202 How she grew 100k email subscribers in 6 months | Annalea Krebs, Founder of Social Nature
Meet Annalea Krebs
Purpose-driven entrepreneur that loves promoting good stuff, not junk.
Annalea Krebs, Founder of Social Nature
Founder & CEO at Social Nature which is a natural product discovery platform with 750k members.
I have a really fun episode for you today with the founder of Social Nature, Annalea Krebs.
She is a purpose-driven entrepreneur that loves promoting good stuff, not junk.
Annalea sold her first eco-friendly online marketplace at age 30 and then in 2015 launched Social Nature, a product discovery and trial platform in the better-for-you CPG space, with over 750k community members.
In today’s conversation, Annalea opens up about…
Her first 2 business ideas and what she learned from them, as well as why she pivoted
Why it’s so important to ASK your customers what they would pay for
The one character trait she believes is core to her entrepreneurial spirit
How social nature grew to 100k email subscribers in less than 1 year, and to almost 1 million subscribers today
The power of community marketing in growing the brand
& where the business is at today
I think you’re going to love this episode with Annalea.
You can learn more about Annalea by finding her on LinkedIn, or you can connect with social nature https://www.socialnature.com/.
And don’t forget to download their e-book about Online To Offline Marketing: https://www.socialnature.com/marketing/complete-guide-online-offline-marketing-ebook/
TAKE US BACK:
What did the years following high school look like for you - what did you go to school for and what did your path look like, in the following years?
Did you always know you wanted to start your own business?
What were some of the major lessons learned from your first 2 businesses? Looking back, is there anything you would have changed?
When did the idea for Social Nature hit?
SOCIAL NATURE:
Tell us more about Social Nature: what is the mission, who do you help, and what makes it a unique business?
What were some of the first steps you took to bring Social Nature to life?
Did you have any early validation that made you believe that this could work?
WHERE YOU ARE TODAY:
Tell us about where Social Nature is today as a brand
Do you have a vision for the future of the company?
What’s been one of the most exciting and memorable milestones that you’ve reached?
What’s been most challenging about growing the business?
ENTREPRENEURSHIP:
You call yourself a “purpose driven entrepreneur”
What does this mean to you
For someone who hasn’t considered finding a deeper vision or purpose along their entrepreneurial journey, where should they begin?
What’s one character trait or skill-set you would tell our aspiring entrepreneurs to focus on building or learning? Maybe something you wish that you had learned earlier?
Have you implemented any new tools or systems lately to help you leverage your time?
Do you have any daily routines or rituals that keep you sane?
What’s one thing you’re geeking out on or learning more about, right now?
Click the image below to tune in to this weeks episode 🎙️
You’re going to LOVE this episode.
Entrepreneur Magazine named Annalea one of the top "25 Inspiring Entrepreneurs Under 40 Who Are Creating the Next Big Thing" and Conscious Company Magazine named her one of the "19 Social Entrepreneurs to Watch."
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Episode Transcript:
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You're listening to the visionary life podcast. I'm your host, Kelsey. Reidl, we're hanging out here today because one day, while hiking in Peru, after just having been let go from my dream job, it hit me. There's so much more to life and there's no excuse for not embracing uncertainty and trying new things to really explore our full potential in this lifetime.
On this weekly podcast, you'll hear from successful entrepreneurs, creative thinkers, and visionaries, just like you, so that you feel less alone as you pursue everything you want and deserve in this lifetime. This is a space where big sky thinking is welcomed and conversations about daily. Betterment are essential.
So if you're ready to stop living an ordinary life and start living a visionary life, then welcome home.
Hey visionaries. Welcome back to the show. I have a really fun episode for you today with the founder of social nature, Analea Krebs, and she is a purpose driven entrepreneur that loves promoting good stuff, not junk. So Analea sold her first eco-friendly online marketplace at the age of 30, and then in 2015, she launched social nature, which is a product discovery and trial platform in the better for you CPG space with over 750,000 community community members nearing 1 million.
And when I think back to my days, working for Vega and garden of life, two of the jobs that I held before starting my own business, I can actually remember encountering the social nature team at trade shows in Toronto and Vancouver. So it was kind of a fun moment to actually be able to sit down with Analea and chat and get to know.
So in today's conversation, Analea opens up about her first two business ideas and what she learned from them as well as why she picked. She talks about why it's so important to ask your customers what they would pay for and to not be afraid to get into conversation with them. We talk about the one character trait that she believes is core to her entrepreneurial spirit and how social nature grew to a hundred thousand email subscribers in less than one year.
I know isn't that crazy? I know you're all trying to grow your email list right now. So she's got some really good tips, especially around the power of community marketing for growing a brand. And we dive into where the company is at today and where she's currently focusing her time. So I know you're going to love this episode with Anna Leah Krebs, and you can learn more about Analea by finding her on LinkedIn she's active personally, or go learn about social nature.
It's social nature.com. So pretty simple and something that we mentioned in. Episode is the complete guide to online and offline marketing. Now, this is an ebook that you're going to want to read. If you are studying marketing or wanting to learn more about marketing right now, there are so many good tips in this ebook.
It's totally free. And I'm really excited to be able to link it in the show notes so that you can go download it. So definitely go check out social nature, enjoy this episode with such an amazing Canadian founder. And I think you'll be really inspired after tuning into this show. So enjoy, and I will talk to you guys soon.
Anna Leah, welcome to the visionary life podcast. I'm so excited to be kicking off 2022. This is the first interview of the visionary life podcast of this new and fresh year. So I'm really excited to dive into all things, entrepreneurship, how you started social nature and anything else that we want to dig into.
So thank you so much for being. Thanks for having me and happy new year. Happy new year. Yes. So why don't you take us back just so we can get a snapshot of your journey. What did the years following high school look like for you? For example, what was your first career path and what were you up to, um, before you started the business you have today?
So I've always wanted to be in business. I remember I was probably seven years old and dressing in business suits. So that's been it early, an early desire and businesses to me has always been associated with, you know, excitement life in the fast lane where, you know, where things happen. And so I couldn't wait to finish high school.
Um, in fact, I remember my 12th year, I, uh, Moved out of my, my, my traditional high school and into a, uh, a bit of an alternative high school where you could take classes in the mornings and evenings. Um, so it was meant for people, you know, with, with, with different, uh, responsibilities. And so I was able to work full time.
In my, uh, grade 12 at my last year of high school, which was just exactly what I wanted. I wanted to kind of feel like I was already in college. Uh, and so outside of, so after I graduated, I didn't want to go straight to college. I wanted to continue working as, and so what was the most businessy thing that I could think of?
I thought I want to work on the wall street of Vancouver, uh, which was just Berard street. Not quite well wall street, but, uh, I went downtown, had my business suits that I was so excited to wear. And, uh, I was 10 years younger than everybody else. I started working at a full time brokerage firm, again, very businessy finance.
Uh, and, and I was an assistant cause that's, you know, the, the job I could get at 18, um, I licensed assistants, but I would, could see the stockbrokers on the floor, hustling. I could be a part of the action and feel the action and learn from everyone around me. And so I was a sponge. I worked there for a year and a half.
Um, I worked really hard, uh, and, and, you know, they were ready to actually get, you know, sponsor my license and get me on the stock, the stock floor. But, um, as much as I loved the, the hustle and bustle and the action, um, what I wasn't feeling fulfilled, I wasn't, I, I didn't find meaning in the work and, um, that.
That for me is very important and has always been something that I've, I've done through nonprofit work. Um, as a youth, I would do a lot of volunteering, uh, for various nonprofits. And so that's, yeah, it just, it felt exciting, but it felt meaningless. And so I decided that at that point that I should go to school just to buy myself a little bit more time to figure out what I wanted to do really was how I saw it.
And, and so I just, I knew I still wanted to be in business. So I went to business school, um, at BCT, which again, it was a two year program I wanted to, I wanted to condense my learning and then get right back into the action and hopefully find myself, uh, at college. Uh, and so when I was what I was studying, um, I found.
Again, the stuff that they were teaching in business school, it was interesting, but I was always searching for something else. Uh, and so I would bring in something else through extra curricular activities. Um, I became, uh, uh, involved in a student association, uh, called, uh, well, I think it's called something else now, but it was an entrepreneurship student association.
And I ended up, um, heading up the student run business that was associated with that association. So I was learning how to design a website, brand, a business, hire other students, um, develop services that the students could, uh, sell to companies, price our offerings. Uh, and I loved it. I loved the freedom and creativity I had.
That student business. I loved the variety of work, um, that, that came with starting a business and the sense of accomplishment. I mean, at the end of that student, uh, run business, we ended up winning, winning second place in a national competition for this club, uh, competing against other universities and colleges and just winning together with a group of people.
Like the people that I had recruited into the, into the company. Yeah. Um, seeing how we made our clients happy. Um, you know, it was simple stuff. It was market research, it was promoting events, things that students could do part-time but we were still helping other businesses grow. And, um, the way that the organization was structured was that the profit that we made from the business, uh, we decided to, um, support other entrepreneurs.
In fact, women entrepreneurs in the downtown east side, in Vancouver who didn't have any capital and we would give them micro loans, um, to support them starting their businesses. And that's where I started to see, huh. Business can have a positive impact. I can use the profit from the business to support good, uh, and, and help other people.
And that's where I started to feel a spark. Um, what, what I was still seeking, you know, was how cool would it be if the actual. Product or service that a business had in itself created impact versus just using the profit for impact. And that's where I started getting really curious as a student and researching companies that were mission-driven that, that had it in their mission to do good.
Uh, and that's where that, that curiosity and excitement really, really started with. Um, oh my gosh. There's so much to actually unpack there and thank you for taking us back and sharing kind of your backstory. I think that's going to cue up so many of the topics that we'll dive into today, but you know, the first thing that you said was that you've been kind of dressing up in business attire and playing that role since you were a kid, right.
Seven years old. And I wanted to ask you, do you believe that that entrepreneurial spirit is something that we are born with or something that was cultivated in you? Or do you think it was a mix of both? Like, why did you have that entrepreneurial startup spirit at seven years old? It's a question I've, I've thought of because it, I don't quite have the lemonade stand story where as a, as a child.
Doing businesses. Like I wasn't running my own businesses as a child. I, I never thought I would be an entrepreneur. I knew I was going to be in business. Um, and so I guess there was a bit of a, that, yeah, that, that was a bit of a different, um, different path for me. My, my father, um, was an entrepreneur. He was more of a craftsman though.
So he was, he was a solo entrepreneur. Um, but what I definitely saw as a result of his work was, um, how much he loved his work. Like the fact that he, you know, he could tune and restore and repair pianos, which is what he does, um, all day long and just, you know, it was, if anything, he worked too hard cause he just loved his work so much.
Um, but I saw that when you do something for yourself, And you choose to do what you want to do, um, and follow your passion, how fulfilling that could be. Uh, and I also saw, you know, he, he taught me a lot through his, through his work. I mean, he taught me the value of hard work. He taught me, um, the value of following your passion.
He taught me the value of taking care of your customers. I mean, in his, in his instance, he's now working, um, in restoring and tuning pianos across generations of people because people love his work and, and his entire business has been word of mouth, uh, based on the quality of his work. Um, and so those are things that I've certainly was around as, as a child and, and, and growing up.
Um, but I really think it comes down to more like traits. Like, are you curious, curious, I've always been curious. Uh, I remember at 15 years old, I would be looking through. Newspapers at the time. Uh, and, and, you know, the, the globe and mail the Saturday globe, globe, and mail. And I would read all these interesting profiles of inspiring people.
And at 15, I would figure out how to get ahold of them. So I do an informational interview because I was curious to learn about how they got to where they were and, uh, wanted to learn and be inspired. And, and I remember around the same age at 15, I literally had a filing cabinet of folders around potential career opportunities that I wanted to explore.
And the range was, was all over the place, documentary, film, journalist, um, uh, ethical finance manager, scuba dive instructor, um, firefighter, all the things. And so I was just really curious about so many different. Things and, and took action every time to learn just enough to decide whether or not it was the right fit for me, whether that was an informational interview, whether that was, um, an internship or volunteering, um, that sense of curiosity and not follow through as well as taking that action.
Every time has been something that's been with me for a long time. And it's certainly something I use every day now as an attorney. It kind of reminds me of that meme and I'm sure you've seen it that says the entrepreneurial path is not linear. Like it's like, it's not a straight line. It's like that, you know, meandering line that like zigzags and twists and it's in a bunch of knots and kind of sounds like this was your journey.
Like you thought you were going to go one way and you explore it another way. And you got almost like these clues along the way of like what you were meant to be doing or what that next step would be. And it's almost like looking back, you can be like, oh yeah, that's why I ended up here today. But what you did was.
Follow your curiosity and every moment and every stage of life and be open-minded to like, oh yeah, like maybe I can have a business that has a purpose, or maybe I can start a company that, you know, whatever it is. And so I just loved hearing that story, that it was not a linear path. It's not like you woke up one day when you were fresh out of university and said, I'm going to start social nature.
Like, it just doesn't happen that way so often. So it's just great to hear your backstory. Um, I know you had started two companies before, so social nature. So I'm curious, can you just give us a snapshot of what were some of the key learnings from starting those businesses and maybe what were some of the things that you would have done differently?
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Go get all of your health, food goodies, and start saving today by heading to healthy planet canada.com. Use the code visionary 2022 at checkout. Always easier in hindsight. So yeah, the first business I started was right out of university, actually. So I completed, um, so I went on from college and then I ended up completing a bachelor's of commerce.
Um, again, I was, I chose a bachelor of commerce, uh, with a minor in entrepreneurship because at that 0.2 years into my university, I now knew after my student run business experience that I wanted to go into entrepreneurship and I still didn't quite know what I wanted to do. So I just kept going to university just to, by myself.
And, uh, and I knew that the entrepreneurship specialization would actually require students to write a business plan. So I was like, okay, great. This is where I can maybe think of something. And so, um, in my final year, I really just continue to follow my curiosity around purpose driven and mission driven businesses.
And I started researching all the mission driven businesses. There were across north America and then. You know, this is back to 2008. Um, when I was in university and I realized that there wasn't any directory at the time I had to literally do all my own research. There wasn't a directory of these mission-driven eco-friendly sustainable businesses.
And so that was what I started with as my first business, it was called the change and, uh, the change.com. It was an online, uh, business directory for ethical, sustainable businesses that were helping create the change, uh, in the world that, you know, we all want to see. And so, um, I did my own twist on it, of course, because I've, I've always been, I think I've always been a bit of a natural, uh, marketer.
I've I've been interested in marketing and communications and telling stories. That's why I was initially interested in documentary film films as well. Um, and. That was the kind of the approach I took. I would interview every single green goodness that was on my directory. Again, my curiosity, I wanted to know how the founder to develop their business and in doing so I created videos around each business telling their story of how they were participating in the change.
And so it became the first social, uh, green business directory. And we had, um, yeah, it was, it was, it was pretty, pretty cool for its time. It was, you know, a bit of a 2.0 directory, not the yellow pages by any means, but because I was so blindly following my passion, I didn't put as much emphasis on the business model.
So, you know, I was spending all my time interviewing these founders and developing these beautiful profiles and marketing. But the, the second thought not the first thought was how, how was I actually going to make money on this? And so that became, uh, that became the downfall really of that first business.
Because even though, um, I was very good at convincing businesses to join, um, for that beta free period, right? It's the chicken or the egg, you need content on the website. And so you often need to give it away for free for a period of time. When it came to asking the businesses, can you pay a monthly fee to continue to stay on the directory?
As I continue to grow the consumer base, they said, uh, you know, I have a lot of other alternatives that give me a lot more traffic, like my Facebook business page, or like my own website. And even though you're really doing a wonderful job telling my story, you know, even a hundred dollars a month, Yeah, I'm going to need to update the profile and all these things.
So, um, I was pretty disappointed, but came back from mat and ask them the second, very most important question, which was just staying open-minded. What would you pay for, you know, like what I had created the baby I had created, which was content marketing, um, sharing their story, that clearly they had other alternatives.
And so what would you pay for? And they told, they gave me the answer and they said, if you send me consumers through my doors that want to buy my eco-friendly sustainable products and services, I will gladly pay you for that. And so that was then, uh, really what pivoted the change.com to my second business ethical deal, which was, uh, a eco-friendly deal of the day website that promoted.
My first three months of ethical deals were literally the first 100 businesses that I had profiled on the change.com and, uh, and true to their word. You know, they gave me a 50% off offer that would, I think my first ethical deal was a vegan restaurant that I had profiled on, but change. And, um, and they, they had the other new, new restaurant.
They want a new customers through their doors. And so 50% off you can food, you know, spend $20, spend $10, get $20 worth of. The deal sold out, um, in 24 hours. And, and I had suddenly thousands of dollars in my bank account, which, you know, I split 50 50 with the restaurant and kept 50% for those, for the promotional services.
And, and that was completely bootstrapped. I was just literally working with the, the businesses I had profiled and the small community. I think I only had about 5,000 subscribers to the change, which I had, you know, hustled, uh, in the previous year at different yoga festivals and, um, farmer's markets to try to get those subscribers.
And so it was all, you know, I was a student, I wasn't, I was, I had student debt. So I was living at my parents. I didn't, I didn't have money to, to, to do much of anything, but, um, uh, that's, that's where I got to. And that's where. The first ethical deal, uh, was launched as a result of pivoting from the change and ultimately listening to your customers.
Okay. I want to go back. Cause you said something interesting around your first business, where you spent all this time building the community and growing the audience. And then when it was time to ask for money, a lot of people just said, no, this isn't what we want. And I think so often in business, we hear build your community first and then launch a product.
And I'm just curious, like, do you, uh, follow or subscribe to that mentality? Cause that sounds like what you did. Like you grew the community and then launched the product, but it didn't exactly work perfectly for you. So what are your thoughts on that piece of advice that a lot of people seem to be giving and following?
Hm. Hm. I mean, had I had zero community. It would have, it would have been even more challenging to, to present, to, to ask for. I mean, it depends on your business model. In this case, I was, my business model was more or less advertising. And for, if you have an advertising model, you need unique community. If you an e-commerce model, you need community, if you're, so it would depend on the business model, I would say.
But, um, yeah, for, for business to consume like B like B to C, um, but not so much B to C, B to C models or B2B models where you're selling. Access to a community, you need a community and there, and then you often need to then give your services either for free for a period of time, uh, to build up the content side of your business so that you attract the community to the website in the first place or to the, to the service, um, which is what I had to do with the change.
Uh, but the mistake was really not asking the customer what they would pay for, um, just giving them free access and kind of figuring it out later. Um, and I mean, ultimately the mistake ended up working out because I was open to listening to the customer. I was open to pivoting quickly, um, and I was still able to kind of repurpose the community for a different purpose.
Um, in fact, it added more value to the community this time, because not only were they able to, to discover the, the green businesses, they were able to get 50% off of the green business. Uh, so it was a win-win. In retrospect. Yeah. And I just think that's one of the key takeaways already from this podcast is you need to ask your customers, what would you pay for?
I think sometimes we're scared to get into dialogue with our dream customers and the people who have already shopped from us or who are not shopping from us, but you need to talk to as many people as possible to get that market validation for, you know, what you think they will pay for. So I think that's a really good piece of advice and also understanding the alternatives.
Like, I don't think I did enough thinking that at the outset around, well, what's the alternative for profiling your business and when the customer, you know, when we had that heart to heart around, what would you pay for? That's where they brought up the alternatives. I have Facebook, I have a business page on Facebook.
I have my website to talk about my business. Um, and in both of those were free at the time. So. Understanding the alternatives and then developing a business model around that and definitely adding more value than the free alternatives will support. So. Awesome. So then after the second business, you got the idea for social nature.
So take us to that moment. Like when did you decide to pivot? When did the light bulb moment go off for social nature and how did it come to be? It's interesting because looking back, it really is a series of pivots and expansions 1, 1, 1 thing building off the next really, it always is. Yeah. So ethical deal.
Um, so ethical deal itself. The green daily deal site grew for five years. I ended up, um, selling ethical deal, but what, uh, led to social nature, which was launched right after ethical. Was actually feedback from the ethical deal community, which in, in those later years, um, you know, certainly made a habit of serving the community, asking what we could do better, um, and differently.
And they gave me the idea. They said, uh, you know, thanks for introducing us to the greener choices in our cities. I've been really having fun, going to vegan restaurants and organic spas and natural paths and eco-friendly clothing companies and all the rest. But what about the everyday greener choices in my home?
What about the things that I eat for breakfast? The things I clean my house with, uh, things I, um, you know, he was in my makeup routine. I'm looking to green that side of my life up the everyday things. And so I started, um, uh, talking to manufacturers because I had really been just focused on those local local businesses, those local service-based businesses with ethical deal and with the change.
And so when I talk to manufacturers like nature's path, um, you know, they do organic cereal. And I said, I have this ethical shopping community. They're interested in trying your products and switching to more, um, organic alternatives. Can you offer 50% off for a 24 hour flash sale? And they said, no, they said we can't do that.
Um, the, the retailers is where we sell our products through it's, you know, whole foods and other retailers, and DOT's going to be a competitive offer to, you know, uh, the business that we do at whole foods. And that would risk our customer relationship with that retailer. Um, and so I started to again think about, okay, great.
So that's my business model of ethical deal. I mean, um, it's, it's doing these flash sales to, to help someone try something new. Um, but again, you know, before, before hanging up, uh, they said, well, we can give it away for free. And so it was so interesting because of course free is even better than 50% off as it relates to helping someone try something new.
Um, but because I had, you know, called the customer and I was doing more or less market research at the time, I was still running ethical deal, uh, and exploring, you know, how I could make this happen based on my consumer feedback. Um, I learned all about the grocery industry and, and the dynamics of why offering something for free was possible versus 50% off.
Uh, and it turns out in grocery as I'm sure everyone has experienced. If you go to Costco or if you go to a, you know, an event all the time brands are handing out free samples because they know that getting food and mows is the best way to, um, have someone try something new and purchase it in store. Yep.
And so that's really then what led to me making the decision to start a new business that was going to be focused on product setup. Um, because I was really excited by helping people change their everyday habits and responding to what my community wanted next really, and, and helping people live those live and even more health be like, if I was kind of helping them with the daily versus the weekly or the monthly habits.
Um, and so that got me excited enough to yeah. Sell, let, go of ethical deal and, and, and, um, and then start social nature. And was there anything like it at the time or had you kind of landed on a unique idea? The first of its kind with social nature? It was, it was unique because we, the way, the way we did the sampling, um, and not, I think because have always been very focused on driving that impact like that the, you know, re.
Truly authentically helping green businesses grow. Um, like I am not a fluffy marketer. I am very, very much, you know, how can I design a system that is going to help you grow? Um, and because that's what I'm driven by. I want, I want to see positive change in this world. I want to use this and this as a force for good.
And so the business model has to do that for my clients and, and for my community. Um, and so when I looked at, um, product sampling in my market research phase and looked at how brands are currently doing it, I saw an ask them, isn't working. What are you frustrated by? You know, what would you wish you had and your dream scenario.
That's where I was really learning kind of what was broken with the system and how I could perhaps add more value. Um, and, and so that's where we innovated and decided to, um, Digital to add value through the targeting. Um, I value through the measurability of the sampling experience, add value through consumer feedback and collecting that, uh, online, but then using what was working, um, as a related to product sampling, which was the offline experience and giving people an opportunity to, to try the products, um, in full size, but actually sending the consumer to the grocery store to pick up the product, which.
Not common. I mean, there, there wasn't anything else like that at the time where, where a marketing company was starting, the, the PRA the brand discovery process online, and then sending consumers into the grocery store for the trial, and then bringing them back online for the feedback and the reviews. So we've actually last month at social nature released a 50 page, um, free guide on online to offline marketing, which is really, um, a wonderful resource from all of the learnings that we had, uh, through social nature and really translating back to ethical deal as well, which was a different online to offline marketing system.
Um, and so, yeah, we, we, we were really early with that, uh, approach and I was able to take a lot of the learnings that I had with ethical deal into social nature of. Many of you know, that I studied to become a holistic nutritionist many years ago. And even though I'm no longer practicing, I still take my health very seriously, especially in the winter.
When I feel like everyone around me is feeling subpar in one way or another. And part of my daily routine is Sandhu call black elderberry syrup as well as their black elderberry gummies Sabu call black elderberry is the original black elderberry supplement. So you may not have heard of black elderberries before, but they have been used for centuries in traditional folk remedies and they're prized for their anti-inflammatory properties.
I've been extremely fond of this brand since my days, studying nutrition because of its potency and efficacy in supporting my immune. And at the first sign of a tickle and either mine or Dave's throat, we are reaching for the sand blue call. I just can't afford to take days off work as an entrepreneur and Sam buccol helps me stay well.
So not only does it taste amazing, the gummies are actually better than candy, but this stuff actually works. And I'm really excited to be using Sabu called daily immune drink powder as well. So when I'm sick of drinking water throughout the day, I just crack a pack of the immune powder and it tastes like Kool-Aid, but without the sugar and with way more benefit.
So if you want to save on your next order of Sabu call, get 15% off of any order over nine ninety nine or more@sandhucallusa.com. So S a M B U C O L usa.com and be sure to use the code visionary 15 at checkout. So again, save 15% by using code visionary 15 at usa.com. And I've actually read that ebook start to finish, and I loved it.
I just think it's so fascinating. And the fact that you pioneered this concept of online to offline, like it's like, it makes sense. And as you're reading it, you're like, of course, but the fact that you've been able to put it into words and like really, um, just like this ebook that I can really wrap my head around.
I just think it's fascinating. So I'll link that in the show notes for anyone who is interested and has a business that might, um, benefit from this model. Awesome. Thank you. Um, I'm curious when you were really in the first year or two of social nature and building your platform and seeing if this business was going to take off, do you remember what some of your key success metrics were like, what were you trying to accomplish in that first or second year in terms of like big goals that would mean we are on the path to a successful company.
So one of the things I was enjoying was social nature was really trying to focus on developing a more scalable business. So ethical deal was very resource intensive in that it was kind of like a Yelp model. We had to have local operations in each, every single, single city that we were operating in, which was definitely, um, you know, needed, needed, would have needed even more money to scale across north America.
I was mostly active in Canada with ethical deal. So my ambitions for creating more impact, I wanted a business that I could very easily scale geographically immediately. I wanted to be in the U S uh, and, and, you know, think beyond that as well. And so I. Was very focused on kind of setting up my operations from the beginning for scale.
Um, and that meant, you know, having, having a headquarters rather than a super distributed team that I have with ethical deal, um, and having, uh, using third-party resources where possible for anything that wasn't my core competency. So I really focused on, you know, what I want, what am I really good at?
What can I, what is my, where do I want to spend my company's resources and, and, you know, hiring for, and what am I ready to let go of to other people that can do that better? And so I outsource my warehouse operations, for example, because I didn't want to be in the warehouse business. Um, But I knew I wanted to keep marketing in house cause that's always been a core competency of ours.
Um, so thinking through that at an early stage can be really helpful. Um, and, and that'll kind of lend itself to, you know, where you hire contractors or consultants or even agencies, um, versus what you decide to bring in house. I know for a lot of food manufacturers, this is a really big decision for them, like right into, they want to be in charge of their own manufacturing or are they going to outsource that manufacturing?
Um, one of our investors is the founder of Vega. Um, the, uh, very, very popular plant-based protein company and very early on in his career, he decided to outsource the manufacturing of the product, um, but really focus on building an amazing brand. Uh, and so. That led to a half a billion dollar exit, um, that decision.
So it's not to say that that's right for every brand. Some brands really want to control those to control that, but then maybe they're outsourcing other aspects of their operations. So I think it's just a really good exercise to go through in the beginning of your company. Um, the other, uh, key metrics that we were focused on was really quickly scaling the community.
Um, as I knew how important that was, and it was a little hard, cause I had just built up ethical deals, community, right? Uh, hundreds of thousands of members. And when I sold the company, you know, I sold that sold that I was all gone. That was starting back at zero. I was starting from zero. So, um, so I, but I, you know, again, I had learned things from, from that experience and I learned how.
Uh, refer a friend programs could be very effective. Um, I learned, uh, that blogger and influencer programs were also very effective for kind of starting that kick-starting that community. And so I made it a goal of getting to a hundred thousand community members in the first year of my business. I ended up doing in six months.
Uh, so that was great. Um, by using some of those tactics that I had proven successful with ethical deal. And so I, you know, I kind of set micro goals along the way. Like I got to, um, have 100 eco-friendly bloggers talk about social nature. That was one of my micro goals towards that a hundred thousand committee member goal.
Um, and that really accelerated, uh, the growth of the community is they all have their own communities that they were now talking about our product samples to an offering social nature's product samples to their communities and in turn referring. Their audience traffic back to social nature. So there almost became like a bit of an affiliate network you could say.
Um, and, and then building in that refer a friend program into our product. I mean, that's free users, right? Um, I mean, sometimes you might need to give something away of course, back to your community, but, um, building a community model that had a really, um, low cost of, of, uh, customer user acquisition costs, um, was really something that I was focused on because I knew I wanted to have a very large community.
I knew I wanted millions of members, um, with, with, uh, with social nature. And so I knew I needed to figure out different strategies that gave me that really low, um, cost per user equity. I feel like you need to write an ebook on just how you grew a hundred K subscribers in such a short amount of time.
It's just very admirable. And I love that, you know, you really emphasized community marketing in one way or another. I think we can all take away a lot from that. And I know that tons of the listeners are trying to grow an email list right now, but sometimes it can feel really hard. So I think those tips are really, really awesome in terms of the refer a friend, working with influencers or other people who already have platforms.
Um, and yeah, just some really good tips there. I'm curious if you didn't have a relationship with a blogger or influencer, but you knew you wanted them to feature social nature. How did you reach out to them? How did you pitch them so that they would say, yes, I'd love to link back to your website. Like what were some of the strategies you used for a successful pitch?
Yeah. I thought about what, how I could add value to their communities. Um, and so with social nature, it was certainly. We had a, like up there because we offered free product samples. And so I would give them more or less, uh, exclusive access to that, to that product sample, um, or, you know, up to a certain volume.
So they kind of got first, first dose if they were to promote it to their community. And these were, you know, full-sized products. So there was definitely some excitement around that, um, for companies that may not have that advantage. Um, other tactics that I have used in the past, along the same lines is offering for example, a contest.
Um, so that's something that, you know, it can cost you anywhere from a hundred dollars. It could be a a hundred dollar contest. I can get a lot of people excited. Um, You know, giving away your product or service for free, that has a hundred dollar value or coming up with something else, I'm just offering a contest.
And then, uh, that's, I mean, bloggers are always looking for content and of course, as bloggers get more popular, that's where the price has come in. And that's where they're probably going to charge you for those services. But at the time I was really looking for, um, you know, not the biggest bloggers I was looking for those that maybe only had, you know, 10,000, uh, followers.
Uh, and so those ones were more, um, flexible with, with kind of an exchange like that. Yeah. And I think that what you said about always making sure there's value in it for them, that's an applicable tip for all of us. It's like, anytime you're asking for something from somebody else, whether it's their time or for them to write a blog on their website, always think what's in it for them, because what they're thinking is what's in it for me.
Right. So if you can position it that this is valuable to you rather than just being like, I want you to do this for me, then they're more likely to say yes. So always keep that in mind, what's in it for them. And I think it's the positioning of the request that makes the difference. Whether you get the yes or the no.
Yeah, one of the things I just thought I'm just to throw in the mix there is if, especially if you already have an audience and, and in this case, you know, I had more than 10,000 followers. So, so, um, I was able to also offer that as a value where, because they were aligned with our mission, these were eco-friendly bloggers.
And in this case, I was able to say, when you post that piece of content, all share that content back on my social media channels. So then I was also helping them grow their follower base. So that's another tactic, um, that you can do, especially if you're targeting those smaller bloggers and influencers, help them grow their community as well.
Brilliant. So where is social nature today? Kind of fast forward us a little bit and describe the company as it is right now. And just what you're currently focusing. Yeah, social nature has grown a fair out since it started six years ago. Uh, so we are active across north America with our product sampling.
Um, we have, we are working with over 500 food health and wellness brands to drive targeted trial and at retail. Um, and we have a community of almost a million members across north America that use social nature to make the switch to products that are better for themselves and better for the planet on their next shopping trip.
And, uh, and so yeah, you can sign up, it's free to sign up and you can just tell us what retailers you shop at. And then we'll start sending you free product offers, um, for healthy and sustainable products, um, that you can then pick up on your next shopping. And, uh, our team is, uh, almost 30 people right now.
We'll be 40 people in the next four months. So we're making a big we're growing, we're growing significantly. Um, and yeah, we're, we're, we're headquartered in Vancouver, but with, uh, the pandemic, our team has become more distributed. So we've actually just opened up a US-based subsidiary and are hiring a sales team in the U S.
And so now we, now we're a team is distributed and actually, and, um, but it's working, we found a way to work remotely effectively and, um, and I'm, I'm still loving it, you know, I S I still, in fact, um, I think an important moment for me recently was there was an opportunity, um, for me to reinvest in the company personally.
And, and I did that, and that was a really important moment for me as an entrepreneur. You know, to, to reinvest and write a check for your companies six years in is, is, um, you know, just a Testament for how excited I still am about the company and its growth. So yeah, having that drive, having that passion, um, you know, you know, you're doing the right thing and they say that with every new level, there is a new devil and I'm sure that you've been on this perpetual growth journey as an entrepreneur and leading a team.
I'm curious, is there anything that you're currently trying to problem solve for or something that you're currently trying to learn about in order to become a better leader, a better entrepreneur? Um, just something that is like top of mind to you at this moment. Always something I love that I haven't said, I haven't heard that saying as, as you just said it, but I always say, yeah, the problems don't go away, go away.
They just get more interesting. So that's a very positive way to put it. Um, yeah, I mean, where I find, I spend my time now with, you know, a 30 going on 40 person company, uh, certainly a lot of time on recruiting and, and finding great talent to, to add to my company and maintaining. Building on that culture that, that we have.
I find that every time the company doubles in size, there is definitely changes to the culture. And some of those are really positive changes. Like you can hire in a great person and they can be a culture add and bring something new to that is right for your company at that stage. So staying open to that, uh, is important, but also, you know, if you don't pay attention to it, things can slip.
Um, and so that's where I'm really kind of looking at, you know, our, our people in culture operations a lot more. Um, and you know, for the first time, and in fact, I hired a people, a people, operations manager, that's not something that's the first hire. I've made it at this size of company in that respect, but it just shows that that's where the focus needs to continue to be as the company scales.
Um, and I'm always surprised at, you know, as I, as I have more peers that are on. Running companies of this size and even bigger. It's a good checkpoint for me because I want to surprise how much time I spend on it. Like really, truly a third of my time easily. Some weeks, 50% of my time is on something around people, operations people on culture, uh, talent acquisition.
Um, and but when I speak to my peers, other entrepreneurs that are running companies of similar, bigger sizes, they concur, they say, yes, this is where we're now spending our time. Um, so that's kind of just something I didn't expect to be spending as much time on, but I see how important it is for the company.
Um, the, the other thing that's, uh, coming through for me now is really, um, focusing on developing and growing my team. Like my current team members. The company last year grew 177% year over year on revenue. And so something that I've started to say to my team is as our company continues to grow at this rate, we as individuals need to grow at this rate.
And so that's, that's become, um, you know, a bit of a bit of a saying at our company. And so of course it can't, we know we need an action plan behind that to support that type of growth. And so that's where we now have, um, by annual growth and development conversations with each of our team members to say, you know, how can we help you grow?
And here's opportunities for you to grow based on the 360 that everybody gets. So feedback from their peers, their managers, and others that they work closely with. Um, and it's a positive conversation, right? It's a conversation around. Your personal and professional growth. Um, and then we ask, you know, we basically developed, um, uh, for lack of better words, an action plan for how the company and how they can help support themselves.
Um, and we make time and space for that. So now we actually have 5% of everybody's job focused on personal and professional development. It's a mandate, you must be focused on personal and professional development, uh, but here's how we can help support you. So that's also becomes something that is certainly a focus for us as, at this stage that I wouldn't have expected necessarily a really thought of until I was in.
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Join us today by heading to Kelsey reidel.com for details or click the link in the show notes and learn more about the visionary man. It's a fascinating concept to think about making sure your personal growth is meeting the business growth, right? Like the company grew 177%, but if you stayed stagnant, are you still able to bring your best work to a rocket ship company?
Right. So I think that's fascinating and something to absolutely consider for anyone who's running a business, or even if you are an employee and you see your company growing, like take ownership and grow yourself to make sure you're always prioritizing your skill sets and what you can add, um, especially with a business that is growing so quickly.
So I think that's really cool. My side, I apply that to myself as well. So one of the best things I ever did for my own personal and professional development was get an executive coach. And that's someone that, um, I work with regularly on, on my, on my development. I get a 360 done, right? So I'm, I'm in the trenches with everyone else getting through.
Working on my development goals, um, and, and growing as a leader. And I mean, I, I recently spoke to someone from, um, Shopify, you know, we all know, we all know most of us know Shopify, huge, huge Canadian success story. And, uh, and they actually, I didn't know it, but they have something I kind of have similar philosophy, which, which was interesting given their growth.
Um, they, they re qualify themselves for their, for their jobs every single year. Uh, this is, this is amongst, I don't know how hard for this goes, but this is certainly amongst the senior management team. They have this, they have this philosophy and I just love it because it just doesn't let you rest on your laurels.
It really forces you to focus on growth, which if you're in a high growth company or building a startup, I mean, you just, you need to grow at the pace of your business or ideally faster than your business. If you're in a leadership. Yeah, I'm realizing that what you have, like what position you have now is not necessarily a permanent state.
Like you need to take ownership over yourself in order to hold on to that job that maybe you got. But if you're not keeping up with the growth or if you don't requalify for it, it's, it's on you, right. Maybe there's a way that you can continue to, um, keep up with what they need from you. So it's a great reminder of that impermanence that you don't just get to coast always.
And it's a good thing, not to coast and to actually prioritize your personal development alongside the company growth. Yeah. It's especially if you want to grow, I mean, there, there you can coast and you can maintain the same role that you've had, but if you want to grow. Yeah. You know, and, and continue to accelerate your career, then that stuff Leyva a playbook.
So now that you have a team and I'm sure you have a daily to-do list that is, you know, many items long, how do you prioritize, continuing to think about the vision of where you want social nature to go so that you're not constantly stuck in the daily operations? Or like, do you have time to just sit back and dream about what's possible in the next 10 years?
Um, any thoughts on that? Yeah, I would say that's definitely a, an ongoing struggle, but I've, but I've, I, you know, you have to, you have to create time for it. And so how I've created time for it, um, is a number of different ways. One is I do it with my team, so we have quarterly off sites where we. I look back at what we've done and where we're going.
So that's really helpful. And then we have an annual, uh, kind of one that looks even further ahead, more and more to the three-year mark. Uh, and so those are really helpful moments for, for planning and reflection as a team. Uh, personally, I find that I think. Fast thinking, even though I'm not consciously thinking about the business per se, I'm not, I'm not in the day-to-day one modification.
So what for me to get away? Um, you know, again, I'm not doing work, but I'm letting my mind think freely. And always after those vacations, I have new moments of clarity. Um, just as an example, that when I went on vacation, um, is when I decided to sell ethical deal and start social nature. Just that moment of clarity came around, what is my purpose and how does this help me, um, get, create more impact and, and letting go of that fear of, you know, selling something that I had worked five years at and was in a good place.
To, to start something new that came after a vacation. Um, and so taking those breaks, those regular pit stops, um, I don't just take an annual vacation. I also do quarterly a little long weekends where I try to create that space for myself. And it's not that I necessarily have a outcome that I want after those four days or two weeks or whatever it is.
Um, it's just that I get myself out of the day to day. So I find those are things that are helpful. And then even on a weekly basis, I try to, um, Friday night till Sunday morning, uh, really just again, unplug get into nature and let my mind think differently. And you know, sometimes the best ideas do come in the shower or when I'm, when I'm walking, uh, or chatting with friends and, um, So that's, that's how I get myself out of my day-to-day Headspace.
Yeah. And I always think back to a quote that one of my business mentors told me. He said, if you want to be more creative, go to a creative place, like you have to get out of your daily routine. So whether that's going on vacation and dreaming about work, or just going to a coffee shop with a friend, like you can't expect to just like sit here 24 7 and to continue to be a visionary of your company.
So you got to switch it up and always keep things fresh. And I love that you give yourselves those quarterly breaks and plan in those offsite meetings. So that there's time for the vision and that you're not just, you know, bogged down in daily to do lists. So that's great. Yeah. The other thing that, um, I found.
Well, I would've liked to do earlier, but I didn't really know about it until later in my career was, and there's many different models, but the one I use is OKR for planning. Um, so setting in a, you know, one or more clear objectives, um, and then some key results that you want to, you know, work towards and support of that objective.
And then, um, some supporting lines that help you accomplish that key results and really taking the time to develop that structure plan and then using that on a monthly basis, um, to revisit and make sure you're on track with that, having some key KPIs to help you, um, know whether you're on track or off track as well.
So that structure, you know, I think I could have used that in my second year, but I didn't, I didn't use that until my fourth year. Um, but yeah, learning those structures and there's lots of stuff on Google and stuff around that or books you can read can be. Yeah, I totally agree. I use a similar system and it's just such a simple framework.
That's not just like sit down and write out some goals. It's like, what is the outcome you're trying to achieve here? What are the outputs and what are the measurable results? That'll tell you, you are on track, right? And it can just be like a simple little chart. So that's awesome that you do that. Um, this has been amazing.
I feel like I could pick your brain for quite some time, but, uh, before we end off, where can people learn more about you as an amazing entrepreneur about social nature, which is an opportunity for them to try better for you products? Uh, where are the best places for our listeners to connect. Uh, I'm pretty active on LinkedIn personally.
So definitely invite anyone to connect with me on LinkedIn. Um, and then social, nature's just social nature.com. It's free to sign up as, uh, enjoying our community. And, uh, so I invite you to do that as well. And otherwise, if you're in Vancouver, BC, this is, this is where I, where I live and I love to rock climb and go hiking.
So if any of you were into that, hit me up. Cool. Find you on the rock walls.
Let's have our business meeting while climbing. Is that like the new way we do things. I love that. So. Awesome. Well, Leah, thank you so much for sharing your story on the visionary life podcast. We really appreciate you opening up about your journey and wish you all of the best as you continue to accomplish epic things.
So thank you. Thank you. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of visionary. 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 in your iTunes app, you can also support the show by taking a quick screenshot of the episode and sharing it on your Instagram stories.
Tagging me at Kelsey Reidel. I'll catch you in the next episode. PS, whenever you're ready, there's a couple of ways that I can support you. So, first thing, if you're ready to make your first or next $50,000 in business, explore how the visionary method business coaching experience can accelerate your growth.
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