigorbrandingYeah. 42:31.05Clara Paye _ UNiTEYou know, it just, it feels like home. And I think that goes back to nostalgia and childhood too. 42:35.15vigorbrandingAnybody that with work or or or whatever, friends or family that travel with me, they know when I land in California, that’s one of the first things I do and I will not leave until I do it. It might not be the very first thing I get to do if I have a meeting, but I will have in and out before I get on that plane to fly back east. 42:51.43vigorbrandingso That’s a great answer. 42:51.95Clara Paye _ UNiTEThat’s right. 42:52.84vigorbrandinggreat answer so Anyway, Claire, thank you. This was awesome. I you know i appreciate you. ah you know I’ve known you a long time and it’s just so cool to hear your story and see what you’re up to and congratulations. 43:03.82Clara Paye _ UNiTEThanks, Michaels. Fun to be on. 43:06.07vigorbrandingAwesome. Thanks.

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning television Executive Producer Rev. Dr. Adrienne Johnson and Rev. Bill Green. She has created over 300 women entrepreneurs in Ghana, West Africa and her son leads the Southeast chapter of national non-profits committed to building a more sustainable and equitable local food system. Reverend Adrienne Johnson launched Wo Ye Bra in 2017 to keep girls in school who would otherwise stay home because they lack access to sanitary supplies during their periods. To date, she has created over 300 women entrepreneurs in West Africa. Reverend Bill Green maintains a sustainable and equitable local food system. Responsible for a team of sales and operations professionals in connecting communities to local, fresh food produced by small family-owned farms within GA, AL, SC and TN. Conduct outreach on behalf of historically underserved farmers with schools, universities, hospitals, retailers, government entities, restaurants and community organizations in order to address food access challenges in metro Atlanta and other major cities throughout Georgia and Alabama. Manage 60,000sf SQF-certified facility, logistics and warehouse team where local food is aggregated from local farmers and distributed to partner institutions. Also leads the development team in raising over $1.9m in local funds from 2022 to 2023. Successfully distributed over five million pounds of food to over 166 community organizations as part of the USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Program in 2020. Currently leads the USDA’s Local Food Procurement Assistance Cooperative Agreement in collaboration with the Georgia Department of Agriculture delivering over $5m of locally sourced food to Georgia’s eight food banks. Gives public presentations and serves on panels regarding importance of local food systems in nutritional, economic and ecological health. #BEST #STRAWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning television Executive Producer Rev. Dr. Adrienne Johnson and Rev. Bill Green. She has created over 300 women entrepreneurs in Ghana, West Africa and her son leads the Southeast chapter of national non-profits committed to building a more sustainable and equitable local food system. Reverend Adrienne Johnson launched Wo Ye Bra in 2017 to keep girls in school who would otherwise stay home because they lack access to sanitary supplies during their periods. To date, she has created over 300 women entrepreneurs in West Africa. Reverend Bill Green maintains a sustainable and equitable local food system. Responsible for a team of sales and operations professionals in connecting communities to local, fresh food produced by small family-owned farms within GA, AL, SC and TN. Conduct outreach on behalf of historically underserved farmers with schools, universities, hospitals, retailers, government entities, restaurants and community organizations in order to address food access challenges in metro Atlanta and other major cities throughout Georgia and Alabama. Manage 60,000sf SQF-certified facility, logistics and warehouse team where local food is aggregated from local farmers and distributed to partner institutions. Also leads the development team in raising over $1.9m in local funds from 2022 to 2023. Successfully distributed over five million pounds of food to over 166 community organizations as part of the USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Program in 2020. Currently leads the USDA’s Local Food Procurement Assistance Cooperative Agreement in collaboration with the Georgia Department of Agriculture delivering over $5m of locally sourced food to Georgia’s eight food banks. Gives public presentations and serves on panels regarding importance of local food systems in nutritional, economic and ecological health. #BEST #STRAWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Johanna Velez is Vice President of Quality Assurance for Monin Americas, having joined the brand in 2002. With more than 27 years in the food industry, Johanna has a wealth of experience in leading, directing, and guiding the company's food safety and quality programs at all Monin North America locations. She successfully led Monin to achieve Safe Quality Foods (SQF) and Organic certifications for both the Clearwater, Florida and Sparks, Nevada facilities, resulting in an "Excellent" rating for the brand's food safety practices. Prior to Monin, Johanna spent five years at Wild Flavors (now Archer-Daniels-Midland Company) in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is a member of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), including the Florida IFT Division, as well as the Bay Area Manufacturers Association (BAMA). Johanna graduated from Louisiana State University and later attended Michigan State University to obtain her certification in Food Law and Regulations. In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak with Johanna [30:04] about: How her industry and academic experiences inform her work at Monin Americas, and important food safety and quality considerations of doing business as a global supplier Embracing technology and digitization to modernize quality control processes, such as using QR codes to track equipment maintenance history Implementing quarterly proficiency testing to ensure that employees' skills and knowledge stay up-to-date Utilizing a "blameless problem-solving" approach to address non-conformances, and bringing cross-functional teams together to identify root causes of issues and implement improvements How Monin Americas achieved an “Excellent” rating for its food safety practices, and the company's processes for upholding its SQF and Organic certifications Reinforcing a culture of continuous improvement and collaboration at Monin Americas, where food safety is a core value shared by all employees Onboarding suppliers as "partners" and working closely with them to reinforce robust food safety standards and ensure implementation of best practices. News and Resources News McDonald's E. coli Outbreak [3:29] CDC Names Taylor Farms Onions as Cause of McDonald's E. coli Outbreak; Patient Count Rises to 90 Beef Ruled Out as Source of McDonald's E. coli Outbreak, Quarter Pounders Return to Restaurants Major Chains Pull Onions Due to E. coli Concerns After Taylor Farms Confirmed as McDonald's Supplier At Least One Death Caused by E. coli Outbreak Linked to McDonald's Quarter Pounders FDA Human Foods Program Reveals Work Plans for 2025 [7:13] Listeria, Salmonella Represent 40 Percent of FDA Food and Beverage Recalls in Last 20 Years [17:01] Following Salmonella Outbreaks Linked to Indiana Cantaloupe, FDA and Purdue University Launch Environmental Study [19:10] Resources Food Safety Insights: “How is the Revolution in Technology Changing Food Safety?—Part 3” [20:01] Food Safety Five Newsreel Food Safety Magazine's YouTube Channel We Want to Hear from You! Please send us your questions and suggestions to podcast@food-safety.com

In this episode of Don't Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are sharing with you the Ask Us Anything! LinkedIn Live they did on Sep 25, 2024, during Food Safety Awareness & Education Month.This event was unscripted and they answered questions as they came, and there were some amazing ones. They covered the need (or not) for new regulations, the differences between the EU and the US regulations, the future of food safety especially the role of AI in that, and much more.There was even a special appearance of Francine's famous tiara, so tune in for a light episode that's also packed with great information.In this episode:

 In today's episode, I had the pleasure of catching up with Anthony Horger, a former AB Tech program graduate. We dived into his impressive journey from a local brewery job post-graduation to his various roles in distilleries and breweries, ultimately leading to his current position as an industry trainer for food, beverage, and natural products at North Carolina BioNetwork. Anthony also shared invaluable insights into the often-overlooked aspect of supply chain management and how critical supplier controls are to maintaining a safe and efficient production environment. Anthony has a rich background in the food and beverage industry. He started his career as a pastry chef and transitioned into brewing and distilling. His path led him from a local craft brewery through innovative and sometimes perilous projects in startup distilleries to working for a large manufacturer owned by Budweiser in San Diego and finally back to Asheville. His varied experiences have uniquely positioned him as an expert in industry training, where he focuses on sanitation, HACCP planning, and supplier controls. "It feels good to keep people safe. When you can help improve these things, you'll see the light go on in many people's heads." ~Anthony Horger Today on Consuming the Craft: • Anthony began his career as a pastry chef before moving into brewing and distilling.• After graduation, he worked at a local brewery and a startup distillery focused on speed aging technology.• Anthony then moved to San Diego to work at a Budweiser-owned distillery just as the world started changing due to the pandemic.• He gained valuable insights into the importance of safety and proper sanitation during his time in San Diego.• Anthony now works as an industry trainer for North Carolina BioNetwork, focusing on food, beverage, and natural products.• Supplier controls involve more than just taking a supplier's word; they require audits and sometimes personal visits to ensure compliance with safety standards.• Certifications like SQF are important for ensuring quality and safety in the supply chain.• Continuous improvement and corrective actions are vital metrics for evaluating the reliability and safety of a supplier. Resources Mentioned: • North Carolina BioNetwork• McConnell Farms Contact Anthony: • LinkedIn: Anthony Horger• North Carolina BioNetwork WebsiteThis episode is brought to you by… McConnell Farms - Taste the Way You Remember. Enjoy homemade ciders and ice cream made from only the best produce on the market. Visit the McConnell Farms website to learn more about our seasonal inventory and the delicious creations you can make with our homegrown produce. Consuming the Craft Thanks for tuning into this week's Consuming the Craft Podcast episode, brought to you by AB Tech's Craft Beverage Institute of the Southeast. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. Apple Podcasts | GooglePlay  Be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more craft beverage enthusiasts. To learn more about AB Tech and the Craft Beer Institute of the Southeast, visit our website.

來賓：沛威寵物保健的創辦人暨總經理-廖天倫Alex 節目時間：每週六 10:00-11:00 本集播出日期：2024.06.29 本集簡介： 台灣目前被飼養的貓貓狗狗數量已經突破300萬隻， 狗狗飼養的數量以每年20%數量增長，貓咪飼養漲幅甚至來到50%！ 在台灣，每3個家庭就有一戶飼養貓狗， 但在不久前，我們甚至對於寵物保健食品沒有專項的檢驗標準或標章， 這使得市面上的寵物保健品琳瑯滿目， 消費者卻無從判定保健品的優劣及功效， 只能靠著廣告或網路推薦瞎子摸象。 那麼，究竟如何選擇呢？要選大廠牌還是選好成分？ 才讓我們的毛孩得到最好的照顧呢？ 本週我們特別邀請到【沛威寵物保健的創辦人暨總經理-廖天倫Alex】， 與大家分享畢業於台北醫學大學營養保健系的他， 一直從事醫藥品原料產業，如何走上營養保健，甚至擴大到寵物保健的領域呢？ 在創業的過程中又遇到了什麼挑戰與挫折呢？ Alex帶領公司不只成為全台灣第一間取得SQF level3的保健食品品牌， 前幾天更獲得了國家的玉山獎， 讓我們一起來聽聽這個受到眾多獸醫師推薦寵物保健品牌的成功故事吧！ ➡️ 抽獎資訊 收聽本集「精油女王香談室」，於本則貼文留言處留言標記一位好友，並寫下節目中提到的「通關密語」，就有機會獲得 沛威無重力三效益生菌哦！ ⚡️ 小提醒 獎品共抽出10組唷！，一定要專心聽完整集內容並在本則貼文留言處留下通關密語哦！我們將在7月3日（星期三）上午公布中獎名單。

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning television Executive Producer Rev. Dr. Adrienne Johnson and Rev. Bill Green.  She has created over 300 women entrepreneurs in Ghana, West Africa and her son leads the Southeast chapter of national non-profits committed to building a more sustainable and equitable local food system.   Reverend Adrienne Johnson launched Wo Ye Bra in 2017 to keep girls in school who would otherwise stay home because they lack access to sanitary supplies during their periods. To date, she has created over 300 women entrepreneurs in West Africa. Reverend Bill Green maintains a sustainable and equitable local food system. Responsible for a team of sales and operations professionals in connecting communities to local, fresh food produced by small family-owned farms within GA, AL, SC and TN. Conduct outreach on behalf of historically underserved farmers with schools, universities, hospitals, retailers, government entities, restaurants and community organizations in order to address food access challenges in metro Atlanta and other major cities throughout Georgia and Alabama. Manage 60,000sf SQF-certified facility, logistics and warehouse team where local food is aggregated from local farmers and distributed to partner institutions. Also leads the development team in raising over $1.9m in local funds from 2022 to 2023. Successfully distributed over five million pounds of food to over 166 community organizations as part of the USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Program in 2020. Currently leads the USDA's Local Food Procurement Assistance Cooperative Agreement in collaboration with the Georgia Department of Agriculture delivering over $5m of locally sourced food to Georgia's eight food banks. Gives public presentations and serves on panels regarding importance of local food systems in nutritional, economic and ecological health.Support the show: https://www.steveharveyfm.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last night's meeting lasted about five hours with only one report and nearly 50 speakers testifying during public comment. The meeting began with the Superintendent's Report, where Superintendent Skipper spent the majority of the time discussing the School Quality Framework (SQF). The district made changes to the SQF last month without a full presentation or discussion, and School Committee members have been seeking clarification since those changes were announced. Member Cardet Hernandez requested a formal presentation to look into these changes and discuss how every student has equal access to high quality schools.  The meeting then moved onto public comment. The majority of speakers testified against the proposal to move the O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science to the former West Roxbury Academy building The remainder of public commenters spoke on different topics, including ongoing issues at the Gardner Pilot Academy, the exam school admissions policy, and the potential impact of budget proposals on school communities.  The only report of the evening was a mid-year update, given by the Superintendent and her team. The report covered updates on transportation, health and safety, access to grade level learning, and other areas the district is focusing on. However, the contents of the report did not include any data on student outcomes or school performance, leaving School Committee members asking for more clarification and actual outcome data to help understand the impact of the work the district is doing. With no discussion on performance data or outcomes, the Committee was left with outstanding questions going into the budget process regarding which investments are impacting student outcomes. The School Committee was originally supposed to have a discussion on task forces, but after discussing further with members, Chair Robinson announced that this discussion would be tabled to a future meeting. The meeting ended with new business from Committee members asking to continue discussion on a few key topics, including concerns raised in public comment about the Gardner, further conversation about the SQF, and revisiting areas from the Superintendent's evaluation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak with Vidya Ananth about the increasing emphasis on digitalization of food safety processes and recording-keeping and what the implications are for the food industry. Vidya Ananth is VP of Food Safety at Novolyze, where she leads Food Safety and Quality and its digitalization, Application Support, and Customer Success. As you are about to hear, she is extremely knowledgeable and has some great advice and thoughts to help you move forward with digitalizing your processes. Vidya has been in the food industry for over 25 years working with General Mills, The National Food Lab, Safeway, Clorox, and Kohana Coffee - making significant contributions in the areas of food safety, quality, and regulatory affairs with her main goal to bend the curve of foodborne illness globally. Vidya has helped small and large companies build effective Food Safety and Quality systems using risk-based prevention strategies and has helped build the food safety culture within these organizations. Vidya received her BS in Biology and Chemistry from Delhi University. She received her MS in Food Microbiology from Iowa State University and holds certifications in HACCP, PCQI, FSVP, SQF, Internal audits, and a Diamond leadership program certificate. In this BONUS episode of Food Safety Matters we Vidya Ananth about: Biggest changes to food safety in the past 25 years What food safety-related changes will the industry take hold in the near future The importance of digitalizing food safety processes The role FDA's New Era of Smarter Food Safety blueprint will have on digitalization   What digitalization looks like when applied to food safety and quality Taking a holistic approach to digitalization The impact digitalization has on food plants Novolyze's journey to digitalization Digitalization's impact on sanitation and environmental monitoring Next steps the food industry should be taking to maximize digitalization Sponsored by: Novolyze Resources White Paper - Environmental Monitoring Programs - Obtaining Value from Data Digital Transformation of Food Safety - A Cocoa Case Study  

QIMA/WQS (formerly known as WQS) was founded in 1993, offering solutions to the food industry from farm to fork through GFSI recognized certifications (BRCGS, GLOBALG.A.P., SQF, IFS), food safety and ethical audits, quality seals, inspections, training, and supply chain management. Their team of food safety professionals innovates and streamlines processes to offer customers transparency, agility in the marketplace, and unprecedented control over their entire food supply chain. In this episode, we talk with two women who are a major force behind the QIMA/WQS team, Nicole Brunner and Liza Salinas.

Joseph Bou Samra, Founder and Managing Director of GMCS MENA, A Dot Com Magazine Exclusive ZOOM Interview. GMCS Global Management Consulting Services, LLC (GMCS USA) is a California Limited Liability Company specialize mainly in helping Food & Packaging industries (Retail, food service facility, manufacturing, processing and distribution) to comply with local & international food safety rules and regulations by providing consultancy on implementing international safety standard such as Global GAP, GMP, HACCP, Gluten Free, ISO 22000, GFSI approved standard (SQF, FSSC, BRCGS for food safety, packaging and storage & distribution), FSMA Also, GMCS MENA provide consultancy on sustainable standard related to Ethical trade and responsible sourcing standard such as FSC, SMETA, BRCGS ETRS and Fairtrade. As well, GMCS implement additional standards that can be used by food & packaging industries or any type of industry such as ISO 9001, ISO 27000, ISO 14000, ISO 26000, OHSAS. The company's services include providing virtual, in house or public training courses focused on product quality and safety management (ISO 9001, HACCP, FSMA, internal audit, validation and verification, vulnerability assessment for food fraud, risk assessment, root cause analysis), food safety (food hygiene, FSSC 22000, gluten-free, BRCGS food safety issue 8 all training) , packaging (BRCGS issue 6 all training) and ethical (BRCGS ETRS) all GMCS trainings are accredited and certificate are issued by the standard owner. Also, part of GMCS services are gap assessments, inspections, support with the implementation of management systems and maintenance of management systems and audits. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

This episode features a panel of the Food Safety Preventive Control Alliance (FSPCA)'s lead instructors. They discuss virtual food safety training in the age of COVID. Connie Landis Fisk is a northwest regional extension associate for the Produce Safety Alliance (PSA). PSA has a temporary policy allowing its trainers to deliver their Grower Training Course remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Connie offers a weekly office hour to share tips and answer questions about using Zoom for those remote trainings. Amanda Evans-Lara is a principle food safety consultant and compliance specialist with HACCP Mentor, a website that provides tools, tips, and training to help food businesses comply with global, customer, and regulatory Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) and food safety requirements. She has over 28 years of experience working with Australian and international food businesses. Amanda is an FSPCA lead instructor for Preventive Controls for Human Food and Intentional Adulteration Vulnerability Assessments courses.  Charles Kalish is a managing member and co-founder of Food Safety Guides, a food safety and quality consulting and training firm that specializes in remote consulting. He is a lead instructor for FSPCA's Preventive Controls (Human and Animal), Foreign Supplier Verification Programs, and Intentional Adulteration Vulnerability Assessment courses. Charlie is also a Safe Quality Food (SQF) trainer and lead instructor for the International Food Protection Institute (IFPTI)'s Instructor Skills Training. Michael Kalish is a managing member and co-founder of Food Safety Guides. He is a lead instructor for FSPCA's Preventive Controls (Human and Animal), Foreign Supplier Verification Programs, and Intentional Adulteration Vulnerability Assessment courses. Michael is also an SQF trainer and lead instructor for IFPTI's Instructor Skills Training. A special thanks to our friend and previous podcast guest Kathy Gombas (Ep. 26) for spearheading this discussion. Kathy is a member of FSPCA's Steering Committee. She also serves on Food Safety Magazine's Editorial Advisory Board. In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to the panel [12:23] about: The features, benefits, and ins and outs of using Zoom, Google Hangouts, and other digital platforms to perform food safety certification courses Maintaining high levels of participation and engagement during online training How training and testing policies and procedures have changed to fit a virtual format Conducting oral exams vs. standardized tests online Challenges and limitations of web-based teaching and training News Mentioned in This Episode Salmonella Newport Outbreak Linked to Onions [3:46] FDA Announces New Protocol for the Development and Registration of Treatments for Preharvest Ag Water Antimicrobial [5:40] | Water Disinfection: A Practical Approach to Calculating Dose Values for Pre- and Postharvest Applications (2001) Pillsbury Announces "Safe to Eat Raw" Products [10:03]   Keep Up with Food Safety Magazine Follow Us on Twitter @FoodSafetyMag and on Facebook  Subscribe to our magazine and our biweekly eNewsletter We Want to Hear From You! Please share your comments, questions, and suggestions. Tell us about yourself—we'd love to hear about your food safety challenges and successes. We want to get to know you! Here are a few ways to be in touch with us. Email us at podcast@foodsafetymagazine.com Record a voice memo on your phone and email it to us at podcast@foodsafetymagazine.com

ABC Podcast host Mike Parker hints he may have gone to work naked in the past and digs into how Dave Tlaxcala manages ABC's manufacturing planning, projections, scheduling, production and the new SQF certification.

Today I'm speaking with Kevin, a food safety consultant with over 20 years experience. He currently acts as the senior food safety consultant for Essential Food Safety Consulting here on Long Island. Kevin and I discuss how consumers and businesses can be prepared for the changing world in which we live in. As a consumer, you should be aware of best practices whether dining out or purchasing products that were manufactured in a facility that meets regulatory guidelines. It's important to take into consideration how and where your food is prepared. The good news is many businesses already implement best practices for your safety and health. Watch the interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/XMabhegHE24 One of the things that may change drastically are food tastings and events or in retail. That's something that many startup food manufacturers rely on to woo new customers and get the word out about their products. Guidelines are changing quickly. There are things we can't predict and we suggest you contact your county or state board of health or visit their websites for the most up to date guidelines as it relates to food retail and manufacturing. More about Kevin & Essential Food Safety Consulting Kevin Byrne has held key positions in food processing, food retail and food safety consulting. He currently acts as the Senior Food Safety Consultant for Essential Food Safety Consulting and is a contract food safety auditor for SAI Global Assurance, DNV GL and ResPro Food Safety. Kevin holds certifications in HACCP, Seafood HACCP, SQF, BRCGS, Crisis Management and Continuity as well as the FSMA rules on Preventive Controls for Human Food (PCQI) and Intentional Adulteration. Essential Food Safety Consulting has been the lead food safety resource for the Long Island Food Council since 2018, and provides customers with personalized, one-on-one consultations in food safety, including technical writing and regulatory compliance preparation. Essential Food Safety Consulting prepares businesses to retain or renew the certifications needed to satisfy industry standards and legal requirements, achieved through proper safety training and complete documentation. Headed by a 20-year veteran of the food manufacturing industry, Essential Food Safety Consulting pays careful attention to each company's unique circumstances and tailors planning and the course of action to maximize chances of success.

At this week's Round Table, Inica Kotasthane and Riya Mehta speak with Fritz Umbach, Associate Professor of History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Fritz studies the history of crime and policing and consults for a number of city agencies and served as an expert witness in a number of Stop, Question, and Frisk--or SQF-- cases. We discuss what SQR is, its history in New York City, whether or not it's “racist,” the relationship between policing and communities of color, and why all of this matters. Thank you for joining us! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/nextgenpolitics/message

We interview several people who benefit from the SQF conference and you’ll be hearing case studies on how SQF has benefitted them from copackers to consulting. What I find really cool about this episode is how people get into the quality field and how they progressed throughout their roles. I find it beautiful that no matter where you are in life, you can end up in a career in food. What I find amazing is just how aligned in purpose the people in the quality field are. You’ll also hear from a special past guest and we catch up on what he’s been up to. A disclaimer is that this is in a live setting in a noisy conference room so it might be a little noisy. We’ve tried our best to mitigate the noise, so just be mindful when listening to the episode in whatever setting you’re in. Mandy Jennifer, QA Manager from Pillar’s Fine Foods Piller’s Fine Food It’s my first time visiting I brought my husband over There’s a new code this year. Ver 9.0 Leclerc Foods Alba Velasco SQF Practitioner of the US Waffle Company US Waffle Company We make store brand gluten-free pancakes and waffles We do foodservice and retail brands Food Safety Consortium Denise Webster Food Safety Consultant Food Safety consultancy Mark Crowell Certified SQF Trainer and Consultant Eurofins How do you become a trainer?: The application process, live training, test, and being shadowed Social Responsibility Standard How did you find out about food science?: Michigan State I wanted to be a chemist but I never had the personality of a chemist Tesco’s Fresh and Easy In any time in your career, you have to make critical decisions Bryan Armentrout VP Eurofins Past interview Eurofins actually does training and consulting Dr. Doug Marshall FSMA Connecting corporate and industrial to fill in gaps with the corporate supply chain

I was invited to the SQF Conference in San Antonio to do some interviews. If you’re not familiar with the SQF Institute, it’s a certification body that ensures our food is safe. After all, SQF stands for Safe Quality Food, but it’s a lot more than that! I was fortunate to be invited to their annual conference last year to learn a bit more about the concepts behind SQF and the people who run it. We got quite a bit of content so I’m splitting it into two parts. I’d say this first part describes the ins and outs of the SQF program and the second part focuses more on, past guests and connections! It’s always so interesting meeting people in new places. Guests and Show Notes Sarah Mullunich  – Marketing and Sales Director of SQFI Food Industry Association Ethical Sourcing and Certification Systems SQF Certified: email me at s.mullenich@sqfi.com How to become SQF Certified: Find a certifying body and auditors come and verify your plant sqfi.com Only locations can be certified 12th year at SQF The conference is 2 and a  half days of learning and networking in the SQF industry Each year, we have a theme: this year’s theme is: Shaping the future of food safety together What’s super fun about SQF? Here in Texas. We're going to the Kinibbie Ranch that has a rodeo and live steers and celebrate Texas My Food Job Rocks: I get to keep food safe. Yawinder Sighn - Student from Cornell University  2nd-year phd from india I won a  scholarship to go to this conference How did you find out about the scholarship?: Cornell aggrigates student scholarship and I found this one IAFP IFT PCQI certification – part of FSMA, more global HACCP certification – generalized certification What do you win when you win the scholarship?: Travel expenses waived at $3000 dollars Reshmine from Galaxy Desserts – QA Manager I get interrupted in this one, but I decided to leave it here. I think it’s funny. We actually met at NCIFT SQF is important for everyone Why are you here?: It’s my first time here and I’m so glad I’m here. I get to network, learn more about certifying bodies, and learn about Edition 9 How did you convince your boss to go to SQF?: We’ve been SQF and you need to improve your skillset What have you learned today?: Improvement in the food fraud, environmental program, pretty much getting the most up to date methods The codes and standards keep changing and you have to keep up to date A person can be a SQF Practitioner a company can be a SQF Company My Food Job Rocks: We eat food every day. You’ll always have a  job Deni Otovemi -Quality Assurance at Wayne Farms Emerging Leaders Network We talked about risk and risk is a factor of profession Daniel Akimamayan IT Tech for SQF Bachelors of Economics Kainen Ryse Manager of the Ethical Sourcing and Sustainability Standard

Learn more about Base CultureSupport the show and get on monthly brand advisory calls with Fabian____Full Transcript:F Geyrhalter:                 This was Jordann Windschauer Amatea, the third mom entrepreneur on Hitting the Mark back to back, who successfully conquered the food business and another amazing inspiration to anyone who wants to move a passion into a business and subsequently into a brand with heart and soul. Jordann founded Base Culture as a bakery, catering to the healthy, pure and primal lifestyle that could be summed up as the paleo diet. She wanted to live a healthy lifestyle but have a brownie. So she baked it until it was perfect. She could not find a co-packing facility. So she created her own and waited two years to have it built and finalized while keeping hundreds of stores and journalists interested in her product title. What I learned about Jordann is that she is stubborn and passionate, and those two traits may just be the key ingredients to her success. Today she's working out of a 44,000 square foot facility, and her range of products can be found in over 7,000 stores nationwide. And now over to my conversation with Jordann. Welcome to the show, Jordann.Jordann W A:                Thank you so much. Excited to be here.F Geyrhalter:                 So you started your company Base Culture at age 22 which was only five years ago, and it came from your obsession with the paleo diet. Tell us a little bit about the origins of your brand.Jordann W A:                Yeah, so I had graduated from college and joined a CrossFit gym and they were doing this paleo challenge where I honestly didn't know what paleo was, but I figured I should participate and get involved in the community and what they were doing to make friends and get involved. So I jumped in and did 30 days where you eat meat, vegetables, seeds and nuts and fruit. And after that was concluded, I felt so much better. And so I don't have like a celiac disease or gluten intolerance, but overall I did realize the impact of eating this way versus the college diet, which probably isn't the healthiest. And so I notice things in my life were changing. I had more energy with consistent levels instead of having highs and lows throughout the day, and I was sleeping better at night. I wasn't tossing and turning and things like that. So I realized that there really was something to this and it wasn't just about weight loss or physical appearance or anything like that. It was more how I wanted to live my life and wanted to continue down this journey. And so that's really how I gotten introduced to paleo right off the bat. But then I wanted to continue following this lifestyle, but I realized to do so that I needed to figure out a solution for my sweet tooth and for products that I know and love and grew up eating like sandwiches and banana breads that I missed in my everyday life when I was on this lifestyle for paleo. But it didn't exist in the marketplace. And so that's why I started creating the products. It was very much for selfish want or desire that I was filling a void in my life and kind of created what it is today just by bringing it to the marketplace and introducing it to my friends and family and kind of word of mouth started spreading organically. So that was my introduction and do this whole lifestyle that is all around paleo but kind of stumbled on the business through that.F Geyrhalter:                 How do you move from baking treats, which I'm sure in the beginning you did out of your apartment or your dorm room, right? How do you go from baking them to actually selling them? I mean, are there any FDA issues even early on? And just for our international listeners, which is actually more than half of our audience, FDA is the Food and Drug Administration here in the US. How did that go? Where did you start selling, first of all?Jordann W A:                Sure. So when I originally started selling it, I was actually just selling it on Facebook. So I would post when I was going to make something, and I had a regular day job at the time. So I would be working at my desk job from nine to five, and then I would work out from 5:30 to 6:30, and at some point during the day I would post on Facebook saying, "I'm making brownies tonight. Who wants some?" And then people would place their orders on Facebook, contact me through a message, and send me their address and then I would deliver it to them on the weekend.F Geyrhalter:                 That's insane. That is completely insane.Jordann W A:                Yeah.F Geyrhalter:                 There is no FDA involved there. You could be a complete crazy stranger. Yeah, I mean, wow. There's a lot of trust in humanity after all.Jordann W A:                There is. There is definitely something to say about that for sure. Doing that, I was operating under the cottage food law, which allows you to make food out of your apartment. And so with that, I guess that legal standpoint, you can't sell to someone and ship it to them. So that was one parameter I had to work with. So it had to be hand-delivered. And then the other parameter was you can't sell to retail stores because they do require some certifications. But if you just sell basically like at a farmer's market type setting or if you deliver the products to the person by hand, then you're clear to do whatever you want. And so I took advantage of that and I would make all of these products throughout the night and then like I said deliver it on the weekend and sell on Sundays at a farmer's market and just tested the waters. I mean, truthfully at the time I didn't realize that this could be a business. I didn't realize what legs it had, if it had any legs at all. It was just something fun for me to do. And I found enjoyment and baking at night. And I'm not culinary trained or I don't have a history in baking. It's just something I enjoyed doing growing up with my mom. And so just kind of reliving those days and getting in the kitchen and figuring out recipes that worked, I found a lot of joy in. And so I just followed that and started organically selling. And my advertising was word of mouth, but it was very grassroots.F Geyrhalter:                 And was it mainly catering to the friends within your Facebook groups that actually followed the paleo diet? Or was it just anyone that says, "Hey, I like your brownies." I'm sure I would like your brownies. So how did that work?Jordann W A:                Yeah, so it originally started with people that were specifically interested in paleo, and then once they tried it, they're like, "Holy cow, this is just a really good brownie. But it also checks off the boxes for being paleo or grain free or gluten free or dairy free or soy free or non-GMO." It has all of these attributes. But at the core base of the product I'm eating, it's just a really good brownie. So it wasn't like they were sacrificing taste or texture or that experience of indulging in a sweet treat for the alternatives of what you would consider a healthy product. And so once they realized that, okay, wow, this is awesome and I really enjoy this, I think a word of mouth started spreading just on a really good product that was healthier, better for you. And so as time continued, my core paleo group of people that were buying for the purpose of paleo started expanding, and now we're seeing that really just people that want to live healthier lifestyles are our key customers. Because yes it does check the box or paleo, but it has so many other answers within the product itself. So it kind of is migrated out to just that want to eat better food that is nutritionally-focused and has that deliverable aspect to it.F Geyrhalter:                 Absolutely. And I think for a startup founder, having that built in tribe in the beginning though, like that small subgroup that you wholeheartedly can support, must be so amazing because you can literally get a relatively small audience in a huge place like the US with its, I don't know, 329 something million people and you would have a loyal tribe of like hundreds of thousands if not millions. And so it wasn't even a trick you utilized. It was just a passion, which you are the third female founder who happens to be an entrepreneur who happens to be a mom and who happens to have gone into food and beverage without any experience just based on passion or a need. And it's really, really inspirational. So I love having you on, and I love hearing hearing that story. But looking back, what was that one big breakthrough moment where you felt like, okay, my little startup is actually turning into a brand?Jordann W A:                Yeah. So I actually had some unexpected news coverage. This was still in the days of my apartment when I was baking there. And I recognized that there were a couple of news anchors from a local news channel following me on Facebook and Instagram or following the business. So I reached out to them and I figured, if you don't ask, you'll never get. So I just sent them a message and said, "Hey, do you guys want to do a story?" And one of the anchors responded and said, "Yeah, we're really interested in this paleo thing." This was back when paleo was kind of making it a name for itself, but not really. And they wanted to learn more about it, and they recognized what I was doing in the Tampa area where I'm from. And so she said, "Here's my number. Give me a call. Let's set something up." And so I did. I went in. We did a segment and it aired in Tampa like they said it would. But what I didn't recognize was that they have a network pool of companies that they work with around the country. So they put this story in their network pool and it was picked up by other channels and played multiple times for a week straight. And so I had national news coverage that was completely unexpected and I had people calling, trying to place orders. I had retail stores asking if they could buy it to sell it to their customers. And it was obviously way more than I could handle or even do in my apartment. And that was really where I saw, okay, is this bigger than what I anticipated or is this something I want to take advantage of and go forward with? And it was at that time, I remember what restaurant I went to with my dad and I sat down with him, and I remember the table we sat at, and I told him how exciting this was and how much support I was getting from the community and what had happened with the new segment. And I explained what I wanted to do with it and how much passion I had behind it because I recognized that I was helping people, not only people that wanted to live this healthy lifestyle, but people that needed to eat this way because they did have gluten intolerances or sensitivities to foods and that they didn't have access to products like this. And they were "suffering" or having to sacrifice for products that they really wanted or just wanting to enjoy. And so with that, I explained all of this and he very quite frankly told me, and in the most loving way possible that I had a hobby and a business and I was doing both poorly, and I needed to spend more time on my business and less time on my hobby if that's the way I wanted to go and the direction I wanted to head in. And so that was, I think, really the pivotal moment for me where I decided that I am all in, blood, sweat and tears. I'm diving in headfirst and this is what I want to do with my life. This is my passion. And so at that point I got out of my apartment and went to a small commercial kitchen and rented some space and started turning it into more of a business.F Geyrhalter:                 So first of all, I love what your dad said. It is so wonderful and it's so true. And so now fast forward and you were about to get there. I read, and this is fascinating, I read that you couldn't find a co-packer to package your line of products. So after eight months, after eight months of looking, you actually took it into your own hands and built your own facility, which I guess today is 44,000 square foot in size today. But that move sounds amazingly stubborn, inspiring. And those are extremely difficult to pull off. Did you have a hard time finding a co-packer because you needed a facility to not package any goods that may contaminate your pure products? How was that?Jordann W A:                Yeah. So there was a couple of reasons why we decided to build our own facility. One reason was because of the contamination issue. So our products are certified non-GMO, gluten-free, paleo, kosher, and it's made in an SQF level two facility, which stands for safe quality food. And so I wanted those certifications around the products wherever they were going to be made. The problem was there wasn't a manufacturing plant in the country that could deliver on those aspects. And so to make sure that the products were consistent and of the highest quality and standards 100% of the time, I knew the only way I could guarantee it that was if I kept my hands around the process from start to finish. And then furthermore, because our products were so unique to the industry, there wasn't actually a manufacturing plant that had the processes set up to make the products. Because in a typical bakery, they're used to working with yeast and flour and sugars and all of these things that usually make up baked goods. But ours are made out of seeds and nuts and they're sweetened with honey instead of sugar. There's no preservatives. They require to be frozen to extend their shelf life. And so it was a very different process so that these manufacturing plants were used to. And so, I didn't understand it at the time because I was like, "Hey, I'm going to pay you. Why can't you figure this out?" And I truly get it now because we do have our facility. Like you said, we did take on that responsibility and build it ourselves. So I understand when you have a process in place, it is so pivotal to make sure that whatever products you're making within your process don't screw up what you're already doing. And our products would have totally done that for these manufacturing plants. So with that, I decided, and again, I sat down with my dad who, he's an entrepreneur himself. He's not in the food industry, but he's very business minded. And now he's one of my business partners. But I sat down with him again, and I was like, "I really only see the way forward is if we build our own plant, and that's really the only way we're going to be able to grow this." And at the time, I had a lot of interest from bigger retail stores, but in this industry, you can't get anyone to promise that they're going to send you a purchase order. That doesn't happen. If they want your products and they're going to place an order, you're expected to deliver in two weeks. And so I had this interest, but I couldn't say, without a shadow of a doubt, I knew that they were going to order if we build this facility because there was going to be a gap when the facility was being built before we could deliver it. So it might've been a little presumptuous, maybe a little naive, or ...F Geyrhalter:                 Optimistic.Jordann W A:                Just blinded by passion, I don't know. But we started looking for a facility. We were looking around the country, and actually one popped up in Clearwater where we are now, which was 20 minutes outside of Tampa, where I'm from, and about 20 minutes away from my dad's house in St. Pete. And so the stars aligned, and it was an old U.S. Foods distribution plant. So it was set up with food in mind, so we didn't have to do any external changes to the facility. We just did internal renovations. But from permitting to move in, we did lose about two and a half years to complete the project from the branded side of things.F Geyrhalter:                 Yeah.Jordann W A:                But I did continue to go out and pitch to the connections I had made to make sure that the relationships were moving forward and make sure that they understood that we were actually doing this thing, and that one day the lights would turn on, and I would be able to actually sell them food and not just talk about it. And so, thankfully I was able to make those relationships last so that, when we did move into our facility, let's see, it was February of 2017 when we first moved in after the construction was complete. From February till July, we got those certifications that I mentioned in July, we hired a national broker to help us sell the products, and then in August, in September we did a rebranding to make our image and kind of give it a facelift to go to the market and officially launched then in October of 2017. So even though I started the company many years prior to that, there was really only a hundred stores buying from us up until that point. So it was a big undertaking financially, emotionally, physically, all of those words, to get to a place where we could actually grow the company.F Geyrhalter:                 Oh, I'm sure.Jordann W A:                And then, from October to the end of 2017, we went from a hundred stores to a thousand stores. And then we were well on our way to growing quickly.F Geyrhalter:                 Were you self-funded at the time when you took over that facility?Jordann W A:                We were self-funded. A majority of it was self-funded, and we had a small business loan from a local bank.F Geyrhalter:                 Okay, okay. So you talked about when you did your rebranding, which was the smart thing to do at the time, when you were just about to really roll out, and as you told us, that happened very quickly when it happened.Jordann W A:                Yeah.F Geyrhalter:                 How was the name derived?Jordann W A:                So it's kind of funny. When I originally started the company, I'd called it Paleo Box because I thought I'm making paleo food, and I'm putting it in a box, and I'm selling it. There really wasn't genius behind it. It was very literal. But about five minutes after I called it Paleo Box, I realized I couldn't move forward with that name for two reasons. One, it was actually already trademarked, and you can't do that. And two, I didn't want to necessarily put the products I've created in a limiting a platform. I wanted to be able to create a brand that could grow and fluctuate with the consumers' interests throughout time. And so, with that, I realized, all right, let's rethink this. Let's figure out what what am I truly trying to get across to the customer? And the idea behind paleo, while I believe paleo is a wonderful lifestyle to follow and that there's no gimmicks, it's just nutritionally based eating that, if Dr. Oz or someone of status or just the public eye gets online and says paleo is the worst thing in the world, which I don't believe they would, having the name as the name of the company would be detrimental.F Geyrhalter:                 Right.Jordann W A:                And so I wanted to create a broader platform for us to grow on. And so, with that, I realized, well, paleo is really just taking all the complications out of eating and bringing it back to its base, its core, what it is when it's found in nature. And so that's really where base came from, and culture's the idea of what I'm creating around this type of lifestyle. We want to create this movement and this cultural like following of our customers. And by doing that, we're going to provide them the tools they need to live their healthy and active lifestyle. And so that's the origin of Base Culture, of how that was created.F Geyrhalter:                 And it is a name that stands out more than it fits in in the refrigerated aisle of a Walmart or Whole Foods.Jordann W A:                Totally.F Geyrhalter:                 So it's super interesting, right? And on your website, and I believe it's kind of your tagline, you say Base Culture is simple, natural, primal. It kind of reads like a manifesto. What does that mean to the brand, and how does it inspire its future?Jordann W A:                Yeah. So it's really who we are. We bring our products back to a simple standpoint. When you look at a normal brownie, and when I say "normal," it's one of those pre-packaged, very artificially made, or has a lot of preservatives in it. You look at that, you look at the ingredient deck, there are a lot of ingredients in there that you don't understand or you can't even pronounce, and you don't know what you're putting in your body. And that's not who we are. We're the exact opposite. You can read everything on our ingredient deck. You know exactly what it is, you know where it comes from, and it's products that you can trust. So making our products simple was truly important, not only from when I started in my apartment, but now that we're making thousands and thousands of products a day and sending it out to stores all across the country every single day, that hasn't changed. And that was really difficult for us to go from my kitchen in my apartment and the recipes that I've created to this large manufacturing plant, being able to produce on such scale, to maintain that process and that philosophy from the very start has been really key to our success. And it's that simplicity that we fall back to every time, and natural again. It's just a natural way of eating. It's no gimmick. There's no special pill that you have to take to be this way. It's just natural. It's what we were intended to do. And the primal aspect of it plays on the paleo word, and so paleo is kind of nicknamed "the caveman diet." It's what our ancestors used to eat. It's what you could find in nature, and so it's that raw form of eating. We just do it in a way and put it into a form that's recognizable in the bakery context. And so it has the ability to satisfy that sweet tooth or to indulge or "indulge," right? Because it is still very healthy and nutritional for you, so it's like indulging without the guilt.F Geyrhalter:                 Absolutely. How was that rebrand effort? So you came from Paleo Box. You moved on to a new name, strong tagline. Everything went really to the heart of what you're trying to do without putting you into a corner like paleo so that you can't expand in the future. How was that process of rebranding? How involved were you? Were you working with a single person? Were you working with an agency? Tell us a little bit how everything kind of came together and also how important after that process, do you think that brand-infused thinking was to the success of your startup?Jordann W A:                Yeah, so we actually went through three different agencies before we found the agency that we moved forward with.F Geyrhalter:                 Ouch.Jordann W A:                And so it was a long process.F Geyrhalter:                 You're not the only one.Jordann W A:                It was not easy. The hardest part of it was I had this image in my head of what I thought the company should be, but also keep in mind, I was like 24, so what do I really know without any experience, without any knowledge of the industry, without any advice from some successful people in the industry. This was just truly gut feeling and gut reaction. But I had this picture in my head of what I thought the company would look like and what it would feel like and the way it would talk to the customers and the personality would develop. But conveying that to the agencies in a way that they could take it from my brain and put it on paper was a hard process. And I think, not to discredit the agencies that we spoke to, the first three agencies, it was probably mostly my fault because I wasn't able to articulate exactly what I was looking for. But through that process, I got more fine-tuned in my messaging, and I got more directive into the creative aspect. And so, when we found ... we worked with a company called Idol Partners, and they're out of California, and we still work with them today. They were the agency that ultimately brought Base Culture to life. And we invested tons of money just to get to that point, probably more money than we had. I know it was more money than we had to spend at the time. But the way we came out of it and the image and the branding that we had once we were done through that process with Idol, it was an image, and the packaging was mature, and it was an image that could be brought to life. And it was something that demanded attention in the retail stores and grabbed the attention of the retail buyers that were giving us the opportunities to go into the store. And so it made us look much more mature than we actually were. And it gave us the ability to grow faster because of it. And so it was a hard process. It was a long process that had to be done. And that's really I think what gave us the ability to develop the platform in which we've gotten to today. We actually, as of two weeks ago, started doing a brand refresh. We're still working with the same company, Idol, to do this, but now the products have been in the industry for two years, and we've seen little things that need to be tweaked or just changed a little bit. And so we have more information now than I did two years ago because of that. And we can go back into our design and make those changes to really even accelerate our growth faster. So, of course, with time you learn, and now we have the ability to do those fine tunes.F Geyrhalter:                 And now that you spent a good amount of years, talking, thinking, doing branding, some subliminally, a lot of it through an agency, and a lot of it just by yourself, the way that you talk about the brand. What does branding mean to you now?Jordann W A:                Well, I think it's ... It's everything. People say, "Don't judge the book by its cover." But in the consumer product world, that's exactly what people are doing. You have exactly three seconds to grab someone's attention, and maybe they don't, maybe they do, but your packaging, your branding, your image, that's what you have to hang your hat on. Of course, the product has to be spectacular as well, but someone's not going to try the products without seeing the packaging first. That's your first moment of impact. And so, with strong branding, it's everything. Your messaging has to be clear. It has to be concise. It's who you are. It's exactly what you breathe and you eat and you sleep and you dream. And that has all has to be captured within that package or within your brand, whether it be on the shelf or on Instagram or on Facebook or whatever platform you're promoting the products on. So, if your branding isn't anything but exactly what you want, it will come across untrue or won't accomplish the work you want it to do for you. And so I think things have developed over time and little pieces have fallen into place where it just feels right, and that's what you have to go for when you're developing the brand. And I've figured that out just through trial and error and over time and realizing what is important to Base Culture, what's not important to Base Culture, what resonates with the consumer. How do I get a message across in a way that will be impactful, that they will be willing to trust Base Culture to give it a try? And will that develop a loyal customer and how to build on that. And so branding's your lifeblood. It's everything from start to finish and the continuing relationship you have with the customer.F Geyrhalter:                 Talking about branding being your lifeblood, you literally are very much the brand as a person, which creates transparency and a real person rather than a brand image to root for. But now that you're a mom, how does it affect your personal life? Or is the baby just part of every Instagram story?Jordann W A:                Yeah, it's been an interesting transition from being just entrepreneur to being mompreneur, I guess, if you want to call it that.F Geyrhalter:                 Is that frowned upon? Is that a term that's actually frowned upon? Is that a term that is actually embraced, "mompreneur"?Jordann W A:                I think it depends on who you're talking to, truthfully.F Geyrhalter:                 Okay.Jordann W A:                Because there are some people where you tell them you have a family, and you have this life outside of the business, then it's like, "Well, if you want to be successful, you need to dedicate your entire every waking moment you have to the business."F Geyrhalter:                 Oh, Jesus.Jordann W A:                And while that's true to an extent, you have to make it work for your life because hey, it's also your life.F Geyrhalter:                 Right.Jordann W A:                And then, in the other breath, there's plenty of people that are super supportive of this transition that I'm going through, and I've gotten a lot of people reaching out to be supportive and offer encouraging words of advice and how they've done it too. Because I'm not the first woman to have a baby and run a business. It's not unheard of, and it has been done before. It's just a matter of adjusting mentally and physically to the other demands. And so, thankfully, I'm one of eight kids in my family, and I have a lot of babysitters built in. And so I'm able to work out of my house a lot, which is great. But then I also have my siblings there to help support and watch my baby while I'm working or taking calls. They're able to help [inaudible 00:31:35] if I'm too busy doing emails. And so I've got the support internally from my family to help build my new family. And then also Base Culture is ... I kind of joke, and I say Base Culture was my first baby, and now Eloise is my second baby. And so I became a new mom and a second mom all at the same time. But it's just a balance. It's figuring out what's working for you and what's not and making what's not work in the long run. And what's not and making what's not work in the long run. And it's wonderful. But I swear she'll be our very best sales girl when she's able to talk. I think Base Culture will be her first words.F Geyrhalter:                 If she wants to or not.Jordann W A:                Right. I was sending emails on day two of her life from the hospital bed. So, it's been a key part of her upbringing thus far. I don't anticipate that changing anytime soon. But she'll be well-versed within the consumer product industry very early in her life.F Geyrhalter:                 And there's some entrepreneurs that from from the get go say, "You know what, I don't want to be the face of the brand." I just want to run the brand. But no one really needs to ever see me, get to know me. We have a personality for the brand, we have a message, but I do not want to be outgoingly the brand as a person." And given the chance, would you not be the face of the brand if you had to do it all over again. Or do you feel like it is really what makes it so authentic?Jordann W A:                I think that for Base Culture, it really does give it life. This isn't just a story where I stumbled across a recipe, this was based off of my life. Truthfully, this was because I wanted this product. And that's how we were founded. And I think if I weren't involved as intricately as I am, the branding will lose its appeal. It would lose its lust, and it would have more of a flat effect than a robust. And so for Base Culture, and other companies operate differently and there are plenty of success stories that the founder isn't as involved on the branding aspect. But I think I wouldn't do it differently if I were to do it again. I would still be as involved as I am. And it's really fun for me, honestly, that's my favorite part, is going out and having the meetings, or doing podcasts like this and talking to people. Because I am so passionate about it. I would hate just to be doing the work behind the scenes. I think that would be boring for me. Having the ability to go and sit on panels and talk and answer questions, and dive deep, and explore the realms of where, where I am in my personal life and as it relates to Base Culture. This is my life, it is what I do. It's more than 50%, well more than 50%. I would say more than 80% of my days is focused around the company. So yeah, it's been fun in developing myself through the company, and the company through myself.F Geyrhalter:                 And it's your passion. And I read it in an interview where you were asked a question, "How do you define success?" And I'll quote you here with your answer. You said, "I used to say that when we make X amount of money, we would be successful. However, today we hit that X dollar amount. The goal then changed to something twice as much. It was after this happened about five times that I realized that success is not measured by the amount of money you are making, rather it is measured by the difference you are making in other people's lives along the way." How do you see that difference you're making with your brand? The impact you're having? where do you get to witness that feedback when you're out there?Jordann W A:                Well, first of all, I've never been quoted before, so that was really cool.F Geyrhalter:                 Oh, my pleasure. My pleasure. It's the only one I have.Jordann W A:                No, it was very good. Yeah, we see people sending us responses that they dive in and they're vulnerable, and they open up about the way our products have impacted themselves. And we see this through Instagram. We see it through Facebook. We get messages through our email on our website, and we get comments on our pages, on our website as well next to the products. And so they're available for everyone to see if you go onto our website, and just scroll down, you can see all the comments. But this support, the honest truth of what people see in our products and how it's affecting them, from someone that has an eating disorder that hasn't allowed themselves to have a dessert, or a bread for years and years, because they don't think that they can as a person, do that. That they stumbled across our products, they read the ingredients, and they were able to convince themselves that it would be okay to have a brownie, because how clean and how pure the ingredients are. And they indulged and they had it and they love it and they're coming back to it. And that truly changed it. It was a pivotal moment in their lives. We see people reaching out saying their child has autism and that they have to eat this clean lifestyle, this clean way of eating. They have to do that because of the disease that their child has. But because our products don't have the artificial sugars, they don't have the additional bad ingredients in it that a lot of products do, especially in the baked goods category, that they've been able to enjoy a brownie. It's a kid enjoying a brownie. While that might not seem as monumental to many people, it is impactful for someone that has never been able to give their kid a brownie in his life. And so those are just two examples of ways that I've seen these products not only change lives, but really be a part of their growing future. To really have that ability to provide products. And at the end of the day it's like, "Oh, you have a bakery." Well yeah, we do have a bakery, but we stand for something more than just baked goods. We're giving these customers opportunities that weren't available to them before. And we're growing with them, and we're developing more products for them. And that's why we do it. That's the main reason. Because we can add things to people's life to make it easier for them to live healthier and happier. And so that's truly, that's when success is. We can keep shooting for higher goals. We can keep shooting for more money. We can keep shooting for a bigger facility, or we can keep shooting to make a difference in people's lives. And at the end of the day, that's what drives me forward. Because, like you said in the quote that I had passed along in another interview, that bar of success, that'll just keep getting higher and higher and higher. And if that's what you're hanging your hat on, then you're always going to be disappointed. Because it's just going to keep growing. And so to find that satisfaction in the daily drive, because this is a hard business. It's definitely not easy. It doesn't come easily. You have to work at it every single day. But to be able to find success, and that rewarding success is really truly what makes the difference for me.F Geyrhalter:                 And if you would distill all of that into one word that can describe your brand, I call it your brand DNA, what would be that one all-encompassing word that your brand could stand for.Jordann W A:                Freedom. I think that's the word I would use if I were to pick one.F Geyrhalter:                 Go deeper. Freedom for the actual customer, for the consumer to to at last be able to eat, to eat-Jordann W A:                Exactly. Exactly. Not having the stigma around baked goods and snacks any longer, but be able to enjoy something that they truly want. It's a brownie, it's a bread, it's a banana bread, it's a pumpkin bread. It's almond butter. But it's freedom to let yourself enjoy it and to actually enjoy it. Not just settle for a "healthy product", because you have to eat that way, but we should want to eat this way. And freedom from a nutritional standpoint. Not having to worry about the ingredient deck, not having to worry about what you're putting in your body, but knowing that you're putting actual food in your body that it can use as fuel. Instead of stores fat. So freedom comes in a lot of ways, but especially when it comes to indulging and snacking and having dessert, there's a lot of stigma around it when you're trying to live healthier, or you need to live healthier for your own self. And freedom to do that in a way that you can enjoy, I think is the one word and how I would describe it if I were to take one word.F Geyrhalter:                 It's really refreshing, because when you think of freedom as as a brand DNA, you usually think of Holly Davidson, so you just brought it into a new decade. I love that.Jordann W A:                Right. Exactly.F Geyrhalter:                 It's like this is what freedom means today. As we're getting to the point of wrapping up this show, this episode. Do have any final, piece of brand advice because you've been through different agencies. You worked really hard to get this done. You're also a very young entrepreneur. You did everything without any big knowledge of your field that you entered, in marketing and branding and all of it was very fresh to you. Do you have any brand advice for founders as a final takeaway?Jordann W A:                Yeah, I would say trust your gut, whenever you're in doubt, trust your gut. Listen to yourself. You know your brand better than anyone else. You know that there might be other people out there that have more industry experience and more knowledge based off history, but no one will ever know the brand better than the founder. It is your baby. It's your life. It's exactly what you think about almost all of your days. And that will give you the gut feeling you need to drive a brand forward. Whether it be the image that you're painting as the packaging, or the voice you're trying to create on social media. That that gut feeling, and that gut check is truly your guiding force. And like I said, there isn't someone else that can tell you what that is. That is part of you that will always be yours. So to trust in that and to really dive into what that means for you, will help guide you whenever there's a question.F Geyrhalter:                 I so 110% agree with that. And that's also how I work with companies on their brand. I'm a brand therapist, that's all I do, right? I just get it out of the founder.Jordann W A:                Right.F Geyrhalter:                 Because I am not going to create the strategy, they create the strategies because they already have it in them. It's just me who has to align everything for success. So I really loved what you said.Jordann W A:                Well and that's a hard thing too.F Geyrhalter:                 Oh absolutely.Jordann W A:                It took us so long to get to a place where branding was... It took three agencies to actually articulate it. It's not an easy process. But for founders to go through that rigorous step, the steps it takes to find who you are and what you are as a brand is so important. And so the role you play is monumental.F Geyrhalter:                 Because more agencies have answers than they have questions. And questions is really where the answers lie.Jordann W A:                Exactly, exactly.F Geyrhalter:                 Listeners who fell in love with your brand, with what you talked about, who want to buy into a lifestyle that is more natural and more and more primal, and in a way more logical. Where can they find your products?Only in the U.S. I assume, but are there certain regions? Are there certain places where they can find it?Jordann W A:                Yeah, we're a national in the U.S.. Our products are in both natural and conventional stores. We're national with Whole Foods, so any Whole Foods in the nation. We're also in Sprouts, we are also in Kroger and Albertsons, Safeway, again throughout the whole nation, so not regionally focused. We're also in Walmart and H-E-B hour in Wegmans, if that's your shopping preference. We're also in Fresh Market. We actually just got placement there. We'll be there at the end of this month. So that's some exciting news. But really we have a lot of locations. We're in almost 8,000 stores across the country. So I encourage you guys to go on our website, which is baseculture.com and type in your zip code on our locator page. And that'll show you exactly where our products are near a store by you and what products are sold there. So you can go into the store knowing exactly what we carry at that particular location. Because we do have a wide variety of products, not every store has everything we carry, but we're working on expanding our distribution. So that'll help guide you to exactly what you're looking for.F Geyrhalter:                 Jordan, congratulations on your amazing success which happened so quickly. And congrats on being a new mom and now you've got-Jordann W A:                Thank you.F Geyrhalter:                 ... wow you've got two babies. And thank you so much for having been on the show. I know it's a busy lifestyle currently for you, So for you to spend those 40 somewhat minutes with us, we all really appreciate your time and your insights.Jordann W A:                Absolutely. It's been an honor talking with you. Thank you for having me on. This is my pleasure.F Geyrhalter:                 What an inspiration for any entrepreneur, but also for me to get back into the all-natural diet. Thank you for listening. Please rate the show and show you support via patreon.com/hittingthemark so we can make this podcast, 100% community-enabled and sponsor free. And you get to hop on an hour long Google Hangout group call with me once a month, where I can give you entrepreneurial brand and creative advice worth much more than the $15 and 95 cents you'd spend to support this programming. The Hitting The Mark theme music was written and produced by Happiness Won. I will see you next time when we once again will be Hitting The Mark.

Assurance in Action is visited by Food Safety Management Systems expert Showkat Hussain. As an experienced food safety auditor for Intertek, Canada, Showkat shares his view on the overwhelming benefits that Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI)-recognised certification provides food producers. GFSI-recognised standards include FSSC2200, SQF, and BRC among others.Links Mentioned:mygfsi.comIntertek.com

Michael Cramer is currently the senior director of food safety and quality assurance with Ajinomoto Windsor, Inc. The company was formed through various acquisitions (Multifoods, Specialty Brands, and Windsor Foods) and ultimately the purchase of Windsor Foods by Ajinomoto. He will celebrate his 25th year with the company in October 2018. Mike is an SQF practitioner, ASQ-certified quality auditor, and a preventive controls-qualified individual. CRC Press published Mike's book “Food Plant Sanitation: Design, Maintenance and Good Manufacturing Practices” (2nd Edition, 2013). Mike is a graduate of West Chester University in West Chester, PA where he earned a B.Sc. Health Science in 1977. He spent 16 years working with Swift & Company (Armour, Swift – Eckrich, ConAgra) in poultry operations, processed meats and poultry, and corporate food safety and quality assurance. Finally, Mike has been an esteemed member of Food Safety Magazine's Editorial Advisory Board since 2001.   In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Mike Cramer about: Why Listeria continues to be a challenge in food plants Qualities that a food facility—and its staff—should have in order to tackle Listeria and environmental monitoring issues The financial burden of setting up an environmental monitoring program, and why it's necessary Implementing a program that is designed to look for Listeria spp., not just Listeria monocytogenes What happens when regulatory inspectors come in to conduct swabbing The pros and cons of testing in an in-house lab vs. a third-party lab Testing methodologies: cultural method, polymerase chain reaction, VIDAS, lateral flow devices, etc. What should happen when positive test results are confirmed The Ishikawa process and how it relates to getting to the root cause of environmental problems The importance of having a cross-functional team in place to attack Listeria harborage from all angles and departments Implementing chemical and mechanical actions to rid a plant of biofilm How the dirtiest areas of a food facility don't automatically equal Listeria contamination Sanitary design and hygienic design Quat, peroxyacetic acid, chlorine dioxide, silver dihydrous chloride, and other options for sanitizing Taking advantage of industry conferences, events, and new technologies to hone in on what a particular food business needs to know to improve food safety operations Related Content and Resources: BOOK: Food Plant Sanitation: Design, Maintenance, and Good Manufacturing Practices, 2nd Edition  2014 Sanitary Equipment Design Taskforce (checklist and glossary)  Risks of Oligodynamic Silver Use in Food Preservation and Processing Operations (June/July 2017) Mike Cramer's Articles Published in Food Safety Magazine: Environmental Listeria Monitoring: Seek and Destroy Pathogens (December 2017/January 2018) Allergen Management: A Personal and Professional Perspective (August/September 2016) A Look at GMPs: How FSMA Will Change Expectations (February/March 2016) Supplier Certification: A Matter of Risk Assessment and Resources (October/November 2015) Upgrade Sanitation Plan to Work Out Bugs (April/May 2014) For more articles from Mike Cramer, access our compiled search FoodSafetyMagazine.com Bob Ferguson's Food Safety Insights Articles: The Uphill Path to FSMA Compliance (October/November 2018) Lessons Learned: Careers in Food Safety (August/September 2018) Listeria: An Important Focus of Environmental Monitoring (June/July 2018) Sanitation Verification for Allergen Control (April/May 2018) Testing and Sanitation for Allergen Control (February/March 2018)  Outsourcing: Pathogen Testing under the Microscope (December 2017/January 2018) The New Face of Sanitation Programs: New Rules, New Challenges (October/November 2017) A Closer Look at Environmental Monitoring in the Processing Plant (August/September 2017) What Industry and FDA Are Thinking About FSMA Implementation (June/July 2017) The Drivers of Differences in Food Safety Testing Practices (April/May 2017) A Look at the Microbiology Testing Market (February/March 2017) News Mentioned in This Episode: Ostroff Retiring from FDA; Walmart's Yiannas Moving to Agency  Plant at Center of Largest Ever Salmonella Ground Beef Recall Accused of "Inhumane" Animal Treatment in USDA FSIS Records (Notice of Intended Enforcement, Notice of Deferral)  Nearly 7 Million Pounds of Raw Ground Beef Recalled After Salmonella Outbreak Presenting Sponsor: Eurofins Training Courses: Register and browse online for a training course near you Webinar: Is Your EMP Program Hitting the Mark? Watch our recorded webinar White Paper: Download Eurofins' Environmental Monitoring Guide Keep Up with Food Safety Magazine Follow Us on Twitter @FoodSafetyMag, and on Facebook  Subscribe to our magazine, and our bi-weekly eNewsletter We Want to Hear From You! Please share your comments, questions, and suggestions. Tell us about yourself—we'd love to hear about your food safety challenges and successes. We want to get to you know you! Here are a few ways to be in touch with us. Email us at podcast@foodsafetymagazine.com Record a voice memo on your phone and email it to us at podcast@foodsafetymagazine.com Leave us a voicemail at 747.231.6730  

Death Wish Coffee Company Employee Series #19 CJ De Luca started out at Death Wish Coffee Company on the production floor. Now his job has changed drastically, as he is learning and working to help get the company SQF Certified. This is just a fancy way of saying "quality control" but it is the process big corporations use to propel them further in the business world. On episode 90 CJ talks about the changes in his job, what he has learned since he started, how SQF will help out the company, and how he likes to travel the world for fun. Stick around for a special word from our hosts about the recent passing of Claire Wineland.  Hear more audio and video including the weekly companion TV Show at deathwishcoffee.com/cj

    Mike Robach is vice president, corporate food safety, quality, & regulatory for Cargill based in Minneapolis, MN. Mike joined Cargill in January 2004 to lead the company’s corporate food safety and regulatory affairs programs. Since then, Mike has increased the department’s scope to include animal health and quality assurance. He continues to refocus the department toward global efforts in line with Cargill’s vision of being the global leader in nourishing people. Mike began his career with Monsanto Company. Prior to joining Cargill, he headed up technical services for Conti Group’s meat and poultry businesses. Mike is the past president of Safe Supply of Affordable Food Everywhere, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), a member of the Scientific and Regulatory Affairs Council Executive Committee for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and a member of the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association’s Research Advisory Committee. Mike has worked with the World Organization of Animal Health and the Food and Agriculture Organization on harmonized animal health and food safety standards. He has worked closely with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding food safety policy, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, and regulatory reforms based on science. From 1995 through 2000, Mike was a member of the National Advisory Committee for Microbiological Criteria in Foods. Mike is a graduate of Michigan State University and Virginia Tech. It was recently announced that Mike will be retiring from Cargill on August 1, 2018, but will be continuing his term as chairman of the GFSI board. In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Mike about: Why GFSI exists, the early days of the organization, and how it has evolved globally over the years GFSI’s Global Markets Program Cargill’s involvement with GFSI GFSI’s primary objectives What GFSI does and does NOT do How GFSI works with scheme owners such as BRC, SQF, etc. His thoughts on the various schemes and how they stack up to FSMA GFSI compliance vs. FSMA compliance GFSI’s progress with public/private partnerships Challenges facing GFSI and goals that GFSI will be working on in the coming years How companies can become involved with GFSI What he’s learned over the course of his career His advice to food safety professionals News Mentioned in This Episode: Five Deaths in Romaine Lettuce Outbreak http://bit.ly/2Ll5jpY  Leafy Greens Industry Forms Task Force in Light of Romaine Lettuce Outbreak http://bit.ly/2xrWbh1  FDA Shares Traceback Details for Romaine Lettuce E. coli Outbreak as Investigation Continues http://bit.ly/2JipY0x  FDA Should Make Leafy Greens a Priority, Say Consumer and Food Safety Advocacy Groups http://bit.ly/2Mgfjlu Resources: Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) http://bit.ly/2sRdIKM IAFP Annual Meeting http://bit.ly/2t5PY5d Presenting Sponsor: KLEANZ by Nexcor Technologies http://bit.ly/2JCHr0v Everything Food Safety in One Place in Real-Time KLEANZ is the only complete Food Safety Compliance Solution that focuses on risk mitigation, driving continuous improvement, and adhering to all applicable compliance requirement while managing resources. KLEANZ protects your customers and brand. KLEANZ Food Safety Compliance (In-Depth) http://bit.ly/2JzoM5K KLEANZ Food Safety Compliance (Quick Facts) http://bit.ly/2l4J5NP KLEANZ.com http://bit.ly/2JCHr0v Share Your Feedback with Us: Please feel free to share any questions, comments, or even a suggestion on someone we should interview; let us know! There are two ways for podcast listeners to interact with us: Leave us a voicemail at 747-231-7630. Be sure to leave your contact information so we can get back in touch with you! Email us at podcast@foodsafetymagazine.com. 

Michael Cramer is currently the senior director of food safety and quality assurance with Ajinomoto Windsor, Inc. The company was formed through various acquisitions (Multifoods, Specialty Brands, and Windsor Foods) and ultimately the purchase of Windsor Foods by Ajinomoto. He will celebrate his 25th year with the company in October 2018. Mike is an SQF practitioner, ASQ-certified quality auditor, and a preventive controls-qualified individual. CRC Press published Mike's book “Food Plant Sanitation: Design, Maintenance and Good Manufacturing Practices” (2nd Edition, 2013). Mike is a graduate of West Chester University in West Chester, PA where he earned a B.Sc. Health Science in 1977. He spent 16 years working with Swift & Company (Armour, Swift – Eckrich, ConAgra) in poultry operations, processed meats and poultry, and corporate food safety and quality assurance. Finally, Mike has been an esteemed member of Food Safety Magazine's Editorial Advisory Board since 2001. In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Mike about: The characteristics of an effective sanitation program Balancing cost-savings while implementing an effective sanitation program The importance of the sanitation team within a food facility His experience with testing for allergen cross-contamination from the lunch room to the plant floor Plans for the third edition of his popular sanitation book What he thinks is the biggest sanitation challenge in food plants today The real reason for allergen-related food recalls The success of his "Seek and Destroy" and "Monthly Facility Assessment" programs What happens at Ajinomoto Windsor when a positive Listeria monocytogenes sample is detected The seven steps of sanitation explained in detail The role of sanitors, including what they should and shouldn't do as part of their daily jobs The complexities of seemingly simple tasks in sanitation, such as vacuuming and floor sweeping His tips for equipment cleaning, including his preferences when it comes to pressure washing and water temperature  His thoughts on all-encompassing equipment checks vs. random spot checks The benefits of collecting microbiological swabs BEFORE applying sanitizer Standard tools that all sanitors need and use How to communicate with your chemical supplier to get the tools and resources you need for an effective sanitation program The use of UV light in sanitation Advice for anyone looking for new technology to improve food plant sanitation What can happen when sanitation is not approached correctly Related Content and Resources: BOOK: Food Plant Sanitation: Design, Maintenance, and Good Manufacturing Practices, 2nd Edition http://amzn.to/2FyaKzf Mike Cramer's Articles Published in Food Safety Magazine: Environmental Listeria Monitoring: Seek and Destroy Pathogens (December 2017/January 2018) http://bit.ly/2BkZyHc Allergen Management: A Personal and Professional Perspective (August/September 2016) http://bit.ly/AllergenMgmt A Look at GMPs: How FSMA Will Change Expectations (February/March 2016) http://ow.ly/Ye2od Supplier Certification: A Matter of Risk Assessment and Resources (October/November 2015) http://ow.ly/TIUsX Upgrade Sanitation Plan to Work Out Bugs (April/May 2014) http://bit.ly/1OdwCx7 For more articles from Mike Cramer? Access our compiled search FoodSafetyMagazine.com https://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/?Keywords=cramer&display=search&newSearch=true&noCache=1 News Mentioned in This Episode: New Pesticide Testing Data Touts U.S. Food Supply as "One of the Safest in the World" http://bit.ly/2F3OHQH  FDA Testing Fresh Herbs, Avocados for Foodborne Pathogens  http://bit.ly/2GMTNB8 Ready-to-Eat Processed Meat: Source of South Africa's Deadly Listeria Outbreak http://bit.ly/2H5gdOf Presenting Sponsor Hydrite Chemical http://bit.ly/Hydrite Download this sanitation case study from Hydrite  Case Study: Improving Environmental Sanitation Results at a Pet Food Manufacturer  http://bit.ly/HydriteCaseStudy Share Your Feedback with Us Please feel free to share any questions, comments or even a suggestion on someone we should interview, let us know! There are two ways for podcast listeners to interact with us. Leave us a voicemail at 747-231-7630. Be sure to leave your contact information so we can get back in touch with you! Email us at podcast@foodsafetymagazine.com. 

CAUGHT PRAYING AGAIN Ephesians 3:14-21     HOW WE TEND TO PRAY     WHAT TO ADD WHEN PRAYING     PATH TO SPIRITUAL MATURITY     WHAT GOD’S “YES!” LOOKS LIKE Ephesians 3:20-21 – Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we...