Hello friends, and thanks for tuning in to Taste Radio, the number one podcast for anyone building a business in food or beverage. I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and I'm with my co-hosts, John Craven, Melissa Traverse, and Mike Schneider. In this episode, we sample the latest opus from Peter Rahal's David Protein brand, a new line of indulgent frozen desserts, AKA ice cream.
We also discuss Smash Food's $5 million funding round, and what the company's evolution from Chia Smash reveals about the power of simplifying a brand story to fuel growth. The team also examines AI's growing influence on product discovery and purchasing decisions, and what that shift could mean for emerging brands competing for consumer attention.
Later, we revisit a series of insightful interviews recorded at Taste Radio's Austin Meetup, featuring Jason Cantelli of Nutrabolt, Megan Kelleher of Corner Market Communications, Mark Seguin of NextFoods, and Erica Tam of Bloom. You know we are right on the cusp of BevNET Live when our colleagues are building podiums in the room next door to the studio.
Our very own Captain Colin Sample Captain Colin that is. Sample Captain Colin, yeah. Sam- Sample Captain Colin is building a podium that you will see at BevNET Live next week, June 10th and 11th, in New York City. Of course, you'll only see it, in person that is, if you are there. So if you haven't already gotten your tickets for BevNET Live, now is your last chance to do bevNETLive.com. You will be able to meet retail buyers from Whole Foods, Walmart, Wegmans, Morrisons, and the Vitamin Shoppe. What? S- I say, that's how I say Wh- Wegmans. That's how you're s- I went to- I- Walmart. Yeah, I had a voice and articulation class at Emerson College, and that, you're supposed to say what.
That's how you're supposed to do it. But not only if it's a W-H. Ugh. Not Quegmans and Walmart. Quegmans. Of, of all the problems we have with this podcast. Yes. That's just another one. Well- Just add it to the list ... as far as I know, there are no investors attending that, whose names begin with a W-H. But there are lots of investors coming to BevNET Live- as well as distributors- Founders ... suppliers, founders, service providers, everyone that you would wanna meet. BevNET team members. Ev- Do you wanna meet them? Of course. Okay. And that's what I'm saying, that's included within the group, in the aggregate. Got it. Anyone that you would wanna meet who is in the beverage industry will be at BevNET Live, and it is just an event that you cannot miss.
If you're trying to scale your business, take your brand to the next level, you wanna be in New York City with us next week. Yeah. Bring your team, bring your agenda, bring your hardest questions. You need sales help, operational help, packaging, you name it we've got people in the room who can answer those questions and can become your partners to take you to the next level.
And I gotta say, whether you've been to BevNET a million times or you've never been before, this week's Nombase podcast is with Jeff Kleinman, who's put the show together with the rest of our team, of course, and he talks through everything that we're gonna be doing the agenda, tips for getting the most out of the show.
So go to nonbased.com and check out this week's podcast. Absolutely. And you'll get to meet Sample Captain Colin at the event. If you haven't followed him- Especially if you bring samples. Yeah. If you haven't followed him on Instagram, you gotta follow the Sample Captain. He is @samplecaptain on Instagram.
Great content, really good content. I'm waiting for him to do his own sample of what's in front of us right now, which is the brand spanking new David protein ice cream. When you open these pints and you find that they're half-eaten, that was Sample Captain Colin. Yeah. It might have been, it might have been the captain.
He, like, when something arrives, he immediately opens it And if it's a beverage he's interested, he's guzzled it. If there's an ice cream, he's tasted it. If there's a chip, he's snacked on it. That's why he's the sample captain. I see vanilla, chocolate. I was hoping for a cod flavor.
Oh, yeah. Yes. Cod ice cream. No. No. That's a- No ... seasonal SKU. We'll see. Melissa's referring to the I guess parody of protein. It's hard to say whether it's a parody or not, but sure. No one knows. No one knows. Yeah. Everyone knows David, which is the brand of high protein bars launched by Peter Rahal, who is one of the co-founders of RXBAR.
And David teased these frozen dessert ice cream products at Expo West via those trucks that were going up and down the street in front of the convention center. And Peter emailed me earlier this week and said, "Hey, Ray, can we send you some pints?" I was like, "Absolutely." So shout out and kudos to Peter for sending us these.
As Melissa mentioned, there's a vanilla, there's a chocolate, there's a triple peanut butter, and there's a cookie dough. Triple peanut butter. I brought bowls, I brought serving spoons, I bought- I'm sorry to be halfway into, yeah ... brought soup spoons. Yeah I can't even speak right now. He's getting into it.
Ray, I gotta say the toppings you brought were a nice touch, the little baseball helmets. Kidding. I didn't bring any of those. The Fenway Franks. All right. Okay, John, you get you got the serving spoons. You get into these. Okay. While you're doing that, I'm gonna read the macros on these products here.
And, I'm curious to see the ingredients because the reason that they were driving around Expo and weren't in the building exhibiting is because of the ingredient panel, right? There is an ingredient in there that made it so that they weren't able to sample it- I'm gonna- ... at natural products Expo
call that maybe sucralose? It does say it's artificially flavored. Oh. So at least the vanilla bean. And also notably, it's not described as an ice cream. It's described as an indulgent frozen dessert, but clearly this is And looks like an ice cream I love that, trying to stay two steps ahead of the class action lawsuits look, if it doesn't have the ingredients that are associated with ice cream or, you know I'm not knocking David, to be clear.
But, savvy operator, I wouldn't be surprised if- Of course ... that's what they were doing. That's all Okay. I think there's just a standard for ice cream, that you have to have a certain- Yeah ... type of ingredients, and maybe this doesn't have those, all those ingredients. All right. So the vanilla bean has 30 grams of protein, 210 calories per pint.
That's that's impressive. And less than one gram of sugar. As I mentioned, naturally and artificially flavored. The ingredients are, in order of what's listed here, protein system, which is water, whey protein isolate. Okay. What just went by my shoulder? It's a bird. It's a plane. It's, It's Superman
a scoop of David- It's a scoop of ice cream A scoop of ice cream. Jesus ... a scoop of David indulgent frozen dessert. Ray, you brought this stuff as hard as a rock. It is quite solid Well- He just flung some across the room. The irony is that John was all worried that we... That the ice cream was gonna melt, and it's still, after 10 minutes on the table here, it's still pretty hard.
So once again the first ingredient listed is per their protein system, which is water, whey protein isolate. Second is their structure system, which is allulose, glycerin, locust bean gum, and guar gum. The next is their fat system, modified plant fat, which is EPG. And then their flavor system, which is natural and artificial flavor, salt, sucralose, and vanilla bean.
So this is, someone described this as the new Halo Top. I think it was Andrea Hernandez from Snack Shot. And I don't know if I would say that, because Halo Top was very light. And- this is dense ... and literally light in weight. Yeah. This is dense, and I never really, to be honest, I never really loved Halo Top.
I never loved the flavor of it. I know people said you could eat the entire pint in one sitting. I don't imagine you would even- I'll crap on Halo Top. It's pretty good stuff I don't imagine you would be eating the entire pint of this. Melissa, what do you think? I really wanted to not like this, but I have to say I feel like the flavor is, not bad for the macros.
In that- Come on, it's really tasty I know Stop I know Don't be like, "Oh, I didn't wanna like..." Come on, it's really good. I, well- It's surprisingly good. Okay, for me the ingredients, like I, I don't know, I like my ice cream to be, like, heavy cream and sugar and eggs. Who doesn't? If I look at an ingredient panel and I see a bunch of systems, it immediately turns me off.
But the consistency, like Ray says, is dense like an ice cream. I am impressed. I think in a blind taste test, you'd have a hard time picking out the David ice cream from- ... some other actual ice cream in the- Disagree ... in the vein that you said. The sweetener for me is the first- Yeah, the sweetener Yeah The sweetener, it's got a little texture to it, almost like a- I don't want, I don't know if grit's the right word, but like I don't think there'd be any mistaking this for full fat- just pure indulgent ice cream. I bet some people- But I think for what this is, it's really good. I would eat this. To be honest, I would prefer to eat this than some mass-produced mainstream wannabe indulgent ice cream that, I won't name brands by name, but I feel like at this point just cut a lot of corners and are kinda like that Halo Top.
It feels like you're just holding air, yeah. If you eat the whole pint of Halo Top, I feel like you feel empty but full at the same time. You need another full pint of Halo Top. Yeah. Whereas I can imagine having a normal serving of this and be satisfying your ice cream craving if you weren't looking to actually eat ice cream.
There is a little like sweetener that lingers too. But again, I think this is really solid. I went straight for the triple chocolate, which it's it is pretty darn indulgent. And the peanut butter tastes like quality peanut butter ice cream. And the fling ability, 10 out of 10.
You saw, I mean- Very important ... we were like- We were, like, maybe six inches away from a million hits on YouTube if I hit John right in the eye. With a just knob of ice cream. If you just whacked him right in the eyeball, that would've been pretty impressive. Great, yeah. I just wanna note that the calorie count, the sugar count, and some of the ingredients are different depending on the flavor.
So the ch- the cookie dough, for example, also i- has monk fruit and stevia in it. The cookie dough has two grams of sugar and 260 calories per serving, as opposed to the vanilla, which only has 10- 210 calories per serving and less than one gram of sugar. The vanilla, once again, does not have stevia or monk fruit.
What's noted on these gold pints, and the gold color is similar to or almost exactly like their bars, is that this product has the most protein for the fewest calories, which has been- I like the call-out of the calories from protein. I wish that were even bigger on that package. Yeah, it's not on the front.
It's on the side panel here. Great-looking package. I don't know the retail price. What would you assume the retail price for this is? If I had to guess, I would say it's probably 6.99? Yeah, I was gonna say 7.99. Yeah. Peter, if we're wrong on that, please just email us at askatasterater.com. I see why you have a different view on this too, because the triple chocolate's good, but the peanut butter is like, it tastes like peanut butter ice cream.
This triple chocolate I can taste more of the sweetener. I think we're giving pretty much a thumbs up across our board for this. Yeah, thumbs up across the board. Yeah, impressive. Yeah. Yeah, good stuff. David, well done. Peter and team. And, I don't wanna like it, but no, and here's the other thing.
The, so the original David bars I didn't like at all, so I was expected, that was my reference. But this, the, this is good. They've made a lot of improvements, to your point, Melissa. We- The flavor of the original David protein bar. I think originally it didn't have any artificial ingredients.
Didn't have any artificial sweeteners. And then Peter and his team said, "Look, we gotta make this great tasting. We've gotta make it indulgent. We've gotta make it something that people crave." And so they a- adjusted the ingredients in those protein bars, and I think they've applied what they've learned to these new frozen desserts.
And they came out with the indulgent bars as well, the ones that are almost like, is it built bars? The marshmallowy interior and- yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and to your point, look we've been saying this 1,000 times on the podcast, every founder I've ever known who has built a successful brand has said, "Look taste."
You cannot have a great brand without great taste. Taste Radio. You, we have a great brand. How about that, and it tastes great. And we have decent taste, I would say. Our taste is pretty good. Yeah. Would you pour any of that matcha liqueur, John, on any of this? Would you, I think that could be an interesting pairing with the vanilla.
You want a shot, Rick? Perhaps I might. So the brand is called Yoshi, Y-O-S-H-I. It is a matcha liqueur and, With an oat milk base ... you've had this before. Yes, an oat milk base. Yeah, I might have just drank this, I don't know, a quarter of the bottle on the way down here to get ready for this nonsense.
But, Oh, I see ... no, it's, it's really good. It's like- Instead of your usual shots of bourbon- Yeah ... you're drinking some matcha liqueur. You know- Yeah ... sometimes you just need to take the edge off. No but this stuff's really it's really good. I think, starting with just the cleanliness of the brand with the kind of, matcha green backdrop.
It's basically like a cream liqueur- With matcha, and I feel like that's cool in that it's ticking a couple of different boxes and also bringing, I think, what's been a really popular Gen Z flavor in a bev alc. I have not seen a matcha bev alc product before this stuff, very cool.
I think it's just launching right now, the packaging is beautiful. I wonder if you can make... if you can make an espresso martini, can you make a matcha? Yeah. I would- Why not? Whoa ... I would drink that- Yeah ... in a minute. Matcha martini. Nice. All right. I like that. Yeah. They'll be exhibiting at the upcoming Bar Convent Brooklyn event, which is happening next week before BevNet Live I'll be seeing the founders there, I'm sure.
BevNet Live? Next week? BevNet Live is happening next week. Oh my goodness. Wow. Get your ticket. What are you waiting for? June- So exciting ... June 10th and 11th. Everyone and anyone that you wanna meet in the beverage industry at BevNet Live. In that room. Yeah. I'm glad they didn't call Yoshi just Matcha Drink or what- and I know what a cool name for a liqueur would be.
Matcha Sauced or something like that. Because as we all know, you don't wanna put the ingredient name in your brand name. This is something that Mike Bergmeyer, who's a well-known investment banker in our industry, once said at Beverage School, and he's tried- he stressed it over and over.
He said, "Don't put your ingredient name in your brand name." And I think back to 2020 when I sat down with the founders of a brand called Chia Smash for an episode of Elevator Talk, the inaugural season of our current version, anyway, of Elevator Talk. And I don't know if I asked them that. I wonder if I asked them- I'm sure you did
Are thinking about expanding? Chia, what are you thinking? 'Cause ch- at, 'cause at the time, Chia Smash only marketed jams that were infused with chia Today, the brand is known as Smash Foods, and they have a portfolio of products that are infused with chia, including their original jams, but they also have peanut butter and jelly bites, and toaster pastries as well.
And Smash Foods just raised $5 million in equity investment. You can read about that story on nosh.com, penned by our very own Monica Watrous. I thought the transition from Chia Smash to Smash Foods, which I think happened a couple years after we interviewed them was obviously a brilliant move and allowed them to expand their portfolio, really spread their wings beyond just jams.
You don't have to explain what Smash is. It's just a very powerful word, and when you say chia most people know what chia is, but what comes after chia? Pet. Pet. I brought up this question actually with the founders of the, since we have ice cream on the on the table here, with the founders of a brand called Protein Pints, which is a brand of ice cream that's infused with extra protein, as that I thought was a beer. That you thought was a beer. If you actually- Protein beer ... if you actually saw the products, you'd realize, and you'd know it was ice cream. No I've seen it, had it. Tastes good. And I asked them, "Why did you include the ingredient name in your brand?" They said, "Look, first and foremost, this is what we're selling.
We're selling protein. We're selling protein ice cream. This is who we are. We're not trying to shy away from that. Even if we do expand the portfolio to something else, the people, the reason that people are gonna buy our products is because of the added protein, and the, certainly the indulgence of the products, but the primary reason is protein."
So in that case, I think it does make sense. Maybe. I, of just- Just put that sliver of doubt in my mind. I, I- I don't like that ... does it make sense for the long term, or does it make sense for right now? Is that, are they always just going to be, like, banking on everybody... obviously protein's really important for the human body, but right now it's such a huge focus- ... and it's nice that Chia Smash had the option to drop chia and just stick with Smash. So- Yeah ... it would be nice if Protein Pints also had that option. I th- they're not just gonna be called Pints in the future. That'd be weird. No, it would be weird. I wonder if we'll see any of these brands that we mentioned on next year's Circana New Product PaceSetters report.
The 2025 edition was unveiled earlier this week, and I'm sure you'll know some of the brands that are part of this top 10 list, including Bloom, Red Bull, Oikos, Sparkling Ice, Topo Chico, and King's Hawaiian. Yeah, there you go. Mike's got a can of Bloom pop right- Yeah ... there in front of him right there.
I've got the Rocket Blast- Yeah ... that Bloom sent us, and oh my gosh, this stuff's fantastic. Yeah, I think they got number two, right? The sparkling energy got number two. The pop I imagine will be on that list next year. Still kinda new. Yeah. Still kinda new. Just gaining traction. Starting to see it everywhere.
Super tasty stuff. Yeah. Well done, Bloom. Melissa, you sent me this report and and noted that one of the most interesting parts of it was about the use of AI and how consumers are using A- AI to find new products essentially. The report shows how consumers are using AI not just for discovery, but for purchase as well.
They said that one in three consumers uses AI to explore CPG, and it really is a big part of how consumers are and are going to be discovering new products, trying new things, and, figuring out what they wanna eat next. So it presents a great opportunity for brands to be early adopters, jump into it and figure out how to use these tools to gain awareness.
That makes a lot of sense. I always use it to figure out what I'm gonna look like in the next Arsenal kit. Ugh. I don't think that's what AI was, ... designed for. No, it throws up every time. No. Well- Stop Mike. Content violation. Mike, stop. Mike, you should probably attend some of the- The workshops
the workshops that we have- We've got some great AI workshops ... at BevNET Live. Yeah, we have some great AI workshops talking about how to drive efficiency, frontline growth. I'm actually co-hosting one with Leisure Hydration and Qoaqua on how to use AI to help with your operations. And we also have some main stage content on AI and online retail, how to make your brand legible to AI agents.
So a really great place to figure all of this out and figure out where your brand fits. And you can check out some of the presenters in advance and find out what they do. It's Kaizen Tree, BevGenie, and Glimpse that are putting on these workshops. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. Thank you indeed, and thank you once again to everyone who's coming to BevNET Live.
We're we're getting up there in terms of numbers of folks, and if you wanna be there, you gotta get your ticket 'cause we're gonna be sold out pretty soon. John Craven, do we have a, we have c- we're close to capacity pretty soon? We might run out of chairs, right? We might run out of chairs. Since we've been talking about protein all episode, Mike, how about some more protein?
You got some scoops? What is this? I got some scoops, Ray. Yeah. So lots of whey protein out there, pea protein. Melissa mentioned cod protein earlier. This is peanut protein. It's called Scoops, and in front of me right now I've got the original peanut with sea salt, 27 grams of protein, plant protein per serving.
Yeah, 75% fewer calories than peanut butter. On the back it says it's delicious with smoothies, overnight oats, sauces, baking, and oatmeal, which is what I've been using it for. I've been using actually the chocolate peanut variety. That's what I had. And it's fantastic. It just, it makes your oatmeal into a treat, and it's super satiating, and Melissa, five grams of fiber- Hey ... per serving, which- Count me in ... yeah, you need with your protein. So it's a pretty fantastic product. I wonder if we're gonna see a new wave of peanut consumers now that kids are being introduced to peanuts earlier on, and that peanut allergies, hopefully won't be as much of a thing with the kids who are growing up now and will be, adults in basically no time.
Yeah, you can grow out of the allergy too. We saw that with Jake Karls from Midday Squares, who was unable to eat his peanut variety, his, And then got tested, and made a big thing out of it, and now he can. So that's pretty great. Hopeful for others in our office who have some nut allergies too.
Peanut butter is good. Yeah. Yeah, peanut butter rules. I don't know what else to say. It's so good. I- it's interesting that we have, the David product here, and also this, and I think peanut butter goes really well with protein products. It does. So- It sure does ... I just feel like it's a nice, I don't know.
I w- I was gonna say m- maybe it masks the protein flavor? Yeah. Totally. But I don't know if that's the right way to say it, but- it's why the peanut tasted so different, and just I felt like that was like ice cream and it has its own, sweetness to it too, the peanuts. I use the powdered peanut butter in smoothies, and making Ninja Creamis, and that kind of thing.
It's something you can extract the fat from, but you still get some good flavor and good c- good consistency. Noted. Oh, all we need in here is Superfoodio. Melissa's got some crackers by her side. What are these? So I have Top Seeds here. I picked these up at Whole Foods. They were doing a passive demo in the cheese department, which just goes to show you, again, there are so many options for sampling and for demos.
I feel like nowadays you go into stores and you don't see nearly the number of demos that you used to pre-pandemic. So anytime you can take advantage of a sampling opportunity, do it, because it sells product. But this product here is Top Seeds. It's a six-seed cracker, and I just thought these were so tasty.
They are sunflower, sesame, flax, pumpkin, chia, and hemp seeds, and there's something about the way that they toasted the seeds in these that, to me, made them far above the flavor that you might expect from a Mary's Crackers, that kind of thing. You were sold, though, on the packaging, because- Yeah
it's transparent. You saw those crackers and you were like, "I gotta try that," right? Yeah. It's it's this black and white packaging. It really jumps out at you, and it's just such a tasty cracker. It... But it's not the packaging. It's the product jumps right at, right out at you. It's in this transparent plastic- if you like-
vessel. ... seeded crackers you can see in there that there's actual- Real seeds, yeah ... real quality- Yeah ... ingredients in there. Yeah. Those are super tasty. Yeah. They got you. Those are super tasty. And the brand name is spelled T-O-P-S-E-E-D-Z, Top Seedz with a Z. It's all about the Z. That's right. All about the Z, yeah.
Z is for zing. John Craven, is that underwear next to you? Yes, Ray, I actually brought your underwear back. Okay. End of show. For some reason, it ended up in my office, but now it's- Oh, my God ... so bad. What we're talking about here is this Duluth Trading Buck Naked underwear with Old Milwaukee branding on it.
Yes, it's a collab- I had- ... between the two companies, yeah ... no idea, but we got a whole pile... you can explain why, but w- we got a whole pile of Old Milwaukee-branded- Merch ... Duluth Trading merch this week, right? Yeah, so Old Milwaukee partnered with Duluth Trading Company on a whole bunch of new, call it- Clothing and merch they sent us a cap, an apron, they sent us gear for the beach where you can keep your cans of beer cold, and they sent us some underwear as well.
That underwear, it's made out of... It looks like one of those highly absorbent dish towels. I wonder if that would also function as maybe a diaper if you needed it. Perhaps, but that's the- ... that's the secret with Duluth Trading Company. You ever seen those commercials where they talk about their underwear?
And as they pointed out on the back of this package, no pinch, no stink, and no sweat, which is exactly what you want when you're on the beach and drinking beer. Pounding Old Milwaukees. Diaper or not? Pounding Old Milwaukees. Here we go. Yeah. No I love this collab, honestly, 'cause it definitely feels like both brands are kinda old school, definitely in line with consumer expectations for, their personality and positioning.
So the... I love collabs like this that actually make sense. And now we know what underwear Ray will be wearing during the New Beverage Showdown. No I might actually go buck naked- Oh. ... instead, yeah, instead of wearing the buck naked underwear. You mentioned earlier that I was representing the champions, Arsenal Football Club, and I wanna talk about some other champions, the New Beverage Showdown champions, Ooso, who sent us- Woo-hoo
their latest SKU. Oos- Chamomile Peach Yuzu. Ooso, a brand of sparkl- non-alcoholic sparkling tea, O-O-S-O. Their positioning is very much that of a refreshment beverage meets a non-alcoholic wine. And it is really delicious stuff. Born in Brooklyn, based in Brooklyn they're a great company. And they have the interesting ingredient of the week, Melissa, which is?
Fermented chamomile. Man, this is so good. It's room temperature. It's so good room temperature. Yes. What a tasty product. Their products are fantastic, and this one is instantly became my favorite. And the more that I've had... they s- generously sent us a case of this stuff, so I've had a few at this point, and it is fantastic.
It's so good. I can't stop drinking it. I love the little note of salt at the end. Yeah. Yeah. It's really good. Yeah, and the yuzu juice is really nice. It's refreshing, bright. Great stuff from the champions. Thank you so much. Well done. Yeah. Great stuff from our New Beverage Showdown champions of New York City 2025.
And congratulations again to Arsenal, winners of the Premier League. Runners-up at the Champions League, but hey, you can't ever... Ugh. I didn't think I could love Ooso anymore, but th- this just made me.
Alright, it’s time to get to our featured interviews for this episode. At Taste Radio’s Austin Meetup in May, executives from Nutrabolt, Bloom, GoodBelly and Corner Market Communications shared practical insights on what drives growth in today’s food and beverage industry.
Nutrabolt’s Jason Cantelli discussed scaling multiple brands while staying relentlessly focused on consumers, while Bloom’s Erica Tam explained how community-building, influencer marketing and retail execution have fueled the brand’s rapid rise. Corner Market Communications founder Megan Kelleher outlined how modern PR can drive tangible business results, and NextFoods CEO Marc Seguin reflected on revitalizing GoodBelly, building a strong culture and thinking like an owner at every stage of growth.
Now to talk to you guys about Nutrabolt and how they turned this scrappy startup into a billion-dollar beverage powerhouse is the incredible Jason Cantelli, who's the chief commercial officer of Nutrabolt. What Nutrabolt has done here has just blown my mind. Between C4 and Bloom, both brands are growing at an incredible pace.
But how do you prioritize investment across two distinct beverage brands and really do it without losing focus? Maybe I start at the end of that one. When you talk about focus a- and the two brands, I ladder back to, when I came to Nutrabolt and spending time with our founder, Dos Cunningham, and when he talked about aspiration for Nutrabolt as an organization and what he aspired to accomplish in a P&G-like mentality within wellness.
And the model of which we've been building, we hope that it isn't just two brands, right? That it can be more in the future, and this is a model of which through ruthless understanding and prioritization of our consumer we can continue to fuel. So like within the two brands right now, it does begin with the consumer, right?
It's where is that consumer? How do we reach them in their moment of need? And then through our investments, it's really carefully understanding how those will play in each individual brand, but also into the ladder of the umbrella of Nutrabolt that allows us to build upon what we are today.
Let's talk about Bloom for a second because as I mentioned to you, it seems like Bloom is a brand that belongs to a generation, in particular Gen Alpha. I have gone to Target, I don't know how many times I see kids picking up a Bloom pop, really embracing that brand as their own. And Bloom, it really started out with a really powerful digital and influencer-driven strategy.
C4 has deep roots in retail. So what have you learned about translating online buzz into sustained in-store velocity? I love at the heart of that question too, it's the recognition for Nutrabolt to see a strength in another product or brand, the people in that brand, and want to bring that into our world.
So the amazing brand build and the online community that was Bloom, we recognized a special talent within not only the founders in Greg and Mari, but the entire team, and it was that opportunity then to bring that into Nutrabolt and leverage our strengths to be where we are today, but really we think we're just at the beginning of what that is, right?
Last week in MULO+ for the energy side of the portfolio did a 2.5 share in only 16 months. With Pop! and, within less than a year to be able to achieve double digit share within the better for you soda space, we really feel like we're leveraging that retail expertise in partnership with the Marceting components of which Bloom has built, that then how do we continue to bring that to life holistically across all Nutrabolt brands, what they are today and the future?
And we're gonna be talking about the brand and Marceting strategy of Bloom with Erica Tam momentarily. She's right over there taking some fantastic video. Just get my good side, please. Energy and wellness, very competitive right now, intensely competitive, but where are you getting the most return on spend right now, and where are you becoming more disciplined between the two?
I feel like if our CMO is somewhere, that's a question where they're like, "Don't answer. Don't give the secrets out." I see someone pointing at them right over there. Yes. There you go. I think, yes, we look to our guts and our experiences, but we're very diligent with our marketing mix analysis, and constantly, through ruthless prioritization, looking at our investments by product or portfolio, and understanding the TAM and the consumer opportunity within each, measuring those returns, and not only considering it a byproduct, but those individual investments by product, and again, what they do for the entire portfolio, both fueling velocity and/or household penetration that's gonna allow us not only to support today, but the next steps that we wanna take.
We have a lot of founders in the audience right now, and I'm so happy to see all of you because you are changing... There you go. You are changing the face of food and beverage as we speak. Resources are important for sure. Nutribolt has quite a bit of resources, but I'm assuming you do think like an entrepreneur.
You have to think like an early-stage founder and be nimble as often as some of these folks do as well. What's one piece of advice that you would have for them in terms of how to remain nimble with resources or without? It's interesting. As you say, we have a lot of resources. We do, but I would hope that our organization continually is to think lean and scrappy, right?
That we're always saying, "Geez, I wish I just had a little bit more," because then if we're doing that, we're challenging ourselves to invest in a very responsible fashion. So I would challenge all founders and small business owners, how can you just wear many hats, find another scrappy way to do it, not lean on the luxuries of investment and over-investing in certain resources?
At one time, C4 was not known for energy. At one point, Bloom was not really known for beverages, and look where the brands are right now. I think hard work, discipline, hustle, and a thoughtful strategy go a long way. Yeah, and all that ladders back to the consumer, right? Understanding your consumer and what they are going to be interested for your brand next, what need that might meet, and how you're positioning yourself to be able to deliver that product to them.
Jason I really can't thank you enough for joining me today. Thank you so much. Thanks for sharing and opening up your home to us. Really appreciate the time. Thank you. Thanks, Ray. Thanks, team. All right. That was Jason Cantelli. I'll take your microphone. Oh, right on brand, sipping the C4. Love it. Love to see it.
All right. I want to bring up now one of the most special people in the food and beverage industry. She has been a friend for a long time, and she is someone you should definitely get to know and meet. Her name is Megan Kelleher. She's the founder and CEO of Corner Market Communications. How are you? I'm so good.
What is Corner Market Communications? Corner Market Communications is a marketing agency just exclusively for CPG food and beverage. We have grown up with the industry over the last nine years, and we do everything related to storytelling, so traditional PR, influencer events. We even shot our own commercials last year for clients.
So we've taken storytelling to a different level. So I gotta tell you, PR is one of the most overlooked parts of this industry, and I feel like it's changed so dramatically over the years. Modern PR is not your dad's PR, and a lot of people still think that way, but you've gotta keep up with changing times and changing trends.
I wonder, in your eyes, what does modern PR look like? And, how should founders rethink the role of PR when they are growing their businesses? Yeah, I think the interesting thing is that if you've been in the industry, it's always been ever-changing. When I started 20 years ago, mom blogs had just come out on the n- like, the network, and everybody wanted to build their own networks of mom blogs, and now that's influencer, and now that's Substacks.
For modern PR, I think it's no longer the platinum chip publications. Yes, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, they really do matter, but it's really about tell- Gavin.com Yes. But what I was gonna say is that being able to tell the story in the right channel to the right audience for the right goal, I think that's the pivotal moment for PR these days, is that sometimes telling it in a sub stack is the way to reach the right consumer.
For us, I can say this 'cause I've worked with you for years, is that putting our founders onto Taste Radio usually gives a byproduct of a retailer call or a partnership call. It actually has a really good byproduct result. And so it's not about the spray and pray that everybody talks about in PR, it's what channel is actually gonna complete the goal you're looking for, and being very specific in the goal that you're trying to accomplish.
Because without that, you're just gonna hit open funnels and not know exactly what you're looking for. There's communication within communication. Yes. And I think a lot of folks who are starting out say I'm gonna hire a PR company," and it's just very much a transactional service. But how do you build an effective relationship with your PR team?
How do you build a relationship that really yields the results that you wanna see out of your strategy? I think one of the best things that you can do is really form a partnership. At the end of the day, it's about being partners in the business. Invite them to the table, explain the goals, explain the challenges.
Don't let the PR be in a funnel where you hand them something that you want them to do. Let them weigh in. They're strategists that know the world. They execute it in a daily basis. They're gonna come with a perspective that you hired them for. So make sure that you're actually listening to it and you invite them to the table.
One of the best examples I've had in my career, you just had him on this week, is Mike Messersmith, who came from Oatly and is now at Lasso. I was brought in as employee number seven as a consultant, and they treated me as a full-time teammate. And so I was well aware of Oatly's strategy when they were in coffee shops and where they were trying to go.
Saw them all the way through their IPO. But that's been our partnership at the end of the day, and it was because we knew we could give and take, and we both deeply cared about the business. I think a lot of the time it's treated as transactional, but I deeply care about the brands I work with. I want them to succeed and thrive, so invite me to the table, invite my team to the table.
We'll bring you the best thinking we can, and then we can work against the goal you're actually looking to achieve. You said a lot there, and I think I wanna dive a little bit deeper- Yeah ... if I can. If we talk about inviting people in, making people feel like they're part of the team, making people feel like they're part of the family, let's talk about some very practical things.
What are, say, three practical things that a founder can do to enhance their relationship with their PR company such that they are telling a better story to the end consumer? In the beginning days, we do a five-day runway. That's really a part of our model. Sit down and give the insight into the business.
Tell us what's actually keeping you up at night. Have that one-to-one relationship with us where you can be honest and transparent about what you're trying to accomplish, what you're struggling with. A lot of the time, we just get handed brand awareness. You wanna see brand awareness, or we need retail, but it's what retail?
Why do you need it? What are you looking for? And so it's not a vague question of what we think we wanna hear. It's really getting down to your bottom-line business goals, and talk to us about those. And then let's do communication. Let's check in. Let's have regular comms. What I do see a lot in founder-led businesses is that you have a million priorities.
PR, if you're gonna invest in it, you have to be an equal partner. You have to be available. You have to be able to support it and treat it as the priority that we're treating it as. We'll always work within schedules, but at the end of the day, you wanna make sure that there is a level of transparency of, "Hey, we're all chasing this goal together.
We're in it with you." And that makes you feel like an extension of the team, and the best PR agencies and best PR teams you'll ever see are the ones that feel like they're a part of the brand, and that is a mutual relationship. The founders and the teams, they have to lean in t- in the transparency and be in it with you.
The PR teams need to come back at the same token and be honest about what's going on. "Hey, this didn't work. Let's pivot." I have some amazing teammates in the back of the room, and one of our big things is that they're on every single call. They're not floating in the background. I'm still on those calls as well, but Annabelle leads all of our calls with all of our teams, and she keeps everybody on track.
Grace is our creative gal, and she works her tail off to make sure that every trend that's right for them is put in front of them. We're extra eyes, but because we know what the goals of the brand are, we can bring those things to them. If they didn't tell me, we would be falling on deaf ears and bringing incorrect recommendations.
And the proof is in the pudding. Yeah. If you're part of the team, you're part of the team that helped sell LesserEvil- Yes ... to Hershey for six ... Was it 650 million? 750. 750, yeah. What's $100 million- Yeah ... you know what I'm saying? Just a little short. Whatever, yeah. So no, but, you're a big part of that.
Thank you. For LesserEvil, and they have some samples on the table, to go from where they were to where they are now- It's you guys. It's, you guys are a big part of that. So congratulations on that. Thank you. Like I said, if you haven't had a chance to talk to the Corner Market communications folks, they've got an incredible table back there.
Obviously, Megan was singing the praises of her co- of her... I almost called them co-founders. They feel like co-founders. They feel like it to me, so it's okay. Yeah. You can take that title today. Have a conversation with them. They're incredible people. They're very well-spoken people, as you can see. I would highly recommend you have that conversation.
Megan, thank you so much again for everything you do. I really appreciate it. Thank you. This is an honor, honestly. The honor is mine. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you again. Up next, Marc Seguin. Where's Marc? He's There he is. Come on up. Marc Seguin is the CEO of NextFoods. How you doing?
Good. How are you? I'm doing fantastic. Good to see you. Marc is the CEO of NextFoods, which is a marketer of two incredible brands, GoodBelly and Cheribundi. And we're here today to talk a little bit about GoodBelly. What is GoodBelly? GoodBelly is a probiotic beverage. It started almost 20 years ago, and really was one of the innovators in probiotic beverage in the juice space.
So they've been around for quite a while, and we now sell in the dairy department. We sell performance shots as well, so we have three or four different ways that we bring, basically, probiotic beverage to consumers. Gut health, it's pretty popular these days. You guys were one of the forerunners, GoodBelly, that is, of probiotic beverages, and it feels like- If you're in that space today, you're probably doing something right.
But how do you go from being a legacy pioneering brand in that space to maintaining the level of communication and expectations that people have for probiotic beverages? That's a great question, and I was hoping I might get the answer here talking to some people today. It's definitely hard to keep a legacy brand relevant.
I think the mistake that a lot of brands make is they confuse their brand with their product. So in the early days, we had a really interesting product that was actually pretty breakthrough, and our opportunity was to build a relationship between the brand and consumers. And what we didn't realize is the product became a little bit old.
It wasn't how people were looking for probiotics. They could get it in a million different ways, in a million different formats, and we stayed the same, so it got stale, to be honest. And I think what we've realized, it really in the last couple of years, is that we could reinvent ourselves, lean on the heritage that we do have as a brand.
People do know GoodBelly as a great brand that speaks really to the benefit very clearly in a way that most brands don't have the luxury of doing. And so we reinvented the way we talk to consumers on the package, redid all of our packaging, really re-engaged with social media, and started to have conversations with consumers one-to-one in a way that was new for the brand.
And then we looked for new formats. We launched Shots, which sells in the functional beverage set. We also have launched a protein product that brings a new angle, lets us really compete directly with kefir. So if you're looking for a non-dairy kefir alternative that gives you all of the protein, all of the probiotics, in that beverage breakfast consumption moment, it's right down the middle for that.
So I think it's finding the right things, but understanding that one win as a product does not define a brand. You have to really cherish that consumer relationship and build it over time. And you have to make sure the consumer knows what you're selling. That's one of the biggest parts, too.
Everyone here knows that you should have good gut health, right? Raise your hand if you think and try to incorporate good gut health into your life, right? But why? Do we know why? And I think that's a big part of your new product line, the wellness shots. You're trying to really focus on the functional benefit and communicate very clearly what that benefit is.
How do you do it effectively, again, and how do you do it with the consideration of where you were and where you are today? Yeah, so I think the science on the gut-brain connection is really new since we even started with probiotics. I think in its early inception, GoodBelly was thinking about gut health in terms of really digestion, right?
But I think what's emerged over the last 20 years is there's this great connectivity to the way your brain processes if your gut is healthy. It drives everything. So it's a scientific conversation you have to have, which is hard to do- ... in simple terms. But I think where we're finding success is looking for influencers who speak to a lot of folks that can speak with authority.
We're investing a great deal in our science so that we can work with really thought leaders in this space. I'm going to a conference next week, which is the ASPDA, but it is the dieticians for professional sports teams. It's actually a small group of people, but they put the products in the hands of every major athlete in the country.
We sell our products, Chair Bundy and GoodBelly, to pretty much every D1 school in the country now directly because we focused on the dieticians and we built relationships with them so that they know that our products are effective, and we provide them with the science behind that allows them to be certain that if they're gonna get an athlete, top-tier athlete to consume something, they wanna make sure that it drives performance.
Now, GoodBelly is 20 years old, but as I asked Jason earlier, even if you're 20 years old, you wanna think like an entrepreneur. You wanna have an entrepreneurial mindset. You want to be efficient with your money. You want to focus on things that are going to get a return in the most efficient way. What are some ways that GoodBelly thinks like an early-stage founder, thinks like an entrepreneur?
Legacy companies can get into some bad habits, some bad routines. They think things are working that aren't working. And I had to really peel that back for the team that I have, and I have a brilliant small team, but really get them to understand that they not just think like owners, but they gotta understand what an owner would bring.
And in my experience, every founder, every good owner very quickly has an owner math. If I sell one case of this, I can spend 10 cents on this, 30 cents on that, 40 cents on that. And that simple owner math, like if you sell a dollar, what's left? Every single one of my team members can tell you what that is for every one of our products.
And so when they're thinking about what they're investing in, they know that if it creates an extra dollar of revenue, there's gonna be something left after that investment. And just really making sure that your team is so acutely focused on the basic financials of your business and trained up, because if every one of them think like an owner, you're not gonna make a lot of mistakes.
Yeah, I love that level of transparency. If everybody knows what it costs to get to a place where you're taking GoodBelly to the next level, if everyone knows if we get to a place where we're spending less or where we're communicating more effectively or where we're selling in a new retailer, if we just take that added step as a team together, we win as a team together.
But I wanna talk about exactly how you do it, and if you talk about, everyone here has heard, "Oh you've gotta execute well. You gotta have the right product mix. You gotta innovate correctly. You gotta market correctly." But if there's one thing that really stands out, and you've been doing this for a long time, what is the most important thing that founders and anybody in this business needs to get right Otherwise they have no chance of success.
It took me a long time to figure out that you could have a great idea, and I focused on those, and you could have really good financials, and you could focus on those, but you had to have... Culture is everything. It unlocks innovation. It unlocks team efficiency. So I focus almost all of my time now on culture, and we're really trying to do something that is an entirely team-driven approach.
What I've found when I've been a part of a lot of founder organizations in the past, founders are extraordinarily good at seeing the future that doesn't exist today, and that creates innovation, as you said earlier. But very often they don't see who's gonna be in the future with them. They see themselves in the future, and there's a spot for them on the podium, but is there a spot for the people around them?
And I think what they need to do is figure out how to bring those people and have them see that vision the way that they do, 'cause if they can, it can really change the way your team taps into the motivation for the company. Because founders are perpetual engines. They bring so much interesting energy to companies.
But most places I've been, people are like waiting to see what the founder's gonna say about everything. And so if you can get them to think like that and bring them along so that they see the vision that the founder sees, I think you have a real chance to win. I wasn't expecting that answer, but that's a fantastic answer.
Our motto for every new person coming in is that we want this to be the best job you've ever had and the job you measure everything else against, and that's not really lip service. We wanna build what makes you special into the place. Your quirkiness, your funny jokes, your things, we want all that to come together in an interesting mosaic that builds something really special, and I'm sure you have those people in your company too.
We have a few jokesters. So y- I think you wanna bring that reality and that authenticity is something people say all the time. But I think if the team owns authenticity and they're like, "What's important to the team is how they interact with each other." They know how they're supposed to operate. They gotta think like owners, and they gotta be curious, those things for sure.
And we only sell products that we would use ourselves, but the team part in the middle is the part that usually gets lost, and that's where that culture lives. If you can get that I think it's an incredible unlock, and I'm really looking forward to what happens here at NextFoods because I think it's gonna be something really special.
I think you're already doing something really special, and I'm so glad that you took the time to be with us today. Marc, thank you so much. Really appreciate the time. Finally, we have the incredible Erica Tam, who is the SVP of brand for Bloom. How's it going? It's going. Thank you so much for having me.
Thanks so much for joining us on brand with the T-shirt and the Bloom Pop. Fantastic. Of course. It is kinda your job, right? It absolutely is. Gotta rep the brand. Exactly. Exactly. Bloom is one of the most incredible brands that I can remember seeing in my 15 years at BevNet. Just the level of love that people have for Bloom, the use that they have for the brand in all aspects of their day, it's just really been incredible to see.
And again, you're a big part of that as well. I mentioned to Jason that Bloom really started out as an influencer and digital-led brand, but how do you translate products that you see online into something that consumers stick with rather than just try once? And as we know, if you're on Instagram, you might see an ad for something, and you'll be like, "I'll give it a shot," but then you never really touch it again.
I think it's a couple things. And first of all, thank you for all the kind words about Bloom. It's been an incredible brand to build, and I know you've seen a lot of great brands in your career too, so- I've seen a few ... it means a lot. I would say the first thing is to make sure you have a really good product.
So when I say a good product, that means having a product that whether it tastes really good or is really efficacious, it's something that people genuinely like. Because if you don't have a good product, no matter how much marketing you do and how much you put into the world, people will try it and they won't come back to it.
It doesn't matter how great your brand is. So number one, make sure to get that down. And there's a lot of steps to making a really good product, but I would say that's the first thing. Number two is make sure you have a story around the brand because every hero needs to have a story around it. If you don't put a story around it, you have no hero.
So that means create a great brand, create a design that resonates with your consumer, create something that people really gravitate towards and have a connection to. Otherwise, the next time a product comes in that looks like your product or tastes like your product's gone, and so is your brand.
So I would say number two is make sure you have a very good story. And then finally, making sure you have a really great campaign. And by a campaign, you can have a lot of influencers talk about it, but I would say depending on what your product is, either maybe there's a lot of education that needs to be done for your product, so you really need to make sure to get that out in your messaging, or it is about showing up in real life and having activations.
I think the best way to really get people to convert and come back is to make sure you have the entire 360 working for you. You have a great brand, you have great messaging, you talk about it online, you're able to taste and be in IRL, and also to build a community around it who will really rally behind your product and brand.
As I mentioned, you have a can of Bloom Pop in your hand. I feel like I've mentioned this before, Bloom Pop feels like that soda brand for the next generation. I see Gen Alpha kids drinking it all the time. You go into a Target, there's all these 10, 12, 13, 14-year-olds that are all drinking Bloom Pop. And it's a relatively new product.
When did Bloom Pop launch again? About six to seven months ago. Six to seven months ago. So when you think about a new product, from a marketing perspective, what signals that product will matter to consumers? How do you pressure test those signals before and after launch? There are a couple things. I would say, number one, do your homework about the product you're about to launch, and Jason Cantelli talked a little bit about this.
Make sure you do your marketing analysis, you do your homework, you check the TAM, is there a viable audience for this product? That would be number one. And then number two, when you're building it, if you decide, okay, let's go forward with this, as you're building it, is your internal team excited about what you're building?
At Bloom, we're really fortunate to have a lot of our team, they're actually our consumers too, like they really emulate who our audience is. And as we're building it, whether or not they're excited about it. Are they excited about the design, the storytelling, the product, to get it out into the world and to really shout it from the rooftop?
If they are, that's another checkpoint. And then number three, I would say pressure test it with your community. There's a lot of things you can do to really understand whether or not your community will like it. So whether that's serving your community, talking to them in real life. So if it's a new flavor, for example, you can ask them what flavors they're looking for.
It's very easy. At Bloom, we've built a really big community. We have about 1.5 million followers across our social channels. We have a huge community in different markets who will show up and line up around the door in our activations. But there's an opportunity to have a two-way dialogue. You can ask them about flavors, or if it's a new product, do they want it?
Okay, yes, they want it. What do you want in this product? What do you not already have? And you build something that they really love. And then finally, we've also had the opportunity to create some really great activations where we can actually sample unreleased flavors and get their opinions. We did this last year at our...
We had a treat shop activation in New York, and it was like a line around the door. There were thousands of consumers who really wanted to be there. And in our activation, there was a lot of things you could do there. It was about bringing wellness into these really delicious treats. But one of the activations we had within there was a flavor lab.
And we had all of these amazing flavors that we created with Nutrabolt's partnership, and it was in the vault, and we brought out six different flavors. We had all these consumers rank them. They were so excited to be in with the brand, to be with... like you're like in the kitchen and they're behind the scenes, and weighing in and ranking them.
We took the number one ranking flavor and we brought it to life. It was our Strawberry Rose Valentine's Day limited edition SKU that sold out within, I think, 72 hours. It was amazing. But it was the perfect timing where we're like, "Okay, let's do something for Valentine's Day. We know the girlies love it.
Oh, perfect. We have a Strawberry Rose that ranked number one," and there it went into the world. You mentioned check the TAM. You should trademark that. I feel like it'd be appropriate for you. I know. Yes. Yes. Well done. You do have a really big digital presence. You have a lot of awareness. But what's currently effective for converting that real world, converting real world trials and repetition, especially at retail, where you build brands at retail.
If that is You know, I think a lot of people think modern commerce and modern business happens outside the store, but it really, brands are built on shelf at the retail level. Yes, definitely. I would say it is the entire 360 and making sure that you've dialed all that in front to end, but really making sure you, if you can, have a really good store presence.
That kind of starts with the relationship with the buyer, what you pitch. If you're going to put out a product, make sure it's either seasonally relevant or it's something the retailer would really wanna carry on shelf at that time. I think there's nothing more powerful than to have something that's really foot-stopping, and as you walk by, you see something.
When we launched Bloom Pop, we were very fortunate to have secured a display nationwide at Walmart, and it was a massive palette, so when you're in the Walmart, you can't help but see it. It was also launched right next to our energy drink that already had an audience, so if you're going to find energy drink, you saw Bloom Pop.
But I would say make sure you have the retail presence, and also utilize your retail presence. Whether you're on shelf or you're on a end cap, you're on a pallet, utilize your retail presence as your content studio. Send your team in there, create content, yell it through the rooftop, and then send creators in there, too.
We send our creators and our community into the store, and it really helps get the word out. And we've pretty much created a content machine. I would say every time we launch a new product, we have a really massive community that will run into store and talk about "Oh, my God, did Bloom just launch a new Shirley Temple and didn't talk about it?"
We actually deliberately will not talk about a product three weeks into when it's already rolled out in stores, and we let our community find it. And they create all this buzz because who doesn't love a great treasure hunt? They'll find it, they'll create content, they'll talk about it, and then it just trickles all the way through.
I love that 'cause my next question, my final question, was gonna be about cost-effective ways of marketing. And if you don't market, if you don't advertise but you still generate buzz, that seems like a really useful way to not spend money. And I feel if there are other cost-effective ways of marketing and ways that founders can utilize their resources most effectively without spending a lot of money, without breaking the bank, what would you say those things are?
Content would be number one. As a, I think as, especially as like a new founder, if you're creating a product, people love to be in with the brand and to follow your journey and to cheer you on. So if you're creating a product, whether you're at the manufacturer, if you're in the kitchen, if you're sampling, if you're designing, capture all that and put that out 'cause that's free.
You do need to have someone to create that, but generally that doesn't cost that much money. So put that out there too, and you don't know who will share it. And the other is to really prioritize your community. Show up at some events. There's a lot of local events that are very kind to new founders and new brands, and it's not, either it's no fee to play or it's a very small fee, but I would get it out there.
It's not just about sampling, but it's really about getting people to talk about it and to share it. So I would start there for sure. And then I would also say influencer of course there's obviously influencers that cost a lot of money, but there's also a lot of people who are smaller creators and just want to get free things and talk about things that they love and they're building their business too.
And if you gift them, you would be surprised at how many people will really share the love on your products. Can we get you to come to BevNET Live and speak for like another 30 minutes? 'Cause I feel like this is... We- we're out of time and we need a lot more time with you, Erica. I would be honored. I would be honored as well.
Erica Tam, thank you so much for joining us today. Really appreciate it
