BRAND SECRETS AND STRATEGIES

PODCAST #65

Hello and thank you for joining us today. This is the Brand Secrets and Strategies Podcast #65

Welcome to the Brand Secrets and Strategies podcast where the focus is on empowering brands and raising the bar.

I’m your host Dan Lohman. This weekly show is dedicated to getting your brand on the shelf and keeping it there.

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Dan: Welcome. Thank you for listening. I really appreciate you listening to this podcast. This podcast is about you and it's for you. I'm working hard to provide actionable insights and strategic solutions to get your brand on more retailer shelves, and in the hands of more shoppers. With simple, easy to use and adopt strategies to give you an equal seat at the table with a big brand. In addition to interviews with leading industry thought leaders. If you like the podcast, please share it with a friend. Subscribe and leave a review on iTunes. Today's story is about how a couple of friends started a networking group, that grew to be a whole lot more. Here's Doug and Zach with Colorado Food Works.

Doug and Zach, thank you so much for joining me today. Can we start by having you tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, what brought you together, and what compelled you to start Colorado Food Works?

Zach: I am Zach Greenberg, I'm the VP of Growth at Perky Jerky. We're a proud Colorado company, founded here in Denver, about nine years ago. I met Doug a couple of years ago at a networking event for the natural foods' industry. We started talking and venting about all the trials and tribulations of working in the natural foods world. And we got to talking and decided hey, you want to meet every two weeks and trade some industry knowledge and see if we could help each other out in our respective companies? And from there, it started to develop into a larger networking group which I'll let Doug get into since he's really been spearheading it for the last two years.

Doug: Yeah, my name is Doug Helbig, I'm the VP of Sales for Wandering Bear Cold Brew Coffee. We really stumbled upon an opportunity to create a community that we didn't know was needed until we started to build a forum and see it take off. As Zach had said, we would meet every couple of weeks or so and we really were in noncompeting categories, and so we would help each other out with tips and buyers and brokers and different strategies. Word got out that we were doing this, and we would have people say, "Oh, can I join? Can I join?"

And so, a little over a year ago, we decided to blast out an email to all of our friends and we had a whopping 16 people show up to our first event. Zach and myself said, "Okay, I think we're onto something here." So we decided to formally create Colorado Food Works and put a board together and in about 15 months or so, we ballooned to over 450 members. And it's a really engaged community. Everyone's really there to help each other. We're really proud that we've created this community that again, we didn't know it needed to be created, but we did.

Dan: So when you say you didn't know it needed to be created, besides just bumping into people who had similar questions, what caused you to want to put the group together and take this to the next level, including formalizing a group?

Zach: I think for us it happened so organically. Again, as Doug said, word was getting out, and more and more people were joining, and we said, "Hey, there's a real need here to start a community especially in Denver." There're other great organizations throughout Colorado, but there's nothing in Denver, and it's such a thriving food scene, young, progressive. Hey, and it's not that hard to get a bunch of millennials in the snack food world to meet up at a bar and air out their problems and ask for help. And again, it just grew organically so quickly, it was very apparent that there's a need for a group like this here in Denver.

Dan: I've been to several of your events, and your events are first class. You guys do a phenomenal job. And I love the fact that you've brought together such a diverse group so willing, able, and anxious to help each other succeed. To me, that's what makes natural, natural. I also love how interactive your events are. Can you talk about some of the different events you've had, and some of the different things that you've done through Colorado Food Works?

Doug: Absolutely, yeah. We typically will do one networking/education event a month. Some of the highlights, we had a town hall forum with the Whole Foods Rocky Mountain team. That was a fantastic event. Whole Foods had reached out and said we'd love to create some dialog with the natural food vendor community here in Denver. Whole Foods Rocky Mountain had recently moved their offices to downtown Denver. So, that was an extremely well attended event.

We've also had great events on creating an Amazon channel for your brand, led by some really stellar Amazon brokers in the space. And then we also do strict networking events where there's not as much education because networking is at least 50% of what we try to do because that's where the dots are connected, and that's how Colorado Food Works gets to help share access with people. So, those are some of the highlights of what we've done this past year.

Dan: Do you do things beyond the platform of Colorado Food Works? In other words, do you as a group get together and have little side meetings and is any of that taking place?

Doug: Yes. Colorado Food Works, we've definitely realized that there's a lot of need for just this community and so, in addition to some of our larger monthly education, networking events, we're going to start to allow coffee collaborations where they're smaller groups tailored to specific items and round-table those. Colorado Food Works is going to go in whatever direction we see the need to be. And so smaller, collaborations are definitely something that we'll be rolling out later this year.

Dan: Great. What are some of the major questions brands are asking you? What are the things that they want to know the most?

Zach: Absolutely, and again, it all goes back to just sharing the trials and tribulations that everyone in the natural food world goes through at some point. It's as basic as, "Hey, do you have a good broker that could help me out at Kroger, or at Target?" Or, "Hey, I'm looking for a VP of Ops, do you know anybody? Have you worked with anybody in the past that might be looking for a job? Hey, we have a new social media campaign we want to launch, do you have an agency that could help out with this?"

So we're really trying to connect the dots for our members, with actual needs that they're dealing with on a daily basis. And the group has really been able to do that for almost the last two years now. We're making these meaningful connections for the majority of our group members. And that's a big reason why these meetups we're having are getting larger and larger every time, because there really is true value there.

Dan: So, can I ask you, you say that you get a lot of requests for networking, connecting this person to that person, that kind of stuff. Do you get other requests as well? And specifically education? How do you do certain things?

Doug: Very much so. And we have an open inbox, policy, info@ColoradoFoodWorks.org, is constantly being monitored. We always have people asking questions, looking to get those one-on-one connections. And that's something that we're proud to be able to offer to our members is, it doesn't always have to be done in a large networking setting. If someone's looking to get in touch with x-kind of person, as Colorado Food Works grows our member base, we look at ourselves as dot connectors. And so, if someone has a specific need, we use Colorado Food Works as a medium for getting people in touch with people they need to, even if it's not at a large network setting.

Dan: Okay, so how does that work? If I were to leave a question, or an info@ColoradoFoodWorks.org, what happens to my question? Does it go to a forum? Do you just connect it to someone? In other words, how do I get my question answered, and does it end up on the website as a resource for others?

Doug: I think we handle things on a case by case basis. Again, we look to just share access and so, if people have specific questions or are looking to get in touch with certain people, as a board, we review and just make sure that we're helping people connect the dots in any way we can.

Dan: Great, I appreciate it. And I love the fact that you guys say that you're dot connectors, that's very clever. So, let me ask you, as an organization, how do you see yourself, or differentiate yourself from say, what mainstream brands would do?

Doug: In terms of what mainstream brands would do in terms of how they connect with the community?

Dan: Well yeah, I mean, there's a "tried and true" way of doing things. You guys are trying to not reinvent the wheel, obviously. How do you employ the strategies that are helping the natural local organic, et cetera brand succeed, with unique strategies that differentiate yourself from what you might see in a mainstream networking group?

Doug: You know, there's a lot of similarities. When it comes down to it, I think the backbone of what Colorado Food Works does and other networking groups around the country really, is helping the small brands bond together. We're all stronger if we work together. And the industry is in my opinion, is amazing for just the amount that people are willing to help each other. And even direct competitors are willing to lend a hand out to help with an issue, or a speed bump in their company's growth. So I don't think that there's anything radically different from what we're doing. We're just giving a voice to our community here and just helping by connecting everyone together.

Dan: I think it's great what you guys are doing. I really appreciate that you guys have initiated this and you're taking this on. What does your ideal member look like?

Zach: For us, Daniel, it's really, we're looking for the individual that is very early on in the CPG world, as well as an individual that's more seasoned, at least 10, 15 years of experience. Again, as Doug was saying, if we're dot connectors, you have to have someone there that can answer any question. It really goes back to why we started this.

If Doug and I had a group like this when we were first starting out about a decade ago, we probably could have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars and hours and hours of time. And now we have this network of individuals that can really save you that time and that money, and say, "Hey, I made that mistake. Please don't do that. Let me help you with this." Again, it's really incredible how willing individuals are to be generous with their time, and meet for coffee after. I mean, it's really a testament to the natural foods community, and a testament to the natural foods community here in Denver.

Dan: It is. That's what I love about natural. In my mind, it's what makes natural, natural. What about pre-revenue companies, pre-revenue brands? Are they welcomed there too? How can you help a brand that's got an idea, they're not sure if they want to produce it, they're not sure if they've really got something that's sellable, something that's marketable? How would you help a brand like that?

Doug: I think that what Colorado Food Works does, lends itself perfectly to a brand in that position. To Zach's point earlier, there're so many common speed bumps and pitfalls that all brands go through and if I had had a network like this, early on in my career, I think it would have allowed me to really tailor the direction that I was trying to bring my company at that time, and just really ask the right questions. And more importantly, I think some of the pre-revenue brands don't even know the questions to ask. And I think that we do a good job of letting them know, not only what the answers are, but what are the questions.

Dan: I appreciate you sharing that. What is next for Colorado Food Works? Where do you see yourself going? And what are the opportunities for the future of this organization?

Doug: You know, I think that what Colorado Food Works has established in the last 15 months is amazing. I never thought 15 months ago, that we'd be at 450 members, and such an engaged community. And I think that what we're focused on doing is letting the community dictate where the organization goes. We have great backbone of just sharing access. And I think that, that's what we're going to continue to do. If anything, I think more content, more collaboration, just to enhance the community, is what we're focused on for the next 12 to 24 months.

Dan: When you say content, do you mean content in terms of programs? Or are you going to actually have more content on your website?

Doug: A little bit of both. I think content for us is more the education pieces, of providing sessions with valuable insights on different areas of the industry. So not only sales and marketing, but finance and ops, and social media, and influencer events. There's no shortage of topics to help grow brands. And that's what we're going to focus on creating.

Dan: I really want to commend you guys and what you're doing, what you've built. I think you're doing a great job. There's such a tremendous need for this. And one of the challenges that I run into, the thing that most brands ask me, is how do I get started? To your point, how do I connect the dots?

There are some other groups in Colorado and around the country, but the big difference that I see between your group and other groups, is that you're not trying to recreate something someone's already done. I love how your format's more interactive, and more inviting and engaging. I love the feel and the vibe. I think you guys have done a phenomenal job at differentiating yourself and standing out in a crowded industry.

I know that you're a part of Denver Startup Week. What is that, and what role do you play in that? And then as a followup question, at one of your networking events, I was talking to someone from the city of Denver, so how do they play into what you're doing?

Doug: Great question. So the city of Denver was actually, really influential early on in getting Colorado Food Works off the ground. The city's doing a great job of really understanding that the food industry is a real big player in the economic growth of the city. And so the city's done a good job of putting together what they call their 20-year food plan, which really sets forth a plan for Denver, to create the Silicon Valley of food. And so they've been really helpful in paralleling what we're trying to do at Colorado Food Works, and helped to get us involved with Denver Startup Week.

Now, Denver Startup Week is in September. It's one of the largest startup industry collaborations in the world. It's a five-day event. Last year there was over 18,000 individuals that attended. From a wide array of tech startups to health startups. And Colorado Food Works put on our first event last year with over 150 people attending. And it really helped us say, "Hey, food is a major player in the startup world in Denver too." And we're honored to have just been selected for our second straight year to participate.

Dan: I had a really great conversation with Phil Lempert The Supermarket guru. On episode 32, we had a similar conversation where, he believes that food is the next big thing, liking it to the Silicon Valley. And obviously, he was saying that Colorado's a great place to start that. So I appreciate you guys taking the lead on that.

What other things should anyone who wants to know about Colorado Food Works know, what else would you want to share with them? What other aspirations, goals, and tips and techniques, would you want to share with them?

Zach: Yeah, absolutely. And another great question. You know, networking events sometimes get a bad rap. I'm going to go there, nobody's going to talk to me. Or, am I going to get any value out of this? We're again, trying to create an environment that's not threatening, that's a little different than a typical networking group, and again, provide real value to anybody that's coming to one of our events.

So, as we continue to grow, we're truly not going to just create events just to have them on a calendar. If we don't have a good topic for one month, we might just say, "Hey, let's make this a typical networking event and just let individuals come here and try and make a meaningful connection." If we have a really great speaker, we'll make sure to promote that two months out. And again, as the group is growing and growing, our content is getting better and better each time.

Dan: And one of the things I wanted to highlight, and I appreciate you saying that Zach, is that like your sister group, like other groups that are out there in the industry, trying to provide the networking, et cetera, the challenge is, that you've got the young, hungry brands that show up to almost everything. And then the medium sized to larger brands don't typically show up unless it's a major event. So the problem is, you've got a bunch of people that really don't know what they're doing, asking for help, and you don't have that mentoring group to be able to support them.

What I find that's unique about your group, is that you've got a well established, well-rounded group of people supporting and participating so that the younger startups, et cetera, have those larger brands to talk to and to ask those questions. I think it's great that you guys are able to do that. And also, I think your venue's pretty amazing too, being able to stand up on that rooftop and look out at the skyline and the mountains. And I really appreciate the way you guys lead the groups too. And I love the fact that you guys are so interactive. And really do a really phenomenal job at inviting the participants, the members, to help out and get involved.

Doug: Yeah, I think that for any brand, at any size, I feel the more connection points that they can create, the better. So, Colorado Food Works has really followed the lead of a Naturally Boulder, who's done an amazing job at just creating a community. And that's what Colorado Food Works is looking to emulate. I think that for brands who are in startup mode, the more events they can attend, from as many different organizations as possible, is just really going to help them grow their business.

And so, we're a little bit of an amorphous group at this point, and we don't have a strict agenda. We just try to fill the needs from what our community is saying. And we just try to listen a lot. And so, we'll go with the direction of the community.

Dan: I really appreciate you sharing that. Do you view yourself as a natural product accelerator, and if so, what do you think the state of the industry is? And then, how do you fit into that role?

Doug: You know, I think we're an accelerator in the fact that we're sharing access. And access to knowledge, and access to networks, definitely can accelerate your business. So, in that sense, sure. But for us, we're more about creating community and just solving problems for brands.

Dan: Fantastic. Any last thought?

Zach: Absolutely. Again, come on out to an event if you're in the Denver area. Check out the website. Join us. You don't need to be intimidated. It's not going to be a stuffy environment where nobody's going to talk to you. It's a very inviting group. We have a lot of fun at all the events, and we hope to see you at one of our events soon.

Dan: Great. I really appreciate you guys sharing that. Can you tell us what are some of the new events, some of the events that are coming up in the future? What things could people look forward to, by attending Colorado Food Works? And the point here is I want people to sign up and participate.

Doug: We're really excited for some upcoming events over the next 90 days. In particular, next Thursday, July 12th, is Colorado Food Works' inaugural summer party on the rooftop of Enterprise Coworking, live music, catered. We're expecting a really good turnout. Then, our August event will be a fantastic event on Influence Your Marketing. And then September, is Denver Startup Week. And so we're really excited for our second piece of participation with Denver Startup Week in September. So, encourage people to check out ColoradoFoodWorks.org to sign up and get more information.

Dan: I'll be there. I'm looking forward to it. So thank you so much. Well, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for everything you guys do. And I mean that in all sincerity. I really appreciate it. Thank you for setting up the Colorado Food Works, for making time for us today. And more importantly, thank you for what you do for the community, and how you give back. But I'll be sure to put a link to Colorado Food Works in the show notes, and on this podcast webpage.

Doug: Thank you for giving us this forum.

Dan: Thank you very much. Have a great day.

Doug: Thank you so much.

Zach: Thanks Dan.

Dan: I want to thank Doug and Zach for coming on the podcast, and sharing their insights, and their thought leadership, and all about their group, Colorado Food Works. I'll be sure to leave a link in this podcast show notes, and on the podcast webpage. You can get there by going to brandsecretsandstrategies.com/session65.

I want to thank you for listening. And I'll look forward to seeing you in the next show.

Colorado Food Works https://www.coloradofoodworks.org

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