Interview Replay: Kara on The Justin Brady Show

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. Today’s episode is a bonus episode from when I was a guest on Justin Brady’s podcast, the Justin Brady show. I hope you enjoy it. And please make sure to tune in on Monday for the next episode of the Kara Goldin show. Have a terrific weekend.

Justin Brady 0:58
It is the Justin Brady show like that first, nice spring day after a harsh, cold winter. This is the podcast that amplifies the best ideas, companies, people and entrepreneurs on Earth. Thank you so much for joining me again and again and again. And thank you for quickly hitting that subscribe button. And you know what, go ahead and give the show five stars, I guess that does something with algorithms and crap that ranks the show higher. So because I don’t do advertising, that’s really the only payment I asked for. That’s it. One of the things that’s thrown out all the time about being an entrepreneur is the ups and downs and challenges and setbacks. And then no one actually talks about it. Like they know it exists. But no one goes into the detail. No one gives you a proper roadmap. And no one really says what that will or will not look like so when you do come up to the challenges that are inevitable. You have no idea if this is one of those challenges people told you about or if this is detrimental to your company. Today who is addressing that with me is Kara Goldin founder and CEO of hint and also author of undaunted and host of the Kara Goldin show. Kara, thank you so much for coming on the show. I appreciate it.

Kara Goldin 2:10
Absolutely. I’m thrilled to be here.

Justin Brady 2:12
Like I said, off air. I don’t know if we can call it air. I’m an old radio guy. So I still call it that. But like I said, I read through the whole book. It’s absolutely fantastic. And if there’s nothing else we get out of the interview today, which I know is not true. But if there’s nothing else, anyone gets out of the interview today, it’s your book should be number one recommended reading for all entrepreneurs throughout the world. Hands down.

Kara Goldin 2:32
Oh, thank you so much. That makes me feel so good. day for sure.

Justin Brady 2:37
I mean, I have a lot of questions. Like I told you earlier, I have maybe two to three hours of questions, but we’re not going to get through all of it. Just last week, I was talking to a group of entrepreneurs and they were struggling with the overlap of personal story and business story. And one of the things you talk about in this book, is how you probably shouldn’t bring your personal story into a company story.

Kara Goldin 2:59
Yeah, you know, it’s it’s interesting. I mean, I started Hance 16 and a half years ago, and my intention back then was never to, you know, bring my story in. But I felt like just by sharing my story, people got what I was doing. And hint for those who aren’t familiar with hint, it is an unsweetened flavored water. I had this idea when I was giving up diet coke to start drinking plain water. But I found plain water exceptionally boring. So I was drinking diet soda. And when I decided it was time for me to give it up. I didn’t like all the ingredients that I had been putting in my body for years and years. That’s when I thought, okay, I solved one problem. Now I’ve got to solve this other problem of finding a way to drink boring old water. So I started slicing fruit and throwing it in water. And little did I know that I was not only starting a new company when I decided to hang a shingle and start hint, but also an entirely new category. So if you’re ever thinking about starting a company, and maybe you think I’m not going to talk too much about my idea, because somebody’s going to rip it off, right and start it. That’s what always happens, right? And the reality is, is that it’s it you may be starting an entirely new category. So telling your story telling your why helps people to understand this new concept and why the heck you’re doing what you’re doing. What problem are you solving. So that was really the beginnings of hint.

Justin Brady 4:43
Like you have mentioned in press and in all the opportunities you’ve had telling your story really gets people excited about what you’re doing and excited about the product because they can align with that vision and mission. And so rolling them together. You’ve seen a lot of success with that. One of the one of the The themes in your book is your connections. And like you pull on this connection for this thing, and you call this person for this thing, but what’s interesting is, these connections weren’t just given to you wasn’t some influential person that just connected you to the world, you literally start all these connections. And correct me if I’m wrong, this is what I got from the book, you literally start all these massive, amazing connections from working a waitressing job in Scottsdale, Arizona. Literally, where it all starts listening to other people’s stories and finding out where your story overlapped.

Kara Goldin 5:33
Isn’t that what everyone does? So, right? You’re just, you just start talking and enjoying what you’re doing every day? And No, but seriously, I think for me, I was a, I was a college student. And you know, every time people are making small talk, right, and you’re saying, oh, you know, what do you do? Are you I look, I guess, roughly like, I’m in school somewhere I look, I don’t know, if if I did or not. But I felt like a lot of people were asking me if I was in college or in school, and, you know, after a while I started feeling like, they’re asking me what I’m doing. Maybe I should ask them what they’re doing. Isn’t that the polite thing to do? And I just found that just by having that interaction, I guess today we call it an engagement, right? And then we’re having that engagement. I was learning a lot. And, you know, I grew up in Arizona. My family, I was the last if five kids super middle class, you know, we didn’t travel much. Because when we were going anywhere, it was, you know, seven people, right? Like it was it was a lot of people took her on tour bus.

Exactly. And and so I would kind of dream about these places like Chicago and San Francisco and New York. And I thought one day when I actually looking for a, a real job, and like, that’s when I’m going to go to some of these places. And I knew the only thing I knew was that I wanted to do something that I enjoyed that I felt like I was learning something, I wanted to make some money. And I wanted to be in a bigger city than Phoenix Scottsdale, because I had grown up there. Sure. And that was it. And I and I was totally wide open. And so I think just by sharing my story, like what I wanted to do with people, what I found is that people generally wanted and I still think that this is the case today, they want to be helpful, right? Especially if they’re starting the conversation with you saying, oh, you know, you’re graduating from school? When are you graduating? What do you what do you think you want to do? You know, that, that horrible question that you’re not supposed to ask? Right, right. College students, but I mean, that was the situation. And and, yeah, I mean, it’s funny. The story in particular that I share in the book is there’s this guy that used to come into the restaurant all the time. And I he asked me, he knew I was graduating, and he said, he said, So what are you going to do? And I said, you know, I’m just not sure. And I said, So what do you do? I’ve seen you in here a few times. And he said, I work for Anheuser Busch. And of course, I’m a college student. I know what Anheuser Busch is that beer company. And I was thinking he doesn’t. He’s wearing a suit. I mean, I don’t know what I expected. But I just didn’t, he didn’t look like somebody who was, I don’t know, stocking store shelves with beer. And I said, So what do you do for Anheuser Busch? And he said, Well, we film a lot of movies, and or there are a lot of film, filmed movies here in Phoenix and Scottsdale. And so my job is to go on the sets and make sure that the Anheuser Busch products are represented appropriately. I’m like, Can I have that job? I mean, that just sounds amazing. I could have I could be around Anheuser Busch products. I sounds like a lot of fun. Right. And I mean, little did I, I mean, that to me was just this career that I just never knew existed or nobody told me that I when I was in school, that there was that kind of role and and so that’s when I I sort of half kidding, sort of half serious, I said, you know if if there’s ever any openings, can you can you let me know, because I would love to apply for a job during that. And he said, Are you serious? And I said, Yeah, I’m really serious. And he said, Well, you’ll have to go to Los Angeles to Interview and I said, Fine, like, that’s a Southwest flight from Phoenix. I’m I’m game and, and, and so it started there. And what I found was just by actually being open to telling more people and communicating with more people, they would also be helpful I have a brother that is, that is 15 years older than me. So here I am graduating from college, a lot of his friends were, you know, in their mid 30s, they were already started. So they would be over around our house and my brother wasn’t living at home, but he’d stopped by on weekends. And I’d start asking questions and start asking them like, yeah, what do you guys do? And, and that’s what I found was something that I guess was kind of unique, but I didn’t again, know that it was at the time.

Justin Brady 10:50
Yeah. So you didn’t know that then. So like, there’s another strategy throughout the entire book, which is just call people just go ask them for what you want, just approach them directly. And, and that seems like a lot of people don’t know that works. And that’s literally how I got my first published piece in The Wall Street Journal. I just reached out to an editor and I said, Hey, your readers do X, Y, and Z. They like this stuff. I think I have a piece that they would like, Here you go. And then they ended up saying, okay, cool, we’ll run this. And that was like it. And I was like, what that worked. And this is like a strategy use over and over and over again, you just approach people, you ask questions, they want to be helpful. They tell you what you need to know. And then you go make a multimillion dollar business, I think your quarter million dollar business now or is it higher at this point?

Kara Goldin 11:29
Well, it’s in sales. So it’s, you know, the value of the company is greater than that. But yeah, but a quarter of a billion, just insane.

Justin Brady 11:38
Congratulations, obvious, saying, but from an early standpoint, did you know like this was a strategy that worked? Or was your natural curiosity, just pushing you to ask these questions?

Kara Goldin 11:51
I think a little bit of both. I mean, I think it was definitely an natural curiosity. But again, growing up the last of five kids, I think I had, I guess it, it’s an advantage. I didn’t view it that way, when I was younger, but I was, I was constantly asking my parents, teachers, you know, it was just, I was that kid, right? So don’t be too hard on those kids. If that’s your kid that, you know, as well, I was just constantly asking those questions. But I found that also just kind of the concept of just showing up, right, the concept of whether that’s a phone call, or, you know, just kind of showing up when people don’t actually think that you will show up is something that is pretty powerful. I mean, I, I was a competitive gymnast growing up. And I remember thinking, like, even when I was not competing, on certain days, we didn’t have to show up. But I would write and I would just stand there. And sometimes I ended up competing, like I had a bag filled with stuff with me that I could compete, just, but I was just always there. Right? And sometimes opportunities come to you when you do just show up. And I think that that’s been a consistent pattern throughout my life.

Justin Brady 13:13
It’s so true. And like, again, I think the danger, not the date. Well, that’s a good thing is a good word, the danger of someone hearing that I think they undervalue. Just showing up, I can’t be that easy. Like that’s not, it doesn’t make that big of a difference. But it absolutely does. Just showing up being on time and doing what you say you will do is a big deal. I want to talk about a little later, some people who didn’t say what they wanted to do, or some people who didn’t do what they said they were going to do if we have time for it, because there were some people who tried to screw over hint in the early years. And it’s a really good lesson there. Hopefully we get to that. But one of the really other just things that are mind boggling to me as an entrepreneur, and that you navigated with expertise was this idea. I always talk about politics over profits. And I’m not talking about like Republicans and Democrats. I’m talking about, you know, internal office politics or personal politics. And I’m speaking specifically of a few situations, there’s the two market I think, is the company and AOL merger. And they just they wanted you to move and that was more of a priority. And so you’re like, Okay, see you later. And they, you know, there was that whole issue that there’s a lawyer, and he just didn’t see the value in keeping you as an employee. And so he let you go, and the other boss is like, wait a minute, why would you let her go? She brought in all this money. And he just couldn’t see the bigger picture. It’s like the Coca Cola guy that could not see the bigger picture. And I think many people though, take this personally as if it’s about them, but in reality, some people just cannot see the bigger picture.

Kara Goldin 14:46
Yeah, you know, I think it’s short of boils down to to that. I think, just sort of living your life, right. To some extent. I’m a huge believer. I that life just kind of ends up being what it supposed to be, you definitely have moments where you are making decisions along the way. And I mean, it kind of goes hand in hand with even showing up, like, what’s the worst that can happen? I mean, right, maybe going back to my gymnastics, maybe I don’t compete that day. But maybe I’m actually there. And I’m sitting next to somebody who might be interesting, I might learn something from somebody or I might be watching somebody who is doing something that I’ve wanted to do, I’ve just, I found that actually staying complacent. Something I frequently say is, you know, complacency will kill you. Right. You’re I mean, that’s, that’s the bottom line. And, and so I think, just having a little bit of belief in me that that things do end up working out, has always ended up to be the right thing. And I guess, I would say that my, my superpower is not being patient. Right. So I really definitely like to be moving constantly. But I think that having patience in situations, like the one that you’re expressing, and also kind of having choices, and just saying, you know, the world is going to work the way it’s going to work. Yeah, is a really important piece. But so, you know, that was that was a great example of that situation. And I think also, you know, something, I guess I, I can speak to having worked in, in the workforce for for a while, too. You know, it really isn’t personal. I mean, people are just doing their jobs. Right. I mean, you’re definitely going to run into people along the way that don’t know you, it’s easier for them to say no than actually say yes. Right. It creates work. True. Right, and put that into your own situation. But But again, like having a belief that things actually work out the way that they’re supposed to work out is really, it’s, it leaves you a little more Zen than I think most people are able to kind of sit, allow that to to be if that makes sense. Yeah.

Justin Brady 17:34
And there are two, I think there are two ways to look at this. One way is if if this lawyer right, and the executive at Coca Cola, you actually offered to just give them hint, I think at 1.4, probably pennies on the dollar or something, two ways to look at it is if they wouldn’t have been so pigheaded and not seeing the future and not seeing the value. Right? If if they would have seen your value hint probably wouldn’t exist as it is today. Right. And you may still be with whatever company bought AOL after whatever. But the other aspect of this is for leaders out there, like listen to your people, because one of your employees may just have a billion dollar idea sitting there. And we get so used to I don’t want to do the work or this will never work or in the words of the Coca Cola executive. Like people don’t want unsweetened stuff. They just want sugary stuff.

Kara Goldin 18:24
Yeah, you know, it’s, you’re referring to one of my my favorite stories. It wasn’t my favorite, by the way when I was going through it, which is sort of whenever you’re going through hard situations, definitely. It’s a, you know, it’s stressful. It’s you’re not sure you’re making the right decisions along the way. But something I’ve learned is that, you know, when people are putting a stake in the ground around a concept, for example, in the case of the soda executive, he really believed that the world wasn’t necessarily looking for no sweeteners. I mean, the mothership has plenty of sweeteners in it, right. He he really had he believed that the world was looking for a message on the ken that said zero calories. And at the time, the the diet sweetener industry was about 10 calories, right, the Diet Cokes that I was drinking and I totally disagreed with that. Because here I had given up you know, drinking my diet coke that I had been drinking for years. And so when I was hearing him describe why my idea for an unsweetened flavored water was a terrible idea. And it wasn’t going anywhere. Here I’m sitting in San Francisco where I lived and it was, you know, he sort of was Pooh poohing my ideas, so to speak, saying, you know, I know you like it and you’ve got 10 Other people like it, but it’s not going anywhere. I went so far as to say, sweetie, it’s not going anywhere. And, you know, I’d never been called sweetie, my dad said to me, after I told him the story, he said, I’m sure happy that you weren’t sitting across the table from him, because that probably wouldn’t have ended very well. But I, instead, I was on the phone. And I was excited, because here I was listening basically, to the strategy for the company, right. And I felt like I, you know, listen for the next 45 minutes as he described why I was wrong. And I thought, when I hung up the phone with them, and it was a pleasant enough conversation, except for him calling me sweetie, I thought, Here I am, at a crossroads, I either make a decision to quit, which is probably what he thinks I’m going to do. Or I throw the gas on, and not share any more about who this customer is that I’m seeing. Because he has a lot more money than I do. And it’s, but he has a giant cruise ship. And it’s gonna take them a long time to turn it around. But he has the ability to do that if I convinced him. But going back to what I originally said. And I think that this is true for so many, you know, large companies, no matter what industry you’re in is, they get so caught up in the in, you know, the steak that they’ve put in the ground. And they’ve told too many people that this is what the world wants, that they can actually slow that down. It’s right. And so that was that was really what I was experiencing. Hey, Kara, here, we are thrilled you’re listening with us. And I hope you’re enjoying this episode. I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing so many amazing guests over the past few years, and there are so many more to come. I cannot wait. And my focus is on entrepreneurs and CEOs, real innovators and leaders who are making a difference. That’s what I’m looking forward to bringing you. One of the reasons I enjoy interviewing many of my guests is that I get to learn. We all need to hear stories that teach us to be better inspire us and help us get through those challenging moments. I can’t remember the last time I had a guess that didn’t leave me feeling like a major hurdle had been overcome. We just don’t hear these stories enough. And when we do, we learn to be smarter and stronger. Don’t you agree? Episodes are concise, but packed with amazing info that you will surely be inspired by, do me a favor and send me a DM and tell me what you think about each interview that you get a chance to be inspired by. And if you are so inclined, please leave one of those five star reviews for the Kara Goldin show on one of your favorite podcast platforms as well. Reviews really, really help. Now let’s get back to this episode.

Justin Brady 23:11
So speaking of sweetie.

Kara Goldin 23:14
Exactly.

Justin Brady 23:15
Speaking of sweetie, I think a lot of people and you’ve actually received this question quite a bit. A lot of people may take that and say like, oh, is this one of the reasons is the sweetie reason? Is that make it hard being a woman to raise money? This is a question you’ve gotten a lot you talk about it in the book, and you’re redirecting response is absolutely amazing. And I wish every entrepreneur would hear this, and I’m just going What is your response to people who tell you that? Or ask you that?

Kara Goldin 23:47
I’ve I’ve never been a man. So I don’t know. And I think that, you know, people have said, Is it tough to raise money as a woman? And you know, truly I think that. It? It’s a tough question. I hear what everybody says that it’s really tough to raise money as a as a woman, I definitely have my own stories along the way. But if you focus on what you can’t do, you’re not going to be able to do it. You have to believe that you can do it. You have to you have to have your head focused and in the space and believing that you can because if you don’t believe that you can, the world sees that. Right? And you believe that that you can’t do it, so you will never accomplish it. So I we’ve raised a lot of money and forehand, and again, did I have to knock on more doors have more meetings? Probably. I mean, it’s you know, you don’t really know. But I think what I didn’t do was focus on how hard it is. is and how I can’t do it, though, which I think is something that everyone needs to learn from whether you’re a woman or man or fit into some sort of, you know, other category where, where you feel like, it can’t happen. I think it really starts with you. And that and, again, if you have to believe first, and then once you believe, then you have to figure out how do you accomplish your goal and not get caught in the the bad maths that is I can’t do something because it’s not going to be helpful, right?

Justin Brady 25:41
Yeah, I think there’s a quote in there. And I wish I actually wrote it down as is. And I’m not going to like sit here and filter through it. But it’s the I think you said something like, I’m saying like, I’m a woman and can’t do x, it basically risks you putting a barrier up against yourself. And this is, this is not a good quote, I’m not, I’m not doing a good doing the, quote, justice. But what what other self built barriers do you think entrepreneurs are experiencing today?

Kara Goldin 26:13
Well, I think the other one that I touched on earlier is, you know, you think that when the competition comes, you know, whether you’re starting a brand new category, or maybe you know that there’s competition out there already, and you’ve got a tiny tweak, to make a category better, and you don’t want to share it with anybody. And all of a sudden the big guys come in, and, you know, your balloon has just been deflated. And you think I should just shut the door at this point, because I’m not going to be able to recover. The reality is, is that competition is not such a bad thing. And I think people said that to me before, but it just didn’t sink in until I had my own experience. Where there, we had a situation where we were in a major retailer, and doing pretty well. You know, every month, we were getting a little bit more space and selling a little bit more product. And then suddenly one of the big soda companies came in, they had a bigger relationship with the, with this retailer in particular, and they came in and told the retailer to remove us. And so I mean, it was this in the book, it was that simple. Actually, this story got cut from

Justin Brady 27:42
oh my gosh, that’s brutal. Okay.

Kara Goldin 27:45
And this happens a lot. I mean, there’s something in retail called, and again, every, every industry has it, but category captains, right. It’s the big, it’s the big guy. And so they came in and and they said, you know, we want the space. And they the retailer said, okay, it probably we didn’t, we weren’t privy to these details, but it probably, you know, there were some money that was involved along the way for them to be able to achieve that. Anyways, so that was a bad day. That was a really bad day. And then a few months later, we got the phone call that we were that they wanted to put us back in. And I was shocked. I thought, Wait, what do you mean, we just we just got over the fact that we were kicked out. And they said, Well, you know that that big company decided that they didn’t want to move forward with actually creating this competitive product. And they instead asked us to put in one of their older products, and they wanted to take that space. But what we realized is that we have a customer that is very interested in unsweetened flavored water. And because they don’t want to do it. We’re not only offering you your space back, but you get more space. Because they I mean, it was a crazy conversation, right? Can you imagine sitting here listening to this, that you’re like, wait hat hmm, I get more space. Now. I was out for three months. And now I’m back and I have more space. I mean, that sounds great.

Justin Brady 29:31
It sounds like someone noticed the revenue loss.

Kara Goldin 29:33
They noticed the revenue loss. And so we yeah, we gained that space. And so I mean, that’s a story of, you know, again, stuff happens along the way. And I mean, you you feel it, it’s not that it isn’t a disruption. But you, you have to focus on what you can control.

Justin Brady 29:55
Right and so Oh, go ahead. I’m

Kara Goldin 29:56
sorry. No, go ahead.

Justin Brady 29:57
Well, I was just gonna ask him to kind of chase that with another statement or another question, which is, this is another theme in the book is sacrifice and setbacks. And I mean, you sacrificed early on when you were thinking about starting hint, you sacrifice some great job opportunities you and Theo, your husband, who works for you. He’s your CEO, I believe you sacrifice potentially your house. No, you actually did sacrifice your house, you sacrificed at one point, almost all your shares in the company just to see your vision through. And, you know, at this point, you’ve interviewed tons of other CEOs and you know, people like so I have this it is it even possible to start a company, especially a company like yours, yours and not sacrifice all the time over and over and over again?

Kara Goldin 30:47
Well, I here’s the thing that I this is my favorite speech that I give on college campuses is that it’s, you know, that the entrepreneur today I think has been over glamorized. There are way easier ways to make more money. There were points when? If I would have done waitressing full time, I probably

Justin Brady 31:10
work. Right when I was starting. Oh, isn’t that the truth?

Kara Goldin 31:14
First starting can’t and and yet, I think that there is this. There’s this curiosity that exists amongst entrepreneurs. And, you know, you have to just get back up every single day, especially when you have those moments when a major retailer calls you and bumps you out of the set. You You have to figure out how do you keep moving forward? How do you not stay complacent? I think that that’s the most important piece I I equate being an entrepreneur to a to someone who loves puzzles, right? Imagine this visual, they tell you, you’re given a puzzle, but they didn’t give you the picture, right? They didn’t give you the box, they just handed you a bunch of pieces. And so you’re building away, and then all of a sudden, somebody comes by and grabs a handful and runs. And you’re like, wait, I need those pieces in order to finish this puzzle. And, and but they’re long gone, they’re like, you know, or they turn around, say no, you’re not gonna get them, whatever. So then you just keep building and figure out, you know, maybe it, maybe it’s just one corner, that’s going to be axed off. And then all of a sudden, the pieces, you find the pieces, and you don’t know if they’re the pieces to this puzzle, baby, the person who took them ends up bringing them back in, maybe you don’t even need those pieces. But you just keep going. And you just keep building and you find ways around it. That is the story of entrepreneurship. I mean, I hear from so many entrepreneurs, and I try to have a few minutes with many entrepreneurs over the years, and I know many entrepreneurs. And what I find is that the key thing is, is that the ideas seem really crazy, until they’re not crazy anymore. Right? They’re right. You know, I remember meeting homme de when he Chobani at his first trade show, and he was doing an unsweetened

Justin Brady 33:27
yogurt. Oh, fascinating. And I O co founder, right?

Kara Goldin 33:31
Yeah. And he had I mean, very similar situation where he had, you know, practically a folding metal table. And I think he went to Hallmark and got like, you know, cover for the table. I mean, it was super great, super bare bones. And, and again, it all starts with this idea. I mean, for for him it was he grew up in Turkey and and that’s what yogurt used to be for him. Right. And so I think people get these ideas, and they have to go and and do them and and I think you know, that’s the story of him. I also think that I had a bit of a competitive advantage because I had an experience with my father, where I talk about in the book, and he was a frustrated entrepreneur, I call them a he was never actually an entrepreneur. He worked in a large company called ConAgra. But he had developed a product line called Healthy Choice and was incredibly talented and an incredible storyteller as well. And when I was in high school, here he is running one of the top products in ConAgra. And he came home from work to share with us that he had been laid off He didn’t have an MBA. And that was the eighth. Yeah, that’s crazy. And it was crazy. And I just sat there. And I thought, Wait, I don’t understand. I mean, you, you’ve been working there for 20 years, and almost 20 years, and you’re running this product line, and you’ve received awards, and, but they’re letting you go for not having an MBA. And again, there was no online school, there was no chance he was, you know, in his, I think it was 56 years old, he wasn’t going back to school at that point. And, and it was just what what I realized at that point is, you know, things can happen, that you don’t expect to happen and loyalty, which he had so much of, to this company, and you know, banked on having a pension and all of those things. They just went away. Yeah, and, and so when you are a recipient of that. And, you know, the the light at the end of the tunnel was that he ended up in his process of looking for a new job. Some of his suppliers couldn’t believe that they had laid him off for not having an MBA because they didn’t even have a high school diploma. I mean, it was it. These were shrimp fishermen, who were the suppliers for some of the healthy choice products. And after a while, I think they just got really tired of watching this and hearing the story. So they went on strike and elaborate didn’t have shrimp for like six months. I didn’t know that. That’s great. Yeah. And so he ultimately, they called, My dad didn’t put them up to it. This was all their own idea. They called in to ConAgra and said, we are happy to sell you product back on one condition that you hire Bill Keenan, back into the company. And so, you know, the game didn’t stop there. They basically called my dad in Scottsdale, and they said, Okay, we’ll hire you back. And we’ll make an exception. On one condition. You move to Omaha, Nebraska, huh? And so, and again, Omaha, Nebraska is actually a very nice place. But and my dad didn’t have a choice. I mean, he needed to get have his pension, he needed the salary. And so he ended up, you know, taking a risk and going back in, but I think there’s multiple stories just in that story. Oh, gosh,

Justin Brady 37:47
I mean, that there are multiple stories in my movie. Basically, as I told you, before we got started. I’m like, 20% of the way through my interview questions because you pack so much in this book. So like there’s, there’s this idea out there, just ship it and maybe you have a different take on that. No, perfect. Your delivery promise, like perfect your basic promise first, which is super brilliant. Because I always scream. When I hear just ship it. I’m like, Well, if it’s crap, don’t ship it, because that’ll be the end of your company. But there are I mean, there are so many things. There’s your bottlers, early on, tried to screw you and tried to hold your product hostage and you have this lesson about trust is extremely important. And if someone violates that trust, you have to go looking elsewhere because it’s never gonna stop. There’s the mold issue you had to deal with. There’s the recession, there are discount demands. And here’s the craziest thing is when I had your product, which I adore, and I gave it to my wife, she hates sparkling water. And she drank him. She’s like, Oh, my word. This is really really good. It took you know, one sip and she was a fan. I love the product. I see the advantage. But you know, how hard is it just to add a little fruit flavor to water. And when you read the whole story, it’s brutal. Like you need preservatives. You like bottle temperature, this crazy in your husband, Theo solving all those problems with an espresso machine, which is absolutely great. So if you want to hear those stories, everybody you have to pick up the book, Kara Goldin, founder and CEO of hint, author of undaunted, and host of the Kara Goldin show. Kara, thanks for being on the show. How can people connect with you? Of course, they should obviously buy the book 100% by hint, but how can they connect with you?

Kara Goldin 39:25
Thank you so much, Justin, Kara Goldin all over social media platforms. And yeah, and it’s also on Audible as well. So it’s called undaunted, overcoming doubts and doubters and definitely great for entrepreneurs. It’s also great for people who kind of get in their own way, right? You don’t have to be an entrepreneur to fall into that maybe you’re not sort of achieving everything that you actually could be achieving. Because you just think you’re too old. You don’t have the right education. You’re the wrong gender. are, you know, whatever that is. It’s a story of proving people wrong, proving sort of the a lot of those statements and a lot of those beliefs wrong. So hopefully you’ll get a chance to reach out to me after you pick up a copy of the book or listen to the book,

Justin Brady 40:17
too. Thank you so much, Kara Kara Goldin, founder and CEO of hand. This was awesome. I appreciate you making the time.

Kara Goldin 40:24
Thanks so much, Justin.

Justin Brady 40:26
Hey, before I let you go, I have a question for you. Have you ever wondered why you have a great idea and the boss ignores you? Or you have a great idea and your client ignores you? It’s because people don’t actually see great ideas for what they are. It’s very difficult for people. This is not unusual. It’s been happening for a very long time. Think there’s that there’s always that IBM quote Howard Aiken, that says don’t worry about people stealing your idea. If you have a great idea, chances are you’ll have to shove it down people’s throat is so true. And that is why I amplify the best ideas, companies, people and entrepreneurs because I realize it just doesn’t happen automatically. You need to amplify yourself. You need to create a plan, create a strategy and execute that strategy. That’s the only way it happens. Unless you get lucky and someone does it for you. That’s what a lot of people always like, Oh, I just hit the press. I just got all this attention because I have a great product. I mean, you probably had someone making the connections for you, or a heavy hitter doing that for you. If you want to know how to do that, I have a newsletter that’s focused on only that, plus, I give a free PDF out it’s a 10 day, get more press, get more earned media get in the press guide in just 10 days. It’s totally free. I’ll send it to you right now. Just go to Justin K brady.com/access. Justin K brady.com/access. Just a first name, just an email address. And I’ll send it to you right now. And thank you for listening and hopefully at this point subscribing to the Justin Brady Show.

Kara Goldin 41:59
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