the bossbabe podcast - 206. The Mindset You Need to Build a Multi-Million Dollar Company with SuperCoffee’s Jimmy DeCicco

Episode Date: February 22, 2022

Jimmy DeCicco started Super Coffee with his brothers seven years ago. It’s now worth half-a-billion dollars.  Let that sink in. In this week’s episode of The BossBabe Podcast – Jimmy reveals exactly how he went from dorm room to boardroom with a wildly successful and delicious brand that has J. Lo, BossBabe and millions of Americans hooked.  Tune in and hear the full story – from how he’s pitched at Whole Foods (their very first retailer!) to how he cultivated the resilience he needed to hold the vision for the company – without taking a paycheck for two years – and so much more. If you’re looking for ways to find joy in your “to do” list, grow to the next level + hold the vision for your company – this is the hype-chat you need to hear. Listen now!  Highlights: The #1 thing that’s formed the culture at Super Coffee. How Super Coffee broke the sales record in Whole Foods in just four hours. The “Inch Wide, Mile Deep” concept that has allowed Super Coffee to scale past the competition. How Jimmy went from $100,000 to $185 million in investment in 7 years What it really means to prioritize self-care + why it matters for your business. Links: Just Thrive: Use code “BOSSBABE” to save 15% Drinksupercoffee.com Use code BOSSBABE20 to save 20% Linkedin: jimmy-decicco Episode 201: Tony Robbins Helps You Define Success  Follow: BossBabe: @bossbabe.inc Natalie Ellis: @iamnatalie Danielle Canty: @daniellecanty Jimmy DeCicco: @jimmydecicco5 + @drinksupercoffee

There's no such thing as a billion-dollar idea anymore. It's really the execution. And we happen to pick an industry that is very low gross margin, low average order value. You know, we sell a bottle of coffee for $1.65. After our cost of goods, we're making 50 cents on that thing. And you got to sell a lot of coffee to make money. And it's very manual. It's hardware.

You know, we're putting product on shelves in 50,000 stores every single week. So despite momentum and strong consumer demand and sentiment, it's still all about execution. A boss babe is unapologetically ambitious and paves the way for herself and other women to rise, keep going and fighting on. She is on a mission to be her best self in all areas. It's just believing in yourself. Confidently stepping outside her comfort zone to create her own vision of success. Welcome to the Boss Babe podcast, the place where we share with you the real behind the scenes of building successful businesses, achieving peak performance and learning how to balance it all. I'm Danielle Canty, President and Co-Founder of Boss Babe and today one of your co-hosts. Natalie and I were actually in Austin together recording this episode

which was so fun. And just a little reminder that if you're listening on audio, amazing, but we are also now on YouTube. So if you want to actually watch us, if you want to see us in the flesh and all the things that then make sure you head over to YouTube and you can subscribe there too. So I want to tell you a little bit about this episode because it was really, really fun and also really insightful. You know, you guys, we love to keep these episodes real, but also practical. And if you're like me, maybe have this entrepreneurial mindset where you wander the aisles of shops, whether it's your grocery shopping or your food shopping or your makeup shopping, any of those things.

And when you're picking out brands, maybe you wonder like, oh, I wonder about the founder of these. Most founders now put their pictures out there too. They have their own personal brands, particularly in the makeup line. A lot of the founders are featuring themselves. But for me, I'm always really curious around what's the journey? What's the journey of these huge multi-million dollar brands and billion dollar brands? And we've been so fortunate to have such incredible founders on here. And today is no different. We actually have Jimmy DeSico on who is one of the co-founders of Super Coffee. He actually founded this with his two brothers and they have built Super Coffee into a household name. You guys, it's absolutely huge. It's the third bottled coffee

sold in the US following Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts, which is absolutely incredible. But I'm really excited for you to hear his journey, the fact that he hadn't had experience building a billion dollar company before you guys, and what it's taken, like what it's been like to start out. So if you've ever wondered how you start, how you go from selling your coffee in one store to being in hundreds, you're going to get those answers. If you've ever wondered like, hey, how do you get these A-list celebrities like J-Lo and Aaron Rodgers to invest in your brand? You're going to find out. If you've ever wondered what it's like to have the pressures of investors, you're going to find out in this episode. If you've ever wondered what a day in the life of a CEO running a half billion dollar company on its way to a billion dollar valuation looks like, you're going

to find out. Like I said said we keep it real and practical so this is such an incredible episode you guys i know you're gonna love it jimmy was so open so generous with his knowledge his insights and all the things so when you love it because i know you will please make sure you tag myself at danielle canti tag at boss babe.inc and tag at i am natalie with your favorite parts and then don't forget when when Jimmy shares his handle, make sure you, you know, just give him a shout out. And if you love super coffee, definitely DM him. Anyway, you guys, let's dive right in. Okay, Jimmy, so you started a company seven years ago

and it is now worth over half a billion dollars. Casual. Starting off hot, let's go so speaking of that i want to go all the way back because you run this company you founded this company and run this company with your brothers what was your dynamic like growing up it was it was very competitive right the good news is like when we played sports we were usually on the same teams but in the backyard we were manoo. So we got to compete with each other, against each other, on the same team. At the end of the day, we always had each other's back. Whoever won the game of one-on-one basketball in the backyard, like, okay, maybe the loser was sore for a little bit, but we were still brothers.

And I think that is, it creates a really unique dynamic for business where at the end of the day, win, lose, go home, like we still love each other. We still trust each other. We still got each other's back. So like, there's no pressure from each other to do this because we know we always have each other. And I think that's a rare built-in trust, you know, that like not, you guys are amazing friends, best friends who run this company together. But like, I have 27 years of that with my two brothers, you know, and it's just built in. But like, I have 27 years of that with my two brothers, you know, and it's just built in. Yeah. Did you have that entrepreneurial spirit growing up? I think so. I mean, like we, we weren't great students, you know, so it's not like math or

science or anything like that came easy to me or my brothers. So we were always looking for scrappy ways to do things. It's not like we were selling stuff like yard sales and lemonade stands as kids, but we did things differently. We started clubs in high school. We were the captains of our sports team. So I think leadership came naturally and that's what's enabled us to grow over the last couple of years. I'm super curious. What about your childhood do you think led you down that path of leadership? Was your mom always encouraging it? Yeah, mom and dad were athletes in college. So sports is a big part of our identity. And on teams, like my dad, I'll never forget when he dropped me off at my first football

practice when I was eight years old, he was like, be the first person to the water cooler, which it didn't register. I was like, okay, be the first person to the end zone, win every sprint, that type of thing. But his point was hustle in everything that you do. And that really stuck with me as an eight-year-old. So like I was the crazy kid on the field, just running all over the place. They're like, that dude's got to chill out. And I think that translated into a lot of different, and sports gives you confidence. It gives you teamwork and communication skills,

you know, to bring a team together for a collective goal is really translates entrepreneurship pretty nicely. Do you remember the moment where the idea for Super Coffee was born? Yeah. So it was actually my youngest brother, Jordan's idea. He was a freshman in college and we had just tried bulletproof coffee, coffee with the butter and the MCT oil. Oh, we love that.

Dave Asprey's. Yeah. And back in 2015, it was just a recipe. You know, it's like a blog. And we were like, whoa, this feels great. For anybody who's ever tried it, there's a visceral, like you feel it through your brain, like no other cup of coffee we've ever had. So Jordan was drinking that before practice because he didn't want to drink a Starbucks Frappuccino that had 40 grams of sugar in it.

And when you put the butter in the, when you make the Bulletproof coffee and you put it in the fridge, the butter congeals. So he got rid of the butter. He added protein instead. And he added monk fruit, an all-natural sweetener, because he wanted it to taste good. And he was like, I created this coffee. It works so well for me. My teammates are drinking it every day.

I think we could go sell this stuff. And that was really it. So wait, he was making it at home, then telling his teammates about it. They were like, yo, Jordan, can you get us this coffee? And that's how it began. Totally. So he would bring it to practice. And his teammates noticed that he had more energy than he usually did.

And so he started selling it to them. He would go to CVS and buy the ingredients and make it in his dorm room and sell it to them. And then he actually did some research while he was a freshman and was like, bottle coffee categories, two and a half billion dollars. The Starbucks Frappuccino does two billion. There are no healthy alternatives. It's a big category, but it's really controlled by one main player. So Jordan was how old at this time? He was 19.

Okay. There's a big jump between selling homemade coffee to your teammates and building a half a billion dollar company. So what, what were the conversations? Cause he wasn't even at the same college as you guys, right? Right. So he, it was a big family feud, not family feud, but like big family conversation in the summer between his freshman and sophomore year, because he was a starting point guard. He was a full scholarship player. And he called us up and said, Hey, this coffee thing has legs, but I can't be a full-time student athlete and make it work. I'm dropping out of school to start a company. And for me, like my big brother instincts kicked

in and I was like, I can't let you do this alone. You know, you're giving up a lot here. I'm going to come supervise for a little bit, make sure this thing gets off on the right track. And seven years later, I'm still here. But yeah, he realized that there was a big opportunity for it. And he knew that in order to make it work, it couldn't be a side hustle. It had to be a full hustle. But I'm really curious because Jordan's like, okay, I'm dropping out of college to do this. Did you have business expertise that made you think,

oh yeah, I'll come and help. I can make this a success. Or were you like, I'm just really curious about that mindset. Like that to me is kind of like that confidence to be like, I'm going to jump onto this as well. Yeah, I think it was a naive optimism, you know, like we didn't, I think we all need that. Totally. I mean, it's 20, I was 22, Jake was 21, Jordan was 19. And had we known how difficult this was going to be, I think we would have thought twice about it. But you back then you read the headlines, vitamin water sells to Coke for $4 billion. Honest tea

gets acquired by sells to Dr. Pepper for $1.7 billion. And we're like, we could do this. This beverage seems like a great opportunity. Doesn't seem too hard. I mean, we're putting liquid in a bottle. We got to put that bottle on shelves and we got to get people to buy the stuff. And it all started with understanding what that metric was. And for us, it was velocity or rate of sale per store. The more bottles per store you sell, the better business you have. So we're like, great, let's make coffee. Let's put it on the shelves. Let's pour samples. Let's sell a lot of it. I think there's something to be said

for that naive optimism because you often do things that a lot of people with experience would look at and say, oh, that's a terrible idea. So for example, you talk about just going straight to Whole Foods versus like testing too much. Whereas there might be people that, you know, are very seasoned and like, we need to do testing and we need to do all these phases. Whereas when you're naive, you're like, well, fuck it. What's the worst that's going to happen? Right. Totally. And I think, I think that's what it was like, not only were we naive and optimistic, we were, I'd say impatient, you know, we wanted to grow. And like, there was no test and learn opportunity for us. We were, I'd say impatient. You know, we wanted to grow. And like there was no test and learn opportunity for us. We showed up at Whole Foods in Washington, DC, where Jake

went to college. And we said, we found the store manager of one store. We had no idea what the process was. We went to one store. This guy was like putting beans on a shelf. And we're like, hey man, we're super coffee and you guys don't sell anything like this. And he tried it. He was like, that's pretty good. You know, he's's like you guys go to school down the street bring your college students in here to my store and i'll give you guys a chance and so was he a manager or was he just stacking the shelves at this point he was a manager okay i mean i'm sure we talked to a few shelf stockers before we found that guy and so he gave us a shot he knew that we were going to bring college students up to his store and for for us like you give us an inch we take a mile right that knew that we were going to bring college students up to his store. And for us, like you give us an inch, we take a mile, right? That one store, we didn't leave that store for a

week. We were there every day pouring samples. And the first four hours at that store, we checked in with the manager. His name was Derek Gruber. We said, Derek, how are we doing, man? Like, is the product selling? He's like, you guys broke my weekly sales record in four hours. So that's where we get back to this idea of inch wide, mile deep, really controlling what you can control. If we only had one store, all of our effort was going into that store. Let's talk about that concept, inch wide, mile deep. Talk to us about what that's meant to you in building the business.

All that means is focus. And as a startup, as really with anything in life, you only have so much time, energy, and focus to give. And I think it's tempting for, for young founders and young entrepreneurs to say yes to a lot of opportunities, right? Like in our first year, Ralph's in California wanted to launch super coffee. We met them at a trade show. They were like, let's, let's bring it out there. We didn't have people in California. We didn't have a marketing budget. Nobody knew us, you know.

So inch wide, mile deep was we got into that one store. We became the best selling bottle of coffee in that store. We took that sales data to the store right down the block, you know, steps away. And we said, hey, we're breaking records up the street. You guys give us a shot. We can do that here as well. And that's how it went for the first 18 months. We went to the second store. Like we owned a neighborhood.

Then we took over the city. Then from DC, we went to Baltimore and then to Philadelphia. And we've really dedicated all of our resources to those discipline geographies that we set. And so was your conscious decision, let's get into stores and let's do it this way versus let's figure out online marketing and do it online? Yeah. So at the time, that was over our heads. We didn't know e-com. We didn't know... Like I said, it was a simple industry. It just wasn't easy in terms of like,

put liquid in a bottle, hope that it tastes good, put it on the shelf and sell it. So for us, we could sort of muscle our way through that. We didn't have the finesse or the nuance to do e-com. I think another tricky thing for us is that beverages are low margin and heavy to ship. So we talk a bunch today in 2022 about if we were to start the company today, how would we do it differently? And 10 out of 10 times e-com first, build up that loyalty test,

get that feedback. It's a national distribution footprint from day one. And I think figuring out the pricing to make sure that the margin works. Yeah. And I imagine, so it's, you know, formulate this product, put it in a bottle, but there must be so much more that goes into it. My mind is like, well, how are we paying for this? This is so expensive. From the get-go, how did you think about things like that? Yeah. So we didn't have any money. We didn't come from money. So mom and dad couldn't invest. So we reached out to some aunts and uncles and some friends of friends. And we ended up raising like $100,000 in our first year. And we used that money to rent a delivery van. We put stickers on the van. We bought some bottles. We bought some coffee. We didn't pay

ourselves for the first two years. The first two years? The first two years. And that's a really important point to put out to a lot of founders because I feel like a lot of founders like, oh yeah, I'm going to raise this money and pay myself a hundred thousand first. Yeah. So you were like, none of you earned any money for two years. Yeah. I mean, I think it's an exceptional situation because we didn't have girlfriends. We didn't have mortgages. We didn't have families to support, you know. Young kids straight out of college, right? Totally. Used to living on nothing. Right. The three of us lived in one bedroom.

I sold beer at Ravens games on the weekends. I got to make 300 bucks a game. I was like, that was my cash for the week. And so once we were able to raise that money and turn it into product, we proved out a sales story. We took that cash. We became the best-selling bottle of coffee in certain markets, and then that was the sequence to raise the next round. It was, hey, Mr. and Mrs. Investor, we just raised a hundred grand. We turned it into the best-selling product in these stores.

If you give us a million dollars, we could do that in the entire city of DC, right? And if you give us 5 million, we could do it in Philadelphia too. And I mean, today we've raised 185 million over the last seven years, but all by hitting those milestones that we set out. I think it's super important to deliver upon what you say you're going to deliver on. And as you build up that track record, people have more confidence in backing you. What do you think are some of the most important, like raising 185 million? That's not an easy thing to do. What are some of the important things or lessons that you've learned along the way for that? I think building up the track record, you know, and you don't have that track record from day one. So in the early days, be scrappy. You know, we took money. We said

friends, family, and fools, whoever was willing to give it to us because we didn't have sales data. We didn't have proof of concept. We didn't have any of that. We had three kids with a sort of starry-eyed passion and a relentless work ethic. And so our early investors invested in us, right? They say they bet on the jockeys. And then as you prove it out, and this is why inch-wide, mile-deep is so important, because if we took that $100,000 and we spent a little bit in D.C. and New York and California, the story wouldn't be that as strong as it was in those 20 stores, you know? So I think having the discipline to really prove,

meet the milestones that you say you're going to meet is important. And then communication and follow-up, you know, raising money is just networking and sales. It's, I mean, for every hundred conversations I had, two people said, yes, yes. I was with you guys in California this summer. Remember, I took that investor pitch. I had our first call with our Series C investor, and it was at Danielle's. We were out there hanging out, and that guy ended up leading our round a couple months later.

Wasn't that really early in the morning? Yeah, like 6 a.m. or something. Yeah, 6 a.m. Yeah, your dedication to raising in that story has been, I think a lot of people take that for granted. They're like, oh, I'm going to speak to these five people and they're all going to invest. Like, how have you dealt with rejection on that journey? I think it's kind of like stubborn optimism at that point. Not naive, but it's like, fine, if you don't believe in us, I'm going to go find

somebody who does, you know? And I think that comes with a certain confidence in yourself, a certain belief in yourself, because it is discouraging, right? If enough people tell you no, you start to question like, is this really a good idea? Is this going to work? And in some cases, the answer is no, it's not a good idea, right? And for founders who are excited about things. So that's a tricky balance is having that self-awareness, but also that self-confidence. That's the thing when you know yourself so well and you know your work ethic,

you know the work ethic of your brothers and now your team. When someone says no, you internally know, I'm going to work until I make this happen. I'm not going to fail. I'm going to work and make it happen. But so going back to that work ethic and focus

that served you so well in the beginning, how has that changed as your company's grown? Because it's so easy to be focused in the beginning when there's that changed as your company's grown? Because it's so easy to be focused in the beginning when there's just a few of you and you're like, okay, this is the path. But as you scale and expand, there's, I'm sure, opportunities coming to you every single day. Let's expand here. Let's do this. How do you stay focused and keep your team focused? Yeah, it's a great question. It's honestly become one of the hardest parts of our job, especially nowadays with everything at our fingertips, with crypto and NFTs and social

media. It's like, we want to launch a merchandise store. We want to launch a loyalty program with NFTs, but all things that are like cool ideas and we may do down the road. But at the end of the day, we sell bottled coffee. It's a simple industry. And I think when things get distracted, we just refocus on that. We sell coffee. Our coffee tastes good and want us to do energy drinks and creamers and breakfast bars. And like, we want to do that too. But the value of our company comes on the performance of our core bottle coffee line. Yeah, you must look at a lot of companies and see what they're doing and think,

oh, that's a cool idea. I wonder if we could do that. Or I'm guessing you have customers emailing you constantly saying, can you do this? Because I know if you did it, it would be so much better. So do you just have kind of like a mission statement of coming back to this? Do you constantly rally your team, your executives behind it? How do you keep coming back to it?

I'm asking selfishly because our company is so much more than yours. And every day I'm seeing what other people are doing. I'm like, oh, that's a good idea. That's a good idea. Yeah. So it's a good, it's a really good question. And let's stay on this for a minute because like everybody has an opinion, especially in the early days, like your label should be this color or your name should be that,

or you should add adaptogenic ingredients. And the moment you begin to listen to take advice from or listen to all of those opinions is the moment you compromise. So I think you have to have several non-negotiables. For us, we were always going to be sugar-free and we were always going to taste good. Like flavor, flavor is still the number one purchase driver, right? Over-function. And then the final piece was we're going to provide functionality. You know, and we wanted to be more for the Walmart customer than for the Whole Foods customer. You know, we wanted to appeal to the masses. And I think when you stay true to those principles,

like it starts with a broad statement up top, like we exist to mass produce positive energy. We got to be sugar-free. We got to add functional ingredients. We got to taste good. It becomes like you narrow it down to certain things that you can only say yes to, right? Like there's stuff that you can't, that doesn't fit within those guardrails that you have to say no to. Same thing with culture. And culture happens no matter what, right? Culture happens just from who you guys are, from who we are. And the bigger you get, the more remote your team becomes. You have to be crystal clear with your values, putting those on paper and living those. But the values are an extension of us. So once you establish

those values, you have to protect them. So not only do you, not only do you attract people who also share those values, if somebody violates those values, that can't be tolerated either, right? Because culture is what you tolerate too. So I think being clear, setting those guardrails and leaving enough flexibility to, to have a little fun, like almost like a test and learn opportunity. No, I love that. It's like really important with the values. Like we've had our values written down from the get-go. Everyone who comes into our company knows what we stand for, who we are, what we tolerate and what we don't.

So when you speak about tolerating values and, you know, culture is what you tolerate, it's so true because that's the thing. If you give someone an inch, they might take a mile and all of a sudden your culture runs away from you. So what things have you done or what decisions have you made that have helped you come back to that core culture, those core values? Yeah. So for us, to your guys' point, you have to be crystal clear and you have to remind people often. And it's not about putting words on a wall and saying,

we believe in integrity and respect and trust. It's about living and embodying them. So we worked with our chief creative officer to capture our culture in an acronym called COACH, which is fitting because we're all athletes. We all need to be coached and we all have something to teach and offer. So we're all coaches in that regard too. So COACH just stands for curious, always asking questions, optimistic, right? We believe in a better future and we're willing to put in the work to create it. Ambition. We're not going to sell our company to Coca-Cola. We're going to go buy Coca-Cola. A little crazy, but still ambitious, right? I believe that's happening. Let's go. Compassionate, treat all people with love. And then humility, right? We always have

something to learn. We always have something to improve on and that is captured in coach. And now what we do is we refer to everybody as coach. I'll be like, Natalie, what's up coach? How are you doing today? And every quarter our team is measured against those coach values. And I mean, for the most part, they're table stakes, right? If you don't live those values, you probably don't belong at Super Coffee in the first place. And then there's always opportunities of how each of us can work to improve them. And that's so important. I want to come back for a second to the SKUs and the product line.

Because you were talking about, okay, people are asking us, create a bar. For me, on the outside, as a consumer, I'd be like, yeah, I already know and trust the brand, Super Coffee. I drink it, so it would make sense to buy a bar. And I would assume already that it's going to taste cool, like really nice. I'm going to enjoy it, et cetera. So what has been that conversation behind the scenes and why haven't you done that? Because I feel like that is something that a lot

of founders go through. Well, I already have the audience. So why don't I add this? Because it's going to make me more profits and more money. Yeah. So I think for us, and we have some pretty strong advisors from the food and beverage industry around the table. And the consensus is one SKU that does 200 million in sales is worth more than five SKUs that do 40 million in sales, right? Or four SKUs that do 50 million. And remembering that is important because it's relatively easy to get to 50 million in sales. It's extremely difficult. Very few brands make it to 200 million in sales. And we're not even halfway there yet. Like we're still working our way towards that.

But getting back to the most important metric in our industry, velocity, and how many people are buying a product per week, how many people are coming back, repeat purchase, lifetime value, right? And to have that on one core product line is more valuable than having smaller smaller loyalists on on smaller product lines so that doesn't mean you can't expand it just means that

you have to have a lead horse and then every adjacent category that you expand into sort of complements where where you started i love that that's so powerful and i feel like i wanted you to share that because i think a lot of young founders will see things differently. Like, oh, okay, I've got some, like, I'm seeing these cells really improve, so I want to add to it. So I think just like really like leveraging one product and getting really good at that and perfecting it. How has your formula changed over the years? Has it changed at all? Yeah, yeah.

So we're always evolving and always improving. And the cores always stay the same. Sugar-free, all natural sweeteners, protein, MCT oil. So we want to be the healthy alternative and we want to taste good. But there's so much within those guardrails. There's so much we can do to improve with the flavor systems, the type of protein we use. We just launched a plant-based line.

And the bigger we get, the more resources we have, the better food scientists we can work with, the better manufacturing partners we can team up with. So every six months, our formula changes and our loyalists will notice. They'll hit us up through customer experience and be like, hey, did you change mocha? And ultimately they like it. But at the same time, it's never like that. We call it renovation. It's never, never ending. And it's really testament to your focus as well, because your product is just so good. Just fundamentally, it is so good. It, I don't know. I think sometimes you see products that let's just say a random protein bar, right? And it's got this amazing packaging and it looks like

a cake and you're like, this is going to taste like a cake and it's going to be good for me. You read the ingredients and it's full of crap. And then you taste it and you're like, this is going to taste like a cake and it's going to be good for me. You read the ingredients and it's full of crap. And then you taste it and you're like, this tastes nothing like cake. Whereas your product does what it says it's going to do. I remember the first time I ever tried it, I couldn't believe how good it was. And I guess that would never have happened had you decided to do multiple SKUs and continue expanding in multiple different ways versus going the distance, which I would say most people don't do and aren't willing to do, but go the distance and say, let's make this the best product that it could possibly be. Was that a conscious thing?

Totally. Thank you. That testimonial is like, I'm just sitting over here smiling. My brother Jordan handles all the R&D and ops. Okay, Jordan, you're freaking amazing. Yeah, so that is, it's super intentional, right? Because we're competing with things that have 45 grams of sugar in them. And 45 grams of sugar tastes great no matter who you are. You know, the other thing about 45 grams of sugar, it is more than any adult male should have in a day, you know, so like that it's as Starbucks is designed for flavor first, same thing with Dunkin' Donuts. You know, there's no function there.

There's nothing good for you other than that dopamine rush you get. It doesn't even give you energy because it's diluted with so much milk and sugar. So for us, we want to taste like that, but we want to empower you and give you the function you need to have a productive day. So flavor and function are non-negotiables. It's also an important note too, because function can come from a lot of things, you know, and we all subscribe to self-improvement, you know, like I'm down to try any type of ashwagandha, adaptogen, mushroom,

you know, if somebody's like, try this elixir, it's going to make you live longer. I'll probably drink it. But that doesn't appeal, that doesn't necessarily appeal to the masses, especially if you have to pinch your nose to tolerate it. So what we're doing is we're providing that functional benefit through things like MCT oil and monk fruit, but we're ignoring the education component by saying, this tastes good. People purchase with their flavor. They purchase with their mouths, and it needs to taste good. When we're selling at Walmart in Bentonville, Arkansas, they're not really concerned about medium chain triglycerides. They're like, does this taste like Starbucks? And is it within the same price range? Well, let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform, Kajabi. You know I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity, which I love. Not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in

one place, so it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know, get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible. I definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students. So if you're listening and haven't checked out Kajabi yet, now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering Boss Babe listeners a 30-day free trial.

Go to kajabi.com slash boss babe to claim your 30-day free trial. That's kajabi.com slash boss babe. Is there a conscious decision to not, because I've never even thought about that, but you're right, you can either go the education route or you can lead with like this tastes good or the function, like the basic reason someone will buy. Was there a reason you didn't go the education route and have you ever been tempted to list out this, what all the amazing things do for you? Or did you just assume, hey, the buyer that knows that stuff or is interested in that stuff will recognize it and leave it at that? Yeah. So certainly that, but initially we came out super hot with medium chain triglycerides, ketogenic, like all of the buzzwords that sort of resonate within that community. And it worked. That was low hanging fruit for the keto audience, the crossfitters,

the people who shop at Whole Foods and Erolon, but it didn't work for people who didn't care so much about that stuff. Like people mainly care about flavor, energy, and price, you know? So we shifted our messaging to say, this tastes like a Starbucks Frappuccino and it doesn't have any sugar in it. Do you think that's important for young founders who are just starting their companies to have different messaging at different stages of their company? Because it sounds to me like, you know, right from the get-go, it was like, okay, this is like keto-friendly, and that's a very, like, audience who is looking for those buzzwords to buy from. And then we'll have MCT oil or keto badge on the back of our label. It's just not on the front. I think even this says protein and MCT oil. This is a couple of years old.

We changed that to positive energy. Like what is super coffee? Super coffee is positive energy, right? And so, yes, I think there is a message there, like kind of like strong opinions loosely held, right? Yeah. Like have where you want to go, but don't be afraid to change as the times change. Do you feel like you leave money on the table or

exclude buyers by doing that? Like, do you feel like you're excluding the super healthy buyers? I don't think so because the label readers are the label readers, you know, they'll read it on the back and see that it has, it checks all of their boxes. It's not as obvious. So like they're not going to be able to walk by the shelf and see that it has protein and MCT oil in it. They're going to see that it's got 10 grams of protein and zero sugar. And like we're putting new flavor cues, kind of like the birthday cake example. Yeah.

Like we're coming out with a cinnamon roll and a blueberry muffin. And like they have really indulgent photos on the front. Yeah. I know that's what sells me. So I think putting those cues on the packaging is enough to get people to try it. And one thing I also want to talk about is as we're talking about your journey, it sounds very linear. It sounds like we had this great idea and Bob's your uncle, we've got a half billion dollar company, like we just worked hard. Obviously,

we know that's not the case. In every business, there are so many moments where you're like, this is the best thing I've ever done. And there's so many moments where you think, I'm not going to get through this. This is the worst thing I've ever done. Why am I putting myself through this? Has there been moments where you thought you might fail or you might not make it through? Yeah. Yesterday morning, last week. No, it's hard. And I think that having a good product and good packaging is table stakes. There's no such thing as a billion-dollar idea anymore. It's really the execution. And we happen to pick an industry that is very low gross margin, low average order value.

We sell a bottle of coffee for $1.65. After our cost of goods, we're making 50 cents on that thing. And you got to sell a lot of coffee to make money. And it's very manual. It's hardware. We're putting product on shelves in 50,000 stores every single week. So despite momentum and strong consumer demand and sentiment, it's still all about execution. A moment where I think it's tough for us. We're not profitable. So burning cash is always a scary thing. That's why we raise money from investors to continue to grow. And don't get me wrong, we're doing the right things. We're growing at the right rate and doing it intentionally. But you always second guess, what if we don't make money on this thing? What if the supply chain continues to get worse

or inflation continues to rise? What does that mean for us in the future? But that's just the natural part of doing anything difficult. But how do you deal with that? So we have a strong support system. My brothers and I talk about it. We hold hands on this stuff on a daily basis, but we have an executive coach who we meet with twice a month. I see a therapist once a week. I think talking about it is like bringing your fears into that awareness allows you to address them and kind of makes them less scary. And like we suffer more in imagination than we do in reality, right? Like in my head, I'm like,

this shit is never going to work. This is so difficult. But then you start chipping away and doing things that you thought were going to be harder than they were, that you just build up that confidence. You start making progress each day. How does a typical day look for you right now? Because I imagine seven years ago, it was very different to how it looks now. Very different, yes. So I'm not one of those guys who has the same regimented routine every morning. I typically wake up between 5.30 and 6.30. If I have time in the morning, I'll get a workout in. I drink black coffee in the morning, not always super coffee. I'll have a super coffee at like 10 or 11, but I can't do caffeine after noon. It keeps me awake. So I get to the office usually at like 7.30. And then what I've done recently is I've shifted, I've dedicated

days to different parts of the business. So Tuesday is my marketing day. Wednesday is my finance day. Because what was happening last year is like on a random Tuesday, I'd have a finance call. I'd have an investor call. I'd have a marketing call. And from my brain, I was like jumping back and forth to all of these different things. So compartmentalizing that in different departments where I can focus and sort of think creatively on Tuesdays and then think financially on Wednesdays has been super helpful for me. My job as a CEO has really evolved from a doer to certainly a manager. And I view my job in really five buckets is one, setting the vision with my brothers, being clear on where the company's going, aligning our team around that

vision. Alignment is key. I need to make sure that every department is always aligned, hiring the best team to go achieve that vision. That's three. Empowering that team with the resources they need to do their jobs. That's four. And then the last thing is chief learning officer. As this world changes, we can't get caught on our heels, and it changes pretty fast, pretty frequently. like we want to be trendsetters rather than trend followers but in those five responsibilities i'm not really in charge of any projects you know like i'm not doing balancing the books i'm not i'm not coming up with the copy for for marketing materials like we're in a fortunate position where we have amazing people to do that as long as they're aligned on where you're at the captain of the ship yeah and of the ship. Yeah. And like making sure everyone's going in the same direction.

Totally, totally. And sometimes I have nightmares that like Titanic, when the wave comes on, I'm going to be in the cockpit with my brothers. And so that's interesting that you talk about now, it's all about setting the vision and finding the right team that are going to execute on the vision for you.

Whereas when you're an early stage founder, it's like, I'm going to set the vision, I'm going to execute the vision and I'm going to come back and set the vision again. At what point in your business did things shift where you stopped executing so much and you started finding people that I'm sure are so much more experienced in these areas

that can show the way? Yeah, I would say probably after we raised our Series A, we raised 15 million in 2018, December of 2018. And that's really what's allowed us to go out and hire some of the best and brightest. The thing that we learned, though, is some people, like the team that got us from 5 million to 50 million, might not have the right skillet from 50 to 500. You know, and that's been tough

because the company has grown faster than some individuals. And you always have to address those conversations when they happen. I think my brothers and I are a little bit soft when it comes to compassion and we wait too long, but the writing's on the wall. You know, you see it happen. What is the writing?

Lack of awareness from individuals, right? wait too long, but the writing's on the wall. You know, you'll, you see it happen. What is the writing? Yeah. Lack of awareness from, from individuals, right? Like not seeing, not seeing problems, not asking questions, honestly, things that, that violate the values when people aren't curious, like you can't learn what you think you already know. And when people stop asking those questions, that's a big red flag to me because they don't see the blind spots, you know, and it's tough. If somebody thinks they know everything, it's tough to show them what they don't, you know, and work begins to suffer from that. You know, when you don't know what you don't know, you begin to make mistakes. And the way you solve that is by asking questions. It appears to me like you have a really strong like growth mindset, like you're always looking

to learn. I'm curious curious being like such young founders have you had like resistance from like your like chief like chief of marketing or like those positions like hang on you're you're not a good enough lead leader you don't have the experience why should I listen to you as the CEO yeah I think I think what we found is the more experience the more experience that somebody comes with the more set in their ways they are. And we've hired a couple of people who have had 20-year careers at big corporations. That molds you. That sets a certain style within you. And it's a one-dimensional style. And on the flip side, when you hire somebody who's been at five different companies in five years, I think that there, there isn't enough style or conviction in what you do. So yeah,

we've certainly like all of my direct reports are twice my age, which is tough, but I think what they see in us is low ego, curiosity, willingness to learn. Right. And I mean, Steve Jobs said, we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do. Why would we hire somebody smart and just continue to do things the way that we do them? So it's a balance. It's a balance. And I think breaking bad habits from big corporations has been my toughest battle over the last year or two. I think having a founder be CEO through this much of the company, taking it from nought to, let's say, worth half a billion, it's actually pretty rare.

A lot of founders end up stepping down and giving the CEO spot to somebody else. How have you dealt with any self-doubt that you've had? And how have you retained, no, I'm the best person to sit in this seat? Yeah, I think it comes back to alignment. I'm not the best person at digital marketing. I'm not the best person at creative design or finance or accounting. You know, I,

I kind of stink at all of those things, but collectively guiding people towards this North star, bringing the right people around the table and ensuring that they can help get us there is, is my job as, as CEO. And because I'm not a specialist at anything, I think that is what's allowed me to stay in the seat so long. But also going back to curiosity, like always learning and evolving. You know, I'm a different person today than I was when we started seven years ago because you put in that work and that work is super uncomfortable. But our team sees that and they're willing to step up and say, we're following you for whatever it is, because we see how much you care and how

much effort you put into learning and evolving. It's so interesting. I feel like being on the entrepreneurial journey is the most personal development you'll ever get. Every single day, you are faced to really look at yourself and look at all of those things. Do you have any practices in a day that help ground you or get you clear on your vision or anything like that? Yeah, so I think two things that are common of all founders, I'm sure you guys feel this too, is imposter syndrome, like that self-doubt that you were just talking about.

And then also this certain guilt that comes with not working. You know, and over the last couple of years, I've really prioritized vacation and time for myself, even doing stuff that I'd never do before. Like the other day at 12 p.m., I went for a run, you know, and like that was bonkers to me two years ago. Like I can't be out of the office at 12 p.m. on a Tuesday. So I think prioritizing that self-care, taking a three-day weekend and not feeling bad about it, shutting my phone off and trusting that the team will pick up the slack. What do you think has been that shift?

Because this is actually a conversation that Natalie and I have a lot of. We went through those years of hustling, literally. Can't take a day off. Got to go, go, go. And two, feeling that guilt from it. So what do you think has been the mindset shift for you around that? Because I agree with it. I think we're stronger when we're rested. Totally. I think starting to feel worn out, starting to feel that burnout. And I'm such a stubborn, tough guy that burnout could never happen to me. That burnout is a decision. Burnout is a weakness. And I just thought that I would choose to never be burnt out. But it truly does catch up with you. And people warn you about it, you know, and until you actually feel it manifest as like physical symptoms, you don't, you don't think that it

could happen to you. And I think that started to happen in 2020, once we started dealing with the pandemic and the social unrest and the political climate and like, it's been hard enough to build a business when times are good, but when times are tricky and you layer in a pandemic and all of the shit that comes with that, it gets really hard. And I've been starting to prioritize my sleep. I learned that from you and Steven. I've been starting to prioritize my health and doing things that just make me happy, fun things. Just got a donkey.

Yeah, we were talking about the donkey. We love the donkey. So speaking of that then and the guilt, so let's say you take a three-day weekend or you go for a run at 12 p.m., but your team is in the office. How do you, have you ever dealt with your team saying, well, you should be in the office

or you shouldn't be doing anything like that or any guilt of them being there and you're not? It's a great question. So no, because our team, we have a very high performing culture and our team puts that a similar pressure on themselves. You know, we have big goals. They want to work hard. And for that reason, we also have unlimited PTO, which is almost a curse because nobody takes it. So my brothers and I have to show that we're doing it right. And the team who I work most closely with, like my direct reports are like,

oh, there goes Jim on a run. He's going to come back feeling good. You know, like this is good for us, right? Like he must be stressed. He's going out. He's going to come back feeling good. Same thing when I take a three-day weekend because inevitably like I no longer feel guilty

on that day off, but that Monday morning when I come back, I feel so motivated. You know, it's like I got some work to catch up on now, you know, and that energy refuel is critical. How have your parents dealt with the journey that you guys have been on? Because I can imagine sometimes there's all different opinions. You might want to take the business one way and Jake or Jordan might be feeling something else. How have they dealt with having three sons who are all in a stressful, growing business? Yeah. I mean, the journey has evolved because

not only has the business evolved over the last few years, we've sort of grown up as young men. So it's like just within the last year or two, we no longer see our parents as our parents. We kind of see them as our peers, which is like an interesting transformation for every young adult, right? So in that, and not to mention like none of us, mom or dad, me and my brothers have experience managing a company or managing people of this size. So like they're in a little bit over their heads in terms of giving advice, but the values stay true.

You know, like they always check in with us on how we are feeling, how we are treating other human beings. They're competitive as athletes. So if we get double-crossed by a supplier, a distributor or something, they're like, fuck them. You want me to talk to them? I'm like, no, mom, I don't want you to go to New York City and talk to this guy. Could you imagine if she did though? Oh my gosh, I would not want to be that guy. One thing that I really admire about you, and it's so funny that this is such a value of the company, is your energy. So you always seem to have such a high energy, such a high output, like you really are such a high performer. How do you manage to have that much energy

and sustain that, especially given how much pressure is on you every single day? Yeah. I mean, it's not easy. And I think that some days I don't have that energy, you know, and I have to be gentle with myself and have some grace with myself when I do feel off. You know, we're all human. And I've had a rule, it really started with fitness, is like, when you got it, go. Because not every day you're going to feel great. You know, there's going to be days where like I stumble into the gym and I just stretch for 20 minutes. I'm like, that's my workout. But on the rare occasion where I feel great, it's like, I got to go hard, you know? And, and same thing applies at work. When I feel really

good, I'm super productive. And then there's some other days where I just, I just don't have it. And like, those are the days where I got to focus on small wins like what can I achieve today with this sort of unfocused mindset like what are some small wins I can get and then when I do have the energy it's like focusing on the big stuff that moves the business forward I think it's like accepting as well I'm finding that like there's a roller coaster of energy like sometimes you're going to be like peak performance you're going to be absolutely thriving and then the other day it's like yeah do know what? I need to take a little bit more. That is pregnancy. I'm telling myself. That is definitely pregnancy.

Yeah, for sure. You probably feel it 10 times. Yeah, but what you've just said has really just reaffirmed in my mind how I'm feeling when you've got it go. Because before I got pregnant, I had so many boundaries around what time I work, taking my weekends off, rest, things like that. And then I got pregnant and all of a sudden I wasn't performing at the level I was anymore. And I'm like, I need to go for a nap at 4pm or I need to take a three-day weekend, whatever it was. Hit second trimester, I know women are nodding along.

All of a sudden I have this crazy energy. And for me, I'm like, I'm going to work late nights, weekends. When this energy is with me, you better believe my output's coming because probably in the next stage, it's not going to be there. And I actually think that is so true what you've said. And it kind of gives people permission for when they are having that off day, maybe take the day. Maybe you'd be better to take the day and put in the extra output tomorrow. Totally, totally. And I mean, there's been times where I've changed plans because I felt really good.

You know, like just the other day, I canceled a dinner date with Allison. I was like, babe, I'm not going to make it. I feel great right now. And I stayed at the office until 8 p.m., which is like, that wasn't my plan for the day. That's not something I usually do. But it's like, if I have this rare energy and focus, let me apply it, you know? So speaking of Allison and relationships, we all know being ambitious entrepreneurs plus relationship is not always the easiest dynamic, especially when you have a crazy work ethic.

How have you found being able to show up in your personal relationships and still have that as a priority and find people that can support where you're going? Yeah, I think finding somebody whose values are aligned is important, right? People who are interested generally in the same things that you are. And that's one piece. Clearly, like if you're not running a company, you don't really understand it. You know, I think that's why the three of us hit it off so much because we can empathize with each other about certain things. And Allison's not, she's not a founder or CEO, but she definitely has respect for it. And where she lacks an experience, she sort of makes respect for it. And, and where she, she lacks

an experience, she sort of makes up for in grace and understanding and compassion. And for me lately, I've been like, my relationship with her has really been, it's given me the ability to unplug and be there, you know, and, and that has been such a nice outlet for me where before, like when I was single, I would just come home thinking about everything that I did that day. And it was like, it was almost like tormenting me. And now that that's at like 6 or 7 p.m. when I sit down for dinner, it's like I'm there. And the stuff that I was dealing with a couple hours ago or 15 minutes ago is at the door. And guess what?

The work stops when you stop. Because tomorrow morning, that pile of shit is going to be right there for you to pick up where you left off. I think it's really interesting as entrepreneurs, though. Like for me, like I always feel like work, like the business is part of me. It's like a very odd sensation. Like it's like when I was, when I just had a job, I would like leave work and I would forget about work or I would go on holiday and I would really switch off. Whereas like now, like I can switch off, but then I'll have like creative ideas like I was messaging you at 11 p.m last night like oh my god I just had this idea and it's like it's like part

of you and I don't necessarily relate to like always that it's work it's kind of just part of who I am now and I do think you're right like there has to be that balance and like learning to unplug and be present in the moment but I do think and when you have like this business that you've grown from the ground up there's like a different like energetic feeling around like when you do switch off and taking time off like it's not quite the same yeah I think that's what passion is too right like you think about it all the time because you're passionate about it and that's when people like I don't say I don't think you find your calling I think partially you create it yeah and people ask me about a work-life balance like passionate about it. And that's when people like, I don't say, I don't think you find your calling.

I think partially you create it. And people ask me about a work-life balance. Like this is life, you know, like there's not, it's not like work stops and life starts. It's like, we, we love this thing and I do it with my family. So like family vacation is basically a work trip, you know? And, and if I saw this as work or something that I had to do, I don't think I'd live a happy life. Actually, let's just drop on that a second. Do you guys ban? Like, let's say you go for a family dinner. Are you banning conversation around super coffee?

Or are you like, oh no, that family dinner turns into a business meeting? Yeah, I mean, we're not doing performance reviews. But we'll talk about product launches or what we're excited for, or dreaming about what comes next in terms of product launches and things like that. And I mean, we share enough in common outside of business. We often talk about sports or fitness or whatever that sort of hot topic is. So yeah, inevitably, every conversation comes back to Super Coffee in some regard. I want to touch on the idea of the journey. So a lot of entrepreneurs who have built companies and sold them reflect on the day that they sold or, you know, people maybe that win Olympic medals the day that they won it.

It was sometimes the worst day of their life because they they're like well what's next what do i do now it was all about the journey but a lot of people don't realize it's about the journey until they're out of the journey do you have moments where you have to remind yourself that it's about the journey because i know we do constantly we need to remind ourselves like this is the good thing this is the stuff. How do you think about the journey and ultimately the exit to the journey? Yeah. Yeah. I think that, I think it's, it's like reframing, right? It's not that I have to do this. It's that I get to do this. Right. And we went for a walk around the lake this morning, me and my brother and Jesse Itzler, Sarah,

Sarah Blakely's husband. Casual. I saw that. Yeah. Jesse, I mean, he's awesome. He was in town. He hit us up and we were walking around a construction site. It was 6.30 in the morning and it was 30 degrees out. And the construction workers were there hammering nails, building an elevator, doing what they were doing. And Jesse said to us, he was like, just think a hundred million people go to work and do that every day. Like when you guys are coming up with marketing ideas, when you're building businesses, when you're traveling the country, building your brand, remember these guys, right? Remember the work that they have to do. So I think it's all about reframing and perspective. And for us, reminding ourselves that we're so lucky that we get to deal with these problems is awesome. And I mean, there is an

insecurity. On paper, we have a $500 million company, but from a liquidity perspective, I'm broke. And it's not about the cash for us. If we execute on the right level, it'd be life-changing money for me and my brothers, but we still have a lot of wood to chop before we get to that point. I also just want to draw listeners' attention to that language switch you just made

because I used to be very much like, oh, I need to do this, I need to do that much like oh I need to do this I need to do that and reframing that to I get to do this or I want to do this like that is such a such a mindset shift for everyone because I think sometimes like when you are building something or you are working hard that becomes this like oh my goodness I'm always late doing something and I have to add this in and all these pieces where it's like oh I actually get to stay a little bit longer and work on this and I have that option to do things and giving yourself that grace and that language change has really been a game changer for me and like you know making sure my nervous system is calmer allowing me to enjoy the journey that little bit more versus like feeling that pressure

all the time totally totally like today for instance I, damn it, I have to go on this podcast. Wait a second, I love that. I get to do this. It's a hangout then. And just when you mentioned Jesse, so one thing that you have mentioned a lot is mentors and people around you that have given advice, whether it be investors, people that have become friends.

Obviously, you have J-Lo and A-Rod invest in your company. You're surrounded by a lot of people that generally people look at and think, oh, they've made it. What have you learned being around people like that? What have they taught you? So let's use A-Rod as an example. He's so curious. I mean, he hit the pinnacle of his career in baseball, one of the best baseball players of all time. And that doesn't necessarily translate to business. So he's now a student of the game, you know, and he's surrounded himself with mentors, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, like people like that he has access to. is given all that he's accomplished in his career he would he still asks us questions about our business and he's not afraid like when they invested I was explaining to him the terms of the deal and the liquidation preference and like some technical finance stuff and he was like whoa whoa whoa what does that mean right and he could have

said oh yeah sure like my guys will deal with that. And I think that curiosity is key. Jesse and Sarah, on the other hand, again, two business just badasses. They're both amazing leaders in their own right. They've taught us balance. And Jesse wants to be successful not only in business, but in family and in friendships. He wants to create wealth for those around him. I think that balance is super important. The people that we've gotten to know, the most successful people we've gotten to know are good at multiple things in their lives, right? They're not just good at business.

Or on the flip side, the people who are just good at business probably have broken relationships, you know, and they probably aren't happy when they go home with their billions of dollars in the bank account. So I think that balance has been a critical piece from everybody we've got to learn from. I love that you shared that. I think that's really important. Because I am name dropping, but I had Tony Robbins on the podcast the other day,

and he was saying the same thing. He was like, literally, you have work with billionaires. They've got so much money, but they're really freaking unhappy because they don't have that balance in their life. They haven't looked. He as like your quality of your life is only as good as your quality of your emotions. And your emotions are like reflective of the relationships that you hold, whether it's friendship or business or like lifetime partners, any of that. And I think that's a really important rewire like on this journey. Like I know there's a lot of ambitious women listening to this, like, oh my goodness, I'm going to be happy and successful when I make this much or have this much in the bank account. But it's really not about that. It's about showing up, enjoying the things that you do on a daily basis with people that you love

to work with. I know like I, on this journey with you, that makes me so happy, you know, and the people that we get to work with, that's what makes me happy on a daily basis. And I think not losing sight of that when you're on this journey is really important. Absolutely. And it's so, my brothers and I talked about this yesterday, since we're in Texas right now, I'm going to quote a country song. Luke Combs just came out with a new song called Doing This. And it said, if I wasn't doing this, I'd still be doing this. Right. And he's like, if I wasn't on stage in front of a million people on Friday nights, I'd be playing at a bar with a glass of whiskey and my buddies, you know? And I think for us on

this journey, we are just like that, right? We need this type of stimulation, this type of challenge, this type of opportunity. So it's not a payday at the end of it, you know? Like, if I wasn't doing this, I'd be filling my day with the same amount of stress, but probably like coaching high school football or teaching a class, you know? So I think that it all comes back to that reframe, you know? If you were to like talk to your 19, 20, 21-year-old self, what is the piece of advice that you would give? I have the same question. I was like, that's the question I want to ask him.

Y'all are on the same page. I like that. It's expected from you too. I would say you are the right guy for the job, you know, because when you're just getting started, one, as a 19-year-old, like you have nothing. You don't know anything about this world. You don't know what you want to be when you grow up. And then you look up at people who are building cool things.

Like Tom Bilyeu at Quest Bar was doing it when we were just getting started. And we're like, damn, that guy's got something that we don't have, right? And Seth Goldman, who sold Honest Tea to Coca-Cola, like, geez, he must be way smarter than we are. And, and you tell yourself these stories and then you start doing it and you make progress every day, you know, carry small stones. That's how you move them out. And, and looking back, it's like, dang, those are just normal guys. And Sarah Blakely is just a normal woman. These are normal people. They come from the same places that we come from. They have the same skill sets that we have. So

I just wish I believed in myself earlier on in the journey. And still today, I have that imposter syndrome. So I'm constantly reminding myself, you are the right person to do this. If you had believed in yourself more at the beginning of that journey, what would you have done differently? Oh boy. I think we made a lot of mistakes. That's such a tough question, right? Because we wouldn't be here without all the mistakes that... No regrets. Yeah, no regrets. I think I would have put more faith in our judgment as leaders. We always

thought that we needed more help than we probably did. It's like, this person has a great background. We need to go hire this person at all costs. We cannot manufacture a product if we don't sign this terrible contract with this amazing manufacturer. And now today, we're trying to unwind some of those hasty decisions that we made when we were a bit more insecure. I actually have heard this a lot from founders, young founders particularly, where they take advice from people that they've looked up to or have more experience than them, but not necessarily as founders sometimes like the advisors that come with VC firms etc and you know feeling like actually I wish I'd followed my gut as the founder being like I know they give me this advice

and they might have a bit more experience than me but they don't have experience running this company and like just allowing yourself that freedom and that ability to say no I hear you I take on that advice but actually I feel like in my gut instinct is to go this path because I'm building this company and I think giving yourself that power actually is really important I know we've had lots of advice over the years and sometimes we've followed that and it hasn't taken us down the best track and when we've kind of like tapped into each other and be like let's just block out all the noise like what do we feel in our guts is the right thing to do. That's when we make the most moves. Totally. Yeah. And I think as founders, it's our responsibility to be the filter, right?

Like let's go collect as much advice from people who have come before us, but their journey is different than ours, you know, and we could take lessons and sort of cautionary tales from them, but we're writing our own story. You know, the way that Honest Tea did it is very different than how we're doing it. And I mean, that's just how it goes. Like the world is different. It requires a different approach than it did five years ago.

You know what reflection I took from you sharing lessons of mentors and your experience too is, you know, you hear all this advice of, you know, the hustle culture is dead and yada, yada, yada, balance is the thing. What I really realized from speaking to people like you and really successful people is they all have this incredible work ethic that they're willing to put into every area of their life. So, yes, they have the balance in that they might work, you know, nine hours and then go home for dinner.

But they put that work ethic into both things. So when they're at work, they're at nine hours and then go home for dinner. But they put that work ethic into both things. So when they're at work, they're at work, they're not distracted, they're not wasting time, they're not sitting wallowing in what went wrong. Or when they're at the dinner table, they're not sitting there, you know, on their phones, not present, they are there. And it's the same work ethic. Do you relate to that? Yeah, yeah, I think focus is critical. Like be where your feet are. It's not always easy. Like that takes reps too. You know, like when this thing goes off, I want to check it, but kind of, like I said earlier, the work's going to be there tomorrow. You know, do I really have to reply to this email at nine o'clock at night? I don't think so. Like

in, in 26 or 27 year old, Jimmy would be like, I got to get back to him. I have five minutes. You know, he hit me up at 11 PM. I got to get back. And there's just not that much urgency. You know, people don't care as much as you do. And I think the reality is like, everybody is just a text message or a phone call away. That doesn't mean you're at their beck and call, right? Like when somebody texts me, it's not my, like they don't deserve a response right away, you know? And obviously if I'm available, if I'm not doing something, I'll get back to them. But once, like a couple of years ago, I'd get a text message like,

oh shit, I have to reply right now. Yeah. Be where your feet are. Yeah. Great quote. And that's a really good one to live by. Well, thank you so much for being here. This has been amazing.

We definitely just pushed you into giving us a little discount. Oh yeah. We set it up. Let's go. BossBabe20. Check it out. We got a bunch of new products on the website.

We got plant-based for those who are plant-based. We got ground coffee, K-cups, whatever you guys like. Check it out. It's delicious, you guys. You're not going to regret it. What's your favorite? If someone's going to start,

they've never experienced super coffee before, what's the one product or flavor that they should start with? The original dorm room coffee is our Mocha Super Coffee. It's been our bestseller for seven years. That's the lead horse. And then let that be your gateway drug into trying new stuff at Super Coffee. That was my gateway and then got me obsessed on the creamer.

Oh, yeah. So maybe throw some creamer in the cart when you get it. Yeah, maybe a little French vanilla creamer. That is amazing. Is that the purple? That's light blue. Purple sweet cream. Okay, sweet cream. That's my favorite creamer. Okay, I love it. Yeah. Maybe a little French vanilla creamer. That is amazing. Is that the purple? That's light blue, purple sweet cream. Okay. Sweet cream. That's my favorite. Okay. I love it. Jimmy, where can everyone find you? Find super coffee? Yeah. LinkedIn is probably the best for resharing stuff. Jimmy DeCicco, Jimmy DeCicco five on Instagram, but hit us up, you know,

hit me up. If you guys have questions, I'm happy to share any, any questions with your, with your listeners. We love this stuff, you know, this is our life. So I'm happy to share any questions with your listeners. We love this stuff. This is our life. So I'm happy to share lessons along the way. Well, thank you for coming on and being so open about your journey. I know that loads of people are going to have taken a ton of notes as well. So thank you. Always good hanging out with you guys. Thank you both. If you enjoyed this episode, we would love it if you subscribed and left us a review let us know what you enjoyed what your main takeaways were and who you'd like to see appear on the show as a special thanks we'll send you a copy of our boss babe 25 now this is an awesome

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