The Startup CPG Podcast

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, Daniel Scharff interviews 3 of the leading CPG journalists. He’s joined by Elizabeth Crawford, Senior Editor at FoodNavigator-USA; Brooke Just, Associate Editor at Food Business News; and Adrianne DeLuca, Reporter at BevNET & Nosh. Together, they dive into why Trade Media is crucial for building brand credibility and discuss emerging trends like startup innovation and sustainability.

The panelists share their coverage focus areas and discuss emerging industry trends like startup innovations and sustainability. They offer valuable pitching strategies for CPG brands, focusing on concise, data-driven storytelling, and clarity in messaging. During the episode, founders from Recoup Beverage, Grillicious, 22 Salute Spirits & Coffee, Millie's Sipping Broth, No regrets, Fishtown Pickle Project, and Secret Salad deliver 30-second pitches to the panelists, receiving actionable feedback.

Stick around for valuable advice on maximizing your media exposure, including submitting press releases to Startup CPG Newswire and building relationships with journalists. Don’t miss out—Tune in now!

Listen in as they share about:

  • Importance of Trade Media
  • Networking Opportunities
  • Publications and Coverage Areas
  • Story Interests and Trends
  • Pitching Strategies
  • Brand Pitches 
    - Recoup Beverage
    - Grillicious
    - 22 Salute Spirits & Coffee
    - No regrets
    - Millie's Sipping Broth
    - Fishtown Pickle Project
    - Secret Salad
  • Feedback and Final Tips

Episode Links:
FoodNavigator-USA  Website
Elizabeth Crawford LinkedIn


Sosland Publishing Website
Brooke Just LinkedIn

Nosh Website
BevNET Website
Adrianne DeLuca LinkedIn


Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.


Show Links:

Transcripts of each episode are available on the Transistor platform that hosts our podcast here (click on the episode and toggle to “Transcript” at the top)

Creators & Guests

Host
Daniel Scharff
Founder/CEO, Startup CPG

What is The Startup CPG Podcast?

The top CPG podcast in the world, highlighting stories from founders, buyer spotlights, highly practical industry insights - all to give you a better chance at success.

Elizabeth Crawford
We want to hear about your cool story, and we want to hear about you, obviously, right? But we also want to know how you fit into the bigger picture and how you're going to take someone with you. You all are thrilled to have this money. We're thrilled for you to have it. But for us, what's more important than the money is what you're going to do with it and how you landed it. So thinking about when you pitch that, you know, you landed this 4.7 million series b raise, tell me what you're going to do with it specifically and why that's going to advance not just your business, but change the category, change the retail landscape.

00:40
Daniel Scharff
Hello, everybody. Recently we did a webinar with three of the most relevant journalists covering CPG. Today we wanted to repurpose the audio here because this is a must listen. They talked about what their publications cover, what kind of stories they're interested in, how and when to contact them, and we even made time for a bunch of brands to quick pitch them at the end. I should note that they all subscribe to our startup CPG Newswire service where they find press releases that interest them. For coverage, you can submit your release for free@startupcpg.com. Newswire all right, enjoy, everybody. And thanks so much to our panelists. We had Brooke just from food business news and food entrepreneur Elizabeth Crawford from food navigator USA and Adrian DeLuca from Bevnet and Nosh. Enjoy. Quick shout out for people who left us a review this week.

01:31
Daniel Scharff
So Ashley Waldman, the founder of better for you flavored milk brand Jubilees, said this company, their podcast, their webinars, the Slack community, it almost feels like cheating. She's saving 50% to 200% on shipping after signing up with our partner EPG. She says her margins have never looked so good and she nearly cried when she saw the numbers. She's no longer feeling like she's living on an island, just winging it. Deepdi from Kaylan, which makes cool chewable toothpaste tablets, said she feels blessed to be part of the community. She's met amazing people and learned a lot. And instead of going into googling on a deep hole, she can now just go to our community and ask questions. Thanks so much, both of you. And if you can leave a review, we really appreciate it.

02:09
Daniel Scharff
Feel free to call out your brand, what you're working on, and I will try to shout you out here. Thanks, everybody. Welcome, everybody. I am super excited about today's session because we have got three of the most relevant, important, incredible famous trade media journalists here with us today. I always think it's really hard when you're an early brand to get media coverage. And obviously one of those big blocks, I think, is just not even knowing who are the people who actually are most interested in this space that have the people you want actually subscribing to them. And then once you do figure out who they are, what do they care about? How can you reach them? What kind of stories are they interested in?

02:50
Daniel Scharff
And I mean, almost one of the worst things to do is to shoot your shot before you're really ready and kind of give them some, you know, mid kind of pitch. So you're like, yeah, let's try to get you prepped to give them an awesome pitch. So the first time you reach out, they're like, yeah, this is somebody I need to start writing about. So we're going to cover a lot of really cool topics with them today and I think, you know, maybe just to start, if I could ask each of you to just go through and please introduce yourselves and then also your publication. And I'll just go kind of left to right on my screen here. So starting with Elizabeth and then I'll come to Brooke.

03:24
Elizabeth Crawford
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for having me. It is such a delight to work with startup CBG and to work with you. So super excited to be here. Food Navigator USA is an online publication and we cover everything in food and beverage, except for alcohol and except for CBD. I think you've heard me talk about CBD. I can't wrap my mind around it, so I don't. But we cover everything from sales and earnings to new product innovations to lessons for startups, to stories of veterans sharing their stories. And so part of what we do at Food Navigator USA that I think is really cool and will be particularly interesting, hopefully to you all, is we have a podcast. So the first part of the podcast is Food Navigator USA, soup to nuts, and that covers emerging trends, regulatory pressures and marketing strategies.

04:14
Elizabeth Crawford
And I think we're coming up on our 8th or 9th year, which is wild to me. But then earlier this year we launched Founders Fundamentals, which is a monthly podcast that does exactly what you are trying to do, which is figure out the nuts and bolts of building a business in a safe space with no judgment. So sharing lessons learned, sharing the basics of oh God, what's a purchase order? And oh God, who do I pay and how do I make that money work? So that's a really cool one that's done by my colleague Ryan, who's an amazing reporter. Also on our team is Denise Adamanta, also an amazing reporter. And these women are so friendly and accepting, and I encourage you to reach out, really, to any of us with your stories.

04:53
Daniel Scharff
All right, that's awesome. Thank you, Elizabeth. And if you haven't checked out her coverage, you've got to do it. She does some incredible features on brands, and I mentioned to a few people, she actually just sourced a bunch of brands doing innovations in dairy to get very beautiful layout features in Food Navigator USA. So super recommend following her coverage. Okay, Brooke, I am coming to you next. Do you mind telling us a little bit about yourself and your publication?

05:17
Brooke Just
Yeah. Hey, everybody, I'm Brooke. Just. I'm an associate editor at Food Business News, and I cover topics for our section, food entrepreneur, focusing on emerging startups and anything that is innovative. Unique, unique ingredients, unique R and D really stands out to us and really shines. Just. Just be innovative and tell us your why. And we also cover a lot of the earnings, a lot of the mergers and acquisitions, and a lot of things, all things startups. So, kind of echoing Elizabeth, we do a lot of that as well through business dues.

05:54
Daniel Scharff
And, Brooke, who do you think of as your primary audience for those publications?

05:58
Elizabeth Crawford
Yeah.

05:59
Brooke Just
So we have a lot of R and D, product development, marketing and sales, executive management and operations.

06:07
Daniel Scharff
Awesome. Okay, perfect. Okay, Adrian, I'm coming to you, and I know you have a bunch of publications to tell us about and different ways that you guys work with cpgs in the industry. Go for it.

06:18
Adrianne DeLuca
Well, thank you again for having us and everyone. I'm Adrienne Deluca. I'm a reporter for both Bevnet and Nosh. I also manage the content and flow assembly of our daily newsletters between both Bevnet and Nosheen. For those of you who are not familiar, we are also b two b trade publication. We have a specific focus on CPG food and beverage. We do cover pretty much everything going on in that space, including cannabis, alcohol. We also have our sister site, Brewbound, which covers the craft beer space and spirits as well. On my end, I mainly stick to food and beverage. So in addition to our regular news coverage, which is fairly similar to food business news and food navigator, where we cover everything from earnings to investment, new products, all that good stuff, we also host a range of different podcasts.

07:09
Adrianne DeLuca
Our latest is CPG Week, which is about a 15 minutes quick news format just running down top news of the week. That's hosted by my managing editor, Monica Watress. In addition to two co hosts, Lucas Southard and Brad Avery. Both are senior reporters between Bevnet and Nosheen. And then we also have community call, which is, I'd say, specifically geared to maybe the startup CPG community as well. It's hosted by Melissa Traverse. It aims to dig into specific topic and provide some tactical insight on a range of different, I guess, not necessarily problems, but anything that might come up in your day to day, from hiring to formulations to raising investment. And then our third podcast is Taste Radio, which some of you may be familiar with.

07:59
Adrianne DeLuca
That's our longest running show and covers all things going on in the industry, with plenty of commentary and banter from our executive team along the way. So in addition to podcasts, we also host a range of events and conferences. We have our upcoming live events in Marina del Rey this December, both Bevnet and Nosh live, in addition to brewbound live. So our whole team will be out there for the whole week. And I'd say that's one of the best times to connect with all of us because the whole crew is out there and we're running around looking to chat.

08:31
Daniel Scharff
So, Adrian, it sounds like you really do know all of the stuff that's going on there. It's almost like you manage the daily publication. That's awesome. Thank you, Adrian. We're so excited to have you here. So we're just going to get into a bunch of questions in a sec. But I also just want to highlight what is the importance of trade media, right? Because you have your consumer publications that are out there, Forbes and can you get in the new York Times or whatever you read or Huffington Post, stuff that really gets distributed out to people. I don't know, maybe your friends and your parents, whoever. That's a great milestone when you get that kind of coverage. So then trade media is stuff that the trade reads, right? You know, Brooke mentioned a lot of R and D people who read food business news.

09:18
Daniel Scharff
And maybe you have like buyers who read and pay attention to a lot of stuff. We do like people on this call, you know, you should be following these guys and seeing what they're writing about. So what does it mean when you get this coverage? I think one is you get access to the audience that's reading it already. That's a great thing for sure. People have gotten discovered by buyers who saw an article and wanted to reach out and learn more, or potential partners. And then I think, secondly, it's what you use it for because it is a huge stamp of validation given the coverage that they do. And it will be great and high quality and put you in an awesome light, hopefully most of the time.

09:55
Daniel Scharff
And then I think that is a big shining moment for you to post about it and to tell people and have a slide showing all the cool coverage that you've gotten, just as another stepping stone in the validation you need to show a buyer to get on shelf and show investors. So the work that they do is incredibly important and also valuable for an early brand, which I know is why everybody has shown up here today. So just getting into a little bit more specific questions. So ill start with you again, Elizabeth, what are the kind of stories that youre most interested in, especially for brands out there that are wondering if they might be a fit for your kind of coverage?

10:31
Elizabeth Crawford
Yeah. So for the startup community, one of the things that we do at food navigators, we have a weekly video series called Startup Spotlight. And I think that is a really fun place to showcase not only new entrepreneurs and new products, but to share the lessons you've learned. So when we look at that series, what we're looking for is sort of community building. So we want to hear about your cool story and we want to hear about you, obviously, right. But we also want to know how you fit into the bigger picture and how you're going to take someone with you. So that's really the goal of that series.

11:04
Elizabeth Crawford
I think the other thing that we think about when we're covering startups is we see a lot of fundraising news, maybe not as much now as we did in 2015, 2016, but it's coming right? And it's exciting. And I get it. You all are thrilled to have this money. We're thrilled for you to have it. But for us, what's more important than the money is what you're going to do with it and how you landed it. So thinking about when you pitch that you landed this 4.7 million series b raise, tell me what you're going to do with it specifically and why that's going to advance not just your business, but change the category, change the retail landscape.

11:41
Elizabeth Crawford
So that's sort of what I think about when I think about what I'm interested in for food Navigator USA, especially in the startup scene, but we're also interested innovative products. I understand IP, but think about what you can and cannot share when you talk to us. And again, we're always looking for that sort of what can you do to help lift up someone else, to help another reader.

12:02
Daniel Scharff
Fantastic. Okay, great. So Brooke, for food business news, food entrepreneur, same question for you. What kind of stories are you most interested in?

12:10
Elizabeth Crawford
Yeah.

12:11
Brooke Just
Really? Again, echoing Elizabeth, she's like taking these words out of my mouth, you know, like she said, I covered the startup and the unique ingredients and products that are really innovative. Like I just covered pixie puffs. She was hemp sorghum and kelp in a puffed chip, an excerpted puffed chip. And like that really catches our eye. Something that is just totally out there, totally unique. And then again, along with fundraising, like what Elizabeth said, what they're going to help the company do, how they're going to scale and start up scaling their business. So I recently just talked with a friendly Brad and how he's going to scale his business with the new facility that he's going to rent out to others. And that was really cool.

12:59
Brooke Just
How startups are going to work around these funding issues because it is such a problem right now and how you pivot in those times and really just being nimble and flexible in your business plan is really interesting to us. Going off Elizabeth, again, we really do a lot of the same similarities. And another thing I will mention that we like to cover is unique food tech startups and pinch competitions. So if you win, like let's say fancy food show or the bigger ones that were on this summer, sorry, they're the main turn blanking right now. But anything like that is really drawn to our eatership.

13:44
Daniel Scharff
All right. Amazing. And Brooke also gets a gold star because she subscribes to our startup CPG Newswire roundups, where for free, you guys can submit your press releases@startupcpg.com. Newswire. And then we have amazing reporters like these incredible ladies who look through those because they are looking for stories to write. And so Brooke covered one of the first stories, actually, that came out of that newswire service and gave even more visibility to one of the brands from the community. So they are out there, they're reading that stuff. So definitely hit up our newswire. Okay, Adrian, coming to you. Same kind of question. What stories are you interested in? Probably lots of different kinds.

14:25
Adrianne DeLuca
Well, I feel like I'm going to be echoing a lot of what Elizabeth and Brooke just said as well. You know, investment, I'd say an m and a just generally has been a major topic our editorial team has been focusing on. I'd say, you know, at the startup entrepreneurial level, you know, it doesn't necessarily need to be, you know, that series A or that first round of institutional funding. We love to hear, you know, how you scrape together cash for that first big production run or how you landed that first meeting with a buyer and what really piqued their interest and tipped the scales in your favor. What challenges you're facing day to day. I always go back to everyone in our community or main readers or other entrepreneurs, so you don't have to give us away your secret sauce.

15:12
Adrianne DeLuca
But what strategies, what email you sent could help out the next founder. Those are really, you know, the stories that we love to tell. And then I'd say beyond that, I'm also kind of going off of what Brooke said. Personally, I'm a bit of an ingredient nerd. So I love seeing new innovations with kelp. Was a big one. A few. I feel like maybe a year or so ago Lupin beans were coming back. It seems all those heirloom forgotten grains love seeing your novel applications uses. Always just of personal interest to myself in addition to new sustainable innovations. And I guess that takes me right into the regenerative agriculture movements. Been another one that's just been following closely as someone who grew up working on farms and is just very passionate about that space.

16:00
Daniel Scharff
Yes. That's awesome. It's funny how you mentioned that because I feel like we always see the stories about Founder X raises 4.5 million at 35 valuation. I actually would way rather read the article that you write that's like this. Founder doesn't raise money, bootstraps keeps their side of their job and does this as a side hustle and owns 100% of their business and gets a thousand doors. That is the article. Be like, yes, that's the one that I like.

16:30
Adrianne DeLuca
All right, please send it our way.

16:32
Daniel Scharff
Yes, right. Or like, yeah, like I love that story about I forget which brand it is that made the Obama O's. I think it was like Zappos or something who they made a serial called Obama O's because they figured out they could just launch this thing and make a bunch of money real quick and use that to fund their business and not have to fundraise in the early days. Oh, everyone's saying it's Airbnb. Thank you guys. That's incredible. Like, yes, please. If you guys have some clever story about not fundraising, that's what I want to see. Personally, I think that's amazing.

17:02
Daniel Scharff
We might have to do another webinar on clever not fundraising techniques or I just did a podcast episode with Ryan Williams from Fabid and he was like, I actually think a pretty legit strategy is maybe like because VC's are so hard to get money from now and the valuation suck. Maybe go to the four seasons and just see who sits next to you at the bar and talk to them. That could work out well. So if you've done that also, I would love to hear about it. Okay, cool. So next question for the panel. So starting back with Elizabeth, I'd love to ask you what are some of the key trends that you're paying attention to right now in the industry? What's some stuff you're seeing?

17:39
Elizabeth Crawford
Yeah. So, you know, we are watching how the FDA is reorganizing. We're watching how the states are handling chemicals. Chemicals. Right. So bear with me. I'm going to close this loop for the startup community. So we're also watching, you know, how GLP ones are going to impact negatively, positively. We're looking at how the school lunch programs are changing. So these are some big, this is where I'm going with this, so stick with me. These are some big national stories that maybe seem really far away from you, but if your product fits or is a solution to some of the challenges that are causing or contributing to the turmoil, that's a really great pitch.

18:19
Elizabeth Crawford
Let us know if you know that red dye three or blue, one and two are going to be phased out in the California school system and you have a spirulina or you figured out a way to bring forward a red cupcake that is beautiful and doesn't taste like beets. Let us know that and tag it to sort of that national story and that will help sort of elevate it in our story orders and how we think about prioritizing the news. So I say that as I know that some of these issues seem really big and high level, but they're not. Everything impacts you and you can fit into everything.

18:54
Daniel Scharff
That's awesome. Yeah. I love thinking, knowing now what you pay attention to, giving a lot of tips for brands for how they could try to think about the bigger picture but also position themselves in a way that is relevant to some of those trends. Thats really awesome. And I know, for example, youre working on a story on dairy right now. Right? So youre looking at innovations in dairy. How does a story like that come about?

19:17
Elizabeth Crawford
Yeah. So we do have some fun trend pieces coming up and one is around innovations in dairy. Thats our next special edition and that comes out later in the month. And what we're looking at here, what I reached out, I'm so grateful for your help on is looking at a category that can seem kind of snoozy, right. Can seem like a commodity, can seem hard to stand out in and how startups are bringing life and excitement and branding to a space. And so that's really what we're excited. And in addition to the dairy innovations, looking forward a little farther, we're looking at next month mood food. So whether it. Please don't actually come to me.

19:56
Elizabeth Crawford
If you have CBD in your product as we covered, I can't figure out the regulations, but if you maybe a lavender and lemon balm or how you're creating a beverage or a food that is going to impact someone's mood, maybe you're helping them carve out a moment for themselves. Or maybe you do have sort of a l theanine component, right? Something like that. So that's another one that we're looking at. We're also looking at always looking at alternative proteins. Before I leave this job, my goal is to not have alternative in front of proteins and just to say proteins. So hopefully we'll get there.

20:29
Elizabeth Crawford
But, you know, if you're in that space and if you're bringing something forward that's not animal protein or that's a unique animal protein, that's something that we want to hear about other ones that are coming up, flavors and colors, those are always fun or not if you're in California.

20:44
Daniel Scharff
That's right. Yeah. There's a lot of stuff coming down the pipe right now about what's going to be allowed and not allowed. Most of the brands here probably are not using a lot of that stuff. That was on the edge, but it's still good to know about. Okay, Brooke, so for food business news, food entrepreneur. Yeah. What are some of the key trends you're paying attention to right now?

21:03
Brooke Just
Yeah, so we actually conducted a survey of the top five trends that we're watching for the next twelve to 18 months that our readers actually were involved in. And so those are cost reduction initiatives, clean label and convenience, and ingredient reduction. So limiting undesirables like sugar, sodium, fat, and then ingredient addition. So adding desirables like protein, like whole grains, fiber, fruits, and strategies to promote health and wellness and functional attributes, as well as a focus on premium ization. I know that was kind of a lot, but yeah, those are really what we're watching right now for kind of both food entrepreneur and food business news.

21:45
Daniel Scharff
I love it. That's, I mean, so relevant right now, especially the CoGs part, especially given the discussion that we've been having about the funding and all the challenges. So that's awesome. Okay, Adrian, same question to you. So, for Bevnet Nash, what are the trends you're paying attention to definitely watching.

22:03
Adrianne DeLuca
Some of those health and wellness trends both Brooke and Elizabeth just noted, especially how clean label movement GLP ones are really steering innovation right now. And exactly the spaces that's showing up in. It's been some unexpected innovations, especially in those center store aisles. So we love hearing stories in that regard. But personally, I'm also working on a new series that aims to look at how businesses founded in and around the pandemic are performing right now. What challenges are you facing? How are those decisions that you made back during those early Covid days playing out now? What are some of the key hurdles that may have come up given just the economic roller coaster you all have ridden over the past few years? Just looking to check in with you all and see how we're doing.

22:52
Adrianne DeLuca
And I see some pandemic era businesses are already chiming in. So love to hear from you after.

22:56
Daniel Scharff
This, where we are one as well. I love it. On that GLP one topic, do you guys have any interesting things that you've seen or things you expect to see or just things that have really caught your attention lately? I mean, for any of you. But I know specifically Brooke and Adrian had mentioned those, I think, as stuff that theyre looking at anything that youve seen or anything that you expect to see or maybe just a lot more brands now coming up with stuff that addresses it since weve already seen a lot of the big cpgs move very fast to address it.

23:28
Brooke Just
Yeah, not so much in the startup community quite yet. But wasnt it nestle that just came out with that?

23:36
Daniel Scharff
I think so. I've seen a couple. I don't remember exactly who, but I think we've seen a few already. Like, at least from a marketing perspective, they're talking about it.

23:43
Elizabeth Crawford
Yeah.

23:44
Brooke Just
So those are the primary ones that I've seen right now. Not so much in the startup community, but maybe here within the next year or so.

23:50
Adrianne DeLuca
Yeah, I'd say Nestle was the big one that we've seen as well. And some of these, I guess the meal kit delivery space has been played an interesting role here. Some of them have been, you know, aligning different menu items with GLP ones. Beyond that, I just feel like kind of what you were saying, Daniel, seems right now it's more in the marketing and less on the innovation side. So a lot of those higher protein, high fiber products seem to trying to align themselves as GLP one.

24:18
Elizabeth Crawford
Compliments.

24:20
Daniel Scharff
Yes. All right, very interesting. Okay, cool. So next question that I have for the panel is how do brands get on your radar? Because we always see this coverage, and if it's not about our brand, we are excited for them, but also immediately jealous of how do brands typically reach out to you guys? Like, you know, do they hit you on LinkedIn? They sneakily get your emails. Of course, you know, we never share emails on the startup CVG. Slack maybe, but also, like, you know, what trade shows do you go to where you meet people? All of those kind of things. So, Elizabeth, I'll start back with you.

24:54
Elizabeth Crawford
Well, my email is not a secret. It's Elizabeth Crawford. It is far and away the best way to reach me. Although reaching me on LinkedIn is great as well. I mean, I think the big thing is that we don't know who you are and we don't know your story. If you don't reach out to us, and we're just people, we want to hear your story. We're not scary. Right? So just shoot us an email or reach out on LinkedIn. We go to all the major shows. I will say that my approach to shows, I have learned that there's no way to do them all. So I do plan it out ahead of time and there's very little wiggle room for just wandering around.

25:32
Elizabeth Crawford
So if you're going to be at a show, let me know several weeks ahead of time and I'll get you in the calendar.

25:37
Daniel Scharff
I think that's true, because, Elizabeth, you were kind enough to do a story on us once at a show, and you're like, yes, I will meet you there at between 412 and 415. And we'll do that. And then we'll be. And it was a great article. Also, just shout out to you because you've come to some of our startup CBG, local chapter events like the DC one. And then I think a week later there were a bunch of stories about brands that had gotten up to pitch at that event. So that's what we like to see. Thank you.

26:02
Elizabeth Crawford
I mean, honestly, shout out to your events if you guys go to them because they're amazing. And I did. I rolled out of there was like there for an hour and a half and I rolled out with like five video profiles and it was so exciting. And I found speakers for an event. Crunchy hydration, who I met at your event, just spoke at a webinar for me. So thank you for hosting this and bringing this community together.

26:21
Daniel Scharff
Well, thank you. You going is why they are awesome. It's all fun and games if we're all there networking, but when we get real deal media and buyers there, well, now we're cooking. That's awesome. Okay. So, yeah, Brooke, same question to you. How are people getting on your radar?

26:37
Brooke Just
Yeah, so have my editor explained it when I first started, because I was totally new to this industry and still am. I've only been here for about a year and a half, so I unfortunately don't have quite the coverage that Elizabeth and Adrienne do right now. But hopefully I'll get there someday. I'm still learning myself, but they have about a minute to catch our eyes. And because we seen dozens of emails, dozens of pitches a day, and on social media, and my editor has also explained it in a great way. Get to the point of your company and your product. What's your why?

27:11
Brooke Just
Not that you ran a marathon, not that, you know, I went out for this competition or whatever and explain how you're differentiating in the category and how you're being innovative and helping those consumers with your product and how they can use it.

27:26
Daniel Scharff
I love it. All right. Those are some really great tips. And yes, I am also somebody who gets a lot of emails and applications on the stuff. So, yeah, I would really think about how to capture somebody's very quick attention and just highlight the thing that they're going to latch onto. Like, oh, yeah, that's going to be of interest. I should read the rest of this email. And Brooke, just let me ask you a kind of tactical question. On use of photos in emails, I always try to, like, if I'm reaching out to a reporter, I'm going to put some cool photo in there and it's going to be in line and it's going to be pretty close to the top of it. That looks great. Puts my brand in a good light or just shows something about the vibe of the brand.

28:05
Daniel Scharff
Do you see people do that pretty well? I just would usually tell people, try not to attach the image. Like, try to put it in line in the email and have it kind of close to the top. What do you think?

28:15
Brooke Just
Yeah, I agree with that. Because if I'm having to click around on ten different things, I'm like, okay, I know this kind of sounds like my brain just goes whack when I have to do that. So many different emails, so many different attachments. Like, if it's all streamlined in one little area that I can just see it, see what the product is, it's right there. And I'm like, oh, yeah, that's really cool. I've never seen that before and I want to keep reading it.

28:40
Daniel Scharff
All right. And Brooke.

28:41
Adrianne DeLuca
What?

28:41
Daniel Scharff
So if people are trying to submit for you guys or like follow up with you guys. What's the best way? Is it following you on LinkedIn or what's your. What's the best way for people to try to reach out?

28:54
Brooke Just
Yeah, so same as Elizabeth. My email is not unknown. It's also on sasland. It's be justlyn.com. And you can also follow me on my LinkedIn page and message me there.

29:06
Daniel Scharff
All right, thank you. Okay, Adrian, same question over to you. How are people lucky enough to get on your radar, get articles, get in the newsletter? What's going on?

29:18
Adrianne DeLuca
Definitely, you know, emphasizing what Brooke and Elizabeth just said, email is definitely the easiest way to get a hold of me. Also not a secret. It's just adeluka.com, so feel free to reach out anytime. I will say, as someone who's just a chronically online person, LinkedIn is also a great place to find me. You know, I would say we source a lot of stories and especially newsletter items from LinkedIn. Whether you're reaching out or it's just something I see on my feed. So I wouldn't encourage everyone to go out and become a LinkedIn influencer. But posting about what you're dealing with, what small wins, big wins, anything.

29:57
Adrianne DeLuca
And connecting with us is a great way to stay on our radar and keep those stories flowing because that is part of my morning roundup, is just scrolling through LinkedIn and filling out that newsletter sometimes another great way. And also trade shows are another one because we are all the major events. Unlike Elizabeth, I take a very different approach where I try not to schedule anything and I wander. So if you see me, feel free to always pull me over. I'm normally sporting some sort of Bevnet or nosh gear, so hopefully easy to find.

30:28
Daniel Scharff
And what are the shows that you're going to outside of the Bevnet and Nosh live shows.

30:33
Adrianne DeLuca
So we're always at Expo west for sure. The whole team will be out there. And it typically rotates with fancy food shows. Who gets to go when? Typically I go to one or the other, winter or summer. We also have reporters going to NACs coming up, as well as grocery shop.

30:50
Daniel Scharff
Let's see.

30:51
Adrianne DeLuca
I think those are the big ones we go to, but we're trying. You know, I'm also based in Washington, DC, so there's been a few great ones around here that are just, you know, more regional, so always popping into those, less of a trade show. But I know union kitchens hosting something coming up in November, a little expedition. So I'll be there as well if anyone else will. And yeah, it tends to rotate year to year, but those are the big ones.

31:16
Daniel Scharff
Right. And I am a DC native so I really love that so many of our great trade media journalists are based there. Okay, so then I have one more question for the panel, which is going to be around how to actually pitch you guys. And then I think because we're doing great on time right now, I think what we should do is maybe actually hear some pitches if you guys are up for it. I did not clear this with this panel, but I know them well enough to know that they will find this fun. So well do this last round of questions and then im going to invite some of you awesome brands in the audience to just come up and do under 32nd pitch. And so ill enable that.

31:56
Daniel Scharff
You can raise your hand if you want to do that in a little bit. Ill tell you when were going to do it and then people can pop in and then maybe well all just give some feedback at the end of what some of the pitches were. Okay. So the question that I have then coming back to you, Elizabeth. Yeah. What kind of pitches are the most effective and whether it's coming on LinkedIn or it's through an email, what's the stuff really? Whether it's the formatting, it's the text, it's how they're writing it or it's how they follow up with you, that's going to be successful.

32:25
Elizabeth Crawford
Yeah. So I am super excited in your news and the developments that happen for you. If you get into 711 or into Walgreens and that's exciting, you get 100 more doors and sprouts. That's great. But what makes that even more compelling for me is if you put that in context, both of your business. So what does that mean for your trajectory, where you've been and where you're going, but then also sort of in the broader category. Right. What does this mean for the category? How does this fit into broader shopper trends? How does this fit into macro trends? So you heard a lot about clean label today. Do you have a solution for that? Do you have a solution for weight management? So you got into 711.

33:05
Elizabeth Crawford
Does that mean that shoppers are financially strapped and so now they're shopping at a convenience store instead of a grocery store? Like add in that extra layer and that will help elevate it in terms of interest for me. But also I do, I mean, to the extent you want to and can. Right numbers help quantitative for me, tell me that you grew through 300% off an x base year over year. Tell me that you got into these doors year over year. When you think about how you would pitch an investor, that's how you would pitch me, right? I don't need all the scary numbers that are secret. I mean, if you want to share them, you can, but I would put it sort of at that same level.

33:41
Elizabeth Crawford
That said, often, I also just, if I like the way something looks, so if you don't have those numbers, please don't feel intimidated and go ahead and reach out and just tell me what you're offering. I will echo something that you said earlier in our conversation, which was like, make sure you're ready. Make sure you know what you want out of the article or out of the press when you come to me because it's a big time investment for you as well. And we want to make sure that it's a collective benefit.

34:08
Daniel Scharff
I love it. Is there a no for you of like, oh, it drives me nuts when brands do this. Whether it's the frequency of follow ups or just some kind of way that they, like, overhype their brand. Like, probably will revolutionize the way that everybody lives their lives. Like, come on, is there anything that you can recall?

34:27
Elizabeth Crawford
Is there anything so you can't over email me? Let me just get that out there. Right? Like, if I don't respond to you, don't take it personally, probably didn't see it. So go ahead and lift it back up to the top of my inbox. I'll echo what Brooke said. I don't want to click on anything. So to the extent you can cut and paste your press release into the bottom after your signature, that helps a lot because when it's 05:00 a.m. And I'm reading my emails on my phone, I'm not going to open anything. So that's the takeaway that we offer.

34:54
Daniel Scharff
That is a good tip. Okay, Brooke, coming to you, same question. Yeah. What kind of pitches are the most effective? Like, you know, how are people really getting the info to you in a way that works?

35:04
Elizabeth Crawford
Yeah.

35:05
Brooke Just
So again, kind of reiterating off my last question, the ingredients and what your product is right off the bat and what you're trying to solve really grabs my attention. At FBN, we are focused on what that product is, how you got to your product, and how you're differentiating the category and how it will help and affect consumers. So if you have all those listed in little bullet points right at the top in that one long, big paragraph, that really helps because that's a lot for my eyes to constantly go through. So little snippets is really also helpful.

35:40
Daniel Scharff
That is awesome. And are there any nos for you also things that just drive you nuts?

35:45
Brooke Just
No, not really. I mean, I know people are also just trying to get our attention and we're all just people trying to get our name out there and our brands out there and what we do out there. So, yeah, nothing that I've really seen that's been like, oh, my gosh, this is really annoying.

36:02
Daniel Scharff
That's good to know. I feel like if you also email a reporter and they don't respond, you see them at the show, you're like, oh, it's going to be weird. Like, they hate me because they didn't cover it. But based on what you ladies are saying, it sounds like we probably just didn't see it. We don't remember that we get, like, hundreds of emails.

36:16
Brooke Just
Yeah, no, there is no harm in emailing us. We're just people. And if we don't respond, it doesn't mean we don't love you. We do just, there's a lot going on.

36:25
Daniel Scharff
I really appreciate the three of you, honestly. I think just because we all build up the media so much in our heads, but I know each of you to be just really warm, wonderful people who are very supportive of the brands out here, and I'm sure all of them feel that as well. So thank you. Okay, Adrian, let's round off with you. So what kind of pitches to you are the most effective?

36:46
Adrianne DeLuca
I would kind of emphasize what's been said already, but definitely concise and data driven pitches are always appreciated. If I, you know, kind of like what Elizabeth said, if I can quickly skim that on my phone and understand from a few bullet points that this could be a story like that makes my day a little bit easier. Shaves off ten minutes of weeding through long paragraphs of what you may or may not be pitching us. Definitely, you know, we want to learn about your brand, but elevating the news bits to the very top. We do find brands quite often bearing those exciting bits later on in the press release, so I'd say keep it concise and, yeah, elevate the news to the very top.

37:30
Daniel Scharff
And on that data part, sometimes you see ridiculous numbers out there that are like, well, we grew 1 million% because last year we only sold one unit, so that's a huge growth percent. Is there a point where you see the data gets kind of ridiculous? Because as a brand, obviously we need to put ourselves in the best light possible. It's what everybody does and should do. But do you feel like there's a line where sometimes you can see a data point and you're like, well, no, I don't know about that, buddy.

37:55
Adrianne DeLuca
Absolutely. I'm glad you brought that up because we do get pitches more often than not that are, we grew 3000% last year. Well, we didn't exist last year. So that may be why I will emphasize we have our own connection with spins and that team. So we're also often pulling our own data into these stories or those final ones. So you may think you're catching our eye with that 3000% increase, but I'd say, you know, units sold, your velocity is those really core foundational pieces of growth. Like include them sparingly, but they are, they make for a great news peg. But yeah, definitely try not to overdo it. I would say on the contrast also, don't just dump all of your financials into an email. Not that you would, but too many.

38:43
Adrianne DeLuca
There's a balance when it comes to sharing data and numbers with us.

38:47
Daniel Scharff
I should note that both Elizabeth and Brooke were both nodding when you were saying, yeah, okay. Sometimes it gets ridiculous and I think for me it's just there's a good line there between putting stuff in there that's like, it's true, it's reasonable and it gives you guys a hook because you're the just like, okay, I can share that hook. That makes this an interesting story first. That's a ridiculous number. That wouldn't make sense to anybody and you shouldn't show that to me because I wouldn't show that to anybody. It just doesn't have a basis in reality. Right. So finding the stuff that's like compelling and true but isn't going to immediately raise suspicion in anybody that would see it. Right. Okay. Perfect. I love it. Okay, so are you guys ready to hear from some brands? Should we do it? Okay, cool.

39:28
Daniel Scharff
I think what we could do is if you want to come up and present this will be for CPG brands obviously that you manufacture something. Lets get you up here and were just going to do literally 30 seconds. I might even clap you off if it goes long. So Im going to start, if I invite you as a panelist, then itll drop you out and bring you up and then you can come up and just give your 32nd pitch to this incredible panel here. So Im going to start bringing a few people up and I'm very excited about this. And if you have your product with you should be holding it, please. Okay, we've got a couple people coming up. All right. And then. Okay, so, Susan Hartman, I'm going to start with you. If you can turn on your video.

40:09
Adrianne DeLuca
Hi there.

40:10
Daniel Scharff
We got you. Let's go for it.

40:12
Adrianne DeLuca
Okay, great. Hi, I'm Susan Hartman. I'm co founder of Recoup Beverage. We are a gut healthy hydration beverage. We're the first drink to be regenerative organic certified across its portfolio. We use prebiotics, electrolytes and ginger sourced from maple tree water. So a really amazing ultra hydrating. And our big news this week is we are going to be national in all of sprouts. Innovation set starting today. So rolling out all this week, I've got a press release coming out on the 7th. We're also in Wegmans, Erawan, Jimbos, and on Amazon, which now has a regenerative organic certified set.

40:48
Daniel Scharff
All right, that's amazing. And I'll ask maybe at the end of all of these, maybe the panelists could give a little bit of feedback to everybody instead of putting anyone in specific on the spot. Awesome. And I know recoup was mentioned by Jimbo's as their first regenerative beverage that they were launching with. Okay, Aaron, I'm going to come to you next. Thank you, Susan.

41:07
Adrianne DeLuca
Hey, you guys.

41:08
Elizabeth Crawford
All right, we're talking about gralicious.

41:10
Daniel Scharff
Grillicious are flavor infused cooking wipes.

41:13
Elizabeth Crawford
They are all made of 100% in the USA. They are 100% all natural.

41:19
Daniel Scharff
They are also going back to Brooks comment.

41:21
Elizabeth Crawford
They are gluten free, peanut allergen free, vegan, keto kosher. No additives, no preservatives of any kind, no sodium, no carbs, and a bunch of other good things that I can't.

41:34
Daniel Scharff
Rattle off in 30 seconds.

41:36
Elizabeth Crawford
But we are starting to see, we just launched middle of last year. We are seeing distribution at both retail and online marketplaces. Most recently, we're onboarding with tractor supply company here in Los Angeles.

41:50
Daniel Scharff
We are in all 27 Gelson's markets with two skews.

41:54
Elizabeth Crawford
And the US coast Guard has taken an interest for all of their bases. But, like, we basically use gralicious on any cooking surface.

42:03
Daniel Scharff
Doesn't matter if it's a grill griddle, air fryer, potatoes, anything.

42:08
Elizabeth Crawford
And so make it more delicious with grillicious.

42:12
Daniel Scharff
All right, great job, Aaron. Okay, Eric ranks, I'm coming to you next. All right, Eric ranks here. Salute. Spirits and coffee. So I'll hold up two of our products here. Our products are all veteran dependent, minority and woman owned is our brand. All of our products are made in veteran owned facilities and percentage of all our proceeds go to reduced veteran and first responder mental health and suicide prevention. And we're the first spirits company to put the suicide crisis line on the back of all of our products so that people know that there's hope when they're in a time of crisis. And we're in. We're two years old. The first year we just focused in one market and really built that market. Now we're in about 360 locations nationwide. Kroger's our biggest partner, but we're also in places like total wine.

43:01
Daniel Scharff
We're in anyways, a bunch of different retailers across the US. And we're super excited to keep growing and appreciate this opportunity to share this. All right, great job. Thank you so much, Eric. Okay, Elance, I hope I'm saying that right. You're up next. Hi, my name is Lance Kessner. I'm with Millie's sipping broth in a teabag. Basically you crush your snacks cravings by drinking broth. You make a fresh cup of broth with each one of these. We were voted outstanding hot beverage of the year at the Fancy food show. We won a gold fancy food show award. 2017 was the first time a broth had ever won that category. Basically our news is that were a top Nielsen IQ performing product in the soup broth category. And were once only available on the Weight Watchers website. And we're now going into the soup.

43:56
Adrianne DeLuca
Aisle across half of the stores for.

43:59
Daniel Scharff
Walmart nationally, basically increasing our distribution by six times. All right, that's amazing. And I'll just note I saw all of the journalists eyes go open when you said won the Fancy foods award and also all of that top Nielsen data. So those ones, those were zingers. I love it. Okay, no regrets. I'm coming to you next.

44:20
Adrianne DeLuca
Hi, everyone, I'm Alvin.

44:23
Daniel Scharff
I'm the founder of movement to inspire, enable people to do what they love, live life through fullness, and live life with no regrets. It's called no regrets. I'm sure you recognize the reference. So our first product is a liver and a brain supplement. But what it actually really is a super effective hangover prevention product. So I spent the past six years in R and D drinking myself almost death to make sure that it was really effective. We launched last week in the US and we're here to cure the US of hangovers forever.

44:55
Elizabeth Crawford
Thank you.

44:56
Daniel Scharff
All right, great job. Okay, I am next. Going to come to Nikki.

45:04
Elizabeth Crawford
Hi, everybody. All right. So I'm Nikki. I'm the co founder and dietitian at Fishtown Pickle project. We're based out of Philadelphia, and my husband and I got into this by accident after gifting pickles wedding favors in 2018. And then we skyrocketed, and now we've been award winning in Philadelphia for the past three years. We create our pickles using local ingredients, locally sourced cucumbers. There's no added preservatives. It's all clean ingredients, gluten free, and kosher as well. We use all parts of the cucumber, which sounds a little funny, but this is what we do. We take the ugly pieces and we actually chunk them up and fill them at the top of the jar. So there's. Our goal is to reduce food waste, which is part of our mission and values. Our mission is to create community, celebrate small business wellness, and also tradition.

45:58
Elizabeth Crawford
And our pickle flavors bring bold, extraordinary, culinary inspired flavors with peak freshness. And we are. We pride ourselves on quality. We also pride ourselves on our outreach to the community. We donate at least 5% of our profits to different charitable organizations revolving around mental health and brain health as well. We like to say that we're more than just pickles, which is a differentiator in our category, because you see a lot of functional kimchi products doing a lot of outreach, but not so much on the regular pickles. I have here our two top sellers. This is our Bloody Mary mix that uses 100% pa grown produce in there. And then our best selling product are Philly dilly pickles. We are in 150 retailers. We're self manufactured, self distributed.

46:47
Elizabeth Crawford
We have Wegmans stores, Shoprite stores, IgA stores, and then we also have an online platform, and we do farmers markets. Our goal is to remain a regional brand and celebrate local produce and handcrafted products as long as we can.

47:03
Daniel Scharff
All right, great job, Nikki. Okay, cool. So, Theresa, I'm coming to you next.

47:08
Adrianne DeLuca
Hi. Hi, Elizabeth.

47:10
Elizabeth Crawford
My name is Theresa Ging.

47:11
Adrianne DeLuca
I'm the CEO and founder of Sugar bliss.

47:14
Elizabeth Crawford
We're a retail bakery in Chicago, but we've been around for about 17 years. We launch our packaged cookies into Walgreens, Compass Group, Macy's. We also distribute through Kehe. So what's really cool, this cookie, it has potato chips, pretzels, cereal, chocolate chips.

47:30
Adrianne DeLuca
Oats, and hint of coffee.

47:31
Elizabeth Crawford
You probably just said, oh, my God. But we use recyclable packaging, and then a portion of the proceeds go back to support women and minority entrepreneurs. So we have a scholarship out there.

47:41
Adrianne DeLuca
That helps more women and minority entrepreneurs get certified. So that's my company.

47:45
Daniel Scharff
That's amazing. All right, cool. And then I think we just have one more person, which is Ani hope. I'm saying that right. Hi.

47:53
Elizabeth Crawford
Yes, Ani widam here. I'm the founder of Secret Salad.

47:57
Adrianne DeLuca
We have a four ingredient frozen pancake. It is just bananas, eggs, zucchini, and cinnamon. We're in four grocery stores right now, and we're starting to work with distributors to expand our distribution, and we are really here to disrupt the frozen breakfast space. Our competitors, other brands that you probably think of as healthy, like, you know, Kodiak or vans, earth's best or bonza, have upwards of 20 ingredients, many of them ultra processed. And we come in with just four. They're all organic.

48:28
Elizabeth Crawford
Nothing is processed. It's something you would find in your kitchen.

48:31
Adrianne DeLuca
My kids eat these frozen out of the bag.

48:33
Elizabeth Crawford
We have families that are buying ten of these at a time to stockpile.

48:36
Adrianne DeLuca
Them because their kids are eating them nonstop. And we're excited to be in this space and really trying to take advantage of the movement right now that large companies like Kellogg's are going through trouble with their ultra processed ingredients and coming up against lawsuits. And we are here to change that for breakfast.

48:54
Daniel Scharff
All right, awesome. Great. Okay, cool. So I think we got through everybody on the pitches, which is awesome because that almost never happens. But you guys did such a good job of keeping them concise. So thank you very much. And now I would love to just ask our panelists if maybe you guys could just give some of your overall feedback for all of the pitches that you heard. If there's anything you saw people doing really well or stuff you would recommend they improve on next time, if they pitch you at a trade show like that or something. And maybe, Adrian, since you are off mute, I will start with you.

49:28
Adrianne DeLuca
Yeah, I think everyone did a fantastic job. I will say the ones I was scribbling the most were when you intro your product really quickly, efficiently, and then a lot of you hit on those kind of key news bits, whether it was distribution or what you're really doing differently in that space right off the bat. Yeah, that's what had me scribbling over here.

49:49
Daniel Scharff
All right, Elizabeth, can I come to you next?

49:52
Elizabeth Crawford
Yeah. So I would echo that. I mean, what had me scribbling was when you had those call outs about what big trends that you fit into with. Right. And then providing the context with the greater competitive landscape. So I think with secret salad, you talked about how you are touched on the ultra processed shenanigans that are happening. Right. That big debate. You touched on how you stand out, that you're different from some of the other up and coming mixes out there. And then I think also, Susan, with recoup, you talked about regenerative agriculture. You brought in these really big movements, and that's easier for us to think about where you fit in the landscape.

50:31
Elizabeth Crawford
But I also really appreciate when you have something that does really make you special, like 22 solutes and spirits, your suicide crisis call out and sort of talking about your benefit beyond your product, I guess I would say so. Those are all elements that I look for when evaluating a company.

50:47
Daniel Scharff
Awesome.

50:48
Elizabeth Crawford
AweSome.

50:48
Daniel Scharff
Okay, Brooke, coming to you.

50:50
Elizabeth Crawford
Yeah.

50:50
Brooke Just
Again, echoing what Elizabeth and Adrienne have already kind of hit on FBN. We also really like the manufacturing aspect of things. So if you're with a coal man or if you're self manufacturing or if you're with a co packer, we like to hone in on that in our stories as well. So if you can kind of tell us that right off the bat. And then some things that I was noticing was a lot of marketing. Like, we're vegan, we're gluten free, we're non GMO. Like, yeah, those things are important, but not so much for what our readers are wanting. They're wanting to know the ingredients. They're wanting to know exactly what the product is because they can go on the back of the label and see that, oh, yeah, or I'm in front of a label, this is non GMO or whatever.

51:31
Brooke Just
They want to see what the actual physical product is and how it will help them. It will taste like and all that jazz. And then I also liked the areas of the store that you're focusing on. So Millie, sipping broth, said you're going into the soup areas and then going back to secret salad. You also said that you were going to the frozen breakfast aisle and the pancake mixes and things like that. So that was really cool to me, seeing what areas of the story you're going to hone in on and what areas that you're going to really focus your product and your brand on.

51:59
Daniel Scharff
I love it, Brooke. It's actually for me, and I've known you guys in your publication for so long, I actually did not know that about. That's the kind of stuff that you guys prioritize when people pitch you. And it is so helpful because all of the times that I did try to pitch you guys a story, I'm like, oh, gosh, I was pitching them some b's. I wish I had known that about your audience. I could have done so much better. But now I will. Now I know. And now everybody knows, which is why it's so awesome to have you on here today. So thank you, really, for sharing that. And then maybe I'll just offer one last piece of feedback for everybody. I mean, first of all, thank you to everybody who came up and pitched.

52:35
Daniel Scharff
I know it can be a little, kind of hard to do on Zoom. It's a little weird, you know, if you can show your product to everybody. For me, the ones that I immediately latch onto are the ones that are done with, I would say, authenticity, passion, and ease where the founder or whoever is pitching. Just you come in and you roll and you're speaking from the heart and you're not reading off something or trying to remember the perfect words to say, because honestly, that stuff doesn't matter. Just like if you. Oh, did I remember to say exactly all the attributes in the marketing language. But really, if you just come in and you're talking to a human. Right, and they know. They know if you're actually just trying to memorize something, and then it does not hit the same way. Right.

53:15
Daniel Scharff
So give them that, like, live music, unplugged acoustic version. And I feel like that's the thing that always gets me. Does that, is that something that resonates with any of you? Yes. Everybody's sh. Everybody's nodding their head. Okay, cool. All right, well, that brings us to a close here. So again, I just really want to thank the three of these awesome trade media journalists, some of just the most absolutely relevant journalists in the space for making some time to come here and listen to all these pitches. And they gave out their emails, which is so good and hard to come by. And now you know exactly how to pitch them, what to say to them, you know, what kind of stuff they're interested in. So I'm really excited about it.

53:56
Daniel Scharff
And then just last thing here, which is there a time of the year or time of the week that people shouldn't be pitching you? Like, don't send me that email Friday, end of the day, I'm not going to look at it. Anything from, like, Brooke, maybe I'll start with you for that last one.

54:11
Brooke Just
Email is going to be going all the time, right? It's never ending. It never stops. So really, if that's when you have time to sit down and send out your email, we will just look at it the next Monday morning. It's not gonna. It's not gonna make or break our day. If we see it, we're just like, oh, okay, we'll come back to it.

54:30
Daniel Scharff
All right, Elizabeth, same question to you.

54:32
Elizabeth Crawford
Yeah, I mean, I would echo it. Send it when you can. It's more important to send it, but there is a special feature where you can schedule a send. So it is kind of better for me if it's sent during us business hours, because when I wake up, my company is based in the UK, then I'm drowning in european emails and I don't want yours to get lost in that.

54:52
Daniel Scharff
So send it during us business hours. Okay, cool. Okay.

54:55
Adrianne DeLuca
Adrienne, I would echo the same, although I will say I got a pitch last Friday afternoon for a story that we then ended up running Monday morning. So I would not encourage you to pitch us at 530 on a Friday afternoon. But like Elizabeth said, if that's the time you can get it done, rather have the email in her inbox than not.

55:17
Daniel Scharff
So I did hit somebody up on LinkedIn recently on a Sunday, and they just hadn't responded to me in forever. But I knew they kind of wanted to interact on something. And then they finally emailed back and they're like, thank you for your follow up on the last few Sundays. And they sort of gave me a little dig on it, but I'm like, yeah, but you did respond like I was, I know you're going to see it. If I said it, I was like, all right, probably don't make a practice of that, but it did work that one time. All right, thank you guys again so much. I can't wait to see all of you at our events. And thank you again to all the brands. All right, have a good one, everybody.

55:53
Brooke Just
Thanks, guys.

55:53
Elizabeth Crawford
Thank you so much.

55:57
Daniel Scharff
All right, everybody, thank you so much for listening to our podcast. If you loved it, I would so appreciate it if you could leave us a review, you could do it right now. If you're an Apple podcasts, you can scroll to the bottom of our startup CPG podcast page and click on Write a review. Leave your company name in there. I will try to read it out. If you're in Spotify, you can click on about and then the star rating icon. If you are a service provider that would like to appear on the startup CPG podcast, you can email us@partnershipstartupcpg.com. Dot lastly, if you found yourself grooving along to the music, it is my band. You can visit our website and listen to more. It is superfantastics.com. Thank you everybody. See you next time.