Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan - Kara Goldin, founder & CEO of Hint Inc.: Becoming Undaunted, Facing Your Fears, and Defying Your Doubters Episode 78
Episode Date: October 27, 2020Kara Goldin, founder and CEO of Hint Inc., author, and speaker, has often faced that assumption that she is fearless. That she has never failed and that she has never doubted. That couldn’t be farth...er from the truth. Kara has hit roadblock after roadblock. She has faced naysayers from huge intimidating competition but she always persisted. And now she understands that powering through the hardest challenges is what fuels you to move forward in the future. Now Kara is here to share how she became undaunted, how she used her fears to strengthen herself, and how she inspires the next generation of entrepreneurs. About the Guest: Kara Goldin is a disruptor. She is the Founder and CEO of Hint, Inc., best known for its award-winning Hint water, the leading unsweetened flavored water. She is an active speaker, writer, and hosts the podcast Unstoppable with Kara Goldin where she interviews founders, entrepreneurs and other disruptors across various industries. She has also just launched her book, Undaunted, where she inspires others to face their fears. She lives in the Bay Area with her four kids. Kara is an all-around boss who has inspired many for her courage, resilience, and authenticity. Finding Kara Goldin: Buy her book: Undaunted Website: https://karagoldin.com/undaunted Twitter & Instagram: @karagoldin Connect with her on LinkedIn Listen to her podcast: Unstoppable with Kara Goldin To inquire about my coaching program opportunity visit https://mentorship.heathermonahan.com/ Review this podcast on Apple Podcast using this LINK and when you DM me the screen shot, I buy you my $299 video course as a thank you! My book Confidence Creator is available now! get it right HERE If you are looking for more tips you can download my free E-book at my website and thank you! https://heathermonahan.com *If you'd like to ask a question and be featured during the wrap up segment of Creating Confidence, contact Heather Monahan directly through her website and don’t forget to subscribe to the mailing list so you don’t skip a beat to all things Confidence Creating!  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Hi and welcome back. I'm so excited you're here with me today. Thank you for being here.
Okay, so as always, per the norm, it's a crazy week and something so interesting happened that I wanted to share with you.
It is shocking to me how much we don't know.
And you'd think at 46 years old I would pretty much have most things figured out.
Hello, not the case at all.
And I'm gonna give you some specific examples.
Hopefully to open your mind to what you potentially don't know,
which is staggering.
So I have on my website, HeatherMontagand.com,
I have an inquiry thing that people can fill out.
If you want to reach out, you want to talk to me,
you want me to be on your podcast, you want to book me for speaking, whatever. You know,
it's just an opportunity to conversion mechanism on my site. So I always have to check my junk
mail because oftentimes these inquiries go to my junk mail. And so I was looking at my
junk mail folder this week. And I see an inquiry from some guy that happens to live in Miami
that owns a company to support authors
and marketing for authors.
So I Google it to check the guy out,
because you never know what random person's reaching out to you.
Do you really want to waste the time to get on a phone call
with someone when they want to collaborate?
I get a lot of those messages.
Let's collaborate, which basically means
people want me to post for them for free.
Not interested, thank you, keep it moving. But sometimes
you, you know, you don't want to miss a viable opportunity. So I usually Google the person,
check it out and see, could there be value here? So the guy has this really impressive business
and a massive track record of success come to find out nine years of success in marketing books.
But what his white space is that he owns,
gosh, I wish I had known this guy in 2018
when I launched my book.
I did not know this guy, right?
I just met him this week.
Turns out he takes authors and makes them
number one Wall Street Journal bestsellers,
number one USA Today bestsellers.
He found the hack to get people on the bestseller list
on a few different really
prestigious lists that I have not been on. I've been an Amazon bestseller. That was one hack that I figured out
which was all around how many reviews and sales you could get the first couple of days on Amazon and in which categories you put yourself in.
So I had found that hack out and I thought oh, this is amazing. I own it. No, I needed this guy to get this other level hack,
which is a much more prestigious list.
I can tell you this much, my new book,
I will be working with him and rocking his hack
to get me on these other lists that I didn't make.
Obviously you want to be for credibility,
you can reach more people, you can market yourself
in a more prestigious
way. It's all about building momentum and I'm so grateful this guy reached out to me.
Now a couple of things, the reason he reached out to me is he saw me on LinkedIn through
posts, right? So it's about me taking action, creating content and putting myself out there
on a consistent basis. Then it was about me having a website with an inquiry form so people
can contact me and can reach me.
So he saw some of my content, clicked on it, and that took him down the rabbit hole of going to my website, and then reaching out.
So I set up a phone call with him, guys seems like a great guy. He has a podcast.
He asked me if I'd go on his podcast, and we talked about a bunch of different ways that we could work together.
So I just challenge you to take a minute and think,
of course I wanted to be on those lists back in 18.
I just didn't know how.
And for whatever reason, that guy wasn't in my circle.
So it's all about who's in our circle,
who can we reach out to and ask for help,
who can we brainstorm with?
And instead of just saying, oh, this can't be done,
I probably just thought, oh, I can't get
on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list.
I can't get on USA Today.
I should have challenged myself to say,
whether there is a way someone's got a hack out there.
This guy has been in this business for nine years.
So he was clearly in this business in 2018 and could have helped me and helped me reach
those goals.
Had I worked harder to find him, to Google him, to be relentless in my pursuit of that goal.
So I'm challenging you today to say,
someone out there has a hack for whatever big picture goal
it is that you have, challenge yourself to find that person,
ask people in your network post about it,
Google it, be relentless in your pursuit
because I missed that opportunity in 2018.
There was a hack that existed,
but I can promise you in 2021,
I'm not missing that hack.
And I'm so grateful that I now have this relationship
and actually the funniest part is
this guy literally lives in my backyard.
So an interesting epiphany for me that I had a solution
in my backyard within three miles of my house
and I didn't exercise it because I wasn't looking for it.
Whatever big picture goal you have, just know someone out there has the hack for it. It's on you
to find them. I'm so glad I found this guy. Okay. A topic that came up this week that I think is
really interesting is around deadlines and I was working with one of my clients and trying to
understand why he hasn't gotten his side hustle, you know,
new business entrepreneurial initiative off the ground. He's been working on it for months,
but really just hasn't materialized into anything. So we sat down in a call and I said,
listen, I need deadlines around this. You need to report back to me on X date with X deliverable,
Y deliverable. And he was an aha moment for me, said,
oh my gosh, that means I actually have to get this done. Yeah, it's a priority. You need to give me,
what is the deadline that you commit to? And I wrote it down in my calendar and I'm sure he's
going to get it done, right? Because he's being held accountable. So just make sure you're giving
yourself deadlines. And what's funny with Harper Collins for my new book, they're constantly giving
me deadlines and giving me new deadlines.
I swear, it's each week they're reaching out with,
and again, I've never worked with a publishing house before,
so this is all new, but each week they're reaching out
to me saying, okay, can you get this back by next Friday?
Can you get this back by?
And it's so smart because when you're managing
multiple authors, they can't just leave it up to the author
or when you can get to it, you need to hit deadlines and marks.
And I want you to make sure that you're giving yourself a deadline, a timeline,
whether it be for a goal, whether it be for a specific initiative,
because when you know you have to hit those deadlines, you will make it a priority.
It will move to the top of your list and you will get it done.
So hold yourself accountable.
It's been interesting working with a publishing house for me because I never have move to the top of your list and you will get it done. So hold yourself accountable.
It's been interesting working with a publishing house
for me because I never have.
And a couple of things that I learned just so far,
you know, this year and this journey is that I thought
for sure they'd want me to innovate and mix things up.
And my editor told me, no, Heather,
that's not how publishing houses work.
You need to get approval and you work for them.
You don't just go change things and innovate because you want to.
That was super interesting to me.
I don't know if I agree with it.
I really don't, but however, I'm trying to adhere to the way they do business,
right? Because this is a new relationship.
And, you know, during the pandemic,
they came back to me and were telling me
that the pandemic really impacted brick and mortar store sales.
Of course, right?
Nobody was going out and, you know,
people are really staying home and buying things,
essentially online.
So what that did was that impacted hardcover sales,
because hardcover books are primarily sold
at bookstores. You see them, you hold them, the author signs them, you buy them. So when people aren't
going into brick and mortar stores, hard covers are down. So they reached out to me and said, you know,
what do you think about the idea of not having a hardcover and I lost my mind in a very calm way. But internally I wanted to scream.
I said, ab, salutely not.
This is one of those experiences where I don't know
the people I'm working with, well,
I've never met them in person because we did this deal
during pandemic and I do understand
there's extenuating circumstances because of the economy
and everything is up in the air right now.
However, I know I need a hardcover book.
And so I very calmly said, you know, pump the brakes,
absolutely not.
I need a hardcover.
This is critical to the success of my book
and my audience will purchase it.
And if you wanna go ahead and cut somebody else's hardcover,
please do so.
However, leapfrogging villains will have a hardcover.
And I pushed back in a very calm and nice way, and it was super interesting because the
woman I work with said, okay, Heather, give me some reasons why your book should have a
hardcover and other people should not.
And so what I could lean into was essentially looking at my book proposal that I had initially
given them and then updating it to add more value now.
And so that was really the exercise that I did. I went back to dig into analytics, to numbers, and
it's super interesting that I'm being put on
a board of directors now because that actually helped support me in that I'm dealing with a higher level business audience, which
has more resources, more wherewithal to spend, and a hardcover is the most expensive product
that you would offer, you know, more than an ebook, audiobook, etc.
So I put together a really great pitch letter, basically, to go back to them to say, here's
why I need the hardcover book, and here's why it's going to sell for you,
and here's why it makes sense to keep it, right?
So I put myself in their shoes, and I sold them on why me and why my hardcover.
And it worked, thankfully, but somebody else out there, I'm sure, is getting their hardcover cut.
The point being is that when someone comes back to you and wants to rescind on an agreement or change
an agreement because of the economy or because of the situation or the pandemic or real reasons
which I completely understand, you don't have to accept it.
You can try to understand, you can put yourself in their shoes and then you can solve the
problem for them.
You can show them why that's not going to work for you or you can give them
reasons as to why it doesn't make sense for you.
And I believe most of the time, if you do a good job building that and making
it simple for them to see, they will understand and work with you, which my
publisher did and is doing, which is fantastic.
Okay.
So the board interview, yeah, I want to tell you about this.
So I had another interview this week with the remaining board members
that I had not met with yet on this board that I am being put on. It should be
announced next week. And it was interesting. I wasn't nervous. It's all men
shocker. Of course, I'm the only woman. And I just decided I'm gonna show up as
me. It was on Zoom, which again, is so weird, but okay.
So I'm getting used to it and I showed up
and I really didn't do any prep for this meeting.
I researched each person that was going to be on the call
so I have insight into them and I took some notes, right?
So of course I did a little work,
but then I just showed up as myself
and it was great and they started asking me
a bunch of questions and I just leaned on my myself and it was great and they started asking me a bunch of questions
and I just leaned on my expertise and sales and marketing and then I gave them my honest
opinion on something that I didn't know how they would respond to but I figured if I don't
show up as the real bold version of me, they're going to end up not liking me in the future
because inevitably I will end up being that really strong version of myself.
So I decided I'm just going to be it right now.
And so I said, listen guys, I've got some ideas and some thoughts and I think it makes
sense for me to share them with you right now versus a month from now when you already
have me on the board to understand who you're really getting.
And I came in hot with some big picture ideas.
I didn't know how that would go.
Luckily it went fantastic and they loved it and
it really bonded us because they were shocked that I saw something that they've been
behind the scenes talking about without communicating it to everyone. So it was a really
great bonding moment. I was really proud of myself that I did that and so now I'm just
we're waiting for the final paperwork. There's so much freaking paperwork that goes on behind the scenes for a board
I'm shocked at the question here that I had to fill out it was 30 something pages the information you have to go through
It's really consumed my week. I can't believe the amount of work that goes into it
Okay, but that's enough about me
I can't wait to tell you about our guest today because she's flipping
Amazing and she and I really hit it off.
Cara Golden is the founder and CEO of Hint Inc. best known for its award winning Hint Water.
And I'll tell you, she shipped after we did our interview, she shipped me two cases of
water immediately.
The peach is off the flipping charts.
I'm obsessed.
She totally has a new fan.
She has received numerous accolades, including being named EY Entrepreneur of the
Year 2017, one of InStyles 2019 Badass 50, fast companies most creative people in business,
WWD Beauty Inks feel good force and fortunes, most powerful women entrepreneurs. The Huffington
Post listed her as one of six disruptors in business alongside Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. Hello, in good company.
Previously, Kara was VP of shopping in e-commerce at America online, where she helped lead the
growth of its shopping in e-commerce business to over one billion with a B in revenue. She's
an active speaker, writer, and in 2017, she launched unstoppable with Kara Golden, a podcast where
she interviews founders, entrepreneurs, and disruptors. Kara's first book, Undaunted, published by Harper Leadership.
Hello, will be released in October 2020.
She's dropping it this week, so let's go.
Kara lives in the Bay Area with her family.
I'm so excited for you to meet Kara.
Her story is remarkable, and it just reminds you that you need to stay connected to your
vision and let nothing get in your way.
Hang tight. We're going to be right back.
Hi and welcome back. I'm so excited for my guest today, Kara Golden.
She's the founder and CEO of Hint Inc.
Best known for its award-winning Hint Water,
the leading unsweetened flavored water,
and the author of The New Undaunted.
She's an active speaker and writer
and hosts the podcast Unstoppable,
where she interviews founders, entrepreneurs
and other disruptors across various industries.
She lives in the Bay Area,
Kara, I'm so excited to have you here today.
So excited to be here. So funny.
We were connected through a mutual
friend and I swear in my life
everything goes back to good people
in your life, looking out for you,
connecting you to other good people.
So thank you shout out to Scott
McRigger. So true. I couldn't
agree more. Super shout out to him McRigger. So true, I couldn't agree more.
Super shout out to him, but is that so true
that like connections along the way?
Like I'm such a huge believer that when you meet people,
like you haven't really figured out exactly the purpose
like why they're there, but in addition to just being,
you know, super nice, I always feel like, you know,
the rivers connect somewhere along the way.
I don't know how it's possible. I didn't know, I didn't know you feel like, you know, the rivers connect somewhere along the way. I don't know how it's possible.
I didn't know, I didn't know you.
I didn't know of you.
I mean, I know how it's possible
because the flipping media world we live in right now
we're bombarded, you know, with messaging 24-7.
But to hear now and to know you and to know of you
and to know your story blows me away.
PS, you have the endorsements on the book
written by John Legend, Cheryl Sandberg.
I mean, it's a VIP lineup of every celebrity, CEO,
and massive entrepreneur in the world.
It's mind blowing.
I mean, the contacts that you've established
and the credibility that you have is beyond impressive.
Oh, thank you.
Well, and I think the other thing about those people
is that they're all very different
and they're all really kind people.
And I feel like the connections with them,
I think, have just come about just not only
from being a smart business person,
but also just by being a person that is willing to give, you know, and
also willing to listen and support. And I think that all those things are really, really
things that you value for sure. But I think it's, it's just definitely when I think about
those people, that's what I think about.
It's so true. It, you know, doing good always comes back to you. And sadly, especially
during this time of cold, and, you know, I've seen Pete, there isn't as much doing good out there.
There's more haters, more negativity.
So when you do connect with somebody
who has a good positive vibe,
who is putting good out into the world,
it makes a connection even stronger and more meaningful.
100%.
So I have to tell you, having listened to some of your book,
you're up
bringing with a father who, and I don't want to put words into your mouth, so I'd
rather have you tell the story, but someone who had so much potential, so much
freaking talent, such an amazing mind for business innovation and bringing
good to market, ended up going that corporate career,
you know, not the entrepreneurial,
let's roll the dice and bet on me,
even though it was super clear he had that potential
within him, however, he raised a daughter who went
an entirely different route.
Can you tell us a little bit about your dad
and that impact he had on you?
Yeah, so, you know, and actually both of my parents, but my dad in particular,
I mean, I was the last of five kids and my dad grew up in Arizona. And you know, it's interesting
because he was always like tinkering and creating and he was originally at our Mufood company
and had developed this product called Healthy Choice, which many
people know.
And ultimately, Kanagra ended up buying them.
And while he was doing that, I guess you call them side hustles.
Now, he would come up with all of these crazy ideas and barely develop them.
He had this idea for an olive holder for cocktails.
He loved martinis.
And he was like,
people are always like, it's a missed opportunity.
Like there should always be kind of a message on there
on what you should talk to people about
because people might not, you know, it's an icebreaker.
And anyway, he'd always be coming up
with these great ideas.
And so I would always, you know, be this little kid
and watching him and, you know, listening to him
at all times.
And I remember one time saying to him, like, why don't you just start your own company?
Not really even knowing how hard that was or really what I was asking him to do.
But what I didn't know until maybe even when I started my own company was that being
an entrepreneur versus working inside of a large company, people will
ask me even today, like, should I go start my own company?
And it really just depends on what you value and ultimately what else you have going
on.
And so for my dad, and again, I didn't learn this until much later, but my dad really valued
getting five kids through college.
Like to him, and maybe that doesn't and maybe that's important to some people.
Like that to me is something that, you know,
he wasn't gonna articulate it to his kids
and make them feel bad, right?
He really viewed that as like,
I can't leave my job right now
and go follow my own dreams, which is kind of sad, right?
But he really felt like he had to be here
with this large company and do what he was gonna do.
And again, it wasn't horrible.
He wasn't tortured through the process.
It was just watching that and not really understanding
that I think really led to me kind of thinking.
And frankly, watching how large companies often deal
with employees, not all of them,
but for me, I think that was definitely a lesson
that I took away.
And I also learned the background
on the story of healthy choice was my mom had decided
to go back to work when I went to kindergarten.
She had taken many years off to have kids, and she decided that she really wanted to go back to work when I went to kindergarten. She had taken many years off to have kids,
and she decided that she really wanted to go into retail.
She was really into fashion.
And so she went in at the bottom
and worked in a department store.
She did some buying.
She sort of was an original kind of personal shopper
in these stores, but that was a career change at age 45.
I mean, the number of people who have said, like, oh, I can't follow my dreams
because I've never had experience in that.
I mean, that was like during the 70s, right?
Where my mom is like, you know, just deciding,
I'm gonna go do this.
I haven't worked for years, but who cares?
I'm gonna go do this, you know,
because I wanna do this.
And of course, my dad's response should have been,
you know, he's very old school.
He's worried about who's going to cook me dinner at night.
And my mom was like, bye, like I got to work my evening hours.
And so instead of actually learning to cook,
my dad luckily worked inside of a food company.
So he could develop a product and get somebody
to back him in order to do this.
So I think that the combination of those two things I think about were really who made me today. And you know, I talk a lot about that too and a bit in the book as well that people are always kind of placed into your life, I believe as you know, learnings right and you should be purposeful and surround yourself with those learnings too, including not just in your own circle,
but also can you hire people, for example,
that are gonna teach you things.
And I'm sure you've been through this Heather
when as you've been growing your company as well.
It's like, it's always important to be learning,
even if you're the CEO or you're the vice president of sales.
Like why not hire people into your organization that really teach you some
things. And I think like that's the most important thing that I've learned,
you know, from my parents.
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You've had the opportunity to learn
from some really impressive people,
including Jeff Bezos.
Like crazy story.
Well, I don't know if,
I mean, I learned a few things I never worked
for Jeff Bezos,
but yeah, I'll share that story.
It's kind of a crazy story.
It was when I was at AOL, and I was running e-commerce at AOL.
It was there very early and e-commerce partnerships.
And so I was out trying to find,
I almost viewed my role as kind of like a real estate developer
and online real estate developer,
because I'd go out and try and figure out,
okay, we need J. Crew and the Gap and some of these other
retailers, but then for books, we felt like,
books were based on the titles that they carried.
And so we were trying to get a relationship with borders
and Barnes and Noble, and they ultimately turned us down.
They didn't want to be on the AOL service,
which was, you know was like a low.
It was a failure.
It was like, and so doing what I've always done,
I'm like, okay, well, what else can we do?
And I had heard about this guy, Alton Seattle,
who was running this book retailer called Amazon.
And it was tiny, like nothing.
But I thought, okay, maybe we'll do something with Amazon and then, you know,
eventually, like, we'll gain the attention of Barnes and Noble or borders. And so I reached out to
him and flew from San Francisco where I was living and landed at a five o'clock meeting with Jeff. And
so it's like 505, 5010. I'm driving around looking for his warehouse. And
there's no address on the building. And so finally, it's like 515. I phone him and I'm like,
I'm so sorry, I cannot find your place. And so he's like, oh, you go this way, this way,
whatever. And he's like, you know, I, it's really too late. I can't see you. And I was like,
wait, what? And he was like, you know, it's, it's too late. And I said,
you just told me that there's no address on the building. And so how was I going to like
find where you are? And he was like, look, I've got so many bookshelves to like build tonight.
If you build bookshelves, but you got to talk to me like while I'm building bookshelves
and you can help me build bookshelves, I'm like, I am an expert bookshelf builder.
And so I would be happy to do that.
And so we walked in and I walked in
and I was with another guy Greg that worked with me
as well, we walked in and we're helping him
like build the bookshelves.
And I remember at one point thinking
that he knows fascinating, first of all, he's the founder.
He's like getting scrappy, putting, you know,
the Home Depot bookshelves together.
And I asked him, you know, like, why do you think
you're gonna be able to be successful against these,
like, really large companies, Barnes and Noble,
and borders.
And he is like, do you ever ask a person
behind the desk
at Barnes and Noble or borders about a recommendation?
Like based on a book that you had read in the past
and I said, yeah, I mean, I think so,
but to be honest with you, I probably don't
because I don't really think that they necessarily,
you know, I've read all the books
or know the taste or whatever and he said,
this is the thing like search will actually help do that.
And I said search and he's like, yeah, you know, you could input a book.
And then it would come back and actually share with you some sort of recommendation.
And then you would buy it right there.
And I'm like, wow, that is so fascinating.
And we ultimately ended up doing a deal with Amazon.
But I remember calling my husband
on the way back to the airport
and he's like, how did it go?
And I said, I think we're actually gonna do something.
But I said, I wouldn't say he's like the nicest guy
in the world, but he is so smart.
And you know, when you meet these people
that you're just like, I don't know,
like it wasn't the loveliest conversation or time
that I've ever spent, but I was actually like,
whoa, like what just happened in this room?
And that's how I felt about Bezos.
And I think it's so interesting because there's a story
in the book where we ended up going into Amazon after
a super misfortunate situation where we got into Starbucks, we were doing really well and
then we kicked out a Starbucks after a year and a half, which is a very low day in the history
of Hint.
And anyway, I get this phone call from Amazon like two weeks after we had been kicked out of Starbucks.
We have six months worth of inventory
that's gonna expire in our warehouse
that I didn't know what I was gonna do with.
So the Amazon buyer said to me,
we love hint, we buy it in Starbucks all the time.
And I didn't know if I should tell him
that we just got kicked out of Starbucks.
And but I said, we've got all this inventory
in the warehouse if you guys are interested in buying it.
We can send a truckload immediately.
And we became one of the number one products in grocery,
like the first couple of weeks that Amazon launched.
And then when they decided to launch Amazon Prime,
what they were seeing is that, I mean, remember,
like Amazon Prime, what they were seeing is that, I mean, remember, like Amazon Prime
came after Grocery, and that was kind of the first attempted subscriptions. I mean, like,
people weren't really buying subscriptions in books, right? They were buying them, you know,
for items like a hint water that needed to be like replenished, you know, that people,
they didn't want to carry the heavy cases home
and they were buying it.
Anyway, we were on that service doing super well
on Amazon for a year.
Then our buyer came to me and said,
it's fascinating because the people that are buying hint
are not the typical consumer that's buying some of
our other beverages that they're actually buying healthier things,
or they're trying to stay healthy,
they're buying like diabetes monitors,
in addition to hint.
And so there's this halo that sits on them
that is different than somebody who's buying soda,
for example, it's just different.
And so I was like, oh, I wanna reach out
to these consumers and talk to them.
And they said, yeah, no, Jeff Bezos, like he wouldn't allow you to do that.
That's our data.
And so ultimately, what ended up happening was from that meeting, I left Seattle again,
and I called our team.
And I said, we need to launch our own direct to consumer business because they've got
all this data over there. And we want our own direct to consumer business because they've got all this data over there.
And we want our own relationship with these consumers. And so that was like how that stand from.
But again, I mean, it started many years ago, I've really understanding how smart Jeff Bezos was.
And then, you know, ultimately, lots of lessons there that I talk about in the book,
understanding who he was and how he's grown.
I mean, I just have mad respect for things
that he holds sacred, I guess, in the company.
It's not necessarily something that is,
that I don't want.
Of course, I want his data about my product,
but at the end of the day,
I thought, Jeff, isn't ever gonna give me that data.
And instead, I need to launch my own direct to consumer business.
So I actually have that communication and that relationship with my consumer.
What's so different about you is that most people meet that roadblock and succumb to it.
Okay. Oh shoot, that stinks.
I don't get to have that direct to consumer relationship.
Oh well, on on my wife, try to find out another business or opportunity,
something else that I can work on.
And I really admire that.
And it's also you illustrated that in this story
when you called Jeff and said,
Hey, I can't find your location.
And he says, yeah, it's too late, don't come.
You're like, oh, heck no.
I flew out here.
You don't just walk away in that persistence
and or ability to continue towards your goal,
regardless of the nose, regardless of the negativity,
regardless of it doesn't work that way.
That's what clearly made you so successful
and really the foundation of undaunted, right?
Definitely.
And I wrote this book primarily
because I would be on stage talking
or I'd be talking to friends or entrepreneurs
that I mentor.
And I would think about these stories
that would really help me to explain
why it doesn't have to be that way.
And a few years ago, I remember speaking at this event
and you always, you always
get questions at the end of your talk. And I remember this one question in particular where
somebody said to me, really more than said to me, they sort of labeled me as being fearless,
and being like, I don't have any doubts. And I'm sure I've never failed.
And I thought, gosh, I basically like blurted
this out of my mouth.
I said, I've actually had a lot of doubts.
I've failed a lot.
Thankfully, I've had more successes than I've had failures,
but I've had my fair share of failures.
And I also have fears.
And I think that the difference between you and
myself and maybe other leaders and maybe top athletes is that we're okay with trying.
And we're okay with like getting out of this bad zone, whether that's like feeling like Amazon's got me, right?
Or Starbucks is like kicking me out or whatever, like whatever that zone is, I'm like, I
got to find the rainbow.
It really is a story of, I have a million of these stories in my life, whether it's in business
or personal where I've got this really, really big mountain
that I've got a climb, and I just have decided,
I'm not gonna live any other way, right?
And this is what I'm gonna do,
and I'm gonna sit there and figure the stuff out.
And what I found is the more of these that you have,
and another story that I talk about
is even a personal story of, I have a huge fear of heights.
I mean, it's massive.
It's like been in my life debilitating.
And I decided, where do I remember that first fear?
It was the Grand Canyon.
I remember being so terrified of falling off the canyon.
My parents were driving.
I wasn't even outside the car, but I remember feeling like don't drive too close to the edge
because I'll fall off.
And they're like, you're not gonna fall off.
And so I thought, I'm gonna go hike the Grand Canyon.
And people who really know me were like,
how are you gonna do that?
I'm like, I don't know, but I'm gonna do it.
So I train for it.
And then I decided, okay, if I can't see the bottom of the canyon,
then that's good.
And then my sister was hiking it with me,
and she said, how are you gonna do that?
And I said, well, you guys are all gonna come with me
at four o'clock in the morning before the sun comes up.
And she's like, are you serious?
And I'm like, yeah, you love me.
And it's like, really great, right?
Did I know whether or not she was gonna do it?
No, but I'm like, it'll be fun.
Come on, like it'll be super fun.
So I get this whole team.
I thought I had the whole thing planned out.
And then I encounter a lot of things.
I'm not gonna ruin the story,
but I encounter a lot of things along the way,
which I didn't anticipate.
How many times has that happened to you
where you think you got it all
figured out and then these little things come in. Oh yeah, like COVID, hello. Right. And then I'm like
and then you're getting through these things. They were awful. One of the stories in the grand
canyon is I run into a rattlesnake. And did I ever in my plans think I was going to run into a rattlesnake?
And somebody had told me years ago, and I can't even remember who told me this,
never get closer than 15 feet to a rattlesnake.
And I have no idea why anyone told me that information and why absorbed that.
But when I encountered a rattlesnake, I immediately backed up,
and I said, I'm
in it, sit here and I'm going to wait this thing out because I cannot go around this rattlesnake.
I will like fall off the side of the mountain is 22 miles in one day. I'm exhausted. It's
like the last five miles. And I started thinking about all of these challenges that I had been through in my life that actually
were way harder than this rattlesnake.
And I thought, I've raised a ton of money from my business.
Like they started rattling through and I thought like, it actually gave me the power to be
able to encounter something like that.
As simple as that may seem,
I thought, this is not how it's ending.
I've been through way too much.
Then sure enough, half an hour goes by,
and the rattlesnake goes down the mountain.
So, I'm such a huge believer and part of the reason,
really, the reason why I wrote this book is,
if I can share some of these stories with people and inspire people to know that it's not always
going to stay bad, COVID is not always going to be here.
You have to plug through, you have to keep going,
and oftentimes you'll go back and look at kind of what
happened during this time and how you got through it,
or other hard times that you've had,
and more than anything, like if I can do it,
anybody can do it.
And that is what I think so often people need to hear.
You inspire so many people, Heather, it's the same thing.
It's like, it's just if people hear your stories
and when things were hard,
it's like there's so much more education in there for people,
and they'll take away different pieces too,
which I think is really interesting as well.
So, yeah, that was the big reason why I decided to write it.
I'll tell you.
So that's so interesting.
I am the same way.
I lean on my past challenges and failures.
As if I was able to survive literally and live through that,
there is no way this one's taking me down.
I didn't come this far to come this far. I made it through that. And that no way this one's taking me down.
I didn't come this far to come this far.
I made it through that.
And that's what Corona virus, just like you said,
that will end up being the same way for us.
If we were able to live through a freaking
global pandemic people, we can get through anything.
And just further fuel for us to move on and move ahead.
Yeah, and I mean, even when Corona,
I mean, I'm still the, I will always be the founder of Hint,
but I'm still the CEO of Hint and like COVID when it hit in March, I mean, it was tough. It was
really tough. There were a lot of challenges and there was a piece of our business, which was
the corporate business, the office business that totally shut down. And I think the interesting thing is is I looked at what happened in 2009,
the financial crisis, like for me, and that was really hard. And I thought, I got this. They're
very different, right? But there's aspects of it that are similar. And I thought, and again, like,
I never, I went through that time in 2009,
and it actually makes me a better CEO, right?
I would have never said that.
I never predicted COVID, right?
Like that kind of stuff.
And so I always say to people,
like what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
And I really believe that.
And the more you can actually bring these like pieces together
on what you've been through,
I think that just makes you a better leader,
a better entrepreneur, a better human,
a better friend, like all of these things
that ultimately really help you to just be better.
So true.
So I had to look up the definition of undaunted
because I was just so curious,
not intimidated or discouraged
by difficulty, danger, or disappointment. And this is very well represented in your challenge
with the water industry and this old school thinking that only sugar soft drinks are going
to work and your
conversation when you were
early on really struggling
with how are you going to have
a brand and a product without
preservatives, how will it
survive without all these things?
How can you make this work and
you get on the phone with a
really high level executive at
Coke to ask for help and this
conversation really illustrates undaunted.
You know, was that a time when this wasn't really sure that I should be doing this?
Like, I doubt it, whether or not I should be doing it. I found it incredibly hard.
You know, it sounds great when you get your product on the shelf at Whole Foods and, you know,
hear that people are buying it and it's great. And then suddenly when you're like,
okay, I want to get into more whole foods.
And I mean, I was literally loading up my grand Cherokee
and delivering and I'm like, what am I doing?
Like this is a lot of like heavy lifting.
And how do I get it outside of San Francisco
into these other places?
And we were trying to figure out shelf life.
And, you know, there were a lot of pieces
that again, not coming from the beverage industry.
I felt like I just didn't have knowledge
and I was having a really tough time.
There was no book on sort of figuring this stuff out.
So a friend connected me with this gentleman
at that Atlanta company.
And I get them on the phone and, you know,
I didn't even know I was gonna do this.
Like, this is how crazy like the call was.
But as I'm like, you know, thank you so much
for talking to me and telling them a bit about the story
and how well we're doing it.
I was like, you know what,
you can just have the company.
Like, I'm fine.
Like, I'm gonna go get a tech job.
Like, I'm in the right area.
I've had the right experience, whatever.
And he interrupts me and says,
sweetie, this product isn't gonna go anywhere
because Americans love sweet.
And I'm thinking, did he just call me sweetie?
Like over the phone and I'm like,
and I didn't even hear what he said,
he was blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
for the next couple of minutes.
And then I was like, okay,
I gotta come back into this conversation
because I realized
at that point that he was viewing the same problem differently.
He viewed this idea of like helping consumers get healthy by telling them it's less calories.
And for me, I had lived it.
I mean, my backstory just to give everybody who doesn't know it.
I mean, I was totally addicted to Diet Coke.
It wasn't even full-fledged Coke.
It was Diet Coke.
And at AOL, I've now, of course, these people
don't tell you when they're working with you.
But I would drink like eight to 10.
People would be afraid to come into meetings with me
if I didn't have a Diet Coke.
I was like, that girl.
And so I decided one day that I didn't understand
the ingredients in diet coke and I put it to the side
and I started drinking plain water.
But again, I didn't have a job at this point.
I was taking some time off and I finally was like
be saying to anyone who listened, I was like,
wow, like do you know what this stuff is
that's in this diet coke? And they're like no, and I'm like, wow, like, do you know what the stuff is that's in this
Diet Code? And they're like, no, and I'm like, I don't either. And then I started realizing
like there were these industries, like Diet, Soda, and Vitamin Water, and like low fat
that were actually like tricking people, me, into believing that they were better than they were.
And, you know, I was kind of like, I felt foolish, frankly, because I had gained, you know,
over 50 pounds.
I had like slowly, like, gained all this weight.
And I was never a very big person, but I had also developed terrible adult acne.
I had no energy.
This was when I left AOL after seven years.
And, you know, every doctor I went to said,
like, oh, as you age, like your hormones change,
you know, your metabolism stops.
You had babies too close to one another.
All of these things that I was like, okay, maybe,
but I don't know, why don't I start working out?
Why don't I start shopping at like healthy places,
like Whole Foods, and that wasn't kind of working either because I was overeating probably like everything was so good.
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But when I decided to give up my diet soda and start drinking plain water,
and this is where it goes back to the situation with the nice gentleman in Atlanta,
I realized that, I mean, I lost 24 pounds in the first two and a half weeks of just giving up diet
soda and switching to water. And what I realized was like there were these big industries,
like diet soda, that they were obviously big. Lots of people, you know, drinking those things.
But that was in exchange for drinking plain water. Like I aspired to be a plain water drinker, but I thought like the
the real reason why I'm not drinking plain water is it's so damn boring to me. And it's not to
everybody, but to some people like me and to those people that are finding vitamin water and
diet coke and diapypsy and everything else, like that's why they're doing it. They know that
water is better for them. Clean water is better for them, but that is like the key thing.
So I just let the guy talk for a while
about how I was so wrong,
and I had seen it in my own life that I was right, right?
And I also saw how it changed my health
and he was not interested in that conversation around health.
He was interested in the conversation
of what consumers buy.
And I'm like, but maybe they buy that
because they wanna get healthy.
And he was like, but that's not why they buy.
And I was like, wow, like that is like, that's a lot, right?
And so I quietly like, after an hour, hung up the phone,
and I thought, okay, this is the permission that I need
and the importance of me staying with the program
because they're doing their thing and I'm doing my thing.
And that's what's important.
And so again, that story, people
ask me all the time like, yeah, but, you know, he's a big executive runs, you know, one of
the largest companies in, you know, in this soda industry of 2000 companies out there,
like, why didn't you listen? And I said, because it was different. I had decided in my mind how he viewed the problem was just different.
And so if he's looking at the problem differently, I thought it's comparing apples to oranges.
He has his opinion, I've got my opinion.
But I didn't want to convince him that my opinion was better because I thought he's got a lot
more money than I do.
And like, it's going to take him a little while to turn the cruise ship around,
but if he does, that's gonna be really bad.
So I gotta just get going and put the gas on.
But yeah, I mean, still to this day,
how I think about Hint, people will say like,
what's it like running a beverage company?
That's not even what I look at today is really what we do.
I mean, we help consumers get healthy to, you know,
and really find health.
I mean, today in America, 40% of Americans today
have type two diabetes or prediabetes.
That's crazy.
When I started this company, it was like 2%.
And we have a massive addiction to diet sweeteners.
I mean, stevia is probably the biggest one today.
Yet when you look around at people who are truly addicted to stevia, there are many of those people
that have these health issues that were non-existent years ago, right? Most of those people are also
the ones that are fighting, you know, which of those people have, you know,
some other issue around heart disease.
And so, you know, that for me is really the problem
that I hope that we can actually solve,
which is helping consumers drink water.
And I believe that if we could actually get people
to enjoy water, whether it's plain water
or a product like Hint, that we wouldn't be dealing with all of the health issues. And unfortunately,
there's a lot of money and industry behind that, including the health insurance industry,
the soda industry. So I never started this company sort of even grappling
with like how mammoth that is and how the decks are stacked
so badly against consumers.
And so, that is a long-winded answer of really talking
about kind of what we've taken on.
But again, it was one step at a time.
And there were plenty of times and plenty of people
that said, you know, you're going the wrong way.
I wasn't gonna allow it to stop me.
That's such a great story.
I always say to people, don't take advice
from someone who hasn't been where you're going.
And while some people might have seen that exact
as where you wanted to go, it wasn't.
And it goes back to the why because you were solving a different problem. He was solving a sales and revenue problem.
You were attempting to solve a health problem. And that was so fantastic that you were able
to differentiate because oftentimes people can get confused when doubt creeps in and fear
creeps in. You know, oh, this person makes more money, has a bigger job. I should just listen to them and I should back off.
And that was so well done that you saw that difference.
And I so applaud you.
And I full circle how it kind of goes back to your dad.
And, you know, he was creating this healthy, healthy food and creating a healthy line.
It's so interesting to me to see how you started out.
And now how you got to where you are and that why and that passion to help and do good. It's so interesting to me to see how you started out and now how you got to where you are and that why and that passion to help and do good.
It's so amazing and I'm so grateful you wrote this book
because it's gonna inspire so many people, Cara.
Thank you.
It's really exciting.
I'm like it's like I said, it was four years in the making
and it was one that I really am excited
to get it out there finally.
And the reviews are really great.
Thank God. You know, in the early part, and you know, it's sort of like having your, in my case,
I have four kids is like having a fifth child when, you know, like, you know, your kids are great,
but when people actually say that you don't know, like, oh my God, this is awesome. And frankly,
it's the same feeling that I get, share with people too,
that entrepreneurism is really tough. And I think this book really talks about it. And, you know,
sometimes it's lonely, it's many long hours, it's all of that. But having a product where consumers
are giving you feedback, oh my god, I can't live without it. You guys have really helped me get healthy.
There's no substitute for that, right? Like it's like consumer feedback is amazing. And
I mean, you, I know you subscribe to that as well. It's really, really important. So I
feel like that's really the excitement that I'm feeling on this.
Yeah, we live in a review and recommendation world and the fact that you have those testimonials
is just further validity to just keep going.
So where can everyone find Undaunted?
It's UndauntedTheBook.com and it's also available on Amazon too.
And so it's very exciting and audible as well.
So we're very excited launching October 20th.
But yeah, we're super excited
and I'm on social all of Brett Carragolden,
so definitely reach out and let me know what you think.
Well, I love the book, it's amazing story,
you're an amazing story, you're an inspiration,
thank you so much for the work that you're doing.
Thank you.
All right, we'll be right back.
I ask you to try to find your passion.
I hope you enjoyed meeting Cara as much as I did him.
So excited for the launch of her new book
happening right now, check it out.
Okay, let's get to Q and A. Hey Heather,
love your post and messages.
Curious you have insight on working
with kids who lack confidence and carry anxiety
over putting themselves out there.
Okay, so this question is actually about a young man.
The young man's very smart.
His grades are excellent.
However, he's a difficult time bringing the confidence to new or unsettling situations,
as do most people, by the way.
He says he wants him to go out there, put himself into fear, step into it,
but his son is struggling to do that.
A couple things around kids. Number one, look into it, but his son is struggling to do that. A couple of things around kids.
Number one, look at yourself, right?
So to this father, I would say, are you leading by example?
Are you stepping into fear and uncertainty and showing
that it's a celebration to fail?
I love that Sarah Blakely, the founder of Spanx,
shares that growing up her dad at dinner every night would say,
okay, tell me about your failures today.
Yay, let's celebrate them.
And she continues that mindset at Spanck.
She has her oops meetings weekly,
which is, we're just screw up this week.
All right, great, let's give everyone a round of applause.
Great job screwing up.
It's okay to step into fear.
It's okay to quote unquote fail,
because the real fail is not trying.
So I challenge you, dad, are you exhibiting that?
Are you celebrating the failures or someone exhibiting that, you know,
perfect and safe and caution is the only way to go?
So first, look at yourself.
You need to be the living example.
You need to be leading with stepping into fear.
You need to be rocking and celebrating and checking in daily on,
oh my gosh, did you put yourself out there and go for it?
And you blew it. Great.
I'll never forget when I stepped on that TEDx circle saying to myself,
Heather, if you don't go out there right now, you will never forgive yourself.
If you go out there and blow it, I'm going to be so proud of you.
You know, so I've learned I've taught myself and it hasn't always been this way,
but I've taught myself to reframe fear as a green light that means go and go faster.
I was petrified walking out there, but I knew stepping into it was my answer.
Fear is the green light that means go.
So number one, you need to show up and be that example.
You need to ask daily, you know, with frequency.
Okay, where are you stepping into fear today?
Where are you putting yourself out there
and attempting to fail?
Failing is the growth, failing is the answer.
We've been taught incorrectly.
And now today we can reframe it, we can change it.
And our leadership and our example is really gonna have
a big impact because you're reframing the way your child sees
fear, you're reframing the way your child sees fear. You're reframing the way your child sees stepping into uncertainty.
I would sit down with your child and make a list of every time they've stepped into fear
and the outcome. They didn't die. Oh my gosh. Excellent. We did not die from that. Yes.
So write it down. Make it clear. Then another thing I would do is I would look at the things
that your child feels confident in and see and show.
Everyone has maybe your child's confident in school taking tests, right?
Because you said your child's very smart.
Well, that's something that you feel great about.
You can take that confidence that you have in that moment and apply it.
If you were able to achieve confidence there,
then you have the potential to achieve it in other areas.
Where right now are you struggling with confidence in speaking
to other people? Okay, great. Let's start off with baby steps. The next time we go to
Starbucks, you say, hi, how's your day going? A little baby challenge like that. You know,
so I would initiate small challenges and then high five and celebrate, blow them up when
they happen, right? So you can start with really small initiatives to build momentum,
to keep celebrating, stepping into fear, to keep celebrating, seeing fear as a green light,
and to acknowledge and reward failures, because that's really a great starting place for any child.
Okay, I hope that helps, and I hope that answered your question. Also, fire any villains.
If your child is around negative people that are putting him down, you need to get
those people out of his life because that will really impact confidence. Okay. Hey Heather, thank you
for posting. I've been working hard since I kickstarted my career post college. I progress from
working blah, blah, blah. There was a time where I was shining my lightning office because all I did
was help other people and do my best and spread positive energy. However, I'm in a new role. I feel like everyone is against me.
Can you help?
Yeah, so if you feel like everyone's against you,
they may be.
I don't know, right?
We don't have that answer right now,
but you need to find out because you going into a room
where people are trying to undercut you,
trying to pull you down, you're in the wrong room.
I used to be in that room and I have a lot of experience with this. Trying to win everyone over and it's a loss cause. If you're around negative
people in a toxic work environment, you need to find another job. That is not the place for you,
right? Unless you're at a leadership level and I was so high up in the company, I still couldn't
change it because the actual top person was negative and toxic. And that was hard for me to understand.
However, I'm so glad I fired those villains and I'm no longer in that situation.
You need to get villains out of your life.
And the biggest opportunity to do that is probably for you to start looking for another job.
Maybe move to another team.
But if you truly, you're intuition and your gut is telling you that these
people are against you, they probably are. So check in with yourself. And as you do that, start
looking where else could you apply your unique skills and talents. You want to show up to a team
in a room that embraces you, encourages you and challenges you to grow, not tries to set you up
for failure. So fire your villains, get rid of them, and get going.
So this week, one of my good friends, her daughter was going for her first interview. And so I sat
down with her to help her prep for the interview. And I just wanted to share some of the insight that I
gave her in case you're up for an interview, or you know a young person looking to interview. Number
one, do your research, right? So I had her send me what is the job
posting? Send me your resume, do some research into the company and the person interviewing you
because we want to know what connection points we have with that person. People like people that
they know like and trust. So if you find out they went to the same college that you went to or you
find out certain people on the team went
to your school, find connection points.
You can say, oh, wow, I saw a lot of people
on the team play softball at night, whatever it is,
but whatever connection point, identify it, find it,
and make sure you weed that into the conversation.
Also, it shows that you did your homework,
which is really impressive, so many people don't.
Then what you wanna do is you wanna look at that job posting
and look at, they're looking for people who are responsible,
trustworthy, well-spoken, whatever it is,
and then come up with a story and example
from your resume, your track record
that illustrates each one of those points.
So with this young woman,
they were looking for people who are responsible
and take initiative.
And so we look back at her track record and said, they were looking for people who are responsible and take initiative.
And so we looked back at her track record and said,
Hey, last year you went for a semester abroad.
You dropped yourself off in a country that you knew nothing about by yourself.
And not only did you figure it out and make it work, you thrived.
So let's use that story as a way to showcase you are responsible.
You are trustworthy and you can
succeed in uncertain situations. And so we went through all of the things they
were looking for, went through her track record and did just that came up with a
story and example for each one. Then we sat down and wrote a bunch of questions
out that she would ask after the interview. And one of them is to ask for the
order. You got to go and ask for the job. So
we brainstorm her saying, Mr. interviewer, have I successfully answered your question so that you feel really confident in moving me on to the next interview and endorsing me to go for this job?
You know, you want to ask, hey, are you picking me? If they're going to say no, I want them to say no
while we're still on the line because then we can
reframe it and challenge them and figure out where we fell short and let them know why we are the right person.
So I let her know it. We never get off the interview call meeting whatever without asking that question.
Are you endorsing me to go for the job? Have I done an adequate enough job answering your question?
So you feel really good about endorsing me. If they come back and say, you know what, I can't endorse you. There's
just, you know what, you don't have ex-skill. Well, that gives us the opportunity to go
in for that close and share. You know what, I miscommunicated. I didn't do a good enough job.
Communicate is to you. Let me dive back into that topic again. And then you have that opportunity
to address it. So definitely always go for the close
when you have the ultimate decision maker on the line,
not after.
And then after her meeting, he did say to her,
yes, I am going to pass you to the next round of interviews.
You did a great job today.
Appreciate you being here.
Then I told her, go find this man's email right now.
Go on to LinkedIn, figure it out,
and send him a thank you note to follow up
because that's another point of distinction.
You can separate yourself from mediocrity
when you put the extra work in.
So take the time, do the extra work,
and actually I also told her,
take out a Google alert on the company
because when good news comes up,
you wanna be the first one to reach out
to say, hey Peter, I saw you just got promoted
or I thought, you know, you want to show people that you care. You want to show people that they're
priority to you and you'll become a priority to them. Hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did
please like, share, subscribe, review, and please post about it on social whenever you do. I will
repost. I appreciate your support more than you know. Here's to you
creating confidence and knowing I'm doing it right along with you. Until next week,
I'll see you then. You don't stop and look around for once in a while.
You can miss it.
I'm on this journey with me.
At a time when change is constant and we are pulled in far too many directions, we need a way to stay present to life
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Many studies indicate mindfulness improves our mental, emotional, and physical health.
On a mindful moment with Theresa McKee, you can learn how to practice mindfulness and enjoy
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Tune in for guided meditations and to hear tips and advice
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