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The Science Behind a Successful Pain Relief Product Brand with Ryan Gresh, Founder & CEO at The Feel Good Lab

Today's guest of The Physical Product Movement podcast is Ryan Gresh, Founder & CEO at The Feel Good Lab, a leading line of pain relief products made from all-natural ingredients. Ryan shares how a dinner conversation with his dad and brother convinced him to leave his career as an engineer in the aerospace industry to launch his own company. Ryan also talks about the advantages and disadvantages of sourcing products and ingredients from domestic suppliers, especially in the wake of COVID-19 and the related supply chain issues. Ryan discusses why you should not only negotiate on price but also on terms and how that can impact your cash flow. By far the most impressive thing about Ryan’s mindset is his passion for his customers' problems and his determination to solve them.

Ken Ojuka
56 min read

Building a Socially-Driven CPG Brand with Juan Giraldo, CEO & Co-Founder at Waku

Juan Giraldo, CEO, and co-founder at Waku joins us to share his insights on starting a mission-driven brand and how you first need to satisfy customers’ tastes and functional requirements before you earn the right to enlist them in your mission. Waku is a beverage brand of ready-to-drink herbal teas infused with prebiotics. Since Juan is from Ecuador, he wanted to make an impact in his home country by sourcing organic, high quality and pure ingredients directly from farms in Ecuador. He talks about the challenges of setting up a co-manufacturer and a raw ingredient supply chain in another country. Juan also walks us through the steps he took to get his first products manufactured and how he repositioned his product several times based on the feedback he received from his customers.

Ken Ojuka
35 min read

Building a Sustainable CPG Business on Amazon with Fernando Campos, Co-founder at MarketplaceOps

In this episode of The Physical Product Movement Podcast, Fernando Campos, co-founder at MarketplaceOps, shares the advantages and disadvantages of selling on Amazon. He reveals some of the winning strategies brands use to grow on Amazon despite its saturation and competitiveness in nearly every category. Fernando also talks about the characteristics of products that do well on Amazon, the critical first 90 days of a product launch, and the five mistakes brands make that keep them from capitalizing on the Amazon opportunity.

Ken Ojuka
47 min read

How to Start & Scale a Food Business Successfully with Jordan Buckner, Founder at Foodbevy

In this episode of The Physical Product Movement Podcast, Jordan Buckner, Founder of Foodbevy, highlights common mistakes brands make in distribution, marketing, and manufacturing. Jordan shares a painful and costly mistake that made it difficult for him to move from a commercial kitchen to a co-packer and how you can avoid it. He offers tips on how to get a buyer's attention by speaking their language and focusing on their goals and metrics instead of your own goals and product.

Ken Ojuka
37 min read

The Benefits of Manufacturing In-House with Robert Birnecker, CEO & Co-Founder at KOVAL Distillery

In this episode of The Physical Product Movement Podcast, Robert Birnecker, CEO and co-founder of Koval Distillery, talks about the pivots he and his wife made before landing on their current line of products. He details the challenges and opportunities of working with great distributors, and how that has helped them with international expansion. Robert also talks about the advantages of manufacturing in-house to ensure quality and adapt to changing market conditions.

Ken Ojuka
32 min read

Bringing Inventory Operations Software for CPG Brands Into the Modern Age with Ken Ojuka, Host of The Physical Product Movement Podcast and Co-founder of Fiddle

In this episode, Ken Ojuka, host of The Physical Product Movement Podcast and Co-Founder of Fiddle, joins Jessi Freitag for tea, a Business Operations Consultant, Podcast Host, and Producer at Startup CPG and Iroh's Corner. Ken shares his career path from having a CPG brand to creating software for CPG brands, his focus on building inventory software with a modern, intuitive interface, and how he strives toward "work-life harmony."

Ken Ojuka
63 min read

How to Lead CPG Operations Successfully with Elena Guberman, CEO at TBH

In this episode of The Physical Product Movement Podcast, Elena Guberman, CEO of newly launched CPG brand TBH (an honest snacking company founded by Stranger Things actor Noah Schnapp), joins us to discuss creativity and art in operations and how learning new things on the job and through a community has always helped her thrive. Elena also explains why operations should work closely with sales and marketing to win and succeed, why it's important to be iterative and flexible, her rule of five when asking someone for advice, and plenty of other words of wisdom.

Taylor Howe
40 min read

How to Launch Your Food Business Sustainably & Effectively with Eric Diamond & David Miller of Central Kitchen

In this episode of The Physical Product Movement Podcast, Eric Diamond and David Miller from Central Kitchen talk about what it takes to succeed as a new food and beverage brand, exciting new trends, and plant-based foods. We also dive into why Eric and David have chosen not to take on any outside funding, the growing popularity of ghost kitchen spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, how to be true to yourself and business, and a new perspective on the great resignation and work-life balance.

Ken Ojuka
51 min read

Scaling Up Your Brand with Jessi Freitag, a Business Operations Consultant, Podcast Host, & Producer at Startup CPG & Iroh's Corner

In this episode of The Physical Product Movement Podcast, Jessi Freitag, a Business Operations Consultant, Podcast Host, and Producer at Startup CPG and Iroh's Corner, shares some great insights from an operations perspective. She was previously the Director of Marketing and Operations at LivBar, where she helped the company grow from manufacturing in a small room to a 12,000 square foot facility. Jessi talks about the advantages and drawbacks of manufacturing in-house and how the operations team works with marketing and sales to scale the brand. We also dive into the exciting efficiencies you can find when looking for small operations improvements every day and a lot more.

Ken Ojuka
56 min read

Building a Socially Conscious Clothing Brand with Connor Curran, Chief Laundry Folder & Founder at Local Laundry

In this episode of The Physical Product Movement Podcast, Connor Curran, Chief Laundry Folder and Founder at Local Laundry, talks about how his entrepreneurial parents inspired him to start his own company, why he chose clothing after trying his hand in tech, and how he focuses on community values and giving back to build his company. Connor also shares how shifting his manufacturing to a more expensive location helped his business grow and that focusing on a B2B strategy during the pandemic led to even more growth.

Ken Ojuka
43 min read