Gross To Net
Gross to Net is a podcast about what people actually optimize for in business and life and what they're left with after all the costs are tallied. Most business podcasts ask "How did you succeed?" We ask "What did it cost?" Not just money. Time, health, relationships, meaning.
We talk to founders, investors, and operators about the real math: what went in, what came out, and whether they'd make the same tradeoffs again. No highlight reels. No sanitized success stories. Just honest conversations about what you're actually building and why.
Also, we are on a quest to eventually learn the meaning of life.
Gross To Net
Ep. 16 - Your Favorite Jam Brand Is From Iceland with Gardar Stefansson | Gross To Net
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Gardar Stefansson is an Icelandic food entrepreneur who has spent his career turning unlikely starting points into real businesses. His first company used geothermal hot springs in Iceland's Westfjords to make sea salt — an idea born from his master's thesis at Aarhus University in Denmark. After exiting the salt business, he and two co-founders launched what became Good Good, now the fastest-growing jam brand in America. The company started as a stevia sweetener brand that wasn't selling, pivoted into no-added-sugar jams after cooking batches in Gardar's kitchen with his aunt (who has Type 2 diabetes), and grew into a brand carried in over 15,000 US retail locations across Walmart, Costco, Whole Foods, HEB, Kroger, and more — all with a team of about 15 people.
In this conversation, George and Gardar talk about what it means to build a global CPG brand from an island of 380,000 people, why Good Good entered the US market "backwards" through conventional retail before natural, the real social cost of being a founder who is also the face of the brand, and how a bet with his marketing team led to Gardar running the full Austin Marathon dressed as a jar of strawberry jam. They also get into company culture across time zones, the role of AI in small CPG operations, and why karaoke might be the most underrated team-building tool in business.
Find Gardar and Good Good, on Amazon, Thrive Market, and in stores nationwide. Follow Gardar on LinkedIn and Good Good on Instagram at @goodgoodbrand. And stay tuned for the Yellowbird x Good Good "Wing Jam" collab — details coming soon.
Hello everybody and welcome to Gross to Net, the podcast where I talk to entrepreneurs, artists, thinkers, and outliers about what they are optimizing for. Today's guest, I'm so excited for, has a master's degree in experience economy. Maybe we'll find out what that means. He turned his master's thesis into a geothermal salt company in the fjords of Iceland, sold it, then pivoted into no sugar added jams, made in his kitchen with his diabetic aunt. That kitchen experiment became the fastest growing jam brand in America. Now sold in Walmart, Costco, Whole Foods, HAB, and 36 countries, I think. And he did it with a team of less than 20 people from an island with a population of 380,000 in the middle of the North Atlantic. He recently moved himself and his company to Austin, which means he's now my neighbor. Please welcome my neighbor, your friend, Gardar Stephenson. What's up, Gardar?
SPEAKER_00Oh, thank you, George, for this uh amazing introduction. I'm so happy to be here, man.
SPEAKER_01So I'm happy to have you here. Now we've we've uh I feel like run into each other a lot in Austin. When did you first move here?
SPEAKER_00I moved here uh a little bit uh over a year ago. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01And how are you how are you finding it? Uh how are you finding it here in Austin?
SPEAKER_00I mean, it's an amazing place, you know. Uh I think like the culture, the people, the food. I mean, most of the time the weather is uh is just the best weather. I mean, uh, you know, from you know, yeah, I come from Iceland, you know, so you have to remember that. So you know, the parameters are not that hard to beat, but uh I love it. Absolutely. Uh there's some kind of energy, nice wipe, uh creativity, and also just like you know, people are nice and you know helpful, and and you want to pay it forward. So I really like it here.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, I yeah, I love it here too. I'm glad you're having a nice time here. I think that they I think just like downtown Austin is like the population of Iceland or something like that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So I mean, even though it's uh I mean a small large city here in the state, it's uh for me, it's just uh uh huge difference, of course. So uh yeah, it's like we're like uh half of the city, like the metropolitan area of Austin. So I think it's 800,000. Uh so yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, a lot of a lot of people here. Well, I'm I really I was uh I could have looked up what uh what a master's degree in experience economy means. Now you're your undergrad was in econom uh economics, is that right? Yeah, yeah. Um I I was gonna look up what experience economy, what a degree in experience economy means, but I thought I would just ask you because I'm like that it just looks like an interesting degree. What does experience economy?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. And the history is that I mean uh I uh my goal before I started university or college was basically to work in finance, you know. So uh I I I finished economics in in Iceland and I graduated like uh like in 2008, and uh that was the big year of the financial crisis, and I was just like fed up with all that stuff. So I was determined to study something else um in my master's, you know. I I mean I love my background in economics, I love the studies, but I I just want to do something creative. Uh so I found this program in Orhutsch University, which is uh second biggest uh university in Denmark and uh top 100 university in the world, and uh uh that it was called like experience economy. And I was like you when I first stumbled upon it, I was like, this is interesting. So so basically it's uh it's a study uh that focuses on the sphere of experience and how they create meaning, value, and so forth within us humans, of course, and and within the civilization. And it it it it offers a couple of courses in terms of entrepreneurship, marketing, field studies, uh, and so forth. So it was just a great uh program just to equip you to you know build something, whether it's a service, a product, company, or whatnot that uh has experiences and the user like in the forefront. And uh from there, I I mean I I was everyone is encouraged, like when they do their master thesis, uh, to create something. And I created this product based on like historical facts. It was a salt work company in Iceland in the 17th century that used geothermal power. It was uh the Danish king uh you know financed it and everything, so so it was just a pretty cool concept that I like to you know merge history, merge like sustainability and and you know, bringing it back to life and and and create meaning for the customer that is actually enjoying it and loves it even more because soft is quite a generic product, you know, like and how can you make it like more uh value for the customer, and at the same time, you can also collect higher prices in that sense, you know, speaking from a business perspective. So uh yeah, and I'm I I still utilize a lot of tools and everything from that program in like how we approach the customer, how we create the story behind the product, you know, what should be the priority in hierarchy in terms of communication, label-wise, and so forth. So, yeah, I really enjoyed it. So I I I I I think I made the right decision.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, I think I mean I think you guys are doing uh obviously, um it nobody knows inside of your business like you do, but from the outside, I feel like I see good good everywhere. Um do you do you do you guys feel like you're growing? Like, do you feel like you're growing faster than you thought or about what you wanted?
SPEAKER_00100%. I mean, and also just for your information, we target you. So I have a TEO location on you, so I try to buy everything. No, I'm uh that's a joke. I don't do that, George.
SPEAKER_01But but uh we are you should target me, and I'm your I'm your target, I'm your target demographic. I know, I know. I was I was making like I used to be a jam-making guy. I'm just like a home egg guy. So I used to make a lot of my own jam, and I like the sugar-free jam. I was always trying to make sugar-free jam. So you like you scratched the itch for me. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's super hard to make sugar-free jam, you know, as you know, if you try it, yeah. It is, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So well, and I and I read and I read um that that you've talked about how much like how many iterations it took to get rid of the to get the aftertaste right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was uh, I mean, we were in the kitchen, you know, we started as a sweetener company. Uh, I don't know if you knew that. So good could start it as a stevia company, and then you know via health or something, yeah, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, and in ISO. Yeah, I've got it in my research. So you started as as a as a stevia company.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that like we had like huge hopes of uh conquering the the Western European market and grow, and everyone was excited, but you know, we started to produce a lot, didn't work out, so we had to pivot into something. And uh, you know, the first jam was just disgusting, you know, like uh we cooked some berries. I mean the ingredients were great, you know, like nutritionally and everything like made sense, but then when you mix them together and start the process, it just didn't fall through. So, like after about 100 trials, we made a recipe that we were you know happy with. Uh, but as you know, as a food entrepreneur yourself, you know, it takes a long time to perfect or try to reach that perfection before you're happy with it. So so uh and that's just so important, you know, like the taste, you know. Like I think I think you can, you know, as a as a food entrepreneur, and when you start, it's it's okay to do some mistakes, you know, like the labels are not perfect, uh, the you're you're not correct on the messaging, the prices are a bit off, you know, but like if you mess up the taste, uh and there's like and someone tries it, it's super hard to get that customer to come back if it doesn't like the product.
SPEAKER_01So so they probably won't, yeah. They probably don't come back.
SPEAKER_00Exactly, unless you force it on them, you know, or someone else tells them you have to try it again. But uh so so that's like that's non-negotiable from our perspective. If the flavor is not there, then uh don't lunch it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, I think I think a ton about like customer experience. Like our um our company was was very much like we think we want to start with the customer experience, not not have it be like and it sounds like that's what kind of your master's program uh uh explored as well as just like uh experience economy, which is the name of it, but that like taste being um being at the forefront, like it's food that should like that should be obvious, but the crazy thing, and you've probably seen this too in CPG food, is that like there's a lot of food that gets decided, like a lot of recipes that get decided by the finance team because something was cheaper, or get decided by QA because it's more stable or gives it a shelf life or something like that. And it's my POV has always been like those things are important, right? You gotta hit a price point, you gotta have you gotta hit a shelf life, whatever. I can't sell jam with a shelf life of five days. Like it's gotta it's gotta be able to sit on the shelf and go through distribution and stuff like that. But the experience your customer is gonna have is like, man, we have so many options. There's you're probably acutely aware of how many options people have in jam. I'm I'm very aware of how many options people have in hot sauce. I feel like hot sauce has to be one of the biggest you know, most uh diverse categories in the world. So like if you don't have a good product, if you don't have a good uh if you don't give somebody a good experience, like even if the product tastes good, like if you if you're if you have spoilage out on the shelf or something. I've I've had this experience with other products, is like you get one and it's spoiled, you know. I'm not gonna name name brands, but like I got a uh a really uh popular sparkling water brand, and I got like some product it was spoiled like weirdly, and it took me years before I tried that brand again.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You don't want to mess up in taste, texture, or you know, quality, you know. So so and that is like the customer experience is uh the and most important, you know, uh factor in all of this, you know. And of course, a lot of small every tiny details contribute to that, like the packaging or where you're placed in the shelf, or like what other people are saying uh like about you and and so forth. But uh I couldn't agree with you more. And I mean there are 700 jam brands uh in store in the United States, probably much more like also sold online and so forth. So it's like it's uh it's uh I mean, even though it's like it's not as uh crazy as bars or something like that, like similar with hot sauces, it's just like uh the competition is there, and you know, people will switch brands if they're not happy with what they get, you know. So, and you want to capture capture them immediately, and you want them to come back. So the repeated purchase rate is this like the like the most important thing to track, in my opinion. How are you growing your you know, are the customer coming back? You know, are you that's like that is brand for me. Like brand is something that you have, like repeated purchase rates, and you have a base of people always buying you back again and again.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, you have you have to have repeat purchase because if you don't have like if you're just building new customers and then shedding all your old customers, every time you get a new customer, you lose two old, you know, previous customers. That's not a good uh the economics on that isn't gonna work out great in the long term, I think.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think also because with the rise of private label, you know, uh you don't know who's producing it, you know. That can change every now and then, you know, and you're already fighting with price. So it's even more important for brands to to stick out with the promise of like this is how it tastes, this is what you're getting, these are the ingredients, you like the taste, you know, like to continue to offill that promise because we can't beat private label in prices, you know, like yeah, so so you have to make up for it somewhere else, you know. And uh and that's an important factor.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I agree. And I and I think I I talk about this a lot, I think about this a lot, but I think like brand is the promise. It's like delivering it's the promise and it's the communication and all that sort of stuff. Um I and I think that y'all's so let me let me do timeline really quick. So 2015 you joined via health, right? 2015 was via health, and then it was within like a year, right? 2016 was the launch of Good Good, is that right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we quickly discovered that uh this devia was not uh a great market for us to to grow, and we had to pivot into something because we had a lot of you know expiring Stevia. Uh and um that was, I mean, you know, from uh you know a startup that inventory means cash, that also means business. So we didn't have the cash, so we need to do something with it. And uh we quickly pivoted to Jams. Uh we produced the first bats, you know, after we had made the rest of it pretty good. We produced it in Iceland, got it into stores, we got some good receptions, and then we quickly figured out that it's super hard to produce it in Iceland. So we moved the production to the Netherlands, where we're still producing, and uh from there we got competitive pricing, you know, we're able to make uh the offering better for retailers and build up that. And our whole idea was to focus on Europe, you know, and specifically Western and uh Europe and UK, of course, and uh the Nordic countries, which is a nice market. Uh, but then we just tried also, which you probably did as well. It was like Amazon just entered the game, you know, and and um offering sellers to sell themselves, and we just thought it was a super interesting opportunity without knowing how large channel that will become, and we're like, okay, let's just send a box of products to um a warehouse in the States and see how it goes, and that quickly started to grow really fast, and you know, we became the best-selling jam on Amazon in 2018 and 2019. We went to Expo West uh uh in 2018 actually, and uh another retailer picked us up, and I mean we got into 300 stores, and and then like uh today we're in about uh I think 15,000 locations uh in the states alone.
SPEAKER_01That's a lot. Congrats.
SPEAKER_00I mean that's uh that's just yeah, thank you. But the work is not done, as you know.
SPEAKER_01No, of course not. Yeah, you're really just getting started. Uh I'll I'll make a I'll make a broad guess and say that some of those stores are doing better than others.
SPEAKER_00That is uh uh the right guess and the right answer. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I mean, same. It is it is uh I'll I'll ask you about your experience here too. But so it's uh it sounds like Amazon was really your entree into the US. Was just like sending that box over to an Amazon warehouse and saying, yeah, let's see.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. And uh that is just the start. Like we're you know, like you start like with your local market, you know what I mean? And uh like you start in Texas, and then you grow from there, and then you go to the next state, but I mean, or you go national, uh, I know your story. So we also did that, and uh, you know, you know, retrospectively, we should have been more strategic in the US market. But for us, like in Iceland, the market is 380,000 people and uh a couple of million of tourists every year that visit, of course. So it's like it's not scalable, you know. It's like so we we had to from the beginning, we had to think about like how can we scale an export? And you know, we're there sitting in the middle of the Atlantic. So you got Europe and you got North America. That's just basically the the most uh attainable markets for us. We actually also sell to Asia, but that's like that's super hard to get in there, like uh and we're doing really well, but it's just like you know, the culture, the language, it's just it's hard to to penetrate uh respectively. So so so we didn't know like when we started in the States, like we just thought, like, okay, let's just go pick up every opportunity, you know, and get into all the stores we can. And uh retrospectively, we should have focused on a couple of states and and then scale from there. But yeah, you live and you learn, as we would say.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so you're talking about uh scaling from Iceland. Uh not a not a huge not a huge population there, so you're looking at the at Europe and you're looking at uh you know the United States. And you popped over in uh in Amazon in one Amazon warehouse and started going gangbusters. Now you talked about scaling in the US. I think scaling in the US is a thing that even US-based, like I've been in the US my whole life and I underestimated how many different cultures we have, how many different countries are actually in the US. I mean Texas uh it almost exists as its own country, you know, like Texas is its own market. So like you could adapt you could spend years just winning the Texas market. You could spend years just winning California as a market or whatever. Just like New York, the tri-state area as its own market. So like what what was uh what was the first retailer you got in? You said you got uh your first retailer at Expo in 2018?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh my year in the Midwest. So we went straight to conventional and basically grew there, and then we, you know, we we we we started like the uh we're way in, you know. And that also is like our inexperience with the market, like like you guys, you start with Whole Foods and the natural channels, and then you go into conventional, and and we did the odd way in. We we went to conventional, got into Meyer, got into Safemart, got into Alperchance, uh, and then uh Walmart and so forth. So so we just had to like find our way back into natural, which was super hard, you know, like coming from the conventional way. Uh, because we are a natural brand, you know, like we were discovered on uh Expo West, then uh we were like pivoted on Amazon because you know, and sold, you know, we become the best-selling jam there because people were searching for options they can't get in store, so often the natural uh option wins, and uh and uh yeah, so so that was also new for us how hard it is to get into natural when you went to conventional.
SPEAKER_01Um that's interesting because I would have uh I guess I not knowing the order that you went in, I would have assumed that you started in natural, just like the look of the brand and the ingredients, the package, like it all screams natural. Yeah to me. Yeah, us too. And the price, the pricing too, right? Like you're uh man, like you went to Walmart before Whole Foods. How did how did you do like how did you do at Walmart? What was the what was your experience there?
SPEAKER_00I mean it's it's amazing, retailer, you know, like they they cracked the system, you know, like uh logistically and the whole supply chain.
SPEAKER_01Um they built the system, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, exactly. So uh we did really well, you know. We we uh went first to 300 stores to 900 stores and then to 3,000 stores, and then back to 1000 stores and then back to 2000 stores. So it's like uh it's been uh stressful, uh enjoyable uh ride, and uh it's just uh I mean it's a good it's good retailer, you know. It's not like I mean you know that they are fighting to have the best prices possible, you know, like and uh that's their goal, and they they they they have a couple of methods to achieve that. First and foremost is just the scale and and how large they are, the supply chain and the fleet. Uh and second is that you know it's it's hard to build a brand there, in my opinion. You know, like uh you know, the natural channel is much better to get your story across, build the brand. Uh I mean it it pained us a lot, you know, in 2021 when we're like talking about the brand, like, yeah, which I can get it in Whole Foods, and we're like, no, not yet. We're really working hard to get into Whole Foods, you know what I mean? Like, because that's just the the natural way to go in in as a natural CPG brand. It's just like you start natural, you grow there, you prove the concept, you scale, and then you know you want to get into the conventional one because that the numbers there and the food traffic is much higher than uh than a natural. So so so that is uh my two cents on the matter. It's hard to build a brand within uh conventional source. It's possible, and it's like it's it's great. You know, you can't do it. I mean, Smash Kitchen, for example, is a great, you know, they built the brand, of course, uh, they started in conventional, uh, like we did. Uh, but they of course have celebrity that is endorsing it, you know, and it's a part owner, of course. So so it's uh yeah.
SPEAKER_01So I agree with you about uh about building a brand in conventional, right? Because people go to a store like Central Market or Whole Foods or something like that for an experience, right? People go to look for brands that are gonna sell them something better. Um they want to know the origin, they want to know where the you know where the eggs came from, what kind of you know, heritage uh fruits and vegetables you're putting in your um in your products. And you guys I think are doing some maybe doing some upcycled fruits and things like that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. We we try to do that as much as we we can. And uh yeah, it's just important. I mean we're against food waste and uh that's one of the biggest problems with uh GPG and food production.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So you so you guys are all uh you're you're all produced um you're you're not produ you don't have any production in the US, right?
SPEAKER_00We uh produce mainly in Europe, but uh we are experimenting with a couple of products here in the States.
SPEAKER_01Okay, cool. And is this your your most of your distribution in the US? Is that fair to say?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's about 80% now.
SPEAKER_01Okay, okay, but you are in is it right? Is it true that you're in 36 countries?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, I have a list here, man. Uh we're like in uh we're in Korea, so uh we're actually uh we've seen our yeah, there's a couple of popular Korean TV shows actually. So uh Wow, that's that's uh that's a big recognition, man. Um and then we are in um you know Denmark, Finland, uh Iceland, of course, Netherlands, UK, Spain, uh you know, Canada and uh Serbia, like tons of countries, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Let me ask you this because we uh you can actually find Yellowbird in a bunch of countries too, but we don't have uh we don't have like strategies for most of those countries. Do you uh most of most of it is because it got there by a distributor or we had a broker who was like you know, hey, if if you let me take you know 4% or 5%, I'll take it over here. You don't have to do anything. Do you have uh we we really only have a strategy for the US right now, but we're probably in 12 countries, just in sm in really small ways. Um do you guys have strategies outside of the US? Do you have a strategy for Europe? How how many of those are just like we got on a truck or a ship?
SPEAKER_00I mean, I would say half of them, or like you know, that's like that's the thing. But yeah, the strategy is that we we try to work with distributors, so uh it's basically impossible for us to sell ourselves in Korea. You know, we don't speak the language, we don't know uh anything. So we work with uh amazing distributor there. Um however, we are Europeans, so uh so so that that is a bit of an advantage that we have. So we uh sell ourselves in the UK, uh the Netherlands, and Denmark. So those are markets, and of course Iceland. So so we manage those markets, and you know, they're under our strategy of how we're gonna grow and marketing and so forth, but the rest is mostly distributors that we work quite closely with. Uh, and we have a different prices, pricing strategy, of course. Uh, but it's just impossible to be able to be everywhere at the same time and speak 40 different languages. It's just like you can't. It's enough to speak three.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, is that how many you speak?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's cool. I uh I barely speak w the one. So I think you should do pretty good. Oh, thanks, man. Yeah, thanks. I haven't you haven't I you haven't heard me try some of the harder words. Yeah. So I'm sticking with the easy like 200 words that I know I can get right in English.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna do a podcast about that. I will love that.
SPEAKER_01About just read all the words that I know in alphabetical order. Tune in next time on Gross to Net when George reads all the words he knows in alphabetical order. I will listen to it. Um so you guys have uh I was actually I was on the website, and I have to admit I'm like a little ashamed that I have not bought your um hazelnut or peanut butter yet. So those look really good. I told I told you before we started recording that I'm on day three of a three-day fast, my first time doing it. So I'm like very hungry. I'm looking at your uh you did you did some social. I now I wanna I want to talk next a little bit about social because I think that you're um I think that you're pretty good at social. I think other kind of like founder CEOs should take some notes from uh Gardar. I feel like you're very visible, you have a lot of fun uh with it. Uh I I wanna I want to talk a little bit about the marathon that you ran recently, the Austin Marathon dressed as uh dressed as a can of jam or a jar of jam. Uh but I I think in general you're you're good at getting out there.
SPEAKER_00Um obviously you're on this podcast, which uh I mean that's the biggest biggest honor I've uh I have been appointed in my entire life. So thank you for that, George.
SPEAKER_01This today? Wow.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. This is a moment for me. This is a moment for me, you know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I'm sorry that you've had such a dull life. Yeah, this is the highlight.
SPEAKER_00It's amazing. I had an amazing life, and now I'm you know, this is the crown of it. Thank you for having me, man.
SPEAKER_01Excellent. That's excellent. Wow. Okay, well, uh I and that's our podcast today, folks. Um, no, I I wanna I want to know how you approach because like you you moved to Austin. Um what why did you do that? Is that because you're you were looking for a HQ in the US as your business was becoming more and more a US business?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that was uh the main reason. And I mean uh we are like we've been growing the fastest in Texas, uh, we have the best distribution, the best velocity. So Texas was the state and is the state where we uh because like looking back, you want to grow within a state and you know and build from there. And uh so Texas was always number one option, and and then it's just about taking where to live in Texas, and I just thought Austin was really fitting for us. It's uh I mean it's it's uh it's a it's a town that you have like the seat of the government, of course. It's a big artistic scene, there's an amazing food scene, a lot of CPG companies, and then you have tech. Yeah, the town has grown exponentially for the past 20 years. So like a lot of people are just transplanted and moved here, which you know fits me really well because I'm also you know, uh I moved here as well and didn't know a lot of people, so people are you know know how that feels like to be, you know, and then you just have to open up, you have to show up, and you have to offer a hand and you know, and and ask for help, you know. And also like the natives, the Austinites are just like amazing, you know. It's like there's something in the DNA of this place that uh uh it's hard to describe, but it's just friendliness, uh authentic friendliness, you know. I think that's a really good uh description for it. And like people are invested in your success and and vice versa, you know. It's uh that's that's how I genuinely feel about this place. So so I I a little bit knew that I did the research, of course, uh beforehand, but I am still amazed on how great the people are that built this uh amazing city.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, it's a it's a cool city to be in. Obviously, we've had some like ups and downs, and it's gotten more expensive to live here than uh when I first moved here. But uh yeah, I I love it as a city. I'm I'm interested in what that was like because you moved to you moved your family here, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. I got three kids, uh 16-year-old, nine-year-old, and a five-year-old.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Wow. So that was uh how like what was that like moving your family here? I mean, I'm but I'm kind of getting at like, hey, what are you what are you optimizing for in your life? But it feels like a big that feels like a big commitment and a big adventure all at the same time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I first had to convince my wife, you know. So we came here like uh before, of course, and toured the city and tried everything and also traveled around Texas. Um it was a big change for my kids, you know. I mean, English is not their first language. Um some of them are really good in adapting and learning it fast, others were not, you know. So so it took some time for us to adjust. The school system is completely different. They're like the emphasizes are different in terms of what to study and where they are, you know. Um, but you know, we don't have school buses in in Iceland, you just the kids walk to the school themselves, uh, and it's like um there's a lot of like nuances there, you know, but we have adjusted quite well, and and frankly, we like wearing a t-shirt and shorts and getting getting on, you know, it's it's nice, it's great, the lightness, yeah, yeah. Coming from a cold environment where you have like three different layers of clothes, you know, it it's it's great for some period of time and some activities, you know. But right now in time, we just enjoy you know the nice weather, as we call it. I think the winters here are like amazing, you know.
SPEAKER_01Barely, yeah, it's barely winter.
SPEAKER_00I mean, running a marathon uh in February here is like 60, 50, 60 degrees Fahrenheit compared to Well this year it was.
SPEAKER_01Last year is pretty miserable, but it was normal for me last year.
SPEAKER_00I was fine with it. Like yeah, I did a house number for them. But but I think you know, overall it's just like it's uh it's it's some energy here that is you know, you can't see it, but you feel it.
SPEAKER_01Let me uh let me ask you one more question before we uh before we take a quick break. What was the thing um if there was one thing that really pushed your wife over the edge with Austin that was like, yeah, was it barbecue? Was it like Barton Springs? Was there a thing that y'all did where she was like, Yeah, I could I could see this?
SPEAKER_00I think it was like seeing how green the city was, and like I mean her biggest worries were like, is it gonna be like uh you know, stuck in traffic, you know? Yes, there's traffic yet and all that, but yeah, there's so many green areas you have like and the mixture of the city city is pretty cool. I I always describe Austin as a quite prosperous uh version of Berlin. Like you have it like in Berlin, you have it like the artistic scene, and you know, you have the building and the history, and it's kind of run down a bit, but it's like it's cool and punk and all that stuff. Austin is a bit like the same artistically, but at the same time, there's a lot of capital that's been put into buildings and places and houses, you know. So, so it's like uh it reminds me the wipe at least, the middle destruction and building is not the same. Uh that you know, the music scene, the food uh also you know got our attention, you know, the the Mexican food here, the Tex Mex is oh yeah. Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01The food in Texas. I I I lived first in Dallas and then Houston and then got to Austin. And like there's the food in Texas is just like it's great. There's so much great food in this state. It's it's amazing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh we love it, you know. Just that like that chip chips and guacamole we got and queso, that was like we're moving here, you know. That was that good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so yeah, but it's like that'll be the light, that'll be the line. Your wife, your wife liked the green spaces in the queso.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. The queso is unbeatable, man. It's so good. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, let's take a quick break. I'm gonna come back and talk, uh, hear more about you running a marathon in a jam costume and uh stick with us. Be right back. Welcome back. We're talking to Gardar Stephenson about Jam, and we're gonna talk about the Austin Marathon, because you had a bet. Well, you frame it for me, but I think you had some kind of a bet with your team, and you put it on social, and I thought it was a really fun uh way to engage. Tell me tell me about that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, uh I'm all for keeping promises and uh and setting up challenges, you know. You have to challenge your team for greatness to be able to achieve greatness, you know. So so uh we had been kind of stagnated on Instagram with follower count, and uh you know, and we had tried a lot of like all the content, and it was just not happening as fast as I would like to see it. So I challenged the team to hit 15,000 followers within two weeks, and I will be run, I will run then a full marathon in a strawberry jar suit. And uh they turned that into content. So that yeah, but I had challenged them, and that's how they got the the 15,000 followers, you know, immediately and uh or like in a couple of days. So that is the story about that, and then we had to design the suit, and you know, you know, of course I moved to Austin, so it made sense that I would run the marathon here. And uh yeah, it's it's it's you know, I was not looking forward to that. I I lost uh a lot of good night's sleeps because I was worried that I would die. You know, you have to remember I come from a colder climate. So so the shoot is it's perfect in Iceland, you know, it's like perfect, you know, because it's like 20 degrees Fahrenheit and you want that extra isolation, but I was not prepared to like I didn't know how it was to run in in 50 to 70 degrees, and uh yeah, and it was very warm, it was very warm for the marathon this year. Yeah, specifically in the latter part, you know, that was just like but we designed the suit like we designed our jams and the whole experience. So the suit, you know, I don't know if you have a photo of it, but you can look it up on our socials or or or Google Jam guy online.
SPEAKER_01I did I don't have it in front of me, but I did look it up. I did see you in the suit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So it's like it looks like it's super thick, but it is basically like a big tent. So it's a lot of air between me and like like there's only a couple of like touching points like uh where where my body touches the suit, but inside it's like filled with air. So basically it works like an isolation, it's like a tent in the Sahara Desert, you know. So so it actually was quite nice, you know.
SPEAKER_01Um did you have a built-in fan or anything?
SPEAKER_00I actually uh a person that was working for the Austin Marathon told me to buy a fan here. I I bought like this neck fan, and I was just gonna turn it around so it would blow like air inside the suit. But I just didn't need it, you know, and I just uh what I didn't need either was extra weight, so so I skipped that. So okay. So it was a lot of fun, but it was uh I mean it's not I was not breaking any personal records, I can tell you that.
SPEAKER_01No, probably not in a jam suit, but like what was the did did you have a bunch of I was out there, I didn't run the marathon this year, but I was out there and I didn't see you. But I imagine that everybody who did see you uh was brought some measure of joy.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, absolutely. And uh, I mean people shout at me like or uh or you know, and said like, hey jam guy, or like I saw you on TV because uh Fox 7 News did a feature on us, uh along with all the brands. And people like I was running and like I like entire marathon, and I told my team like I'm not physically depleted. You know, I I I I'm still I still have energy. I'm my social battery is completely depleted because I didn't shut up the entire 26 miles, you know. I was talking the entire way, and I mean I was not running the fastest, you know, so like I was not running in the same group with everyone. So I was just meeting new persons everywhere, telling them about the brand. Uh like people like, hey Jenkai, you know, I get joining AGB, and it was just like it was a lot of fun. Also, uh, I mean, I think it's important as a as a specifically for us in the GPG world, the experience world, is to get out of our environment, you know, because you know, let's just face it, where I am now, I I sit in front of a computer like almost the entire entire day and I speak to a camera, you know, like and I you know you're you're looking at spinch numbers or or marketing and sales, but you're not like it's not you know, often you have that amazing chance to embrace with like random strangers about like the brand. And um and this was just like a good experience to just you know get out there and and never take it too seriously and just like live the brand you are like fighting for every day. So uh that being said, uh I mean it was a good thing for marketing, and now when I slash the marketing budget every now and then, they uh they threaten to send me to another marathon.
SPEAKER_01So uh yeah, you're like, hey, if the best cheapest marketing we can get is put Gardar in a in a suit and have him run 26 miles.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they say it's a win-win kind of uh scenario. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, maybe not for you, but for everybody else. It certainly is. Let me ask you, you actually this is this was not a uh this is not like a prepared question that I had, but this this does kind of scratch at a thing that I've thought a lot about is that there I there is this thing that happens when you are a founder you know, or running a a uh a brand in this space where it is about experience and there is some amount of visibility, right? Like you do become you do become somewhat of a public figure. And I don't mean that like you know, you and I are celebrities. I just mean that it's like I have the same experience of um if I go to a trade show and I put on all my yellow bird gear, I know that like I'm gonna be representing like I know that I'm gonna be representing the brand from the time I like walk out the door until like 10 PM that night. So it's it's a thing where you're like not maybe not physically exhausted, but you're just like socially your social battery is all the way down. And I and I think I'm trying to find the The question here, right? Because I think my experience has been that like that like I just thinking about it from an experience standpoint, if I put on my we have like uh I I have like a a members only jacket that's got a big yellow bird logo on it, and it's like if I put on that ja if I put on that jacket and walk out the door, it's not like I am not prepared for a casual day, right? I'm prepared for like I'm gonna tell the brand story 40 times that day with as with as much vim and vigor as I did the you know, the 38th time and the 39th time and the whatever. So do you that my I guess my question is like do you think about that? Like the the duality of like you've gotta sit there and do the finances and look at the spends numbers and do your one-on-ones or how you know however you're managing the company. And then there's this whole other part that's like people want to hear from you about the brand, they want to hear from you about the company, they want they they enjoy seeing you, you know, appear in a jam costume or whatever. It's two different, two very different jobs.
SPEAKER_00I think you know, it is so so depleting, and uh I I totally accuracy with you, and I I I love your jacket, by the way. Uh so cool, man. Uh and uh that is just something we have to do, you know. Like uh it's like in the early days and like also in the later days, I think like uh you have to have a person that is uh speaking on behalf of the company, and in our world is the co-founders, you know, that is like that has been there from the beginning. And uh, you know, you also see it with bigger companies. You see, you know, suddenly you have a CEO on all the big corporations that you know and a face that you didn't see before. I mean, there's a reason for why the CEO of McDonald's was eating a burger, the big arch, you know, and putting on a TikTok, you know, even though even though it was like uh kind of disputed how how big Bitey took. But but I think like that's just what we have to do as leaders, you know, and and and and and you know, be in forefront and and and and fight, you know, and it's just like it's part of the job and it's equally important as running the numbers or the one-on-ones or like getting into a store, you know. Like it's just uh and how you do that is like you know, you have to represent the brand, as you said. Like, what are what is your brand promise? You know, I think Yellowbird and like good are like lively and fun and natural is fun and like you know, like is it's kind of playing with the same spirit, of course. And then you should be that as well, like when you're reads out there, like running a mod of an astronaut is is is hilarious for most people. It was painful for me, yes, yeah. But but it's like uh that's just part of the game, you know. It's it's like promoting health, running, you know, like on a good, comfortable page, you know, it's just like fueling yourself up before a run. Being a button jelly sound is perfect for that. So uh it it is fun, but it's also at the same time depleting. So uh and that's like why you have to balance yourself up, you know. I at the last at the actual last you talked about, I was in bed 9.30 every night. You know, I was just completely couldn't talk to myself, you know, even I was so tired.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so it's like it's like uh you know, you have to keep yourself in check, you know, like and uh and like but you have to do it, you know, you have to go out there, you have to have those conversations, you have to smile, and you have to face criticism, you have to, you know, like face some bullshit, and you also have to take the praises, you know, I have to take it all. You know, it's like there's no other way to do it, I think. I mean, uh in my experience.
SPEAKER_01Well, that is uh that is that is a very like uh thing that whether you're the CEO of a $10 million brand or a $10 billion brand, there's that thing of like you're gonna take like all the credit. You know, when stuff goes well, it's gonna be like, oh, Gardar, great job, man. And then when stuff goes poorly, people are gonna be like, Gardar, what the fuck, man? Hey Gardar, what the fuck, man? And it's it's not like you you don't control everything that happens in the market. You can't control even everything that happens with every you know, like unless you're my even if you're micromanaging to the nth degree, like stuff is gonna happen that you don't see or something's gonna happen at a with a product at a retailer or whatever, you know, and we've had we've had the experience where like you know, a store doesn't rotate its stock and somebody buys an expired bottle and then they call us and they're really mad and you can't tell them like that's not our fault, you're like, I'm so sorry for the experience that you had, right? So like as a CEO you you get to you get to take the blame and the credit and my experience, at least when I was doing that, was that you know when you take credit, you you do it like uh you know, you try to spread it around. Yeah, one on the and you and you don't uh I don't know. I never thought that spreading the blame around was like I mean, you do want to fix whatever the problem is, but it's not like you you might call everybody in and be like, hey, we're gonna share this credit, we're gonna share this reward, but you don't want to necessarily call everybody in and beat them up over like let's all feel bad together. I never I never did that at least.
SPEAKER_00No, uh and and that's I think that's part of being a good leader, is that you take the bigger share of things that don't go wrong, you know, and that's just uh and then you deal with it accordingly, you know, and and find solutions. I think also that's just you have to be like, are you thinking of problems or are you thinking of solutions? You know, it's just like a way of of of figuring things out. And that's why I think entrepreneurs are often you know great leaders, because I mean, what have we not done? You know, like it's just like what challenges have we not faced, you know. Like it's just it's a good like experience doing something from scratch and and and building things, you know, because you learn so much painfully, yes, and also you know, with a lot of joy, you know. So it's like it is just uh a balanced thing. But yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, let me let me ask about entrepreneurship because I agree with you that like entrepreneurs can certainly be uh inspiring leaders, entrepreneurs can be uh I mean innovative uh leaders. I think that entrepreneurs can also often have uh uh blind spots too. I know from my own experience that you know, having some blind spots and growing uh into a leadership role and being like a lot of the entrepreneurs that I know are people who are like hyper obsessed with solving a problem. They're hyper obsessed with like what their what it is their company does or their brand or their product does and and maybe kind of like put blinders on with that. Like I the the one for me I will say is like I was not as I I had not done any training as far as like managing uh people um that that was a that was a tough skill for me to learn, right? Like and to do it uh kind of fairly and equitably and make sure that I was you know managing everybody like similarly and giving everybody you know, not saying not saying like, oh, this person is really knocking it out of the out of the park, so I'm gonna give them way more of my attention or whatever, right? Um did you find or have you found as you've as your company's grown, as your as your experience has grown through, you know, a master's program, you know, running at a couple of different salt projects via health into good good, like you you're you've built a lot of experience at this point. What what were one or a couple of things that like surprised you as far as like oh I didn't realize I was gonna have to do this?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean uh managing people is one. And uh I also had zero experience, uh like really little experience doing that. And uh I mean, unfortunately, I did I had to do it like learning by doing, you know, and I I did some mistakes there, and uh and then I learned from them. I mean, I had like consultation, I read books, you know. Yeah, and I think it took me a little bit of time to, you know, uh just to be upfront. I think you can never master the skill of managing people. I think it's a continuous work and improvement and attention and so, but but you can do your best, you know. So it took me a little bit of a long time to just figure out like my management style and communication and my expectation. Also, that that's one of the cons of being an entrepreneur, you do everything in the beginning, you know, you do all the jobs, so so it's super hard for you to take apart to that job and allocate it to someone else, and like and then it's not happening the way you did it, and and then you know it could go either way, better or worse, you know, and and and and uh the hard thing is letting go there. But but I think I think honestly that you never stop learning, and uh there are always you know ways to improve, and also you have to be humble towards yourself and others, and like you're not without fallacy, you know, you will you will you will mess things up, you know, like and uh how you react is I think a bigger part of that rather than what you will necessarily do immediately, you know what I mean? So it's like uh or like you know, so you don't react and just do it yourself instead of like how do you react communicatively specifically when you have a team in place. But it's just an endless learning, man. And in the crazy tech environment we live in where AI is just taking over and suddenly you have agents coming up and like ways and tools to do things much faster. I think like you have to be on track and you have to be uplifting and you have to be like like how can we how can we grow from here, you know?
SPEAKER_01So are you guys are are you guys um I I mean I'm I'm super interested in like what uh what all is happening in AI and I feel like there's 90% of the use cases are just gonna get thrown out, and then there's probably a small amount that is gonna become actual kind of uh workplace day-to-day, the same way that you know, the same way that like video conferencing kind of became a day-to-day part, you know, after 2020, video conferencing is like a day-to-day part of our lives that will just never go away. But there were a lot of things that kind of popped up that went away. Um I'm oversimplifying, but like what kind of stuff are you guys using or looking at AI-wise in your business right now?
SPEAKER_00I mean, AI has changed so much in the past two weeks, uh, it's insane. So it's like I think like for us like CPD world, it's like there's so many untapped opportunities here. Like uh forecasting, inventory, like uh optimization, uh just like being able to link it to Excel to help you figure out you know all the blind spots you have. I just created uh uh a field merchandiser app, you know, uh internal tool for our team. So when you go to the store, people are not just uploading it on Teams, you know, but actually you have a program that man AI can read what what's happening, you know. So it's like, and I have like I'm not a technical person, you know, like programming-wise, but it's just like the tools are are uh endless, like opportunities are endless, and also the threats are uh equally the same amount, you know, it's gonna disrupt uh every kind in every industry, you know. Uh I think it's it's like we haven't seen yet exactly how it would look like. At the same time, we didn't know that video conferencing was gonna take over. I mean, when I was doing Skype in 2001 or something or two, I mean I didn't know that's gonna be my uh you know nine to five job, you know, looking at a screen the entire day, you know, like uh I remember I remember the Skype days when people were like, Hey, connect with me on Skype, and you would just be like, Why? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01What are you talking about? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I remember as well. It took some like it took some effort, investment. You know, you had to set it up, you had to call, and yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was wild. Because I I feel like for a lot there were years where I was just like, I don't understand what Skype is. Like I can message somebody, but then we can have a video call, but um that's just me, that's just me being an old man. I don't know what these Skypes are these days.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Why can I use a line line? Why don't you pick up your phone?
SPEAKER_01Pick up your phone. I do think that picking up the phone and calling somebody is like is like one of the most underrated tools that just doesn't get used.
SPEAKER_00I totally agree with you there. Uh yeah. I do it often, you know. It's like uh yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like I I feel like there's just a lot of there's a lot of email threads that could go on for a month, but you could just you could also just like pick up the phone and call somebody and be like, hey, how do we solve this? How do we solve this quickly? Yeah. Or or you can or you can get together like a quick meeting. Now, speaking of meetings, speaking of tech, um th this is just kind of like a I'm I'm poking you at all this stuff because I feel like y'all y'all's company is around the same like stage of life that our company is. Um there there's a there's a lot of discourse in working at companies, running companies, uh how many meetings should we have? Um I like to have as few meetings as possible, but uh there's also this thing where like if you don't have enough meetings, you drift out of alignment, but you can also have uh a bunch of like it's just like corporate culture is always in my experience discussing how many meetings should we have. Could this meeting have been an email? How how do you guys what what's your take on meetings at Good Good? How do you think about meetings? How many meetings are you doing? How many meetings is too many meetings?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's a great question. I'm also of the same school of thought as you are. I I mean I was heavily influenced by the book that uh written like a couple of years ago about killing the meetings and then uh uh uh and so forth. Uh we are like a transatlantic team, you know. We have office in Iceland, we have office here, we have like remote people. So it's like and not a big team, right?
SPEAKER_01Not a very big team.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we're like 15. So it's like for me, it's like and it's it's still manageable. You know, I don't have experience with running 20 plus like or 50 or big organizations, so I can't comment on that. But for me, like when you're building a company and like doing things and and winning and like growing and stuff, company culture is is is so important to sustain and you know and build, and like you know, your company is as good as the team, you know, like uh and the product and everything, but the team is like representing it out there. So so I try to foster company culture and you know us having fun. So uh and we have time zones and cultural differences and um different accents and all that stuff. So we have like one team meeting a week, every Monday. Uh and we like with a super like simple setup. I always start with a death joke, and they are horribly bad. They're so bad that like uh I'm amazed if anyone laughs, but they are there. Uh we everyone shares a slide, you know, and the key there is like what are you working on? Uh what did you what are what were your wins last week? If there are none, then don't write anything. If there are, I mean it can be a professional, uh uh personal, and and then is anything stopping you? Then that's the forum to hey, can anyone help me here with Lid? You know, if it hasn't come across. And then everyone has to share a photo from their life, you know, and you know, personal photo, professional photo, doesn't matter what it is. And I think it's just like a key thing for us like to know each other, you know, what are your kids' name? You know, what are you supposed to do? What did you do over the weekend? Okay, so you're like uh fixing old cars, you know. I didn't know that, you know. So it's like that is a key thing for us. Then on Fridays, we have uh like uh big all hands operation sales meeting that is more serious and drilled down to the details. That meeting can be 30 minutes, that meeting can be one and a half hour, um, depending on how busy we are. And uh and then you know, otherwise team members just figure out if they have to have a meeting. I am like I am of both schools, sometimes it's good to have to over-communicate, and sometimes it's horrible to over-communicate. I don't think there's any right or wrong way to do it unless you I think the wrong way to do things are like to have uh like no meetings or like all meetings, you know. So so it's just a balance of where you are in the company, but what child what are the challenges? But I just want to flag, I don't have experience running large teams. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01I I do think that it is um I mean my perspective is that you have to have those standing meetings, right? That there should be you should be having a regular finance review, regular kind of like ops review, sales review. Um but there are times when you're going through like a big innovation cycle or or maybe you just had a big turnover with the team or something. If there's some major thing that's going on, you might uh add meetings. I I think that one of the one of the wrong things to do is to be inflexible with what you're doing, because now you end up with like a with like a hey, we had a weekly tariffs meeting. Do I need that? Do I need that always? Because if if that's not the issue, then maybe I don't need that every week. So like um you mentioned uh starting uh starting your Monday meeting with a dad joke, and if you think that you're gonna slip that tidbit in and not have to tell me a dad joke, you're wrong. Can I get can I get this can I get this week's dad joke?
SPEAKER_00Wow, you're putting me on the spot, man.
SPEAKER_01I know I'm putting you on the spot, but like you said you said that you lead the meeting with a dad joke.
SPEAKER_00So Yeah. Well like with everything, I embrace challenges. So uh alright, here's the dad joke. Two uh two persons in an interrogation room, a police officer and the one he's interrogating. And it starts. I'm not saying a word without my lawyer present. The interrogator says, You are the lawyer. The one who's interrogated. So where is my present?
SPEAKER_01And this is how you star my lawyer's pre my lawyer present. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Where's my lawyer present? That was uh I I I I I have, of course, uh a meme with it, you know, and that's it's visual, so it's it's more funny if you do that.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00But it it but it but it's so bad, you know, and that's like that is the secret. If it's not bad, it's not good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's not bad. If it's not a bad joke, it's not a bad joke.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. So it's like I try to make people, you know, revolt, you know, because uh that's a good human, you know, reaction. And then we start, you know, the company.
SPEAKER_01And people who can make it through that every week, those are the people, those are people with real grit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. It's a test. And then also like what we like to do, and I'm a big proponent of that, and I've written a couple of LinkedIn studies about it, is just like you know, karaoke. That is like it's a perfect way to get you out of your comfort zone and and and and just get out there and and make a fool of yourself, you know, or not, or like, or like be at the start of the night, you know.
SPEAKER_01Or just we holy crap.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we're having one tonight, like a team building uh dinner and a karaoke event, and and we host them regularly.
SPEAKER_01Wait, I'll be there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. I will I will pick you up. And uh we also always what's your karaoke song? Well uh it's it's uh I mean it's not a secret anymore. It's like done it so many times. Uh depatch mode, enjoy the silence.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I'm uh I'm a pretty good Dave David Kahn impersonator. I mean, I I just like I've studied the guy. So uh that is my go-to song. What about you?
SPEAKER_01Uh my go-to song is Natural Woman by Aretha Franklin. Oh, big but but I it has to be one of those uh it has to be one of those karaoke setups where they can change the key, because I can't do it in the Aretha Franklin key. I think obviously. But if they can key it down for me a little bit, then that's my go-to song. Uh if they can't key it down for me, then Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson.
SPEAKER_00Oh man, that's the musical background. Yeah, now I see you.
SPEAKER_01But either of those songs, if I see if I sing one of those songs, my voice is gone. Yeah, they're both they're both pretty high. I just like singing them because they're unexpected, you know? Yeah, yeah. It's like an unexpected song. Air Aaron went to a karaoke thing last week and somebody did uh tequila song, which is the only thing you have to do is say the word tequila.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I heard it a couple of times, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Pretty funny, pretty funny as a karaoke song. Okay, speaking of entertainment, we're we're uh we're coming to the home stretch here, but you and I are gonna do uh apparently an entertaining segment next week. Uh I was talking with your social media person, and we're what explain to me what we're doing. We're gonna do like uh like a hot wings challenge, but it's either gonna be sweet or spicy.
SPEAKER_00It's gonna be sweet or spicy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So it's either gonna be yellow bird sauce covering the wing or your jams. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's gonna be like a Russian roulette. We have to maybe spike do you have like some secret spiked uh yellowbird sauce like in your in your steak or something?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we've got some real hot ones. They're like not the normal like stuff sold in stores. So I've got some stuff that'll yeah. I've got some I've got some stuff that'll uh that'll do it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, bring it, bring it. Because I can tolerate heat, man. I'm up with the challenge. Yeah, I mean, I mean challenge accepted, yes. Uh yeah, so we are we're gonna do some fun stuff, man. I mean the jams we have to like we'll figure something out to spike them up in uh the spiciness or then we're gonna do and then we're gonna do a collab product that's a wing jam.
SPEAKER_01I don't know if you saw that. Yeah, I saw that. That is amazing. Yeah, keep it locked, guys, for Yellowbird Good Good Wing Jam. It's gonna be so good. I like that name. I like the name of that product, Wing Jam.
SPEAKER_00Doesn't Wing Jam just think about think about all the content we can make, like Wing Jam for your Wingman. Yeah, could be so good.
SPEAKER_01Could be good. Speaking of puns, are you are do you ever uh do you ever lean into the fact that jam brand sounds a lot like jam band?
SPEAKER_00Yes, a lot.
SPEAKER_01That was the first thing that I thought why when I was writing out my intro or whatever, and I wrote the word I wrote the phrase jam brand, and I was like, jam brand.
SPEAKER_00Okay, yeah. I've been like since we came here, like uh like people call yeah, you're jelly brand, jelly brand, because uh jelly is like the the popular way to say jam here. Like and I'm always jelly and jam are different, jelly and jam are different things I know, I know, I know, I know, and and jams just sound so cool, you know, like yeah, I make jam, you know. It's like oh what are you like a musician or no? I just I make fruit spreads, you know, like root skills.
SPEAKER_01Let's get together and jam, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh well, Gardar, tell tell me uh I I've appreciated this jam, uh, aside from having some technical issues, but the uh tell me where people can find you and find good good on the internet and where I'm all right, yeah.
SPEAKER_00You can find us on uh goodgoodbrand.com or Amazon or Thrive Market or uh you know and nutrition everywhere online, just Google us, and then we're about you know basically uh every retailer here in uh in the states. So and if if you can't find us there, ask the store manager for us.
SPEAKER_01Bug the store manager.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Gardar, it's been a pleasure, man. Thank you for making time for me today, and I'm looking forward to eating some wings with you next week. So this will come out this will come out first, but stay tuned uh for me and Gardar to eat some uh wings, and they'll either be sweet or heat. Also, stay tuned to this podcast. Uh I appreciate you guys tuning in. We appreciate you listening to this conversation. Uh give it get give it, you know, 17 stars out of five if you can. Uh like, subscribe for more conversations like this. I really appreciate you. And I love you. Bye-bye.