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.
Speaker 2: You are going to love this episode. I'm so excited
Speaker 2: to have you on.
Speaker 1: You know, I drink Poppy, my team drinks Poppy.
Speaker 2: We all like my refrigerator is filled with Poppy.
Speaker 1: But I also want to say how cool it is
Speaker 1: for me when I like a brand, when I see
Speaker 1: like kind of all these different people coming in from
Speaker 1: the wild holding the brand, which I imagine is the greatest
Speaker 1: thing for you. So I want to talk about this
Speaker 1: because I want to dive back to the beginning for
Speaker 1: 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 girlie 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 3: 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. And first of all,
Speaker 1: everybody's tall, so I do want to really I am tall.
Speaker 3: 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, 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 we'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 are
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. Yes, so I love that
Speaker 3: 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.
Speaker 2: 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. And then I feel like Texas, It's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you're in the industry and that's oil, right, So so
Speaker 1: how do you go and why do you go from
Speaker 1: working in the oil industry too saying I'm going to
Speaker 1: 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 oil and gas industry, and I graduated and
Speaker 3: I've never been from college. I've never been a person
Speaker 3: to like want to go work in like a cubicle
Speaker 3: or for another person, and there's a lot of financial
Speaker 3: freedom and just like I don't know, career freedom. When
Speaker 3: you work in gas and you're on the road and
Speaker 3: you're you're basically have no boss, right, so you have
Speaker 3: to be very much a self starter. And so I
Speaker 3: did that, but I was never like I was good
Speaker 3: at it. I was really good at it, but I
Speaker 3: wasn't like passionate about it. And while I was on
Speaker 3: the road, I'm sure you've spent many year where you're
Speaker 3: like traveling and you're on the road, it's like what
Speaker 3: I call is like this carier Like I got like
Speaker 3: road warrior belly, like where your tummy hurts, you're tired,
Speaker 3: and your spoon's off and you're dehydrated, and it's like
Speaker 3: all of the above. And it was just really wearing
Speaker 3: on me so much showed that I started like going
Speaker 3: to the doctors and being like, what's going on, And
Speaker 3: really it came down to my diet. Like at the
Speaker 3: end of the day. This was like almost ten twelve
Speaker 3: years ago, before the gluten free phase where people are like, oh,
Speaker 3: what you put in your body, you can actually you know,
Speaker 3: affect the way that you feel. And I discovered apple
Speaker 3: cider vinegar. I started working out and reading ingredients and
Speaker 3: nutrition panels, and I just came really passionate about just
Speaker 3: better for you lifestyle. And I know there was no
Speaker 3: like better for you soda. I grew up drinking soda.
Speaker 3: It was just part of my household that it's like
Speaker 3: this nostalgic filling that like you have it with movies,
Speaker 3: you have it with you know, every get together, and
Speaker 3: there was just nothing out there. So once I kind
Speaker 3: of discovered that, I just went to my kitchen. I
Speaker 3: love cooking, and I kind of just created the first
Speaker 3: version and it was a total accident, not an entrepreneurial
Speaker 3: journey at all. And I shared it with my husband
Speaker 3: and with other people, and they were like, this is
Speaker 3: really good. You should do something about it. My dad
Speaker 3: was like, you should sell your hooge, and I was like,
Speaker 3: I don't know, Okay, sure, but I was just so
Speaker 3: excited to share it with others rather than like to
Speaker 3: monetize it. And I kind of feel like some of
Speaker 3: the most beautiful things come from like passionate emotion versus
Speaker 3: like a business plan and I'm going to do this
Speaker 3: 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 fifteen years of my career, I was
Speaker 1: like on a plane, I wasn't sleeping. I mean, you're
Speaker 1: eating on set, like you know, we had these there's
Speaker 1: something on set called craft services, which I'm sure you know,
Speaker 1: and you just graze and you eat like things that
Speaker 1: and you just.
Speaker 2: Feel so sick every day.
Speaker 1: And then when you fly and you just feel constantly
Speaker 1: out of sorts, really, and I don't think people recognize
Speaker 1: until it's too late. Very often the impact of travel
Speaker 1: on our bodies and work travel specifically, because it's not
Speaker 1: elective most of the time. And I think as we
Speaker 1: get older, our bodies are like, ooh, just kidding, that's
Speaker 1: not going to work for you anymore, Like you got
Speaker 1: to change something. And so being in Texas, which is
Speaker 1: not the world of wellness, and you know, I always
Speaker 1: think of it as the steak and potatoes and like
Speaker 1: milk and all the things, because I'm sort of like,
Speaker 1: maybe this is why everyone's tall, Like they actually do
Speaker 1: drink the eight glasses of milk you're supposed to have
Speaker 1: or whatever it is that you know, My my poor
Speaker 1: thirteen year old son is so vertically challenged right now
Speaker 1: and every day makes up He's like, should I start
Speaker 1: drinking milk?
Speaker 2: Mob Like maybe I'm gonna go.
Speaker 3: It's okay. Men are late bloomers. My husband in every
Speaker 3: way he grew no. I mean, I think like being
Speaker 3: in Texas, yeah, definitely, I didn't grow up with the
Speaker 3: emphasis on like health or wellness. And to your point, yeah,
Speaker 3: steak potatoes. It was like a normal once a burger, tacos,
Speaker 3: text mix, all of those things. So it was like
Speaker 3: one of those moments where I felt like we had
Speaker 3: discovered something, me and my husband on doing this, and
Speaker 3: I was like, I just want to share with people.
Speaker 3: So I wanted to also start a family. At the
Speaker 3: time we bought a house in Dallas was kind of
Speaker 3: putting our roots down and no kidding you, Like we
Speaker 3: bought the house in December January, I got pregnant, like
Speaker 3: so quick.
Speaker 2: We're doesnt work like that?
Speaker 3: You're like, it was not part of the plan, but
Speaker 3: we embraced it, and I was like, I can't go
Speaker 3: back in the road. So I want to just start
Speaker 3: selling this that our local farmers market, which is what
Speaker 3: I think a lot of better for you products start
Speaker 3: off testing and within three weeks we had Whole Foods
Speaker 3: come by our booth because they're a Texas company and
Speaker 3: she's like, you guys should be in Whole Foods. And
Speaker 3: it was the first moment I was like, oh, I
Speaker 3: have a business here and I I don't that second
Speaker 3: that conversation. I still remember her name, Kelly Landrew. She
Speaker 3: changed my life. And I looked at my husband and said,
Speaker 3: we're putting our life savings into this we're doing He's like,
Speaker 3: what are you talking about. We just bought a house,
Speaker 3: you're three months pregnant, Like like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 3: And I'm like, we're doing this. Like it was so
Speaker 3: determined from that How old were you then at that point?
Speaker 3: So that was like six years ago. So I was
Speaker 3: thirty twenty nine thirty at that point, and you know,
Speaker 3: just started really going tow on that. We opened our
Speaker 3: manufacturing facility, put our life savings in and just kind
Speaker 3: of went all in and got to the point where
Speaker 3: we needed funding. So of course the next step in
Speaker 3: the American dream is Shark Tank, and went on Shark Tank.
Speaker 3: At that point, it'd been like.
Speaker 2: You haven't got on Shark Tank. I mean that's like
Speaker 2: that's 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 in life. I do too much, like all
Speaker 3: the time. So I was pregnant with my second when
Speaker 3: we went on to Shark Tank, and I was nine
Speaker 3: months pregnant on Shark Tank, had the baby ten days later.
Speaker 3: So stop it. It's been wild. Yeah, girl, what sign
Speaker 3: are you? You?
Speaker 2: Virgo?
Speaker 3: I'm a Capricorn. I'm a pretty hardwore capcorn.
Speaker 2: Wow, I'm so infant.
Speaker 1: You read very virgo, by the way, but Virgo's and cops.
Speaker 1: My baby son is a cap similar to you. I was,
Speaker 1: I got pregnant, wasn't trying. Was launching my clothing collection
Speaker 1: and launched it literally like I think it was like
Speaker 1: three or four weeks before I had my first son,
Speaker 1: and I remember standing there with the models and styling
Speaker 1: the looks for the collection and women's were daily taking
Speaker 1: picture of me. I had this tummy, I was wearing
Speaker 1: thigh high boots, I was wearing like all the things,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, Nope, nothing's going to change.
Speaker 2: Nope, nothing's going to change.
Speaker 3: Nope.
Speaker 2: I got this. I'm going to do this. But like,
Speaker 2: I want to.
Speaker 1: Talk about how that was for you, going on Shark
Speaker 1: Tank and doing this whole thing, and being pregnant, having
Speaker 1: a child, like and honestly being young. I had my
Speaker 1: kids late, right, I had already built my career, so
Speaker 1: I was able to sort of say, Okay, my team's
Speaker 1: going to come to the house to work today, or
Speaker 1: I'm going to bring my son with me on this
Speaker 1: trip or whatever. I was able, i think, to dictate
Speaker 1: 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, Dada, and You're like, honestly, my passion.
Speaker 2: I loved 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 see 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 passionate about it, like you're not going
Speaker 3: to leave that security. And then just being a mom
Speaker 3: was also just a really big goal in my life.
Speaker 3: My husband grew up Mormon, like family is just like
Speaker 3: a really big piece. He's like one of six, I'm
Speaker 3: like one of four. We just like always wanted that
Speaker 3: from like a young age, and I was just like,
Speaker 3: why do I have to Like that's just how I am.
Speaker 3: If you tell me no, I'm like, oh, I'm talking
Speaker 3: to the wrong person. And I just feel like it
Speaker 3: was just I wanted both and I didn't have to choose.
Speaker 3: But was it way harder, Oh my gosh. Yes, Like
Speaker 3: it got to the point where he had to get
Speaker 3: like a second job. We were working bottling during the week.
Speaker 3: I would work with the baby strapped to me. I
Speaker 3: did delivers with them strapped, Like we could not afford
Speaker 3: a babysitter like my mom would come down on the
Speaker 3: weekends when she could help. You know, got to the
Speaker 3: point where you know, we're just like, this is like
Speaker 3: can we do this? The low lows, the high highest
Speaker 3: type of situation. But just looking back on I wouldn't
Speaker 3: change any of it. I remember with my first being
Speaker 3: on the bottling line going into labor was back on
Speaker 3: with the baby strapped to me two weeks later because
Speaker 3: we like needed to keep going and I wouldn't. I
Speaker 3: don't know, it didn't seem hard at the time looking back, like,
Speaker 3: oh my gosh, I don't know if I could do
Speaker 3: that again.
Speaker 1: No, But I mean I think we could say that
Speaker 1: that was a adrenaline. You could say that that was
Speaker 1: like excitement and determination. You could say that, you know,
Speaker 1: when you tell your kids this story, they're going to.
Speaker 2: Be so proud of you. Is your husband your partner?
Speaker 3: Yes? So yeah, And he runs like at Poppy, I
Speaker 3: run like all of our creative brand vision and he
Speaker 3: runs like our innovation and our supply chain. So we're
Speaker 3: very opposites as well, and he like I couldn't do
Speaker 3: it with them, he couldn't do it without me. But
Speaker 3: he does allow me to be crazy, which I like,
Speaker 3: I think at Poppy, like like the level of quickness
Speaker 3: that we work through and like we move at the
Speaker 3: speed 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 will
Speaker 3: growing the business, and then I waited four years and
Speaker 3: Poppy was like homming along great. And then I had
Speaker 3: a third and that was such a different experience.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was gonna you.
Speaker 3: Know, he was on flights with me twenty times, who
Speaker 3: are six months old and like, and you are running
Speaker 3: around doing interviews, will breastfeeding on the subway, you know,
Speaker 3: like all of those things. So I think I got
Speaker 3: to experience both. And you know, I look back and
Speaker 3: it's just a built grit to get me to continue
Speaker 3: to get where I am. And now I'm like, maybe
Speaker 3: I need more good things happen at Poppy when I
Speaker 3: 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 that you are.
Speaker 3: I love chaos, I well, clearly.
Speaker 2: 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 like all in school and whatever. I have
Speaker 1: many entrepreneur friends, many successful, many of closed businesses, many
Speaker 1: have grown and sold and all the things, and we
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 2: All the things you want to quit, you want to.
Speaker 1: Throw it in, you have to keep it going, and
Speaker 1: it's all the things.
Speaker 2: Being a mother is also like that, right because I
Speaker 2: think we.
Speaker 1: There is so much guilt in that motherhood of I
Speaker 1: don't want to miss anything. But I think what's evident
Speaker 1: is your determination to succeed. And I think for me
Speaker 1: what really stands out is doing this in Texas, where
Speaker 1: it isn't the expected, the saturated. I mean here in
Speaker 1: La I'm pretty sure there's a wellness brand launched every
Speaker 1: hour in different categories. But there is a question I
Speaker 1: wanted to ask you that I noticed and I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm not positive are you the CEO or No.
Speaker 3: I'm not, nor would I ever want to be. I
Speaker 3: think it's so funny when people start their businesses is
Speaker 3: and this is something that I speak on quite a bit,
Speaker 3: and just I think a lot of people start your
Speaker 3: business and you want to own it all right, You
Speaker 3: want to your toys. That letting go of allowing people
Speaker 3: to actually know better than you is one of the
Speaker 3: hardest things you will ever go through in your career.
Speaker 3: So started the company, me and my husband. You know,
Speaker 3: I ran all of our marketing create like all of
Speaker 3: this stuff, and about a year in, like Poppy, just
Speaker 3: for context, is the fastest growing beverage in the history
Speaker 3: of beverage. We're four years old. We are the fastest
Speaker 3: growing beverage in the nation. We're the number one sold
Speaker 3: on Amazon, We're in one in ten household. It's just
Speaker 3: been absolutely crazy. And when you have that kind of
Speaker 3: explosive growth, I've never done this before. Now, my intuition
Speaker 3: has gotten us so far. But we got to the
Speaker 3: point where we were like, hey, we have to bring
Speaker 3: someone in and I we actually went to our barn,
Speaker 3: We're like, we need to bring in a CEO. It
Speaker 3: was really hard. I like cried. We were like going
Speaker 3: through this, like how can we go through this? Once
Speaker 3: we went through it and got it, we found the
Speaker 3: right person. We were part of that decision. That's always
Speaker 3: something I always try to say to other entrepreneurs. Be
Speaker 3: part of the decision. Don't allow it to happen to
Speaker 3: you and get to a point where it's like so
Speaker 3: you're removed and it's like this dramatic No, it's okay,
Speaker 3: it's growth. 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 3: 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 teav Like I've never bought a Super od
Speaker 3: like have you like, you know, And so we went
Speaker 3: to once again. I said I want to bring in
Speaker 3: a traditional CMO. And you know, that was one of
Speaker 3: the hardest years of my life. And did coaching and
Speaker 3: worked through that. But I think, like I think people
Speaker 3: hold on to the word CEO, you know, and it's
Speaker 3: like this thing where it's like, as an entrepreneur, our
Speaker 3: founder is a really powerful title. My title is Chief
Speaker 3: brand Officer and a run brand. But I wish more
Speaker 3: 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.
Speaker 2: Many are dying to not be the CEO.
Speaker 1: And it's releasing that control and that title. And a
Speaker 1: very successful friend of mine who has started five companies
Speaker 1: successfully all of them literally this summer was like, I,
Speaker 1: for the first time in fifteen years, don't.
Speaker 2: Have CEO title. And we were like, I'm like, how
Speaker 2: 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: Some of our most magnificent ideas have come from like
Speaker 3: junior people and me just like, tell me a little
Speaker 3: bit more about that or push the wiser why they'll
Speaker 3: come up with the idea. I'm like, why can't we
Speaker 3: do it? I'm like, why can't we do it? Like,
Speaker 3: let's think about that, right, And I do think that's
Speaker 3: 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
Speaker 3: it like super in Stone. But you can't be culturally relevant.
Speaker 3: And if you're planning like what you're doing in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty six, I don't know what's going to be cool
Speaker 3: in twenty six. So this ability to move quick is
Speaker 3: like such a gift. And I agree the team has
Speaker 3: seen that and they've found ways to support me in that, right,
Speaker 3: and like that my strength isn't going out and building
Speaker 3: the most amazing retail program or media program or you know,
Speaker 3: sales team. Right. So no, I love that. I love
Speaker 3: that you asked that question because like, no, I'm not
Speaker 3: 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. Right, Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: one hundred percent. I love that you said that.
Speaker 3: I love our CEO. We're great. I'm great friends with
Speaker 3: this wife. So it's like it can be a beautiful
Speaker 3: relationship as well. I should be, you know, look at
Speaker 3: it as a downside. So no, I love that, and
Speaker 3: it allows you know, back to like just being a
Speaker 3: mother throughout all of this. It's funny like when you
Speaker 3: were saying that stuff earlier, I you know, what came
Speaker 3: to mind is the different challenges that were when we're
Speaker 3: starting are so different now Now I'm gone a lot
Speaker 3: and I don't get to be with my kids and
Speaker 3: my husband's sit down at home more. And just recently
Speaker 3: I'm like, wow, I'm missing a lot and I'm kind
Speaker 3: of having to step back and be like I maybe
Speaker 3: should say no more reprioritize stay home, and like that's
Speaker 3: a decision that I've been like, never thought I would
Speaker 3: have to think through. But I'm like, whoa I'm missing?
Speaker 2: How old are they?
Speaker 3: The boys to six and eight?
Speaker 1: So it's perfect because you can still really confidently make
Speaker 1: those choices and not miss a thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but think.
Speaker 1: About that really, because I only say that because you
Speaker 1: don't get it back. But you don't necessarily have to
Speaker 1: make the choice. You can do both because you are
Speaker 1: who you are in this company. You can 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 that, and
Speaker 1: that's also the gift. I want to talk to you
Speaker 1: about a couple of things. I want to talk to
Speaker 1: you about naming it Poppy because it was called the
Speaker 1: Mother Beverage.
Speaker 2: Okay, why tell me?
Speaker 3: Okay, So when I first started, it's like Apple Side
Speaker 3: vinegar was kind of like the key and like you
Speaker 3: had 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 farmers marketing, health focused. But when
Speaker 3: we rebranded and realized we were soda for the next
Speaker 3: generation modern soda, what kept coming up over and over
Speaker 3: again is like pop soda pop, And so we named
Speaker 3: it Poppy off of soda Pop. And I just love
Speaker 3: it because it just even when you just say it
Speaker 3: makes you happy, the colors you're happy, it screams pop,
Speaker 3: it screams soda. So it just made a lot of
Speaker 3: sense to change the name. And I'm glad we went
Speaker 3: from bottles to cans and then we launched Poppy, so
Speaker 3: like all the Shark Tank and all the mother stuff
Speaker 3: was previous, but then we launched Poppy March third, twenty twenty,
Speaker 3: the first week of COVID, which is like absolutely crazy,
Speaker 3: but I love it because I think, hold on, wait.
Speaker 2: 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's
Speaker 1: called the Mother Beverage? Okay, So what happened on Shark
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 3: O praying the best days, just being like you have
Speaker 3: to say so calm. On the other hand, I swear
Speaker 3: because I was that way. 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 like
Speaker 3: four or so months for the episode air, And honestly,
Speaker 3: if you get a deal, it's not even guaranteed the air,
Speaker 3: so at the end of the day, it's a TV
Speaker 3: show has to make it right. Of course, we did
Speaker 3: spoiler alert, we did get a deal, closed the deal
Speaker 3: the friday 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 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 3: 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. 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 covid,
Speaker 1: did you have a nervous breakdown.
Speaker 3: No. We'd flown out to California, though, like to set
Speaker 3: up for Exos, a big event the first week, and
Speaker 3: then they canceled. I remember like flying out that like
Speaker 3: maybe three to ten cases and we were flying home
Speaker 3: they had thousands and we were so devastated. It was
Speaker 3: like our coming out yeah party basically, but it was
Speaker 3: a blessing disguise. I wouldn't say like COVID was, but
Speaker 3: just yeah, it forced us to really think differently. As
Speaker 3: a business fundamentally from the beginning, because everything that traditionally
Speaker 3: people would do when launching a company was off the
Speaker 3: table from day one. We had to just try new stuff.
Speaker 3: And really what it was is we were like one
Speaker 3: of the first brands to get on TikTok. I have
Speaker 3: over two billion views on TikTok. A third of platform
Speaker 3: is seeing my face seven times. I always say it's
Speaker 3: so fun. I'm thirty seven year old mom of three
Speaker 3: and gen Z like loves me.
Speaker 2: I'm like, that's so great that. By the way, that
Speaker 2: is no easy feat.
Speaker 3: It's not. I just think we jumped on. It was
Speaker 3: the wild wild West. We digitally connected, We went all
Speaker 3: in on Amazon on and we're just a digital first
Speaker 3: brand and it's just stayed in our DNA since We've
Speaker 3: just grown, grown, grown, and then now we're starting to
Speaker 3: do in real life stuff and have had some amazing
Speaker 3: pop ups this year. But we got scrappy at the beginning.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: What I'm so, I'm so impressed with it, 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? And do
Speaker 1: you consider your face the face of the brand or
Speaker 1: do you use a lot of outside talent and will
Speaker 1: you continue to do that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So when we first launched, we did before we
Speaker 3: ever did a paid app, 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. So we worked with
Speaker 3: influencers and at the time I didn't realize that I
Speaker 3: was building myself as face of the company. But it
Speaker 3: was free for me. You get online and post of
Speaker 3: course right right, and it just I did it with
Speaker 3: no makeup on. I had my kids running around the
Speaker 3: background like I was just posting it. It was desperate
Speaker 3: for everyone to learn about Poppy and it just like
Speaker 3: merikanically I became the face. And then we've always worked
Speaker 3: the creators, and I'm obsessed with the creator just like
Speaker 3: everything that they do and the strength and like they're
Speaker 3: entrepreneurs theirselves. At the end of the day, right, Like
Speaker 3: the amount of the good ones, Yeah, it's absolutely wild. Yes,
Speaker 3: yes there's some good ones and there's not some good ones.
Speaker 3: But we've also worked with celebrities, 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 in the celebrity it's not as
Speaker 3: authentic as it used to be. You have to find
Speaker 3: like a real reason why you want to work with it.
Speaker 3: So we just launched like a partnership with post Malone.
Speaker 3: And why I liked it is he went on a
Speaker 3: couple of podcasts saying he had given up Big Soda
Speaker 3: and I was close friends with his manager and I
Speaker 3: text him. I was like, oh my god, and he's like,
Speaker 3: I know because I gave him poppy like and he
Speaker 3: lost like thirty pounds. I was like, this whole thing
Speaker 3: in complex like all these people. I was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: that's authentic, right, that's a good reason not I want
Speaker 3: to put so and so sure you don't have to.
Speaker 2: It's almost like you went in the you went in
Speaker 2: the front door instead of the back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, totally, and so like for me. The one thing though,
Speaker 3: as a brand, the creator economy is very expensive. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and I don't know at what point smaller brands can
Speaker 3: sustain it can't. It's really tricky because when we were
Speaker 3: first starting out, it was kind of on the rise
Speaker 3: of it, and you could get people for very affordable
Speaker 3: whereas people when we start out were five thousand. Now
Speaker 3: they're like and fifty thousand for a social post. And
Speaker 3: so I don't know. Something I think eventually has to give,
Speaker 3: and I don't know what.
Speaker 2: That is 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 yea, 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,
Speaker 1: uh h, we're taking the upper hand back because we're
Speaker 1: not spending this money on you. And then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden most of them aren't working, and so the
Speaker 1: ones that want to work are either going to have
Speaker 1: to charge less or not work. So I think that's
Speaker 1: the only way it gives, truthfully, And the same thing
Speaker 1: will happen eventually. I just think because of the virality
Speaker 1: of certain brands and certain creators, I think all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, once they have that virality, it's they have
Speaker 1: the for hand, right. But I think it's always going
Speaker 1: to do this but very interesting. I mean, authenticity through
Speaker 1: and through.
Speaker 2: So what's next for you? I'm so excited. I'm such
Speaker 2: a fan.
Speaker 1: I love my entire team drinks Poppee, and like, everywhere
Speaker 1: I go there's Poppy. 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 so insane is are you
Speaker 2: pinching yourself?
Speaker 3: So I'm so annoying, and I'm going to say. People
Speaker 3: ask me this all the time, and I think I
Speaker 3: should reframe how I answer. Usually I'm like, you no,
Speaker 3: because I still got shit to do. Yeah, I do
Speaker 3: need to, Like that's my whole new balance that we
Speaker 3: were kind of talking about earlier. I need to sit
Speaker 3: back and enjoy this because it's so freaking special. But
Speaker 3: also I'm like, I'm not done, Like I have I
Speaker 3: am dominating, we are disrupting soda. It's like this whole
Speaker 3: thing that I'm like, I'm not ready to sit back
Speaker 3: and pitch myself. 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.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: But I would say, now, because I'm you know, like
Speaker 1: a couple of years older than you, what I would
Speaker 1: say is, in many ways, some of the most exciting
Speaker 1: things that happened to me in my career are a
Speaker 1: blur and I only remember them when people interview me
Speaker 1: about them, and then I'm like, right, yes, because it
Speaker 1: was and so and I never once stopped to recognize
Speaker 1: what was happening.
Speaker 2: And people would say it to me in the moment,
Speaker 2: do you have a leader? Do you believe you're on
Speaker 2: a plane with so and so? Do you believe you're
Speaker 2: flying to Monaco with Britney Spirit?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: Do you believe these things?
Speaker 1: Because in the moment, it's work, it's your job, and
Speaker 1: as much as you love it, you're like and you're
Speaker 1: leading it.
Speaker 2: So what I would say to that into anyone listening
Speaker 2: is because you stop for.
Speaker 1: Ten minutes to recognize what's happening, or to maybe have
Speaker 1: a glass of champagne or whatever it is to just
Speaker 1: be like, Okay, that does not mean you are resting
Speaker 1: on success, and that does not mean you're stopping tomorrow.
Speaker 1: That just means you're taking an hour to say, I
Speaker 1: can't believe this is actually happening, and that's it, and
Speaker 1: then you live in that moment for a minute and
Speaker 1: then go onto your next thing the next day.
Speaker 2: But it is important to do that. It is important
Speaker 2: to do that also, like document it.
Speaker 1: Doc you will obviously, especially the Lakers, that'll be documented
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 3: But social media also makes it easier to document everyone's
Speaker 3: like y rd a journal, I'm like, oh, that's my word.
Speaker 2: You don't even need to and there.
Speaker 3: I just I'll just go back on my TikTok feed. No,
Speaker 3: I know it's true, Like it's this new level of
Speaker 3: balance that I have to find in my life because
Speaker 3: I've been working so much that everyone just like, I
Speaker 3: don't know how you do it else. And look, I'm
Speaker 3: a creative and I have to allow that space to
Speaker 3: be creative. 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 for any of those beautiful boys.
Speaker 3: I love that you're a boy.
Speaker 1: Mom.
Speaker 2: Yes, next time you come here, let me know and
Speaker 2: we'll go have drinks.
Speaker 3: I love it, happy in tequila, love slay.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Anny, Thank you so much to
Speaker 1: Alison for being on the pod. I honestly lived for
Speaker 1: our conversation, and I really really loved how loud and
Speaker 1: proud she is about not holding the title of CEO,
Speaker 1: because I think as females, over the last several years,
Speaker 1: we have become so obsessed with having the title of CEO,
Speaker 1: even if we don't know what it means, or even
Speaker 1: if we don't know if we want it or not.
Speaker 1: And I think that's been one of the biggest takeaways
Speaker 1: for me, having gone to so many events and sitting
Speaker 1: at so many tables with so many successful women, how
Speaker 1: over the last year or two, how many women are
Speaker 1: either stepping down and relinquishing that title, realizing they really
Speaker 1: don't want it anymore, realizing what it truly means and
Speaker 1: 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 and 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 Inhales pod for the latest episodes and updates.
Speaker 2: I will talk to you soon.