This episode features the full panel discussion on the CPG Growth Journey from the recent ECRM/retailmediaIQ Founders’ Innovation Day event held December 10 in NYC. 

The panel, moderated by ECRM’s Joseph Tarnowski, featured three brand-owners, each at varying stages of growth: Obi Linton, Co-Founder of Nicobi Foods, a 5-year old brand that is growing fast; Luke Schneider, Founder of Fire Department Coffee, which launched about a decade ago and now has national distribution; and Hector Saldivar, Founder of Tia Lupita Foods, which successfully exited this year with a sale to Vilore Foods.

The founders shared insights about each stage of their brand’s growth journey covering the following topics:

• Early-stage funding: Creative ways to secure capital and resources to support growth
• The value of patience and perseverance for early-stage brands
• The value of taking a focused approach to growth
• When, why and how to pursue an exit strategy

This was a fun and engaging discussion, with a ton of takeaways for brands looking to successfully navigate their growth journeys!

In this episode, Joe from ECRM sits down with Kiowa Kavovit, founder of Eco Bandage, to discuss her journey of creating a waterproof, colored liquid bandage and skin protectant that "seals, heals, and conceals." What began with a Shark Tank appearance at age six has evolved into a decade-long formulation process to create a sustainable, flexible liquid bandage that replaces traditional sticker bandages. 

Kiowa shares her first major retail success with Meijer and details how the brand recently secured a Golden Ticket at Walmart's Open Call. The conversation also covers the critical pivot from minimal eco-packaging to retail-ready boxes to combat theft and improve shelf presence while still keeping to Eco Bandage's mission of sustainability. 

In this episode, you’ll learn: 

Product Innovation: How Eco Bandage offers a cellulose-based, flexible alternative to "crusty" liquid bandages, available in various skin tones and fun colors. 

The "Bleeding Thumb" Pitch: The story of how Joe accidentally sliced his finger before a meeting, allowing Kiowa's mom to demonstrate the product live and secure an order from Meijer. 

International Retail Expansion: The brand’s growth trajectory, from winning the ECRM Buyer's Choice Award in 2024 to launching internationally in Canada’s Sobeys stores. 

Packaging Strategy: Why the company shifted from loose bottles to a "two-pack" box design to solve shelf-footprint issues and offer better value, and how it leveraged ECRM's Contract Manufacturing events to do so. 

Future Innovations: A sneak peek at upcoming product lines, including liquid pimple patches that can be worn under makeup and clinical applications for hospitals. 

Throughout the conversation, you'll gain insights on how to best engage buyers and category managers, and what it takes to grow your CPG brand! 

How do you successfully launch an international brand into the competitive U.S. retail landscape?  

In this episode, Taylor Schaly, shares how she did it for Trainers Choice, a Canadian orthopedic support brand that can be found in most of the major pharmacy and grocery chains in Canada, including Shoppers Drug Mart, Pharma Choice, Loblaws and Metro, as well as in many independent retailers.  

Taylor discusses the company's unique "clinic-to-shelf" origin story, its commitment to sustainability using eco-friendly material for its supports and braces, and the strategic meeting that landed them a major deal with Ingles Markets via ECRM.  

In this discussion you'll find a masterclass in buyer meeting best practices, with actionable advice on pre-meeting research, tailoring your pitch, and the critical importance of follow-up for any CPG brand looking to expand distribution. 

Molly Blakeley, the dynamic founder of Molly Bz Cookies shares the secrets behind building an unforgettable brand and scaling a CPG business.  

Molly, who has been a serial entrepreneur since her teens, began her CPG journey as a single mom with only $150 to her name, to now having her gourmet cookies, known for their "weird" combinations like Hot Cheetos and Boba, sold in thousands of stores across the U.S. 

In this podcast, you'll learn: 

• The Power of the Pivot: Learn why pivoting is the "best skill" and how turning a "no" into a "yes" is a serial entrepreneur's mantra. 
• The importance of resilience: How to embrace failures as valuable lessons 
• Building retail partnerships: Molly shares her key advice on getting your foot in the door with a retailer, and the critical need to never make a move until the purchase order's ink is dry. 
• Scaling production: Discover how Molly manages rapid growth by working with eight different co-packers across the nation, specializing in everything from indulgent cookies to R&D. 
• How to Be UNFORGETTABLE: Get tips on standing out at buyer meetings, from creating a unique "shtick" to utilizing QR codes that link directly to a video about your brand. 

 Molly also discusses major wins through RangeMe and ECRM, her divinely-inspired flavors, and her phenomenal success with an exclusive cookie for Walmart, The Founder, which was developed in under 24 hours. 

In this episode, Fire Department Coffee Founder Luke Schneider, a former firefighter and Navy veteran, shares the company's inspiring journey – which began in 2016 as a direct-to-consumer business with a single blend and now is a successful national brand with several lines of products in approximately 10,000 stores.

Much of FDC’s success comes from adopting a highly-focused strategy rather than chasing high door counts; Luke is not afraid to walk away from a potential retail deal if it's not an ideal fit. This deliberate approach has led to its highly successful partnership with Walmart, which originated from a meeting at Walmart's Open Call event. Now Luke returns to the event every year to speak and mentor other startup brands. 

Luke also highlights the importance of having a vibrant brand culture and building a solid team of experts, and creating engaging, humorous, and educational content that builds a loyal community and keeps the brand top-of-mind, rather than merely promoting products. 

Emerging brands will learn what it takes to build and grow a successful brand, as well as how to avoid common pitfalls along the road to success!

Eco Bandage, The Crystal Charged Co. & FlickaFly are brands that have squeezed every drop of opportunity out of ECRM and RangeMe. Not only have they landed retail wins and gathered valuable insights from buyer meetings at ECRM Sessions across the Health & Beauty Care, Food & Beverage and General Merchandise Categories, but they have also found packaging and ingredient suppliers as buyers at ECRM’s Contract Manufacturing Sessions. 

On top of this, Eco Bandage recently landed a Golden Ticket at Walmart’s Open Call from its RangeMe submission and will soon be on the shelves at that retailer’s stores!

In this episode, ECRM’s Joseph Tarnowski speaks with the four people charged with the success of these brands, three of which are family members: The Kavovits – Andrew, Jennifer and their daughter Kiowa, as well as Jennifer Baxter. 

Jennifer Kavovit and Jennifer Baxter are Co-Founders of The Crystal Charged Co., which makes Chakra Drop, a crystal filtered water that just landed a deal with Home Goods from ECRM’s recent Beverage Session. 

Kiowa Kavovit is the CEO of Eco Bandage, a colored liquid bandage that’s sustainably made and packaged, which landed a deal with Meijer from last year’s ECRM Health Care Session and the Golden Ticket from its Open Call event. 

Andrew Kavovit represented FlickaFly, an innovative fly swatter, at ECRM’s Impulse: Front End & Checklane Session to get buyer feedback for future development.

Andrew and Jennifer Kavovit also run Hatched Hub, an incubator for brands that helps launch new products, like Eco Bandage and Chakra Drop, and scale up existing ones. 

Fresh Scents’ Andrew Allen and ECRM’s Joseph Tarnowski are HUGE fans of LinkedIn, and post and engage with people on the platform regularly. At a recent ECRM Session, they got together to each share what they love about the platform, and how they use it to support their efforts in connecting with other CPG retail industry folks.  

They covered a lot of ground in this one, including: 

• Overall LinkedIn philosophy 
• Types of posts that do well (and those that don’t) 
• How they each come up with ideas for content 
• Building their networks 
• Engaging with other people’s content 

They had a fun and insightful conversation, which could have lasted hours but for the fact that Andrew had a meeting scheduled and had to split after 30 minutes! 

Lots of great LinkedIn knowledge dropped here that will be useful for brand-owners looking to use the platform to support their existing sales efforts. 

Having beautifully-designed and structurally sound packaging helps get your brand onto retail shelves and into shoppers’ baskets, but in order to do that, all of the elements of the supply chain must work together seamlessly. From the brand's designers developing the concept, to the procurement team sourcing the raw materials, to the manufacturers creating and shipping it, communication and transparency is essential at each step along the supply chain to make it all work.  

In this episode, Emily Anne Page, CPG Growth Strategist at Start to Sold sits with Joseph Tarnowski to discuss the steps needed to design powerful packaging concepts that ship on time and on budget.  

Among the topics she discusses is: 

• Visual Packaging Artwork: Design elements that “pop” on the shelf 
• Structural Packaging Sourcing: Finding the right structural packaging that can protect your products while offering various merchandising and shipping opportunities 
• Supply Chain Management: How to ensure that all of the elements needed for your products flow seamlessly from one point to the next. 

She also highlights case studies of industry disruptors that have successfully applied these strategies to get their products onto retail shelves and then into shoppers’ baskets. 

Social commerce platform TikTok Shop has experienced significant growth since its launch in 2022, when ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, began beta testing a dedicated e-commerce platform in the United Kingdom and several Southeast Asian countries. It launched globally in September 2023 and ever since has been a favorite of emerging brands looking to scale up their direct-to-consumer efforts. 

In this episode, ECRM’s Joseph Tarnowski sat down with Maximilian Burianek, TikTok Shop Lead - Germany at ECRM’s European Sessions in Frankfurt, to discuss how brands can succeed on the platform. 

Among the topics they discussed are: 

• How TikTok Shop closes the loop of browsing, product selection, checkout, and becoming an advocate 
• The four native ways TikTok Shop encourages users to browse and buy 
• Three strategies for success on TikTok Shop: Product Strategy, Live Strategy & The Full Ecosystem 
• How to amplify campaigns with campaigns and advertising 
• Working with creators for content that sells 
• TikTok Shop’s fulfillment options 
• Three ways of uploading and managing your product catalog 

 Maximilian shares lots of best practices and success stories of brands that have used the platform to reach new audiences and grow sales. 

Pholicious makes Vietnamese Pho that offers an authentic, restaurant-quality experience and can be made in just minutes. Since launching in 2021 – when Co-Founders Joseph and Ahn Trousdale sold their home and lived out of a trailer to finance operations – the brand is now in thousands of stores nationwide at retailers like Walmart, Stop & Shop, United Supermarkets, Kroger, Albertsons, Core-Mark, Love’s Travel Centers, and H-E-B, with virtually all of these wins coming from RangeMe submissions. They also recently received a deal with Mr. Wonderful on Shark Tank. 

In this interview, Joseph Trusdale shares his journey from the past few years of growth and how both he and the company have evolved from lessons learned along the way.

Sales of THC beverages at on and off-premise locations are booming, and the customers span an array of demographics, as Scott Sousa, Beverage Director for Frenchy's and Clear Sky Restaurants, has seen at his foodservice operations and liquor store over the past few months. 

And these customers are not who you would expect; they range from soccer moms to 70-year-olds, and sales of THC beverages at the liquor store went from zero a few months ago to already 3 percent of its business today, spanning products from 25 brands.  

The restaurants also offer these beverages, and Sousa is even creating a special menu feature called "Pick Your Poison" that will include cocktails that can be made with either the THC-infused beverages, NA beverages, or traditional spirits. 

ECRM's Joseph Tarnowski interviewed Sousa at ECRM's recent On & Off Premise Adult Beverage Session, who shares his experience with this booming adult beverage segment. 

NIQ’s Katie Hazlett shares the top product innovation trends that are driving growth in beauty, health, and wellness categories in this interview with ECRM’s Joseph Tarnowski, recorded on location at ECRM’s Personal Care, Health Car,e and Baby & Infant Sessions. 

She takes a deep dive into three product innovation trends in particular: Brands that are viral on social media, brands that focus on wellness, and brands that leverage a trusted advisor, and gives examples of how each has driven a brand’s growth in retail. 

ECRM's On & Off Premise Adult Beverage Session featured a special fireside chat with former mob boss Michael Franzese. During the discussion, hosted by Joseph Tarnowski, Michael shared his experience in organized crime, his redemption and positive transformation, and how he has applied the hard lessons he has learned along the way to growing his new brand, Franzese Wines. 

 Among the topics they discuss are:  

• Michael’s history and rise within the Colombo family 
• Why Michael left organized crime, and his current efforts to spread the message of positive transformation 
• Lessons learned from his time in the mafia 
• Michael’s social media platforms and engagement 
• Franzese Wine - its origins, products, growth, and retailer engagement 

Nik Hall is the Co-Founder and former CEO of VitaFive, a supplement brand that saw tremendous growth at retail and on Amazon before its very successful acquisition by a major CPG company. Now, as CEO of REViVE Marketing Partners, he helps emerging brands scale up on Amazon. 

In this interview with ECRM's Joseph Tarnowski, Nik shares key insights emerging brands need to know about growing their business on Amazon, from what products are the right fit (and which aren't), how to optimize your content, and which advertising strategies and tactics work best.  

Here's why the follow-up skills of Troy Potteiger, Director of Sales for Bones Coffee Company, lead to success on the shelf, according to Shawn Holmes at Hot Spot Convenience Stores, who added the brand's RTDs to its lineup earlier this year:  

“From our first meeting back in July 2023, he made it a point to stay connected without ever being pushy — striking that rare balance between professional persistence and genuine relationship-building. Every touchpoint felt thoughtful and timely, and you could tell he was always keeping our specific needs and timeline in mind. That kind of follow-up stands out in a sea of vendors who often go quiet or overwhelm you with emails. Troy made sure Bones Coffee stayed top-of-mind in a way that felt helpful, not salesy. 

“Even after the initial meetings, he kept the momentum going with updates, samples, and personalized follow-through — not just checking in for the sake of it, but truly trying to make sure the product was the right fit for our stores.” 

In this podcast interview, Troy unpacks some of the follow up tactics that have landed deals with Hot Spot, Walgreens, and Meijer, and shares why consistency over the long term is the key to success for brands looking to expand their distribution at retail. 

As consumer palates evolve and cultural diversity continues to shape the grocery landscape, the demand for authentic, flavorful, and globally inspired foods continues to grow. In this interview, Diana Sheehan, Founder of PDG Insights, explores the opportunity for retailers and brands to invest in Asian, Hispanic, and other global cuisines—not just as a trend, but as a long-term growth strategy. 

Among the topics she covers are: 

• The path global cuisines follow from the home to mainstream grocery store shelves 
• How social media helps shorten the time to the adoption of global cuisine 
• Why consumers try new foods 
• The role of AI in meal planning, and how the technology is helping consumers discover international flavors 
• How mainstream retailers can engage shoppers in-store around global foods (and take a page from the specialty retailer's playbook) 

The discussion uncovers emerging consumer behaviors and spotlights innovative merchandising strategies that are driving category expansion. From aisle reinvention to cross-cultural marketing, discover how embracing global flavors can deepen shopper loyalty, attract new demographics, and future-proof your grocery business. 

When you take feedback from your buyer meetings and incorporate it into your product development, good things happen -- as in major retail deals.   

Nikki Parmar, Owner of Bodyform, knows this firsthand. When she goes into a buyer meeting, she is not only looking to secure distribution for her brand's line of feminine care products; she’s also seeking out valuable intel on how she can adapt her products to meet each buyer's specific needs.   

In this clip from her interview with Joseph Tarnowski, recorded on location at ECRM's Personal Care Session in Dallas, Nikki shares how Bodyform solicits detailed buyer feedback during its ECRM meetings and then acts on that feedback, whether it's related to packaging design, size, or to the products themselves. And when she meets with the buyer again and shows how this input was incorporated into Bodyform’s offerings, they are always blown away.  

Parmar also discusses how she leverages LinkedIn to share content related to Bodyform's mission of eliminating Period Poverty, as well as to help buyers get to know the brand and the people behind it, staying front-of-mind with buyers in between meetings. 

While Nicobi Foods may seem like an overnight success with its recent deals that include Walmart, Wakefern, and Ahold USA, it's really just the culmination of a journey that began many years ago -- and A LOT of hard, grinding work.   

In his recent interview with ECRM's Joseph Tarnowski, Co-Founder Obi Linton shared his journey from Baltimore detective to an owner and operator of a restaurant operation with his wife, Nicole, to his current role as a brand owner, and how their past experiences have given them the tools and knowledge that have helped them succeed today.  

Obi also goes into detail about his approach to leveraging RangeMe and ECRM to engage with retailers and create long-lasting relationships that have significantly expanded their distribution to thousands of stores nationwide.  

This approach includes a lot of preparation and research, a dogged pursuit of EVERY possible opportunity, and authentic relationship-building efforts that would make Dale Carnegie proud.  

To truly understand a buyer's needs, you need to ask a lot of questions. Detailed questions. Strategic questions. And then, you need to listen. Listen MUCH MORE than you speak. The result: You'll be armed with the information you need to direct you on the path to closing a deal. 

Argires Snacks' George Argires is a case in point. For years, he was having trouble landing deals at ECRM Sessions. After connecting with Emily Anne Page of Start to Sold for some coaching, he realized he was spending too much time pitching and not enough time getting to know what was really important for the buyer.   

He didn't ask enough solid questions. 

Together, George and Emily worked on developing a curated list of specific questions that he asked during an ECRM meeting. In fact, he spent 80 percent of his time asking questions and LISTENING. Armed with this information, he developed a plan to address the buyer's specific needs, which he shared in his follow-ups, and landed the deal.  

His products will be on the shelves this fall.  

In this interview, recorded on location at ECRM's Snack Session in Dallas, George and Emily share how the right questions in a buyer meeting can make the difference in whether or not you land a deal, and why this strategy matters to buyers. 

2025 Core-Mark Curated Winner & RangeMe Premium subscriber Unite Food is looking to shake up the protein bar aisle with globally-inspired flavors and natural ingredients. In this podcast, Founder & CEO Clara Paye shares her journey from Managing Director of a major plumbing manufacturer to launching a food brand with distribution at leading retailers like Target, Sprouts, H-E-B, and Meijer. She also discusses her passion for helping the next generation of entrepreneurs as a SKU mentor, YPO member, and the Founder of (included), a membership collective for BIPOC top executives in CPG who are dedicated to one another’s success. 

Moderation and convenience are shaping the way consumers buy adult beverages – both those they consume at home as well as those consumed at bars, restaurants, and hospitality venues. In this episode, NIQ’s Director of Beverage Alcohol Thought Leadership, Kaleigh Theriault, shares how these trends are impacting sales of wine, beer, spirits, and RTDs and where the opportunities lie within each of these segments. She also discusses the booming non-alcoholic adult beverage segment and how it has evolved over the past few years.  

Beauty brand Mudita Earth landed deals with Natural Grocers, Meijer and KeHE Distributors from buyer introductions made at ECRM Sessions. However, each of these retailers initially said “no” to the brand’s Co-Founder Pooja Chopra. In this interview, Chopra shares how she turned each of these “NOs” into a resounding “YES” via listening to the buyers’ needs, then adjusting her products, packaging and approach to give them each exactly what they needed for their respective category objectives.  

Sisters Jordan Catapano and Jocelyn Dunn are truly examples of how persistence and tenacity can pay off for brand owners. Over the past decade, they went from bartenders to authors to owners of a bartending business, then became CPG brand owners with the launch of a line of cocktail mixers called This Girl Walks Into a Bar. 

Then earlier this year they lost the bartending business to the Los Angeles wildfires. During this same time, however, they landed KeHE Distributors from a meeting at ECRM’s On & Off Premise Adult Beverage Session, which led to a deal with Total Wine & More. Most recently, they earned a Fast Pass at Walmart’s Open Call from a RangeMe submission. 

 In this podcast, you’ll hear how the sisters stuck with their passion through this wild roller-coaster ride and evolved their business over the years into the fast-growing emerging brand it is today. 

Managing the Growth of CPG Teams: Founders Share Their Stories

Cosset, Global Beauty Care and Okay Pure Naturals each started with only two or three people, and over the years have grown their companies to dozens of team members. This growth comes with several challenges, such as deciding which roles to fill first, finding the right hires, grooming future leadership, and handing off the reins of certain responsibilities.

In this podcast, ECRM's Joseph Tarnowski speaks with the founding members of each of these brands, who share how they handled their respective growth journeys and what it takes to scale up a brand.

What's in a Name? A Lot, if You Ask Yes Honey Founder Heather Mincer

Nobody wants to enter “naked chicks” into their browser search while they are on their work computer. But that’s what people had to do to find the honey-sweetened sodas and drizzlers created by Yes Honey Founder Heather Mincer, when her company was originally called Naked Chicks Pasture. 

When you know the brand’s origin, the name makes sense. It sold pasture-raised chickens with no chemicals or antibiotics on a small farm in Norwood, Mo. It had no online presence, and most of its sales came from word-of-mouth. Even when it started making honey-sweetened soda and drizzlers, the products were initially sold only at local farmers’ markets, so the brand name worked. It was catchy. (In fact, Heather still retains the title of “Head Chick” in her LinkedIn profile!)

But as Mincer’s sales grew and she looked to reach a broader audience of consumers and even retail buyers, it launched a website and became a RangeMe Pro subscriber. 

That’s when things got a little … weird. 

In this podcast interview with ECRM's Joseph Tarnowski, Mincer tells the story of her brand refresh, and how it led to an explosion of direct-to-consumer sales, as well as much more buyer engagement on RangeMe.