Beverage Industry Secrets: From Startup to $4 Billion Exit | Expert Insights with Former 7-Eleven Beverage Chief

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Thought leaders, are you ready to learn how successful

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brands are really built?

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So in today's episode of Biz Bites for Thought Leaders, we dive deep

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into the world of product development and market success with beverage

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industry expert Debbie Wildrick.

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From their experience at running seven 11 and North America to helping

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startups achieve multimillion dollar exit, Debbie reveals why 80% of new

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products fail in their first year, and what separates the winners.

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From the losers.

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Discover the 10 critical pillars every business needs for success.

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Whether you are launching a beverage brand or building any consumer focused business,

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stay tuned because this is a game changing set of insights that could transform

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your approach to business growth.

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Get ready for this very special episode of Biz Bites for Thought Leaders.

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Well, hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Biz Bites for Thought

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Leaders and well, I think we have someone extraordinary with us today

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because Debbie and I got chatting a little bit and, uh, well, she's got

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a lot of really interesting stories that I know is gonna benefit everyone

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in our audience listening in today.

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So, Debbie, firstly, welcome to the program.

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Thank

Debbie Wildrick: 00:01:19

you.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:01:19

Thank you very much.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:01:21

Happy to be here.

Anthony: 00:01:22

And guess let's start, let's kick things off with, just

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give everyone a little bit of an introduction as to who you are.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:01:27

Okay.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:01:29

I'm Debbie Wildrick and I've been in the industry, in the US for all of my career.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:01:38

Uh, mostly many, uh, a lot of my experience has been

Debbie Wildrick: 00:01:41

in the beverage business.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:01:43

I actually ran all of beverages for seven 11 North America for a. Uh, quite

Debbie Wildrick: 00:01:50

a bit of time in, um, the two thousands, and that led me to really understand

Debbie Wildrick: 00:01:59

a lot about what it takes to put a product on the shelf and have that

Debbie Wildrick: 00:02:06

shelf leave the, the shelf and into the consumer's hands and then into their

Debbie Wildrick: 00:02:12

mouths, of course, over and over again.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:02:15

And that really.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:02:17

Is, is what it takes to, to successfully develop a product.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:02:22

So I've been working with startups either directly for in executive positions,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:02:29

running every aspect of a business, all verticals, everything from product

Debbie Wildrick: 00:02:36

development to sales and distribution to certainly the financials and the viable

Debbie Wildrick: 00:02:43

business model and whether or not we.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:02:45

Um, whether or not we have a chance to really be successful, and my whole goal is

Debbie Wildrick: 00:02:52

helping entrepreneurs really mitigate risk and, and help them to be successful with

Debbie Wildrick: 00:02:59

their, um, with their product launches.

Anthony: 00:03:04

A and it is a, uh, a really interesting space, and I know a

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little bit about the, uh, the beverage industry, but it's, uh, it, it, it,

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I think the one thing to keep it for people to keep in mind as well is that

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it's not always direct to consumer.

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You're selling either, is that you're, you're selling a lot to

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retailers as well, aren't you?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:03:22

Right.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:03:23

I mean, I, I spoke with somebody else the other day about this.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:03:27

It really is a B2B.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:03:31

Because you are selling to the retailer and you.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:03:36

Are E except with e-commerce.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:03:39

Obviously you, you are B2C, but um, most of this industry will remain.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:03:45

The shopper still spends a lot of time shopping at retail in person and.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:03:53

That's what it really, it really means you're selling to the, to the

Debbie Wildrick: 00:03:58

retailers, to the distributors who get the products to the retailers.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:04:03

And where the real consumer aspect comes in is that the retailer agrees

Debbie Wildrick: 00:04:09

to put your product on the shelf.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:04:11

And so you're selling to them and they're, they're selling to the consumer

Debbie Wildrick: 00:04:16

and the consumer makes those decisions.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:04:19

And if they don't make the decisions, obviously.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:04:23

You've got your challenges on your hand.

Anthony: 00:04:26

It, it is quite a complicated industry in many respects because,

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uh, you've got a, a lot of suppliers, generally speaking in the first instance

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and leading you into a, you know, what can be a, a large production, uh, set

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up that one needs, and then you're going into, as you're saying, there.

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Understanding multiple audiences because you, you have to really

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understand what your distributors want.

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You have to understand then what your retailers want, and you have to understand

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ultimately what the consumers want.

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That is a lot of, uh, a lot of different moving parts to think about.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:05:01

Absolutely.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:05:03

Absolutely.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:05:04

So you, you're, you're absolutely right.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:05:07

The distributor has to be convinced that.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:05:12

That they will put a product on their trucks that the retailer will

Debbie Wildrick: 00:05:18

actually support and, and purchase.

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And in, in our business, a lot of times we say This is a chicken and the

Debbie Wildrick: 00:05:25

egg business, because the distributor going out as an, as a new brand.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:05:31

The distributor expects you to already have the acceptance of the

Debbie Wildrick: 00:05:36

retailer and the retailer of course.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:05:39

Really would like for you to have the acceptance of the consumer, but

Debbie Wildrick: 00:05:43

you don't always know that and when you're, you're first moving forward.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:05:49

I have just written a white paper and overview of what I call my pillar number

Debbie Wildrick: 00:05:56

one, to having a successful company, and it is about market opportunity.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:06:03

And, um, consumer need and figuring that out before you ever even enter

Debbie Wildrick: 00:06:11

into a product launch so that you have a better understanding that it

Debbie Wildrick: 00:06:17

will actually move off the shelf.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:06:20

And that's, that's really the end result.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:06:24

But the, all the steps in the way of the supply chain.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:06:29

Everything from production to distribution to the retailer are,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:06:34

are just getting you to the consumer and the consumer has to respond.

Anthony: 00:06:39

I. I mean, it's not an industry for the faint-hearted really, is it?

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You, you can't, uh, it's not, it's not something that you dabble in.

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Although what's interesting is there's been a lot of, um, I guess pop-up small,

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particularly, uh, particularly in the alcohol related beverage side of things.

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A lot of small players in the market who more or less start from their

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home, uh, or a small facility building and then go and go from there.

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But it is a, it, it's a very difficult space to.

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Make money in and to be competitive in.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:07:11

Yes, it is, it is.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:07:13

There's a very famous brand, and I talk about, I tell this story quite a bit.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:07:20

It's called Vitamin Water, and I'm not sure if how far they spread

Debbie Wildrick: 00:07:27

across the world, but um, they, they actually sold to Coca-Cola.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:07:35

For $4.1 billion when they were at 600 million in revenue in trailing

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revenues for the last 12 months, and they were in year number nine and

Debbie Wildrick: 00:07:50

had not shown profitability until year number eight and had raised a

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lot of money before that their, the sale of the company of 4.1 billion.

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So it's, it's an industry that is.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:08:06

It's, it's got great, great stories, great, great stories if

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you, if you're able to do that.

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But it is really, really hard work and it is very hard to make money.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:08:19

Eight outta 10, eight out of 10 new companies fail every year.

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It's a, it's a very high percentage, uh, because, uh, a lot of

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people come in with a great idea and it's easy, isn't it, in that sense to have the

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idea, because we all go and buy a drink from a, from a local store, and we think,

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oh, well if it only had a touch of this, or what if we did it this way instead?

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So it's easy to have those ideas, but the reality of it is quite a difficult one.

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And so, I mean, talk to me about that.

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You've worked with startups as as well.

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How does that.

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Come about for people, you know, what's the, what is the, the step to actually

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get them out of that, uh, 80% that are going to fail and to get them on

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the right path from the beginning?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:09:04

Well, I would say that it's really ticking on all levels

Debbie Wildrick: 00:09:10

of the industry, and I've, I've been working on writing the, the 10 pillars.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:09:16

I've had the 10 pillars for a long time.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:09:19

As to what you need to have in order to be successful.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:09:24

But, you know, having four or five of those,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:09:31

that's one of the biggest issues.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:09:33

Um, and, and like I said, the starting point.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:09:36

Most, most entrepreneurs, many new products come to

Debbie Wildrick: 00:09:41

fruition because I have a need.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:09:46

I want to, I, I'm lactose intolerant and the people that created the brand called

Debbie Wildrick: 00:09:55

Oatley, which is an oat drink as a, as an example, were I. Looking for something

Debbie Wildrick: 00:10:02

that lacto was lactose intolerant and or for people that are lactose intolerant.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:10:08

And so they, they said there's nothing on the market like this.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:10:12

And, and so they created a product and, and Oatley, as an

Debbie Wildrick: 00:10:16

example, was very successful, but.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:10:19

There's so much more than that.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:10:21

So the first, the very first step is you, you have to have a consumer

Debbie Wildrick: 00:10:26

need, even if you're trying to create it to some degree on your own.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:10:31

But you also really have to begin to understand all aspects of the business.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:10:40

And, and so the second, the second factor that is critical is that we go into this.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:10:46

Without really understanding our viable business model, which is real simple.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:10:51

We look at what can we command, um, as a price point at, at retail to the consumer.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:10:59

And we back in all the supply chain, uh, aspects of it, the distribution,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:11:04

the retailer's profitability, but, and, and all the way down,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:11:08

of course to the cost of goods.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:11:10

And if we're not making.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:11:12

The right levels of product on a piece of paper, on a back of a napkin.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:11:18

You can do this.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:11:20

You, you really are, are setting yourself up for failure because you

Debbie Wildrick: 00:11:24

get into production or you, um, you know, you get to retail and you're

Debbie Wildrick: 00:11:30

shipping costs are outta line.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:11:33

Any number of things can happen if you haven't really, you haven't really

Debbie Wildrick: 00:11:38

done this simple model and then.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:11:41

One of the areas that I think is critical, I said that eight out

Debbie Wildrick: 00:11:45

of 10 fail in the first year.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:11:49

In the second year, eight out of 10 of those, if you will, or 80%

Debbie Wildrick: 00:11:56

of those will fail because they've run outta money or they didn't

Debbie Wildrick: 00:12:00

have enough money to begin with.

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Now, back to Biz Bites.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:12:44

Eight out of 10 of those, if you will, are 80% of those will fail

Debbie Wildrick: 00:12:51

because they've run outta money or they didn't have enough money to begin with.

Anthony: 00:12:56

Mm-hmm.

Anthony: 00:12:58

It's, it's.

Anthony: 00:12:59

It's a very, uh, expensive.

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Place to be.

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Um, you know, it's not, it's not, uh, unlike a lot of industries where

Anthony: 00:13:10

you can come in on the back of a computer and you can design something

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and start offering your services.

Anthony: 00:13:15

There's a lot of things to consider because production is a huge thing.

Anthony: 00:13:18

And I think the other thing too, of course, is there's.

Anthony: 00:13:22

A fair amount of time that's needed before you can actually get up

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and running and selling products.

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It's not, again, not like, um, a lot of service-based businesses that

Anthony: 00:13:32

can open their doors today and start serving clients that afternoon.

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It's, there's a lot involved.

Anthony: 00:13:39

So what's the actual lead time before you actually get you, you

Anthony: 00:13:42

start from the idea and actually getting out and selling something.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:13:46

Six to nine months.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:13:49

Six to nine months, absolutely.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:13:52

Uh, I've, I've done a, I first started creating products

Debbie Wildrick: 00:13:57

when I was with seven 11.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:13:59

And of course our executive management team, it had expectations

Debbie Wildrick: 00:14:06

that were, um, unbelievable.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:14:09

And so I did a, a critical path document way back then that that, um, that actually

Debbie Wildrick: 00:14:17

puts all the steps in the timing in one.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:14:21

One, um, model so that you can really look at making sure that you are getting those

Debbie Wildrick: 00:14:29

steps ahead of time completed, and then.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:14:33

You've got a launch date at the end, and, and if you're, if you're following your

Debbie Wildrick: 00:14:38

critical path, then you've got six to nine months If you're not following your

Debbie Wildrick: 00:14:44

critical path very well or things, if there's hiccups along the way, then, you

Debbie Wildrick: 00:14:49

know, it could be a year to two years.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:14:51

I've, I've seen, I've seen new brands not launch for two years.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:14:57

Wow.

Anthony: 00:14:58

It's, and I think the interesting thing about this space as well is that

Anthony: 00:15:03

generally I would gather that a lot of the, the majority of people that come

Anthony: 00:15:07

into this space have no experience.

Anthony: 00:15:10

Absolutely.

Anthony: 00:15:11

So following, so following a critical path and having someone like yourself to Abbott

Anthony: 00:15:15

to guide them is going to be so critical because, because of the amount of moving

Anthony: 00:15:21

parts that are involved, as we've said.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:15:24

Yes, absolutely.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:15:25

And.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:15:26

One of the things that, that happens for me quite often, and it's, it's

Debbie Wildrick: 00:15:33

especially been happening in the last 10 years, but a lot of, uh, a lot of

Debbie Wildrick: 00:15:39

famous brands even, uh, even 20 years ago, right outta college people, you

Debbie Wildrick: 00:15:45

know, I wanna be an entrepreneur.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:15:46

I wanna start.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:15:48

My own company.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:15:49

I wanna build a brand.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:15:51

I have a, a need, uh, I believe that there's nothing like it on the market.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:15:55

I can, I can make it happen.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:15:58

Zero experience.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:15:59

Zero experience, even running any kind of business, much less, um, running

Debbie Wildrick: 00:16:06

in the food and beverage business.

Anthony: 00:16:10

Yeah.

Anthony: 00:16:10

And, and, um, I think there's a lot of lessons for people in this that.

Anthony: 00:16:15

You know, a lot of people wait for a while before they get some kind of coach

Anthony: 00:16:19

or consultant in, but often, particularly in the startup phase like this, having

Anthony: 00:16:25

someone that can mentor you, guide you, coach you, consult you for you,

Anthony: 00:16:30

um, is just super critical, isn't it?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:16:33

It is.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:16:34

And I, I like to say that the best coaching that you can have is.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:16:40

Is to have somebody like myself who has actually started out in the industry

Debbie Wildrick: 00:16:45

when I was in my mid twenties, you know, working at retail and, and

Debbie Wildrick: 00:16:51

moving up along the, the industry.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:16:55

And so it's important when, when I start a consulting agreement that is for a

Debbie Wildrick: 00:17:03

new entrepreneur, we will actually do the critical path that I referenced.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:17:09

And we'll lay that out.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:17:10

And then each week we'll meet and I will guide them through exactly what they need

Debbie Wildrick: 00:17:17

to do to meet the, the next objective.

Anthony: 00:17:21

And I can imagine in this kind of space that it's really

Anthony: 00:17:23

passion driven, that the people who start this up have a real passion

Anthony: 00:17:28

for what they, what they want.

Anthony: 00:17:29

This is not just a, a kind of a, a side hustle 'cause they just said, oh, this

Anthony: 00:17:33

might be a nice place to make money.

Anthony: 00:17:34

You, you, because of the lead time, because of the amount involved.

Anthony: 00:17:38

It's a passion project, isn't it?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:17:40

It's a passion pro, uh, project.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:17:43

But you know, speaking of that lack of experience, there's so many times I've

Debbie Wildrick: 00:17:48

had conversations and, and even, even after I explained to them some of the

Debbie Wildrick: 00:17:55

aspects of what it really takes to get.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:17:59

The product to market you, you will have that entrepreneur

Debbie Wildrick: 00:18:02

that says, but I can do it.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:18:04

I can do it.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:18:04

I've got a great idea.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:18:06

I've got a great idea, and I can do it.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:18:08

And, you know, she's making it seem so hard, but you know, it, it, I'm so

Debbie Wildrick: 00:18:14

passionate about it that I can do it and it, um, it really gets in the way

Debbie Wildrick: 00:18:21

sometimes of, of being successful.

Anthony: 00:18:24

I, I, I want to explore that because that is such a common thing in

Anthony: 00:18:28

so many businesses that, um, it, it, the passion that people have is fantastic, but

Anthony: 00:18:34

it needs to be curtailed and it needs to also be, you know, I. Pigeonholed in the

Anthony: 00:18:39

sense that you need to be can thinking of your audiences, and in this case, you

Anthony: 00:18:45

know, multiple audiences because what you want doesn't necessarily match ultimately

Anthony: 00:18:51

with all those different audiences either.

Anthony: 00:18:52

So you have to kind of, you might have started off with passionately

Anthony: 00:18:55

about a good idea, but you have to listen to what everyone else wants.

Anthony: 00:18:59

Um, I, I guess using it, it's, we had this debate, uh, in my

Anthony: 00:19:03

family just the other day where.

Anthony: 00:19:05

You know, do we have ginger in the drink or not have ginger in the drink?

Anthony: 00:19:07

Like, I love ginger, so I'm quite happy to have it in the rest of the family.

Anthony: 00:19:11

Not so much.

Anthony: 00:19:12

And so, but that's the little thing, right, where you, you

Anthony: 00:19:15

have to understand those little decisions can have huge implications.

Anthony: 00:19:19

And you know, it's not just about ingredients, it's about all of the

Anthony: 00:19:22

things that make up what ultimately is the product that you're selling.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:19:26

Yes, that's true.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:19:27

I actually had a client who was developed a ginger beverage.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:19:34

And do you know that it took about six months for them to get the formulation?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:19:41

Right.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:19:41

Not only because they had all the family members involved, and it was two

Debbie Wildrick: 00:19:47

sisters and the one sister had created it for the other sister who was always

Debbie Wildrick: 00:19:52

getting sick while she was pregnant.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:19:54

And so that was the start of it.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:19:56

But it, um.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:19:58

You know, and, and it's not, it's certainly not just listening

Debbie Wildrick: 00:20:03

to your family members either.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:20:05

You, you know, the ultimate guide is, is being able to try your product

Debbie Wildrick: 00:20:10

with multiple consumers before you ever even think about formulating.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:20:16

And that's, that's where we also miss it.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:20:19

We, it's our idea.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:20:21

We think we, we've got it the way that we want it and we haven't really spoke

Debbie Wildrick: 00:20:27

outside our, our internal network.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:20:30

I.

Anthony: 00:20:31

It is surprising how often that simple idea, uh, translates across to

Anthony: 00:20:36

multiple businesses that people start off with an idea because they believe

Anthony: 00:20:41

there's a gap there without actually ever testing it to see whether other

Anthony: 00:20:45

people think exactly the same thing.

Anthony: 00:20:48

Mm-hmm.

Anthony: 00:20:48

And, and it's such a simple idea.

Anthony: 00:20:50

Yet, it's often, uh, often lost and, and it has to happen all the

Anthony: 00:20:54

way throughout the process, right?

Anthony: 00:20:55

I mean, we're talking about the, the, the basics of the makeup

Anthony: 00:20:58

of the, of the product itself.

Anthony: 00:20:59

But it goes into, you know, certainly from a marketing point of view into the

Anthony: 00:21:02

branding, I've often seen that go, uh, go astray because, oh, I like this color.

Anthony: 00:21:07

I. You like that color and that font, but that's got nothing to do with whether

Anthony: 00:21:11

your audience likes that and it doesn't.

Anthony: 00:21:13

And, and whether that stacks against your competitors and what the message is that

Anthony: 00:21:17

it sends, there are so many different things to think about that go well

Anthony: 00:21:20

beyond what your personal preference is.

Anthony: 00:21:23

And, and that's where the difference is, isn't it?

Anthony: 00:21:25

Between creating what is a brand that's just for, for you and your

Anthony: 00:21:28

family to, to consume and maybe a few other people, if you're lucky,

Anthony: 00:21:32

and something that you're actually turning into a decent sized business.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:21:37

Y Yes, and, and you know what?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:21:39

It's not just at the beginning either.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:21:41

Uh, the Ginger, the ginger beverage that I was talking about, they ended up launching

Debbie Wildrick: 00:21:50

and changing formulations and changing labels and branding two or three times.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:21:58

In the first two years without really ever getting to market, and you,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:22:04

you know, a brand in the first five years could change as, as much as

Debbie Wildrick: 00:22:09

two to to five times, and that's not unusual because you, you don't always.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:22:15

Know that you got it right in the beginning.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:22:17

Even if you did all this work in the beginning, you're, you're

Debbie Wildrick: 00:22:20

still tweaking with the consumer.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:22:22

You're, you're changing your messaging, you're changing your, your

Debbie Wildrick: 00:22:26

packaging because the consumer hasn't responded as you expected them to.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:22:34

But it can be fixed.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:22:36

I mean, many, many, many brands go through this, but it.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:22:40

So it's not out of the question to, to have that happen too, which again,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:22:47

expensive, um, way of doing business.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:22:50

But successful brands have to tweak and tweak and tweak because they, they

Debbie Wildrick: 00:22:58

continue to listen to the consumer and, and, um, and the consumer

Debbie Wildrick: 00:23:03

really tells 'em what they want.

Anthony: 00:23:06

Yeah, and a brand's such an important thing because you, you start

Anthony: 00:23:09

to identify with it and, and people make so many subconscious decisions

Anthony: 00:23:13

before they even pick something up.

Anthony: 00:23:15

And, and then you, you, once it's embedded as well, it's hard to change

Anthony: 00:23:19

as even big companies like Coca-Cola will tell you, you know, try and add

Anthony: 00:23:23

a new, a new variation in the label.

Anthony: 00:23:25

Add something different in, uh, add a new, you know, flavor.

Anthony: 00:23:30

Uh, all of those things can actually be incredibly difficult at times.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:23:34

Yes, absolutely.

Anthony: 00:23:36

Absolutely.

Anthony: 00:23:39

It's, um, I mean, I think Coke has been through that a few times where

Anthony: 00:23:42

they've had to backtrack, haven't they?

Anthony: 00:23:43

They, they've, uh, they've introduced something and then

Anthony: 00:23:46

they've turned around and gone.

Anthony: 00:23:47

Well, the public didn't like it.

Anthony: 00:23:48

And so even the big brands get it wrong.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:23:51

Yes, absolutely.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:23:53

And, and the big brands sometimes go through it more than, than the, um,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:23:58

startup brands go through it because.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:24:02

You know, they, they've got all kinds of objectives from return on investment.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:24:08

They're their branding people and their new product people, um,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:24:13

have to prove the viability of it.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:24:16

And if it's not successful on, on the sales side, then they're constantly,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:24:22

they're constantly re revamping the brands and, and, and trying to.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:24:28

You know, increase and, and build their, their sales and profitability.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:24:32

And so sometimes they're doing, they're, they're doing more work with that, thank

Debbie Wildrick: 00:24:38

goodness they have more money to do that.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:24:40

But, but, um, they're, they're doing it even more than, than we think.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:24:45

That they are, and then they make misses, you know, zero coke, zero years and

Debbie Wildrick: 00:24:50

years ago or, um, any number of things.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:24:54

And I don't know what they're doing today with their packaging.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:24:56

They're putting names of people on their, their packaging.

Anthony: 00:25:02

Yeah.

Anthony: 00:25:02

And I think that's interesting thing, isn't it?

Anthony: 00:25:03

It's, um, it's an industry that is so super competitive, but it is an industry

Anthony: 00:25:09

where that therefore where, um, that desire and the need to stand out.

Anthony: 00:25:15

Um, uh, is, is.

Anthony: 00:25:18

Prevalent all the time, isn't it?

Anthony: 00:25:19

Because there are so many new things that are coming onto the market, and how do you

Anthony: 00:25:24

actually stand out and be different is, you know, if it's one magic ingredient,

Anthony: 00:25:28

how do you actually highlight that?

Anthony: 00:25:29

Or is it something more, or is it not actually even a matter of being different?

Anthony: 00:25:33

It's just a matter of, of producing something that looks

Anthony: 00:25:36

different, even though it might be the same as something else.

Anthony: 00:25:39

Like it's a. A very interesting industry in that respect.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:25:43

It is.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:25:44

It is.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:25:44

And you're constantly tweaking and, you know, the US market is,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:25:48

is a little bit, is a little bit.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:25:52

Different.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:25:53

Um, I like to say sometimes we've, we've been this way for years and years

Debbie Wildrick: 00:25:58

on steroids and especially because, you know, the big companies are, um,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:26:04

public companies and, and you're always managing based on the stock market.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:26:09

But we, unlike any other country in the world.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:26:13

Our maniacs with regard to introducing and launching product extensions,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:26:20

new brands, new, new, um, uh, new and different categories.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:26:26

And the big companies are, they work really hard at doing that.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:26:32

And that's why they end up, you, you know, the, the other big thing about

Debbie Wildrick: 00:26:39

being an entrepreneur and developing a product and building a product and

Debbie Wildrick: 00:26:43

being eventually successful about, uh, with it, like I talked about Vitamin

Debbie Wildrick: 00:26:48

Water, is that the big companies end up buying up these brands that the

Debbie Wildrick: 00:26:55

entrepreneur has been able to build and, and build to a successful point because.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:27:02

They're, they have a hard time really getting it done in their systems.

Anthony: 00:27:07

And is that the ultimate goal for a lot of these businesses to that,

Anthony: 00:27:11

that they're trying to build something that will get on the radar of the big

Anthony: 00:27:16

companies who, who will then buy them out?

Anthony: 00:27:18

Is that what the goal is?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:27:20

Absolutely, absolutely.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:27:21

This industry, I don't, when, when I interview.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:27:26

Entrepreneurs in the beginning and ask them about their goals.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:27:30

I, I always ask, are you building this to keep it or are you building it to sell it?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:27:36

And if entrepreneurs are almost always, I would say 90% of them

Debbie Wildrick: 00:27:44

are building it to sell it.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:27:45

They're not building it to have a nice.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:27:48

Family business.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:27:49

And I think that is because there, this industry has been like that for 20 years.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:27:56

That, um, the brands, the buying and selling of brands and the people that

Debbie Wildrick: 00:28:02

have really been successful at it are.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:28:06

Um, uh, I have seen all this happen over the years, and so they, they,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:28:12

um, they want, they want the, the big, uh, gold at the end of the rainbow.

Anthony: 00:28:18

And is that the starting point as well, that you have to be

Anthony: 00:28:21

prepared to scale and scale fast?

Anthony: 00:28:24

Is that the, is, is that how you have to be thinking when

Anthony: 00:28:26

you start something like this?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:28:28

Yes.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:28:29

Now.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:28:31

It does take a while, so, so by the time I, and I, I've also had a lot of

Debbie Wildrick: 00:28:38

entrepreneurs ask me, well, I wanna get in front of Coca-Cola, I wanna get in

Debbie Wildrick: 00:28:41

front of General Mills, or I wanna get in front of, um, any number of companies.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:28:47

And Coca-Cola always had a venture capital group, but you, you can't

Debbie Wildrick: 00:28:54

even speak to Coca-Cola until you're $10 million in revenue.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:28:58

And it can take a long time to get to $10 million in revenue.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:29:03

And so, and, and $10 million in revenue is also.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:29:09

Most likely national distribution with, with several retailer channels.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:29:15

And so you're, you're pretty equipped to, to have a, a company that is, is moving

Debbie Wildrick: 00:29:24

in the right direction, but they, you know, the big companies don't even wanna

Debbie Wildrick: 00:29:28

talk to you before $10 million in revenue.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:29:30

And they're buying distribution.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:29:32

They're not buying.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:29:34

They are not buying a brand or an idea because they think that, oh, it's

Debbie Wildrick: 00:29:39

differentiated and we could take and build it from here because we're gonna

Debbie Wildrick: 00:29:43

be better at it than the entrepreneur.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:29:45

No, they, they wanna buy, they wanna buy distribution, they wanna buy velocity, and

Debbie Wildrick: 00:29:51

they wanna buy consumer, consumer demand.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:29:54

And that has to be proven in order for them to begin to look at it.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:29:59

And a lot of times they'll buy into it.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:30:03

A portion of it and take a portion of the company before

Debbie Wildrick: 00:30:08

they actually buy the brand.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:30:10

And that goes on for anywhere from two to five years where they may buy into

Debbie Wildrick: 00:30:16

the brand, but then, um, then eventually they'll buy the, the entire brand.

Anthony: 00:30:25

And, uh, I I, is that, i I, is it realistic that most

Anthony: 00:30:30

businesses that are going into this.

Anthony: 00:30:33

That's where they're, they're trying to head.

Anthony: 00:30:34

Is that a realistic goal for pe for businesses?

Anthony: 00:30:37

I mean, how many, how many of these kinds of companies can a Coca-Cola

Anthony: 00:30:41

and the various others want to buy?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:30:45

How many businesses

Anthony: 00:30:47

I. Well, how, yeah.

Anthony: 00:30:47

How do they, do they want to keep buying businesses like this all the time?

Anthony: 00:30:51

Are they, are they buying them for the innovation or are they

Anthony: 00:30:53

buying them to, to shut them out?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:30:56

They're buying the, they are buying them for the innovation

Debbie Wildrick: 00:30:59

because they have not been able to innovate within their own systems.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:31:05

The way that, that, um, the smaller companies have.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:31:10

I, I'm, all of a sudden what just popped into my mind was, was Crave.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:31:16

And Crave is a natural beef jerky company, um, that was bought by General

Debbie Wildrick: 00:31:23

Mills, I believe several years ago.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:31:25

And.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:31:27

And what was happening during the time when General Mills was also

Debbie Wildrick: 00:31:30

doing, they had a big venture group, um, that they still have, but they're

Debbie Wildrick: 00:31:35

not buying as much in recent years.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:31:38

They, they, they actually would, um, general Mills was looking in the

Debbie Wildrick: 00:31:45

natural foods business quite a bit and, and so they were looking to get into.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:31:53

Each category, snack foods, you name it, um, that they could actually add

Debbie Wildrick: 00:32:01

a natural, a natural product because natural foods and, and health and

Debbie Wildrick: 00:32:06

wellness and, and, um, the consumers, um, ta taste as well as, as what they

Debbie Wildrick: 00:32:14

want in their ingredients and, um, has, has changed so much over the

Debbie Wildrick: 00:32:19

years and, and the bigger companies.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:32:22

Are, are just continuing to, to want to add that to their portfolio.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:32:28

I think PepsiCo just bought Poppy, which is a probiotic,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:32:32

um, beverage as an example.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:32:35

I.

Anthony: 00:32:37

Yeah, I think people forget the simple fact that you mentioned earlier

Anthony: 00:32:39

on is that smaller companies have the ability to maneuver and make changes fast.

Anthony: 00:32:45

Bigger companies don't have that luxury.

Anthony: 00:32:47

There are too many moving parts.

Anthony: 00:32:49

There are too many things to consider.

Anthony: 00:32:50

So often that's the reason why they can look to some of these smaller

Anthony: 00:32:54

companies because the ability to be more flexible in the market

Anthony: 00:32:58

and to make change is much easier.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:33:00

Yes, it.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:33:01

It is, it, it's, it's much easier to be able to make change and, and have

Debbie Wildrick: 00:33:07

flexibility in the marketplace when you, when you actually, um, um, don't have to,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:33:15

you don't have to go through the product development as much in your own system.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:33:24

If you, if you've got the ability to evaluate those brands that

Debbie Wildrick: 00:33:29

have been successful and, and are, are really moving the needle,

Anthony: 00:33:36

talk to me about you personally though.

Anthony: 00:33:38

Um, do you get, do you still get the thrill out of every ti of, of new brands

Anthony: 00:33:43

all the time and new, new businesses and doing that because you've been

Anthony: 00:33:47

there and done that a few times.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:33:50

I do.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:33:51

I I do.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:33:52

I'm, I'm fascinated.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:33:54

You know, it's really tough to walk around.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:33:58

The largest trade show in, in the World is, is the Natural Products Expo

Debbie Wildrick: 00:34:03

that is out in Anaheim every march.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:34:08

And, you know, every year you go there and, and you, you look at all the

Debbie Wildrick: 00:34:14

brands and you look for innovation.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:34:17

And when I, I get most, most passionate when somebody comes to me that really does

Debbie Wildrick: 00:34:24

have a strong idea, and then I can take, I, I can really help them run with it.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:34:30

And I loved, I, I loved to be able to help them with the consumer

Debbie Wildrick: 00:34:36

messaging, to be able to dig into what ingredients they might, uh.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:34:41

They might want to, um, switch around and, and to really help them.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:34:47

Um, I, I find myself much more challenged than somebody coming

Debbie Wildrick: 00:34:52

to me with another energy drink.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:34:54

That, that, that is true, that if you're just coming to me with another.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:35:01

Um, something that really doesn't have the innovation or the differentiation,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:35:07

then I'm, I'm certainly not as excited and I may not even, I may

Debbie Wildrick: 00:35:11

not even take you on as a client.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:35:13

And,

Anthony: 00:35:14

and it's interesting when you say the, the, the innovation in the industry

Anthony: 00:35:18

because it's, it's tough, isn't it?

Anthony: 00:35:20

I mean, it's not like, you know, I don't know how many years ago that, that someone

Anthony: 00:35:23

first came up with the idea of going, well, there's this thing that we can,

Anthony: 00:35:26

everyone can get for free by turning on the tap, but we're gonna put it in a

Anthony: 00:35:29

bottle and sell it to you called water.

Anthony: 00:35:32

Uh, that was, uh.

Anthony: 00:35:33

That was, you know, an innovative first step.

Anthony: 00:35:36

But it's, you know, how, how innovative is it really these days?

Anthony: 00:35:39

I mean, is there actually stuff that hasn't been done yet because

Anthony: 00:35:43

it, it feels like there's always something new, but how have we not

Anthony: 00:35:47

ran out of ideas in this industry?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:35:50

That's, I, I don't, I, I don't mean to snicker about

Debbie Wildrick: 00:35:55

that, but you're absolutely right.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:35:57

You walk this trade show with thousands upon thousands of new

Debbie Wildrick: 00:36:01

entries and, and you, you come back from it and you say, well, what's the

Debbie Wildrick: 00:36:06

most innovative thing that you saw?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:36:09

And, and sometimes you take a stretch, but there's there, there

Debbie Wildrick: 00:36:14

are ways of innovating and, and.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:36:18

It's not just about ingredients, it's not just about, um, functionality.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:36:24

It's, it's, it's, it can be packaging.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:36:29

You know, there's a lot of innovations that are coming to fruition from

Debbie Wildrick: 00:36:34

packaging and the way that we consume are.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:36:38

Our, um, products, functional beverages as an example of,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:36:43

you know, they're convenient.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:36:45

I can, in, instead of taking a pill, I can take, I, I have to drink water

Debbie Wildrick: 00:36:50

anyway and I can put collagen in it and I can put it on the market and.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:36:55

And so we've got the opportunity still to do things if we, if we really dig in.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:37:03

And, but it, it, it's a challenge.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:37:06

And that's probably one of the other challenges about, um, building a new

Debbie Wildrick: 00:37:11

product these days, is that I've, I've gotta figure out how to differentiate it.

Anthony: 00:37:19

It, it is such an important thing, isn't it?

Anthony: 00:37:21

It, it's, it's those little things that can make a huge difference in the

Anthony: 00:37:26

way something, you know, is marketed.

Anthony: 00:37:29

Um, and, uh, the way it captures the audience and, and

Anthony: 00:37:33

knowing who your audience is.

Anthony: 00:37:35

It goes back to where we started the conversation really, isn't it?

Anthony: 00:37:37

It it's that whole idea of understanding your different audiences and being

Anthony: 00:37:43

able to be seen as innovative to them.

Anthony: 00:37:46

Is what counts.

Anthony: 00:37:47

And it could be, as you say, it could be the packaging or it could

Anthony: 00:37:49

be the actual, uh, in, in this case, the actual drink itself.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:37:54

Yes, absolutely.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:37:55

Absolutely.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:37:57

It, um, I a, a story that goes back quite a bit, but when I was at seven 11, I

Debbie Wildrick: 00:38:03

just had this gentleman reach out to me.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:38:06

He said, thank you so much.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:38:09

I, um, my nickname is Queen of Beverages, and he, I had sent him an email and he

Debbie Wildrick: 00:38:16

said, I remember when you helped me get Fiji water on the shelves at seven 11.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:38:23

And, you know, I evaluated this, I had a category where the pre,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:38:30

there's, there's three segments of water and it was premium.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:38:35

It was mainstream and it was, it was, um, um, value and I had one, uh,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:38:45

one premium water on the shelf and based on, based on volume in turns, I

Debbie Wildrick: 00:38:52

really could only afford to, to have one, one premium water on the shelf.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:38:58

And Fiji comes to me.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:39:00

Fiji had a square bottle.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:39:02

They had a, a picture of.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:39:05

Fiji waterfalls in the back that showed through the front

Debbie Wildrick: 00:39:09

and, and I said, you know what?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:39:12

You've, you've got something that is totally differentiated

Debbie Wildrick: 00:39:15

that the consumer's never seen.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:39:17

Nothing different about the water, you know?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:39:21

Um, really, I, I, I have been in the water business in, in other areas

Debbie Wildrick: 00:39:26

too, so I know a lot about water, um, and what can differentiate you.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:39:32

But, but it was all about the packaging and.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:39:36

And sure enough, PG became, it was about a $10 million brand when they came to me

Debbie Wildrick: 00:39:42

and, and they grew to over 200 million.

Anthony: 00:39:47

Amazing.

Anthony: 00:39:48

I mean, it, it's, and, and it is.

Anthony: 00:39:49

So it does bamboozle people at times where you, where you go, it's.

Anthony: 00:39:55

It's water.

Anthony: 00:39:56

In most countries, you can just turn on the tap and get the water for free.

Anthony: 00:39:59

Right?

Anthony: 00:40:00

And it's, and yet people are buying the, the bottled water,

Anthony: 00:40:04

uh, on a consistent basis.

Anthony: 00:40:06

And, and I find it fascinating as well, when you go to whether it's a seven

Anthony: 00:40:10

11 or, or some equivalent thereof.

Anthony: 00:40:13

And, and particularly, I, I, I fascinated by it, particularly when you're on the

Anthony: 00:40:16

road, you're driving on the road, you make a, you make a stop, uh, and you.

Anthony: 00:40:21

I wanna get some water to, to take in the car.

Anthony: 00:40:24

Fine.

Anthony: 00:40:24

That makes sense.

Anthony: 00:40:25

But looking at it and trying to go, why would you pay extra for

Anthony: 00:40:29

a premium brand in water when you can get the generic brand, whatever

Anthony: 00:40:36

it might be, that is so much less.

Anthony: 00:40:38

It just.

Anthony: 00:40:39

It astonishes me, you know, because there isn't really a difference.

Anthony: 00:40:43

Is there, when you, when it comes down to it, it's still water.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:40:46

It's still water.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:40:47

There's, there's a lot of factors to it.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:40:50

Certainly.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:40:52

And we, I, I was actually involved still am a little bit with a, a

Debbie Wildrick: 00:40:57

source water out of Brazil, which is.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:41:00

The marketed as the purest water ever discovered.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:41:05

But what does the purest water ever discovered mean?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:41:08

Well, what it means is that it's really, really low on minerals or anything.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:41:13

It has less than 10 total dissolved solids in it.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:41:16

But how do you communicate that to the consumer?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:41:20

And we, we would put these test things in, in bottles of, uh, premium, other

Debbie Wildrick: 00:41:26

premium waters that were higher and, and you know, just a regular spring

Debbie Wildrick: 00:41:31

water to a Aquafina or Dasani as an example, which are Coke and Pepsi brands

Debbie Wildrick: 00:41:39

that, that are, um, reverse osmosis.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:41:42

So they don't, they don't have a lot of TDS in them either, but, um.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:41:48

You know what, what makes me want to consume one versus the other?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:41:53

Now, the, the tools that we were using to put in the other premium waters

Debbie Wildrick: 00:41:57

that were really high on minerals would turn the premium water into

Debbie Wildrick: 00:42:02

what looks like palms gun, a scum.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:42:05

And, and, and I kept on telling my business partner, I said, I don't really

Debbie Wildrick: 00:42:11

think we can market that to the consumer.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:42:14

It's.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:42:14

Great.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:42:15

I know that you raised the money based on the fact that the investor

Debbie Wildrick: 00:42:19

would not drink those other waters, but, and so you have to, um.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:42:27

With, with premium waters and there's, there's a ton of 'em, and they're all,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:42:32

they come from all over the world.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:42:34

You have to really figure out the marketing aspect and the emotional

Debbie Wildrick: 00:42:41

connection and the, you know, like the example with Fiji, your marketing

Debbie Wildrick: 00:42:46

it through the packaging and, and that's what's really selling it.

Anthony: 00:42:52

We could talk for a long time about a lot of these,

Anthony: 00:42:55

uh, a lot of these drinks.

Anthony: 00:42:56

It's been fascinating.

Anthony: 00:42:58

Uh, just two final things I wanted to ask you about, and one is just

Anthony: 00:43:02

something you alluded to earlier in the, in the conversation.

Anthony: 00:43:04

I know you're working on, uh, putting these 10 pillars into a book, but

Anthony: 00:43:10

tell me just in a broad sense, what are the 10 pillars really about?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:43:14

The 10 pillars.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:43:15

Uh, I like to also say that, um, without all the, the spokes of a wheel, you know,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:43:23

you, you can't really move it forward.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:43:26

The 10 pillars are all the pillars that I believe are critical to having

Debbie Wildrick: 00:43:31

in place in order to have a successful company, and they range from.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:43:38

The first one, which I, I'm actually in, in the, uh, link that I've given you.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:43:44

I've written an overview of market opportunity and, and, um,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:43:48

consumer need, which we talked about a lot during this meeting.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:43:52

But it goes all the way from the viable business model, which I talked about,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:43:57

and that's, that's one of the pillars, making sure that you have the viable

Debbie Wildrick: 00:44:00

business model product differentiation.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:44:04

Then sales and distribution marketing, both consumer messaging as well as how

Debbie Wildrick: 00:44:09

you promote with your, your customer base and, um, financing, you know, the

Debbie Wildrick: 00:44:16

critical areas that you really need to have in place to make sure that

Debbie Wildrick: 00:44:21

you're, you're funded well, so that you can be successful year over year.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:44:26

And, and so that's what the 10 Pillars are all about.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:44:29

They're putting team and infrastructure that's, that's, um, it, it covers

Debbie Wildrick: 00:44:34

every vertical, every aspect of what it takes to be successful.

Anthony: 00:44:40

Fantastic.

Anthony: 00:44:41

And then there's something, we'll, we'll talk about more into the future, I'm sure.

Anthony: 00:44:44

Just tell us, um, just on the back of that, the, uh, the link that we're

Anthony: 00:44:48

gonna put in the show notes to people, what are people gonna find in that?

Anthony: 00:44:51

What's the value for them?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:44:53

Well, the, they're going to find an overview of, of pillar

Debbie Wildrick: 00:44:56

number one, which is the, the, uh, market opportunity and, um, the, the

Debbie Wildrick: 00:45:04

market opportunity and the consumer need.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:45:06

And I. I have, I have basically written a, pretty much a white paper on.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:45:15

What it takes to, what you need to know about that first pillar.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:45:21

And, um, and so it's, it, it's a, uh, a teaser if you will to, to, um, help

Debbie Wildrick: 00:45:29

the, uh, the, the client understand.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:45:32

Um, anybody who's interested in really.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:45:35

Looking into it further.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:45:37

And of course my website as well actually has all 10 of the pillars

Debbie Wildrick: 00:45:42

and what you'll eventually learn from the program that I'm putting together.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:45:48

But, and the website has a, a recap of each one of the 10 pillars.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:45:53

And

Anthony: 00:45:54

I think what's important for people to understand as well is,

Anthony: 00:45:56

is that these learnings from, that you've had extensively in this industry

Anthony: 00:46:00

apply to other industries as well.

Anthony: 00:46:02

So it's not something that is just restricted to people who

Anthony: 00:46:05

are thinking, oh, I've got it.

Anthony: 00:46:06

I want to get into the, uh, food and beverage industry.

Anthony: 00:46:09

There is, uh, the, the, the implications for this and the learnings from this

Anthony: 00:46:13

are extended to many, many businesses.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:46:15

Absolutely.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:46:16

And I, and I like to think that way with regard to the 10 pillars.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:46:21

And a lot of times, you know, somebody came to me the other day and said, do

Debbie Wildrick: 00:46:24

you have experience in the beauty world?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:46:27

Well, even though it's not food and beverage, it is still

Debbie Wildrick: 00:46:31

B2B, then B and B2C, and.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:46:35

The all companies, to some degree, are working the same way, whether

Debbie Wildrick: 00:46:39

it's technology or or building.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:46:43

Um, a another type of product that is, is to be sold primarily to the consumer.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:46:49

But, um, it, the, the things that you need to have in place, uh, do crossover.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:46:58

Other industries, almost every industry.

Anthony: 00:47:03

Uh, I'm gonna encourage everyone to check the links out in

Anthony: 00:47:06

the show notes to get access to that.

Anthony: 00:47:07

Just one final question that I like to ask all my guests is, what is the aha

Anthony: 00:47:12

moment that people have when they come to work with you that you wish more

Anthony: 00:47:16

people knew they were going to have?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:47:20

Um, you know, I have to go back to the, the, the lack of

Debbie Wildrick: 00:47:24

industry experience and the, the.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:47:28

Their passion is so strong, but their frustrations around everything.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:47:34

I had somebody, um, a lot of times they'll, the aha moment

Debbie Wildrick: 00:47:40

though for them will be, we'll, we'll talk through all of this.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:47:43

And I had somebody, um, call me about a, a product that, that was to be

Debbie Wildrick: 00:47:50

added to coffee, um, that you bought.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:47:52

That was.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:47:53

Uh, ready to drink.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:47:54

And I said, you know, you really need to know you, you really need

Debbie Wildrick: 00:47:59

to be going to the coffee buyer, not the, the, uh, beverage buy,

Debbie Wildrick: 00:48:04

not the package beverage buyer.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:48:06

And, and the gentleman said to me, are you kidding me?

Debbie Wildrick: 00:48:11

That's amazing.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:48:15

And, and so it's just those little nuggets that when we have the

Debbie Wildrick: 00:48:19

conversations and I, I don't.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:48:21

Like to give out a whole lot of information necessarily, but as we

Debbie Wildrick: 00:48:25

talk through their idea and I share with them, uh, answer their questions

Debbie Wildrick: 00:48:30

and it, it's a nugget like that, that will, that will be an aha.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:48:36

It, it's, it's not just one area or one thing.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:48:39

It's just that all of a sudden I say something and they're like, wow, I never

Debbie Wildrick: 00:48:45

thought about that, but that's amazing.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:48:46

That's.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:48:47

That's, that's great feedback.

Anthony: 00:48:52

Uh, I love that.

Anthony: 00:48:53

I love that.

Anthony: 00:48:53

And, uh, look, thank you so much for, in incredible insights, um,

Anthony: 00:48:58

fascinating industry and, uh, lots of things that I think all business

Anthony: 00:49:03

leaders can learn from in this.

Anthony: 00:49:05

And as I said to everyone, I encourage people to go and check out the links

Anthony: 00:49:08

in the show notes to find out more.

Anthony: 00:49:10

But Demi, thank you so much for being part of the program.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:49:13

Alright, thank you.

Debbie Wildrick: 00:49:14

Thank you for having me.

Anthony: 00:49:17

And to everyone listening in, don't forget.

Anthony: 00:49:18

As I said, check out the show notes.

Anthony: 00:49:20

And also don't forget to hit subscribe so you never miss an episode.

Anthony: 00:49:24

Until next time, don't forget to tune in to Biz Bites for thought leaders.

Anthony: 00:49:29

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Anthony: 00:49:30

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Anthony: 00:49:32

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Anthony: 00:49:36

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Anthony: 00:49:51

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