Erica Bethe Levin, Founder and CEO of Globowl

Business brain episode 598 for Wednesday, November 13th national hug a musician day 2024. Greetings folks and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take an idea or three, we crunch it, we dissect it, we analyze it, we use it to tune our business brains each and every time we get together. Sponsors for Today's episode include legalzoom.com, where promo code bbshow gets you 10% off any business formation product with some asterisks and notion.com businessbrain is where you can go to try that out for free today. We will go more in depth on that in a little bit. For now here as usual in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And out here in Northern California, I'm Shannon Jean. And we have a guest today, Dave.

We do, yeah. Erica Beth Levin from Global reached out to us and your story, Erica, is so interesting to me. I don't want to say unique, but it might be unique that it was a no brainer to make sure we found a time to get you on the show. So Erica, thank you so much for joining us.

No, thank you so much for having me.

Yeah, this is cool. I, I looking at your site like anybody has a little kid like, you know, prevent picky eating, open the flavor window, inspirement. So tell us, yeah, just start from the start. How did you get the, the idea for this? And also, you know, the, the to take action, to actually create this from nothing. Tell us about that.

Yeah, big question, right? And like you said on the websites, basically trying to fix all these fears that parents have. You know, having a picky eater is a very universal fear for parents, I think. You know, no one wants to go to a restaurant or not be able to go rest to a restaurant or go and not be able to find anything for their kids to eat or have a bag full of, you know, PBJ pies, which is what I used to have to make, like cut them out into little pies. So yeah, I just have a very picky first kid and I did not and I was very hesitant to, to give him texture, flavor, spice, you know, as he was eating his first solids. And so with our daughter we just said, you know what, we don't want to make that mistake again. My son has been eating probably chicken nuggets, a piece of Havarti cheese and raspberries for dinner every night for the last five years. I mean it is, I got it painful. And so our daughter, we gave her coconut curry as her very first food because that's what we were having that night. And I'm like, you know, people all over the world, they don't go buy frozen chicken fingers. They don't go buy frozen, you know, like pizza. They feed, feed their kids what it is that they're eating. What are we doing here? And so that's kind of how we got the start with our daughter. And she loved it, by the way, because why wouldn't she, right? It tastes amazing. Especially after only having eaten breast milk or formula. And so we just kept giving her all the food we had. We gave her saffron that week, like all the flavor. And she just kept eating it and loving it. So I realized, you know, we're on to something here. I introduced her to allergens early, both of them, actually, that I wasn't messing around with. And I just real is that all over the world, kids are just eating food that's chock full of allergens. And it's not, they're not stripped out.

It's just how it is.

So smart.

Yep.

Thank you. Well, and they don't have the food allergies that we do here. I'm not saying it's totally non existent.

Sure.

But it is far, far, far less so.

That's okay.

Makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.

And so I fed our, our daughter.

Shellfish during her first year and then, and then found out that you shouldn't have, but it was like, well, it works. It's all good. Yeah.

Yeah. Then she's fine. Right?

Of course. Yeah, totally.

Exactly. So that I get like, okay, we're going to do this through that. But the, the step from, okay, I'm making this for my kid to now I'm going to create a business. It's a massive step. Where did the impetus and the discipline, you know, to, to take that next step come from?

Oh, I mean, I was nervous because I've never done a product. I will say I'm a kind of a serial founder, though. I am on my third company. Got it. So I had said after the last company, I'm not building another company again.

That's a lie.

No, I need stability.

Never happens.

Famous last words. Exactly.

I'm not convinced that being an employee is, is stability either, though.

No, it's not. You're right. Job security today is not, it's really not there either. So, you know, do what makes you happy and what makes you feel like you're, you're, you're doing what you're supposed to be doing. And that's what I said with this Company. I said, whatever comes next, it has to be something I'm basically absolutely called to do. I like, I, it has to mean everything to me. I have to be super passionate about it, otherwise I don't want to do it again.

Yeah.

And, but this was that company and I think a lot of it came from being inspired by my own children. Like that really deep rooted passion, my passion for all things food. I mean, everything I've ever done in my life since I was 21 years old has been somewhat in or around food. And so there's just so much. And it was also during a time, you know, Covid time and quarantine where you, you can't leave your house. So how do I bring the world to my kids? Right. I, I don't want them thinking this is it, you know.

Sure.

And so we were able to do that through food and food is just such a huge part of my family traditions. And we're Jewish and Italian and so, you know, basically we're all crazy, but love food. So, you know, being able to, you know, tell the stories about our family through food and, you know, continue certain traditions through food, like, it all meant a lot to us. And so. Well, here we are.

Yeah, that's great. And so what were some of the first steps you did on this journey to see if it was even viable to start a food, you know, business? And how did you go about that?

So I, I knew a few things I knew that I knew how to do, like the foundational basics of building a company. I can raise money, I can write a plan, I know how to market, you know, but I didn't know how to create a product, obviously, nor did I know that I'd be, you know, calling overseas to try to find glass jars with the proper, you know, there's all these, this language I didn't know before. It's like 5, 8 inch lug neck, gold cap, what, you know, like, I didn't. So, you know, just a lot of things I didn't, I didn't know. So the, the smartest thing I think I did was really surround myself by people that know it better than I do. And just having been in the startup world for so long, I did have a lot of connections to people that even if they weren't in CPG or didn't know, you know, consumer goods, they knew someone that did. And so I was able to really surround myself with a very, very strong advisory board. And it wasn't hard to sell it because the idea made sense to so many People like, why are we feeding our kids differently than everywhere else in the world? Why, why aren't they eating what we eat? Why are we, why are we stripping the food into, you know, mushy purees that are stripped of allergens, texture, flavor, spice in single use plastic pouches? Why is that what we're doing?

Yeah, that's.

And so it made sense to a lot of people. So it was easy to kind of have those conversations and start to move forward.

That's great. I love it.

Absolutely amazing. What were your other businesses before this? I just. So people can understand kind of your, your. Yeah, yeah.

I'm definitely an accidental entrepreneur. I did not intend to do any of this, but my first company was an online magazine for women. And this was pre digital publications. I mean there might have been a digital component that was, you know, augmenting the hard copy. Right. But nothing was fully online yet. And so I created basically a guide to Chicago for, for people like me. Single cosmopolitan women that wanted to know how to take advantage of their city may meet other women and make friends. And so we were able to take this online community offline and garner some amazing, you know, advertisers through that because they were able to reach this woman from a 360 degree angle right. Online through our newsletter and then offline at real world events. And so that, that was an eight year.

Oh wow.

Eight years. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, so it was good. And then I was tapped to launch and run the Chicago market for a new startup. So I didn't found it, but I was one of the founding employees.

Not altogether. When?

No, yeah, no, not at all.

No stability, right? Yes, same. Yes, same problem. Yeah, yeah. Interesting, interesting.

So I did that and that was, that was a restaurant technology system, so reservation system and that actually was called Reserve. It sold to Resy. So it was an interesting experience to kind of work for a venture backed business and then also see it through, you know, to kind of the end. And then I was really. I had my baby. When I was working at this, you know, venture backed startup, there was never a woman at the company to have a baby. Right. It was so new. And so we were all navigating that together and I just, you know, after being out until 10, 11 o' clock at night schmoozing as like an eight and nine month pregnant woman, I was like I'm done. Like I just need. Let me stay home for a little bit and figure out what comes next. And so it was as if like the stars sort of just like aligned and I was. So many people reached out to me to help them with their startups. And so I just kind of started consulting for a while until I figured out what was next. And one of those consulting gigs did turn into like a five year job.

Makes sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And, yeah, and I did that. I was a hospitality consulting company, so again, in the, in the food space, you know, in the hospitality world. And I've also been a food writer for 15 years, so I definitely know food. I'm a cook, but not a chef, so that all helps.

That's really cool. And like, I've sold products my whole life, but food freaks me out. I don't know anything about how you'd sell it. How you go about doing it is there. And I love, you know, using your existing network, reaching out to, you know, surround yourself with people that know more than you do. We talk about that all the time. Board of advisors.

Yes.

Is there, are there some common mistakes that people trying to get into the food business make that, you know, you were able to kind of navigate around to, you know, to, to help your success?

Probably a lot.

Right. Including myself. What I would say is like, they're, you know, one of the first questions to ask this is after you really decide to move forward, know that you have the ability to do it, you have the finances to do it, and all of that. You got to decide, are you going to manufacture this stuff yourself? Are you going to have. Or, you know, are you going to have a cottage business and get the licensing you need for your own home, like, and be able to. That's not the business I wanted. I really want to create the biggest and best baby food brand out there because our kids want to scale it, right? Yeah, yeah.

Yes, absolutely.

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It was cor. I mean, it was the craziest experience I've ever had. Yes. I was running the business while doing that as much as one can from another country. We filmed in London and without your technology, half the time. Yeah, they take it away. So it was very challenging, right? Yes.

How did that work? Right. Because you're supposed to be isolated from the world. Right.

So to some degree we, we were able to communicate with our families. Right. This isn't Love island, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So we're definitely all professionals that, you know, need access to our businesses and things like that. But, but they did take our, our phones and our computers when we were doing these challenges, so we didn't have access. That makes sense.

Sure.

Although I did use the production phone to always call my kids. I talk to them every day. But luckily I hired someone in December. I left in February, but I had hired her before any of this came to be. And she really kept everything afloat while I was gone. I. Not only afloat, but like thriving afloat. Like she really. Thank God. Her name is Joanna and I am the luckiest person in the world to have found her. But it was very hard because you're trying to. And you know, I was the only mom on the show. One of the women was a mom, but her kids, her were grown, you.

Know, and they left sure, sure emptiness.

So I was the only one that had that kind of element to always be thinking about and the emotions behind, you know, being away for. I was gone for two months.

I mean, that's a long time, right? Yeah, that's challenging.

Did that. I mean, you had already run some companies before, but one of the common curses of an entrepreneur is not being able to let go enough. We convince ourselves that we're going to. Oh, yeah, we've hired somebody and they're going to do it. But then you wind up micromanaging them or at least fretting about whether or not you should micromanage them. You put yourself in a position where that was simply not possible. Almost cold turkey. What, what was that like? What was that part of that like? Was it good for your business long term to get that kind of separation?

It was good for the business long term because you really. You can't pay for that kind of exposure. You know that too.

That too, sure. Yes, of course. Yeah.

But how about you being gone from. Was your Company forced to, you know, take it to another level without you there every day.

Luckily, we did not have a lot of time to prepare because it all moved very quickly. Right. And technically we weren't allowed to tell anyone what we were doing. So I. It's. Yeah. I mean, I had clients, things like that that I knew that would be contacting me that I couldn't tell them. And then how do you even explain I'm gonna be gone in London for anywhere from five days to two months? Like, because you didn't know.

You don't know.

Yeah.

Right, Right.

So I may. I may not have even needed to say anything. Right. I could have been home in a week.

Yeah.

Yeah. Luckily, I mean, I did make it through all 10 episodes, so I was there the whole time. But, yeah, that was a challenge in and of itself. So I was only able to share this information with my family, my immediate family, really, and. And Joanna. And that's it. And so it was. It was that. That added some complications to it. But she was already very well versed in the business. She was totally up to speed. She had access to everything that I had access to, and that was even before learning about the show. So she was just extremely, like, kind of tossed into this, you know, the startup chaos. Right. And so she. I trusted her and it really did work out. And I was so happy to come home and know that she had done such a wonderful job. And she was the only person. I also, like, set into place that the only person for business I'm going to communicate with is Joanna. And she could then relate to others, you know, what she needed to. So instead of, like, having people calling me and not having access and not understanding why, I just used her as my one point of contact for the business. And that really worked out well.

Oh, that makes a lot of. Yeah. That way she can kind of field the real time stuff. And if there's something she needed you for, that relay can happen on the back end.

And she had the production phone number as well. So if she needed anything urgent, she always had access to me. She and my kids and my parents and obviously my husband.

Yeah, of course.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's cool. Sounds like a great experience.

Something. It was something my son is. I blame him. Slash thank him for the opportunity, but he's Gordon Ramsay's biggest fan. And yeah, he's. We watched Food Star season one and he just said, you should be on this show. You could win Mommy. And I'm like, that's great. Yeah. It wasn't exactly my. In my thought process. But he made me apply. So he watched me over my shoulder do it because I hadn't done it. He checked in months later, he goes, did you ever hear back from Gordon? And I like, oh, you know, I didn't actually apply. So he sat there with me, watched me do the application, and then I was the last one cast. I was like, they were almost done, if not done, and they moved it forward and I was on a plane, literally, like a few weeks later. It was very crazy.

So, so terrific. At some point, you'll get to sit. You'll have. You get to reverse roles. When, you know, he goes to apply for college, you'll sit over his shoulder and make sure he does his thing. Yep.

Oh, I will. He knows mommy's moving with him too. And I'm gonna be like, I'll get in my own room in the dorm. Don't worry. I won't, like, sleep in your room with you. But, like, I'm going.

Well, good. Good luck with that.

Thanks. Yeah, I know, I know. He says it's okay. It's okay because he's only eight now. Right. But he'll change his tune in a few years.

That will change. Probably. Probably.

I'll relish in it now, though. But he still wants perfect.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

I have a question about, like, structure. So are your, you know, I see you're at Amazon and you sell online and thrive and you get other, you know, stores throughout the country. Are your. Talk about your workforce. Are you guys all remote? Do you have outside sales team or you go through distributors? How does the business work?

You know, all the buzzwords, all the CPG words. Yeah, we. So, yes, everyone is remote. It's. Joanna and I are the two kind of holding down the fort full time. And then I probably have a team of five to seven consultants at any given, from graphic design to some digital marketing support and social media. And then in terms of outside sales, we do have a broker. But as the founder, it's like, I can't help myself. I'm constantly looking at stores and sending in inquiries and calling and stopping in with samples. You know, like, that's just what you do. And no one can sell like a founder. Nobody. Like, it just. No one has that fire in their belly. Like, like, yeah, I haven't. And even Joanna, even not being the founder, has it. And so, yeah, so I do have that. But I want to. I. I said to them this year, and this is actually, I guess, a piece of advice for any. Anybody listening in CPG who has a sales brokerage, you know, request to be at the meetings, you know, let them do the work of booking the meetings. That's their job. Right. They have these long standing relationships with the buyers. But make sure you're at the meetings because ultimately you are the only one that can sell the way that you can.

You can tell your story. It's your baby, your thing. You're going to be the best pitch person.

Right.

You're passionate about it. Yeah. I think that's great advice. It's fascinating. I know nothing about this business. This is why it's very fascinating to me because it seems so weird and different, but as you break it down into these little steps, I love how you can achieve all this with a small team. Great social media, great access, great storytelling like you had and be able to talk about, you know, what's going on and how it impacted your own kids. That's huge. It's right there for anyone that really can put it in and take those steps, have the discipline to see through and to use your resources. That's. I love it.

That's, that's the one thing, you know, use your resources. People have their own, you know, like, arsenal of resources that, you know, I may not have. Right. Or I have things that someone else. Use what you got, like, yeah, you know, and I also, you know, I hate the word networking. I think it's got, you know, a negative connotation. But the fact is it's not networking. It's like community building. Right. It's like it's bringing people into your orbit and you offering to be part of theirs. Like, you know, you're not just going and networking to get, get, get. Right. It's, it's a mutual thing or it should be.

It works, it works best when it's a mutual thing. That's right. Yeah, right. Of course.

The law of, law of reciprocity.

Right.

It's like, hey, I'm going to help you. You give out, give away value to help other people and it comes back to you exponentially. For sure. Yeah.

Could not agree more. Could not agree more.

It's a great story. Yeah. What's the best way for people to connect with you, learn more about your business?

Oh, sure. The website, the global G L O B O-W L.com or follow us on any social handle. It's the global on all of our socials and you have my name on here and anyone can connect with me on LinkedIn or send a note. I'm always happy to respond.

Amazing.

That's great. So we appreciate you, you know, filling my head full of ideas. I'm not gonna start. I'm not starting another business.

Yeah.

Someone told me, though, when you do start a CPG business like this, and they've had a lot of success in CPG and sold their company, you always have to be thinking six more months ahead. So don't get too comfortable after you lie. Like, I launched my first four recipes, I'm like, yes, these are the ones everyone wanted. We're done not starting well.

And I think. I think that's valuable advice for every business. It's required advice. Well, I think it's required advice for every business, too. In cpg, you will die faster if you aren't thinking about what's next. Right. The repercussions of not thinking about that are things that you will see sooner. But I think every business, if you're not thinking about what's next, right. It's. It's gonna end. I mean, whatever you're doing that is succeeding today will stop succeeding someday.

Of course, you don't get to.

You get to know. In cpg, you get to know it's not too many days in advance. Right. But the rest of us. It's also true. You just don't get to know the.

The.

The range, the time range, but it's still right there. So it's.

I was having coffee with one of my investors who happens to be a longtime friend of mine. We kind of started our first companies at the same, you know, she's. And she's in a tech, you know, tech company, and she has a project management platform, which is amazing, by the way. But she's already telling me, you know, they just launched, and she's like, oh, yeah, we got this new innovation in the pipeline, and we've got these developers doing it. I'm like, oh, my God.

Yeah.

Yeah, you always have to have it.

It's always.

That's the. I. I mean that if you, if you frame it right, though, that energy can just kind of keep compelling you to the next thing and. And the next thing. And. And I love it. I keep. Just keeps us going.

It's amazing.

Listen to the customers, too. Ask want. Right? I mean, that's. You can't just do it because, oh, I think this is going to be great. You know, it's not gonna be great if no one buys it. So talk to your customers. And that's the. You know, that's why I want to do more demoing and, and really engaging with our customers, like, I get there and I do the demos and I talk to them because I want to know what do they want? Yeah.

You know, Costco, walking through Costco, tasting, tasting global food.

Have you ever thought about Costco?

Yeah, of course. Have you ever thought about taking this concept and making it for adults as well, you know, and expanding into that because, like, you know, they sell kids pajamas with feet. They sell adult sized ones and, you know, could be interesting.

Yes, I. There's a lot on the horizon, but the idea of give, giving families an opportunity to kind of eat this together is definitely something we have brewing, if you will, for next year. Yes.

That's great. Awesome to meet you. Super inspirational. I love that you went out and did it and didn't just think about how great it was or keep it to yourself. You shared it with the world and you've had great success and that's awesome.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

Thank you for reaching out and thanks for coming on the show and thanks for making your schedule work. It's amazing. Go follow global. Visit the website. Go check out Instagram. Come visit us feedbackusbrain show if you need anything from us. Keep on living that charmed life and we'll see you on Friday.