Sustainable Packaging
Industry Experts discuss all the new materials and ways that packaging can be more sustainable and how we can do our parts to help recycle and reuse. Sustainable Packaging is and will continue to affect us all in our daily lives. We have lots of fun and get down to the real data of what's working to help our planet!
Sustainable Packaging
Bro Dough CEO Erica Rankin / from weight lifter to Entrepreneur
https://eatbrodough.com/
How did Erica go from weight lifter to entrepreneur?
Why is Bro Dough a healthy snack?
Can you get Bro Dough where you live?
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-connors/
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Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors. Today's guest is Erica Rankin, the founder and CEO of BroDough . How are you, Erika? I'm good. How are you doing? Good. Thank you so much for making time for us. I'm really excited to, tell the audience about your journey and, your incredible success in this space. but let's talk a little bit about your background. How did you get from your past to where
Erica Rankin:you are now? Yeah, it's a weird journey. So, back in 2017, so I guess prior to that, I graduated high school, didn't really know what I wanted to do with myself. And my parents told me I had to go to post secondary. Otherwise, if I started working, I would get comfortable and then not want to ever go back to school. And, I guess I I'm older now. So looking back, it doesn't make a lot of sense because everyone was getting an education. Now things are different. But, so I went down the path of psychology, got my bachelor's and then I wanted to get my master's because with that degree, you can't really do much. You need to build on it and decided to take a year off and work. So I got a job in research. I worked there for about a year, but I was making minimum wage. I was working kind of crappy hours, didn't have benefits and I'm in Canada. So it'd be really great to have benefits. And, I just was doing a lot of things that I could have done. Had I not even gone to university, I was photocopying documents, answering phones, and the prerequisite was a diploma. And I thought this is really silly because anyone can do this job. Like I studied for four years for this. This is very weird. Right. So I think I just got very discouraged with how the system is built. And, So, I was trying to find interest in other areas. So I started doing personal training. I worked in a grocery store in the bakery department and my sister worked at that store. My best friend at the time worked there. Her brother worked there. Her mom worked there. Everyone I got with. and then, it got to a point where I was at my nine to five job and I stumbled across the podcast and it was an entrepreneurship podcast and I had never been exposed to that lifestyle. I didn't know that it was something that, you Was doable for me, like for someone who has no business background, no connections. My parents are not entrepreneurs. I don't know. I didn't know a single entrepreneur at the time. And it just opened up my mind to like all these new things and these possibilities. And it got to a point where, my contract came to an end and I decided, okay, I'm going to quit this job. I'm just going to use all of my savings on a trip to Southeast Asia. So I booked a trip to Asia. Good for you. And then I quit my other jobs and I went backpacking for, it was supposed to be one month and then I ended up staying for three months and I went from Thailand to Malaysia to Singapore to Indonesia and on that trip I met entrepreneurs and that was where I had the aha moment and thought okay, I met a high school dropout who had a moving company, I met, a former lawyer who was building like these immaculate properties in Thailand and selling them for exorbitant amounts of Money, and it was just like very interesting to me. And the one thing that they all had in common is that they were really passionate about what they did. And they were excited to talk about what they did. And I didn't know what I was going to do at the time. All I knew was that I wanted that. And I wanted to feel that way about what I was doing for work. I didn't want to, be excited for Fridays and dread Mondays. look at the clock every hour and go on my lunch break and doom scroll on social media with, no purpose. So, I got home and then, in 2018, I competed in bodybuilding and one thing for myself. Yeah, this is like a scattered version of the story, but I love it. This is so
Cory Connors:fascinating.
Erica Rankin:Yeah, so I competed in bodybuilding because I'm someone who needs purpose and when I was working that nine to five job, I just felt so I was like an empty shell and I'm like, I need something to keep me going and motivated and, meal prepping and going to the gym and training and challenging myself. That was something that I really enjoyed doing at the time. And I stepped on stage and I competed and then I lost myself. And then that was another reason why I booked this trip to Southeast Asia because I was just very lost. But when I was prepping for my show, I was, I had to eliminate a lot of the things that I normally ate. Like I couldn't eat sweets anymore and I had to have a very regimented diet. So I just started experimenting with different ingredients that my coach like, let me eat. And, one of the things that I made was like these little protein cookie dough bites, and I had an Instagram page called Erica foodie, and I would share every single thing that I made. I would post on there. And this one specific recipe and the pictures of the cookie dough, but it's got so much attention every time I posted it. And I never thought of making it into a business. And then I thought back, like when I got home from my trip, I remember sitting on my mom's carpet and I'm like, okay, what do I like? What am I good at? What do people? Want what would they spend their money on and then what does the market need in Canada? So those are the three questions I asked and then it just landed on the cookie dough I was like, I like it people like it and then I came up with the name bro Dough because I was very like immersed in the the fitness space and it's protein cookie dough So that's words. Everyone would joke around at the gym and be like do you even lift bro or? So I thought it was fun and I love that Yeah, that's where it all came from. And then I launched it later that year in 2019. So now we're here.
Cory Connors:Well, that's an awesome story. And I love the name Brodo. So it's so fun. And it's so unique. And I want to give you a compliment before we go too much further. You have been an inspiration to me, in social media. you have been so real, so genuine, so I think it's so unique and, I just want to tell people that are listening to make sure they follow you on your, tick tock and Instagram and social media, LinkedIn. your posts are so genuine, and that's very rare these days. So well done. Thank you. a lot. It takes a lot of guts to put yourself out there. I can, attest to that. there's a lot of pushback sometimes when we are super honest about things, but I think it's worth it in the long run to be yourself and to be genuine. So, nice job.
Erica Rankin:Yeah, thank you. I agree.
Cory Connors:I, recently spoke at PAC expo about social media and that, that was one of the things we said is be yourself. And, you'll be amazed at how, much more interest you get, you can't fake this stuff. So, well, you already answered my second question about your name of your company. I think that's so cool. your company is still pretty new. you've started in 2019. I would say I would like to know what was your number one challenge of being a startup? What was the hardest part?
Erica Rankin:Oh, gosh. operationally, I think just fully understanding like what my strengths and weaknesses are and you try to do everything because when you're a startup, you don't have the resources to hire and get help in the areas that you need help in. So you just have to figure it out on your own. And there are some things that I did because I had to it was out of necessity and I probably shouldn't have done them. But at the same time, I learned a lot in doing all of that. I had a really big, like the business has grown and that's great, whatever we have that. But I think what I'm more proud of or, take time to reflect on is like the personal growth that I've gone through throughout growing the company. Cause in 2019, December, 2019 launched the company. I really had no freaking clue what I was doing people like what my company name was, they tried googling it couldn't find it. And I'm like, Oh, what is SEO? Oh, crap. Well, I just, I have to market it. And I had my data. And one thing that I really struggled with was delegating. For two years, like over two years, I was doing everything myself and I was waking up before I am picking, packing, shipping orders and answering customer emails and managing social media and going to the kitchen for eight hours at a time. And I've had, I had the opportunity to get help, but I always turn it down because I thought, no, I can do it myself. And once I started allowing people to come in and support me, it was a complete game changer. And, I had my friend come in and help me make cookie dough in the kitchen one night and we did double the amount of jars. And I just stepped back and looked at everything and I'm like, wow, why did it take me so long to just get over, the fear of letting someone in and helping? Because it. It really did make a huge difference for the business. And from that point forward, I thought, okay, if I want to grow this thing, I have to delegate a lot of stuff because my wheels are just going to keep spinning. And I think a lot of founders have that problem. It's like founder syndrome. Like no one's scooped this cookie dough the best or screw on the latest, like everyone thinks that they're the best, they can do the best job, but you can't grow a company that way.
Cory Connors:I think you're exactly right. It's a very common, I'm guilty of the same. oh, nobody could do this the same as me. I need to do all of this. And it's, once you start, I even have my son recording me in TikToks now. And, just that difference of having someone help me is, amazing. And, so much easier. It's just, my wife helps me with a lot of the financial things. She's a, she's our CFO, it's incredible to, get help and to feel that relaxation, to feel your shoulders drop and just say, okay, we've got a team of support now and, and I think you're doing the right thing. So well done.
Erica Rankin:Yeah, thanks. Tough. Cory Connors: So you were long time and that, that was, or you couldn't ship cold chain? I'm, can you explain what happened there? you were going direct to grocery and now you've pivot, pivoted. Yeah, I have gone through a lot of changes with the business, so, you don't know what you don't know. And I, I didn't really go into this with a business mindset. I didn't think, oh, this is going to make me good money. These are going to be good margins. This is a good business model. I never looked at it that way. It was like. I really am passionate about this and I like it and people like it and it's going to work and I am not a math, like girly, like I'm not, not to fall into the stereotype, but I'm just not good at math. I'm very good at many things, but I'm not good at math, no matter how hard I try. And it is a weakness for me. And 1 thing that I struggled with was like margins and stuff. And I didn't really understand how they worked. I do now I understand now and I have an operations advisor who helps support me there, but, I remember, like shipping a perishable product and having no idea what shelf life was and food science and all that stuff. So I was making this stuff in a commercial kitchen. And I remember, so I did direct to consumer for the first two years. And that was pretty much only because I couldn't get into stores because the world flipped upside down and we had a pandemic grocery stores were closed. I was knocking on doors. I got into one store. And they shut down, they closed shop. And then I got into this other store. And, I think it was like the month after I launched and I had been a customer of this store and the owner was really kind. And she's I'll take a chance on you. We'll order. I, was bubble. I was. Spending an arm and a leg on packaging supplies, first off from Uline, which if anyone's listening, that is like the most painful thing to hear. They're very reliable, but they're so expensive. And, I had like bubble wrapped all these jars and ship them to the store and they did not unwrap them from the bubble wrap. They just put them in the fridge and then they sent them to their customers. And by the time they got to the customers, they were. Super spoiled, like crazy moldy, like they were hairy and I was getting all these pictures and this was like within two weeks of me launching the business and I was like, yeah, I remember like sitting in my apartment. And wondering, what am I going to do? This is horrible. So I had to, replace all those jars. And, then it was summertime and that was like a whole nother experience in itself is you get people who put the wrong address in and, they don't put the buzzer code or they're not home or they go away and they're at their cottage for the weekend and they come back and the product's on the porch in the sun. So, I just took a step back and thought, okay, this is really not working for me, especially as I start to grow and I get more sales, more customers, more problems. So decided to pull back and pivot into retail. And we completely stopped doing direct to consumer and just focused exclusively on retail. And, even went through a packaging change cause I had a lot of issues with my old packaging.
Cory Connors:I can relate to that. Yeah.
Erica Rankin:Yeah. So now we do just retail. however, I'm going to be launching shelf stable products that are going to be manufactured in the U S online. So we will sell online. Yeah. So that'll probably be coming like early 2024.
Cory Connors:Oh, that's exciting. Let me know when that happens. I'll be your first customer. Right. We love cookie dough. Yeah.
Erica Rankin:We're launching, I'm like talking about it now because I'm planning it, but we're going to launch a Kickstarter campaign. Just to help with the, yeah, the launch of the new product. So what a smart
Cory Connors:idea. What a way to get a influx of cash. Great. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. Well, you, your product seems to be a little bit more of a healthy alternative is, you mentioned you being a bodybuilder and exercising is the health, healthy aspect, then the main focus for
Erica Rankin:the company. Yeah. So, the one big thing that I really care about as like a founder and a consumer is just like high quality, natural ingredients. like I don't like consuming like artificial sweeteners or dyes or preservatives or any of that stuff. I believe in having like whole foods and I think sugar is good, in moderation and it depends where it comes from. So like we're. We use maple syrup and dates to sweeten our cookie dough. Our sprinkles are colored with turmeric, spirulina, and paprika. So we still have sugar in our product, but there's added protein. And then, the, like the functionality of it just makes it like a healthier way to curb a sweet tooth, basically.
Cory Connors:That's really cool. And Canadian, maple syrup is, world renowned. So that's
Erica Rankin:what I hear. Everyone's yeah, the real big Canadian selling theater. Stopped from my backyard.
Cory Connors:that'd be a good video. I'd like to see that. Well, let's talk a little bit more about your social media. You've. Totally blown up on tick tock. And I think you've got almost 200, 000 followers. What was the secret there? What did you do that just really made it successful?
Erica Rankin:I think with any social media platform is just showing up and putting work and then continuing to show up whether or not you're getting views or not. Right? And, I got on there in a really prime time where TikTok was still new in 2021, and there wasn't a lot of page posts. So if you go on TikTok now and you scroll, every third or fourth post is a paid post. So you have less opportunity to get organic reach. But yeah, anyone who's like looking to grow on any platform, you just have to keep putting out content and then also just add value. That's like the one thing that I always, Think about whenever I'm creating content, especially on linkedin is okay, is this going to benefit someone? is this doing anyone any good? Or, that's the way that I look at it. And then even just for linkedin, I don't recommend posting every day to everyone because it costs so much. Sustainable for most people, but every day, so that was like a commitment. My friends and I made to ourselves, we're like, we're going to post 365 times this year, at least 365 times. And so far, like we're both, but then with, yeah, with tech talk, it's just, building community, Engaging with people to like, if people are commenting, acknowledging them that you see them talk to them, they're your friends. I think that's the thing that will get you ahead of all the competition. any businesses, if you just have a more personable relationship with your audience, because that is hard to find and big corporations can't do that. They can try as hard as they want, but they can't do that.
Cory Connors:Yeah. Oh, I agree. I love the aspect of responding. Gary Vaynerchuk is one of my, inspirations. I don't know if you know him very well, or have seen his content, but, if you don't have the time to respond to a comment, or feel like you're too good for it. It's just not going to work out for you in the long run. I agree with you a hundred percent. We have to make time for the people that make time for us and say, thank you. Even if it's just liking their comment, simple as that, that's so valuable.
Erica Rankin:Yeah. It's reciprocation for sure.
Cory Connors:do you go live when you're doing your packing out or anything like that?
Erica Rankin:I used to go live on TikTok a lot back when I did everything. So I used to be packing like it would be like 11 at night and I'd put my phone up and be on live and, Yeah, that I did a lot and then now I don't really do it as much just because it's me like working at my laptop most days. Sometimes I do like store run stuff. You're less exciting. Yeah, I'm less exciting. I don't know if people would just hang around and watch me work from my laptop, but I do. I do I'm trying to get better at, cause we were knees deep and product development like all year. And I haven't, I pulled back from content creation a little bit. specifically on Tik just because I didn't have the bandwidth. And now that we're launching into stores, I have a little bit more free time. So I'm trying to go to, stores and take videos. And I went into a grocery store yesterday and I'm like to the cashier, do you mind being in a Tik TOK video? Me buying the product and, just doing little things like that. I think go a long way. yeah,
Cory Connors:absolutely. I agree. Yeah. And I've enjoyed watching your content where you're, in front of your, or behind your cooler with the BRODO logo on it. Really cool. you're giving out samples or something. I think that's a really smart sales technique. So well done.
Erica Rankin:Thank you. Yeah, that's hard to
Cory Connors:it's hard to be the person handing the product to the people, isn't it? Yeah, it's hard to be 1 on 1 with consumers who don't know you.
Erica Rankin:Yeah. some people are just not very receptive to, like when I went out on the streets and I was handing out products, like I wanted to get like content, I get people to try it. And a lot of people just weren't having it. So I think I probably like out of a hundred people, maybe like less than 10 said, yes, it was pretty crazy.
Cory Connors:have you seen the guys from free water?
Erica Rankin:Oh, I know him.
Cory Connors:Yeah, he was on the podcast. He's an awesome guy. and his company is really cool, but I love their content. How they're literally giving things away like you are samples, but it's their product.
Erica Rankin:They're like, why is this great? What do you mean? What's wrong with that? What's the problem? Yeah. Viral videos. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. That's
Cory Connors:cool. People will complain even about free things. It's amazing. I know . So, what's the best way for people to get in touch with you and purchase your products?
Erica Rankin:So our website is eatbrodough.com we have a wait list that you can sign up for if you want to get on that. and then I can be reached via LinkedIn, Erica Rankin, and then e Brodo is our handle on Instagram and TikTok.
Cory Connors:Great. This is great. And then, when do you think the Kickstarter will launch so we can prepare for that? Like this
Erica Rankin:fall. I'm just going to keep it at that. Yeah. Okay. That's fair. things take a little longer than you hope, but,
Cory Connors:yeah, let me know. And we'll launch this kind of at the same time if you want. so you can get some promotion that way. Well, thank you so much, Erica. Thank you. Orora packaging for sponsoring this podcast. We appreciate it. If you're listening, make sure you give us a review. We really appreciate that and subscribe and stay tuned for more. Thank you.
