I bet you can count on one hand the amount of 100% Indigenous-owned packaged food and drink brands you know of (if that). This may be due to the fact that, like Sharon Brindley’s experience, there just weren’t opportunities for many First Nations people of previous generations to even dream of having an FMCG product in the market.

To celebrate National Reconciliation Week, in Episode 69 of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast I go deep with Foodpreneur and Yamatji/Noongar woman Sharon, who owns and runs the 100% First Nations owned chocolate and tea brand Jala Jala Treats. We talk everything from self-sabotage and mental health, to marketing challenges and specific issues faced by Indigenous FMCG brand owners; as well as how she’s ready to take Australian flavours to the rest of the world.

Knowing the ‘right’ things to say to a buyer to land a meeting, or an account, can be a source of stress and overwhelm for many Foodpreneurs. Unsurprisingly, as this is a big part of creating a successful packaged food and drink brand. But, knowing buyers want and need to hear, before your pitch, can help you feel more confident, and less stressed during your sales conversations.

Episode 68 of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast is the second part of a two-part series on nailing your sales pitch so you land more accounts, more often. In this episode I take you through the final 5 of 11 steps for you to answer (quickly!). This exercise will help you know the important parts of your business that buyers actually want to hear about, without giving you enough time to be overwhelmed.

Getting a meeting with a buyer, and impressing them once you do is hard. What do you say to land a meeting? What is going to impress them once you do? What do they need to know? What should you show them to win them over? Buyers don’t just want to hear that you have a great-tasting product that has pretty packaging, there’s so much more they need to know before they’ll even think about putting your product on their shelves.

Episode 67 of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast is the first of a two-part series on pitching your product so you’ll know what to say to land more accounts. In this episode I take you through the first 6 of 11 interactive steps for you to answer or action before your next interaction with a buyer, so you’ll feel more confident to nail your next sales pitch.

Sales. It’s by far the most challenging aspect for a lot of Foodpreneurs trying to grow their business. Many packaged food and drink business owners don’t consider themselves good at ‘sales’, others down-right hate the process. But what if I told you that by reframing the way you perceive ‘selling’, that not only will you feel more confident about it, but by doing it correctly, you’d actually be helping retailers and consumers when they stock or buy your product.

In episode 66 of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast, I chat to Mia Van Tubbergh from Elm Professional, about what reframing the sales conversation means, how to do it, and how to embrace sales in a way you might not have considered before so that you ace your next buyer meeting with confidence.

Imagine going from selling 25 products a week to selling hundreds of thousands in just a few short years. Creating a brand that becomes a household name is hard work. It requires unwavering determination, passion, smart planning, resilience, the ability to learn and change quickly, and giving your business 110%. But it is possible.

In episode 65 of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast, I chat to two co-founders and Foodpreneurs who tell you how strategic thinking, passion, hard work, customer insights and constant pivoting saw them go from working out of their garage in the rural Queensland town of Toowoomba four years ago, to building a multi-million dollar brand in the competitive dessert space that retails nationally and overseas.

You’ve probably heard of plant-based mince, plant-based chicken, plant-based cheese, even plant-based sausages, but have you ever heard of plant-based tuna? The plant-based food category continues to be on rise, with new innovations in the category popping up on shelves all around the world.

In episode 64 of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast, a Foodpreneur talks about starting a plant-based food brand with a core mission to help conserve our oceans, how the brand acquired investment and scaled to stocking their products in stores across seven European countries, and how they had to reposition their main ingredient in order to be successful in their market.

In last week’s episode you heard that 99% of Foodpreneurs don’t succeed because they fail to create a brand. A scary statistic, but one that should be used as motivation, not a deterrent. Creating a brand, powered by strategic planning, thinking and implementation will help you succeed where others don’t. Did you listen to part 1 of my 2 part series on Brand-Building Strategies? If not, check out episode 62 for the first 5 of my 11 strategies before hitting play on this episode.

In part 2 of my, I give you the final 6 of my crucial 11 strategies for building a brand that will help you scale your business to where you need it to be to live life on your terms. Don’t forget to grab a pen because if implemented, these strategies will change your business forever!

Getting your product on retail shelves might seem like getting to the top of mount Everest; but unfortunately that’s only reaching base camp. Building your brand so that customers know about, like and relate to your brand, is what gets products into baskets and through the check out, resulting in revenue for your business and re-orders from stockists. Do that right and you’ve reached the summit. Don’t do it, and it’s likely your business won’t grow, or even survive.

Episode 62 of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast is part 1 of my miniseries on brand-building. In this episode you’ll discover 5 of my 11 strategies to build your brand in order grow your packaged food business so you not only land on more shelves, but more importantly, get your product into more consumer baskets.

Barcodes…not something most food founders get excited about. But did you know that barcodes can do things like help your product look favourable to a buyer (if you do it right) and prevent your product from scanning at the checkout (if you do it wrong). Not to mention innovations in the industry that will allow you to do everything from alerting customers to expired products and promotions, to helping the industry become more sustainable by reducing food waste and providing at-hand recycling info for particular products.

In episode 61 of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast, an expert on barcodes outlines what critical things you need to know about barcoding your products if you want to sell into retail.

Reviewing your activities, processes, and strategies might seem overwhelming but it is absolutely essential to your business growth. If you don’t properly debrief, you won’t know what you did that worked, and what didn’t work; and you’ll keep making the same sales/business/self-limiting mistakes that are stopping you from getting more sales, more stockists, and more money in your pocket every quarter.

In episode 60 of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast, I take you through how to properly review your Quarter 1 activities so you can learn from what you did or didn’t do and really take your brand to new heights, and build more margin in Quarter 2 of 2023.

PR can sometimes get a bad rap. But use it wisely, and it can get your brand in front of hundreds, thousands, and even millions of people worldwide. And despite popular belief, you don’t need a big budget to get media coverage for your product, in fact, there are activities you can do that won’t cost you a thing, that will increase awareness for your business.

In episode 59 of the Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast, I chat with PR expert Celia Harding who has worked with major, and boutique brands in the F&B space (think Smirnoff and Mr Black Coffee Liqueur). Celia outlines these little or no-cost PR activities Foodpreneurs can action as part of their growth strategy; and explains why smaller brands can be better at generating effective publicity over major industry players.

You’ve probably heard of Anna Polyviou; award-winning celebrity pastry chef, author, BIG personality, and food founder of AP Bites Cookie Dough. What you probably haven’t heard is her story of how she, even as a well-known celebrity chef and media personality, had to hustle her way to food founder success after being pushed almost to the brink financially and mentally by a failed business partnership.

In episode 58 of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast, Anna outlines her journey of creating AP Bites; from having to learn everything about the FMCG industry from the ground up, to discovering how to best promote her product and what sales model works best for her business, she explains how she ‘got a second chance’ and how her cookie dough brand saved her from a very dark place in her life.