David Novak 0:03 

Welcome to How leaders lead where every week you get to listen in while I interview some of the best leaders in the world, I break down the key learning so that by the end of the episode, you'll have something simple that you can apply as you develop into a better leader. That's what this podcast is all about. Today's guest is Brittany Hughes, the founder and CEO of Malibu milk. building something from scratch is not easy. Whoever leads the business and the mindset they approach their work with is a key ingredient in the success of a company. And in my conversation with Brittany, you're about to see a unique mindset on full display as she tells the story of launching Malibu milk. Brittany has what I call a startup mindset. And what I mean by that is she's absolutely passionate about what she's created. She's going to make sure that it is a success, and she's willing to do everything it takes to make it happen. I'm telling you, this startup mindset is a real asset to any leader, regardless if they're an actual startup or running an established business. You see, the great leaders, I know, the ones who help businesses thrive, they never lose the startup mindset. There's a lot for us to learn from this founder story. And I'm excited for you to listen in. Here's my conversation with my good friend, and soon to be yours. Brittany fuse, the founder and CEO of Malibu milk.

You know, Brittany, you've literally built the Malibu milk brand from scratch. Tell us about the brand and what inspired you to create it?

Brittany Fuisz 1:44 

Yeah, Malibu milk is the world's tastiest healthiest plant based milk. It's made from the whole ground organic flax seed. I really started this journey a few years ago, about three years ago. And it was connected to me trying to get pregnant, I was struggling to get pregnant Like many young couples do. And I went to see a doctor here in LA, a fertility doctor. And she recommended I take a really hard look at my diet and take a really hard look at the things I was consuming. And she ended up recommending an autoimmune protocol, an elimination diet where I had to eliminate all major allergens, so dairy, nuts, gluten soy. And you can imagine when you've eliminated dairy nuts and soy, you've wiped out the entire milk aisle, both traditional cow's milk and plant based milk. So I was pretty discouraged and frustrated. And I was looking for an allergen free, really healthy option, because when you're trying to get pregnant, I think it's one of those times in your life when you're all of a sudden hyper aware of what you're consuming, because you're going to be building another human being. And I was literally driving in the car one day, and I had this kind of light bulb moment. And I thought, what if I make milk fruit, flaxseed. I've always loved flaxseed, I would add it to smoothies or oatmeal, constantly looking for ways to get more fiber and omega threes into my diet. So I went home that day, I pulled out my blender. And I have a pretty good understanding of cooking because I went to culinary school several years ago. And I started playing with a few really simple ingredients, flaxseed, Himalayan salts, a little bit of organic vanilla extract. And I was getting this incredibly creamy milk, because flaxseed is a natural emulsifier. And so at that point, I was I was really excited. And I think I did what any aspiring entrepreneur would do. I reached out to Whole Foods to the local buyer here in Southern Cal Oh, come

David Novak 3:48 

on, you know, just create a product. I'm going to call Whole Foods now and get distribution. I mean, come on, give me a break

Brittany Fuisz 3:54 

today. But I did you know what they say David, they say ignorance is bliss. So I didn't know all of the stuff that I didn't know about CPG and margins and pricing and, and I figured it would take you know, six to eight months to get on this person's calendar. And I could figure all of that other stuff out.

David Novak 4:13 

I want to ask you about that later because I want to come back at your first account. But how'd you I love your brand name Malibu milk. It sounds that's that's cool. How do you come up with that?

Brittany Fuisz 4:22 

So I grew up in Malibu. I was actually born in Ohio. So I have nice Midwestern roots, I like to say but my parents were entrepreneurs. They moved out to California when I was about seven for their business. And we went from if you can believe it, a little tiny town in Oak Harbor, Ohio, to Malibu, California. And so I had the good fortune of being from seven to 18 and Malibu. It was a wonderful place to grow up. And I loved the alliteration of Malibu and milk and Malibu. It's such a health conscious place. You know, a lot of my friends were coming to school with us homemade breads and produce from their parents gardens. And so, you know, that's where I really learned about health and wellness was when we moved to Malibu and so it just seemed fitting for this organic flaxmill.

David Novak 5:13 

I love that name. It's great. It makes a lot of sense, obviously, you know, you know, I grew up drinking whole milk, like, you know, most people in my generation. And now all you'll find in my fridge is silk, almond milk, what's going on in the milk category. And you talked a little bit about how you're differentiating yourself, but tell us about the dynamics of the milk category itself.

Brittany Fuisz 5:32 

So the milk category right now is really interesting, because the dairy milk industry is valued at $800 billion to huge number, right, but it's actually shrinking. So the amount of people consuming cow's milk has declined drastically, like 40% per capita since 1975. Meanwhile, the amount of people who are drinking plant based milk so not milk, soy milk, flax milk, is growing rapidly. And over 50% of American consumers drink plant based milk regularly, just like yourself. And what's really interesting is when you dive in, and you look at the different plant based milks, and you want to understand the nutrition behind them, the growing methods behind them, they're actually all very different. And that was one of the things that I dug into as well when I was considering flax. So take almond milk, for example. Because you know, David, you said you do consume almond milk. Almond milk is made by blending almonds with water, and then you strain the almonds out. So most of the nutrients and the protein that are found in those almonds are actually thrown out. And you end up with almond flavored water. There's not a lot of nutrients, it's mostly just just water. And the problem is almonds are incredibly unsustainable. It takes 20 gallons of water to produce one single glass of almond milk. A lot of water, water is a natural resource that we need, you know, we depend on almond milk is not so when you're considering. Okay, well, I'm not really getting a lot of nutrition from this almond milk and it's also quite the strain on our natural resources. Alright, let's see what other choices there are. Let's go to oat milk. Oat Milk is having a heyday right now, right? A lot of people are leaning into oat milk. Oat Milk is interesting because you know, they say no added sugar. But the truth is the way that the oats are processed and oat milk, and ends up gram for gram having a higher impact on your blood sugar than a can of Coca Cola. Oat Milk is filled with calories. It's filled with carbohydrates. And most of the oats in this country are covered in glyphosate, which is otherwise known as weed killer or Roundup. No, no, I'm very serious. And so Alright, almond milk is out. Oat Milk is out soy milk, most soy is genetically modified. You know, there's all this movement with non GMO you want. Now I don't even know if people really know what it means. But they know they want it right. What is what is GMO non GMO? Well, I know I want the non GMO, most soy is GMO, it is genetically modified. That means it can cause hormonal imbalances, it's not good for your health. We are using 100% Organic flax seed, we're not adding any thing that's you know, no weed killer, no oils, most oat milks, a lot of soy milks have oils in them, because it gives them a thicker texture and helps them frost better. We're not adding any oils, we're just keeping our ingredients as clean as possible. And the beautiful thing about the flax flower is the only water required is natural rainfall. So from a health point of view, it's the best choice for you. And from a mother earth point of view. It's the best choice for our planet as well.

David Novak 8:56 

Wow, that's so interesting. You know, Brittany, you're already getting accolades for being a great brand builder. And you got a great brand name. We just talked about that. And your packaging is absolutely beautiful and very distinctive on the shelf. What advice can you give to others who want to build brands and make them stand out?

Brittany Fuisz 9:14 

Get started? You know, I think it's one of the hardest things is, well, where do I start? And what do I do next? And there's not really a roadmap for when you get started, but you have to start somewhere. And and you have to just keep going. And I for a long time was trying to I had a day job. I had a full time day job. And I was like, Well, I can do both. You know, I'll kind of do a little bit of this project on the side here and there. For me, it was really hard to do and I'm pretty type A and I'm pretty goal oriented and yet until you know I didn't have the full time job anymore until I was able to really focus on this. It just didn't move forward. I needed to sit down every day in front of my computer at 8am and say alright, how am I moving this forward today, and I knew nothing, I knew nothing about the industry. I mean, when I say nothing, I have no family that's worked in consumer packaged goods like this, I was coming in totally blind, but what I had was a passion. And I also think that the blindness in a way, one of my early investors and advisors said, you know, make sure that you're kind of leaning into that it's your newness and your ignorance to the category that's giving you such a great perspective, because it's different than somebody who's, you know, been in the industry for a really long time.

David Novak 10:36 

Having a beginner mindset, I think works in any business and for any person, you know, and it's obvious, Brittany, that you don't sit around and wait for others to tell you what to do. Yeah, tell us what you think makes a great self starter? And what would you tell others on how to cultivate a skill like that?

Brittany Fuisz 10:53 

Oh, that's such a great question. You know, I think having goals does help. Having realistic goals and putting your mind to something, you can then break those goals into things that you're just going to achieve today, you know, or that week, okay, this week, I'm going to achieve X, Y and Z or one, two, and three. You know, for me, the first step was finalizing this formula. I had this idea. I made this, you know, great kind of product in my kitchen. But I really needed to hone in on the formula. And it was really hard to do alone. So I had, like an intern sort of friend come over, and just sit with me and write down different recipes. As we tinkered and honed in on the recipe. That was first and foremost, that was before I met with whole foods. That was, before I did anything else, I wanted to have a formula that I was like, Okay, this is unique, this is special. And then I would also say, do your homework, because it's so easy. Nowadays with technology. To understand your consumer at the very beginning, I did a huge survey monkey with everyone that I knew. I created a survey monkey, it was free. It didn't cost me a single dollar. I sent it out to family in Ohio, to friends on the east coast to friends on the West Coast. I wanted to understand how people were drinking and buying plant based milk. What did they like about it? What did they not like about it? What were they paying for it? Were they buying flavors like vanilla or chocolate? Did they just want it plain? Do they want it sweetened, unsweetened, figure out what your consumers are looking for? Make sure that there's a need that actually exists. But do your homework, do the research and then build around that? I think that's really important. When you're a self starter,

David Novak 12:36 

you didn't have any consumer packaged goods experience. You've never run a company before. How have you gone about building the skills that it takes to run this business that you now have?

Brittany Fuisz 12:46 

I have leaned on mentors like yourself, David. And David has been privy to more than one or two phone calls about asking for advice with how to grow a team and how to, you know, lean into the team that I do have. I read a lot of books, I listen to a lot of podcasts, including this one. And I try to learn from people who have done it before me because I haven't run a business before. And you know, this is my first time managing a team and making business decisions. And even we're launching in Albertsons in Texas, Ralph's in Southern California and stater brothers in Southern California, three really important brands for our business. I've never launched in a conventional grocery store before even this is something completely outside of my wheelhouse. I've only launched a natural grocery stores with the milk so far. So I am leaning on my brokers, my other advisors and I'm saying, Tell me about your learnings. What have you seen, you know, when you've launched a natural product in a conventional space? Where can I be strong? Like what do I need to lean in on? I am asking a ton of questions. And I always will take the opportunity to speak to somebody, especially another founder within the space. Because there is always something to learn. And it's not always easy, because we're really busy, right? Like I'm a mom, I'm pregnant. I'm running this business, I've got a really small team. Time is my most valuable asset right now. And there is just not enough time in the day I put my son to bed I get back on email, and I'm on email at 630 in the morning, sometimes even earlier asked my team, but carving out that 30 or 45 minutes to speak to another founder. I always find something valuable and if you don't find something valuable, it's because you're not engaged and you're not asking the right questions.

David Novak 14:35 

Shifting gears Yeah, I'd love to hear a story about your upbringing that will tell us the most about the kind of leader that you are today.

Brittany Fuisz 14:41 

As a little girl, I used to play you know, I had one of those tree houses in my nothing fancy just a regular old tree house that you can buy I think pre assembled and pop in your backyard. And I would have these clubs and I always wanted to be the leader of the Bob and I would make the club rules. And I would invite certain people to be in the club. And they had to follow the rules. So I think for whatever reason, from this really early childhood age, like, I understood the idea of structure, and how that could be effective in any sort of setting where you wanted there to be rules, and you wanted to have progress. You know, I remember doing that eight, nine years old. And then, you know, as I grew in school, like I always welcomed the opportunity of leadership from a really young age, I was class president multiple times, I ended up being student body president in my high school, I was captain of my volleyball team, like I was consistently leaning into these leadership opportunities. And maybe part of it's because I'm a control freak, I don't know. But I, you know, I think it also gave me really valuable opportunities to learn and, and even more, so I'll tell you another story, David, my parents were entrepreneurs. So it was ingrained in me from early childhood, when when we moved out to California, from Oak Harbor, Ohio, I think our population was less than 20,000. People in Oak Harbor, a really tiny, tiny town, everybody knew everybody. And my parents somehow got the guts and the motivation to move out to California where they knew no one. And it was for their business. And it was because they were chasing opportunity. And so I didn't know fear, you know, I saw that, you take risks, you take risks, you leap and the net will appear. That was a quote that I remember seeing in my mother's office, like always growing up, and she's a best selling author. And her and my father built this incredible business. And it wasn't easy. You know, there were a lot of really scary ups and downs. And I think, being privy to that, as a child, seeing the ups and downs, knowing how hard they were working, you know, they were always working, but they were working from home. And so being able to see that firsthand, was incredibly valuable.

David Novak 17:16 

You've also had some excellent and relevant prior business experience. You know, how's that background helping you now?

Brittany Fuisz 17:24 

I did study business at Georgetown University. And actually, on my team call every week, we're all working remote, we even have a team member in another state. And we have a weekly team call early in the week, we start out this call with a personal question. And it can be anything and then a different person on the team chooses the topic every week. So maybe it's, you know, what's your favorite flavor of ice cream? That's been a real question, or what are your New Year's plans? And one of the most recent questions from my new national director of sales, she asked who was a teacher or professor that was really influential in your life? And it was a great question, because it took us all back, right. And we're all thinking about these people who haven't thought about in a while and I thought about my teacher at Georgetown, he taught entrepreneurship. And he was just a part time teacher, you know, just kind of doing it for fun, he would teach one class a semester on entrepreneurship. And I thought about him. And I thought about that class. And I thought about what I'm doing now. In the class, we had to make a business plan. And I can't even remember what my business plan was, I have no idea. It definitely had nothing to do with milk. But I ended up reaching out to him as a result of this team call last week, I sent him a note on LinkedIn, I found him on LinkedIn. And I reached out to him, I asked if he's drinking plant based milk he is and what kind of milk he's drinking, and I'm sending him some Malibu milk, but you know, even then, even it, however, I must have been 20 years old when I took that class. It got my mind thinking in the right way. It got me thinking differently. It got me considering that there were options outside of just the normal trajectory of getting a job and then working for other people, which I did do. One of my mentors who's been incredible as Padma Lakshmi. She's the host of Bravo's Top Chef. She's been incredible. And I actually met her randomly at it. I bumped into her physically at a store in New York City. And then I backed up and I realized it was her and I went over to my mom and I said, Oh my god, I just bumped into Padma Lakshmi, and I was, I was a huge fan. I still am a top chef. And my mom said, go introduce yourself, tell her that you want to work in food. And I said, No, no, I don't want to bother her. You know, I grew up in Malibu, you don't bother celebrities. You leave them alone. But I did. I went up to her and I had these little business cards. I had a little food blog and I, I said, you know if you have any time, I would love some advice for an aspiring food person. And she called me a week later. I remember like it was yesterday. I was driving in the car. on the freeway, she called me and she said, my number one piece of advice for you. You need to go to culinary school if you want to do anything in the food world. And I said, No, no, you know, I don't want to go to culinary school I had just finished Georgetown, I was done with school, I was not interested in being a cook, I didn't want to be in a kitchen, I knew I wanted to do something with food, but something more editorial or product development wise, or restaurant development wise. And she was adamant. She said, this is the number one piece of advice I could give you. If you want to be able to have any authority, you need to go to culinary school. And at the time, I had a full time job. I quit. I enrolled in culinary school a week and a half later I started in January, it must have been like 2010 or something. And I started at Le Cordon Bleu here in LA. And it was one of the best pieces of advice that I was given in culinary school is hard, you know, I was on my feet eight hours a day and chef whites. But I learned the basics of cooking, I learned about flavors I learned about developing my palate. And I wouldn't have been able to pull out my blender, you know, eight years later, and come up with this flax recipe and understand the way flavors worked without that culinary school experience.

David Novak 21:22 

Great story. And you develop this recipe from scratch. And then you've got to commercialize it, tell us how you went about the process of commercializing this product. And then I'd love to hear how you did learn that Whole Foods account.

Brittany Fuisz 21:36 

So commercializing your recipe is challenging, because all of the ingredients that you're buying at the grocery store are they don't necessarily translate, you can't necessarily buy those wholesale in bulk. So if you're looking to develop a food recipe, go to a conference, go to one of these huge conferences where all of the ingredients suppliers are there. And they all give out samples and you walk the floor, and you get samples. And you're getting samples of ingredients that you can buy in bulk, and that you can use to mass produce. So that's the best way to figure out how to bring something at scale. Then there's another piece of talking to a manufacturer and trying to explain to them what you were doing with your blender, and how that can translate to the large scale equipment that they're using for blending and pasteurization and all of that. And you might need to bring in an expert, there are like consultants, and some of them are crazy expensive, and some of them will rip you off. But ultimately, you want to find someone as sort of a scientist who knows what they're talking about and can help you scale this recipe and understand the equipment. I am not a scientist. So know what you don't know and find someone who knows the things that you don't know who can help you. Because there's certain things where you are going to need an expert. Did you

David Novak 23:01 

ever have any quality issues with the manufacturing process? Yes, yeah. Tell us about that.

Brittany Fuisz 23:07 

I'll tell you a really, really great story. My first production run was in December of 2018. And it was supposed to be earlier because I had already met with whole foods a few months earlier, they wanted the product and they said can we get it in the next couple of weeks? I said no. Let me go find a manufacturer. But you know, we can do the next couple of months. And so I was supposed to have the manufacturing run. In November, it just kept getting pushed back. And this is how it goes with manufacturing. It's one of the most frustrating things, especially when you're small. They walk all over you, you know, they kind of treat you like crap until you're one of their best customers. So they kept pushing my run back, kept pushing it back. Finally I got a date. And they said Alright, we're going to start batching your product at 9:30pm on a Tuesday. Luckily, it was close enough that I was able to drive to the facility. But you know, it's 9:30pm I'm there. I'm alone. It's dark. It's cold. I'm in this huge plant trying to process this milk. I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm looking at things like PAH and bricks and I don't even know what they mean and, and I'm there with this their night shift their night team. I ordered everybody pizza because I wanted I wanted them to keep working and be happy and you know, full and then we ran three flavors. I had my original which recently shifted to my slightly sweetened. It's a product you can still buy today on our website. I had my unsweetened and then I had a barista I wanted a flavor that was specifically made for coffee that was a little sweeter, that would froth a little more. And we first we ran the unsweetened then we ran to the original which had a little bit of sugar. We recently shifted that to organic date sugar so it's refined sugar free, and then we ran the the barista. Last and at this point, it was probably 330 or four in the morning, I was exhausted, you know, I hadn't slept. And the barista is running, it's on the equipment, and they bring out the first couple of bottles for me to taste. And David, I kid you not, I tasted this product, and it tasted like rotten eggs. It smelled like rotten eggs. And I was just, like, horrified. And I'm just like, Oh, my God. And so, you know, they're looking at me the quality control team. And they're like, Well, what do you want to do. And they wanted to know if I wanted to keep filling it. Or if I wanted to toss it, if I tossed all of the liquid that had been put in these very large tanks, at least, I would save money on the bottles, because we wouldn't be using the bottles and the labels. And again, it's four in the morning, I haven't slept. And I had to make this really hard decision, because we're talking about 1000s of dollars worth of product. And this is my only chance, like, you know, this is the you only get one trial run with these folks, the next run is 10 times more expensive, and that you need to have 10 times more gallons and, and so I decided to toss it, I knew I couldn't present anybody with milk that smelled like rotten eggs if I wanted to be in business for very long. So I told them to throw it out. And you know, that was the end of the run that day. And I got in my car and I cried the whole way home, I called I was devastated. And I thought this isn't going to work. And I had dumped all of this money that I had, you know, money that I'd been saving for a house or you know, something in my life, I had dumped all of this money into this business. And here it was for the morning, and I was just crying, I'm sobbing. And I got home and I slept. And then and I had the the unsweetened and the original and, and I remember my husband came and woke me up around 11am. And he's like, I tasted them like they're good. Like, you know, come downstairs and go away. I was just so upset about this barista flavor. And then I you know, I came downstairs finally, and I tried the other two flavors, and they were really good. I mean, they were really on point. And then I got a call from the manufacturer, their head scientist who doesn't work, the night shifts, was calling me to let me know that the egg smell was completely normal. And it was just sulfur. And it would disappear within two to three days. So even then I was even more devastated. I didn't actually have to throw it out, it would have just gone away. But the truth is, the product actually didn't froth correctly. Like I had a couple of bottles that I had held. It wasn't frothing correctly, it wasn't where it needed to be throwing, it ended up being the right decision. But, you know, it's these moments where you're just, you're at your wit's end because you're exhausted, and you've spent all this time and this money and you see no way out. And that was a tough day, but it ended up working out.

David Novak 28:02 

You're obviously resilient. And, and I would like to hear the story. Now you now go to Whole Foods, and you sell them on this product.

Brittany Fuisz 28:09 

Yeah. So I did get the meeting with Whole Foods about a week and a half after I asked for it, which was really fast. It's still really fast. Like, that doesn't happen in this industry ever. And I, I panicked. And I called a friend who has products and Whole Foods, and I said, I think I need to cancel this meeting. I'm not ready. I don't have a packaging provider. I don't have a manufacturer, I don't understand distribution. I don't have a distributor, I don't know margins, like I I knew nothing. And he said don't cancel the meeting, you might never get this chance again, you know, and I do know now if you cancel on a buyer, it might be your only shot. Like when a buyer says it'll take a meeting you make it work Hell or High Water like you figure it out. So I took the meeting, I had mock bottles made from this mock Bottling Company in Texas. And I went in with little plastic bottle samples from my kitchen. And I let the buyer taste the milk. And within a few minutes, she said I want this product in stores in the next couple of weeks. And and you know it was really, that's a moment in your life you don't ever forget. And it ended up being perfect timing because I got to go into my first production run, knowing that whole foods would be a customer. Usually you're going to produce all this product and hope to god you can sell it but I already knew Whole Foods was going to buy it. So that was really incredible. And then the product ended up launching at Whole Foods on my birthday, the following year. So just a couple months later. That's good timing. Yeah, it was really special.

David Novak 29:43 

And now you're now you're going into traditional grocery stores and you've got distribution in New York and California and big you know, you're really starting to take off in you also created a subscriber model. Yes. What drove that thinking and how's that doing?

Brittany Fuisz 29:57 

That's a great question. So one of my lead in Esther's had said to me, Well, why aren't you selling this product online? And at the time, all I had was refrigerated cold, heavy, plastic bottles. And I said, What do you mean? Why? Why am I not selling this online? These are impossible to ship. It's a nightmare. You know, they they need ice they'd be. They said, No, no, I see an opportunity here to sell this online. And I went home that weekend. And I set up on my little Wix website, a shopping button, and I started shipping cold milks from my garage, which was a total nightmare. Let me tell you, Oh, my God, the amount of problems. But we did it. We did it for the first few months, because we needed to make sure that people were willing to order flax milk online. What's been incredible is people were willing, and what was happening is, they would discover the milk, you know, locally at a grocery store. Maybe they're on vacation in Southern California, we had one customer who was buying it here at Whole Foods, and then he moved up to Seattle. And he was obsessed with the product. And him and his wife make so many smoothies every morning and they were going through like a bottle a day. And he just started ordering it and ordering it and he couldn't get enough of it. And so I figured out a way to manufacture the product with the same exact formula, but in a shelf stable carton, and the only difference is the carton. And we were we did our first production run for that product just over a year ago. And now you know, we have a shipping partner who's at a warehouse, and they ship these milks all over the country. And what's really cool is a ton of customers have subscribed, you go on once you sign up, you say okay, I want a six pack of milk to come once a month. And you don't have to worry about it again. And it arrives at your front door. You literally get to forget about it. And you know that your milk will arrive once a month at your front door and it's ready to go. And it doesn't take up a whole bunch of room in your refrigerator because these shelf stable cartons you store in your pantry until you open them. And then you put one in your refrigerator at a time. People are loving it. We're shipping it all over the country. We get inquiries all the time, if we can ship International, which we're not doing quite yet. But you know, there really is no other product quite like this. So people love that they can subscribe, buy it online. And it's been incredible.

David Novak 32:28 

I noticed that you've just gone into these coffee brand basically where you have a flax plus oat milk coffee. Okay, and a flax plus Oh, milk matcha Yes. And it's interesting. You're positioning these things as as your digestions, new bestie. Okay? Does that mean it helps you go to the restroom, if that's exactly what it means, David, I know, that's a goal positioning, I gotta tell you, I don't know if anybody that has ever come up with that kind of positioning for a product. Now, what gave you the courage to do that?

Brittany Fuisz 33:00 

So my mother got another personal story here. My mother was talking to me about her, you know, bathroom struggles. And she was having her coffee in the morning and adding Malibu milk and I was like add more Malibu milk, you need more fiber, you need more fiber. And I realized with talking to some friends, that there's a ton of people who have digestive issues, that this is not an isolated problem. And I you know, the problem is you need more fiber in your diet, and people are having their coffee in their morning, you know, they're trying to get things going. And I figured, well, let's create a Malibu milk coffee, let's load it with fiber, so that it will work. So these are the number one way to go number two, and yet effective, and they really work.

David Novak 33:46 

And seriously, I gotta ask you, you got you got this great brand. It's people already liked the base products. And now you're coming up with the number one brand that helps you make number two, are you worried about people making fun of you? Are you worried about it, diluting the power of this great tasting brand that you've already created?

Brittany Fuisz 34:03 

No, not at all. People are loving it. I've never gotten more laughs smiles. People want to tell me all about their bathroom routines. It's hilarious.

David Novak 34:11 

You gotta be kidding me because I saw that and I thought this woman's crazy. I gotta go back to Marketing School because that meant the last thing I would have done when I was running Pepsi is say, Hey, this is the number one product this is gonna make you go number two. So I thought I thought KFC is original recipe was that

Brittany Fuisz 34:32 

let me tell you, it's a different day and age in marketing, David, you know, people, people are being more bold and you got to be bold. If you want to stand out. You know,

David Novak 34:41 

you're in the process of building a small but mighty team. Tell us about the most recent hire you've made and why you hired that person.

Brittany Fuisz 34:50 

Yes, so the most recent hire was super recent. I needed a new national sales director. It's really tough when you are a young company like mine, because you want somebody with experience, but somebody who has sales experience is often coming from a team where they were one of five salespeople. So you're asking them to come into this little company, take a risk for themselves and their family, and do all the work a lot more work than they've ever done before. And so it's a really particular sort of person who is willing to do that, who is eager to join a startup, and who's willing to do the amount of work it takes the most recent sales hire is incredible. She has beverage experience, she worked at a canned beverage company before this, and prior to that coconut water. And she's a mom. And you know, it's funny, because I'm a mom, I get how hard it is to balance career and family. And you know, I breastfed my son for a year. And it's really, really hard to be a mom and to work full time. And this woman that I hired, boy is she on it, she has the sort of drive and ambition that that I hope I have myself, we are on emails all the time, weekends, way past kids bedtime, early in the morning, and just constantly, you know, going after it. And that has been an incredible addition to my team. And I am so grateful that she has joined our team and that she is as amped up about it as I am. And the truth is for these first few employees, the opportunity is also huge because they get equity. And you know, if things go the way that I'm working my butt off to make sure that they do like this is going to be a great payday for her in the end, you know, she'll do very, very well. And everything that she does is so measurable. That's the other beautiful thing about a small team, when you're in a big team. Sometimes other people get credit for what you're doing. And it's hard to know really who did what, that's not happening at MALBA milk like we know exactly what you're doing. We know if you're hustling. And everybody on my team is hustling. And because we're all working so hard together, there's no tasks too small, you know, when we started shipping milks out of my garage, I was shipping them I was boxing them up, loading them in my car, driving them to FedEx, like, there is no task too small, there was a point when my milks, there was something on the label that had been mis printed, I had to go down to our distributors warehouse at three in the morning with a label gun and label 3000 bottles of milk I did that myself, there is no task too small. And you need to be willing to own that and show your team that if you want them to behave that way as well.

David Novak 37:38 

And so you really jumped into this business without having you know, a whole lot of experiencing managing people. What are you learning about yourself as a leader, because you know, you have to lead your team, you also have to lead your broker network, you have a big leadership job.

Brittany Fuisz 37:53 

I do. I again, I think it goes like lean on your network, learn from your network. Read, I know, there's not always a lot of time to read, especially when you're a busy founder and a parent. And, you know, we've all got our long list of things that we're doing. But it's the constant learning, like I'm constantly learning, you know, the phone calls I've had with you and the advice you've given me invaluable advice. And it's about being willing to ask, you know, because a lot of us have access to smart people who have built something, even if it's not exactly what we're trying to build, they've built a team, reach out now ask and maybe you'll get a no or maybe they won't make the time. But even if you get a yes, one out of 10 times, it's worth the ask.

David Novak 38:41 

Absolutely. And it's so important to create a work environment where people really feel valued. Have you articulate what kind of culture you want to have? And is your team on board? And? Or is it just by the fly?

Brittany Fuisz 38:54 

I'd say it's somewhere in the middle. We We last year, we set out a list of brand and team ethos that we wanted to guide the team and guide the year ahead. And what's really fun about doing it this way with a small team is everybody on my team gets to choose something that they want to be a part of this. So I'm not sitting there high and mighty Oh, I'm the founder let me choose these seven things or five things. I'm reaching out to my team and saying, Okay, we're having this call, we're going to talk about our brand ethos and our goals who we want to be and, and the culture that we want going forward. And they all get to contribute. And it's such a beautiful thing because you know, some of their ideas are so helpful and so inspirational and they're different than the ones that I had and one of my top ones was no task to small, every single person on my team when they go into a grocery store. If the milk isn't proper on the shelf, if it's missing if the tags are wrong, I want all of us to stop, go back as for the dairy buyer and fix it, you know anyone on the team at all? all times. And let me tell you, it's not always easy to do, especially if you're shopping with a toddler, and you've got all your stuff for the week in the cart. And, but that's really important. And I think everybody on the team lives that belief. And it's really powerful.

David Novak 40:13 

You know, you obviously are really smart, and you're really passionate, purposeful in terms of the brand you're building. Sharon's story storia how you make sure that you get healthy debate, to make healthy decisions, because I could see you being like, Hey, we gotta get it done this way. Now,

Brittany Fuisz 40:29 

yeah, it's such a good point, you know, I am, I guess you would call me type a strong personality. I think it's who you hire and letting them know that their voice matters. Every voice on my team matters. If I wanted to do it alone, I'd be doing it alone. And I don't want to do it alone, I started alone. And let me tell you, it is very lonely, and it is totally overwhelming. And two heads are better than one three heads are better than two. And I let my team know that. And we do have debates. I'll tell you a story, David, about a debate we had in the last six months, we were using vanilla flavor, and our vanilla milk. Vanilla flavor is one of those things that can get a bad rap. Because natural flavors, even though they're called natural, aren't necessarily natural, they can be derived from animals, they can be derived from a whole bunch of different things. But they taste really good, they can give you the essence of sweetness without any added calories. And you know, if you're sourcing them correctly, you can source them organically, you can use all vegan natural flavors, we were using a vegan organic, natural vanilla flavor in our vanilla milk, and it tasted great. And it was affordable. And my head of operations came to me and he said, I really think we need to switch to organic vanilla extract. And it's his job to cut our costs. He you know, he is head of ops, it is his job to make our costs go down, and you know, help improve our margins. And here he was coming to me saying he wanted to swap one of our ingredients on our best selling product to a much more expensive ingredient. Vanilla extract costs more than silver by the pound, it is so expensive. And I thought he was out of his mind, you know, I really thought he was out of his mind. But he presented his case. And then we went to the board and discussed and at first I was really adamant against doing this change, I just didn't see it being the best choice from a cost standpoint, from a taste standpoint. And ultimately, he convinced me and we ended up going with organic vanilla extract. And the reason being is because at Malibu milk, we're all about transparency. I am a mom, I am pregnant again. I was a nursing mom, I will be a nursing pregnant or I guess a nursing nonpregnant mom in the near to immediate future. We are incredibly concerned with the quality of ingredients that we're using. We want our customers to be able to trust us, you know, without any questions without any hesitation and natural flavors give some people pause. And we wanted to eliminate any pause that anyone would have for any reason with Malibu milk. So we switch from natural flavors to organic vanilla extract. And and it's the right decision because of who we are as a brand.

David Novak 43:26 

You should tell that story on your website. I mean, that's, you know how we make decisions that Malibu milk you know, that's great. You know, this has been so much fun. And I want to have a little bit more fun. I always do a lightning round of q&a. So are you ready for this? I'm ready. Ah, the one word that best describes you. Driven? If you could trade places with one person for a day, who would it be and why?

Brittany Fuisz 43:50 

Oprah I'd love to just be within her mind and every you know, the universe she has built is so incredible. I'd like to see how she did that.

David Novak 44:00 

What's something about you that few people would know Brittany?

Brittany Fuisz 44:04 

I bungee jumped off the second highest building in the world and Macau, China when I was 18 years old.

David Novak 44:12 

I've been to Macau I think I know we're building your dog. You have any hidden talents.

Brittany Fuisz 44:18 

I am an epic skier.

David Novak 44:22 

If you could get advice from one leader to help you grow your business, who would it be and why?

Brittany Fuisz 44:30 

Oh, maybe maybe somebody had a big dairy company CEO of a big dairy company. I'd love to see what they're doing and and how they're adjusting to declining dairy sales.

David Novak 44:41 

What's your favorite Malibu product?

Brittany Fuisz 44:46 

It changes all the time but right now I'm really excited about our slightly sweetened which again just has a little bit of date sugar so no refined sugar super low in calories but it is a little sweet and it's phenomenal.

David Novak 44:58 

It is every fabulous product. I will voucher that myself as fantastic, you know, a couple more questions and we're gonna wrap this up here, you know, you had one child about a year and a half ago. And now you're pregnant with a second, how do you just grass with all of this that's ahead of you that that's just so many different demands.

Brittany Fuisz 45:15 

It's a really hard thing. I have a therapist, that I see via zoom once a week, I think that's really important. I walk every day, I try to get three miles in a day to clear my head. I go to bed at 9pm Every night, because I need the sleep. I eat pretty healthy. And I take care of myself, I think there are certain things that give when you are in the stage of life that I'm in and working like that and have young children and, and for my husband and I were both founders, and we're both working this hard. It's our social life. There's no social life anymore. It's out

David Novak 45:53 

the window is your husband is as he started his own company as well.

Brittany Fuisz 45:56 

He started his own company before we actually he has a tech company. So you're both founders. What's that like? Also hard. But you know what, it's actually really nice, because in my darkest hours, when I have moments that are really tough, and I had a tough moment, a couple of weeks ago, where I was upset about something with a business, and I was emotional, really emotional, he is able to give me business advice. And he knows how hard it is. And he knows what it's like to fundraise. And he knows what it's like to build something from the ground up. And so, you know, he's my best friend, and I'm able to, he's able to give me more relevant advice and almost anyone else in my life because he's right there with me. And he's a few steps ahead of me because he's been doing it a little longer. And he's doing something different. It's tech, but in a lot of ways, I'm really grateful for his help and support.

David Novak 46:45 

Absolutely. If you could give leaders and entrepreneurs, just one bit of advice. One thing based on your journey so far, what would it be?

Brittany Fuisz 46:55 

Listen, you're going going going so fast, you've got your own ideas, you have a vision to stop and listen, listen to your team. Listen to your mentors, listen to other people within the space, stop and really listen. Otherwise, you're gonna miss something.

David Novak 47:11 

Brittany, you're not gonna miss much you were on top of your game, you're doing a great job, and congratulations on all the success you've had. And Malibu milk is on its way to national distribution and big time fame just like you. So thank you very much.

Brittany Fuisz 47:26 

Thank you, David. I really appreciate it.

David Novak 47:36 

Well, it's crystal clear that Brittany is 1,000% passionate about making Malibu Milka success. And, you know, I feel the same way about David Novak leadership and how leaders lead we've really applied a startup mindset because that business has basically been a startup and I'm just as passionate as she is about making the world a better place by developing better leaders. But I also apply to startup mindset to a very established business. In 1997, PepsiCo spun off its Restaurant Brands, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC. Now these brands have been around for decades. But I brought the team together and said, Look, you know, we're starting a brand new company, we have these brands that have tremendous equities, but let's treat them like they're brand new. What if this was a startup? How would we really launched Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC all over again. And we look at this business with a fresh set of eyes, and we uncovered all kinds of opportunity. And I have to tell you, thinking like an entrepreneur, thinking like a founder, really, really was powerful in terms of unlocking the potential we had in brands who'd been around for years. So let me ask you, are you thinking about your business like an entrepreneur would the energy and the passion, that self starter approach to your work? Let's bring some of that back into your life this week? This is important because your mindset and how you approach your work significantly impacts your business. So do you want to know how leaders lead? What we learned today is the great leaders never lose the startup mindset. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of how leaders lead where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the best leaders in the world. I make it a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can apply to your business so that you will become the best leader you can be. See you next week.