Speaker 1: Hi everyone, I'm Rachel Zoe and you're listening to Climbing
Speaker 1: in Heels for your weekly dose of glamour, inspiration and fun.
Speaker 1: I'm joined today by the wonderful and incredibly passionate entrepreneur
Speaker 1: and founder of Poppy, Alison Ellsworth. Allison has built the
Speaker 1: most fantastic and successful brand that's rooted in a product
Speaker 1: that she created truly out of necessity. She discovered the
Speaker 1: health benefits of apple cider vinegar and created a healthier
Speaker 1: soda that's become the fastest growing beverage of all time
Speaker 1: that is insane well simultaneously giving birth and raising three
Speaker 1: young boys. I'm so incredibly inspired by Alison's vision, So
Speaker 1: let's jump right in. You are going to love this toppisode.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited to have you on. You know, I drink.
Speaker 1: Poppy, my team drinks Poppy. We all like my refrigerator
Speaker 1: is filled with Poppy. But I also want to say
Speaker 1: how cool it is for me when I like a brand,
Speaker 1: when I see like kind of all these different people
Speaker 1: coming in from the wild holding the brand, which I imagine.
Speaker 2: Is the greatest thing for you.
Speaker 1: So I want to talk about this because I want
Speaker 1: to dive back to the beginning for a second.
Speaker 2: So you grew up in Texas, born and raised.
Speaker 3: So born in Colorado, lived there for like a year.
Speaker 3: But I don't claim that I'm a Texas girl. Through
Speaker 3: and through. I grew up here, lived here, forced my
Speaker 3: husband to move back here. I'm obsessed with Texas.
Speaker 2: You are.
Speaker 4: I love that I love Texas.
Speaker 2: I love that I love that you love Texas.
Speaker 1: Having so many people in my life from Texas, there
Speaker 1: is this overarching common thread of friendliness.
Speaker 2: And first of all, everybody's tall, so I do want
Speaker 2: to really I am tall.
Speaker 4: Yes, literally every.
Speaker 1: Friend I've ever had from Texas is incredibly tall, except
Speaker 1: for one. The guys are gigantic, they are actually gigantic,
Speaker 1: and the women are also very very tall. But there's
Speaker 1: this happiness about Texans. The people I've met from Texas
Speaker 1: are driven, They're happy, they love Texas.
Speaker 4: Love it.
Speaker 3: No I've always said I started the company in Texas,
Speaker 3: and I always feel like if I wouldn't have, I
Speaker 3: don't know if you'd be so successful. It was like
Speaker 3: Texans love Texas brands, like everything about it. But also
Speaker 3: other people like Texas brands yes, and usually don't get
Speaker 3: a lot of better for you products, right, Usually you're
Speaker 3: like New York, LA, and so it was really exciting
Speaker 3: to have like a better for you product coming out
Speaker 3: of the South as well.
Speaker 4: Yes, so I love that about it.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about that.
Speaker 1: I want to understand a little bit why you created
Speaker 1: Poppy because you started in oil, which is funny because
Speaker 1: I was saying earlier to my producer. It's funny because
Speaker 1: when you're in LA, you're like, oh, are you in
Speaker 1: the industry, And it's very clear what industry that is
Speaker 1: when you're in LA. When you're in New York, it's like,
Speaker 1: are you in the industry meaning fashion or art or theater,
Speaker 1: but or finance then and then I feel like Texas,
Speaker 1: It's like, Okay, you're in the industry and that's oil, right,
Speaker 1: So so how do you go and why do you
Speaker 1: go from working in the oil industry too, saying I'm
Speaker 1: going to start a wellness sparkling soda.
Speaker 3: It's interesting because I kind of come from a family
Speaker 3: of entrepreneurs. So my sister and my dad are both
Speaker 3: in the Olan gas industry, and I graduated and I've
Speaker 3: never been from college. I've never been a person to
Speaker 3: like want to go work in like a cubicle or
Speaker 3: for another person, and there's a lot of financial freedom
Speaker 3: and just like I don't know, career freedom when you
Speaker 3: work in gas and you're on the road and you're
Speaker 3: you're basically have no boss, right, so you have to
Speaker 3: be very much a self starter.
Speaker 4: And so I did that, but I was never like
Speaker 4: I was good at it.
Speaker 3: I was really good at it, but I wasn't like
Speaker 3: passionate about it. And while I was on the road,
Speaker 3: I'm sure you've spent many year where you're like traveling
Speaker 3: and you're on the road, it's like what I call
Speaker 3: is like this carier Like I got like road warrior belly,
Speaker 3: like where your tummy hurts, you're tired, and your spoons
Speaker 3: off and you're dehydrated, and it's like all of the above.
Speaker 3: And it was just really wearing on me so much
Speaker 3: showed that I started like going to the doctors and
Speaker 3: being like, what's going on, And really it came down
Speaker 3: to my diet.
Speaker 4: Like at the end of the day.
Speaker 3: This was like almost ten twelve years ago, before the
Speaker 3: gluten free phase where people are like, oh, what you
Speaker 3: put in your body, you can actually you know, affect
Speaker 3: the way that you feel.
Speaker 4: And I discovered apple cider vinegar. I started working out.
Speaker 3: And reading ingredients and nutrition panels, and I just came
Speaker 3: really passionate about just better for you lifestyle. And I know,
Speaker 3: just there was no like better for you soda. I
Speaker 3: grew up drinking soda. It was just part of my household.
Speaker 3: It's like this nostalgic filling that like you have it
Speaker 3: with movies, you have it with you know, every get together,
Speaker 3: and there was just nothing out there.
Speaker 4: So once I kind of discovered that, I just went
Speaker 4: to my kitchen.
Speaker 3: I love cooking, and I kind of just created the
Speaker 3: first version and it was a total accident.
Speaker 4: Not an entrepreneurial journey at all.
Speaker 3: And I shared it with my husband and with other people,
Speaker 3: and they were like, this is really good.
Speaker 4: You should do something about it.
Speaker 3: My dad was like, you should sell your hooge, and
Speaker 3: I was like, I don't know, Okay, sure, but I
Speaker 3: was just so excited to share it with others rather
Speaker 3: than like to monetize it. And I kind of feel
Speaker 3: like some of the most beautiful things come from like
Speaker 3: passionate emotion versus.
Speaker 4: Like a business plan and how do I do this
Speaker 4: to get rich? Like type of situation.
Speaker 1: That's so interesting because they do know what you mean.
Speaker 1: Because the first high fifteen years of my career, I
Speaker 1: was like on a plane, I wasn't sleeping.
Speaker 2: I mean, you're eating on set.
Speaker 1: Like you know, we had these there's something on set
Speaker 1: called craft services, which I'm sure you know, and you
Speaker 1: just graze and you eat like things that and you
Speaker 1: just feel so sick every day. And then when you
Speaker 1: fly and you just feel constantly out of sorts, really,
Speaker 1: and I don't think people recognize until it's too late.
Speaker 1: Very often, the impact of travel on our bodies, and
Speaker 1: work travel specifically, because it's not elective most of the time.
Speaker 1: And I think as we get older, our bodies are like, ooh,
Speaker 1: just kidding, that's not going to work for you anymore,
Speaker 1: Like you got to change something. And so being in Texas,
Speaker 1: which is not the world of wellness, and you know,
Speaker 1: I always think of it as the steak and potatoes
Speaker 1: and like milk and all the things, because I'm sort
Speaker 1: of like.
Speaker 2: Maybe this is why everyone's tall, Like.
Speaker 1: They actually do drink the eight glasses of milk you're
Speaker 1: supposed to have or whatever it is that you know.
Speaker 1: My my poor thirteen year old son is so vertically
Speaker 1: challenged right now and every day makes up He's like,
Speaker 1: should I start drinking milk?
Speaker 2: Mob Like, maybe I'm gonna go.
Speaker 4: It's okay.
Speaker 3: Men are late bloomers. My husband in every way he
Speaker 3: grew no. I mean, I think like being in Texas, yeah, definitely,
Speaker 3: I didn't grow up with the emphasis on like health
Speaker 3: or wellness. To your point, yeah, steak potatoes. It was
Speaker 3: like a normal once a burger, tacos, text mix, all
Speaker 3: of those things. So it was like one of those
Speaker 3: moments where I felt like we had discovered something, me
Speaker 3: and my husband on doing this, and I was like,
Speaker 3: I just want to share with people. So I wanted
Speaker 3: to also start a family. At the time we bought
Speaker 3: a house in Dallas was kind of putting our roots
Speaker 3: down and no kidding you, Like we bought the house
Speaker 3: in December January, I got pregnant, like so quick, We're.
Speaker 2: No nitches work like that.
Speaker 4: You're like, it was not part.
Speaker 3: Of the plan, but we embraced it, and I was like,
Speaker 3: I can't go back in the road. So I want
Speaker 3: to just start selling this that our local farmers market,
Speaker 3: which is what I think a lot of better for
Speaker 3: you products start off testing, and within three weeks we
Speaker 3: had Whole Foods come by our booth because they're a
Speaker 3: Texas company and she's like, you guys should be in
Speaker 3: Whole Foods. And it was the first moment I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: I have a business here and I I don't that
Speaker 3: second that conversation. I still remember her name, Kelly Landrew.
Speaker 3: She changed my life. And I looked at my husband
Speaker 3: and say, we're putting our life savings into this we're
Speaker 3: doing He's.
Speaker 4: Like, what are you talking about.
Speaker 3: We just bought a house, you're three months pregnant, Like like,
Speaker 3: what are you talking about?
Speaker 4: And I'm like, we're doing this. Like it was so
Speaker 4: determined from.
Speaker 2: That How old were you then at that point?
Speaker 4: So that was like six years ago.
Speaker 3: So I was thirty twenty nine thirty at that point,
Speaker 3: and you know, just started really going down that we
Speaker 3: opened our manufacturing facility, put our life savings in and
Speaker 3: just kind of went all in and got to the
Speaker 3: point where we needed funding. So of course the next
Speaker 3: step in the American dream is Shark Tank, and went
Speaker 3: on Shark Tank. At that point, it'd been like you.
Speaker 2: Han't got on Shark Tank. I mean that's like that's
Speaker 2: not easy. It's not.
Speaker 3: And what I didn't realize is the show like reaches
Speaker 3: out to people. We went stood in line and did
Speaker 3: the open casting call with hundreds of other people. I'd
Speaker 3: had my first, I was pregnant with my second. I
Speaker 3: was like, let's just keep I was like, I refuse
Speaker 3: to just pick one or the other, Like that's like
Speaker 3: my model life.
Speaker 4: I do too much, like all the time.
Speaker 3: So I was pregnant with my second when we went
Speaker 3: onto Shark Tank and I was nine months pregnant on
Speaker 3: Shark Tank, had the baby ten days later.
Speaker 1: So stop it. It's been wild. Yeah, girl, what sign
Speaker 1: are you?
Speaker 4: You?
Speaker 2: Virgo?
Speaker 4: I'm a Capricorn. I'm a pretty hardworre capcorn.
Speaker 1: Wow, I'm so infanty read very Virgo by the way,
Speaker 1: but Virgo's and cops. My baby son is a cap
Speaker 1: similar to you. I was, I got pregnant, wasn't trying.
Speaker 1: Was launching my clothing collection and launched it literally like
Speaker 1: I think it was like three or four weeks before
Speaker 1: I had my first son. And I remember standing there
Speaker 1: with the models and styling the looks for the collection,
Speaker 1: and women's were daily taking a picture of me. I
Speaker 1: had this tummy, I was wearing thigh high boots, I
Speaker 1: was wearing like all the things, and I'm like, Nope,
Speaker 1: nothing's going to change.
Speaker 2: Nope, nothing's going to change. Nope. I got this. I'm
Speaker 2: going to do this.
Speaker 1: But like, I want to talk about how that was
Speaker 1: for you, going on Shark Tank and doing this whole thing,
Speaker 1: and being pregnant, having a child, like and honestly being young.
Speaker 1: I had my kids late, right, I had already built
Speaker 1: my career, so I was able to sort of say, Okay,
Speaker 1: my team's going to come to the house to work today,
Speaker 1: or I'm going to bring my son with me on
Speaker 1: this trip or whatever. I was able, i think, to
Speaker 1: dictate a little bit more of how that went for me,
Speaker 1: but it was still incredibly challenging. So I want to know,
Speaker 1: as you were launching this dream that you didn't even
Speaker 1: know what's going to happen, you know, And I always say,
Speaker 1: there's no blueprint for this, right, you can't. I'm sure
Speaker 1: people ask you all the time like how did you
Speaker 1: do this data and you're like, honestly, my passion I
Speaker 1: left it.
Speaker 3: It was you know, right, yeah, And you a lot
Speaker 3: of sleepless nights, lots of tears, lots of ups, lots
Speaker 3: of downs, lots of fear, lots of you know, the
Speaker 3: list goes on.
Speaker 2: But I cheve entrepreneurship, by the way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think we left an insanely successful career
Speaker 3: to go into this. And I always say, like, unless
Speaker 3: you really are passion about it, like you're not going.
Speaker 4: To leave that security.
Speaker 3: And then just being a mom was also just a
Speaker 3: really big goal in my life. My husband grew up Mormon,
Speaker 3: like family is just like a really big piece. He's
Speaker 3: like one of six, I'm like one of four. We
Speaker 3: just like always wanted that from like a young age,
Speaker 3: and I was just like, why do I have to cheat?
Speaker 3: Like that's just how I am. If you tell me no,
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, I'm talking to the wrong person. And
Speaker 3: I just feel like it was just I wanted both
Speaker 3: and I didn't have to choose.
Speaker 4: But was it way harder, Oh my gosh. Yes.
Speaker 3: Like it got to the point where he had to
Speaker 3: get like a second job. We were working bottling during
Speaker 3: the week. I would work with the baby strapped to me.
Speaker 3: I did delivers with them strapped, like we could not
Speaker 3: afford a babysitter. Like my mom would come down on
Speaker 3: the weekends when she could help, you know, got to
Speaker 3: the point where you know, we're just like, this is
Speaker 3: like can we do this?
Speaker 4: The low lows, the high highest type of situation. But
Speaker 4: just looking back on I wouldn't change any of it.
Speaker 3: I remember with my first being on the bottling line
Speaker 3: going into labor was back on with the baby strapped
Speaker 3: to me two weeks later because we like needed to
Speaker 3: keep going.
Speaker 4: And I wouldn't.
Speaker 3: I don't know, it didn't seem hard at the time
Speaker 3: looking back, like, oh my gosh, I don't know if
Speaker 3: I could do that again.
Speaker 1: No, But I mean I think we could say that
Speaker 1: that was a runnal in. You could say that that
Speaker 1: was like excitement and determination. You could say that, you know,
Speaker 1: when you tell your kids this story, they're going to
Speaker 1: be so proud of you.
Speaker 2: Is your husband your partner?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 3: So yeah, And he runs like at Poppy, I run
Speaker 3: like all of our creative brand vision and he runs
Speaker 3: like our innovation and our supply chain. So we're very
Speaker 3: opposites as well, and he like I couldn't do it
Speaker 3: with him, he couldn't do it without me. But he
Speaker 3: does allow me to be crazy, which I like. I
Speaker 3: think at Poppy like like the level of quickness that
Speaker 3: we work through and like we move at the speed
Speaker 3: of culture, Like we have to be like really nimble,
Speaker 3: crazy and willing to take risks. But it's funny because
Speaker 3: I had my first two pregnancies and like children while
Speaker 3: growing the business, and then I waited four years and
Speaker 3: Poppy was like humming along and great. And then I
Speaker 3: had a third and that was such a different experience. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I was gonna ask, you know, it was on flights
Speaker 3: with me twenty times, who are six months old and like,
Speaker 3: and you are running around doing interviews, will breastfeeding on
Speaker 3: the subway, you know, like all of those things. So
Speaker 3: I think I got to experience both. And you know,
Speaker 3: I look back and it's just a built grit to
Speaker 3: get me to continue to get where I am. And
Speaker 3: now I'm like, maybe I need more good things happen
Speaker 3: at Poppy. When I get pregnant.
Speaker 1: I'm going to predict you are likely having a fourth.
Speaker 1: I mean, even if you didn't say that just now,
Speaker 1: I'm going to think.
Speaker 2: That you are.
Speaker 4: I love chaos, I well.
Speaker 2: Clearly, but I think it's interesting.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the not making a choice
Speaker 1: because I think I think that is the hardest decision
Speaker 1: that women have to face if you want to have
Speaker 1: a business. I think I don't want to say it's
Speaker 1: totally different, but I want to say there are differences
Speaker 1: between building a business of your own versus working for
Speaker 1: an established business where you have job security, you have
Speaker 1: hopefully you know, you have your health benefits, and you
Speaker 1: have all these things. When you're starting a business ground up,
Speaker 1: that is a real choice for women to say, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm going to have kids later, let me build this
Speaker 1: and then I'm going to have kids, or I want
Speaker 1: to have my kids be a mom, and then I'm
Speaker 1: going to start my business after I have my kids
Speaker 1: and they're.
Speaker 2: Like all in school and whatever.
Speaker 1: I have many entrepreneur friends, many successful, many of closed businesses,
Speaker 1: many have grown and sold and all the things, and
Speaker 1: we talk about a lot at our dinners and our events,
Speaker 1: like how hard that is to do simultaneously. And I
Speaker 1: don't want to skim over it because to your point,
Speaker 1: I think being an entrepreneur in general, there is not
Speaker 1: a woman I've had on this pod who would tell
Speaker 1: you it is not the fucking hardest, most rewarding, most painful,
Speaker 1: most exhausting, most exhilarating. All the things you want to quit,
Speaker 1: you want to throw it in, you have to keep
Speaker 1: it going, and it's all the things. Being a mother
Speaker 1: is also like that, right because I think we there
Speaker 1: is so much guilt in that motherhood of I don't
Speaker 1: want to miss anything. But I think what's evident is
Speaker 1: your determination to succeed. And I think for me what
Speaker 1: really stands out is doing this in Texas where it
Speaker 1: isn't the expected, the saturated. I mean here in La
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure there's a wellness brand launched every hour
Speaker 1: in different categories. But there is a question I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask you that I noticed and I'm not. I'm
Speaker 1: not positive are you the CEO or No.
Speaker 4: I'm not, nor would I ever want to be.
Speaker 3: I think it's so funny when people start their businesses
Speaker 3: is and this is something that I speak on quite
Speaker 3: a bit, and just I think a lot of people
Speaker 3: start your business and you want to own it all, right,
Speaker 3: You want to You are to say visions that letting
Speaker 3: go of allowing people that actually know better than you
Speaker 3: is one of the hardest things you will ever go
Speaker 3: through in your career.
Speaker 4: So started the company, me and my husband.
Speaker 3: You know, I ran all of our marketing create like
Speaker 3: all of this stuff, and about a year in like Poppy,
Speaker 3: just for context, is the fastest growing beverage in the
Speaker 3: history of beverage. We're four years old. We are the
Speaker 3: fastest growing beverage in the nation. We're the number one
Speaker 3: sold on Amazon, We're in one in ten household. It's
Speaker 3: just been absolutely crazy. And when you have that kind
Speaker 3: of explosive growth, I've never done this before. Now, my
Speaker 3: intuition has gotten us so far. But we got to
Speaker 3: the point where we were like, hey, we have to
Speaker 3: bring someone in and I we actually went to our
Speaker 3: born We're like, we need to.
Speaker 4: Bring in a CEO. It was really hard. I like cried.
Speaker 3: We were like going through this, like, how can we
Speaker 3: go through this? Once we went through it and got it,
Speaker 3: we found the right person. We were part of that decision.
Speaker 3: That's always something I always try to say to other entrepreneurs.
Speaker 4: Be part of the decision.
Speaker 3: Don't allow it to happen to you and get to
Speaker 3: a point where it's like so you're removed and it's
Speaker 3: like this dramatic No, it's okay, it's growth.
Speaker 4: I'm learning from our CEO, right, And I.
Speaker 3: Realized being a CEO, it's a lot of people management,
Speaker 3: it's a lot of process, it's a lot of P
Speaker 3: and L budgeting. There's so many things that I'm like,
Speaker 3: oh wow, I don't want to do any of that.
Speaker 4: Like I do run a team. I run our creative team.
Speaker 3: We have like an internal agency, which I adore my creatives.
Speaker 3: Like I'm not saying that, but it's like we have
Speaker 3: over two hundred employees. And then a few a year
Speaker 3: after that, I was running the marketing and I was like,
Speaker 3: we're about to buy a Super Bowl ad, like we
Speaker 3: are running TV.
Speaker 4: Like I've never bought.
Speaker 3: A Super od like have you It's like, you know,
Speaker 3: and so we went to once again. I said I
Speaker 3: want to bring in a traditional CMO. And you know,
Speaker 3: that was one of the hardest years of my life.
Speaker 3: And did coaching and worked through that. But I think,
Speaker 3: like I think people hold on to the word CEO,
Speaker 3: you know, and it's like this thing where it's like,
Speaker 3: as an entrepreneur, our founder is a really powerful title.
Speaker 3: My title is chief brand Officer and a run brand.
Speaker 3: But I wish more people talked about that, you know.
Speaker 1: That's why I want to talk about it, because I
Speaker 1: found that really interesting because I have I can't even
Speaker 1: count how many badass women that I have in my life,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to say that most of them are CEO.
Speaker 1: But what I would say to that is, over the
Speaker 1: last year, many have stepped down as CEO. Many are
Speaker 1: dying to not be the CEO, and it's releasing that
Speaker 1: control and that title. And a very successful friend of
Speaker 1: mine who has started five companies successfully all of them
Speaker 1: literally this summer, was like, I, for the first time
Speaker 1: in fifteen years, don't have a CEO title.
Speaker 2: And we were like, I'm like, how does it feel.
Speaker 1: She's like, weird, peaceful, like I can sleep. And so
Speaker 1: I think, to your point, it's about being involved. And
Speaker 1: I think the key to being a successful entrepreneur is
Speaker 1: to recognize your strengths, recognize your challenges, and then hire
Speaker 1: the best person around you to fill those spots.
Speaker 3: Right, I have this beautiful I think, like one of
Speaker 3: my strengths as a leader or just in life is
Speaker 3: I have this ability to get people to believe they
Speaker 3: can do anything through by the way, yeah, through brainstorming.
Speaker 3: And some of our most magnificent ideas have come from
Speaker 3: like junior people and me just like tell me a
Speaker 3: little bit more about that or push the wiser why
Speaker 3: they'll come up with the idea.
Speaker 4: I'm like, why can't we do it? I'm like, why
Speaker 4: can't we do it?
Speaker 3: Like, let's think about that, right, And I do think
Speaker 3: that's one of my strengths to get us to think differently.
Speaker 3: We move really quick and just like for example, last
Speaker 3: year we did a Super Bowl ad. We bought that
Speaker 3: super Bowl the Wednesday before the Sunday of Super Bowl.
Speaker 3: Like that crazy we can have and be, but we'll
Speaker 3: play in our calendars. We'll get like eighty percent of it,
Speaker 3: like super in Stone. But you can't be culturally relevant
Speaker 3: if you're planning like what you're doing in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3: I don't know what's going to be cool in twenty six.
Speaker 3: So this ability to move quick is like such a gift,
Speaker 3: and I agree the team has seen that and they've
Speaker 3: found ways to support me in that right and like
Speaker 3: that my strength isn't going out and building the most
Speaker 3: amazing retail program or media program or you know, sales team.
Speaker 4: Right. So no, I love that.
Speaker 3: I love that you asked that question because like, no,
Speaker 3: I'm not coo, and nor do I want to be.
Speaker 1: But I love how proud you are to not want
Speaker 1: to be, because that's another thing I really try to
Speaker 1: teach people is like not everyone has to be, not
Speaker 1: everyone wants to be, and not everyone should be. And
Speaker 1: I think that's the thing that what you're saying is
Speaker 1: so important for young people to understand that it's absolutely
Speaker 1: okay to not want that role.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I mean one hundred percent. I love that
Speaker 2: you said that.
Speaker 4: I love our CEO.
Speaker 3: We totally stole them basically from another company I'd been
Speaker 3: out from fourteen years. You'd worked his way up from
Speaker 3: like hr all the way to CEOs. In every position,
Speaker 3: we're great. I'm great friends with this wife. So it's
Speaker 3: like it can be a beautiful relationship as well. I
Speaker 3: should be, you know, look at it as a downside.
Speaker 3: So no, I love that, and it allows you know,
Speaker 3: back to like just being a mother throughout all of this.
Speaker 3: It's funny like when you were saying that stuff earlier,
Speaker 3: I you know what came to mind is the different
Speaker 3: challenges that were when we're starting are so different now
Speaker 3: Now I'm gone a lot and I don't get to
Speaker 3: be with my kids, and my husband's sit down at
Speaker 3: home more and just recently, I'm like, wow, I'm missing
Speaker 3: a lot, and I'm kind of having to step back
Speaker 3: and be like, I maybe should say no more reprioritize,
Speaker 3: stay home, and like that. That's a decision that I've
Speaker 3: been like, never thought I would have to think through.
Speaker 4: But I'm like, whoa, I'm missing?
Speaker 2: How old are they? The boys?
Speaker 4: Two? Six and eight?
Speaker 1: So that's perfect because you can still really confidently make
Speaker 1: those choices and not miss a thing. Yeah, so but
Speaker 1: think about that really, because I only say that because
Speaker 1: you don't get it back. But you don't necessarily have
Speaker 1: to make the choice. You can do both because.
Speaker 2: You are who you are in this company. You can
Speaker 2: do both.
Speaker 1: And I think they're at ages where you can bring
Speaker 1: them with you, so you do get to do both.
Speaker 1: Because that's what I was doing because I was to
Speaker 1: your point. I wouldn't make the choice, and so when
Speaker 1: they were little, I would just take them and then
Speaker 1: in between everything, I got the hugs and I got
Speaker 1: the meals, and I got the bedtime, and then if
Speaker 1: I had to go to an event, you go when
Speaker 1: they go to sleep, you know, And there's there's that,
Speaker 1: and that's also the gift. I want to talk to
Speaker 1: you about a couple of things. I want to talk
Speaker 1: to you about naming it Poppy because it was called
Speaker 1: the mother beverage.
Speaker 2: Uh huh, okay, why tell me?
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 3: So when I first started it, it's like apple side
Speaker 3: of vinegar was kind of like the key and like
Speaker 3: you're the mother of vinegar, and it was like we
Speaker 3: were almost this what I always used to like in
Speaker 3: us too is like the sister to kombucha, right we
Speaker 3: it was just more.
Speaker 4: Farmers marketing, health focused.
Speaker 3: But when we rebranded and realized we were soda for
Speaker 3: the next generation modern soda, what kept coming up over
Speaker 3: and over again is like pop soda pop, And so
Speaker 3: we named it Poppy off of soda pop. And I
Speaker 3: just love it because it just even when you just
Speaker 3: say it makes you happy, the colors you're happy, it
Speaker 3: screams pop, it screams soda.
Speaker 4: So it just made a lot of sense to change
Speaker 4: the name.
Speaker 3: And I'm glad we went from bottles to cans and
Speaker 3: then we launched Poppy. So like all the Shark Tank
Speaker 3: and all the mother stuff was previous, but then we
Speaker 3: launched Poppy March third, twenty twenty, the first week of COVID,
Speaker 3: which is like absolutely crazy, But I love it because
Speaker 3: I think hold on, wait, let me backtrack.
Speaker 1: So you went on Shark Tank. You were due in
Speaker 1: ten days, you had a toddler or baby, yes, and
Speaker 1: you went on Shark Tank. You do the whole pitch
Speaker 1: at the time you went on Shark Tank. Was it
Speaker 1: called the mother Beverage or is it called Poppy? It
Speaker 1: was called the Mother Beverage? Okay, So what happened on
Speaker 1: Shark Tank? And how nervous were you in that moment?
Speaker 3: So I actually wasn't that nervous good? Because I was like,
Speaker 3: if you get too nervous, you're gonna go into labor.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, you imagine O.
Speaker 3: Praying the best days, just being like you have to
Speaker 3: say so calm. On the other hand, I swear because
Speaker 3: I was that way. I look over my husband's like
Speaker 3: pouring sweat. He's seen he can't like there's these like
Speaker 3: shots of him where it's like very close up and
Speaker 3: he will never live those down. But no, we had
Speaker 3: the baby, so we get the deal. We have the
Speaker 3: baby ten days later, and then it usually takes it's
Speaker 3: like four or so months for the episode air.
Speaker 4: And honestly, if you get a deal. It's not even
Speaker 4: guaranteed the air, so at the end of the day,
Speaker 4: it's a TV show. As to make it right, of course,
Speaker 4: we did spoiler, We're alert.
Speaker 3: We did get a deal, closed the deal the friday
Speaker 3: before the episode aired.
Speaker 2: So what did they offer you?
Speaker 3: We did four hundred thousand I think for twenty percent
Speaker 3: of the company.
Speaker 4: And who which shark?
Speaker 2: Which shark?
Speaker 3: So his name was Rohan Oza and he was more
Speaker 3: in the beverage world, which was amazing. And I love
Speaker 3: guest sharks because they don't have a lot of deals.
Speaker 4: So I think he's done one or two Shark Tank deals.
Speaker 3: And it's nice because we get his time and his
Speaker 3: team and I met an amazing person.
Speaker 4: Is right him person?
Speaker 3: We just like from that moment, decided to rebrand, change
Speaker 3: the name, and then decided, you know, the month of
Speaker 3: covid to launch it.
Speaker 1: But so, okay, I want to talk about that. So
Speaker 1: covid did you have in your breakdown?
Speaker 3: No, we'd flown out to California though, like to set
Speaker 3: off for exost, a big event the first week, and
Speaker 3: then they canceled the event. I remember like flying out
Speaker 3: that like maybe three to ten cases and we were
Speaker 3: flying home.
Speaker 4: They had thousands and we were so devastated.
Speaker 3: It was like our coming out yeah party basically, but
Speaker 3: it was a blessing disguise.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't say like Covid was, but just yeah.
Speaker 3: It forced us to really think differently as a business
Speaker 3: fundamentally from the beginning, because everything that traditionally people would
Speaker 3: do when launching a company was off the table from
Speaker 3: day one. We had to just try new stuff. And
Speaker 3: really what it was is we were like one of
Speaker 3: the first brands to get on TikTok. I have over
Speaker 3: two billion views on TikTok. A third of platform is
Speaker 3: seeing my face seven times.
Speaker 4: I always say it's so fun.
Speaker 3: I'm thirty seven year old mom of three and gen
Speaker 3: Z like loves me, Like that's.
Speaker 2: So great that. By the way, that is no easy feat.
Speaker 4: It's not. I just think we jumped on It was
Speaker 4: the wild world West.
Speaker 3: We digitally connected, We went all in on Amazon, and
Speaker 3: we're just a digital first brand and it's just stayed
Speaker 3: in our DNA since we've just grown, grown, grown, and
Speaker 3: then now we're starting to do in.
Speaker 4: Real life stuff and have had some amazing pop ups
Speaker 4: this year. But we got scrappy at the beginning.
Speaker 2: I love it. What I'm so, I'm so impressed with it,
Speaker 2: I really am.
Speaker 1: I mean, how do you feel now about influencer culture,
Speaker 1: because obviously the pendulum is swinging all over the place
Speaker 1: at this point. And I think obviously, given that you did,
Speaker 1: you are digital first, and you did and do continue
Speaker 1: to have insane success on TikTok and everything. What are
Speaker 1: your thoughts on influencer I guess marketing at this point, branding,
Speaker 1: how do you think the impact has shifted?
Speaker 2: And do you consider your face the face of.
Speaker 1: The brand or do you use a lot of outside
Speaker 1: talent and will you continue to do that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So when we first launched, we did before we
Speaker 3: ever did a paid ad, before we ever used a
Speaker 3: PR agency or anything traditional marketing right in real life
Speaker 3: sampling nothing we can do anything.
Speaker 4: So we worked with influencers.
Speaker 3: And at the time I didn't realize that I was
Speaker 3: building myself as face of the company.
Speaker 4: But it was free for me.
Speaker 3: You get online and post of course right right, and
Speaker 3: it just I did it with no makeup on. I
Speaker 3: had my kids running around the background like I was
Speaker 3: just posting it.
Speaker 4: It was desperate for.
Speaker 3: Everyone to learn about Poppy and it just like Mekanically,
Speaker 3: I became the face. And then we've always worked the creators,
Speaker 3: and I'm obsessed with the creator just like everything that
Speaker 3: they do and the strength and like they're entrepreneurs theirselves
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, right, Like the amount
Speaker 3: of the good ones, Yeah, it's absolutely wild. Yes, yes
Speaker 3: there's some good ones and there's not some good ones.
Speaker 3: But we've also worked with celebri and what we're seeing
Speaker 3: is it's just such a different level to work with
Speaker 3: a celebrity as a creator. Creators get it where it's
Speaker 3: like we need stories, you know, and there's so much
Speaker 3: more willing because it's like they don't have the job themselves,
Speaker 3: whereas if you were with a celebrity.
Speaker 4: It's not as authentic as it used to be.
Speaker 3: You have to find like a real reason why you
Speaker 3: want to work with it. So we just launched like
Speaker 3: a partnership with post Malone. And why I liked it
Speaker 3: is he went on a couple of podcasts saying he
Speaker 3: had given up Big Soda and I was close friends
Speaker 3: with his manager and I text him. I was like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, and he's like, I know because I
Speaker 3: gave him Poppy and he lost like thirty pounds.
Speaker 4: I was like, this whole thing in complex like all
Speaker 4: these people.
Speaker 3: I was like, Okay, that's authentic, right, that's a good
Speaker 3: reason not I want to put so and so sure,
Speaker 3: you don't have to.
Speaker 1: It's almost like you went in the you went in
Speaker 1: the front door instead of the back.
Speaker 4: Yeah, totally, and so like for me.
Speaker 3: The one thing though, as a brand, the creator economy
Speaker 3: is very expensive. Yeah, and I don't know what point
Speaker 3: smaller brands.
Speaker 4: Can sustain they can't.
Speaker 3: It's really tricky because when we were first starting out,
Speaker 3: it was kind of on the rise of it, and
Speaker 3: you could get people for very affordable whereas people when
Speaker 3: we start out were five thousand.
Speaker 4: Now they're like and fifty thousand for a social post.
Speaker 3: And so I don't know. Something I think eventually has
Speaker 3: to give and I don't know what that is.
Speaker 2: What I'll end up giving.
Speaker 1: And I've seen it sort of with the fashion influencer world,
Speaker 1: is they don't they just don't get hired, yeah, and
Speaker 1: then they have to and then they have to work
Speaker 1: for less because at some point the brand is like, uhh,
Speaker 1: we're taking the upper hand back because we're not spending
Speaker 1: this money on you.
Speaker 2: And then all of a sudden, most of them aren't working, and.
Speaker 1: So the ones that want to work are either going
Speaker 1: to have to charge less or not work. So I
Speaker 1: think that's the only way it gives, truthfully, and the
Speaker 1: same thing will happen eventually. I just think because the
Speaker 1: virality of certain brands and certain creators, I think, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, once they have that virality, it's they
Speaker 1: have the upper hand, right, But I think it's always
Speaker 1: going to do this but very interesting. I mean authenticity
Speaker 1: through and through. So what's next for you? I'm so excited.
Speaker 1: I'm such a fan. I love my entire team drinks Poppy,
Speaker 1: and like everywhere I go there's Poppy.
Speaker 2: It's it's really amazing.
Speaker 3: Poppy is the official soda of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Speaker 2: So we just have like insane is are you pinching yourself?
Speaker 4: So I'm so annoying and I'm going to say.
Speaker 3: People ask me this all the time, and I think
Speaker 3: I should reframe how I answer.
Speaker 4: Usually I'm like no, because I still got shit to do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do need to, Like that's my whole new
Speaker 3: balance that we were kind of talking about earlier. I
Speaker 3: need to sit back and enjoy this because it's so
Speaker 3: freaking special. But also I'm like, I'm not done like
Speaker 3: I have I'm dominating, we are disrupting soda. It's like
Speaker 3: this whole thing that I'm like, I'm not ready to
Speaker 3: sit back in pitt result, but I do have to.
Speaker 2: I think, no, I think listen.
Speaker 1: I always say complacency is the enemy, right, Like for me,
Speaker 1: I think I think for serial entrepreneurs, it's clearly you
Speaker 1: have the bug, right.
Speaker 2: But I would say now, because I'm you know.
Speaker 1: Like a couple of years older than you, what I
Speaker 1: would say is, in many ways, some of the most
Speaker 1: exciting things that happened to me in my career are
Speaker 1: a blur and I only remember them when people interview
Speaker 1: me about them, and then I'm like, right, yes, because
Speaker 1: it was just and so and I never once stopped
Speaker 1: to recognize what was happening. And people would say it
Speaker 1: to me in the moment, do you believe you're doing
Speaker 1: Do you believe you're on a plane with so and so?
Speaker 1: Do you believe you're flying to Monaco with Britney Spirit?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 2: Do you believe these things?
Speaker 1: Because in the most and it's work, it's your job,
Speaker 1: and as much as you love it, you're like, and
Speaker 1: you're leading it. So what I would say to that
Speaker 1: into anyone listening is because you stop for ten minutes
Speaker 1: to recognize what's happening, or to maybe have a glass
Speaker 1: of champagne or whatever it is, to just be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that does not mean you are resting on success, and
Speaker 1: that does not mean you're stopping tomorrow. That just means
Speaker 1: you're taking an hour to say, I can't believe this
Speaker 1: is actually happening, and that's it, and then you live
Speaker 1: in that moment for a minute and then go onto
Speaker 1: your next thing the next day. But it is important
Speaker 1: to do that. It is important to do that also,
Speaker 1: like document it. Doc you will obviously, especially the Lakers,
Speaker 1: that'll be documented for you.
Speaker 3: But social media also makes it easier to document.
Speaker 4: Everyone's like, yes, right, a journal I'm like, oh, that's
Speaker 4: my word.
Speaker 2: You don't even need to and there.
Speaker 4: Just I'll just go back on my TikTok feed.
Speaker 3: No. I know it's true, Like it's this new level
Speaker 3: of balance that I have to find in my life
Speaker 3: because I've been working so much that everyone just like,
Speaker 3: I don't know how you do it, Alison. Look, I'm
Speaker 3: a creative and I have to allow that space to
Speaker 3: be creative.
Speaker 4: So I will take your advice.
Speaker 1: Just try to stop, even for an hour, just recognize
Speaker 1: it and then move on to the next thing.
Speaker 2: But take it in from any of those beautiful boys.
Speaker 2: I love that you're a boy.
Speaker 1: Mom. Yes, next time you come here, let me know
Speaker 1: and we'll go have drinks. I love it, happy in
Speaker 1: tequila love.
Speaker 4: Say thank you so.
Speaker 1: Much, Anny, Thank you so much to Alison for being
Speaker 1: on the pod. I honestly lived for our conversation, and
Speaker 1: I really really loved how loud and proud she is
Speaker 1: about not holding the title of CEO, because I think
Speaker 1: as females, over the last several years, we have become
Speaker 1: so obsessed with having the title of CEO, even if
Speaker 1: we don't know what it means, or even if we
Speaker 1: don't know if we want it or not.
Speaker 2: And I think that's been one of.
Speaker 1: The biggest takeaways for me having gone to so many
Speaker 1: events and sitting at so many tables with so many
Speaker 1: successful women. How over the last year or two, how
Speaker 1: many women are either stepping down and relinquishing that title,
Speaker 1: realizing they really don't want it anymore, realizing what it
Speaker 1: truly means, and that that's not.
Speaker 2: Actually where they excel.
Speaker 1: That was a really big learning and I also love
Speaker 1: how open she is about being young, being accepted by
Speaker 1: gen Z, which is really hard, being adored by gen Z,
Speaker 1: and I guess by definition being a millennial having three
Speaker 1: kids and really not sacrificing her brand vision and being
Speaker 1: so proud of it. Anyway, loved this episode. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for listening to Climbing in Heels. If you
Speaker 1: haven't already, please subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
Speaker 1: the iheartapp, or wherever you get your podcasts so you
Speaker 1: don't miss a single episode this season. Be sure to
Speaker 1: follow me on Instagram at rachel Zo and the show
Speaker 1: at Climbing in Heels pod for the latest.
Speaker 2: Episodes and updates. I will talk to you soon.