Welcome to day 3: Episode 275 — Surround Yourself With Trusted Advisors & Experts

Day 3 of 30 Days to Prosperity
If you’re building a food brand, I want you to hear this clearly:
You are not meant to do this alone.

Founders in our industry often carry the entire weight of the business on their shoulders—product development, sales, marketing, logistics, finance, fundraising, retail execution, branding, investor conversations… all while trying to keep the company alive and growing.
No wonder so many feel overwhelmed.

But here’s the good news:
Surrounding yourself with the right mentors, advisors, and experts is one of the fastest and most effective ways to accelerate your growth, protect your runway, and level the playing field with the most sophisticated brands.
Let me explain.

When you step into the world of retail—whether natural, conventional, or online—you’re entering a game with defined rules, established expectations, and incredibly high stakes. Trying to learn everything on your own takes years and costs you a tremendous amount in avoidable mistakes.

But with the right advisors, you collapse time.
You gain clarity.
You avoid costly missteps.
You grow faster, smarter, and more sustainably.
Today’s episode is about building the strategic network that will support you, challenge you, and guide you as you scale.

Why You Need Advisors Now, Not “Later”
Founders often tell themselves:
“I’ll bring in advisors once we grow a little more.”
Or, “I’ll get a mentor when things calm down.”
But things never calm down.
And waiting only makes the climb steeper.

Running a business is challenging even in the best conditions. And here’s the harsh reality most programs in natural don’t tell you:
Most of the training available to small brands is not enough to compete with the sophisticated systems big brands use.

One of the biggest advantages large CPG companies have is that they invest heavily in continuous personal development for their teams. When I worked at Unilever, I went to advanced trainings every single month—sometimes for several days at a time.
Negotiation.
Advanced strategy.
Marketing.
Time management.
Leadership.
Category management.

Those trainings were better than any college course I ever took. They shaped how I think, how I lead, how I solve problems, and how I support brands today.
And they were incredibly expensive—far out of reach for most emerging brands.

That’s a big part of why I created this 30-day series, the Bulletproof Your CPG Brand podcast, and the Retail Solved resources. My goal is to raise the bar in natural so you can compete with big brands without having their budget.
This is how you get that competitive edge.

Founders Are Being Told the Wrong Story
In Day 1, I mentioned Episode 115: Success = Brand Strategy + Execution. In that episode, we unpacked how many founders have unintentionally become full-time fundraisers—not operators, not strategists, not brand builders.

The industry constantly pushes the story that the only way to grow is:
Raise more money
Hire more outside partners
Hand over your sales strategy
Hope they “make it happen”

But here’s the problem:
You cannot outsource your strategy.

When you hand your broker, distributor, or agency the keys to your brand, you are placing your future in the hands of people who handle dozens of brands at once. And they will use the exact same playbook for all of them.
Their cookie-cutter strategies will not differentiate your brand.
Their KPIs don’t always align with your goals.
Their priorities don’t always reflect the unique shopper who buys your product.

You need to own your strategy.
You need to set the vision.
You need partners who execute—not dictate.
Advisors help you do that.

That philosophy is what led to one of my most popular articles ever published in The Natural Food Merchandiser—the idea that brands should write their own strategic roadmap and direct their brokers the same way they would direct their internal team. That article opened doors to keynote stages, industry publications, and ongoing conversations about how brands can create powerful systems that scale.

It resonated because it was true.
And because founders were desperate for someone to tell them…
“You don’t have to hand over control to grow.”

Why Mentors, Advisors & Masterminds Are a Game-Changer
You’ve already heard me say: running a brand is hard.
There is too much to learn and too little time to learn it.

But here’s the opportunity:
Mentors have already made the mistakes you haven’t yet.
Advisors have conquered the mountain you’re climbing.
Mastermind peers help you see what you can’t see yourself.
They shorten your learning curve.
They hold you accountable.
They expand your network.
They give you perspective.
They remind you that you’re not alone.
And in natural CPG, where mission-driven founders genuinely care about the rising tide lifting all boats, you’ll find experts who are eager to help.

Networking groups like Naturally Network, local meetups, masterminds, and industry events are full of people with deep experience—across operations, finance, sales, category management, supply chain, innovation, retail, and beyond.

But here’s a quick word of advice…
Don’t make the conversation all about you.
When you’re meeting experts, ask about:
Their journey
Their wins
Their failures
Their biggest challenges
How they solved problems
What they wish they knew earlier

Their stories will educate and inspire you far more than a standard “pitch.”
And once they feel heard, they’ll naturally ask about your brand.
That’s when the relationship becomes real.

How to Choose the Right Advisor
You shouldn’t choose the first advisor who offers help.
Treat this like hiring a key strategic partner.
Look for someone who:
Aligns with your mission and values
Understands your category and shopper
Has the skills you’re missing
Has a track record of execution
Listens, challenges, and holds you accountable
Understands the difference between your customer and your competitor’s customer

You want a diverse advisory “bench”—not five sales experts or five finance experts.
Think cross-functional:
Sales
Marketing
Category Management
Operations
Finance
Product
Go-to-market strategy

This is how big brands structure their advisory boards.
It’s how they continue to iterate, improve, and stay ahead.
You deserve the same advantage.

Why Accountability Matters More Than Advice
Great advice is helpful.
Accountability is transformative.

When you work with an advisor, don’t just brainstorm ideas. Put each idea into a clear, strategic plan with:
Ownership
Timelines
Milestones
KPIs
Follow-through
Then let your advisor hold you to it.
This is how lofty dreams turn into measurable progress.
This is how founders build discipline.
This is how brands escape the “perpetual chaos cycle.”
And when accountability becomes a habit, your entire team—internal and external—begins performing at a higher level.
This is where real scale begins.

Day 3 Action Item: Build Your Strategic Support System
Today, I want you to:
Identify 3–5 experts you admire or trust.
These can be industry peers, mentors, consultants, or advisors.
Reach out to one of them.
Ask for a brief conversation—focused on their story, not yours.
List the skill gaps in your business.
Where do you need guidance: Sales? Category? Finance? Retail? GTM?

Identify whether you need:
A mentor
A mastermind
A paid advisor
A functional expert
An advisory board
Commit to building your advisory bench this quarter.
Write it down. Add timelines. Begin today.
Surround yourself with people who challenge you, guide you, and hold you accountable. It’s one of the most overlooked—and most powerful—drivers of sustainable growth.

Closing: You Don’t Need to Do This Alone
You’re building something remarkable.
But you’re not expected to know everything. None of us did.

I certainly didn’t. My edge came from expert training, mentorship, and decades of learning from the best leaders, founders, and strategists across the industry. You deserve access to that same level of support—and that’s what this 30-day journey is designed to deliver.

Tomorrow, in Episode 276, we’ll get hands-on and talk about How to Build a Retail-Ready Sales Strategy That Doesn’t Break Your Budget—so you can go into any retailer meeting confident, prepared, and in control.
Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss it.
Share this series with another founder who needs support, clarity, and encouragement.
And download the episodes guide
We rise by helping each other.
And when you surround yourself with the right people, the climb becomes clearer, faster, and a whole lot more enjoyable.
You’ve got this. I’m here to help you every step of the way.

For additional inspiration listen to the following podcast episodes:
Episode 196 Leveraging Wisdom to Unlock Leadership and Brand Growth, Brad Barnhorn
Brad Barnhorn is one of the most celebrated, recognized, and influential advisors in our industry.

He shares a wealth of information in this podcast episode. And what really inspired me is how he talks about how he works with brands, and how he helps hold them accountable, and how he acts as a sounding board. You can learn a lot from Brad 

Episode 81 Passion For Real Food Strategies for Success, Greg Fleishman with Foodstirs and Purely Righteous Brands
Greg does a phenomenal job at telling the story about Foodsters, how their product was created, and how they leverage advisors to help them grow on scale.

More importantly, he also talks about the companies that he advises for, how he works with those brands specifically as an advisor, and how he mentors others in the industry. You're going to learn a lot from Greg.

Episode 46 Community Is The Magic Ingredient Behind Every Brand’s Success, Alex Hanifin with Naturally Boulder and Alpine Start Foods
This is exactly what we've been talking about throughout this entire series. The secret of your success is the community that you surround yourself with. Now, I'm going to be talking later about how you want to build a community around your brand of loyal shoppers.

We'll save that for later, but for now, we want to focus on the community that helps support your brand. The community of fellow entrepreneurs that are on the same journey, on the same path that you are, that can help guide you and inspire you. The same group of entrepreneurs that have some of the same challenges that you do.

And what's best about this is by working with them, you can get a different understanding or flavor of some of the different ways you should be thinking about the problems you're trying to solve. I'll bet that if you talk to the different people in your group, they're going to give you a lot of ideas that you haven't even thought of yet.

Tip of the day: You are not alone. Find a trusted mentor and/or advisor. Join mastermind groups that educate, inspire, and hold you accountable

Thank you for listening. This episode has an accompanying video with illustrations and additional information I can’t share on an audio podcast. You can watch it at retailsolved.com/30daychallenge.

You can get the show notes for this episode by going to RetailSolved/Session275. Tomorrows episode is How To Set Yourself Up For Success In Business Today.

This episode will build on today’s conversation. Thank you for listening. I look forward to seeing you in the next episode.