276 He Left the Family Business to Pursue His Own Path
Andrew Maida
Founder of Flourish Pancakes
Andrew Maida dissapointed his parents greatly when he decided to say 'goodbye' to the Family Business and 'hello' to pursuing his own path.
His parents were devastated, skeptical and hurt - but Andrew had an idea he wanted to pursue.
Fast forward to today, Flourish Pancakes can be found across North America in 1000's of retailers and Andrew is on a mission to make breakfast foods healthy, high protein, and low sugar.
In this episode, we chat about:
Andrew's upbringing and the expectation to follow a certain path
How he created to Flourish Pancakes Formula
Getting the attention of Arlene Dickinson from Dragon's Den
And building a brand as a young founder
To connect with Andrew:
p.s.
ο»ΏYOUR 2023 LEAP: We are guiding coaches, practitioners and consultants to earn MORE while MARKETING LESS, and supporting them to make a BIG leap faster than any online course, free PDF, or webinar on the internet. Learn more at www.kelseyreidl.com/2023
Access the transcript for this episode:
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You're listening to the visionary life podcast. I'm your host, Kelsey Reidl.
Each week, I'll bring you conversations with the most visionary humans on this earth, in hopes that you'll be able to absorb their wisdom, avoid their failures and feel less alone on the roller coaster ride that is entrepreneurship. This season, I'll be chatting with creative thinkers, masterful marketers, brick and mortar shop owners, brand builders and people just like you who have a story to share or a vision that inspires. If I can share one quick secret with you before we get into the episode. It's that we all have a little bit of visionary inside of us, you know, that spark that nudges us to pursue our full potential in this lifetime.
But perhaps somewhere along the line, it got covered up. I'm here to tell you that it's never too late to explore that inner voice and access the brilliance deep down inside of you. It's in you. It's in all of us. Let's dive in.Hey, visionaries. Welcome back to the podcast this week. I'm sitting down with Andrew Mehta and he's the founder of flourish pancakes. I always think of two things when I read flourish pancakes.
So number one, I think of the pancake emoji. I love that emoji so much. I don't know why, but it's so fun.
Number two, I always think who doesn't love talking about healthier breakfast foods. I mean, gone are the days when we want plain bagels with cream cheese or sugary filled muffins. We need high protein, low carb options, especially if we are entrepreneurs. We're running businesses. And we need to fuel our brains and our minds and our bodies for a busy day ahead. So this is where flourish pancakes comes in.
Now, if you listen all the way through to the end of this episode, you're gonna notice that Andrew shares a call to action at the end that you can get free pancakes, literally go dem flourish pancakes on Instagram. They're just at flourish pancakes, and let them know that the visionary life podcast sent you and that you want to claim your free sample of pancakes. That's literally all you have to do. You could pause the show now, take 30 seconds to DM flourish pancakes, make sure you follow them go like their content.
And let them know that you want to try the products. Then press play on this episode again. And let's talk about how epic this story is. So basically we recap Andrew's entire story, we talked about how his parents raised him in a strict upbringing. And they really wanted him to join the family construction business. But Andrew actually had other plans, he describes himself as a bit of a shit disturber bit of a rebel. And that led him to basically say that he didn't want to join the family business, and that he was going to leave and carve his own path.
So he actually started his first business in the E commerce and Shopify space, you learned a lot, self taught a lot. And eventually it was his own need his own challenge that brought him to the idea of starting a healthy breakfast company. So I think you're really gonna love the story. He talks openly about being kicked out of his home having to fend for himself, where the idea for flourish came from how he launched to an audience of 7000 people, how he scaled flourish, and he really dials in on one marketing strategy that worked wonders for them, which they still do today. He talks about joining district ventures with our lien Dicus Dickinson, a very famous Canadian entrepreneur and investor you probably know her from Dragon's Den, and how that impacted the business.
And then Andrew shares a little bit of his own personal journey of the best investments he's been making in the business and how he is growing into the role of leader and visionary and mentor to his team and continuing to scale flourish into a breakfast empire. So I know you're gonna love this episode. If you want to shop flourish head to their website, they're WWW dot flourish pancakes.com Don't forget to go DM them on Instagram. Tell them the visionary life podcast sent you that you want to collect your free sample. And you guys know what I'm going to be cooking up for breakfast tomorrow morning. So I cannot wait. I'll be sharing on my instagram at Kelsey Rydell every time I am making some flourish pancakes and other than that, I hope you guys enjoy and we'll see in the next episode.
Andrew, welcome to the visionary life Podcast. I'm so excited to dive into the story behind flourish pancakes and everything that you've created with this incredible brand. But before we begin, I would love to know a little bit about your upbringing. So from what I gather you grew up in Toronto with a little bit of a strict
We'll call them strict parents. So I know that's gonna set the stage for the conversation. So can you share a little bit more about this upbringing and kind of the relationship you had with your family? Yeah. Okay, so we're going way, way far back. By the way, good to be here. Thank you for having me.
So when I was a little boy, my, my path in life was always to run or work with my father run his construction business. We're Italian. So like Italian immigrant, or first generation, second generation family.
And not even just specifically for Italians. I think like any culture of people that emigrate to a different country, and especially start their own business. They're very tough people. And after years and years of going through things, I can understand how people believe that they have all the right answers. My dad was one of those people. So he was super strict. Everything was dot your i's cross your t's. And I was the I am the youngest of three. And so a lot of pressure on me being kind of the youngest, especially like the younger guy, having to run my dad's company one day. But I was always a shit the server, sorry, excuse me, I was going off the beaten path. So I remember something as simple my dad had this thing, like when you get paid, you know, 10%, to savings 30% to other and 60 percents in your checking, or whatever.
And my brother and sister would like, go to the bank and set it all up. So it would happen automatically. And I would like get paid run to an ATM, go to Walmart, like buy a bike with 100 or $220, whatever bikes were back in the day. So I was just always a little bit more reckless than what they would have liked, you know, but my mom was always super supportive. And I think, actually, looking back on that now, like that balance of, you know, my mom telling me I could do anything I wanted, my mom telling me everything I did was perfect.
And my dad telling me, everything I did was crap, and that I can't do anything that I wanted to do had this, like, created this tension. For me, that was really important that actually made me think and reflect and become really self aware. Because you're always thinking, you know, which person do I listen to, which is the angel or the devil voice, right.
And, you know, long story short, obviously, now I'm the founder of flourish pancakes, been doing this for about four years been in business on my own for about seven or eight years. So I obviously didn't go into construction, I make a joke like these, these hands get manicures, you know, they don't hold the shovel. So it just was never in the cards for me. So you obviously had decided at a certain point, I don't want to get into family business.
And you really were set on carving your own path. And I know from a lot of our listeners reaching out there in that space where they actually feel pressure, whether it's from their parents, or just pressure they've put on themselves because they've committed time and energy to a degree or they've become a lawyer. But they're wildly unhappy for somebody who is in that phase of like, I want to go carve my own path, but I feel kind of like the weight of other people's expectations or the weight of the money have already invested. Do you have any advice on how to stay true to what you want out of life? Because you kind of did that?
Yeah, it's it's the best and worst advice? The answer is you just have to go and do it. It's easier said than done. But honestly, I think that, you know, even for me to give you a better idea of what I was going through, like I was in a very comfortable position, I had a plan laid out for me the same way somebody with a degree we'd have like a plan laid out for them. I never had to worry about finances or anything like that, I always knew I was gonna be okay. And I was sort of thrust into this position. I was in the middle of university, I ended up actually getting kicked out of my house. So I really had to make a choice, right? And it was, am I gonna go work as a bartender? Or am I going to start a business? And, you know, it just doesn't matter how far along on a path you are, if you feel like it's not the right one for you.It's only becoming harder and harder to actually switch lanes later on, right? And you're never going to be ready. There's never going to be the right time. Because something else will always come up in life, right? So it's something you either have it or you don't. And if you have it, then it's going to be great for you. If you go out and do it. It's going to be a huge success. And if you don't, you're never going to have to live with the what if, right, so life is short. You got to take chances the sorry, Best and Worst advices you just got to do it. No.
And I think that's really, really good. It's like are you just going to continue to be miserable or to experience this low grade misery or are you going to take a chance
Do you want to wake up in 30 years and look back on the life you could have lived or on the life you actually did live, even if that includes a lot more ups and downs. So it's really important to even just hear stories from people like yourself who had to make decisions in a moment when they weren't sure what the outcome was going to be, you had to decide and move forward with that. So I think that's very sound advice. And I know that as we get into the story of flourish, there's actually something we need to queue up here. So you had actually started another business, another entrepreneurial venture. And it was during that time that you had a bit of a poor diet, from what I gather, maybe we're eating a lot of fast food. So can you take us back to that time? And then how the idea for flourish pancakes actually came to life? Yeah, so
I'm out of my house at this point.
And you know, like I said, second generation, first generation Italian family, so my mom was like, practically brushing my teeth for me on the way out the door. When I was on my own, I had no idea how to do anything. It was embarrassing, honestly. So I just honestly resorted to like Tim Hortons and Starbucks and McDonald's and whatever I can get my hands on. It's by calling eating out of a rapper.
So yeah, I had a very, very poor diet. And at the time, I was running these ecommerce businesses. So I actually the first thing I did was start a Shopify store. Started my Shopify store, actually, with my girlfriend's credit card, we're still together, actually. So she is really like my rock, personal
foundation, I paid her back, and then some, for sure.
Maybe there's a few charges on there that we overlooked. But, you know, so I started a Shopify store and really quickly realized, like, I love this, this is super easy for me, I can, I can pick it up, I can scale it. And these were small successes for a 19 year old, like a store that was doing, you know, 20 $30,000 a month in top line revenue. And actually just putting money in my pocket was really a huge success for me.
So being the chaotic, aggressive person that I am, I decided to start a lab. And I said, I'm not going to be the one to make hundreds of econ stores, I'm going to bring people in to help me scale them up.
And this is still a belief that I have to this day, I think I've refined this a little bit. But I really believe in having like the best people around and not trying to do everything on my own. And I always tell the business owners and my mentors always tell me, like you need to take a step back to take a step forward. So I just immediately started bringing together people.
And I started my first real business, which was this e commerce Venture Lab when I was about 1920 years old. And as we were scaling businesses,
you know, I realized that this isn't really what I wanted to do. Ethically it was a means to an end for me, but I didn't want to be a drop shipping. person I didn't want to have like ebooks on Facebook ads. Later on in life. I wanted to have a product that I could really love and stand behind and build an actual brand not just be an advertiser.
And that's how I am today I always want some I always want the next thing the next shiny toy to play with right so my next shiny toy was a real bread. And I decided to create flourished actually solved for my breakfast addiction, which was Eggo waffles with Nutella peanut butter. I love those things. And flourish is actually just turned into this amazing business that I feel like
solves for for for moms who had kids like me like I was that fussy kid in the morning who wanted sweets.
And now you know we meet moms that say like my son eats this seven days a week if we don't give them flourish in the morning. He's kicking and screaming. That was me but with like Eggo waffles, right. My mom tried to put eggs in front of me in the morning it was it was gonna be a gong show. There was no way I was going to school.
So yeah, that's kind of how like food became was a solution for me. And business is something that I felt like I was good at running businesses and scaling them and advertising and that kind of all just came together at the exact right time. And you know, even meeting my investors at the exact right time. Like it's 99% luck. So, okay, we gotta go back a little bit because you skipped over a big part of the story. So I'm so curious, when you get this idea. You're like I'm eating these Eggo waffles, there's got to be a better way, that typical moment of like, Aha, what did you actually have to do from there? So let's get a little bit granular on some of those first few steps that you as an individual took to start bringing flourish to life because from what I gather, you didn't actually have experience necessarily in food innovation or in creating gluten free, healthier for you products. So you as somebody who's kind of naive to the industry, what were some of the first things you did to actually prove that you had a good product and then actually bring it to life.
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Yeah, so you know, I don't have experience in anything when I do it. And I think all people who take leaps are like that, but I'm confident that I could figure it out. So this was another one of those situations, right? And I had actually called my brother who was a chef. And the moment for me happened when I had someone come over to my house at the time. And he was asking me basically how to start Shopify stores and he brought these like chickpea cookies, they looked so gross. And at the time, I wasn't very healthy person. I didn't know much about nutrition. And I ran into the washroom of my house and I called my brother. I hadn't spoken to my brother in years because obviously I was, you know, out of my house.I called my brother and I said, Peter, it's nice to be here. I said, these healthy people, they're crazy. They bake stuff at home and they bring it with them so they can eat healthy food when they're out like this is crazy. I need to make a healthy product. I'm good at this e commerce stuff if you make it for me, we can partner
so my brother was like shot Sure yeah, that's a no brainer. I can't make you Eggo waffles, but I can make your pancake mix. Like frozen was just too big and scary for us at the time. But like mixes we're we're ready to go. So he makes us this mix.
I started eating it for about a year and a half started testing it amongst like friends people that I would meet out in public
I would go like, to the local grocery store, I would wait for somebody to buy a pancake mix. And then I would ask him, Hey, why are you buying this? What do you like about it? Here's a sample of my stuff, give me a call, send me a text. And really doing that, like on the ground research of what people wanted to help bring the formulation to life. We were really lucky in that we landed on something that was really good, right from the start. So we actually didn't make many changes from what I was actually eating at home. And that first product was a 23 grams protein, seven gram fibers, zero grams of sugar pancake mix, and then eventually evolved into like gluten free plant based options, and all these other things. And our next challenge was actually finding a place to make it. So like I said, I'm chaotic, I do things backwards. And I've gotten better at it now. But at the time, you know, I was still a little crazy. So the first thing I did is I went home, I set up an e commerce Store. And I started pre launching my product, right?
So this was probably like, April 2018, I started pre launching may 28 2018, we made our first sale, we had 7000 people sign up to our pre launch and order products. I called my brother who actually had a factory where he was going to be able to make the product.
And I said, Hey, Peter, we're ready to go, I have all these orders I need you to fulfill. He goes, Yeah, I'm actually going on vacation. Mom's going to Italy for three weeks, and I'm going with her. So you know your shit out of luck. And I was like, kid, just give me the keys, I'll go make it myself. He was like, no, no, no, no, no, I'm the only one who goes to my factory, you can't go without me. So I am like screwed at this point, I have all of these orders, I have nowhere to make them. I don't even know how to mix stuff together. I have already bought the bags and everything.
And then my girlfriend saved me again. And she actually got me a spot in her cousin's bakery. So the real sort of grit of the story is, you know, at night, I would go when her bakery was shut down. So I usually get there like 9:10pm, I would start making batches. And I would make 14 bags in every 30 minutes. And this really tiny mixer. And I would fill them by hand while the next stuff was mixing, I do that till about two, three in the morning, I bring them back to my house, then from my house, I wake up, ship them with Canada Post and at night, I'd go back to the bakery and make some more.
And I did that for about six months, while we got things set up. And honestly, at that point, that's where me and my brother were like, I don't think we're on the same path. We're not going to go into business together. And I became a solo founder again. Oh my gosh, I love always getting into the stories of just like the grit that entrepreneurs have to deal with and put into those early stages. And really, it never goes away. It's like those late nights, those early mornings. just problem solving on the fly. I am curious, you said you had 7000 people who were signed up for pre launch? How did you get the contact information of 7000 keen customers? What were some of the success success strategies there? Yeah, so that was all like really early Klaviyo work or at the time was actually MailChimp.So each email connected to my Shopify, and then running ads through Facebook. Okay, so basically, we had this funnel, Facebook, Facebook was always big, right? So we had a Facebook top end funnel, that would run down to the website, and then people would basically just be incented to invite more friends. We gamified the whole process. I think we actually paid for about 1000 or 2000 signups, and we ended up with 7000 at the end, and almost all of them ended up purchasing. Wow, they were really high intent shoppers, obviously. Mm hmm. Do you feel like Facebook ad funnels can still work to the same degree of effectiveness as when you were using them? Or has the game changed? Yeah, so we still used under still a huge seven figure part of our strategy. So like retail marketing, and then also adding Facebook on top of that is still massive for us, I think that
it's definitely gotten a lot more difficult. And what consumers really care about now is that personal touch before like, people have been burned so many times by dropshippers, like ordering a product and then it arriving 45 or 55 days later. So now they're a little bit more worried about who they're buying from. But if you can, you know, have their name on your website or have your name on their products, write a handwritten card, all these things are going to kind of help your conversion rate.
And I think that's a difference between people who are scaling and who aren't. And then on the technical side of things, right, like Facebook has become a lot more difficult in the way that you actually run ads, and even things like influencers. You know, before when timelines were chronological, I would pay an influencer $200 and make 10 $15,000 in revenue. Now I'm paying $15,000 and making $200 in revenue, because they're just not getting that same conversion as they once were. Right. So it's still there. But it's definitely a lot different. And at scale is when you really start to see the effectiveness of Facebook, it's very tough to do when it's when you're small. Absolutely. So in those first like, say, six to 12 months, aside from the Facebook ads and the funnel there, what were some of the other marketing strategies or visibility strategies that you were using to get flourish into more customers hands?
Yeah, so really early days, honestly, it was all about Facebook ads for me, like I was a through and through econ marketer, stuck in my house all day running Facebook ads, and optimizing Facebook ads. So to be honest, like we weren't using many, you know, in person events or things like that. That was only until later on, when we actually started doing in store sampling, I just really, really focused on being that customer touch point for people sending emails from my personal email account, and scaling my Facebook ads, I believe that, you know, it's important to actually accomplish something and get it done right and scale it before you move on to the next thing, especially in the early days, I get a lot of entrepreneurs that come to me now. And they're like, Hey, I'm selling my product to convenience stores and online and grocery stores. And I have a piece of innovation coming out in three months. And I'm like, You need to take a step back. Pick one of those channels, that actually makes you a profit. So you don't have to run out of money and bootstrap this business, and focus on just scaling that channel. And then it becomes so much easier to stretch across to other channels, right. And that's what we did at flourish, we just went hyper focused on EECOM. And once you're there in the CPG space, you know, it's a little bit of an older sector, you can really leverage what you do in econ to actually launch into other stores, then you can use stores to launch another store. So you really need to set those foundational building blocks. And I was lucky that I only for once focused on something really, really well in the beginning.
And it's so interesting to hear your perspective, because we have interviewed many founders, especially of natural health food products, or CPG brands. And some of them chose to go all in on Community Marketing. Some of them chose to try to book meetings with major retailers, you're telling us that it was all in on Facebook ads, and I just love that for every single person who's launching a brand. You do have to ask yourself, number one, what am I passionate about? What am I good at? And number two, where do I think I'm going to generate a really good response?
If I go all in for 12 months or for two years? And there is no one right answer. So I think that's what we're gathering through chatting with so many entrepreneurs is that, you know, you have to ask yourself and do a little bit of just like self inquisition of what's going to work for you. But also where are your strengths?
And what do you bring to the table? Yeah, and I think people are taught different lessons in different ways throughout their life. Like if you think about something like the stock market, right, everyone talks about diversification. But if you forget that you're putting your money into the stock market, right? Like diversification actually diminishes, returns, it can, like if you're not diversified, and you have one stock, it can go all the way up, or it can go all the way down. Right? If you're diversified, usually, it's just flat, right? And it's like, in business, you want to have that, like Warren Buffett type strategy, where he might not buy something for the next two years.
But when he finds something, that's great, he's gonna go all in on it, right? Like, I am good at Facebook ads. That's what I know how to do. Now in my career, it's more leadership and sales, and I'm still helping on the E commerce side. But I have to get away from that. But it's like, there's a time and place to make different bets. And as an entrepreneur, you really are like an investor doing capital allocation. And if you were betting on yourself, where would you put all your money? And I think that's where you start first.So if somebody asks you today to describe flourish, what do you say? And can you tell us a little bit about your product selection and what we can expect from the brand? Yeah, so we're actually going through a massive rebrand right now. So this will change over the next few months. What we say about our business is that flourish, transforms nostalgic treats into low sugar, high protein foods that fuel and I think that like treats to foods is really important because everything that we make is so nutritionally sound and hearty for people. However, the crossroad that I'm at right now is I don't believe flourish as a pancake mix company. I believe we're a breakfast food company and we're a lifestyle company. So that's really what we're building and I think over the next five years, you're gonna see a lot more from us in terms of the innovation that we come out with. We have a couple more things in the pancakes segment right now, but you know, I want to see flourish across the grocery store.
And we were talking about this just before we were we were recording, right. And it's like, entrepreneurs have that belief system. My belief system is that you need to eat less sugar, you need to eat more protein, but you can still have a balanced life. And I want to create products that actually bring that to people in a transparent way. So hopefully, you'll see us in more places in the next few years and with a lot more products. It's such a incredible vision. And I am curious, you're obviously very busy day to day right now you're traveling in the US. Yeah. How do you balance thinking about the future of flourish? And staying in that visionary role, while still being very involved in the business? Like, do you have a specific practice where you're like, Oh, this is just thinking time or, you know, like, visionary time? Or does it just happen in the free space?
Yeah, so I try to have routine in my life. So especially in the morning, like, I'll wake up, I will look at my phone, I'll meditate. I think that's a time for me to really gather my thoughts and set my day up. But one of the things that I found, when I start thinking further out about the business is that it's tough for me to do that in those times, because I'm getting ready for my day.
So I've actually tried to implement more planning into the business. And then now that I'm,
I'm in a weird spot where I'm still working on a lot of things. I'm still BCC it on every single email. So yeah, I try to be really intentional about carving out time when I can. Or if I can't, for the day, I just make sure I take like a two hour shower. And just like sit there, sit there and think. But that morning routine, and that meditation is really important for me to just be centered and be present and get ready to take on my day. I feel like that allows for more free thought later. It's like an investment in the morning for for something you get back in the afternoon or the evening. I love the idea of the two hour shower too. It's like when I'm in my shirt. Nobody can bother me. It's just me thinking that is where some of my best ideas come from. So yeah, definitely resonate. I want to touch on something exciting that happened. I think, I'm not sure how far along in your business journey you were but your product flourish actually caught wind of district ventures, which is Arlene Dickinson's investment company. So can you just tell us high level? How did that happen? You joined the accelerator program there, which I'm assuming was a pretty big catalyst moment in expanding flourish and getting it into more hands. Yeah, so Arlene is a powerhouse.
She's amazing. And I think especially from Canada, you know, the the way that she gives back to Canadians is like, she's, she's awesome. So the funny thing is, they actually discovered me from my Facebook ads going all in? Yeah, they, they were running their seventh cohort. So they've been doing this for a little while, they would bring in a few brands, they would interview you, if you made it, you would have to go to calgary every, every other week or something, I can't remember how often it was going. And then at the end, you could get $150,000 investment from District ventures. So
they found our Facebook ads, they invited me to apply. And the funny thing is, I was actually on their website a few weeks before. And I was writing the application. And it got to a part where it said submit a business plan. And I was like, I haven't written a business plan. Like I don't know what I'm going to submit. I'm running these like other 24 and 24 other active ecommerce stores at the time. So I was super busy. We had a bunch of marketers working. And I was like, Man, I'm not writing a business plan. And I actually shut the page.
And it was crazy. Because then a week later they reached out and I messaged the person I said, Hey, look, I'll do a video interview. But I can't write a business plan. I'm actually already an entrepreneur running this other business. So they let it slide, thankfully.
And that was just like one of those things where it's like imagine I shut that page. And they never contacted me like how much different my my entire life would have been even personally, right. So that was a huge catalyst for us. We ended up getting the investment, we ended up becoming one of the first brands to ever get secondary capital from them, which means they actually reinvested after the accelerator program. And now I'm still really close with them. Like, I just had a meeting with her Managing Partner last week about our budget for this year. So they're great people. They've been very involved in the business for the last four years. And the fact that they're not sick and tired of me yet is amazing. What a great story. And I'm sure there's a lot of listeners who are like, Okay, well, I'll probably never get a chance to go through that accelerator program. Or maybe they will but I'm curious what are some of the key learnings or just like the big principles that you extracted from being part of that accelerator that you
would say this was really important, or this was a game changer that we focused on this during the program. Yeah, I think one being around all the entrepreneurs, I think that you have this idea of entrepreneurs as these kind of like superheroes of the business world. And you realize that people are just people like me, and you know, even me like closing that application. Like, there's probably 1000s of people that do that every day, they think I'm not ready, I'm not going to do this, right. Like, I am victim to that same habit as well. So being around the other entrepreneurs, I think was really powerful for us. And being able to do it in person, like pre COVID was, was great.
They really focused on bringing in experts, which is, you know, we spoke about like another one of my foundational beliefs that you need to have experts and mentors around you at all times. So that was super important. And the last thing that I learned is that you're you're always competing, and you're always selling, right? Being in that environment was the entrepreneurs being around Arlene's people and districts, people. And obviously, they wanted to support every single one of the entrepreneurs that was in there. But you know, they're looking at certain people like, who are we betting on? For the long term? Right? Yeah. And I don't even think it's just them. I think it's everybody. And people do this when they make impressions of you, and they offer to help you or not help you or invest in your business or not. And to just always be on, I think is important.
So aside from like, what is a broker and what is a distributor and all of the natural products, industry stuff that I learned, I feel like I grew so much more as a person just in like four months. And then at the end, we got to meet Arlene. And I realized that I was just like, still a baby, I went up to her. And I was just like, Oh, hi, my, like, my name is Arlene. And like, my name is Andrew, like,
I didn't even know how to speak there. And I just remember feeling like, I want to be able to have this impact on people.
Like she's had an impact on her family on the economy, economy and all the people that have worked for her and like now on all of these businesses and all the people that they employ. And I think that's what business is really all about, right? Like, there's only so much you can do for yourself. It's about being in it for the vision, the bigger purpose. And I learned that from her just being around her.
So cool. And yeah, I feel like there are certain people in our lives who are very much expanders like they show us what's possible. And obviously, we are attracted to them, not in like a physical way. But like we like being in their presence, because maybe there's something that we see in them that we know we have in us. So it's kind of cool to know that. Yeah, maybe for our lien, you're like, you're looking at her basically going like I want that. And I can do that, right? Because we're both humans on this earth, we both have that drive. And yeah, it's just really neat to think about that concept of expanders. So obviously, flourish has had a lot happen since then. But I'm curious, can you recap some of the major milestones or successes or just things that you've celebrated over the last couple of years in terms of the growth of the business? Yeah, I remember, like shipping our first pallet four years ago, and like wrapping it and taping all the boxes by hand, and now, you know, walking into the back and seeing like full truckloads being loaded up three, four trucks at the dock. Like, it's, it's crazy to see how far we've come. And like with such a small team, we're always celebrating all of these little wins.
I think a huge catalyst for us was getting into Sobeys. We were in Sobeys, really early on. And Sobeys is someone is a retailer that really wants to support local. So if you're in their local region, you can pretty much always call Sobeys and find a spot on their shelf. And for us, like I think even more so than the revenue that it brought in, like, you don't sell as much as people think you do when you're in a grocery store. Like when I posted a picture on my Instagram, four years ago to my friends that I was in longos. Like they probably thought I was going to be on a yacht next week. Yeah, it's it's very small margin, you know, you need to move a lot of products. So getting into Sobeys was just like this thing where I think we sat in the office, and we looked at each other like it was a team of me and two other people at the time. And we were like, This is legit, we can do this. Like, you go to a grocery store and you see somebody pick up the product off shelf and you're like, oh my god, you know. So, business wins are great. But again, like for me, I really want to I really love seeing an impact. So, you know, I was at a trade show a little while ago and like I was telling you that story about that mom that says you know my kid eats this every day, like seven days a week. That's real. That's really what is like
Alright guys, that's more fuel for us to keep going.
Stores our store sales are sales. But if you can really make your customer happy then takes you a long way. Huh, that's so heartwarming. And the fact that people come up to you and tell you those stories has got to be just like that motivation you need some days, even on the bad yeah, to just like, get up and keep charging forward, because you want more of those incredible testimonials. It's the benefit of having a product, right, like people actually, it's so strange. Like, the other day I was driving to work. And I was like, these people work for me. Like, they trust me with their career and like I help them make life choices. And then I'm like, leaving the house. And I'm thinking like, oh, did I forget my air pods? Like I'm such, everyone's a rat, right? And it's like, it kind of takes a village to bring everybody together. So I think even in the product business, like you see people actually interacting with what you have. Yeah, it's just so fulfilling, especially when you're selling something that's good for people. Absolutely. So I am curious, because you seem to be quite savvy about marketing. And you obviously started with the E column and the Facebook, what's working now it's February 2023. When we record this, what do you feel is working in terms of gaining brand awareness, selling more product just from whatever angle you want to take? Yeah, so I think for really high level brand awareness, podcasts are actually working really, really well.
People love to be along for that ride. And if you can even get influencers to speak about your product in their episode, not just as an ad in their episode, I think that that is amazing. I think the other thing we're seeing a lot of is
sort of that creator community actually making advertising content for people. So it's not just, you know, a picture of flourish pancakes anymore. It's like,
Hey, I'm Kelsey, this is coming from my Instagram in my kitchen. And I'm actually running an ad from your account. That is something that like I'm we're just getting a huge ROI on compared to the regular video and photo ads that we're running. Yep. But all in all, for the last few years retention has been super, super important. People want to feel that personal connection. And retaining a customer is always going to be more efficient than buying a new customer. And brands and entrepreneurs, for some reason are just obsessed with buying new customers. Yeah, it's like I guess they raise money, and they need to go spend it somewhere and they put it into Facebook ads, but it's like, focusing on that LTV is going to be so important, especially with the economy that we're going into, like people need to start putting money into their pockets, not just flushing it into Facebook and losing all kinds. So we're gonna see a shift. Yeah, so many good tips there. And I'm even thinking about some of the clients that I work with and how they pay for advertising on podcast. But I love what you said about get the podcaster to just talk about the product organically if you can. And I'm not sure exactly how that happens. But if you can just get them to become a brand advocate and incorporate it into their podcasts or YouTube video. I think that's such a cool way to get the content out in a very non salesy way and non pushy because people are becoming a bit more sensitive to advertising in podcasts or advertising in YouTube. But like you said, if you can get the influencer to talk about it, or do the whitelisting, where they record the ads and you boost it from their account, that's kind of where the lens has shifted. And I know even myself as a consumer, I'm so responsive to it when I see you know, somebody in their kitchen making a product, I'm way more curious than if you know, some high level podcaster tells me about it. Yeah, and it's like,you can do it really easily Right? Like if if the podcasts or were to ask a question. Like you're to ask me a question right now, what's my favorite food Brian right now and I say ABC water. And then you say like, I really love flourish pancakes like I can clip that and use that forever. So it's just like the way that what you said is exactly right. Like they're so much more sensitive to ads. I know now when I see like stuff popping up on the screen, like I know I'm getting an ad. But when I see a video with maybe like some organic Instagram text on it, I feel like okay, what's gonna happen? There's a story here. So the best entrepreneurs are storytellers. And we need to tell stories in our ads, not just like, hey, here's my junk and it's on sale. Yeah, check out my Shopify store. But like you're talking about the people that you work with, they're doing so much good.
Like natural paths and these professionals that are trying to sell their services. They have such a good story to tell. And I think sometimes it just takes a bit of like extraction to actually get it out of people even me like I can't tell my story properly, you need to meet
Go back and then go forward, it's, but it's there. And I think that's what people really need to do to make that connection to consumers. And that's where long form content can be so beneficial, like, I know that attention spans are generally shrinking. But I think in order to really get your story and the story of flourish, these long form conversations, they really resonate, like for those who listen and listen to at least 15 50%, the story of flourish and like your voice, it almost just like transcends their whole body. And next time they see flourish on the shelf, they feel this emotional attachment to it. And they just pick it up without thinking because they've spent 20 minutes or 40 minutes with you. And I, it's very powerful. So you might not get as many views or downloads on long form content. But the way that it really just like stays with you, versus like a 10 second tick tock is totally different. So there's a whole, you know, realm we could explore there, but it's fascinating. Yeah. It's like, I know that guy. Oh, we're paid. That's my buddy Andrews heard about a podcast. Yeah. I feel that way too. Honestly. Sometimes I'm like, Oh, I know that brand. And when we see them on LinkedIn are absolutely. All right. So as we wrap up, I know that obviously your team has grown, your role has evolved. So I'm curious, is there a skill or a certain, you know, topic that you're currently focused on up leveling as you continue to grow your business and become a better leader?
Yeah, two things. Actually, I was going to compliment you on this earlier, when you said extractors, I really want to become a better communicator, that's something that I'm working on. And using things that really using words and phrases that really resonate with people.
Like when you said that it really resonated with me, and it's like you say one word. And I already know exactly what you're talking about. Your communication style was just, it's just at a level better than mine. And I want to work on that. And that goes hand in hand with like, I'm really working on becoming a better leader, and trying to get things out of my head and onto paper and get the team to help me execute. So we're already like, we have one common goal, we know what that is, and just trying to remove yourself from the business is a skill in itself. So leadership and communication. And obviously, as I said before, like I have board advisors and mentors that are in place, and like people I talk to almost every day, and I make mistakes on that stuff every single day, I text my advisors like, I cannot believe I just said this in a meeting, what would you have said, and they told me how to fix it for next time.
That's so awesome. And I love to hear that you're always learning and growing and continuing to consult your board of advisors and mentors. So something that's so important as we evolve, and as we reach for bigger goals. So for anybody who wants to try flourish pancakes, who wants to connect with you, as a founder? Where are the best places for them to find you? Yeah, so they can DM us at flourish pancakes on Instagram. If you say that you heard me on this podcast, and I'll actually jump into the account and I'll chat with you. Or you can just DM me directly if you really want to just talk about business at Andrew Mehta. That's ma Ida. But honestly, like if you guys want free pancakes just hit me up, I will get you a sample. It's no problem. Just let me know that you heard me here. And I'll make it happen. That is amazing. Let's all take Andrew up on that offer, connect with flourish, go pick them up next time you're out at the grocery store. And I'm sure they can order them online as well. But I just want to say thank you for sharing the story, the real behind the scenes of what it took to bring this business to life. And we wish you all the best in your travels. And as you continue to expand the vision for flourish pancakes. You too. Thanks for having me, Kelsey. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of visionary life. I love bringing you these conversations on a weekly basis. So it would mean so much to me. If you could help me out by rating and reviewing the show on either iTunes or Spotify. It just takes a second. And if you don't want to rate the show, you could also just take a screenshot of the episode and share it on your social media platform of choice tagging me at Kelsey rival. I'll catch you in the next episode.
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