The Food Means Business Podcast
Hosted by Djenaba Johnson-Jones, former marketing executive turned entrepreneur and founder of food business incubator, Hudson Kitchen, The Food Means Business podcast features the personal stories and “secret ingredients” behind what it's like to abandon your day job to start a food business. Join our community of fellow food business owners and subject matter experts to learn and laugh with us as we explore a start-up world that’s a little more culinary and a lot less corporate these days.
Episodes
81 episodes
How Strong Partnerships Built Avsome Brand with Coby Farrow
Coby Farrow didn’t set out to launch a beverage brand. But when a restaurant concept he was working on fell through, he couldn’t shake the idea of turning avocado seed tea into something bigger.What started as a kitchen experiment ...
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29:22
Rewriting the Rules of Social Drinking with JW Wiseman of Curious Elixirs
JW Wiseman started his career in marketing and not specifically in the food industry. But that didn’t stop when he decided to branch out into the CPG industry via non-alcoholic cocktails. After years in the corporate world and seeing how alcoho...
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Episode 71
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26:17
Using Influencers to Help Build Awareness for Your CPG Brand With Mike Currie
When you’re starting out creating a CPG brand, one of the most challenging aspects can be simply getting eyes on your product. It’s hard to sell when no one knows you exist, and it’s also hard to create an audience from scratch. But what if you...
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Episode 70
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29:58
Allergen-Free and Kid-Approved: How Happy Wolf is Revolutionizing Kid’s Snacks with Jana Goodbaum
Jana didn’t necessarily plan to start a CPG business… she just wanted better snacks for her kids that they would actually eat. But after struggling to find the products that would work for her family, she turned to making her own, f...
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Episode 69
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34:58
Mixing Family and Business: How Poppa’s Custard Built Their Business on a Solid Foundation with Josh Johnson
At the beginning of his career, Josh Johnson didn’t plan on starting a CPG company with his wife and sister, but now that he’s here, he wouldn’t have it any other way. While business and family might be a volatile mix for some, but when it come...
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Episode 68
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36:30
From Sourcing to Shelves: How You Can Build a Resilient CPG Supply Chain with Eran Mizrahi of Ingredient Brothers
When it comes to creating amazing CPG products, one often overlooked aspect is the difficulty of actually sourcing the necessary ingredients, especially if they are specialty. And that’s where Ingredient Brothers comes in.In this episode...
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Episode 67
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22:59
Making It to Market: Why Good Logistics Is Essential for Your Bottom Line with Andrew Lynch
You can make an amazing product, start the best marketing campaign, and partner with national chains… But if your product doesn’t make it to the stores, or more importantly, your end user, none of that actually matters.In today’s episode...
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Episode 66
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25:05
Finding the Right Partners: Building a Strong Foundation For Your CPG Brand with Alison Seibert
When it comes to PR and marketing for CPG brands, good design and strategic plans are important… But what if you could spread the word about your product through authentic relationships with partners who are just as enthusiastic about your prod...
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Episode 65
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31:47
Raising Capital and Scaling a Mushroom-Powered Energy Brand with Scott Frohman of Odyssey
Scott Frohman grew up washing cars door to door before he could even drive. Even as an adult in a corporate career, he couldn’t quash his entrepreneurial spirit. But he also wanted to do something sustainable for his own energy, the environment...
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Episode 64
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38:05
The Art of Hiring: Strategies for Finding and Developing the Right Talent with Ariana Ruiz
Ariana Ruiz, a former corporate talent acquisition specialist, loved her career at Whole Foods and other start-ups, but eventually, motherhood pushed her to step back from the corporate world and into entrepreneurship. Now, she helps other smal...
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Episode 63
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24:54
Crafting Stories That Connect: How to Tell Your Audience a Story They Won’t Forget with Justine Reichman of NextGen Purpose
Justine Reichman, founder of NextGen Purpose, has entrepreneurship in her DNA. And today, she’s here to chat about those roots and how they cross over with her love of food and cooking. In this episode, Justine explains how NextGen ...
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Episode 62
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21:25
{REPLAY} The Power of Persistence: How Bruno LeGreco Keeps The Biscotti Company Growing
Bruno LeGreco is never one to sit still. Having gone through several career iterations earlier in life, he was ready to go all in once he started The Biscotti Company four years ago. But there’s nothing easy about food entrepreneurship, and Bru...
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34:52
Building Brooklyn Delhi on Her Own Terms with Chitra Agrawal
In entrepreneurship, it’s not uncommon to hear stories of meteoric success, founders looking for investors of all kinds, and businesses trying to expand as quickly as possible to take up market share. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but it...
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Episode 61
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28:36
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Growing Slowly: How Maura Duggan Has Scaled Fancypants Baking Co. Over Two Decades
When Maura Duggan started Fancypants Baking Co. two decades ago, it was just her, baking decorative cookies in her kitchen in Massachusetts. Twenty years later, Maura’s family has grown and changed… and so has her business.In this episod...
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Episode 60
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31:39
The Power of Persistence: How Bruno LeGreco Keeps The Biscotti Company Growing
Bruno LeGreco is never one to sit still. Having gone through several career iterations earlier in life, he was ready to go all in once he started The Biscotti Company four years ago. But there’s nothing easy about food entrepreneurship, and Bru...
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Episode 59
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34:52
For the Love of Food: How An Engineer Became a Food Entrepreneur with Myles Powell
From the very beginning, Myles Powell has loved food. But STEM felt more practical than going to culinary school, so Myles became an engineer. His love of food and cooking never diminished though, so while working a full-time engineering job, M...
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Episode 58
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24:30
More Than Just a Product: How Equitea is Supporting Community and Self-Care with Quentin Vennie
Quentin Vennie has always felt the call to be a person of service, whether as a personal trainer, a nonprofit leader, or most recently, as the mission-focused entrepreneur and founder of Equitea. Today on the podcast, Quentin is sha...
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Episode 57
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35:40
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Passion, Sacrifice, and What You Really Need to Succeed as a CPG Entrepreneur with Dom Crockett
Dom Crockett is making waves with a CPG product containing organ meat (something that most Americans don’t traditionally eat.) That might sound like a liability for some companies, but Dom has built a market, an audience, and is on a trajectory...
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Episode 56
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30:55
Uplifting Black-Owned Businesses and Revolutionizing the Farmer’s Market with Kara Still and Carmen Dianne of Prosperity Market
In 2020, Kara Still and Carmen Dianne were outside hiking, doing whatever they could to stay busy and lamenting the closure of so many Black-owned businesses during the pandemic. From those conversations and a deep passion to support and uplift...
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Episode 55
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33:07
Positioning Your CPG Product in a Crowded Marketplace with Kara Rubin
Kara Rubin has spent her career championing thousands of better for you brands. During this conversation, she shares her journey in the food business including: leading the Northeast Region Grocery division of Whole Foods and managing brand and...
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Episode 54
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27:22
From Reality TV Star to Launching an Innovative CPG Food Product with Lauryn Bodden
What happens when you step out of your comfort zone? If you are Lauryn Bodden, you win a Netflix reality cooking competition and launch a new food brand.In this conversation, Lauryn shares how her turn as a reluctant reality tv star ins...
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Episode 53
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24:30
{REPLAY} From Home Kitchen to a Nationwide Brand: Get Gluten-Free Sourdough Products Delivered Right to Your Doorstep With Sadie Scheffer
Think quality bread is off the menu? Think again! Now, you can get gluten-free sourdough products delivered right to your doorstep.In this episode, I’m joined by Sadie Scheffer, the founder of Bread SRSLY — a business born of a college c...
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25:18
{REPLAY} Launching Your First Food Product and Strategies for Success in Entrepreneurship With Crystal Ung
Have you ever dreamed of bringing your very own food product to market? The path to doing so isn’t always clear, and many would-be entrepreneurs might wonder how to take the first step. From research and development, to marketing and distributi...
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24:14
Entrepreneurship and Gratitude with Djenaba Johnson-Jones
In this solo episode, host Djenaba Johnson-Jones shares her experience with practicing gratitude and the positive impact it has had on her business, Hudson Kitchen. She discusses starting a gratitude journal and the therapeutic benefits it prov...
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Episode 52
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6:32
How to Get Your Food Product into Thrive Market with Jason Bidart
In this episode, Jason Bedart, the Vice President of Merchandising for Food at Thrive Market discusses his career trajectory in the supermarket industry and his current role at Thrive Market. He shares how Thrive Market is structured and its mi...
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Episode 51
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26:04