815. Work Hard & Be Nice To People: How Super Coffee CEO, Jimmy DeCicco, Has Scaled His Startup, Raised Money, And Learned To Become An Effective Leader

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For any entrepreneur who is going to continue to lead scale of business, invest in yourself, invest in an executive coach, invest in a therapist. Because it's all relationships and the work that you learn from an executive coach or from a therapist doesn't just apply at work or in a professional setting.

Welcome to the Earn your happy podcast. I'm Lori Harder, founder of Light Pink, best selling author, three time fitness world champion, and I'm a crazy, multi passionate entrepreneur. My journey has taken me everywhere from being a broke waitress, barista, retails associate and personal trainer with massive anxiety and no belief in myself to later becoming a multimillionaire in love with my life. In 2007, my husband and I lost everything. We found ourselves hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt at rock bottom. We had no ideas and I had no education to fall back on. This is when I found personal development and learned everything I could about business. Not not by choice, but because I realized no one was coming to save me. The conversations on this podcast are going to let you know that you're not alone and that we all feel like we don't know what we're doing. We're going to give you the tools to help you face your fears, take action, start your business and grow those massive dreams that are keeping you up at night. It's time to create a life that you can't hide from and put so much on the line that your higher self is forced to come out. You're going to stop waiting for someone to approve of you and you're going to anoint yourself. Because I'm obsessed about building businesses that give women a platform, I want to feature you. So if you text the word podcast to 310-496-8363, you can get your questions answered on our Q and A segment along with a shout out. And if you rate, review and subscribe to this podcast, we're choosing someone every month to get coached and featured on our show. It just might be you. So let's get started.

Hey everyone, welcome back to the show. Today my guest is Jimmy DeCiccio. He is the oldest brother and chief executive officer at ke2life Inc. The makers of Super Coffee. I myself have consumed mass quantities of super coffee, and I'm not mad about it. He is a former collegiate athlete who left a job on Wall street six years ago to start a company with his brothers, beginning out of the youngest brother's dorm room. Since then, he's raised hundreds of millions of dollars from celebrity investors, including Jennifer Lopez. We all love her. Alex Rodriguez, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Aaron Rodgers, and so many other people helping it reach a $400 million valuation. Which, if you guys know, I am starting light pink. This was such a fun conversation for me because it beverage space. And even if you are not interested in the beverage space, this is business, so it can be applied to your life as well. So let's get started.

Jimmy, I'm so excited to have you on the podcast. Thank you so much for coming on.

Oh, yeah, I'm excited to be here. It's going to be a fun one.

Jimmy, this is like so perfect that you are pulled over on the side of the 405 right now. If you guys don't know, that is a pretty much it's a highway in California, but it is a parking lot, so also known as a parking lot in California. And I am in an RV in Green Bay, Wisconsin. So I feel like this is really typical for startup life, entrepreneur life, all of the things. So I'm so excited to chat with you today because you have an awesome company that I literally. I don't know if you know this, but between myself, my team and my husband, we drink like two super coffees a day.

Oh, let's go.

It's crazy.

My husband actually takes the little one, the little 35 calorie one and puts it in his coffee in the morning. So I don't know if that's how it's intended to be used, but it's literally like crack around our house. We love, love, love it because we are always looking for something healthier that also is like that afternoon kind of like you hit that wall where you're like, I either I'm working on my computer and I E. Snack or I need something like just to make myself feel better. So really excited to have you on and just chat about this because I'm also launching something into the world and looking at any founder story around me for inspiration and really loving hearing about what that looks like and what all those different roadblocks are. And I would love to hear, Jimmy, just about where this idea came from. And then we'll kind of dig into what it's looking like and how you built it.

Cool. Sounds good. And first of all, your husband sounds like my kind of guy. Double down on the coffee in the coffee. That's. That's. Yeah, we'll be friends, and I'm excited to hear more about what you're about to be building, but for us. So I started Super Coffee six years ago with my two younger brothers, and we all played sports in college, and we were just tired. You know, we had practice in the morning, late nights in the library. It was grind. And we didn't want to drink the sugary Starbucks Frappuccino that our school store sold. 36 grams of sugar, 300 calories didn't really give us energy, so we started making our own coffee for ourselves just to get us through the day, give us that boost. We added things like protein and coconut oil and monk fruit to sweeten it so it tasted good. It was good for us, gave us energy, and we're like, dang, this works. You know, let's sell this. Let's start selling this to our teammates and our classmates and our coaches. And before long, I quit my job to start selling coffee. Jordan, our youngest brother, dropped out of college, gave up a full basketball scholarship, and we were making this stuff in the dorm room, making deliveries by ourselves for the first two years. And six years later, we're still in business.

Wow.

I love that. I think the best ideas come from solving your own problems because you can speak so freaking passionately about it. And when you keep hitting walls, you're.

Like, no, I know that people need.

This because we needed it. And really creating what you wish existed. So what were some of the first steps? I get asked this all the time. What were the first steps of, okay, we want to create this product. What does that even look like?

Was it Google?

Was it asking friends what was was.

Like, sort of just dorm room intuition, you know? Like, we were kind of like, all right, I drink a coffee before practice. I drink protein shake after practice. I have protein powder. So what happens if I just put protein in my coffee? Kind of like a not very informed or move. Like, there was no food science here. It was just a couple of jocks, like, let's put protein in our coffee. And then we started studying things like the ketogenic diet and energy from healthy fats. So we got very, very in tune with things like MCT oils, coconuts. We tried a ton of sweeteners. Just we didn't want sugar, and we didn't want artificial sweeteners. So we were playing with things like agave nectar, which was still sugar, maple syrup, still sugar, stevia was. Is sugar free and plant based. That had a weird aftertaste for us. Ultimately, we settled on monk fruit. And once we had it down, we sort of made the recipe so it could scale. We initially started out with 20 grams of protein, but it was too thick and more of a protein shake than an energy product. So we dialed that back to 10 grams of protein per bottle. And I mean, now today, like, we work with food scientists at our factories and our flavor houses. So, like, I think the thing that a lot of people got to realize too, is it's iterative. You know, we are always improving. We change our formula six times a year. You know, like, it's just getting better every time we make it. Today, we have more resources to continue to improve.

So getting this out into the world, were you just sitting around?

You're like, okay, we have this idea now.

Who do we talk to? What was that?

Yeah, so I think a lot of planning and a lot of dreaming. Like, a lot of people get paralyzed by the business plan, right? They're like, how am I going to go to market? What are these 20 slides need to look like? And for us, I mean, our industry is simple enough. It's not easy. It's simple, though. And it's like, all right, we have a product that people can taste, they can feel it, they can buy it. And in order to have a business, we have to sell a lot of these things. You know, we only make 50 cents on every bottle of coffee we sell after you cover the cost of goods. To grow a business, we have to sell a lot of these things. So we went straight to Whole foods in Washington, D.C. where my middle brother Jake was finishing up at Georgetown. And we said, hey, Whole Foods, we're super coffee. And we brewed up a little bottle in the dorm room. And we're like, you guys don't carry anything like this. You should give us a shot. So that store manager got us into one store, and like I said, all we knew is we had to sell a lot of it. And all we had was one store. So the three of us stayed at that store every day from opening till closing, pouring samples, educating customers. I mean, we broke that store's weekly sales record in the first four hours. And then that became the playbook. You know, we took that sales data from one store to the Whole Foods down the street. And we said, hey, we're breaking records up the street. You guys should give us a shot, you know? And I mean, that's really all we knew. It was like, make product or samples, stock shelves, sell product, and like, keep. Keep scaling that.

What do you think this would have been like, doing this alone? Do you think the power of having those, you know, people to bounce things off of or when things got hard. I don't know if you guys ran into any formulation problems or you fel. Oh, my God, is this ever going to come out or taste the way that we want it to? Like, what was the power of having your people around you, your brothers around you, to kind of throw you back in the game?

This venture would be impossible without one of us, let alone by yourself. There's three of us working on this, and I think the three of us complement each other so well as it relates to the business. Jordan's personality, he's the operations and creative guy. You know, he comes up with the formulas. He's the innovator, he's the visionary. Jake is a big, bubbly personality, life of the party, carefree. He is chief revenue officer, our head of sales. He's out there selling things to everybody and anybody. And then I'm our investor relations and marketing. And Jake couldn't do what I do. I couldn't do what Jake does. Jordan couldn't do what we do. So it is truly a perfect balance. And there's so many trials, like you said, that if there's many days that one of us is down about something, whether sales are down or an investor said no, or the product didn't come out right, the other two pick them up no matter what. So I think this would be impossible without us.

Yeah, I love that. I think, you know, I started what I'm doing alone, but I know the power of having I have so many great people around me is the thing. So I wasn't necessarily alone at all. I just, you know, not other founders, but definitely people who I surround myself with for those days. You need people to kick you back in the game for sure.

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Lori. Okay, so you have investors and you guys had to go out and raise money. Was this the first time you raised money? What was that experience? Like, what do you think was the most important thing that people should know if they're raising money? Like what do they need to do? Do they need to know the story? Like what was the key thing that you think got money through the.

Door? In the early days? The strategy or the key things were very different than what they are today. And back then we didn't have sales data, we didn't have fancy products or a bunch of distribution or anything like that. We just had three guys who believed in a vision for a better energy source and what we did. And obviously we had a good work ethic and a lot of enthusiasm. So the people that we pitched to invest in us, they were strangers that we met at Whole Foods. They would see Jake in his Georgetown hat and one guy was like, oh, I'm a Georgetown alum, I'm a lawyer there. How can I help? I love your guys story. Like, well, we're raising money. And then the next day he got us in front of some of his legal clients and those ended up becoming our first investors. And I think in those early days, they're betting on you. So it's all relationship driven. And it's a numbers game in the sense that we had a lot of conversations with a lot of people before we finally found the group that was willing to write a check. And now today, reason I say the fundraising story changes in the early days, like you have to get people to believe what you believe. Today it's, are we doing what we said we are going to do? Are we taking market share? Is this actually unique? Does the world need us? And that's when you have a strong data story. You use the sales velocities and things like that. Today we raise money based on the.

Data. Oh, I love that. You know, especially for people. Just in the beginning, it's all just a concept. And I think you said a key word that I think has, you know, I just finished a raise and it was like the enthusiasm and getting people on board into a vision. So what was the vision when you were pitching, like, you know, when you guys were really enthusiastic, what was it that you felt that you were.

Selling? We like to say we're mass producing positive energy. And that's everything from what we put into the coffee to what our team puts out into the world and how we interact with people. But the idea is people drink too much sugar, where they consume their sugar and their beverages, mainly sodas. But hollow coffee should not have 40 grams of sugar in it. And yet Starbucks, the number one coffee in the world, is doing $2 billion in sales in the U.S. so we've created this narrative where for every bottle of super coffee sold, if that's one less bottle of Starbucks, over the last five years, we've already removed £10 million of sugar from America's diet. So we're selling them on impact, we're selling them on change. We're selling them that, hey, the way things are Today are no longer relevant. Right. It's 2021. People care about being healthy. People want to be more productive. It's not just an industry that is dominated by flavor and indulgence, you know, and very much in many parts of the country, it still is. You know, people buy things that taste good, and you'll be amazed. You go to Texas or Oklahoma or Arkansas, and I mean, really every state you have people that are like, I don't care about sugar. Sugar tastes good, so I'm going to drink it, you know, so it's, it's still an uphill battle on instilling that education piece. But the thing about Super Coffee is, like, we can, we can sidestep the heavy lift on education because our product tastes good. So we're not asking people to compromise that.

Much. I'm so curious if your customer base is the initial customer that you.

Thought. Like, sometimes we set out and we create these, like, customer avatars and then the product gets out into the.

World and you're like, huh, I didn't expect this group of people to love this. Did you have anything that was a surprise like.

That? Yeah, initially we started it for ourselves. You know, like I said, we didn't intend to start a business, but we were tired. College student athletes. We started selling it to our teammates and that's what we thought the market was. So we were going from campus to campus. And then what we found is a lot of first responders, like paramedics and police officers and firefighters. Today, our number one customer is females in their 40s. You know, that was a bit of a surprise. I think the reason we appeal to that demographic is it does taste indulgent. It's a indulgent flavor, but it's only 80 calories and zero sugar, you know, so it's like a sort of a healthy, permissible treat in that regard. I think the tricky thing about coffee is it's ubiquitous. Right. It appeals to all different demographics. So for us, it's like, how can we stay focused? And. Because if you try to be everything for everybody, you really dilute the.

Message. What's been one of your biggest learning lessons from this so far? And of course, I know you're learning every single day with all the.

Things that you're doing, but what are.

Some of your biggest lessons? Tell me a challenging one and.

Then tell me one that you're just.

Like, wow, this is so profound. That applies to so many parts of.

Life. I think this answer answers both of those, those questions. And it's going to sound a little callous. But like what we learned early and we embraced it is nobody cares. Nobody, nobody cares to help us. Nobody cares what we're working on. And it's not because like it's not unique and they have things against like me and my brothers. It's, everybody's so busy and preoccupied on what they're working on and nobody's going to roll up their sleeves and do the work with you. And it's a lot of work. And I think in the early days we were kind of like looking around for people to help. Like we had this illusion that advisors were people that come in and help us run the business. And like the bottom line is it's, it is hard work and you are the only people. Like the day you don't show up to work is the day your business stops moving forward. And I think if you embrace that mentality early that nobody, there are no shortcuts, there are no breaks. You know, like you might get lucky, but you only get lucky by showing up, putting in the work. Even though it was like embracing the hard way or the sort of the grind, once we wrapped our head around that, like the rest became easy, you know, because at that point if you, if you accept that like nobody is going to help you build your dreams, then any help that you do get along the way is just benefit, you know, that's just a.

Bonus. I love that. What was something that you thought before you got the thing, like that would be maybe a windfall if it happened that didn't actually create that. And maybe you realize it's just like the compilation of a million different things that make your business get out.

There. Was there.

Anything. If this just happens, this will be.

It. So many things, but I think the most relevant. Last year we signed a deal with Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez. They invested a big, big chunk into Super Coffee. And JLo posted on our Instagram 150 million followers and we're like, this is it, this is our coming out party. Nothing happened. I think we got like five new followers. You know, no sales lived, no hype, no record breaking numbers. And I think it's just the reality that this is hard. And like no doubt, does it help? But to your point, it's just one of a million things that contribute to the success. There's no, there's no silver.

Bullet. I love that because it just, it's funny because I'm coming out with.

A wine based seltzer right now and.

I feel you like it's just all of those Things that you're like, oh, if this person does it or gets involved or, you know, we have these great investors. It's like, and now.

What? Now.

What? It does move that. I'm sure that you got interest from maybe stores or interest from other.

Investors. So it does.

Help. But it's like all of the things that come together and it's just like this. You'll never be able to trace it back, right, to one thing. When people ask that, I'm like, no, it's a million different things. So what are some things looking forward that you are excited about with getting Super Coffee out there? What are some things that you have in the pipeline for this year for ideas for marketing, for getting it out into the.

World? Basically, we haven't done much advertising outside of, like Facebook and Instagram ads. So this year we're going to diversify our ad spend into channels like connected TV, so like YouTube TV, Hulu, things like that. So you'll start to see some television spots for us that, I mean, today we're 80% of our business happens in stores and 20% happens online. So it's a nice omnichannel business where if you see an ad for Super Coffee on your phone or on your TV at home, you might buy it on our website. But chances are, next time you're in a store, you'll recall that ad and then try the product there too. So the digital advertising now benefits both pieces. And the second thing, it's a little bit longer lead is Super Bowl 2022. So February of 2022, we're going to do a big campaign out in LA, really winning boots on the ground Super Bowls in LA. This year we may even do some regional super bowl commercial spots rather than a full national.

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Off. Okay, what has been your favorite part of building this? Like when you just feel like you are in your zone of genius and inflow. What does that look like to.

You?

What? What does your day look.

Like? What are you.

Doing? You nailed it at the beginning. You said when you solve a problem for yourself, that's key because you can speak so passionately about it. And I think when we first started super coffee, I was 22 years old. I was super insecure. I'd look up at people who are authorities in their category. I'll be like, dang, how is this person so well versed in this? Like, I don't have the discipline to study and learn what they know about this. Like, they're, they're light years ahead of me. But then what I realized is, like, there's nobody in the world knows more about super coffee than, than me and my brothers, you know, like, we are truly the world's experts on this, which is why we can speak confidently about it. We can speak fluently. And the problems that we've solved along the years, they're not like academic lesson, they're just, that's life. You know, we're living our life and it's easy to talk about stories and experiences that you've lived, you know, so like, now that we're getting efficient in the business, it went from like, we were the guys sitting in the audience, like admiring people on stage to having the privilege to be on stage sharing that story with others. And for me to reflect on these last five years to go from that, like, insecure 22 year old who doubted everything to now having enough confidence to instill that in other people and say, hey, you got this. You know, I'm no different than you are. You literally have what it takes to build your dreams. Now just go do.

It. Where do you think confidence comes.

From? I think it comes from experience. You know, I played college football and my coach called me a high reps guy because I would need to run a play 10 times before I got it. You know, I would screw up so many times and then finally I did it. And once I got it, I really had it. So I think being uncomfortable doing stuff that you haven't done before, new things are always uncomfortable. And for me, like, even to this day, I'm uncomfortable. Every level of growth in super coffee. We just closed our series C today, actually like a couple hours ago. Yeah, thank you. But that comes a new pressure, a new level of leadership that I haven't lived through yet. But because I've been in a situation like this before, it's like, all right, I know this feeling in my heart. It's like my heart kind of feels a little light and I feel a little lightheaded, but that's good. That means I'm uncomfortable. That means I'm about to.

Grow. Tell me about a time when you have been too.

Comfortable. What does it feel.

Like? How do you know it's time to.

Grow? Like, how do you know it's.

Time to go to that next.

Level? I think when I question myself of, like, what do I do next? You know, like, when I'm looking around to find work or find things to add value on, it's like, all right, then I'm missing something. There's certainly a project that should require all of my time, effort, and energy. And if I'm not on that thing right now and I'm actually looking for things, like, that's when I get distracted and start doing, like, I don't know, small things that don't move the needle forward. You know, like, for instance, I want to sell apparel on our website, you know, but at the time, we were raising our series C, and like, me launching a store on our website is the least important thing I should be doing yet. It was something that I felt like I wanted to do and do. So I don't know. I think if I'm looking for work, it often means that I'm missing something.

Bigger. For you, what's the.

Importance? I know I kind of asked this. With you and your brothers, other.

Co founders, your whole life, have you always strived to surround yourself with people that you know can help you.

Grow? Or what did that look.

Like? Did you have to create kind of your own tribe around you? Tell me about how you make sure you have people around you who help you.

Grow. I've always been attracted to interesting people, whether it's athletes or artists or academic leaders or people who are good in their field, like creative folks, you know, musicians, dancers, things like that. It fascinates me to see somebody so passionate, so proficient in what they love. But the first 22 years of my life, I mean, we played sports our whole lives. And like, as a college football player, you don't really pick your friends. You know, you end up on a team with 100 other players. And the thing that you have in common is a love for the game and a shared work ethic and a shared goal to win games, put in the work together. But that doesn't mean that we had a lot in common and as human beings. And now that we've started super coffee, I'm spending time on the things that I enjoy doing both at work and at light in life. And sort of like I'm attracted to the people who are on that same journey, you know, so surround today, finally, is when we're surrounding ourselves with those folks, whether it's other entrepreneurs or people who have come before us. Same deal to the attraction to artists and athletes and celebrities and things like not for any stardom or I don't Know, chasing, chasing influence but because the people who are in those positions got there for a reason. And that's so curious to me. Like I'm so fascinated by.

That. Yeah, I love that. I find that so many people who are successful have like a really deep curiosity just for life, for people, for all the things. It's because you, you know, there's.

There'S lessons around us with.

Everyone. I love that. What would you say still makes you nervous? What still is about is like will kind of shake your confidence right.

Now. I mean I still have imposter syndrome, you know, like the bigger the company gets, I question myself, like why me? Why am I the guy to be doing this? Like the jig is going to be up soon. People are going to realize that I'm not, I'm not right to leave this shit. And yeah, nothing specific but every now and then I do have those doubts. But again I keep going back to this idea that like we are the experts at super coffee and sure we might attract talent to the team. Now that's better at many things than we are. You know, like we have a world class cfo, a badass chief marketing officer, head of people operations who's amazing. Like they are all better at their crafts than me. But my brothers and I, we bring the vision together. You know, we bring together this movement, this momentum, this culture that attract people who want to work with us and build it together. So I can't lose sight that like, hey, even though I'm not the best finance person, there's a reason that we're in the positions that we're.

In. So good. Tell me about what you guys.

Are unlocking as the secrets of scaling. What are some things that you would tell people if they want to be able to scale their.

Business? It's all people. It's all people management. It's all relationships. And there is no substitute for managing people and putting in the work. I think for any entrepreneur who is going to continue to lead and scale a business, invest in yourself, invest in an executive coach, invest in a therapist. Because it's all relationships. And the work that you learn from an executive coach or from a therapist doesn't just apply at work work in a professional setting. You know, it makes all of your relationships better from romantic ones to familial ones to friendships. And I think the thing about scaling is like the more people within your, your organization, the more more relationships you have to manage, the more communication and feedback matters. And not everybody is good at providing can feedback. It's easy to avoid a difficult conversation, you know, And I think the hard thing for us that we've had to overcome over the last five years is like, getting comfortable having those difficult conversations just to make sure that all the humans on the team are aligned and heading in the same direction. And also development. Right. I'd be doing you a disservice if I saw you doing something wrong or incorrectly and not telling you about.

It. How did you learn to have those tough conversations? Was it something you saw or was that your coaches? What was.

That? Yeah, I think for us, it started out as honesty and transparency. There's a book we read a few years ago called Principle by Ray Dalio, and he introduced us to this idea of, like, radical transparency and doing it with compassion and tact. You know, giving people that difficult feedback rather than saying, like, hey, you're doing a great job. Keep doing what you're doing. You know, like, vague feedback is not helpful for anybody. But the thing about feedback, too, is, like, one, it's a gift. So if you're getting it from a critical or a constructive perspective, that's, like, intended to develop you. But the second piece is, like, you have to give feedback when people do a good job, too. You know, everybody wants to be seen, heard, understood, and appreciated. And, like, you can tell people that, like, immediately after somebody does something good, say, hey, I saw you put in those extra hours. You got proposal done. We got the deal closed because of the work that you put in. I'm proud of you. Like, thank you. That was awesome, you know, so I think feedback goes both ways, both constructive and.

Positive. So.

Good. I don't know if you've heard that quote by Tim Ferriss, but it's one of my favorites that I always fall back on. And he says your level of success can be measured by the amount of tough conversations you're willing to have in a day. So I literally am always, like, when I have a tough conversation facing me, I'm like, okay, Lori, just go. Because this is the stuff that matters. This is the stuff that works, that scales, that keeps you in it and happy and successful as a human being in general. So I love, love, love the whole. That that's what that all boiled down to. Scaling was.

People. You're talking about great.

People. It sounds like you have great team, which is so exciting. Before you were ready, did you hire people that maybe you felt like you couldn't afford? Like, tell me about that. How do you hire.

People? And similar to how the recipe has gotten better every year, the people that you can attract as an early stage startup, like really pre revenue. And in the early days, that level of talent is going to be very different than the level of talent that you can attract when you're doing say $100 million in sales or just a larger business. So like we had a CFO that took us from a million dollars to $5 million in sales, and at that point he was no longer the right person to take us from 5 million to 50 million and then from 50 million to where we are today. Like, that guy was no longer the right person, which is how we ended up. I mean, today we're on our third cfo and for no other reason then it takes. It's a very unique individual to grow something from 1 million to 100 million. Right. Or more. So I think there's levels to this. And hiring, it's tricky, right? Because like you want. Some people do have the ability to grow and evolve with an organization, but a lot of times the business grows faster than some people do. And you have to be able to recognize that. And when it's time for to part ways with people who were instrumental in the early days but aren't going to get you to where you're.

Headed. Okay. So that's where the tough stuff comes in and that's where scaling is really going to happen quickly for people, is in those tough.

Conversations. So I mean, do they have.

The people that you've had to move forward with? If you've gone through three, you said CFOs or.

CEOs.

CFOs. Okay, you've gone through three already. Like, what were the realization points? Did you have a coach who was kind of telling you guys? Or did you feel it? Or what did that look like when it showed up? Like, whoa, I think we need someone else. And what was that conversation like when you had to move into it with someone.

Else? Yeah, so you sort of feel it. And. And when I begin to feel this with any position in the company, it's the person on the other side doesn't know what they don't know. And you touched on it earlier, the value of curiosity. The moment somebody feels like they have all the answers or they're no longer learning or they feel like they don't need to ask questions anymore is the moment that they are no longer the right person for the job. Because the business is constantly evolving. The world within which we operate is constantly evolving. So you have to be curious and you have to question these things. And for me, it's tough because like, it's hard to give feedback to somebody on what they don't know. You know, it's like, hey, you're doing great at all the things you're comfortable with. But to get from 50 million to 500 million, these are the skill sets that we need from you. And you just haven't lived through that yet. So I think being honest with them is good. Being as objective as possible is good. It's really tough to, like, nobody is ever going to agree with you that they're not the right person for the job. I mean, maybe in some cases, like, if it truly is a bad fit for both of you, but it's hard to convince somebody that, like, hey, we're on a rocket ship. This brand is growing, and unfortunately, I don't think you have what it takes to get us to the next level. And that person can be like, screw you. Like, yes, I do. Just give me the chance, you know? And like, that's. That's happened a lot of times with us. So that's the hard part about being the leader is having the conviction and making that those decisions are the right.

Decisions. Oh, my.

God. So that's super.

Tough. Like, you know, you guys do.

Paper scissor rock over who has to do that conversation or.

What would be like, can you take this one.

Today? Yeah. Heavy lies the crown, my friend. If you're gonna have the title of CEO, you gotta be the one and willing to do the tough conversations. And I think one thing, just a general HR advice for everybody listening is always have a witness in the room, whether that's a partner or direct manager or somebody from hr. If you don't feel comfortable bringing in a teammate, bring in an advisor, third party consultant, somebody like that, just to be there for the conversation. Because like I said, you don't want a termination conversation to be a negotiation. Right. That the decision is final and you don't want to give that person the microphone to try and convince you why they're wrong, why you're.

Wrong. Yes. That is challenging and so.

True. And I'm so glad you added.

That just because it does get really emotional. Right. You get into that moment and you're like, you start to question yourself even though you were so clear. Well, at least that's the position that I've been in before where you're so clear and then you can get in those rooms and feel very clouded in that moment.

So. Yeah, yeah. And I mean, it's where compassion comes in, right? We're human. It's like, dang, this person's got a family to feed. I hear what he's saying about bills to pay or his wife's trying like they're trying to build a house or whatever it is. It's like, shit, maybe we just give him another shot. Like maybe this is the wake up call that he needed and he can step up and be the person that we need to them to be. The reality is that's not true. The reason you got to that conversation in the first place, this person is not the right person for the job and they haven't been getting it done for a while. The other thing that makes termination a little bit easier, and I sound like an asshole like that I terminate a bunch of people, it's not the case. But the thing that makes terminations easier is data that leads up to it. A consistent trail of feedback of like, hey, here's where I need you to be. You haven't been getting there these last few months as documented by these performance reviews. Like nobody should ever be surprised when and if they're.

Terminated. Yeah, that's so good. It takes some of the emotion out of it having, you know, especially once you have all of that data that's super helpful to go in armed with and being prepared for the conversation and with somebody else. So I love that. What do you think are the most important traits of a.

Leader? I think curiosity first and foremost. You don't know everything and you never will. I think once you accept that, then you can grow and evolve and ask the right questions. And I think asking better questions and being a better listener are two essential qualities. And I think being brave, you know, like you're. When you're building a company, you're trying to go to a place that's never. There's no playbook, you know, there's never really been done before the way that you're doing it. You can certainly learn from the folks that became that came before you. And to an extent, you're not reinventing the wheel, but having the courage to lead a group of humans down a path that nobody's ever been before. You know, not everybody's comfortable doing that. So I think that comes with experience though too, or just repping.

It. What were some traits? Maybe two to three. Either traits or beliefs. Let's go with beliefs. What were two to three beliefs that you had to unlearn and let.

Go of, that you were maybe were.

Instilled in you growing up from whether that's your family or teachers or the outside world in order to become the person that you Are now, I think.

The first is you need experience or training, right? Like, this idea of, like, don't start until you're ready. The reality is nobody's ready. You know, like, you're never going to be ready. Like, I'm not ready to be the CEO of Super Coffee today. But you just start, you learn, you put in the work, you evolve. And I think that's. That's probably the biggest one, is that, like, there's this ambiguous level of expectation that people need or experience or qualification they need before they can start. And honestly, that's probably what prevents most businesses or business plans from actually getting off the ground. Is this. This false sense of, like, paralysis by analysis? You know, you think you need to be something before you can do it, and that's just not.

True. All right, so what are some last things that you'd love to leave with our audience about? Around starting around building a business.

Around, you know, anything that's coming up on your.

Heart? I think it's simple. You know, this world that we live in is complicated. It's complex. You know, there's so many networks, and we have so much coming at us through social media and news and. And all kinds of stimulus. But, like, when you really boil it down, it comes down to two things. Work hard and be nice to people. I say it all the time to our team. If you do those two things at all times, the chips will fall in your favor. You know, it will work out. Like, I've never met anybody who works hard and is nice to people and doesn't have, like, a sort of an eternal optimism. And obviously, we all know a lot of people who work hard and. And aren't multi. Multimillionaires. But, like, some of the most successful people in my life are like, my hometown elementary school gym teachers. You know, that they're happy, they're satisfied, they're fulfilled, they work hard and they're nice to people. And I think for us, you can quickly lose sight of the simplicity of it all by getting caught up in your ego or comparing yourselves to others. I think comparison is like the thief of joy, right? If you're looking at constantly around at what other people have that you're missing, it's going to be tough. But, I don't know, work hard and be nice to people. It's a simple strategy. It's just not always an easy.

One. Oh, my gosh. So.

Good. Work hard and be nice to people. You can make that a super coffee T shirt. All right. I'm so grateful for You. Where can people get super coffee? I mean, I find it all over my store. By the way, your shelf placement is freaking epic in all of my grocery stores that I go into. So congratulations on that. But where can people find it.

If maybe it's not in their store?

Store? Tell.

Me. Awesome. No, thank you for the kind words. So nationwide, we're in Target, Walmart, CVS, but always online. Drinksupercoffee.com we're on Amazon. If you're getting groceries from Amazon, throw a little super coffee in there. Thank you for this opportunity, Lori. This was awesome to share the story with your fans and.

Listeners. Oh, I'm just, you know, anytime.

That we can share a story of.

Somebody just out there who's in it right now, especially, is so much fun. So thank you for just being so open and transparent. And there's no doubt why you.

Guys are all so.

Successful. It's the way that you lead and the way that you think, and you have an incredible product. I know. I'm obsessed. You guys have to go and try.

It.

Literally. There's very few things in the world that I become addicted to, and.

This is one of.

Them. So super grateful. And you guys, as always, one of the biggest things that we do for our guests.

Is. If you want to tag, we.

Should tag Super Coffee inksupercoffee on.

Instagram. If you guys want to tag.

Drinksupercoffee and let Jimmy know what one.

Of your biggest takeaway was. If you're going to be ordering super coffee, trying it, what you think of it, it's always so much fun to get that feedback and see the impact that he got to make. So, you guys, thank you so much. And until next time, earn your.

Happy. Bye, everyone.