Lori Taylor: Founder & CEO of The Produce Moms

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be I want to be, you just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked down knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control control control. Hi, everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi, everyone, it’s Kara Goldin from the Kara Goldin show. And I’m super, super excited to have our next guest. Here we have Lori Taylor, who is the founder and CEO of the produce moms. And I had actually met Laurie back in 2018, when I was on her podcast. And I’m so excited to get to interview her and actually talk a little bit more about not only what she’s up to, but also just to explain this amazing organization that she’s been building that is really focused on a mission to put more fruits and vegetables on every consumers table. But she’s also turned that mission into a company that is focused on doing lots and lots of good for the industry. So the company’s mission, as I mentioned, is to not only educate consumers on the benefits of eating fresh produce, but also the growing process and what we all should be looking out for overall and advocacy programs too. She’s doing a lot of really, really cool work. So I’m very excited to have her here and hear more about the journey. So welcome, Laurie.

Lori Taylor 1:54
Thank you, Kara. It’s so great to be reconnected and such a joy to be on your show. I certainly have enjoyed following all that you’ve done since that first encounter in 2018. You know, you publish the book. So many advancements with the hint water brand. I’m now buying it on shelf at, you know, big box retailers that when we first connected, it wasn’t available on shelf there. So I am just constantly inspired and, you know, and encouraged by what I see in your entrepreneurial journey. So thanks for having me on. It’s great to be here on your amazing podcast.

Kara Goldin 2:31
That’s well thank you. That’s very, very nice. So well. Okay, before we get into hearing about the produce moms and really what that is, I’d love to hear about your journey and building it I know that you had or I read that you had been in supply chain before but I’d love to hear a little bit more about kind of what your experience was.

Lori Taylor 2:52
Yeah, so I really grew up and produce it’s all I know from a from a like big girl stage of life. So to say. Shortly after college, I got my my first office job was at Indianapolis fruit company. They’re a very large wholesale distributor based here in my hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana. They are a full service produce supplier at the time when I was employed there to like 18 states as far north as Wisconsin as far south as Florida. I worked in sales and I sold fresh produce to grocery stores so I really was able to learn a lot from my customers on seasonality the way food moves from the farms to the retailer. Because we had a fresh cut processing facility at my former employer as well as a you know, huge warehouse that was constantly receiving produce day in and day out. We I was exposed to some of the regulatory side of our industry. USDA inspectors were at the warehouse on a recurring you know, every week we had USDA inspectors popping in some announced some unannounced so it really was an opportunity for me to to learn the business, that wholesale distribution stage it can be kind of a dog eat dog world, you know, it’s not it’s a it’s a hustle and bustle where, you know, it’s you’re turning your back on people who supplied you last week to save 15 cents a case this week. You know, that’s just the nature of of moving perishable food. But I I could not believe how we had this massive warehouse and all the different countries that were represented in our inventory at any given time all the different commodities and certainly the fact that there was enough demand to turn that massive warehouse on a you know, every couple nights like we would sell out the whole warehouse so it really it just it gets in your soul like everyone who works in produce says that because you’re on you’re on haul, you know, when you’re selling a perishable product, you’re on call as if you’re a life saving heart surgeon, you know, I mean, it’s like you’re, if a if a case of if a truckload of tomatoes that you had sold to a grocery retailer for a big, you know, blowout weekend sale gets held up. You’re they’re calling you gotta hustle and figure things out and, you know, get secondary suppliers come in and fill in. So I, that moved my soul in a way like, you know, the constant evolving state the fact that every day was different. That was something that really inspired me. And for gosh, seven years, I was a sales representative at that company calling on grocery retailers of all different sizes and formats. I actually got my job because I studied Spanish in college and did some immersion programs, I was completely fluent in Spanish, English was my first language, Spanish is my second language, which, at the time, when I was looking for a job in Indiana, that was a pretty, you know, that was not a very common characteristic. Now, of course, much more diverse city and state, like, you know, it’s that’s not quite as notable, but at the time, when I was in 2004, that was a bigger deal. And that’s how I got my job they needed someone to there was a huge influx and Bodega style markets coming into the Midwest. And all of those customers were driving to Chicago on a daily basis to pick up fresh produce at the International Terminal Market. And it was a missed opportunity for our company. You know, they they wanted to deliver that produce, right through our own trucks and, and so that was my job. And that was the first time I ever built anything was building that clientele for my former employer. And we, we were very successful. They use my language skills to connect with growers of of really niche commodities, like, you know, mangoes, but even even things like the cilantro specs, like we had to really button up who we were buying our produce from, to be able to sell pallets upon pallets of it to these Bodega style markets that were peppering our city. And, and with that diligence, we were then able to get the business from Kroger to supply Kroger all of their quote unquote Hispanic, you know, fruits and vegetables. So any commodity that was really a standout whether it’s roma tomatoes, or white onions, jalapenos, cilantro, all of that business, we had, we had mastered the specs for the Latino shoppers. And therefore Kroger was like, you’ve got better, like, when we slot your product, we’re selling more. And so they then we became their primary sales house for all of those commodities, which that was real big business for my former employer.

Kara Goldin 7:55
So I’m just curious, when you first started out in this industry were were was there that much fruit and vegetable that was being exported? Or I should say,

Lori Taylor 8:06
yeah, no, I, it’s a great question. And yeah, yeah, so fruits and vegetables are, you know, obviously, we’re very proud to support American farmers at the produce moms as a, as a shopper, I’m all about the, you know, eat local movement support our domestic farmers, it’s very, very important. But for us to live in a place where we can walk into the grocery store and have something as common places, red grapes or strawberries available 365 days a year, we have to rely on the southern hemisphere or the country of Mexico to import that product, it’s it really is just a matter of the The truth is in farming, our harvest cycle follows the sun. So all of our winter time, fruits and vegetables are coming from more southern areas than what they are during the summer months. So sometimes that could be you know, we have to actually flip and go into the southern hemisphere and source from South America or other parts of the southern hemisphere. Or it could be like the winter vegetables, we get those from Yuma, Arizona, as opposed to Salinas, California, which is where, you know, the majority of our nation’s vegetables come from, you know, in late spring and summer months.

Kara Goldin 9:21
It’s funny, I grew up in Arizona, and I remember very specifically that there were certain times of year where, you know, we couldn’t get fruits even being in Arizona and I feel like there was kind of a switch that flipped that we really started getting more product from Mexico or you know, some Latin America like I don’t I don’t know if it was NAFTA or what actually was it that Yeah,

Lori Taylor 9:48
absolutely. It could have been driven by NAFTA. And and there’s other you know, us MCA there’s been a lot of trade regulations to strengthen and maintain our friendly trade aid with, you know, all of North America and primary trade partners such as Mexico as it relates to agricultural goods. So that’s the regulatory side and the political side of our industry where people don’t like to think of food, you know, something as universal and unifying as food. They don’t like to think of it as something that’s very political. But I can tell you, one thing my journey has taught me is that the food industry and agriculture is a very political industry. The good news is that by and large, it’s, you know, it’s not even bipartisan. It’s it’s nonpartisan, because are all of our stakeholders whether they are private or public sector, they realize that, you know, food security is the ultimate national security for us here in the United States. Yeah.

Kara Goldin 10:49
And it’s in well, worldwide, I mean, it’s it is something that is, it doesn’t matter what government you believe in, I mean, it really is something that is just so so key. So okay, so it’s one thing for you to kind of, know this industry and love this industry. It’s another thing to decide, okay, I’m going to quit my job that I know how to do really well. And I’m going to, I guess, so you started the produce moms, but it actually you bought an IP, right?

Lori Taylor 11:21
So the produce moms.com actually started as my work for hire. So I mentioned it for seven years, I did sales. Yeah, I worked at Indie fruit for 10 total years, the last three years of my time, at Indy fruit, I was the marketing manager. Okay, and, you know, you know, value chains, you know, Cara, your listeners know, value chains, wholesale distribution is a tough stage of the supply chain, to really think, oh, there’s a lot of marketing that takes place here, especially consumer facing marketing. But we one thing that working at the sales desk taught me is, you know, there’s no, there’s minimal recognition of brands, in the produce department, and beyond minimal recognition to the brands, there’s minimal understanding of all these commodities, I’m not here to, you know, preach some sort of pipe dream that, that we’re gonna have shoppers, who if they, if they can’t get dandy brands, celery, and celery is on their on their shopping list, that they’re not going to buy celery, you know, we’re not, we’re not tennis shoes here, you know, people can say I’m only buying Nike tennis shoes, and they can stay pretty loyal to that food is, uh, especially fresh produce. I mean, we are kind of a commoditized industry. And I think that I don’t necessarily think that that’s going to change anytime soon. So marketing commodities is something that I realized, you know, it’s a threat to our, to our path to purchase, if people don’t have a heightened understanding of how to select store and serve their fruits and vegetables. And in that quest to really lean into the education and help people, demystify the produce department, we can also help tell these amazing stories behind some of these amazing brands that people are encountering on a weekly basis when they grocery shop, and they might not even realize it, you know, there is a really low brand recognition.

Kara Goldin 13:21
So the so the IP though, I’d love to go back to this, because I know there’s a really interesting story. So you bought this IP, you didn’t just come up with the name. I mean, you you decided I’m gonna go buy this. I read somewhere that it was, you know, more expensive than your house ultimately. And, and so I mean, that’s a big decision. It’s a big risk, right? All of those things like, I mean, for anybody who’s sitting here thinking, you know, how am I going to do this, you found a way to do it. So I’d love to hear that story. It was

Lori Taylor 13:58
wild. So I for three years as the marketing manager, I you know, one of the first things that I was asked in 2012 is like, what are your plans for marketing department on 2012 blogs were in, you know, and companies who there it was, it was even possible in 2012 to be a business and not have social media pages, like there were tons of businesses without social media accounts. But in 2012, most people have started to adopt at least Facebook. And then like the new medium for connecting with folks was through blogs. And so that was my proposal as marketing manager. I was like, we should have a blog and I can author it like blogs are very different than Wikipedia or email marketing. Like they’re meant to have a more friendly and fun tone. They’re really rooted in like helping people understand FAQs, but it’s in a more you know, delivering it in a friendlier way. And so I pitched that idea and had the full support of my of my former bosses, you know, it was, it’s pretty easy sell through, especially when I told him, I had already bought a domain because I’d been thinking about this, the donate the Donate donate domain was actually the produce mom.com. It wasn’t until after I purchased it where we made it the plural noun and more community centric, but I had already purchased the domain. And then when I told him like, the domain was $5.99, I’m willing to transfer that over to the company like, you know, and when we can offer this as my work for hire. You know, as part of my job, I can author it. And we can just use a free WordPress theme. So when they found out that there was minimal hard costs to getting this thing launched, that was when they were like, Okay, let’s do it. And then when I was able to prove to them that we can get buy in, and for the first time ever, they were seeing actual revenue come in on the marketing side outside of, you know, people sponsoring booths, that a big vendor showcase, but rather like oh, people will pay even if it was just $500 people will pay $500 to have their product talked about on a blog. Or they’ll offer us $4 off our cases of strawberries for the next three weeks. In exchange for strawberry brand promotions on the website. Those were all things that were happening. And then when we started to sell like big annual campaigns that were, you know, five figures, that was when you know, that was when we got a unique level of buy in and support from my former employers. But, you know, to your point, ultimately, after three years, they took me to an off site meeting for lunch and told me to bring my computer and I knew something was up. I didn’t really think I was getting fired. But I definitely knew something was up because like, why would they take me off site and it just felt weird. And they had they slit a paper, you know, after some niceties and small talk, the CFO then slid a paper that was prepared by the legal counsel for the company and said, you know, we think you’re doing amazing things with the produce mom at this point, Kara, we had just launched a school show with the NFL and we were doing the find your favorite school show with the Indianapolis Colts and like I mean, it was we were really had a lot of momentum. And but the CFO said, like we think you’re doing great things, but Indianapolis fruit company’s done, you know, we’re done with the produce, man we are we are in the business to distribute food. And they offered me two very clear paths in this paperwork, path A was we sunset, the brand. And all of the marketing campaigns, all the media work that we were doing, it goes away. And I go back to my sales job. Or path B, I could buy it, I could buy everything, the website, the IP, and I could take it to wherever I think you know, this brand could go I would be the I would be the owner of it. So I immediately knew like I felt like there was no decision to be made I my exact words to them, where I would be a caged animal going back to the cubicle. And I said I’m buying it. I just don’t know how because I’m looking at this acquisition price that they were offering. And yes, the price of the produce mom.com in 2015 was more than the home that my family and I lived in. And I mean, my husband I we had a mortgage young children, like we weren’t going to get approved for this type of cash to buy the brand. So I didn’t at that point that I did what a lot of entrepreneurs do, you know, I cashed out my 401 K. I talked to family and people who I thought could help me from with private funding. And then we negotiated with my former employers. And we said what if we pay you cash in 90 days? What’s the price then? And it was still more than the home we paid it with the the home we lived in, but it was a lot less risky. You know, and it was a much more manageable fundraise for me. So that was the first time I negotiated a major like six figure deal. It was the first time that I find fundraise money. And what a beautiful day it was when I walked into that office on it was August or August 31 2015 I had a cashier’s check for the full amount and the brand became mine. And we’ve been growing it ever since.

Kara Goldin 19:38
So was the process like what was the promise on that day of the produce moms like what what did you think that would be? What would the brand be? That was maybe different than what you were doing when it was internal.

Lori Taylor 19:56
I felt like it was slightly hindered by like, Okay, we had this concern We’re facing brand that was all about exciting, you know, essentially moms and other shoppers about fruits and vegetables. But I was constantly getting pressure from my advisors and bosses at the company to make it about indie fruit. And, you know, people just don’t care that much about who the food’s been distributed by. They just care about what they see at point of sale and what they what they see on the plate, whether that’s in the restaurant or in their home kitchen, what they’re creating, so. So I felt like we were able to be a lot more authentic without the parent company, one that I to totally Yeah, I mean, one thing I negotiated into the acquisition, I said, to my former boss, I said, Okay, well, we’re gonna call sage Fruit Company, which was one of our largest clients at the produce moms. And I said, I want to hear you tell the president of the company that we are, that were dissolved, like, TPM is going independent. And I want to hear his reaction without him knowing that I’m listening. And so I was, I can’t tell you how empowering that was for me to hear Chuck thinks, say to my former boss, and Chuck stinks, President of Sales and Marketing at stay true. He said, you know, Dan Corcyra said, Hey, we’re going to sell the produce moms to Lori, and I just wanted to let you know, it’s not gonna, it’s not gonna be part of any fruit anymore. She’s gonna own it independently. And Chuck’s response was, I think that’s great. Stage fruit still involved, will will still work with her, I think it’s actually going to be a lot better for the for us for the produce moms, for everyone. So when I heard those empowering words, that gave me a level of confidence, that on paper, like it was a level of crazy for me to do what I did, I mean, I had a $4,999 scope of work from USA pairs to that span, 12 months of work, okay, no one can pay bills in 12 months with less than five grand. You can’t do that in one month in business. But I, I had that from, from USA pairs in hand. I had six figures of acquisition debt. And then I had that affirmation from Chuck thanks. And that has I fearlessly, you know, thought, we’re gonna do great things like this is the beginning of a whole new era for how not just me and my business are going to thrive. But how farmers in America today will be able to socialize and promote their goods.

Kara Goldin 22:38
I love that. So in terms of the business model, you’ve touched on this a little bit, but how do you make money? Yeah,

Lori Taylor 22:45
it’s I honestly, like I need to this is the year of more diversification. Because for years, and I’m still bootstrapping that’s also very tiresome, you know, but moving at the speed of cash, actually has made me like the best partner for farmers farmers are very, you know, they’re they these farming companies that we’re so blessed to support. You know, they’re most of the ones that exist today are four or five generations away from what I’m doing right now, like the bootstrapping, moving at the speed of cash, like, you know, growing as you can, but there’s so much respect for that within within farming. So I’m very unapologetic, and I’m ashamed to say like, that’s where we’re at. This should be our first year to break a million dollars in revenue, we’re a very small business. But we the way that I’ve made money historically, about 90% of our income comes from sponsorships so all of our content marketing that we do it that where we work with whether it’s seeds, Fruit Company, nature, right farms, nature, Sweet Tomatoes, those companies pay the produce moms a set amount of money, and in exchange for for their investment in what we’re doing. We then create content, brand advocacy, we support them through our platforms and then I also support them as I can with you know, if there’s ever any need for strategy support as it relates to or or, you know, help all the all the mainstream brochures, like don’t matter if, if these companies are trying to sell to Walmart, Kroger, anyone, they all want to know if you’re gonna be a vendor of these companies, what are you doing to talk to our shoppers? How are you supporting the path to purchase through your brand? So we’re able to be a solution for these growers as it relates to those b2b goals and benchmarks as well. But yeah, that time, like 90% of my money is through through content marketing. Yes. And then the other we just recently have started that diversification where we also have a licensing arm To the business. So the produce moms is very proud to have our brand and likeness on package fruits and vegetables that are available nationwide. So right now in market we have an Idaho potato line that is on shelf now at approximately 50% of America’s Walmart’s. And then we also have a sliced apple bag where we have not quite a like full license presents but more of a seal of approval style of presents with crunch pack apples, and those are available nationwide at Target and the organic line is at Whole Foods nationwide. And there’s many other many other grocers that carrying Publix, you know, regional grocers, but fantastic grocers that carry that entire product line. And, and there’s more that’s coming. You know, we we recently had bagged apples that were on shelf at Trader Joe’s nationwide that had the produce moms branding on them. And that was a full licensing. So we’re constantly looking at how can we have a stronger presence and packaged goods? And what does that look like? And how do we drive the maximum value back for both the growers as well as the retailers?

Kara Goldin 26:14
So interesting, one of the things that I get asked by many of my friends who are not in the industry is is the term organic? Yeah. And you know how that has really gone from, you know, being there’s there’s multiple ways that people actually get their products labeled organic, I think and I’m just curious, is that the same in the fruits and vegetable industry? Have you seen? Yeah, fusion around that

Lori Taylor 26:45
big time? Yeah, there’s tons of confusion around farming. Like that’s really was my guiding light for starting this, people just don’t know. And yet at the same time, we’re putting this stuff in our bodies, you know, so we at the produce moms, we’ve embraced, to your point with your introductory remarks, our mission is to get more fruits and vegetables on every table that looks very different household to household. It’s important that people understand when they’re making those food choices that a we live in a country where like you can walk into a grocery store. And we’ll just use like lettuce as the example here. You can almost always find lettuce at any American grocery store today, conventionally grown, you can find it organically grown, you can find it washed and ready to eat, you can find it grown in in one of these massive indoor farms that are popping up that you can find it locally source at certain times a year. So it’s really amazing that we have such a abundant amount of choices. And there’s a lot of evolution in our industry that has empowered that. And I don’t want to overlook the fact that like our logistics partners for for moving food across this nation are a big reason why we’re able to have that kind of option and choice when we walk into a grocery store. But organics to get back to your question, Kara that is a very defined style of farming. The biggest the biggest difference with organic versus non organic food, both use pesticides with organic, that you can not use any synthetic pesticides. So it comes back to your values as a consumer there, there, there’s a lot of different, there’s a lot of information that you can get out there. The only way that you can be certain that your fruits and vegetables are organic is to look for the USDA certified seal. That seal unfortunately does come with a price point that a lot of your smaller locally, local farms can’t necessarily afford. So when you go into a farmers market farmer at the farmers market, your vendors very well could be farming organically, they just might not have that feel on them. So per the regulations of this of the industry without the seal, it can’t necessarily you know, you won’t see it at a grocery store marketed as organic food. were sold as such. Yeah, but maybe in a local community farmers market, you know,

Kara Goldin 29:05
like how expensive is it for a grower to

Lori Taylor 29:09
it? Well, it is more expensive. That’s why it costs us more money to buy organic food typically not always, but typically, and the consumer intent and demand is there. I mean, just look at what’s happened in baby food. You know, baby food today in the offering today has evolved where it’s pretty much exclusively organic. We have some really interesting episodes on the produce moms.com About organics one that I will call out was the woman she’s an absolute legend in our industry, Tonia Antal. She sold the very first truckload of organic produce in the United States. So I interviewed her to kind of like understand how did this become something that people wanted? How did you sell that first truckload? But for sure there is a higher input cost to the farming when it’s organic. So that comes down to the the you know, pre hire versus like the the crop the crop protection products? So, yeah, you know, you’re gonna You can’t use any of the synthetic pesticides or crop protection special,

Kara Goldin 30:09
sorry, but the actual seal, like how much is that roughly?

Lori Taylor 30:13
It just depends I, you know, I it’s, it’s not something that I could say it only cost this much the biggest thing Kara that that really adds to the price of that is you have to farm your land organically for three years before you are eligible for the seal. And during that three year time where you are adopting the organic practices, farming organically you have you cannot sell it organically and market so your your invest in the reason that comes back to the soil like you know, you gotta regenerate the soil and make sure that everything is completely organic before it gets to the market and is marketed marketed as such.

Kara Goldin 30:54
It’s so interesting. And yeah, I mean, I could go on and on about that there’s I know that there’s loopholes in that world as well. I’ve heard strawberries and California has been able to still label their products and organic but then they aren’t, they aren’t necessarily as highly

Lori Taylor 31:12
regulated. If it carries the seal, I promise you and it there’s so much liability whether it comes at its, you know, liability at the retailer at the point of sale. The regulatory side, I promise you if you see that USDA certified organic seal, it is an organic product, there is no one with product and market today, that is in a position where they can you know, fudge that that is that’s that is very definite. And it’s important that we have those kinds of certifications where where our consumers can have the clarity and the confidence and like this is what the product says it is. If we were to if we were to allow like backdoor deals as it relates to organic, what kind of that would be such a threat to everything these farmers are, are you know investing in. So there is none of that happening. If you see that USDA certified organic seal on a product that’s available at grocery retail, you can have complete confidence that you are buying organic produce,

Kara Goldin 32:12
it’s really good to know so what has been the most rewarding aspect of your work?

Lori Taylor 32:17
Oh my gosh, I’m so there’s so many. But I would say definitely the work that we do it to the you know, more the grassroots stuff, the stuff we do with children. You and I pre show we’re talking about some of the political action. I’ve been very blessed to work on political action on behalf of our industry for start with the Obama Farm Bill worked on the Trump Farm Bill actively working on the Biden Farm Bill. And that that journey has exposed me to a lot, you know, with helping to helping me and our industry understand what does the what’s what school food service look like today, the only policy I tend to work on is Child Nutrition Policy. I specifically work on USDA school meals, and then I also work on WIC, making sure that we protect an increase the fresh produce stakeholder in these federal nutrition programs. So it’s pretty humbling when you when you look at even just some of the data. You know, we live in I live in a household where I can even walk into the grocery store. And, you know, my budget doesn’t necessarily define what I purchase, I’m able to just kind of walk in and see like, what looks good, what inspires me, what do I want to eat tonight, and my food purchases can correlate with those desires. So it’s important for me that, you know, I’m trying to build a movement that everyone feels like they can connect with. America is a big diverse place, you know, so the data and the opportunities I’ve had as it surrounds as it relates to Child Nutrition programming, and specifically school meals. That’s probably my favorite part of my journey, because it’s helped me see the work that we do, and the work that we represent, you know, the fruit and vegetable industry, it’s helped me see that as like, this is this is food security for our nation. I mean, we today in America, 51% of our children qualify for free or reduced lunch. So therefore, the only true guaranteed meal that over half of our nation’s children receive on a daily basis is their school meal, or their backpack program for the weekends or their summer servings program, you know when school is closed, so that the journey through that is is really special. I’ve also been to almost 200 Farms, you know, literally boots in the dirt at these farms, learning you know what the what, what their farming practices are all about gaining a heightened level of appreciation for sustainability, regenerative agriculture, farm worker empowerment and justice. And that’s led to some of the work that I do. Personally I serve on a board global women fresh and we help we help People understand through this non for profit and every corner of this world the agriculture exists where there is human humanity agriculture is the first industry that is that is established. And in some parts of the world agriculture is the only industry where a woman can earn a professional wage. And so that has been something that’s that’s been a passion project of mine is helping other fellow women here in the US and broader you know, around the world to see the opportunities that exist within agriculture. I have a thriving career in this industry. I’ve never farmed a day in my life. So it’s, it’s really an it’s an amazing industry and the values that were taught to me by agriculture, those those values whether you know, for environmental and social welfare, those were the values that that inspired me to go for B Corp. And in 2021 the produce moms became well we started the B Corp journey in 2021 we certified and 2022 and still today we are the only influencer brand in the world that is B Corp certified

Kara Goldin 36:08
that’s that’s the only influencer brand in this in the in this industry

Lori Taylor 36:15
or no like if you really think about if you’re considering like influencer marketing influencer marketing brands the produce moms is is currently the only influence influencer brand in the world. Um, which granted like, hint Patagonia. So many of these other iconic made massive, wonderful brands, they influence for sure. But when you think about influencer marketing, which certainly the produce moms can fall under that bucket. We are the only one in the world right now that carries certification, I hope more follow because I really believe in what the core values are all about.

Kara Goldin 36:51
Well, thank you for doing everything that you’re doing. And it was such a pleasure to hear more about this, I think you’ve opened our eyes. And we’re not going to be able to go into the fruits and vegetables section without thinking about this conversation for sure. Lots of great insights, as as always, but well, and thank you everybody for listening. All the info, we’ll put in the show notes and you can learn more about how to connect with Lori and also all of her very, very cool stuff that she’s doing at the produce moms and continue to follow her. So thank you, everyone. Thank you, Laurie.

Lori Taylor 37:31
Thank you.

Kara Goldin 37:32
Thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would, please give us a review. And feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit and of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms at Kara Goldin. And if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my book undaunted, which I share my journey, including founding and building hint. We are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And thanks everyone for listening. Have a great rest of the week, and 2023 and good bye for now. Before we sign off, I want to talk to you about fear. People like to talk about fearless leaders. But achieving big goals isn’t about fearlessness. Successful leaders recognize their fears and decide to deal with them head on in order to move forward. This is where my new book undaunted comes in. This book is designed for anyone who wants to succeed in the face of fear, overcome doubts and live a little undaunted. Order your copy today at undaunted, the book.com and learn how to look your doubts and doubters in the eye and achieve your dreams. For a limited time. You’ll also receive a free case of hint water. Do you have a question for me or want to nominate an innovator to spotlight send me a tweet at Kara Goldin and let me know. And if you liked what you heard, please leave me a review on Apple podcasts. You can also follow along with me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn at Kara Goldin. Thanks for listening