As part of its Maker Prep course, Specialty Food Association is running a webinar series, “The Secret Sauce” wherein host Dave Hirschkop, founder of Dave's Gourmet, talks with specialty food industry powerhouses about the qualities that set great leaders apart. Madeline Haydon, founder and CEO of nutpods was last week's guest.
Nutpods is a plant-based coffee creamer brand free from artificial ingredients and added sugar. The company has grown to be the number two all-channel brand in the plant-based category.
Haydon shared the hard work and difficulties that brought her from the first recipe, made in a blender in her kitchen, to a scalable formula. The brand eventually found its way into roughly 20,000 stores.
“It was so hard because we were doing things that didn’t exist in the marketplace,” she said. “It finally took two years to get a commercial formula launched with Bob Burke’s help (next month’s speaker). We launched in a small natural store channel and Amazon," she said.
To accomplish this feat, Haydon shared that she had to learn a lot about her category, the industry, and how to be an effective entrepreneur. She identified emotional regulation as a key attribute of a strong leader because imposter syndrome is “inescapable.”
“Everything is new. You’re learning how to be a CEO or a founder, you’re learning about food manufacturing, food safety, recall…there’s just so much to learn and all you wanted was to create a product for yourself and others,” she said. “People don’t let go of their insecurities or think they’ve made it because we’re always learning.”
Another way entrepreneurs learn is through the people they keep close. In the video below, Haydon discusses the power of growing one’s network; tapping these people at the right time can enable an entrepreneur to overcome obstacles.
When it comes to leading a team, Haydon also explained how she implements “genius zones” with her executive team, a concept that allows each employee to play to their “super strengths.” These strengths can run the gamut, from being adept at bringing people together to being unafraid of countering convention.
With a setup like this, the business becomes a space to learn from one another, while crafting a team greater than the sum of its parts when coming together to achieve the common goal of facilitating company success.
To learn more about the “secret sauce” that makes a strong leader, watch the webinar on demand in the SFA Learning Center. While there, look for the next video in the Maker Prep cohort series: on November 2, Hirschkop with discuss business growth with Bob Burke of Natural Products Consulting, LLC.
Related: Charting a Course to Business Success; SFA Webinar: How I Buy With Market Hall Foods