The Bossticks - How To Ask Better Questions & Find Life's Most Productive Answers Ft. Kat Cole, President & COO Of Athletic Greens

Episode Date: January 24, 2024

#651: Kat Cole is the President and COO at Athletic Greens, the global health company that makes the all-in-one foundational nutrition supplement, AG1. AG1 is one of the fastest-growing nutrition brands in the world and is trusted and recommended by top thought leaders in longevity and health. Kat is known for modern leadership, vulnerability, leading iconic global brands, and constant reinvention. Her story is unique, given her start as a Hooters Hostess at 17, leading teams launching international operations for Hooters at 19, and becoming a VP by 26. Today, we're sitting down for a conversation on leadership, working your way up, and developing healthy habits to prepare you for success. We dive into Kat's story of how she worked her way up at Hooters, why she made the switch to AG1, and how to cultivate a trusting work culture for your employees.   To connect with Kat Cole click HERE To connect with AG1 click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts Bosstick click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE To subscribe to our YouTube Page click HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential & AG1 Try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D3+K2 AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase at drinkAG1.com/skinny. That's drinkAG1.com/skinny. This episode is brought to you by A2 Nutrition A2 Platinum is formulated for tiny tummies as the grow and develop. Visit a2platinum.com/SKINNY to get 25% off your first purchase. This episode is brought to you by Caraway Ditch the chemicals with Caraway. Visit carawayhome.com/SKINNY to receive 10% off your next purchase. This episode is brought to you by Clean Simple Eats Clean Simple Eats is made with a high-ingredient standard & their protein powder is made with grass-fed whey and no artificial ingredients. Visit cleansimpleeats.com and use code SKINNY at checkout for 20% off your first order. This episode is brought to you by Heineken 100% taste. 0% alcohol. Click HERE to purchase. Must be 21+ to buy. Produced by Dear Media  

The following podcast is a dear media production. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her.

So this idea that if I look at the reality I know, so I don't use it to make myself feel small. or unworthy or like, I'm terrible, I suck. They can do it so much better than me. It's a tool, not a weapon, which is a very important note. It's used to inspire and it's used to remind. Like, this is something I should have done a week ago. So the ask is what would someone I admire do in my seat? The answer comes to mind because it's a self-exercise.

And then the act is I put whatever the answer is in motion immediately. If I can't do it completely, like it has to involve other people, I at least scheduled a meeting, but the flight, the point is action. I put it in motion. Today we have Kat Cole, who is the president and COO of one of our favorite companies, Athletic Greens, the global health company that makes the all-in-one foundational nutritional supplement AG1, which Lorne and I have been talking about for almost eight years now, kind of crazy to believe.

AG1 is one of the fastest growing nutrition brands in the world, and Kat is one of the most impressive people that we've met on the show. Today we talk about how she went from a hooters hostess to the C.O. of AG1. This one is definitely for those that are interested in career development and moving up the ladder in their current role or position. How to build trust with foreign teams, the traits of a successful brand, what traits will make a business fail, how she's evolved her leadership style over the years, how you can too, and how to check in with your teams and be a good leader and team member. We also talk about how to build trust and everyday routines and how she got started with AG1. So this episode is jam-packed for anyone that's looking to be better, anyone that's looking for career development, anyone that wants to be healthier. And there's a ton of gems around human interaction in this episode as well.

With that, Kat Cole, welcome to the Skinny Confidential, him and Her show. This is the Skinny Confidential him and her. You went from being a Hooters hostess at 17 to becoming the CEO. of athletic greens. Yeah. That's some growth. I love evolution. I went from being on the bar naked to here I am today.

That's right. That's right. Growth. Growth. Growth. As the meme says. You know, yeah, it's fun. It's fun to look back and see how it all evolved.

Totally. Remember somebody the other day asked if you were a Hooters waitress when you said you worked in a bar without even, they didn't even have to say Hooters. They just assumed. That's okay. Nice. I love a chicken wing. I love their tights.

They have the best tights on the planet. They're head of their tights. Do you remember the tights? Oh, I remember the tights. Well, I used to try to sneak to go find those tights and they won't sell there. You know, the girls would not tell me where... This was pre-spanks, so we had to cut the feet out of them. They're so good.

We had a vending machine in the back of the restaurant for the Hooters Girls. See? The Hooters Girls wouldn't tell me. I went and I said, what tights do you guys wear? I literally drove to, like, al-cahone, which is like... I think... Yeah, because there were no lines, nothing, all the way, nude, all the way to the top. So you could wear shorter shorts.

Easy to, when you cut the feet out, they didn't roll up. These are the secrets. These are the secrets. These are the things people need to know. They tighten everything. Like, they're still the best for Halloween if you're looking for a good tight. But back in the day, they wouldn't let me go to the vending machine. We're a stingy.

I mean, I get it. They're a hot commodity. You just blew the secret off the Hooters Huitors' sites. So tell us how you go from being a Hooters hostess to being the C-O of Athletic Greens, which talk to us about how you are a Hooters hostess and now you're the CEO of Athletic Greens. What's the in-between there? There was a lot in-between. So first, I'm a child of a single parent, alcoholic father, left my dad when we were nine, raised

my two sisters. I have two younger sisters. My mom worked three jobs, vetsona food budget of $10 a week for three years. So, like, that was the pre-hooters piece. And then that led to, well, I need to work. There was no money on either side of the family. And work for me was power, learning. It was escape.

I thought if I were any work, honestly, sweeping floors, cleaning a gym, anything was a ticket to get out of what we were running from, what we were leaving. My dad, the situation, the family. And so I started working in malls when I was 15. I was cleaning gym equipment when I was 16. And layering in being a hostess was like a big deal. It was a ticket to the restaurant job. And I didn't have a dream to work in a restaurant, but I wanted to pay my bills. That was it. It was all just a way to make money and pay bills. Then I got recruited to work at Hooters out of the mall, became a hostess at 17, turned 18, started out. a waitress, as a Hooters girl, rock the orange shorts, paying my way through college, first person

in my family to get into college, was an electrical engineering, computer sciences major, and thought, that's it, I'm going to pay my way through school, I'm going to finish my engineering degrees, go to law school, and become an attorney. That was the plan. And then Hooters started growing around the world. When I was 19, I started opening franchises in Australia, in South America, in Central America. By the time I was 20, I was failing college because I was never there. I was traveling opening restaurants, so I'm a college dropout. I quit. when I was 20 years old. I took a corporate job at Hooters, moved from Jacksonville to Atlanta, and started running corporate teams as a 20-year-old. And by the time I was 26, I was vice president

of Hooters. We were doing around 800 million in annual revenue at that point. We launched an airline, terrible idea for a restaurant company especially. But we were growing internationally. We were fully vertically integrated. So we owned our own supply chain. We owned our own marketing company. And I learned unbelievable things from that, from that business and from that company. I stayed there. You have to tell us all the things you learn. All the things. What was pretty wild was that time that I was opening franchises as a 19 and 20-year-old.

I'm the leader traveling to another country where I've never been, leading a team I've never met to deliver a consistent outcome every time. A franchise with an owl serving chicken wings with the same menu, same service each time. But every time I opened one of those restaurants, some similar things went wrong. And it was the first time that I realized I am the only common denominator here. and so either things are miraculously going wrong in the same areas or I have something to do with it. Oh, accountability. That period of time, I was really young, but I mean, you said growth, so much growth because you have people who, one, half the time they don't want you there, right? You're in their country.

You're trying to teach some things. They want to do it their way. They want you out of their way. So learning to build trust with people you don't know, lead teams that you've never met, to deliver. a consistent outcome and how to modify a brand, country after country. Some things did need to change. Some of the menu, some of the music, even some of the uniforms to a degree. And we didn't have a playbook for it. We were growing so quickly, not because we were so good at it, because the opportunity was, like the brand was of the moment. It was so hot. What year did it start again?

1983. I can't remember. I can't believe I remember that number. But yeah, 1983. And so when I was there, I graduated high school in 96. So I started working at Hooters. And, you know, I started working at Hooters. in 96, 95. And so this was in the late 90s that I was traveling around the world, opening franchises. So that early period was a brutal leadership mirror. The teams would tell me right away if I was doing a good job or not. And the degree to which the restaurant performed effectively was a reflection of my abilities as an operator. So I did that 19, 20. The corporate office was growing and they said, we need someone to help build our training department. Like, go help us find more people like you and do more of what you're doing so we can grow faster around the world.

So that's what I did. And as the company grew, I grew, was there in the executive team for about six years. I was at Hooters for almost 15 years. What do you think looking back? You mentioned that it was like the same thing every time, but what are some other things that you look back on and you think really set them up for success? Can you pinpoint to some things? Yeah, the brand you mean? Hooters. I mean, they had really good chicken wings. I had great chicken wings. I thought what you went for. Every Friday. You know, part of it was the founder's story. There were these six founders who just wanted to make a restaurant and a bar, which it was never really a bar. It only had beer and wine for most of its history. Is that all they wanted to do?

Yeah. They just wanted a place that they wouldn't get kicked out of. That was it. Maybe a little I can't be too. Their own spot. Yeah. And I remember one of the founders said something like socially acceptable sex appeal and chicken wings and sports are never going to go out of style. And so that was their founding ethos.

They started in Clearwater, Florida, opened up a beach shack. People loved the wings. They loved other things as well. And the business grew. And when I joined, it was in the peak. And so we were growing all over the world. And as I mentioned, we had all these different businesses. So we had the Hooters Hoolabal, which was a football, a football playoff tournament.

We had the Hooters NGA tour, which was a golf tour that was a couple of tiers down from the PGA. We called it the Non-Golfer's association. Doesn't John Daly have a few of the fans? John Daly was one of our, like, we sponsored him. So back in the day, I can't believe it was so long ago, but it was a blast being a hooters girl. But I was actually rocking the orange shorts not for very long because I moved up into management and started helping to grow and run the company. But I learned a lot about customer service, of course. I mean, when you work in the service industry, I'll never forget those lessons.

You have such proximity to the customer and your impact on it. Like the food's not good, people tell you. in a casual dining restaurant, at least then, you know, it was the only place where you earned tips. And so your tip was a reflection of not just, you know, as the energy great, did we have fun? Did the drinks come on time? But was the food good. And even though it was hooters, yes, people actually cared and tipped about the quality of the food. And so being an employee, I was so aware that the work the cooks do, the work I do, the bartender, all leads to my compensation. And so that I will never unlearn the lesson of there is a role that everyone plays in a business to the customer's

experience and their experience is what pays everyone's bills. It's such an obvious lesson in a restaurant. It's a little different when you're in different types of businesses where the founders or the team are farther away from the customer, very different from running a large-scaling D to C business with a single product. So that was the Hooters chapter, was there for almost 15 years, loved it, then got recruited to become the president of Cineban. and turn it around out of the heart of the recession. How fun. It was, I mean, I was such a fan girl.

I've been a fan girl of every brand I've ever run. I am chief fan girl of AG1. I was a customer before I ever helped Chris Ashton, the founder as an advisor, and I was a customer before I joined. And I was such a fan of Cinebond. I grew up going to malls, and I worked in malls, and I loved that smell.

And so to have the opportunity, my first president role, I was 31 years old, to turn around this business. That was in a lot of trouble. What happened to them were they in trouble? So the brand was beloved. It's iconic, right?

You think that I mean, nostalgic. Yeah, nostalgic. Like hot dog on a stick. It is hot. It's like hot dog on stick. And I think the unaided awareness was something in the realm of 94, 95%. That's like Coca-Cola, Nike, right? The recall, at least in North America and in particular in the Middle East, it's just a

known brand. And so the brand was beloved, but the business model was fundamentally broken. One, it was only in malls and airports at that. the time, while traffic had only slightly begun to decline, but that was an issue. How many times would you go to a mall or an airport? The average person, 1.25 times a year is the answer. So, the frequency of use of the product was one time a year. So you're relying on all this unique foot traffic. It's why we had to be in high traffic venues, because it's an indulgence. It's definitely not meant for every day. And so the model itself had not evolved. The format

where it showed up, there was no presence of it in grocery. which is something we changed, and they had not invested in innovation. While when I joined, there are all these concepts popping up, like baked by Melissa and these super cute little cupcakes and sprinkles and sweet portable, smaller. Bunt cakes, was that one? Nothing but cakes. Yeah, all these small indulgences, yet Cineban was a bit stuck not only in the past, but a bit full of itself in the way that the franchisees and the brands, but we're known for the big cinnamon roll. If we do small things, we'll be just like everyone else. And it can be a bit of a founder's dilemma or a leader's dilemma in the tension between

protecting what you're known for and evolving enough to stay relevant and contemporary. Like, what got you here is not always going to be what got you there. So part of what was wrong is the business hadn't innovated in its format where it showed up or the types of product that it sold. And so very quickly, I just started spending time with employees and franchisees. and customers, and I ask three questions to everyone. What's one thing we should stop doing to make the business better? What's one thing we should start doing to make the business better? And what's one thing you would do differently if you or me? And I asked that question. I still today,

I ask that of team members. Oh my God, I'm writing it down. That's such a good one. It's so interesting. And sometimes the way I would ask it wouldn't be that literal. So at Cinebond, when I joined, when I wanted to know what we should stop doing, the reason I asked that question is the private equity firm was not excited about continuing to money into a business that was struggling. So I had to find my own money. I had to find pennies in the P&L to reinvest in the business, to help the franchisees. So how do you do that? You stop doing some stuff. It's so rare as humans that we stop do. We like and, and, and, like, next, next. And then the team's like, we have no time. We have no capacity. We have no resources. So I asked

what we should stop doing. The way I asked that is tell me what we're throwing away. So I actually didn't ask all the employees, what should we stop? Some I did, but I asked a more literal question. What do you throw away? What do we make you make that doesn't get used? Those are things we could stop doing, and it probably isn't going to hurt anyone. That a great question. There's an author, I think it was Morgan Houseland's new book, but maybe somebody else,

and I probably will fuck this up. But he was saying that human beings in general perceive taking away things or subtracting things as a negative. It's a negative, even if it's a good thing. Like, I'm going to take toxic relationships. Anytime they think that you're removing something, we just subconsciously view it as negative. And we view adding things as a positive. That's right.

And so in business, a lot of times it's like, you might need to take away things or any, and not just in business, but there's this conception in our minds like, oh, anytime you take something away, it's not good. That's right. And it can be used as a very powerful incentive as well. If someone starts with a, I think compensation systems, they start with a bonus structure. and you have this much to earn. But if these things aren't hit, it actually goes down. You're losing potential from a compensation perspective.

So what were they throwing away? So excellent question. I'm dying to know. So there were some areas where they were throwing away things that were operating materials. So we had moved to digital learning. Again, this was a little while ago. We had moved to digital learning, but we were still requiring them to have paper manuals. And so they would just pull it out when the corporate team would come in and do the audit.

so they passed the audit, but the reality wasn't, wasn't necessary. So here we are asking franchisees to pay for things that they're not using, to take up shelf space that should be holding something else that's more valuable. So there were internal things we had not stopped doing long after they were no longer relevant to the business. But customers were throwing away pieces of the giant cinnamon roll. I know, it's heresy, but that is what every single employee told me. People are throwing away pieces of the cinnamon roll now. They didn't used to. So that was answer one. Then when I asked the opposite question, which is what should we start doing, the way I asked that question was tell me when we say no. When do we say no to customers consistently? Why would we be saying no to customers in

Poughkeepsie, in Indiana, in New York, totally different places, totally different customers? Why would we be saying no to the same thing over and over? Because customers are clearly telling us they expect something. Why would customers start expect something? The market is changing, but they believe we should be doing it. What were we saying no to? Smaller portions. I was just going to say, I want a skinny cinnamon roll, like a little, I want like a little, a cuteest. A cute little little bite. Yes, the little kiss of cinnabond. Re bite rule, dessert. That's what I want. Yes, Queen. That makes sense. Okay, so what happened? This is it. So now you triangulate these answers as well as the third, which is just supposed to help prioritize. Tell me one thing you would do differently

if you were me. So I'm asking hourly employees, if you were the president, what's one thing you would do differently? Franchisees, tell me one. And of course, some people are like, pay me a million dollars. You're looking for the patterns, themes. And the reality is in most companies, employees and customers have a good chunk of the answers you need to drive innovation. Not all of them, but a good bit. And that then began the march to the minibon. We launched a smaller cinnamon roll. But when I went to the franchisees and said, it is so clear we need a smaller cinnamon roll. They fought me, and some of them threatened to sue if I forced them to sell a smaller cinnamon roll. Which seems wild. Who has a greater incentive for economic prosperity, revenue growth,

than a franchisee that has their life savings invested? You would think these would be the people threatening to sue me if they couldn't sell a smaller cinnamon roll. But they were, three things were true. One, they were already in a declining revenue situation. because of the recession. This was the great recession. They didn't want it to get worse. And so, exactly. And so in a recession, there are two things people stop or slow down doing, shopping and traveling. We were only located in shopping and traveling venues. So the foot traffic was just declining, not because of the retail apocalypse or e-commerce. That wasn't even

like the thing at scale at that point. It was discretionary income. People didn't have money. They didn't have jobs. They were scared. They stopped buying bottled water. They stopped adding on drinks at restaurants, because they had at home, like, this is just what happens in these periods. And so the franchisees were so scared because their revenue was already lower that if I made them sell something that was $2 instead of five, that customers who were, the few customers left who were spending five were going to trade down. So they were afraid of further decline of revenue. Now, anyone who knows behavioral economics understands that in human psychology, when we have a lower entrance point to something, we're more likely to try. We're more likely to a

experiment and if the product's good, we're more likely to buy more or add on things because it's a lower price point. But they weren't thinking logically and they're small business owners. They were just scared. Many of them had big, big back-due rent bills to mall landlords and they were scared. So I had to appreciate their situation while still having the responsibility to help them do what was right for the business, which absolutely was launch a smaller center mineral. So then I did when any good leader should do when you're trying to drive change, but people resist it. One, I found a coalition of the willing. There were some people who were interested, whether they were younger franchisees or people who'd been around and just were more curious. I confronted reality, hey, like folks, if we keep doing

what we're doing, I can't predict the turn. There will be a turnaround. Recessions don't last forever, just like boom times don't, but I don't know when. So we have to kind of take things into our own hands. And a lower price point is actually going to create more trial and more frequency. instead of what these folks were doing, which was they were not only scared and not innovating, they were raising the prices of the cinnamon roll. And so I made this joke, which wasn't funny, but it was meant to illustrate the point. You guys are raising prices so much that you're eventually going to be selling one $10,000 cinnamon roll to your last customer, right, that comes in. This idea of helping them see the reality, getting on the same page, finding the coalition of

the willing. I found a few franchisees who were not only interested, the co-founder of Cineban, a father-son duo, rich and Greg Coleman. This is Greg Coleman, amazing human. I went into his restaurant. He was already selling small cinnamon rolls. It just wasn't approved by the company. It was like basically being shielded or hidden again when corporate would come in. He had been making a ton of money by selling different sizes of cinnamon rolls. And so had a few other franchisees, but the previous leaders didn't look at it that way. It was compliance and we're a one brand and we need to do the same thing that we've always done. And so, again, the answers were already in the system. And so saying, here's what the customers are saying. We can't keep doing what we're doing. Let's try this. Here's a few people who are already trying it. You few people who are already trying it help me convince the other franchisees because they don't want to hear some corporate new person coming in. Like, they want to hear from you. We rolled it out. The minibon, as traffic started to come back, essentially turned around the revenue of the business. Quick break to talk to the parents out there ever since Lauren and I had children.

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Go now to the letter A, the number two platinum.com slash skinny. that's A2 Platinum.com slash skinny. Enjoy. I found out on an episode with Max Lugavir that a lot of the pots and pans that we are cooking in have toxins in them. So I found a product that was made without any toxic materials like PFSA, PTFE, and PFA, and any of those other hard-to-prounce chemicals. And the brand I came across because I wanted something that was beautiful was care away. First of all, all these pots are absolutely stunning. Like you want them out on your stove. They have like a naturally sleek surface. So you don't need a lot of oil or butter to cook. I'll cook my kids' eggs on them all

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exclusive for our listeners only, so visit carawayhome.com slash skinny or use code skinny at checkout. Carraway, non-toxic cookware made modern. One way that I've found to get more protein into my diet is after I heavy lift in the gym, I'll come home and I'll take a scoop of protein and I'll just froth it in water and drink it down. But I was trying to find a protein powder that didn't have that chalky, like heavy aftertaste, especially because I, putting it into water. And I wanted something that had a lot of protein in it too. And I wanted a grass-fed protein. So inter-clean simple eats. This protein is so creamy and smooth that I don't mind at all drinking it in water frothed up. They have this flavor. It's called like simply vanilla.

And it tastes like ice cream. And I went to look at how like TikTok does this protein. It's blowing up. And I'm not surprised at all because it's truly one of the best tasting grass-fed proteins I've ever had. They have 26 delicious all-natural flavors. So if you're not a vanilla fan, you can check out their coconut cream, mint chocolate cookie. They even have a German chocolate cake. One thing that I really like about Clean Simple Eats specifically is they have a high ingredient standard. So their protein is always grass-fed. You always want to get a grass-fed protein if you can.

and theirs has no artificial ingredients. It's third party tested. It's non-GMO. It's gluten-free. Visit clean, simpleeats.com, and use code skinny at checkout for 20% off your first order. That's clean, simpleeats.com, code skinny, for 20% off your first order. I think in any business or even just in life in general, when things get tough,

we get in this like paralysis and you just kind of stop looking for the areas. You're right over there? For areas of improving. You're just like, I'm just going to stay on this path. And sometimes, you know, like I was just talking to. a friend of mine and I was like, listen, if you stay, he's working on something. I was like, if you stay on this path, even though you're kind of stable right now, like, if you fast forward but if you don't make a change, like it's not going to get better. Yeah. But just when you're in

those tough moments, you can't. I think that it's like even being in a bad relationship, you're like, this isn't going to work, but you're not willing to look at what you need to change. It's so tough. It's so true in relationships. I mean, I remember I was in an 11 year relationship before I met my husband, not married. But there was just a period of time where it was good. It was like, good. And then different things happened that made me wonder or think, could it be awesome? Should it be awesome? Do I deserve better?

Am I an asshole for questioning this? Like, you just get in your head and you can get yourself stuck in something that maybe isn't terrible, because terrible often is at least bad enough to motivate change. It's that squishy, mediocre middle that people can get stuck and not actually realize what they're worth. You really know how to ask the right question. How did you know how to do that? Is that innate? Probably a little bit of nature, but I don't think you can remove my time opening restaurants

around the world as a teenager and get the same question-asking outcome. Because I was so new at everything. Half the time I didn't speak the language where I was leading openings. And so I didn't have the answers. Like having the right questions is more important than having the right answers, having the right questions and then creating a culture where people feel comfortable telling you the truth or where you're honest enough with yourself to tell the truth and then acting on it, this ask, answer, act. That became my superpower. Ask, answer, act. When I'm in Argentina, I'm going to ask this

question. I'm going to do everything I can to get the honest answers. And I have people tell me what they think I want to hear, which certainly happens in some situations and cultures, and then act on it. And then do it again and again and again. Do you ask to their face or do you do a questionnaire and have them turn it in anonymously. That is an excellent question. Also, you are great. You are a great question asker. I'm taking 20 notes on this. I want to do this. So all the things. I've viewed this as this idea of checking in. I, for whatever reason, since I was a little girl, I was scared of not knowing the truth. Like, I want to really know what's going on. It might have been the situation with my dad and how that all came to be and leaving my dad. And I knew it for, I knew it was bad for a long time,

but it took a while for my mom because we were so poor on both sides of our family to get up the courage to figure it out and leave. And when she came to me when I was nine years old and said, that's it, I'm done, we're leaving. It sounds like there was just no certainty. That's right. And as a nine-year-old, I didn't cry and I didn't get upset. I looked at her and thought, what took you so long? At the age of nine. And the lesson in that is that people who are closest to the action, which is why I ask employees all these questions. People who are closest to the action know what the right thing to do is long before the leader takes the step. They don't know, they don't have the language to articulate the problem or the solution completely and they don't

have the authority to do something about it like we do, but they have a piece. And if you get really good. Just like how you were as a kid. Yes. Totally makes sense how you came to that conclusion. You knew what the answer was the whole time, but you just couldn't maybe articulate it. Yeah, and I couldn't pack us up and leave and help my mom figure out how to feed us on a food budget of $10 a week. And so now it's just the way I've come to navigate the world just asking, I want to know. And I really want to know, no, no. I remember when I was at the head of training at Hooters, it was a VP of training, and I used to all these management workshops. And I know this is going to sound a tiny bit creepy. And I assure you it's not. We love creepy. Creep us out. It was like a little bit creepy. Maybe a little. But when I would go on the breaks, I would go into the bathroom to use the restroom. But I would stay in the stall longer and listen to what people were saying. about the class, exactly. And I would never use it against them, right? I would never be like, I heard you. I really wanted to know the true truth. And they would say sometimes small things.

And of course, I'm only hearing the female point of view. This is when there was the more single gender restroom in general. But I was like, oh, the music's too loud. Oh, the speaker's annoying. Oh, we ran out of snacks in the back. Like just all these insights. Because if they can't focus, they're not going to learn. If they don't learn, I don't have the business impact, therefore I'm not doing my job. And I felt the same way when I was leading Hooters, girls, and cooks. Like if they don't have coffee, if they're hungry, they're not going to focus. If they don't get a break, they're not going to be able to have fun. You're just always thinking about what really matters is them. What really matters is their experience. And so what I really need to know is anything that could remove friction or anything that could solve problems. That is at least within my control. There was, sometimes be times I would hear things that were not in my control or maybe that I couldn't change. Like what? It might be a complaint about the layout of a restaurant. So inefficient restaurant, we remodeled an existing location that was previously something else and it's super annoying to have to walk around

this booth. Or there might have been a manager that at that point I wasn't in a position to hire and fire the managers directly. And, or the... there was a choice of technology that people didn't agree with. And this has gone on far beyond then. So I learned that in asking questions and getting these insights, just like you said, it's a constant focus group, I can either fix it and make things better, which is awesome. I can have a conversation about it to at least let the air out of the thought balloon and not have them be emotionally weighed down or intellectually distracted or have a conversation about business. and realities. And hey, you've, you know, said you disagree with this or you don't know why we can't do

X. I actually want to explain it to you. And you know what? Obviously, I didn't do a good enough job explaining why this is the way that it is. So let me explain it. And so sometimes I would get those insights from over, what is it, eavesdropping through the restroom stall doors. But there would be other times that I would ask to your point. So one of my favorite tactics or frameworks is called MMDD log, made my day difficult log. So you just ask all your team members at the end of every day, put one thing that made your day difficult.

Just one. Carson, what's making your day difficult? Me coughing. Probably that. And so you get however many people you have on a shift or on your team, 10, 20, 200 to put one thing and you look for the patterns

and then fix the top one thing. Then look at the list and go, ooh, there's an interesting conversation to have here with the team to help them start to understand that what's your top thing is not your top thing, to empathize with management. Like we can't make everyone happy all the time. And so here's why we're going to tackle this issue or this request.

So the MMDD log made my day difficult is something I've used for over 20 years when I take on a new team, implement a new technology, launch a new, the more new, the more I want to know the insight. Less change, maybe made my week difficult or made my month difficult. ask the question, get the answers, act on it. Are they writing this down every day and then presenting it at the end of the week? How is it from a tactical standpoint? So in the restaurants, the way it worked, it was a clipboard.

And so they would write before they left. And then I would look at the end of the shift. And then the next day, I would tell people what we fixed or have the conversation about things that maybe we didn't have the money to fix or that we needed to wait until something else came in order to fix. It usually was a lot of fixing stuff. Every once in a while, they'd put someone's name there. what made your day difficult? The main takeaway is maybe I should start hiding out in the bathroom. Maybe I'll just start posting up in there.

And would they actually write their name? Are they like, Sally? This is what made my day difficult. No. Sometimes. Sometimes they would write their name and own it. I never always said it could be anonymous if you wanted. But sometimes what was making their day difficult was another person on the shift.

So if I saw that name coming up over and over, which is a little awkward. But you just, wow, okay, this is coming up. I need to at least look into it and have a conversation. But it wasn't usually people. It was normally something we did have control over. What's the hot shot rule? Is that the same? No, very different.

So all of this is a form of Ask Answer Act. So asking questions is checking in with team members, just check-ins, right? I do check-ins. Those questions I was mentioning, those three questions. The MMD-D-Log made my day difficult is another way to ask, answer, and then act. The Hot-shot rule is very different. that it is a self-coaching exercise. So when I was growing up in the corporate world, you know, I worked for Hooters. And while I had many mentors in that company, obviously, you don't have a

career like mine without people who believe in you. It was really hard to get mentors outside the company because I, like child of a single parent, alcoholic father, college dropout, worked at Hooters my whole life. I'm not exactly on paper at the top of the list of what some bigwig executive wants to invest in. So I developed two approaches to help myself get better. better. One was mentoring moments instead of mentors. It was really hard for me to get formal mentors, but I could go up to anyone and in five minutes say, I heard you were good at this. I'd love to ask you one question about it. Can I buy you coffee? Can we chat really quick? And I would make it brief, short, mentoring moments. And I was just colored and flooded by all these people's experiences.

An assistant, a coordinator, a manager, a customer, someone I read about in a newspaper. At a minimum, people are flattered. But most of the time, they'll take a few minutes. if you respect their time. So I just had a million mini mentors, it felt like. Some of those people I had lots of conversations with and it turned into what looks more like a typical mentor because we developed a relationship. So that was my way of getting perspective and coaching out of people. But then I needed to do it myself. So the hot shot rule is simply this. I envision someone I admire anyone. So for this, I'll envision you guys. And I envision you and my seat tomorrow. I am gone. You have my Slack, my whole team at AG, living all over the world in

different time zones, our current business, our current economics, our current customers, everything. You just inherit it tomorrow. And then I ask myself, so I'm literally picturing you, holding my team meeting and going WTF and looking in my Slack and thinking, what was she doing? And I ask myself, what is one thing, just one? And the first thing that you would do differently to make the business better. And for whatever reason, it comes to mind immediately. And is that because, is that typically maybe manifesting in an area where, I don't know, like say there's something you need to improve on, but for whatever reason, it's difficult and you don't want to do it, but you know a person you admire would make that tough decision. Is that?

Yes. It's that. It is the fact that we know, we know, we know what we need to do. Like, we know. Maybe it's because employees have been telling me, but I've just brushed it off. or the reality is we're all blinded by our own progress. Like the problems I navigate today don't feel as major as the ones long ago, of course, because we've progressed as a company. We've progressed as a team. And so this idea that if I look at the reality I know, but through the eyes of someone who is fresh to your point, but who I respect.

So I don't use it to make myself feel small or unworthy or like, I'm terrible. I suck. You know, they can do it so much better than me. It's a tool, not a weapon, which is a very important note. It's used to inspire and it's used to remind. Like, this is something I should have done a week ago. So the ask is, what would someone I admire do in my seat? The answer comes to mind because it's a self-exercise. And then the act is I put whatever the answer is in motion immediately, immediately. Now, if I can't, if I can't do it completely, like it has to involve other people, I at least schedule the meeting, book the flight. I put it, the point is action. I put it in motion. I feel like this, this kind of, it applies to more than just your career or business. I have practiced, so I practiced the hot shot rule every Sunday. I used to do it quarterly and it was so powerful that it moved to monthly fairly quickly. And now it's every Sunday. I mean, it became Sundays because that was a time where I had a window and both my kids for a tiny, tiny minute had a similar nap window. Sadly, RIP, the naps are gone.

He has a four and six year old. Yes, four and six year old. No more naps. Like a similar demo we're so a little behind you. It's a wild time. It's a wild time. But that was my time. It only takes a few minutes. You just need a quiet space. For me, it's...

What's a quiet space? Exactly. What is a quiet space? Because even if you don't hear the sound, you hear the sound. And when you do hear a sound, you think it's the sound that it's not. Everything sounds like a crying child. So I do this every Sunday. But what is most important about this exercise is not just...

taking the action. It is telling the people involved. I practice the hot shot rule. Or you can just say I was thinking. You don't have to say the hot shot rule. I was thinking. If one of you were in my seat, this is something you would take action on. I should have done it. It's in motion. It builds a culture of vulnerability because it tells the team, I know there is always a list of things I could have and should have done that I haven't. But I don't let that get in my way. It doesn't make me feel small. It just motivates me to do one more thing that I wouldn't have otherwise done. And I want you all to do that too. And so it builds a culture throughout the company of reflection, use the word accountability. It is a ton of accountability. It is believing I can always do more, but I'm not going to pile an

unrealistic list on myself. It's one more thing through the lens of someone I respect and admire. Sometimes when I practice the hot shot rule, I don't do it for my role in business, to your point. I practice the hot shot rule as a daughter. Both my parents are still living. I'm very lucky. Did you repair with your dad? Yes. He did. I supported him financially for many years and then cut him off. And that was incredibly difficult for me. It was actually over the holidays one year. Did he ever get sober? He did. He got much, much worse before he got better, had to get put in jail, stole his parents' life savings, which I think was like $3,000 or something through check fraud and was arrested. His parents

called the cops on him. And then he was put in a recovery program that helped get him sober. And he's been sober ever since. And but long road, man. long road, late road, and a road he needed to take. And I wouldn't be where I am without all that shit. It's just, it's fueled so much in me. It's really beautiful. And how great that he's still on this earth. Well, it's awesome too, that you can have that perspective. Yeah. People don't get to a place where they can have that perspective. Yeah. It's powerful. And sometimes things like the hot shot rule or any form of reflection can help this come up. So let's say I'm thinking of the hot shot rule of my role as a daughter. And what would someone who has lost their parents do if they were. me and still had their parent alive. Sometimes the action I take is just calling my mom and I wouldn't have otherwise. Just calling her, what are you doing? You know, how's my stepdad's health? How's my,

you know, what have you heard from my sister? Like, how are things? Just that. It just helps me be a better daughter. I practice it as a partner and wife to my husband. Sometimes the hot shot rule is what would someone do if they had my husband. None of us are perfect, but. Lord, what would someone do if they had me as their husband? Or if they had, Lauren as their wife. Put yourself up with your other shoes, Lauren. Yeah, what would someone do if they had me as a wife? That's right. Yeah, maybe a lucky man. And so it's just these moments of deep, deep, sometimes gratitude, a lot of times responsibility. And shifting the, oh, I have to. I'm dreading that thing to I get to. Like, I get to. What's an example of a business one? So a business one, I mean, that's most of what I practice. So there was one in particular, for whatever reason, it's,

stands out to me when I was group president at Focus Brands. So I eventually left Hooters, became president of Sinebond, turned around Sinebond, then became group president of the parent company, Focus Brands, billions in annual revenue, eight brands, 7,000 locations, 80 countries, like big, big, mass market businesses. I was managing nine presidents who were managing these businesses. A lot of ego, too. Ego and brands in different places. But I was also blinded by my own progress. And there was one particular Sunday that I practiced the hot shot rule. And it was interesting. I used one of my franchisees as the person I admired was one of my Jamba Juice franchisees. And a guy named Dave Peacock, who I'm still dear friends with today. And there was something going on with one of the franchisees

in the system. And I thought, if Dave were in my seat, if he knew he was our largest franchisee, had some of the best operations, if he knew. what this other franchisee was doing, which is essentially not honoring the brand, not honoring the business, not living up to the commitments and promise. But I had, you know, he had a tough personal time and we had given him excuses and he fell on hard financial times and blah, blah, blah. And for whatever reason, I envisioned Dave in my role and Dave's how much he poured into this business. What an incredible leader and operator he and his teams were. I was like, if he were in my seat, he would call that to the carpet right away. It would not be allowed. There would be no excuses.

we've done everything we could, that franchisee needs to get out of the system. I scheduled the meeting, I booked the flight, I flew, we met with the franchisee and began their exit out of the system. And I would have probably let that drag on for six months. Was it the end of the world that we hadn't addressed it? No, but that's not my bar. My bar's not like, oh, it's not hurting anyone, or it's not, it's like, I'm in a seat. I'm taking up a physical space. People are paying me to do a job. I'm taking time away from my family to do this. Like, I should be the best. I should be continuing to grow and improve. Either I do that or my work is done here and I need to go somewhere else if I'm not called. How else do you grow and improve? You're so busy. You have two children, four and six. You're married. I mean, it's a lot. How do you work on yourself? One, spending time with my husband and kids. My kids are such a mirror. A mirror of energy, a mirror of work. words, a mirror of activities. Sometimes they are my greatest affirmation in the tiniest ways. My husband and I were just freezing in Atlanta right now like it is everywhere. And my husband and

I were outside and our son, Ocean, who's six, has seen us, you know, son a coal plunge workout since he was little. So he gets in the pool and it's freezing. The pool is 41 degrees and it's 36 degrees outside on this day. It's much colder today. And he's like, I'm going to get in. And he just stood there. And his little voice, he's going, ooh, oh, oh. It's adorable. I posted it on Instagram, just to give people some joy. But he stood there. And he goes, I'm going to stand in here for 30 seconds. One, two, three. And his little legs were so red. 30 seconds. Made it all the way to 30. And it was just this moment like he's watching. You know, they're watching. And we go in the gym and he does this is little pseudo plank, it's not really a plank, and those moments of pride instead of like

mom guilt, like I'm taking time away from playing with them, even though I only had 30 minutes, because I'm going to go to the gym. And sometimes that's the answer. Or I'm not going to do that. I'm going to steal time away from here so I can spend time with them. So for me, working on myself is insane rigor in my morning habits. The morning is the only thing I can control. That is it. Everything, I mean, truly purely in the sense of control. I can shape and control. I can shape and control much in my world and in our business, but truly something that can be a beacon of ritual is my morning. What's your ritual? Okay. So you came to the right podcast. I love it. So I get up before my kids, about 30 minutes before my kids. Arrow, our four-year-old is in our early wake mode right now,

so I'm often have a friend. But usually it's my quiet time. It's my, my morning. And when I think of other humans. I think of like your morning. Like you are so worth some time. Find some time. And so for me, it's the morning. And I get up around 5.30. I get dressed. I go like usually my a athlete leisure for most of the day. We're a fully remote company. So I'm kind of in that like to win it for the rest of the day. Go downstairs. Make my AG1 cold water, scoop of AG1. Take my omega three's. take my D3K to stretch while that's sort of like working and then go cold plunge and work out almost every day. Wow.

Which one do you have? And the plunge, Excel. It's a little loud. Yeah. I feel like cold plunge sauna is like the new car. How the car used to be 20 years ago. Oh, what car do you drive? It is.

They came out with a new one that's quieter. And now people are like, well, what sauna do you have? What cold flint is right? Clear lights sonnas and not sponsored, by the way. Yeah. If you don't post about it, you really did. Exactly. So that's my morning.

That sounds like a lot. And it is a privilege to be able to do that. It's now in my basement. I think it sounds like a lot to people who have never done it. It's 25 minutes. Yeah, yeah. It's short. That whole routine I just described is 25 minutes.

I'm talking quick cold plunge, like three, four minutes, 40 degrees. And my regular morning just one because the kids will be getting up soon. It's also freezing where you are. So, geez. And then quick workout, not long. I mean, I'm talking 15 to 20 minutes, but I know I'm going to get that in. If my kids are sleeping a little later, then I'll keep going and do a little extra. But then if I have time, sometimes my husband and I, because he's an ultra-endurance athlete,

he has to do his training, will tag team. So I'll say, I want to do my routine this morning. Can you cover the kids' breakfast? Even though I don't like missing that even if he can cover. I try to get back up. So breakfast is ready. I'm sitting with them. He comes in.

That's our little family time, our 45 minutes of overlapping time before we have to get them to their little school. if I can, I'll sauna after I work out, and then that'll be the morning. That'll be the routine. But I'll say about 25% of the time, one of those pieces is pretty radically disrupted just for whatever reason, something going on in the house, the kids, my husband's traveling, whatever's happening. And so I break it into pieces. And then some days, I don't do it. And it's fine. It's kind of like 80-20. Like you just, you want to set the non-negotiables up. And if you get it a little bit every single day, at least it's something. It's better than nothing. That's right. It's like this, it's a tool, not a weapon. If these habits start to feel like burden and, you know, something you're

fighting and regretting and struggling with, it's, it's okay to have a little bit of struggle, but the idea of not having it be able to be ritualized, which is why I love little things, like AG1, one scoop, one minute, that's it. That's a pretty powerful first thing. Like the most powerful thing you can do for your health in 60 seconds is drink AG1. So that helps me own my morning. The reason I like AG1 too in my morning is like you feel like it's like 20 habit stacks into one. Totally is. It's like you get your, oh, now you're coughing. You get your, should I start to? Jesus. You get your greens. You get your vitamins. You get your probiotics. You get your prebiotics. All in the shake. And you're hydrating. All in one. So it's a habit stack. It's a habit stack. And if you start your

day with something that healthy on your palate, at least for me, and most people I've talked to, you're less likely to, like, smash a donut. The number one wellness trick that has changed my mornings and my life is dry brushing. It's one of those things that you do and you just notice the benefits right away. So I decided to set out to launch the best, most superior, prettiest, most effective dry brush on the market. And voila, we have the skinny confidential butterbrush. How I use, use this is so specific, it's annoying. What I do is I try to wake up before my kids and I do like a five minute situation. I'll use the dry brush on my body like dry. So get naked and use it in the bathroom brushing up under the heart and down over the heart. Then after I'm done dry brushing,

I'll get in a freezing cold three minute shower. It is like a shot of three expressos without the come down. I cannot say enough good things. It is Michael's favorite. It is Michael's favorite tool. He's so addicted to it. He's always using it. It's honestly incredible. And it's one of the only dry brushes on the market that doesn't collect mold. I've tried every single one on the planet. And most of my wooden dry brushes had all this like mold on it. This one's silicone. It's lilac. It's pretty. It has a little thing to hang on a hook. So you don't have to just like put it in your shower and let it collect all that water. I really tried to fix every single pain point when it came to dry brushing, and I'm so proud of it. You can now shop it now at shop skinny confidential.com.

That is shop skinny confidential.com. Use code butter for 15% off. Cheers, Lauren, to dry January. We're here. We're cheerful. And that's because even though we're not having alcohol for the next month or so, we can still enjoy an ice cold hyniquin with 100% of that hynican taste that you love. Zero point zero percent alcohol, though. That's right, Michael. Heineken Zero-Zero is an alcohol-free option to the original Heineken that you love. And let me tell you, it is absolutely delicious. A hundred percent taste, but 0.0% alcohol. If you're trying to stick with Try January, but you still want to be social, still want to feel that beer in your hand, I highly suggest that you try Heineken Zero-Zero. It's the perfect way to give up drinking without giving up drinking, if you know what I mean.

It's perfect for all the times that you want a beer. but you can't have the alcohol. So you could do it after a workout. I know I'm having a birthday party for Zaza next week. I am going to have it there with my tamales and chips and salsa. If you're having a birthday party and you still want to just like hold something in your hand, Heineken Zero Zero is truly perfect for this. I like it out of a bottle because it has that beer feeling,

but I also wouldn't mind it over ice with a little rim of spicy salt. Heineken Zero 100% taste, 0.0 alcohol, and you should know this, only 69 calories. Wow. Now you can. Click the link in the show notes to buy now. You must be 21 plus to purchase. Please enjoy Heineken responsibly. That's Heineken 0.00. 100% taste, 0% alcohol. Michael and I have launched a newsletter. It is a him and her newsletter. And what you're going to get is once a week in your inbox, you're going to get five tips from each of us. so you'll get five tips from him and five tips from her. They're tips on sex, relationships, finances, and Michael gives some good tips.

Books, ideas, ways to habit stack, our favorite products all in one email. I actually like read the newsletter too and learn so much about Michael because I don't get to see him like write it out. So I will write mine out and then I won't see his until the newsletter goes live and I've learned so much from just reading our newsletter. We also do a monthly favorite. So you're going to get a monthly favorite in your inbox of all the things we've bought, purchased, and loved. They're things that we have actually implemented into our day, into our month, into our year. So what we tried to do is give you an extension of the podcast streamlined into your inbox.

To sign up for the newsletter, go to tccpodcast.com, and you will get the him and her newsletter straight to your inbox. Enjoy. I would like to know when you. transitioned from what you were working on to AG1, what did that look like? Did they poach you? No. So I was working at Focus Brands for a decade. Started as the president of Cinebond, turned that business around. Part of the way we turned the business around was not only what I mentioned, the minibon, innovation, just becoming more contemporary as a franchise, but also getting smaller versions of the units out of them all and street side, so getting more access.

but the big turnaround was launching Cineban branded products as CPG products and grocery stores long before this was cool. And we built a multi-billion dollar CPG business in a brief number of years in that company. I didn't realize it got that big. What exact product was that? So over 100 CPG skews drove that business. Things like the Cineban flavored K-Cube, K-cup. Single skew, powerful lines. of business still in their top 10 flavors today. People would always say, do you have a fat-free

cinnabon? I'm like, yeah, Cenibon-flavored cake-up. What is cake-up? You can have that. Cake-up is the little single-serve coffee pods. You know, Cometeer. It looks like Cometeer, but not frozen. And it goes in those big machines. It was in offices and like people's homes. So, that's an example. The Cineabon, Cineubon delights these little, tiny little donuts at Taco Bell were a massive success, like home run menu item. Brands. Yes, strategic partners, strategic brands, General Mills, Taco Bell. It was a lot of like dessert items on other people's menus. International Delight coffee creamer, Cinebon Coffee Creamer, Cinebon Muffin, Cine, Cepon, Muffin, Cey, Ceyn Cepon. I mean, if it could have cinnamon and frosting flavor in it, it was a smart play because people just wanted a little taste of Cinebon. They didn't want the whole giant cinnamon roll all the time. And so these were logical line extensions, but we didn't want to own those industry sectors. We were. We were, you a franchisor, a brand builder, a maker of IP and recipes, not a manufacturer, not a grocery sales team, like that, we didn't want to own that. So we partnered with great people who did

to help bring that to life. Those revenue streams helped us reinvest in the franchise business, which helped them reinvigorate their locations after the recession. They also provided us with the level of national marketing that we could have never afforded. Like Burger King, Taco Bell, General Mills, White Wave International Delight, these companies were plowing hundreds of millions into marketing. I remember one year, the combined amount of marketing of our brand from our CPG partners was more than our annual revenue. Wow.

I mean, it was my, and then the franchisees saw the benefit. They didn't love it at first, as you can imagine. They don't want their brand in a box or in some other places. But then it started to develop this multi-channel, omni-channel branded ecosystem. That was so successful that I moved into a role. called group president at Focus Brands to bring that capability, take a restaurant brand, and extend it into other channels to all our brands. Did that for a few years, built a team, built the muscle, and then became president and COO of the whole company, which we've already talked about.

So there was a point in 2020 after I'd been there for almost 10 years where, actually end of 2019, where I thought, my work is done here. I don't want to be the CEO. I wasn't interested in signing up for another five years. The types of brands we were going to need to buy in order to drive increasing scale were just not aligned with my ethos and brands I believed in. Like we were looking at buying fried chicken brands and I really wanted us to buy sweet green. They weren't for sale, of course. But that's where my life was. That's where my passion was for a greater focus on health and wellness. And that may seem crazy as someone who ran Cinnabon. But for me, I'm like, I can see this place of indulgence and you call it what it is, an irresistening.

indulgence, don't eat it every day. It's a treat. Treat it like that. As an owner, as a marketer, as a franchisee, as a customer. Jamba Juice, we took it private. It was a publicly traded company, not doing well. We took it private, brought it into the company, slashed the sugar in half, added plant-based options, moved that brand to something that was far more relevant than it had been when we bought it. It had, it was the creator of the category, but it lost its way. We grew up on Jomba Jambu. We grew up on it, right? I was the Mango go-O-Gogo in the Caribbean Passion. Mango A go-O-Goo. You opposed to me with a Jambuja. You did? Well, it's one of the things.

Because we've known each other since we were kids. So it was one of the things I had like the stuff we liked when we were kids. See, the brand should have known this. We would have been just like singing your story. Nistologic. Shit, I probably left some dollars on the table with that one, but it's all right. So I had moments like taking Jamba private and bringing it to its more rightful, helpful place while still keeping it as this like beacon of fun and flavor that it was.

And helping other brands like Mose and McAllisters lean into their opportunity. so you could eat healthy there if you want or fun. You have a choice. So I was really proud of where we took the brands we had, how we talked about them, how we marketed them responsibly and what we did with their menu innovation. But still, as I looked forward, I'm like, I think my work here is done. And that is one of my key questions when people are like, how do you know when to leave? How do you know when to change? And one of the, like, careers or paths or relationships. And one of my questions I've developed over time is, is my work done here? Like, can I, of course, you can always, you can learn in a box. Like, you can always learn. You can always eke out some growth. But could someone else do a better job?

Could someone else be a better partner to this person? Could someone else be a better partner to me? Is our work done here? And in the, and I had asked myself that question over and over, over the years, whether it was because opportunities came my way, I was recruited, or I just had a tough couple months and thought, like, maybe I should think about something else. But over and over, the answer was no, because the next thing did come, but within that company. But eventually, there was a point at Focus Brands after 10 years where I thought my work is done here. I don't want to be the CEO. It's the only other role for me.

I don't want to run more franchises or more restaurants. I've done that since I was a child. This whole CPG experience I had had really connected me to the whole industry of CPG. And something I didn't talk a lot about at the time, but what had been happening in the background is I became an angel investor. I'm an angel investor in over 70 early stage companies. My husband, and once I met my husband, we started investing together. So I also had this side activity of supporting founders, most of whom we're building better for you, CPG businesses.

So my personal time, my personal money was going into health, wellness, nutrition, or modern brands while I was trying to force more legacy brands into a modern position. And so I realized it was just time to take a break. Yet, at the beginning of 2020, when I was supposed to leave, we got a new CEO and COVID hit. And it decimated the industry. Overnight, our revenue, billions, was gone. Just imagine you have all the expenses, all your employees, and everything just shuts down. And this is something I don't need to relive for people.

But it was quite traumatic. and I realized both because there was a new leader, and this was my family, it was like a family. I mean, even though a business is not a family, to be clear, that is my point of view. It felt like that. I had put my blood, sweat, and tears over a decade into this business. Most of the leaders in that business, I hired, developed, promoted. People who had gone on to do other great things. I helped fire them or move them into their destiny somewhere else.

I had so much pride in the people, the franchisees that I had helped either bring to the brand or become more wealthy, more profit. more successful with the brand great pride in that and so when a new leader came in I'm like I'm not going to anything I wasn't I was going to take a break I'll help him get situated no problem and then COVID hits and like he doesn't even know where the bathrooms are and it wouldn't matter if he did because the office is closed like I this is not a time to leave I'm so glad I'm here like I'm so glad it's me I am I would have been devastated watching this from the sidelines and not only did I have equity in the business that I cared about financially I had emotional equity I had like My life was in this business. So I basically signed back up for another year and led through 2020, helped us navigate the

shutdown, the reemergence, opening back up. Luckily, so much of the innovation we had put in place in the years prior paid off dividends. We were one of the earliest group of brands in third-party delivery in Uber Eats before it was a thing. We had leaned into family meals and meal kits as an alternate channel for our franchisees and some of our brands. I mean, all these things became overnight requirements for businesses that had to be shut down. We already had it. So when we opened up, we already had operating procedures, employees who know how to do it. So the revenue went through the roof because we were set up for this exact model. But once that got cruising and things were not normal, but normalizing a bit,

I helped lead another restructure of the company just to organize it for more growth, actually. And then there was just one day I woke up. I'm like, it's a full moon. I'm feeling my witchy DIPPy download that today is the day I need to talk to the CEO and tell him I'm going to leave. And I got on the phone with the new CEO and we talked a little bit about the business and said, I think my work is done. I don't think you need me anymore. I don't believe you need the role. I think you've got great people in this new structure.

And I'm ready to move on. I've actually delayed my departure. He never knew that. We didn't even say it because what was the point when he joined and the whole industry shut down? Like, who cares what my plans were? And so he's like, I'm disappointed, but I understand. I think we can, you know, navigate a beautiful transition. And we did. It felt like a retirement. And I was only 41, 42 years old. So I left after 10 years at the end of 20, at the end of 2020, a little bit into 21. I say, I'm taking a break. I'm only going

to advise, invest, work on my book on leadership, like do all the things leaders who've worked a long time. go and do. And then I got a call from a dear friend of mine who you guys just did a pod with, So He'll Bloom. I loved it. I listened to it on the airplane on the way here. And he messaged me and said, hey, I've got a friend who I've been friends with for a long time named Chris Ashton. He's the founder and CEO of Athletic Greens. He's come back to take over the company. He founded it, let it, took a little break, and came back. He heard you on a podcast around leadership and building brands. And he wants to know if I can make an introduction. Would you mind just talk? to him. So I had a conversation and added him to my advisory clients,

roles of people I was advising because I was already a customer. I was already a major, major fan. I mean, after having my second child trying to cobble together all the pills and powders and biohack my way back to like better hair, skin and nails, energy and all the things, I was tired of that pursuit. And so AG1 was this solution for simplicity to me, what was then called Athletic Greens now AG1. So I was such a fan. And, you know, when you meet someone who's the creator of something you love, it's super cool. And so I was like, yeah, I'll help you. And so we just started having weekly calls.

And I got to know him and I got to know the business. And after a few weeks, he's like, come help me build this. Just come help me build this. And I'm like, that's cute. I've run departments bigger than your whole company. Like, I don't think this is the best use of my time, nor do I know if I'm a fit for a hypergrowth, early stage business. He had bootstrapped the business at that point to 160 million an annual. revenue. That was two and a half years ago. And so, and those are the only numbers we've ever

publicly disclosed. And so I was like, I don't know, I don't know if this is right, but after a few weeks, a few more weeks of just learning more about the business, seeing how he and I work together, what an amazing human he is, learning even more about the quality of the product, the research behind the product, and seeing all the things the company wasn't doing well, that we needed to do better, that were such low-hanging fruit that it frustrated me as a customer to know that, man, we could be in so many more people's lives and homes, empowering health ownership and solving so many health needs if we could just figure out this or fix this problem. That silver lid you have was a replacement for this because when I joined the company, I was like, I'm a customer

and this thing leaks and turned out tens of thousands of people got a leaky lid. Yeah, early days sometimes you get the greener, just spray everywhere. That's right. It was like a rite of passage. But as we got bigger, it's like, that's not funny. You know, you have an obligation for a premium product to have a premium experience every morning. And so I felt myself starting to act like an owner of the company, being obsessed with leveling up the physical experience, being obsessed with leveling up the membership experience, bringing more of the research that the company had done to our customers who trusted us but didn't even know half of the things that we were doing to create that trust. And so very quickly it went from, why would I do that? it's so much smaller to, I would be crazy to not jump on this rocket ship, be with such a mission

driven organization, with a product I believe in, a founder that I think is one of the most special humans in the world, a team I can shape, a business that's still early enough in its journey that I can shape. And it wasn't just that, oh, I can help with everything they need. There were also aspects of the business that I saw I didn't know and I could learn from. I had never run a subscription business before. I had never run an exclusively D to C e-commerce business before. Is it still exclusively D-2C? Only on Drinkag1.com. So when people see it, there's like a gray market for AG1.

If you see it anywhere else, I cannot vouch. You can only get the real deal, freshest, third-party tested COAs, research back, not just on the ingredients, the whole formula, only on Drinkag1.com. If you see it anywhere else, suss. Why did you guys decide to do that? A few reasons. Chris did experiment with some marketplaces for a while and eventually pulled it off. because his focus was, I want a direct relationship with my customer. I want them to always get the best price.

No middle man. It may be premium. It'd be a lot more expensive if you had a lot of other middle layers. I want to know what they want. I want to be able to help communicate with them directly. It doesn't mean we won't ever be in other places. We will. I mean, this business is getting to a point where there is a meaningful opportunity to show up in other places at some point.

I could see you guys in like a Sephora. I know that's so weird. It's not weird. There's so much wellness there. Right. There's so much hair. beauty nails, like the reasons I take it, I could see you in a Sephora. Totally.

Since you've been on, how is it grown? We're private about our numbers, so we don't disclose those. But what I'll say is from that point, and that was the 2021 disclosure of the $160 million when we raised our first round, first and only, round of funding, $120 million at a $1.3 billion post valuation. That was the valuation two and a half years ago. And we've meaningfully grown since then. That's about all we'll say.

You know, and I'll get in trouble here, but we've been talking about it since. the athletic green days. Yeah. And it screws me out sometimes. But it's all right. We were customers first too, right? And I think you guys did such a good job getting the message out there and informing the customers myself at the time, like why this would take the place of 18 other things. And that's for me like replacement value. Yeah. When I wake up in the morning and I say that you probably heard me say the people on the show hear me say this. I like wake up if I could only do one thing and one supplement category, one thing it would be this because you get so much bang for or buck. And for me, we got two kids under four. And I have a lot of shit going on. And I want

moving fast and I want to hydrate in the morning. And so I just take one of these every single day. And it's been the routine for, what, eight years running now? And things in it that I love are the folate, the B12, the biotin, you guys have zinc, you have magnesium, you have selenium. You have like everything. But not just that. It's going to force you to hydrate as well. That's right. You know? That's a good one. We have so many, you know, customers, members, subscribers, who are like you guys like Sahil who've been on the pre-agey one, like not as sexy of a logo days. There was like a running man on the first package. If you remember, it looked like he was like missing part of a like, it was not the best graphics. It was great though. I mean, those are such cool things to look at.

But we have iterated this product 52 times since then. It's like the iPhone. We just keep upgrading. Better research ingredient available at scale. We will put that in and not increase the price over a decade. It's just if it can go in age. one and create the synergy and help with health impact, it goes in there. Well, I was so excited to have you on because it is full circle, like Michael said, and I just think that the audience is such a fan of this brand. And so to hear your whole story and how you led up to this is really, really cool. I'm hoping we can do a code in a giveaway. Well, I also think, too, the fact that you guys have stayed focused on this one, because a lot of companies with your success start to get

squirrely and all over the place. So rare. Yeah, it's like, then they go into like assayee powder and you're like, I will tell you. you, it's tempting. It's tempting because we have customers who are like, can you make this? Can you make that? We iterate on AG1. There will be some pretty fun innovations over the next few years, but we will stay laser focused. Iteration 53 will come out in the near future, and it will have even better ingredients. And so this idea of upgrading, doing the research, being on that journey, doing the hard stuff, making it taste good enough to drink every day, which is really hard, natural whole food supplement with no artificial sweeteners, no juices, no, no juices, nothing.

This is, this is an art and a science. And to do this at scale, it's tough, but we take pride in doing the tough work. So there's going to be year nine and year 10, but it just keeps getting better. I know there's a ton of different benefits, but there's so many ingredients in this, which are clean ingredients, but if you were to, like for somebody, I mean, I don't know how you can listen to this show and not be aware of it at this point, but someone's been plugging their ears on every episode. So if you were going to say like the top three benefits, you'll notice first, taking it from your perspective, being so close to the company.

What's so interesting. So we just did. A lot of companies do, will say we have quality. We do third party testing. Right. We do that. Other companies will say, well, we have research, but often it's only on the ingredients, not the finished formula. Maybe other companies will say we have trusted thought leaders. We have the trust trifecta. We have all three. And the work of all three of those has resulted. in an increasing body of research that shows not on ingredients, but on AG1 itself, the answer to your exact question. So over 30 days, over 90% of people see reduce bloating, improve digestion. So gut health, number one. Some people see it quite quickly. Like drink AG1, again, not medical advice, not a health claim, but lots of customers are like, my bowel movements are so much more regular, like smooth poop. Heck yeah. Less bloating, Michael. How's your poop? Is it smooth? Is it smooth? It's pretty smooth. Is it smooth? Do you have AG1? Ag1 smooth. I have AG1 smooth. So it's digestion. We don't want to talk too much about it. You're going to get people turned out. I'm like, ah, no more. The other one is,

people will use different words. They call it energy, but there's no caffeine in AG1. What they'll say is, I don't have the 2 p.m. slump anymore. It's it's, it's, it's B vitamins, it's coline, right? It's the, so that, so gut health and nutrients, this idea that we're leading hectic lives, our food is less nutrient dense than it once was, which all that makes the case for is supplementation. That doesn't give you the answer for AG1. But then how do you know what to take and what combination? And if you know what to take, can you actually cobble it together at the highest quality consistently and somehow stomach it every single day? Yeah, that's the thing.

It doesn't hurt your stomach. That's right. What can we do a big giveaway? Yes, I would love that. Can we do? I didn't even ask. Give away big things. Can we give away your supply?

Yes. Yes, yes, yes. That would be amazing. How many people? Two? Ten. Wow. Wow.

That is so nice. 10 people get a year supply of AG1. Yes, you just have to pick travel pack or pouch. Amazing. All you have to do is follow at Drink AG1 on Instagram and tell us your favorite takeaway of this episode on my latest Instagram at Lauren Bostic. And do we have a code? We do. Skinny. Drinkag1.com slash skinny.

What is the percentage, you guys? It is. It's not a percentage. It is free D3K2, a year's supply of D3K2. Got it. need that. Five free travel packs. I love the travel packs.

That's what I use all the time is the travel packs. I put them in my handbag. They're so good. So if you go to drinkag1.com slash skinny, you get free travel packets. You get free D3K2. I love this story. Thank you so much for coming on.

You have to come back when you guys sell. Thanks for having me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Where can everyone find you? Thank you. Tell us where we can find you.

I'm Cat Cole, ATL, almost everywhere. So Instagram, Twitter, just cats. Cole on LinkedIn. But yes, please tag me, DM me if you have questions. If people haven't tried AG1 and just want to ask questions, I love playing AG1 concierge. And if it's not something I can answer, I can get people to someone who came. Thank you, Kat. Thank you, Kat. Hope you loved this episode. Make sure you are subscribed to the Him and Her newsletter, TSCpodcast.com. And also, if you want to watch this episode, we are on YouTube now. Just search The Him and Her show. And on that note, we'll see you guys next time.