693 Interview Replay: Entreprenista
53:45 Share

This message is a paid partnership with Apple Card.

Hey everyone, Kara here. I've had an Apple Card for a few years now and honestly it's one of the best kept secrets out there. It's made managing my spending feel effortless because I can see what I spend when and where at a glance. And here's the best part, applying is so easy. You just go to the wallet on your iPhone to apply and see your credit limit offer in minutes.

Then start using your Apple Card with Apple Pay right away. No hassle, no waiting, just simple and fast. What I love most about my Apple Card, I get up to 3% daily cash back on the things I'm already buying. No points to keep track of. So if you're looking for a credit card that fits your lifestyle, Apple Card is it. Give it a try. Apply now in the Wallet app on your iPhone.

Subject to credit approval, Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City branch. Terms and more at applecard.com. 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. You just want to make sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don't get knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Hi everyone and welcome to the Care of Golden 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. I hope you enjoy it. And please make sure to tune in Monday for a brand new episode of The Kara Golden Show. Enjoy. Enjoy.

I had no idea what I was doing. And I kept feeling like I was going a few steps forward. And some days I would walk back 10. Other days, I'd make one little step forward. And, you know, I get so excited because I was able to figure something out. But I think like that for me was really energizing. And I think it really just speaks to, you know, at some point, you have to kind of blow things up.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to build a 100 plus million dollar business? Kara Golden is the visionary founder behind Tents. And no matter what type of business you are building, the learning lessons she's about to share with you will apply to your business and

the mindset you need to have if you're ready to build. So many of us start businesses to solve personal problems, and Kara is proof that you can do it too. You'll hear all about the early steps she took to disrupt the beverage industry and what she wishes she knew when she was first starting out. But Kara's success didn't end with building her business. She's the mom to four wonderful children, and she's become a best-selling author, speaker, and podcast host.

So grab your bottle of hint and get ready to hear Kara's biggest business secrets. This is the Entrepreneesa podcast presented by Socialfly. It's the best business meeting you'll ever have with must-hear real-life looks at how leading women in business are getting it done. And what it takes to build and grow a successful company. It's beyond the gram. With no filters. No limits. And plenty of surprises.

Kara, I am so thrilled to sit down with you and have this conversation. You have built such an incredible business over the past decade plus. And I can't wait to get into your entire journey and story building this business. But I have to ask you first, did you always know like as a child when you were growing up that you wanted to build and start your own business one day? Yeah.

No, not at all. I mean, for me, you know, it's interesting because I was thinking a lot about this recently. And I think when I was little, back in the dark ages, right? But being an entrepreneur, there weren't very many entrepreneurs that people highlighted as, you know, disrupting

resilient, doing super cool stuff. And so probably the only one that I had experienced

kind of heard of was, was a guy named Ron Papil. And, and I mean, certainly there was, you know, the Henry Fords of the world. But again, there, there wasn't anybody that was kind of touchable, right, where I could dream about going on LinkedIn and DMing him and, and, you know, learning from him, other than, you know, the history books. And so,

So really, the short answer to that is no. I did have a father that had very clearly an entrepreneurial spirit, an entrepreneurial spirit inside of a large company, initially our Armor Food Company and then ConAgra.

So looking back, I think he had a big impact on me because he was always, you know, dreaming of different ideas and frankly, producing different ideas, including healthy choice. So but it was, you know, it's very different when you have the backbone and the resources of a large company from the get go versus what,

we did with Hint and what so many other founders have experienced where you really, you don't have anything to fall back on, right? You're out there building one brick at a time and seeing what will happen. Absolutely. So what was your career journey that led you to ultimately start the business? Where did you go first? Yeah. So

So I started in, I actually started in media in New York and was at Time Magazine and then CNN and then moved out to the Bay Area and was, you know, really trying to figure out what I was going to do in San Francisco. And the only entrepreneur that actually came to mind for me in San Francisco, because I didn't know anybody when I moved here, was

was Steve Jobs and Apple. And I knew his story. I admired him greatly. And I thought, I think it'd be so great to work at someplace like Apple. But I wasn't an engineer. I didn't have any experience in products, physical goods, certainly not computers. And so I thought, this message is a paid partnership with Apple Card.

Hey everyone, Kara here. I've had an Apple Card for a few years now and honestly, it's one of the best kept secrets out there. It's made managing my spending feel effortless because I can see what I spend when and where at a glance. And here's the best part, applying is so easy. You just go to the wallet on your iPhone to apply and see your credit limit offer in minutes.

Then start using your Apple Card with Apple Pay right away. No hassle, no waiting, just simple and fast. What I love most about my Apple Card, I get up to 3% daily cash back on the things I'm already buying. No points to keep track of. So if you're looking for a credit card that fits your lifestyle, Apple Card is it. Give it a try. Apply now in the Wallet app on your iPhone.

Subject to credit approval, Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City branch, terms and more at applecard.com. Today's episode is brought to you by Open Phone, the number one business phone system built to keep your team connected and your business running smoothly, no matter where you are.

Let me tell you about one of the smartest additions to my business toolkit, Open Phone. If you're running a business or even just part of one, you know how fast things move. And every missed call, that could be a missed opportunity. Customers don't wait. They move on. That's where Open Phone comes in. It keeps you responsive, professional, and fully in sync so nothing slips through the cracks.

For just $15 a month, Open Phone gives you full visibility into everything happening with your business line. It works seamlessly through an app on your phone or computer and integrates with HubSpot and hundreds of other tools.

One of my favorite features, the AI-powered call transcripts and summaries. The moment you hang up, you get a clean summary with action items. No more scribbled notes or forgotten details. Trusted by over 50,000 businesses, Open Phone is easy to manage, collaborative, and flexible enough to grow with your team.

Right now, Open Phone is offering 20% off your first six months when you go to openphone.com slash Kara Golden. That's O-P-E-N-P-H-O-N-E dot com slash Kara Golden for 20% off six months. And if you've got existing numbers with another service, they'll port them over at no extra charge.

Make the smart move today. Head to openphone.com slash Kara Golden and elevate your business communication today. In honor of Military Appreciation Month, Verizon thought of a lot of different ways we could show our appreciation, like rolling out the red carpet, giving you your own personal marching band, or throwing a bumping shindig.

At Verizon, we're doing all that in the form of special military offers. That's why, this month only, we're giving military and veteran families a $200 Verizon gift card and a phone on us with a select trade-in and a new line on select unlimited plans. Think of it as our way of flying a squadron of jets overhead while launching fireworks. Now that's what we call a celebration. Because we're proud to serve you. Visit your local Verizon store to learn more.

$200 Verizon gift card requires smartphone purchase $799.99 or more with new line on eligible plan. Gift card sent within eight weeks after receipt of claim. Phone offer requires $799.99 purchase with new smartphone line on unlimited ultimate or postpaid unlimited plus. Minimum plan $80 a month with auto pay plus taxes and fees for 36 months. Less $800 trade-in or promo credit applied over 36 months. 0% APR. Trade-in must be from Apple, Google, or Samsung. Trade-in and additional terms apply.

I don't know how that's all going to work out. And in addition to that, they're based in Cupertino, which was significantly far from San Francisco. It definitely is the Bay Area, but it's a good hundred miles from. So I thought, I'm not sure that I'm going to be able to actually make that happen. But in the meantime, I stumbled upon a little startup that was spun out of Apple, a

by a few people who did work for Steve and they were doing something called online shopping. This is the early days back in 94.

And I cold called. I had been used to cold calling, working in media. And I cold called one of the founders and said, I'd love to come take you to coffee. And he said yes. And he picked up on the fact that I had been at this company called CNN, which was a little later stage startup, but it was still very much a startup and a founder-led startup by Ted Turner. And

And suddenly this coffee turned into, well, why don't you come work for us? And you're good at cold calling. So you can go and call all these retailers and help them get online, help them understand how to do direct to consumer. We call it e-commerce, but direct to consumer business.

And that I had no idea what I was doing. I there was no roadmap. People weren't doing direct to consumer shopping. But suddenly one of our investors, America Online, actually acquired us shortly after I got there, about a year after I got there.

And I went on to work at America Online and ran their shopping partnerships for a number of years. And when I decided that I was spending way too much time on an airplane traveling all over the U.S., but also from San Francisco to D.C., I thought I really need to make a decision. Either I go and find something else that is really cool to do in the Bay Area, or I

I moved to the DC area where America Online was based. And my husband was an attorney. He didn't feel like taking another bar exam. And I didn't blame him. And so he had worked for another tech company, Netscape. And so we decided that I would

I would try and figure out exactly what I was going to do. Up next, Kara shares how her personal health journey led to her founding hint and all of her learning lessons entering into the competitive beverage industry that you can apply to your own business. This message is a paid partnership with Apple Card.

Hey everyone, Kara here. I've had an Apple Card for a few years now and honestly it's one of the best kept secrets out there. It's made managing my spending feel effortless because I can see what I spend when and where at a glance. And here's the best part, applying is so easy. You just go to the wallet on your iPhone to apply and see your credit limit offer in minutes.

Then start using your Apple Card with Apple Pay right away. No hassle, no waiting, just simple and fast. What I love most about my Apple Card, I get up to 3% daily cash back on the things I'm already buying. No points to keep track of. So if you're looking for a credit card that fits your lifestyle, Apple Card is it. Give it a try. Apply now in the Wallet app on your iPhone.

Subject to credit approval, Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City branch. Terms and more at applecard.com. In honor of Military Appreciation Month, Verizon thought of a lot of different ways we could show our appreciation, like rolling out the red carpet, giving you your own personal marching band, or throwing a bumping shindig.

At Verizon, we're doing all that in the form of special military offers. That's why, this month only, we're giving military and veteran families a $200 Verizon gift card and a phone on us with a select trade-in and a new line on select unlimited plans. Think of it as our way of flying a squadron of jets overhead while launching fireworks. Now that's what we call a celebration. Because we're proud to serve you. Visit your local Verizon store to learn more.

$200 Verizon gift card requires smartphone purchase $799.99 or more with new line on eligible plan. Gift card sent within eight weeks after receipt of claim. Phone offer requires $799.99 purchase with new smartphone line on unlimited ultimate or postpaid unlimited plus. Minimum plan $80 a month with auto pay plus taxes and fees for 36 months. Less $800 trade-in or promo credit applied over 36 months. 0% APR. Trade-in must be from Apple, Google, or Samsung. Trade-in and additional terms apply.

I had always thought that that was going to be something in tech because that had really been my core experience over the current number of years. But it was when I started my family and started feeding them that I started really looking at ingredients. And in addition to food, I was also looking at some of the drinks that they were drinking.

And frankly, I felt almost like a hypocrite because I was sitting here policing their food and drink so much, but I wasn't really looking at what I was doing. And my drink of choice was Diet Coke.

And I thought that that was pretty good for me for many, many years until I really started looking at the ingredients and drinks. And, you know, this is 2004-ish. So I was way ahead of my time. Very early, very early. I'm like, now everyone's talking about it now. But back then it was like you started talking about ingredients. You're like, are you crazy? Like, just drink this, have this. Yeah.

Yeah. And, you know, it's interesting because I think I always knew more about diet sweeteners than most of my friends did. And I knew that because having a father that worked in the food industry that was constantly looking at these different trends, but also different types of sweeteners other than sugar,

what I started to see was that the diet sweetener of today might not be so good for you tomorrow. And there were many examples of that between saccharin and NutraSweet and lots of different ones along the way. So-

That's when I really made a very big decision to give up my diet soda and start drinking plain water, except there was one major problem. It was really boring for me and I needed some kind of taste. I felt like I'm not going to drink all this water all day long without some sort of taste. So I started slicing up fruit and throwing it in, still never thinking that

I'm going to go and create this. I was doing it for myself first. And then people started coming into my house. They would see me at the gym with fruit in my glass or in my bottle that I was carrying. And that's when I thought,

Gosh, there's really something here. There must be this product out there. I really almost talked myself out of trying to create this product as well, even though...

I had worked for some incredible entrepreneurs and been involved in helping those entrepreneurs scale. I kept saying that I'm not qualified, right? I'm not able to do this. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I truly wanted this product for myself. And it wasn't until I went to Whole Foods that had just opened in the Bay Area and saw that nothing was like this. And

that maybe I should just go create it. Yeah. Oh my gosh. There's so much to unpack from your story there. And a few things I just want to call out, especially for our entrepreneurs who are thinking about starting a business or on the fence about whether to do something or you're thinking about whether you should call someone or that next big decision. One of the first things that you shared, Kara, was that first

first call you made back in the early days about, you know, wanting to get that job like you did you go that was the yellow pages that you go through that to find the right number of who to call, but like you picked up the phone and called and got that meeting. Yeah, well, and I did that a few times even before that. I mean, that's how I got my job out of college. I didn't

you know, pick up the phone. Actually, I looked inside the masthead of Fortune magazine where I wanted to initially work. And there was an address, a physical address. There was no email for the managing editor, but I figured out who it was. And I thought, what's the worst that can happen? If he doesn't write back to me, then I'm

I'm, you know, no further behind, right? It's just that he's just, I have to figure out another way or I don't, I can just move on from it. But, but that has always worked for me that if I really am focused and, and,

And, you know, really deliberate about figuring something out. I can usually figure it out. And I think that's my that's my superpower. So I can if I really, really focus on it and stay on it, I know that I'm capable of doing a lot more than than anything.

maybe others who decide not to focus on that. It's really figuring out what do you want, right? And if you want to go and pick up that phone or write an email to somebody and you have to do it in a way that I think is not obnoxious, right? But also, I think

showing empathy, showing curiosity. And that's the kind of thing that I think really seems to work. Yeah. And it's really like just doing it, right? Like nothing's going to happen if you don't pick up the phone or send that email. If you're just thinking about it and ruminating on it with any big decision, with any decision in general, like you just have to do it to move forward. And I think that really is, I feel like in entrepreneurship, it's,

What makes someone successful, right? If you just sit there, nothing's going to happen. And if you can't figure something out, you can find someone to help you. Because I mean, Courtney and I have just seen over the years, and I'm sure you've seen this too. It's like when you ask for help, like people want to help. They're willing to help. They will point you in the right direction. But you just have to just have to ask. Yeah, definitely. And I think also having something specific that you really want to...

get their thoughts on, not necessarily advice, but really get their thoughts on something I think is key. When you, I mean, I just went through this process with my own kids when they're, you know, out of school and they're starting to look around at different opportunities, calling somebody up or emailing them and saying, hey, can you tell me, you know,

how you started. I mean, it's just, that's a long question, right? That's, that's something that, you know, maybe you can go out and find a podcast that actually does that. But do you, but it really is, um,

I think really figuring out like what it is that you want to get out of that person is so, so key. I'm being very specific there. No, I love that advice. All right. So now you have this idea. We're going to fast forward to start the business. You're ready to do it. You want to build it at least for yourself to start, which I think is so relatable. So many founders, it's like we're trying to solve a problem of our own. And then it's like, oh, this can actually be something. So now you realize you go to Whole Foods.

There's no products like this. What did you do first to start building this business and get started?

So I went home and I actually wasn't feeling so great. And I wasn't, it had been going on for a little while. And I realized that I was actually pregnant and with our fourth child. And so I was really starting to think, is this the time to go and become an entrepreneur as well? But I thought,

If if I don't, I probably don't want to go and get a real job at this point because I'm going to be looking for a job for a few months and then I'm barely starting. And then all of a sudden I'm going to need to go on maternity leave. And that's going to be challenging in and of itself. So I thought maybe I'll just sit there, not sit there, but research it all out now while I'm

And then I had to share this with my husband as well, that I was starting a beverage company, had never done anything. First of all, I had never started a company on my own. I had never been in the physical goods space or a food company, a beverage company.

And also I was having our fourth child. So four kids and six years. And now another baby with a business. Right, right. And so that was one of the first things that I did. And sort of right at the same time, I was also mapping out, okay, how do I...

bottle this product. And I mean, this is another thing I think for any industry, maybe you can relate to this when you're starting a company is you might have this great idea to actually start a company. But unless you know the lingo, you

it's often really hard to get very far, right? So in our case, I mean, here I was doing Google searches for bottles and caps. Well, it ends up that caps are not called caps in the beverage industry. They're called closures. So the minute that you're actually calling bottles

bottling bottle companies to actually source some bottles or even doing a search for that, you're not going to get searches showing up for caps. You're going to get a lot more searches when you're putting in closures. Just that's just one example. And so then once I got the lingo down, then I was actually looking for somebody to bottle the product.

And that's called a co-packer. So another piece of language as well, that again, if you don't know the lingo,

I'm calling around to these bottlers and I'm saying, hey, can you bottle my product? And sometimes you'll get somebody nice on the phone, but it's pretty clear that you're not in the industry, right? And you're new, right, to the industry. You have no idea what you're doing. So maybe you're going to get lucky and somebody is going to have some additional line time, but you might also get ripped off, right? Because they're thinking,

this lady has no idea what she's talking about. And so I'm going to charge her four times the amount and I'm going to, you know, whatever it is. So there was a lot of that going on for me in the early days. And, you know, I think a lot of it was for me, I was so curious about it for, you know, for a lot of different reasons. And I felt like,

For once in a very long time, I was out of my element, right? I had been sitting in an industry that I didn't understand direct-to-consumer in the beginning, but I really started to understand it the longer that I stayed in. I was more and more comfortable and confident, right? And running a big team, all of a sudden, there's no team.

There's all kinds of lingo that I need to know. And I just... Every day, I put so much into this, but I had no idea what I was doing. And I kept...

you know, feeling like I was going a few steps forward. And some days I would walk back 10. Other days I'd make one little step forward. And, you know, I'd get so excited because I was able to figure something out. But I think like that for me was really energizing. And I think it really just speaks to, you know, at some point, you have to kind of blow things up, right, for yourself. And you have to

figure out, is this the industry that I want to stay in? I think probably a lot of your listeners can relate to this, that whether you're running a startup in an industry or you're coming from a company where you're part of either a startup or a large company, and now you're thinking of doing something for yourself,

I mean, it's scary, right? Because you're sitting here trying to figure out, do I go and do something or not? But learning is scary, right? Until you actually get something under your belt. So I think it's like...

That for me was something that I needed, but I wouldn't have been able to say that I needed. Today, I know it. I know that about myself. But I think it's something that is... Not everybody takes the time to do that. Instead, they think, okay, I move on to the next level. I move on to the next job when to make...

you know, a horizontal move and maybe a horizontal and then down a few steps, you know,

You know, not everybody wants to do that and that's okay. But that is the typical story of, I think, a great entrepreneur. Totally. Knowing what you know now and all the experience that you have had over the years growing and scaling this business, what do you know now or what few things you know now that you just wish you knew on day one of first starting the company that for founders that are just starting their business or they're early in their business, like what should they know that you just wish you knew in those early days? Yeah.

You know, I think it goes along with this concept of knowing, you know, who or what is on the other side of the table. So here I am launching an unsweetened flavored water hint. And

It's categorized by an industry as water, but yet it had everything else out there prior to Hint had a sweetener in it. So it was either sugar or some sort of diet sweetener in it. And I'm talking about still flavored waters, not necessarily the carbonated ones. They had other issues, including lots of sodium, which they don't as much anymore, but

But so as I was, you know, trying to figure out things like shelf space and who are, you know, what are other people doing? Then I really started to realize that if you look at who your consumer is, your consumer is making a choice, possibly of possibly whether they're going to drink plain water or a product like Hint, right?

Um, maybe they came from flavored water that was sweetened because they wanted that extra taste. Um, but then they, you know, now that hint is out, hopefully they wouldn't be going back to that. But the real key for me was recognizing that this consumer's making trade-offs between soda, right. And, uh, and you know,

Some flavored waters. But really, what I had to do was educate them on why taste didn't have to be sweet. And that was...

the sort of aha moment that instead of actually thinking about, because you're always going to be in this position where you're explaining it in the early days to your, you know, your husband or your friends or your family or investors, right? Here is what I'm launching. And it's in this space. There's, there's a time to have that conversation. But at the end of the day,

the most important audience that you have is this consumer. And you have to really, really think like this consumer in order to do the right thing. And how am I going to teach them to...

want my product, to understand my product. Again, I was resource constrained. I was bootstrapping this. I didn't have that knowledge of the industry. But knowing what I know today, I think it's applicable in every industry. It's about looking at who is actually going to put money on the table to buy this.

What was your marketing strategy when you first launched and in those early days? Because this is... Was this pre-social media when you first launched? Yeah, this was pre-social media. And yeah, I mean, it's interesting. And that sort of...

I wouldn't say that there was any set strategy initially. I mean, we knew that we couldn't afford billboards and some of the... Certainly not a Super Bowl commercial, as we did much later. But for us, it was, how do we get this product on the shelf so more and more consumers will buy it? So we were sampling in stores. I remember...

early on, I received an email from a consumer who had found our product inside of Whole Foods. And he said, I love your product. I love that it doesn't have sweeteners in it. I've been a huge fan of another product, Vitamin Water. And I just realized how much sugar the product has in it. And so I'm

I'm grateful that you finally launched a product that doesn't have sweeteners in it. And I remember reaching out to him and saying, hey, do you mind if I give you a call? I just launched Hint and I'm really, really interested and curious. Another cold call, sort of. Right. So he said, no, not at all. And I said, so why? I'm curious. And if you don't want to share this with me, that

That's fine. But I'm curious, like, why do you not want sweeteners? Is it because you're thinking about it from a health perspective? Are you thinking about it, you know, for some other reason? He had shared with me that he was a competitive athlete. Yeah.

And he said, well, I have something that you've probably never heard of. Again, this is 2005, I guess at this point. He said, it's type 2 diabetes. And I said, so I haven't heard of type 2. I've heard of diabetes, but I had never heard of type 2 diabetes. And so I'm doing my Google search. There really wasn't that much there. And he said, yeah, not a lot of people know that I have diabetes.

this condition, and they don't know a lot about it yet. And what I found is that even eating or drinking diet sweeteners, I seem to have insulin spikes, and I just don't feel very well. So I just decided I'm just going to try and cut it out altogether. But it's very difficult. And I don't like the taste of plain water. And I'm like, Oh, that's so interesting. And I said, Have you

talk to other people who have this. And he said, you know, it's interesting. I found like this small group of people in San Francisco that are all athletes. And they've all kind of said the same thing that some of them have been diagnosed. Others are, you know, just fake

like diet sweeteners are not necessarily making them feel that great. And I said, well, if you guys ever have like a run or anything like that, let me drop off some samples of Hint because we're not available in many stores yet. And he said, absolutely, we're doing something in the next couple of weeks and you should. So I met all of these consumers. And that's what I realized too, is that when you can find these little communities, right, you find one and something...

sort of set my curiosity in that conversation, but I also was getting a ton of information. I was able then to meet this community of people. So we started sampling there and then they asked where the product was available. So that was, you know, that was a key thing. And then actually, I

one of the people worked at Google. And I started thinking about, gosh, I wonder if we could get it into some of these offices and, you know, do away with the soda machines, because that could be really, really exciting. I didn't know how to do that. And I ended up meeting with somebody who worked at Google, actually used to work with my husband at Netscape. And

and met with him actually about a job because again, I wasn't, I still wasn't

on board with 100% doing this. I was sort of in my, you know, early days of it. I was very curious about it. But I thought, this is, it's going to be a long haul. And it's going to be a, you know, big climb to get this to scale. And that's when he offered to introduce me to a chef that they had brought in to cook food for Google employees. And he said, you know, he's a

incredible chef, Charlie, and I don't think he has any drinks. So maybe you could offer to give him some drinks. And so we made that connection. And then Charlie ended up first buying 10 cases, and then 30 cases, and then, you know, 30 pallets. And before long, Google became one of our top vendors. I mean, it was just it was crazy. And then,

That sort of moved the needle in offices because then people would leave Google and go to start their own company or they would take a bottle home. And retailers were requesting our product now all over the Bay Area, all over the U.S. And so...

I think, again, it goes back to really community more than anything else. A long answer, but... No, it's... And I feel like from everything you've shared, it's like all roads lead back to connections and relationships and community and building on one connection to the next and just being open to explore and to listen to your customers, listen to your community so you can make those next decisions. Coming up,

You'll learn why risk-taking can pay off in business. Plus, she shares all her advice for founders on how to just get started.

Was there one moment when you remember that something happened in the business that really helped you then hit scale and take you to that next level, if you will, in the business? Or was it this like slow stepping burn? Yeah. Well, I remember a story. Yeah.

you know, we wanted to get into Starbucks so bad. I would go in and have my coffee at Starbucks and I would see this whole case of product. And there was the apple juice and there were, you know, all kinds of things in there that were non-Starbucks items. So I knew that they bought

different products for people to enjoy alongside their coffee. And I kept reaching out to people from Starbucks, finally found somebody that we connected with and they were going to do a test with the product. The test then turned into...

10,000 stores almost. We never did a test. I mean, they decided to roll it out. And that was a really scary decision because again, like we hadn't, we didn't know whether or not it was going to work and the stores and here we were, you know, paying it for everything upfront to create the product. And we were hoping that it was all going to work, but it was a big risk and a big task. And,

And I remember saying to the buyer, so if we like, what is success for you? Which I think is another key lesson that whenever you get really nervous about some decision that you're making, because you're going to have to take some risks along the way. What I've found is in particular, if you're in some kind of negotiation with somebody asking them, you know,

What would make you happy? What is success for you? Because if you really understand their bar, right, you don't necessarily have to agree with their bar and maybe it's not going to happen initially. But then when you get to that bar and they're not happy, then you're

you can remind them about this conversation. So that's exactly what happened. It took us about six months to get to what they wanted to see. Um, and, uh, we were very excited. Uh, we had a, uh, uh, like cowbell in our office that we would ring when, you know, little, little, um, celebrations like that would come up. And, uh,

And so that continued and we continued to grow. And after a year and a half, we were doing, you know, like three times what they had said was success. So I was feeling super confident at this point. How many years into the business were you when you got this opportunity? That was...

That was like seven years into the business. Yeah, it was a little... About six, six and a half years into the business. Anyway, so another thing that I learned in that situation. So that was a big, exciting, really exciting time. Yeah.

The buyer then changed. Actually, the CMO changed as well. And so part of that change, which I think is a very important piece to share with any entrepreneur, is that

You know, you can have one person from a company set some kind of goals for your business. You have a new person who's coming in who wants to, you know, paint their canvas, so to speak.

And so that canvas did not include hint and it had nothing to do with how we were doing, which was really difficult for me to get up to. I was like, wait, but this is not what we agreed to. And it didn't matter. And so basically I was stuck with all kinds of product that we had created and they were going to discontinue it after a few weeks. And, um,

uh, that was a bad day. That was a bad day in the timeline of hint. Well, going to back to your point about, you know, connections and you never know, uh, where they're going to come from. I got a phone call from Amazon and, uh, right after while this was going on. Yeah. While this was going on and it was crazy, they had, Amazon had, uh,

tons and books and music as well. But they really hadn't jumped into the grocery space yet. And so this was 2012. And so the gentleman who reached out to me, he actually emailed me first and we got a phone call. He had been tasked with launching this whole new grocery business in a big way. And

And the individual actually came from Time Magazine, my first job, or he was working in the building. And he said, you know, I said, how did you hear about Hint? And he said, well, first of all, I go into Starbucks every morning and

And I grab a bottle of Hint with my coffee and I'm like, okay, do I tell him that we've been discontinued or do I just let him keep going? And he said, and also, I remember you when you worked at Time.

And I said, you're kidding. And he's a few years older than me and worked at Sports Illustrated and which was in the same building. But he said, I just remember how helpful you were and like how funny you were. And I was like, really? Oh, like I had no recollection of him at all. But he said, and now, you know, you're.

You've launched this incredible drink that I love. And he was like, and I'm so excited to get it into Amazon and go big with you guys. And I'm like, oh, that's great. Like, what is big? And he said, well, unfortunately, I need product like yesterday for my launch. And you and I didn't get it.

get in touch soon enough. So we'll stay in touch. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. I have, I have like three extra truckloads that are ready to go. Yeah. Have your name on them. We did an overrun and he's, and he's, uh, he's like, oh, you're kidding. He's like, wait, let me think about this. Like, what do you need for me? And I said, you can just wire the money and we're good. And he said, oh,

Perfect. I can do that. And so they did. And I was like, oh, my gosh. The universe. The universe. The universe was like talking, right? And so sometimes, you know, one door shuts and, you know, we would not have had...

that opportunity with Amazon. It would not have had, you know, the direct-to-consumer business and opportunity that we did had we not had that product produced at that time. We would not have been able to move that quickly. So, you know,

who knows if we would have been able to do it on the next run and if he would have gone for it. But in that initial phase, I mean, we became the number one beverage on Amazon almost immediately. I mean, we really launched with them. So anyway, that's another part of the lesson that you have to...

the universe will take care of you if you are doing the right things. Yeah, I so believe that. And as someone, I feel like all of us as founders, we've all been through the ringer, right? Lots of things we can talk about, lots of things we can't talk about, and things are just happening. And if you're, I just believe if you're a good person and you keep going, like,

the universe will take care of us. Totally agree. Totally agree. I have to believe that. All right. So now you're building this business. You're seven years in, you're number one on Amazon. Did you ever look back and you're like, how did this even just happen? Like I had this idea and now we're, you know, just blowing up, exploding. Like how, what did you, what were those conversations with yourself? You know, it's, it's exciting. I mean, I think the, uh,

You know, still at that point with every day there was, you know, we were growing in one channel and we didn't have enough people. So there were other channels.

channels, retailers that we weren't doing so well. You know, and I think that the biggest piece of sort of advice that looking back on is that you can only do so much, right? And things are going to happen. Strategies are going to be changed along the way. Often, you know, your strategy for something is not someone else's strategy. Right.

Right. And so you have to not beat yourself up, but instead just look at everything that you're doing and celebrate those little wins right along the way. And also know that, you know, every person.

Step along the way. I mean, the opportunity with Starbucks, for example, I had never run into. Certainly, I had been in environments where people were changing jobs, but I never had it impact me in the way that it was impacting me. Right. And I think that that's another piece. Like, you know, when you're a founder, the CEO of a company and you're

Even whether it's in the beginning or if it's seven years in, I mean, you're going to run into these opportunities that seem super great today. And then if you get canceled, you can get canceled for years.

not or discontinued for just because somebody new came in and they want to paint their canvas. It doesn't mean that you did anything wrong, right? It doesn't mean that your sales weren't good or something wasn't happening in the right way. You also, I think another thing that I learned about that too, was that Starbucks had initiatives with Pepsi and, you know,

Pepsi and competitors out there will have behind the scenes, you know, blocking and tackling that is going on. And, you know, that happens in every single industry. And I think that you have to figure out, are you a warrior? How are you going to go and fight these things? Or are you going to find new pieces of business? And how are you going to, how are you going to

juggle it all? How are you going to solve the puzzle and keep moving forward? Yeah. What advice, speaking of juggling and managing a lot, do you have for the mama Pernistas out there like us? I have a five and a half year old that are trying to manage building our empires and also being there for our kids, managing home life and families. How did you do it all? What advice do you have?

Yeah, I had lots of help. You know, that's key because you really can't do it all. But I think, you know, here's what I would say. If you can think about

And I used to think about this a lot. That was I doing the right thing? Was I making the right trade-offs? I figured out what was really important to me. And so things like I knew I wasn't going to be the PTA mom, for example, not taking anything away from any PTA moms, but it just wasn't what I was going to do. But it was really important for me to be at...

you know, sports games and show up after school for meets and things like that. And, and so I continued to do that and I would break away. And then after they went to bed at night, I would be back on line and doing things along, you know, along the way. But I think it wasn't an, it,

And you do that and you're hoping you're making the right decision, right? It wasn't until much later when my kids could really start to articulate what they wanted to do with their life and go out and find that perfect career or start that perfect company or whatever it was that I realized that lots of things that...

I had been hoping that they would pick up on were starting to show up, right? So things like, you know, wanting, being passionate about what you're doing, solving problems, learning, falling down and getting back up again, things like that. And I think also,

respecting what you're doing and how you're treating people, how you're, you know, managing overall. And I think that if you do that, then I think that

you're going to have kids that will do that as well. And I think that that is, you know, exciting years later. I know it's not super helpful now when you're, you know, in it, right? In the thing, right? It's the same with any, with growing the early stages of any company. It's always easier to say like, you know, just wait. But I think that you, you treat people right and,

Um, sometimes when you're, you know, making decisions, um, you know, I've thought about this always, like, you know, what, what would my kids say? Like if I was treating people the wrong way, if I was doing the wrong thing, um,

would I be proud? And I frankly, like, let them kind of be your North Star for how you're handling situations, how you're showing up, how you're committing. Because that I think is what we ask of our children. Yet, if they see you as a role model, and an example for doing that, I think that

That's gold, right? No, I love that. And as someone who has a five and a half year old, I think about this all the time, especially when, you know, I'm not able. I mean, I'm there for every single school event and everything she does, but like I'm not able to be the class parent. And I've had to make that choice. Like, I know that I can't do that, but I'm going to be there for Girl Scouts that I'm going to be at, you know, I'm the classroom photographer.

I'm going to all of that and really having to make these trade-offs. But I have five and a half years old. I have these conversations with her. And even last night, because I actually had to be on calls last night till about 7 PM. I said to her, I'm like, Molly, I know I've been on more calls lately, but I just want you to know mommy loves you so much. And I'm working so hard. And all of this is for you too. I want you to see this. She goes, I know mom, you tell me this all the time. She's five and a half. So she knows she's listening. Okay.

She knows. And I, you know, I just hope your story and what you're sharing about how your kids are now. I hope that's my story, too. I know it will be.

So, okay, I have to ask you this, Kara. So there are so many now new business tools and solutions that are out there that did not exist back in 2010, 12, even 2015. And I always share with everyone, like it's never been easier to actually start a business. Some of these tools were not around years ago when you were first starting, but they're there now. What business tools and solutions do you use in your business or for your personal brand that you love and you can't live without? It's a good question. You know, I...

And it's, you know, gotten kind of a bad rap, but I love chat GPT for ideating right on different topics and also quickly researching something. I don't think you can totally rely on on responses, but I think it's it's a oftentimes you want to think through something and, you know,

I'll just stream of conscious, like write something in. And it's really helped me to, um, figure out if that's a direction that I want to go in, in, or where might I look for something? Um,

In the early days of Hint, if I would have had ChatGPT, I might have said, I'm asking bottlers for information on bottling. Is there some other way that I should be asking? And it would have helped me to sort of narrow that down and get information.

to clarity faster so that I could be clearer. Absolutely. I'm with you on that. I love all of these AI tools for that research. And I call it like the great like first draft and brainstorm partner. And I'm like, how did we, how have we run businesses for the past decade without these tools? They're the best things ever. They're amazing. Totally.

Kara, last question for you. And I feel like we could talk for three hours and I wish we could actually right now, but I know our entrepreneurs have to get back to building their businesses right now. So what does being an entrepreneur mean to you? I think it gives me a lot of pride to know that I'm creating something or have created something that really helps people, right? And so I think that

When you think about being an entrepreneur, there's a lot of entrepreneurs that will go out and do something that maybe isn't necessarily going to help people. But if you can do something that actually helps people get healthy, you know, save time, you know,

change lives in some way so that they can spend more time with their five and a half year old or they can start to do, you know, more for themselves. Right. That I think is such a powerful, powerful bit of what's the word hope or to be able to think back on on that

That piece, I think, is really, really key. Yeah. Kara, thank you so much for spending the time and sharing your incredible journey and story. It's really so amazing what you've accomplished and just all of your I've learned so much just talking to you today. And I know all of our entrepreneurs have. Where can everyone find you? Follow you. I know you have an incredible book as well. Share all of the links and handles and everyone go ahead to the show notes because we're linking out to everything right in the show notes to go connect with Kara.

Awesome. Kara Golden everywhere. It's G-O-L-D-I-N. And also the book that I wrote a couple years ago. It's actually a great book for anybody who is on an entrepreneurial journey, whether you're doing a food and beverage company or otherwise. I think it gives people a lot of confidence and confidence

And again, sort of tells the story of building Hint, but it's called Undaunted, Overcoming Doubts and Doubters. And yeah, so thank you so much for having me. Thank you again for being here, Cara. I'm Stephanie, and this is the best business meeting I've ever had.

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 undauntedthebook.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 Golden and let me know. And if you like 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 Golden. Thanks for listening.