210 From Foster Care to Founder | Mellisa Mills of Spread’Em Kitchen is Changing the Food Industry
Say hello to this weeks guest, Mellisa Mills.
Mellisa first turned a blender, a bicycle, and $500 into a thriving farmers market stand
in Vancouver.
Tune into my episode with Mellisa Mills
Today on the show I am sitting down with Mellisa Mills who founded a Canadian Plant-Based Cheese Empire.
That empire is called Spread’Em Kitchen and they make the most delicious plant-based cheeses, ever!
Made with a base of cashews, Spread’Em cheeses make for a healthy and much more delicious alternative to typical Cream Cheeses or Cheese Bricks.
Personally, I am obsessed with the Chive & Garlic Cream Cheese, The Classic Greek Inspired Cheese Block, and the Spinach Cashew Dip.
Every single product that they make contains the highest quality ingredients that you can feel good about putting into your body.
Spread’Em Kitchen exploded across Canada in 5 years and grew from $500 in sales to almost 4 Million in a short time.
From ‘home kitchen’ to building her own 20,000 square foot facility in Richmond B.C, Mellisa also has a small team of people helping her spread the goodness and she is on a mission to give back to the community.
My conversation with Mellisa is real, honest, and transparent. She speaks openly about her humble beginnings and about the work it took to get to where they are today.
Let’s just say from having $500 and a small farmers market stand to today being a multi million dollar per year company - a lot has changed in Mellisa’s life and you’ll have to tune in to the episode to learn all about it.
If you want to try SpreadEm Kitchen be sure to use their Store Locator which can be found at https://spreademkitchen.com
Connect with Melissa and Spread’Em:
SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES
https://www.instagram.com/spreadem_kitchen/
https://www.tiktok.com/@spreadem_kitchen?
WEBSITE
Click the image below to tune in to this weeks episode 🎙️
You’re going to LOVE this episode with @spreadem_kitchen
Here’s a sneak peak at my prep notes for the show…
The beginnings:
Taking it back ten years, you were working at Whole Foods in Vancouver, stocking shelves in the produce department.
In those days, did you ever dream about one day having your own product on the shelf
Have you always been entrepreneurial
You came to a crossroads in your life at some point and didn’t know what direction to take with your life and career - so you went traveling
Tell us about that experience: why you went and how it worked out for you
The idea / the lightbulb moment
What were some of the first few steps you took when you got back in order to bring the idea to life?
I’m sure the early months were messy - what type of mindset did you need to have to move through the highs and lows that are inevitable in the early stages
Did you have a “why” at the beginning? What kept you going?
Anything that almost derailed you?
Starting at the Farmers Markets
How long did it take from idea until you made your first sale?
What’s in a name - how did yours come to be
Spread Em Kitchen:
What’s your role and what are your superpowers when it comes to daily operations?
Talk about your product line today and what type of distribution you currently have
Since launching 2015, you’ve seen immense business growth. For context I think I read that in 2015 you started out making just $128,000 in sales in the first year, to $2 million in 2019 - to what do you attribute such rapid growth
Spread Em seems to be a very mission driven company and you regularly donate to these causes that are meaningful - why is this such an important part of your vision and of your company
Is there a milestone that you’ve reached that you’re proud of and want to celebrate with us here?
Business Tips:
You believe we all have an entrepreneurial spirit - we just have to harness it. How can someone start harnessing their entrepreneurial spirit if they don’t have a business yet, but aspire to one day start one
What qualities do you possess that make you a great entrepreneur
When you feel stuck, unmotivated or stagnant - how do you reset?
Do you have any daily routines or rituals that keep you sane?
What’s one thing you’re geeking out on or learning more about, right now?
Or watch us on YouTube! 👇
🎙️ Other ways to listen…
Episode Transcript:
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Melissa welcome to the visionary life podcast. I am so thrilled to sit down with you today and to hear the entire story of how spread them kitchen came to be. I was saying to you off the recording. Uh, I had posted something on LinkedIn saying I'm recording season nine. I'm looking for epic Canadian entrepreneurs to speak with.
And somebody from your team reached out. And then I started diving into all that you've created in the last like five or seven years. And I'm just really pumped to go into the journey. So thank you so much for being.
Yeah, thank you so much for having me looking forward to it.
So let's go back like 10 years or so 12 years.
I don't know what the timeline is, but I believe you were working at a whole foods market in Vancouver. Is that correct?
Yeah. I used to work in the produce department. They're stacking vegetables and things like that. It was one the first one to open, uh, here, and I just love vegetables. So I was like, okay, this would be a cool job.
You know, they're like a mission purpose driven company. I kind of wanted to work for a place like that. And I thought that, you know, I'll just work there forever, but I didn't.
In those days, you were obviously exposed to all of these really cool natural health food products. Did you ever have this like moment of being like one day, I'm going to have my own product on the shelf.
I don't think it was quite like that. It always had this idea that I would be, I w I was always having ideas about business. Like I would so mittens or I have an air plant store, or I just had all these ideas. I never thought I would actually follow through with anything, but I was also been very interested in.
Natural food products. Even though I grew up in the smallest town in Ontario with only an IGA and they were like, absolutely no natural products at all there, but a family had moved from Toronto to my town. Um, and they were like hippies to the max. They like blue corn chips, which I'd never seen before they put there.
Like, I was just going to get, bring my lunch to school in Ziploc bags. Tupperware that was metal. And I was like, who are these people? And, you know, and they, I went over their house a couple times and tried like amaranth soup and vegan A's and like stuff like that. And I was, I was hooked. And as soon as they took me to the big carrot, it was the first health food store I'd ever gone to.
I was like the smell of it, just everything in there. I was like, I connected to that. And so I'd always sort of carried that with me. And I think being at whole foods and it kind of like brought everything together when I was working there where it was like, you know, customer always first and they always had like their mission and values stated on the wall and like, what is a company structure and how do you do that?
And then of course all the interesting packaging. And so I think, yeah, I definitely got my creative juices flowing.
I know it is such an inspiring story. I always used to love spending time in there. And I used to go there for a lot of work events and there is something about it. That's kind of just like motivating.
Um, so you were working at whole foods. You started to sense that like, oh, maybe there's something here, but obviously you didn't start spread them kitchen right away. What happened in those years after you finished working at whole foods? Like, were you working in another career path? What were you up to.
After I left whole foods, I decided that I wanted to do more than work at a grocery store. So I took a graphic design course, um, while I was still working at whole foods. So I'd worked from home at whole foods from 5:00 AM until two. And then I took this graphic design course from two 30, until six o'clock.
Um, and then after that was over, I decided to. Just try to give it a go on my own doing, um, like web design and maybe a logo design for smaller businesses around town. And. I mean, that was going pretty good. I was starting to make an okay income enough to sort of like pay my bills and stuff and start building.
But the thing I really noticed is that people didn't really want the level of creativity and the level of design that I could offer. Like the things that I was inspired by really innovative, clean, like stuff that you see on Pinterest, like big professional. Names, but the people around here, they just want to cat logos and you want me to stretch their photo and they didn't want cool type.
They didn't want anything as creative as I wanted to do. So I just kind of got fed up in a way where I was like, oh, I'm not reaching my full potential. What do I do? So, and I still didn't have enough money just to like, I didn't know what I wanted to do. So I thought, okay, I'll make these dips because people love them.
I've always been excited about healthy food. And I will save up the money and go on a trip to south America. And I've always been into like, you know, intuition and, you know, I I've always gotten like messages in a way from the universe that kind of helped guide me. So I thought, okay, I'm going to go and do this.
And I'm going to get a lightning strike moment. That's going to tell me where I'm supposed to be right now, because it feels like I'm pushing too much. Um, and then I just signed up for the farmer's market and that was sort of the beginning.
Okay. Wow. Before we get there, I'm so curious. So you've got this light bulb moment to start making the dips.
Where did that come from? Like, did you have like a cookbook that had these dips and you were inspired or there were you like out and about and you tried them, how did you land on the concept of dips and how did you know that that was going to be the business.
Um, well, I've always loved it. Okay. So when I was a kid, I had a pay.
I started working when I was like eight years old. I had this paper route delivering the Georgie to advocate. And whenever I get my paycheck, wasn't very bad. Like $63. I go up to the max milk and I would get a bag of Lay's chips and a, um, Philadelphia. Cause that was the most premium gift you could get at the time, the onion one.
And I would, I would sort of sit in front of the TV. More control or cable. So I would just use my foot and change the channels between the three channels would get out, eat these chips in depth, and it began to be this comfort thing. And then from there, I ended up changing the way I eat because I started learning more about healthy foods and things.
And I'm like, oh, I want these same indulgences with the same comfort in, you know, that good feeling, but I want them to be healthy. So I. Um, learning about raw food. I had that hippie family that moved in. So they were teaching me sort of unintentionally about all these unique ingredients and the health properties of them and how to eat for health.
But it doesn't mean that it's not going to be tasty. And so that was huge. And so I took those two concepts and I sort of like just, they were just how I live my life. So I would be combining things and being a dip. You know, I w Babak a newish or, you know, how miss was delicious, but I'd always wanted to like, make it cool.
So I'd like make a Thai flavored wine, or it always kind of done that naturally. And I took a trip to Australia because I had a little bit of a moment before as well. And so I went to Australia for about four months and I came across a cashew beet pesto that they had there. And also notice in Australia, they kind of put beats on everything.
Whoa. And I got addicted to this particular beat dip that they had. There was like kind of chunky and that wasn't happening here. And I was like, why is everything here? So roasted red pepper and onion caramelized on in everything, you know? And I thought, oh, this is something I could make. So I started making this beat dip at home at parties and people were like floored by it.
They were like, I'd never seen anything as beautiful as this, or as tasty as this. And that's when I was like, Ooh, you know, I have something kind of creative that I can offer. Um, but I never thought of it on a big scale. So still at this point I was still very like, oh, this is this small thing that I can do and contribute and make people happy in a small way.
But I still never thought about this is a big idea or anything like.
It seems like you were definitely getting that early validation. Like you said, you were bringing it to parties and your friends are like, oh my God, this is good. So you already had that like micro proof of concept that probably made you believe, like there is something here, but yeah, I can totally like, see how.
You think, well, yeah, I'll sell it the farmer's markets, but maybe you never imagine it having, you know, the success and magnitude that it has. So let's start, um, kind of like what you did to actually start selling the dip. So you mentioned farmer's market. So once you had that proof of concept, your friends are all raving about it.
Did you just think, okay, I'm going to like sign up for the local farmer's market and start selling it, like, is that all you did to get the product out to the.
Yeah. And because I had that graphic design background and I'd always wanted to do like the most beautiful things for people. I thought this is a great opportunity for me to do what I always wanted to do for other people, but for myself.
So I created. I kind of treated it as if it was a big business already, just because if anything, I could use this for my graphic design portfolio. So I made this really epic, beautiful website. I put a lot of thought into the content and like the messaging and I used what I learned at whole foods about creating a mission and a vision and, you know, like kind of going through.
Pillars of the business. Um, more so as just a role play. Like I still didn't really, I wasn't being that serious about it. Um, and I sort of made these nice labels and though I didn't have a lot of money, so I, I got the square ones and we all had to sit around the table, cutting the motives, the circles, because I was still kind of like, Ooh, I don't know.
I only had $500. Like I literally had like no money to spend on this either. So I kind of had to keep it thrifty. Um, and then, yeah, I just sorta started selling it the market. And then after my first farmer's market, we sold out in about two hours and people were floored, but not just because it was unique, but mostly I realized that there was a market of people who.
Really we're doing without or compromising a lot because of maybe they'd been through a significant health event, like, or that they have an allergy or something like that in general. In the past. And I still think now things like that, our food isn't created for those people intentionally, they kind of try to take what they have and then adapt it to that.
But what I was making the pure recipes were made that way with those ingredients and it always put a high value on. Ingredients, like I don't eat canola oil or sunflower oil or GrapeSEED oil. I only eat extra-virgin cold pressed olive oil. So that's all I put in my products because I know it makes a difference.
Um, I don't use sugar or like, you know, that stuff I take really seriously for me. And I think because I treated the product as if it was, I was making it for myself or my friends at my party. Um, and that stayed true throughout that it, people could taste it and the flavors were so intense and so clean that people who had no.
Tasted such powerful flavor and with such great ingredients that also didn't leave a weird aftertaste or leave them feeling bad after they ate an entire tub. Because I wasn't the only thing people were like, I can't not eat this whole thing, but I never feel terrible after I eat it. It's the weirdest thing, you know?
Yeah.
Oh man. I love that. And I think what's really cool about your story is. You were able to merge a lot of your passions. Like you're kind of passionate about food, healthier options. You had this great vision and, um, kind of background with design and it's almost like the perfect, like crux of all of those things came together to launch spread them kitchen.
So I think it's cool. You know, you didn't just discount your past experience. Like every step of the way seems to have led you to launching this company, which I find really interesting. So from the farmer's market, you sell out, you're getting great proof of concept. What happens from there? Like how do you go from, I just sell a product at a farmer's market to I'm actually building a business and want to sell it in stores.
What did those next few steps look like for you?
I think it's still, this point was driven by. My customers are the people. Cause I still didn't have that much confidence. And I think that is something that has been lacking my whole life is I wasn't really sure if I was doing the right thing or I didn't really know.
So, um, yeah, after the farmer's market, people were like, Hey, meet me in the Starbucks parking lot. I need 2030 of these. I'm afraid. I'll never see you again. It's the language people were using. I want to freeze it more beautiful than that people were. They were so excited. They were sharing it. They were buying 30 to share.
It wasn't for them, all of it. They were like 15 of those. They were giving away to people and they would come back to me with recipe. Oh my God. Have you had the beat with, on a piece of sourdough bread with freshly sliced cucumber and a little bit of, um, Rosemary salt? I'm like, no. And then the person next to them would hear that recipe and they go, oh, have you tried it stirred into pastor with this and that?
And. It was them. It really wasn't me. So I was like, I felt a duty and obligation to figure it out. So I just went on the internet and I was like, Hey, how do we get a barcode? And I went into a couple of local shops and I say, what do I have to do to sell this dip ear? And I went to like mom and pop shops because they seem like I've seen I shop at those places.
So I know that they have stuff on there that doesn't have a barcode. So there must be a way to kind of do it. Um, I ended up just going on the internet and incorporating my business and. Then getting a barcodes. And I S I went around on my bike cause they still didn't have a car at the time. And they made these cute little bags up that had the couple of dips in there.
I had some veggie straws and a little card, and I went to talk to all the managers I could find. And I think five out of the six I went to, it was an immediate. Yes. Um, and I was selling like two weeks later. Or so in some of those stores. So I ended up at the beginning too. I was actually making it my house.
So I had to get a commissary kitchen. Um, so I had one table paying 500 bucks for space, and then we kind of moved out from there. But, um, yeah, it was really all driven by the people. And then the next thing that happened was more and more stores wanted it because more customers wanted it. And then I got that.
Then I got the fire. I was like, looked at it as this sort of challenge. Like how many stores could I get it? What do I have to do? So I would just kind of go to, you know, all the larger stores around here, like choices and nature's fair and drop off product. And that's kind of just, I just kind of learned as I went.
What do you think was kind of a catalyst to the store managers saying yes to you? Like, was it that they tried the product? Did you have a fancy PDF documents that you were showing them about all the health benefits? Was it that you were like super personable? Like, can you pinpoint, because it sounds like you kind of showed up just being like, hi, I have a product.
Like you didn't have it all together, per se. Um, so why do you think they said.
I think a hundred percent, it was the taste it's honestly hands down the tastiest thing. Most people say they have ever tried ever. And even if they don't like it at first, because it is a little bit sour, a little bit at the beginning, but they find that their body's after they're like, Ooh, I kind of actually, I kind of want more of that.
Like I thought it was a little bit sharp, but wait, no, I want more. They just devour it and they were kind of shocked at themselves. And I think the second thing was definitely my personality. Like I was on a mission on a friendly mission to, um, find the people that I needed to find and tell them about what I was doing, why it was important and why the other.
W needed an upgrade. And I think they saw that too, just even in grocery, probably hummus was sort of declining. It was sort of boring. There's only so many toppings you can put on a homeless to try to make it interesting, you know, and cashews and this whole plant-based movement. Wasn't quite a thing just yet.
And cashews and vegan cheese. Wasn't quite a thing just yet. So I think they kind of knew that something was going to happen. And this was maybe the beginning of a new product category.
Yeah. And I think like what you say to like the product itself was really, really good. It's not like you were trying to promote a product that sucked, like the product spoke for itself.
And then obviously a few layers on top of that helped it to maybe get into those first few stores, but no amount of marketing can sell a bad product. Right. So, um, so, okay. Let's then talk about, you're starting to get into more stores. Um, you're obviously getting busier and busier. Do you hire help? Like, are you still a one person show at this point?
Like when did you get to that point where you're like, oh my God, like I can't do this alone anymore.
Yeah. I think it was kinda like my probably was in around 50 stores. Well, and I was still doing it out of a Vitamix, uh, which was like two at a time kind of the thing. And it was still hand feeling stuff.
And I had had a couple people come in here and there that had kind of paid. Um, I was catching. How to kind of help me, but they kept quitting. And I think it was like the hand stilling because it was really awful. And I, a couple of times I was crying. I was like, why am I doing this? This is the worst thing ever.
Um, and then my husband was like, you know, there's probably equipment for that. And I got just so worried because you know, most of my life I have. Poverty. Like my mom was a single mom, struggled with addictions. Like I was the, you know, the ruler of the house kind of thing. Like I had to learn on a very small budget, how to make things work and how to do something with nothing.
Like if I wanted a long board, I had to learn how to make it. Had the money to buy it. So I just, and you know, there were times in my life where I had a student loan they'd garnish my wages because I couldn't pay, I was working always these minimum wage style jobs working like two or three jobs. I wasn't trying to cheat the system.
There's just stuff is expensive, you know? And I could barely buy contacts sometimes. So I was just afraid to spend money because I was like, well, what if no one ever buys spread them again? Or like, what if I'm making a bad decision because I've never really had money. So maybe this isn't the right thing to do, you know?
And so. I finally did just take a risk. I took, I think it was like the $3,000 I had saved from everything and I just put it into my first filling machine. And then I used another $20,000 to buy a giant blender. And that kind of like drained all my savings at that point. And I couldn't really afford. Hire anyone just yet.
So I still kind of kept working, tweaking the recipes and making sure that I could get it around the clock. Like I'd be working until like 3:00 AM and then back at 5:00 AM kind of things. Like, I really put in a lot of effort and then I, I got one full-time employee, um, that kind of helped. And once I had the filling machine, it was easier to kind of keep people because I realized that people don't have a highest threshold for pain, like yeah.
And so, yeah, that's kinda how. I can
totally like, I'm just picturing like you at like two in the morning crying, it could be employee being like, well, what is wrong with this person? And being like, I'm out of here. Um, you know, you mentioned that you wrote down like your vision and your mission because you were inspired by how whole foods did it.
And obviously to persevere when. You are working around the clock. And when you feel like maybe nothing's working, you have to have a strong why, like obviously, you know, that's, what's going to keep you going and you're going to wake up the next day and not shut the whole business down. What is your why with spread them kitchen?
Like, what is the mission behind the company that kept you going even on those dark early days when it would have been easier to quit?
I think I have like three and there are different levels. So I have like my big, big picture. Why? Which my big picture. Why is definitely I'm a Crusader for real food? I think process food is destroying humanity.
I feel. Passionate about it. I think we're dumbing ourselves down by succumbing to the convenience of processed food. And I think we all are like stunting our true potential and happiness and health and wellbeing because how accessible processed food is how unregulated process food is. It's pure poison, I think.
And I grew up on processed food and I was very sick for a long time because of it. It's my mission that, you know, food is information it's instructions. You can either up-regulate or down-regulate yourself based on what you put in your body. It's so, so important. And I don't think people truly understand how important it is because our taste buds have been hijacked by processed food.
And so that's like my big, big mission. I just want to kick the asses of like these huge companies that are just making so much money. 'cause they don't care about people even like now I'm kinda in this vegan cheese game and like it's poison. Most of it is poison. Like do not eat that stuff, you know, but like the stuff that we make isn't, but you're not going to get like a melty cheese, um, at this point.
And then so people are just used to certain things, right? And so they kind of want a direct change, but instill until you start actually eating healthy, you will realize that. You don't need an exact replica or whatever for your processed food addiction, you'll, you're better off without it. So that's kinda like my big mission.
And then in between it was more like the game, I guess. I really I'm hyper competitive. I always have been. Um, and so it was kind of like just writing down. Can I get to a hundred thousand dollars and can I meet this person? Like who's the gatekeeper for certain things was like on there. And then revenue kind of like goal setting, sort of things were sort of the other things.
And then also always keeping in mind how I wanted to build my business. So I didn't know B Corp. Wasn't really a big term when I was starting my business. It definitely aligns with the kinds of pillars I wanted to instill and what we do every day, which is like paying a livable wage, making sure that, you know, we always talk about taking care of our communities, but understanding that our communities, because of how global everything is extend to where I get my cashews from.
Are those people being paid well, do they have a good life too? You know, like, are my employees taking care of. You know, do they feel not too stressed? Do they like coming to work? Like, I want to make sure that the impact I have, every person I need, do they feel like they're special and number one, and like, I'm engaged with the conversation.
It's not just about selling. It's about maybe every person you meet along the way as part of a bigger picture for you. And so I try to like, look at every interaction as that and not just about building the business. It's kind of more like, It's like a personal journey. I feel like I'm on. And I guess that's how I kind of structured the path is like, some people are way ahead of me and some people are just starting and just trying to not get too stuck.
Cause I am competitive in like, where are we? You know? It's like, well, where are we as a, as an organization? Not just money or, you know,
Oh, so inspiring. I love those three pillars of your mission. Um, all of them so important and so powerful. And I can just hear in how you share them, but like this lights you up.
So very, very cool. Um, so fast forwarding a little bit, like, what is your role in spread them kitchen today? And like, what does the team look like at this point?
It's still pretty small, I would say. So we've gotten about 10 people. In production, a production manager and sort of that sort of thing. And then we've got a marketing person and we have a sort of local sales, general manager.
And then we have me who kind of like, I'm not really in the role I want to be in, but I'm, I'm kind of transitioning into that role probably in the next couple of months or so, um, which is more of the creative stuff. So right now I'm just kind of like feeling cool. If I do some sales things, I do lots of spreadsheets and I, I do like.
Admin stuff. So that's not really the stuff that gets me excited about spreading, and I'm very happy to start to organize it and kind of get that off my plate. And then, um, we are, we have a broker, so they kind of help with, you know, cross Canada sales and then we've hired someone in the U S to kind of help us with our expansion over there.
We're not quite there yet, but we're just. Building swell and the, and the program, my favorite things to do are strategy. I really love problem solving strategy. I like analyzing data to figure out, um, you know, patterns and to try to. I don't know, create better experiences for everybody in the value chain, you know, like for our distributors, for our direct customers, for our retailers, for my employees.
And then I just love being creative. So obviously coming up with new flavors and new products, but also just like other things, just like anything marketing kind of how to tell the story is kind of like, whatever.
I love how you're like super interested in strategy numbers, and then like also the creative and design.
I see those almost as like two different sides of your brain, but it's cool that like, you do have talents in many areas that you're able to utilize in your role. Um, but yeah, when you say like the numbers and strategy stuff, I'm like, oh, I would just rather hang out in the creative world, but it's awesome that you have a variety of skillsets.
Yeah, I think that is something interesting about my personality type. That I, not a lot of people like have that, or like, understand why I even like that. But I think at the end of the day, I just liked solving problems. So sometimes you have to do it with numbers and sometimes you don't. And I understand that sort of math is the language of the universe.
So when you start understanding numbers and you can follow patterns, it really opens the doors to the creative. Hm.
Yeah, that's a really good point that at the root of both of those things, it's probably creative problem solving or just analytical problem solving. So definitely. Um, okay. Where is the product line at today?
Can you give the listener a bit of an overview of like what you sell currently, um, and just like the expansion that you guys have had in terms of product skews over the last few years. We
have so many skews, probably too many, but we have, so we have a line of dips, cashew dip. So that would be like beet carrot, cilantro.
They're just your regular dips. Then we have our creamy party. Deps is, which is where you get into the culture and sort of cashew bay. and spinach dips and kind of that nostalgic stuff that you kind of might like a substitute for. Um, and then we get into our kind of cream cheeses or creamy spreads dip sort of things, which is our number one seller, which is chives and garlic and jalapeno.
Um, and then we last year, or no, the beginning of COVID, I don't know, the last couple of years, a bit of a blur. Um, we launched more of a, a firm creamy block. Um, for like more like, kind of like slight a little bit more sliceable um, and then we have a button. And we are just launching our snack packs. So a lot of people like to take our stuff on the go.
And so we teamed up with a local cracker gluten-free cracker producer here in Vancouver called free. Um, and her crackers are amazing, really nice and crisp and delicious. And so we kind of put them in a, to go thing to, to help drive trial. Cause our stuff is kind of expensive. So it's sort of like a low cost way to try the product on the go.
Um, but also just as a way to kind of get into another spot.
Um, I love the idea of the snack pack. That's such a cool collaboration and that you're able to do it with another local company and I know those crackers. So yeah, if I saw that, like I would be totally munching on that on a commute, or I dunno, anytime I have to go somewhere and I know I'm going to be hungry, so very.
Yeah, I think a lot of times we're out in a boat. I noticed this a lot when I was really deep in the hustle of like sales and demos. I was like doing two demos a day and I was just driving all around and I'm very cognizant of what I put in my body. And a lot of times I would have to compromise on something.
I didn't think was that great because of time, you know? So I would be eating something. I didn't necessarily a hundred percent whiny, but I was hungry and I was in that place of like, I just need something and maybe it's better than a cookie or maybe I would eat a cookie. So I also feel. This is a, as people start to build awareness about it is something that is something you can have as a snack.
And it's sort of your savior at seven 11, where there's this sea of bad choice. And you're like, if only there was one good choice and now I feel like there is going to be one good choice. Are you
saying these are going to be available at 7 11 1
day? Ooh. Yeah, I think they might be. Yeah.
Epic. I cannot wait for that.
Is there a milestone that you guys have reached in the last, like two to three years that you feel particularly proud of? Obviously you've had a lot of success in scaling to retailers and creating this beautiful brand and just being on your own personal journey, but is there something in particular that jumps out at you that you're like, I am so proud that our company did this or that I did that.
Yeah, I think, I mean, there's about two that really sort of stick out to me and one is being able to pay all of my employees, a livable wage here in Vancouver. I mean, I started paying people like 12 bucks an hour, which was more than minimum wage, but it has always been on my goal list to kind of be able to pay people more.
And I hope to go beyond the livable wage thing where I really want to nurture. Our employees and I'm get like, you know, people living a really great life, like not just being in a job because I worked so many jobs where like, my job takes up all my time and energy. I want to get home. I just want to lay down in my bed for a little while.
And I don't really have any time to like, explore my passions or have time for my family or whatever it is. And so. One of my missions, personal mission is to create an environment here that allows for people to explore the things that they love to do and without the stress of money. Um, so that's kind of one thing, I don't quite know what that's going to look like just yet, but, you know, I, I pick away at it in the ways that I can with what I, the means that I have to do.
So as we go, um, Moving into our own very own production space was huge. I mean, I stayed in a commissary. We were probably were well over a million dollars in revenue and I was still in a commissary. Like I was basically in the commissary. Didn't even have like proper, like a door wasn't a narrow door.
Couldn't even fit a pallet in there. And we were probably packing six pallets or more a week. Per distributor. And so we would have to hand bomb it. Uh, and we were using like ratchet straps to kind of stack them to the ceiling. And I was just afraid because I also have never really owned anything or I've been responsible for a full lease or something like that.
And so that was a real personal development milestone. It's like really realizing that I have a real business here. It's like successful. You're not like. Don't worry. Like I remember bankers, like whenever they want to give me money, like nobody has that experience. People are always complimenting me on how good my P and L is and stuff.
And I was like, I have no idea what P and L is like for so long, you know, I was like, okay, good. You know, but mostly it was like, how can I get as much for spending as little as I possibly can, except for the things that mattered to me, which were people and ingredients. Um, so when we finally got our own space, I was like, It's kind of felt like one of those moments where if nothing changes from this point on, I think I will be.
I will be able to say that I did something, you know, and I, I'm pretty proud of that position. I put myself in taking myself out of, you know, like not being able to afford contacts, to be able to be providing salaries for people and to be providing awesome product to people and figuring it out as I go. I don't think I gave myself enough credit for the strategy and the stuff that I came up with on my own.
Whereas like a lot of people do get outside help. No, I'd had a couple of mentor type relationships, but they always ended up sort of firing me. Cause they were just like, you have such a strong vision. Honestly, you have all the tools you need. You just need time. They really did say that. Like, if you need to call me, call me, but I honestly feel like you have this.
And at first I was sort of offended at the two people that kind of gave me very similar feedback. I was like, is this one a mentor? Like, oh my God, you know, like that, I felt bummed out because I wanted someone to tell me the answer. One of the guiding principles. I keep getting hammered on the head through the universe is trust yourself.
Like honestly, you know, the answer, stop doubting yourself and wasting time asking 50 million people and maybe paying them money to then realize that your idea was. You know, so I think those are sort of the keys.
Oh man, that is definitely a powerful lesson. Is that at the end of the day, like only you have the answers, like you are the visionary behind this company, and it's easy to want to outsource that and be like, somebody else needs to tell me what to do, or I just need to take.
One more program and learn how to do Facebook ads, but it's like, no, what do I know to be true about what this business needs? And I think it's, uh, it's really like, uh, a journey to learn, to listen to that inner voice and to realize that. If you follow someone else's template, it probably won't work that well because you're completely pushing aside what you know, to be true about this company that you built from the ground up.
So I was going to ask you, like, have you ever worked with like outside mentors, but I think that kind of answers that. And it sounds like at this point, you know, that like, usually it's more of a, I need to sit and ask myself, what does the business.
Yeah, exactly. I am actually going to be working with two other people though, coming in the coming months that have sort of, um, decided to take on spread them as a project as, as a, like a round table.
Like I do. I think we have reached a point where I need a little bit more strategy back and forth and a little bit more tactical, back and forth. But now that I know. That specific thing, it feels like the right move to make. Whereas before it was like either hiring like a freelance marketing agency or this and that, and that that to tell me my vision basically is what I kept doing, but I knew I know my vision, so when I didn't trust it, but now I do.
So I guess I had to go through that, I guess. Absolutely. I feel like there's no sense that. Sometimes looking back at hindsight and you, you know, you might beat yourself up over it. You're like, oh, why did I do this? Why did I do this? But I think that message is that you, everything has value. So even if you look back and you're like, oh, this was the same blessing over and over again.
But it just took you that long to finally understand the value in that message. And, and now that you went through it three or four times, you know, then now you kind of, don't have to do it again because you recognize it or this really awesome. And the mountain is you. I am the mountain, the mountain, New Zealand.
Um, and basically it's about self-mastery or whatever, but it's also a little bit about self sabotage in, in some ways, like little things that can come up that you might not realize that you're doing, um, like uprooting or, you know, perfectionism or these sorts of things that are really just a means of delaying your inner voice or discounting your, your inner voice instead of just.
Um, you know, if it doesn't hurt, if there is no pain, you just have to realize that that means you're on the right track. Like that means you're learning. And I think we all want to avoid pain and we all, but really there's no other way. There are no shortcuts, you know? So
some people say that like, um, business.
Uh, or your business growth journey is directly tied to your personal growth journey. Does that kind of resonate with your path? Like have you had to do a lot of personal work and really grow as a individual in order for your company to continue growing?
Oh, I think absolutely a hundred percent. If you're not on a path of personal development and business, I don't know.
You probably just have like a regular business. That's a transactional business, but people who really grow their businesses into these huge things, empire is if you will, it is 100% tied to who you are and how you grow and how you develop. And you know, all the problems that come up are generally related to, you know, you, so your personal blocks or, or those sorts of things, that's 100%.
I agree with that statement.
Is there a skill that you're currently working on yourself? Like I know you said you're kind of reaching out to other people, uh, to help you to like strategize for the future, but you personally, is there an area that you feel like you really want to dive into or something that you haven't fully grasped yet that you want to just learn more about as an entrepreneur and as the founder of this company?
Yeah, I think me, I think I'm really getting into the term. Self-mastery, you know, really starting to understand who I am and discipline and the way that I go out into the world and being okay with nothingness and everything all at the same time and more focusing on a human experience and less about.
Material things or any of that sort of thing, you know, I think I've always been very interested in. The meaning of life. I don't want to get maybe too deep or whatever, but, you know, I came from a situation where I was, I was in foster care from the time I was three until I was about six and a half years old.
And I kind of bounced around between my mom and, and foster care back and forth. And I ha I had a moment when I was about five years old in a foster home and I, I kinda was crying and I remember not understanding like, Why am I here? Like, why do I exist? Like, it doesn't feel like anybody wants me, like, what is my purpose?
I remember being like so young and asking, what's my purpose. And I stood up on my bed frame and I looked out and there was a full moon. And I said to the moon, like, I'll be good. Is that, you know, is that why nobody really wants me? Is it because I I'm, I'm not good. Maybe I'm a bad kid. You know what? I made a promise to the moon that night that I will do whatever it takes to be good at.
From that moment on, at such a young age, I wanted to know the meaning of life. And I think through chaos and through crisis, sometimes, you know, that stuff like that doesn't usually happen until you're maybe a teenager or maybe you're 40, you know, like where something in your life comes crashing down on you.
And I think in a way I was always sort of sad, but that was like a, an opportunity for me at such a young age to really become a way. Of my experiences and interpret them. And I've always kind of like had these interesting books pop up in my life. Like the first one was like the celestial prophecy and another one was this one on nature versus nurture.
Just sort of like following those types of sort of, there are no coincidences in life. One of the main things that I been led by since I was really, really young, um, and, and being open to whatever journey you happen to be on that, it's about the messages that you receive between your engagements, with the different people that you meet.
Uh, whether they sometimes are conflict, sometimes they're like you met someone for the first time that feels like you've known them for an eternity. Sometimes somebody gives you a tip and sometimes you give, you know, something and you change people's lives. And I think I, I love that. It, it makes me feel excited about the magic of life, because, you know, at the end of the day, I have everything I need.
I finally got the Mac book air ever wanted. I find I bought my family a home last year, like in Vancouver, like that's insane. And I, so I've kind of done these things. And the thing that still kind of gives, makes me feel like magic is helping people and sort of like uncovering this sort of magic of life.
So my own self-mastery or discovery is kind of like, kind of maybe going down more of that. I don't want to call it spiritual, but just understanding consciousness and all that.
Um, I feel like maybe there's like a future project in that for you to be. Once you learn this and actualize it to teach it to others.
So who knows? Put it on the
cool. If I could be like the next Joe Dispenza,
I actually do see it for you. So I don't know that it's too far off. Um, final question for somebody who's listening to this podcast and they're feeling particularly inspired by your story. But they have no idea where to begin with their business idea. What would you tell them as one of the first steps that they could take to bring an idea to life?
Just like you.
I would say, don't get too hung up on like competition or like, you know, anything like that, make sure that you have something of value. So don't cheap out on anything that you make sure if it's a food product, that it's something that it's like the best ingredients or that you're going to be making people's lives better, not just selling cookies or, or something like that.
Or. If it's sort of a service or something like that. Yeah. Don't get hung up on competition, but really trying to tailor it specifically to the one person that you think could really benefit from that. Just the one don't try to like make it too big of a group, just one person, because there'll obviously be more people to follow.
The next thing I say is branding is huge. Um, The way it looks is huge. And so I would say with Pinterest being basically still readily available, create a Pinterest board, which is basically a vision board. It's so amazing and so powerful and just like go to town on that. And, and it's not done in a day.
Like you got. Start pinning things over a month or whatever, and make a really, just one big board. Don't try to like organize it. Just everything you like or catches your eye from like a building to a font, to a color scheme or something. I just dump it all into that thing and then go through there. And this is like where my pattern and my sort of strategy brain comes in and start.
Yeah. Creating different boards from the commonalities that you see in there. And then from each of those boards go inside and start saying, okay, is this like a personal thing? Or is this kind of like a, is this just like a, yeah, like a personal need or is this something that relates to my business and.
Sort that out between like personal life goals and then like your business, like look and vision and branding from there. Cause sometimes people, I kind of am like this too, where I just like, I get them mixed up sometimes. And then as your business grows, you have to realize that like your business is a per certain aesthetic and your life instead of can change over time, but you gotta be pretty consistent with your business it's aesthetic.
And so I would say like aesthetic is huge because most of the time people who have a product or a service. If their website looks kind of janky, um, it, you know, people aren't going to trust that it's pro or that you're better than them. That's where I think the major customer barrier is, is. Deep down the customer has to believe or be told that you know, more than they do or that you have what they don't have a need.
So if, if your food product or your website or your packaging just looks like, you know, a printed sticker out of a printer, Know, you can't, you really do have to kind of level it up. Like what would Kraft do? Or like, what would somebody you aspire in a service would do to kind of do that? And I would say if you haven't can get those two things clear, um, really just pounding the pavement.
That's another thing, actually. So many people try to skip this step. They try to hire it out. They don't want to meet anybody. Or they just kind of want it all right away. They want mass distribution. They want 10,000. I don't know if that's a lot, a hundred thousand customers or something like that, but all the value in the early days comes from you doing everything.
It really does because that's how you learn how to, first of all, hold people accountable who are going to then be in that position, whether that be sales or production or writing code or your Facebook ads or whatever. But then you're also getting the feedback from customers. So for me, it was doing demos.
Use their language. Like I have my language language of like, what I'm telling them product is, but what are they telling you that the product is to them that, you know, and then, so that's like such valuable information. Other people aren't going to know that you're not going to pick up on those cues if you're not there.
Like those are really special moments. And then I think too, when I was going to the stores myself or going, trying to get the sales meetings. Them getting to know me and my hustle and my grit and my, you know, tenacity for success. I think that's where the loyalty comes from. Like, we're doing so amazing here in the west.
And there's lots of competition coming in all the time and we are dominating and it's not our stuff is the best I will say. But on top of it, people want to try new things. So retailers are willing to let other people in, but I think I have. Loyalty. My retailers have certain loyalty. My distributor has a certain loyalty to me because they all know me.
They all like. They know, feel my passion every time at a trade show. Like we have such great relationships, like building those relationships are invaluable beyond what you're doing now. Right? Like you never know if the person you, you come across in the grocery store is going to be your next boss or your next collaborator, or pass you on a customer or, you know, it could be anything and you could be helping them too.
So I think always just thinking those three things. Like you, you got, you get so much value more than you think, and it sounds, feels like it's going to be tiring to do all that, but it's worth all the hours that you spend building it up kind of slow. to get that information. I personally
think. Hmm. I love those tips.
So number one, don't cut corners. Make a really good product. Number two, epic branding, number three, pound the pavement, build the relationships. I can imagine that there's probably a lot of these retailers who still remember the first time you came in and your enthusiasm and your excitement. And they've just continued to strengthen that relationship with you since.
So. I think that's such an important part of building that brand loyalty and that retailer loyalty to you. Uh, and it's obviously paid off quite well. So definitely important tidbit for anyone listening, who is selling a product. Um, it's, it always boils down to the relationship. Somebody is behind the product.
Yeah, for sure. And it makes me exciting, excited too. Like when I see the CEO from choices and he gives me a hug at a trade show and he's like telling me reminiscing about spreading products and I like lights me up. I'm like, okay. Like they, they care.
Yeah. It's a reminder of that. Like, yeah, people really do care about you.
They care about your product and they believe in your brand just as you do. Yeah. They're like
rooting for you. It's there
for you. Absolutely. This has been so cool. Um, I absolutely love your energy, your enthusiasm for spread M kitchen. And I'm very intrigued too. About your personal evolution and spiritual Jeremy.
I'm sure we'll. You know, stay connected and I can keep in touch with you on that. But if people haven't tried spread them kitchen and they want to go get their hands on some products, um, and they live in Canada, where are the best places to find out about you to learn more about the brand and all the places that they can connect with you guys?
Well, we're available in almost all natural grocery stores across Canada. So from young nature's fair to the big carrot. Uh, we're also in Loblaws and superstores now, too, in this sort of natural value aisle. Um, we're now also available in Sobey's, which is pretty cool in with the natural dairy sets. Um, you can find our cream cheeses in there.
To, uh, you know, the organic eggs and yogurts and those sorts of things. So that's really awesome. And that's coast to coast and you can also find us online. So we did start a store online so we can ship straight to your house. Um, and then that way you also get sort of a personal, a few little extra personal touches to kind of like learn more about the brand and, you know, engage with us a little bit more.
And then, yeah, and then all of the sort of online stores like spot and. So many just go on a store locator.
Yes. Yeah. I will link that in the show notes for sure. And I can honestly say I, we had a couple of friends over a few weekends ago and I made a charcuterie board and it had all of your products on it and they weren't.
Obsessed. Like they're so good. They're the best replacements for, you know, typical cheese or whatever people normally put out. So I just want to say congratulations on all your success. You have an amazing product, and I wish you all the best as you continue to share your mission and your vision with more and more people.
So thank you, Melissa.
Oh, no. Thank you so much for chatting.
Thanks for taking a minute out your day to hang out in the Visionary Universe!
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