Best CPG Industry “How I Built This” Podcast Episodes
Do you want to know my favorite podcast of all-time [besides my own obviously]? Here’s a hint…
…it’s a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built.
I bet A LOT of you guessed it from just the podcast’s introduction, right? “How I Built This” is an incredible source of inspiration for current and aspiring entrepreneurs. Each episode features a compelling story about someone who builds a successful company from the ground up, with each guest having a unique backstory.
The host of “How I Built This” is Guy Raz, a longtime NPR correspondent and journalist. He’s a master at helping each founder weave their story together by fielding questions that add color and dimension to their experiences. I don’t know about you, but a lot of times I find that Guy Raz ends up having the same reactions or asking the same questions I’m wondering out loud. He takes us through the journeys of these remarkable people from childhood dreams to chance encounters to failed and successful ideations and all the hustle, perseverance, and undeniable passion that was needed to create something from nothing.
The podcast began on September 12, 2016, with episode one of “How I Built This” featuring Spanx founder Sara Blakely. At the time of writing this article, if we don’t count replays, duplicated guests from live events (e.g. How I Built This Summit), or different versions (“How I Built Resilience”), the popular podcast has about 250 unique episodes.
HIBT & CPG — A Prefect Match
Within that large library of episodes, “How I Built This” has highlighted around 60 CPG brands, which doesn’t consider serial entrepreneurs like Gary Vaynerchuk (i.e. Empathy Wine) or grocery retailers that obviously have their own private label CPG products. Why are close to one-quarter of all “How I Built This” episodes featuring CPG brands?
- Consumer packaged goods, especially the food and beverage category, enhance social and cultural life by bringing together individuals and communities. They are usually great stories that are relatable to a wide group of listeners.
- Guy Raz is an avid foodie that has been known to brew his own kombucha, make his own hemp milk, and share his cooking on social media.
Since I believe current CPG entrepreneurs will love “How I Built This” for the insights and advice, and aspiring CPG entrepreneurs will find it equally captivating and inspirational, I wanted to help cut through the noise for those that aren’t avid listeners and share a handful of my favorite CPG-related episodes.
LaraBar: Lara Merriken
Just like the soft consistency of the original LaraBar, I have a soft spot for the company. That’s because I remember trying the mixture of cherries, dates, and almonds, close to two decades ago when I was searching for healthy snacks to throw into my college backpack. I instantly fell in love with the simplistic LaraBar ingredients that somehow were extremely tasty. Why I love this episode of “How I Built This” is the juxtaposition between the simplistic ingredients and how difficult the journey was to build the LaraBar brand.
An interesting part of the story starts before the official launch of LaraBar, where Lara Merriken thoughtfully takes a position at a Whole Foods Market location in Denver to learn the ins and outs of the natural foods industry. That decision will lead to a chance encounter where Lara Merriken meets a regional grocery buyer and gives him a sample of LarBar. He states it is the most innovative product he’s tasted in years, and she had a retail placement whenever it was ready. You’ll hear all those trials and tribulations that eventually led to LaraBars becoming a top seller at Whole Foods and ultimately leading to General Mills buying the brand in June 2008.
Guayakí Yerba Mate: David Karr and Chris Mann
A lot of people today are looking for alternatives to coffee, but transport back three decades and supermarkets didn’t have endless brands of energy drinks or teas. In the mid-1990’s most Americans had probably never even heard of yerba mate, but when David Karr and Chris Mann were first introduced to the South American drink, they were hooked. Together with three other friends, they decided to launch Guayakí Yerba Mate that would bring herbal tea to the American market.
You might think…popular regional beverage, first entry into a new market, and passionate entrepreneurs…this has to be a successful mix. You’d be right, but this is an excellent story that shows just how relentless and patient you must be to find success within the beverage industry. The Guayakí Yerba Mate co-founders spent years living in a van and driving all over the country, brewing up free samples for consumers, and convincing natural food stores to sell their product. It would take almost 15 years of grinding away before the company turned a significant profit, but the founders were powered by a deep mission and now Guayakí Yerba Mate does over over $100 million in annualized revenue.
Uncle Nearest Whiskey: Fawn Weaver
Don’t get me wrong…this episode would have been great without the almost forgotten mid-1800s story that connected Nathan “Nearest” Green and Jack Daniel (yes…that one), but the fact is that many packaged food and beverage favorites would likely not exist today if it wasn’t for the innovative minds of Black Americans throughout history. If you’re interested in hearing about several Black Americans who shaped the CPG industry, including Nathan “Nearest” Green, check out a YouTube video that I put together last year ⬇️
That “Jack Daniel” story plays a foundational role in this episode, as a century and a half later Fawn Weaver reads about it in the New York Times. After diving deeper into the Nearest Green story, Fawn Weaver ended up purchasing the 300-acre farm in Lynchburg, Tennessee where he had taught Jack Daniel how to distill. She initially thought of honoring the Nearest Green story with a book or movie but decided the best way to preserve his legacy was with a bottle of the best Tennessee whiskey she could make. With no background in distilling, she threw herself into the world of spirit-making, an industry mostly dominated by white men and a few major corporations. In the six years since Fawn first discovered his story, Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey has become one of the fastest growing and most awarded American whiskey brands in the world.
Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya
As the son of a successful cheese maker, it might seem obvious that Hamdi Ulukaya would end up making his impact within the dairy industry, right? As logical as that connection might seem in hindsight, this “How I Built This” episode will show you Hamdi Ulukaya had to navigate through many hairpin turns as he built a yogurt business from the ground up. He immigrated to the states from Turkey with no language skills or money, but eventually found a spot in upstate New York that really felt like home to him.
By 2005, Hamdi Ulukaya was running a small feta cheese business in upstate New York when he by chance opened a piece of junk mail that would change his life. It was advertising the sale of a yogurt factory that had been abandoned by Kraft Foods. While he didn’t have the $700K needed to purchase it or any deep understanding of how to get the dilapidated factory operational again, he knew if he could get his hands on it, he could bring a new kind of dairy product to America. This product would be the thick, creamy yogurt he’d grown up eating in the mountains of Turkey.
Only two years later, Chobani had product on the shelves and it quickly became the top-selling Greek yogurt. With sales growing maybe too fast at the time, it caused some bad business decisions that nearly pushed the company into bankruptcy. That being said, Chobani is now one of the most popular yogurt brands in America…and Greek-style yogurt category it created has become a staple of the dairy aisle.
Kodiak Cakes: Joel Clark
Did you know that there’s a significantly higher proportion of Mormons who are entrepreneurs in America compared to the non-Mormons? I attribute much of that to “door knocking.” Imagine being a teenager and trying to convert people to the religion by knocking on thousands of doors. Be it bad weather, an awkward circumstance, general fear, or any other sort of challenge, door knocking teaches you to grow comfortable with being uncomfortable. Door knocking is the ultimate testing ground for entrepreneurship because it forces you to maintain a positive, steady disposition, even on my worst, most miserable days. I’m not saying that’s the only reason Joel Clark ultimately succeeded with Kodiak Cakes, but knocking on doors is highly translatable skill to selling your CPG product in the early days of launching a brand.
It was Joel’s older brother Jon Clark that had the idea of taking the beloved family pancake recipe and turning it into a viable product and business launching Kodiak Cakes in 1995. Two years in, and with the company’s annual sales still at just $29,000, Jon asked Joel to take over the company. You’ll hear the ups and downs, the slow growth, Joel needing to start a management consulting career to keep the lights on, a massive trade marketing mistake at their first large retailer Safeway that almost left the company bankrupt, getting into Target, a Shark Tank failure, and finally getting the business to over $200 million in revenue. It’s one of those stories that you need to hear to believe.
Final Thoughts
While I talked about less than 10% of the total CPG-related “How I Built This” episodes, every single one of the others is equally packed with amazing information and stories. If you’re interested in hearing about a few more of my favorites, check out my YouTube video below ⬇️
