Launching a Purpose-Driven Pet Food Brand with Jessica Berger
Meet Jess Berger
Jess Berger is a first-generation American Latina, and the founder and CEO of Bundle x Joy (Bundle and Joy). Jess has spent the last 15 years in the pet industry, gaining industry-leading experience with leadership roles at companies like PetSmart and Nestle Purina. In 2018, Jess launched her first venture as an entrepreneur with Accelerate Retail Partners, building private label pet brands for national retail partners, while helping to build some of the most well known pet brands on shelf today. Today, Jess is pursuing her doctorate in Marketing, and is now in her second venture, focused on building the pet company she wishes existed.
Episode Highlights
During this episode of The Food Means Business Podcast, we discuss:
Jess’s 15 year career in the pet industry and her “retirement party”
Building a private label pet food company in six weeks which eventually led to the launch of her own brand
Taking on a stagnant industry by launching an innovative, purpose-driven pet food brand that focused on the female consumer
Community over competition when building a business
-
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;03;04
Djenaba
Well, Jess, welcome to the Food Means Business podcast.
00;00;04;02 - 00;00;07;16
Jessica Berger
Thank you. Yes, I'm excited to be here and excited to chat.
00;00;09;03 - 00;00;16;10
Djenaba
So I would I would love for you to just do a little short introduction of yourself and tell us who you are and what your businesses.
00;00;17;05 - 00;00;32;11
Jessica Berger
Yeah. So I'm just burger and I am the founder and CEO of Bundle and Joy Bundle and Joy is a female founded pet brand. We just launched last year. I very much focused on really developing and creating the pet brand that we wish existed.
00;00;33;23 - 00;00;49;06
Djenaba
That's that's so awesome. So we met, I guess it was a couple of months ago at a startup CPG event and had what I thought was a wonderful conversation. And I'm so happy that you are able to come on to our new podcast and share your story with our listeners. So thank you.
00;00;49;18 - 00;01;00;20
Jessica Berger
Yeah. So I feel like good entrepreneurs find good entrepreneurs and we're just like, Hang on tight, right? Even though it's like we don't know each other, but it's it's like we've known each other forever.
00;01;01;18 - 00;01;12;08
Djenaba
It is true. It's so true. So before we learn about Bundle, enjoy, I'd love to hear more about your about you, your family, your corporate career before you kind of took the leap into entrepreneurship.
00;01;13;04 - 00;01;33;28
Jessica Berger
Yeah. So, you know, it's funny. I live in the pet industry, so we talk about dogs a lot, and sometimes I forget that I have children. So thank you for that reminder. Just kidding. But, you know, varied. Have three kids. I have three teenagers, so I have three kiddos that are about to all be in high school together.
00;01;33;28 - 00;01;41;13
Jessica Berger
So our family has said they will say lots of prayers for us to have three high schoolers. But yes, I will.
00;01;41;14 - 00;01;48;02
Djenaba
I will I will pray for you as well. I have I have I have a graduate and I have a high schooler. So I know I know how it is.
00;01;48;17 - 00;02;16;05
Jessica Berger
Yeah, we're about to have three to going to college in the year. So, you know, life at home is busy. But it's interesting as the kids get older, you definitely have a little less pressure of the day to day, which is nice for most work perspective. I've probably spent most of my career in the pet industry, so I've been in the patent history for 15 years, started my career in PET with PetSmart.
00;02;16;05 - 00;02;53;17
Jessica Berger
So I was there for seven years and worked in different areas within that retail organization. Amazing, amazing learning opportunities, everything from finance, marketing, merchandizing, even investor relations, and very blessed to have had just great mentors, great opportunities to learn. Very early in my career there, I had a mentor sort of say Most people think of their career as kind of this mountain they're climbing, you know, think of it different, think of it as hills and valleys and really take advantage of opportunities to learn every chance you get.
00;02;53;17 - 00;03;19;29
Jessica Berger
And so that's what I did. I just kind of learned what I could, was eager to learn a different side of the business. And again, very, very blessed to have had that opportunity. But I felt like, gosh, and on the retail side that this industry is so much bigger. I would love to learn more about it. And I think it was probably sparked by, you know, I was at a vendor dinner at one point and I founder said, just like, why aren't you just doing this for yourself?
00;03;20;12 - 00;03;42;11
Jessica Berger
If you can you can have your own brand. I mean, this was like ten years ago. And I honestly, like nobody had ever said anything like that to me. And it hadn't even occurred that that was a possibility. So I sort of decided, right, if that could be a reality, I have a lot more to learn. So I decided to leave my retail job and go into manufacturing.
00;03;42;11 - 00;04;06;21
Jessica Berger
I worked for an entrepreneur, husband and wife for about a year and had an amazing sort of kick into entrepreneurship. You know, somebody else's company, but not very much like, Go do it and there's not a playbook. And that was great for me. I really learned that I thrive with sort of autonomy to go out and build and create something from nothing.
00;04;07;11 - 00;04;36;15
Jessica Berger
And then about a year into that, I realized kind of misalignment, I guess, of values and sort of where that company was going. And I remember having a conversation with my dad. Amazing how dads just have this way to speak like this amazing wisdom and moments. But he was just, you know, he was just like like nothing is worth your your integrity and and staying true to who you are, you know, like, why are you even questioning this?
00;04;36;15 - 00;05;02;16
Jessica Berger
And I was like, oh, you know, dagger straight to the heart. And I quit the next day and didn't really have a plan and ended up getting a job within the organization. So I had made some connections and I was at PetSmart. You know how it all works. It's all about relationship. But they said, Hey, do you want to come run a sales team or cast from Publix, which is the number one organic prep?
00;05;02;24 - 00;05;30;03
Jessica Berger
And I was like, Yeah, it sounds good. I've never done it. That sounds good. So that was a huge like, what am I in for, right? I had a team of people I had never done regional kind of sales management. I hadn't like a sales team and it was fun. I jumped in and quickly learned the natural grocery industry and had a great experience there for about four years.
00;05;30;03 - 00;05;55;01
Jessica Berger
It hit a point, I guess, in my career where we were actually putting in the organization, which is a great company, took very good care of us. I was traveling every week, you know, that was really hard on our family at home. And I just realized, you know, like this is just not really sustainable and I'm going to look back and really wish that I had have more time with my kids, you know, versus being on an airplane every week.
00;05;55;01 - 00;06;01;28
Jessica Berger
So left in October of 18 and kind of went on a sabbatical actually at a retirement party, which is.
00;06;03;19 - 00;06;07;17
Djenaba
Wait, wait, wait. So you had a retirement party. So tell me a little bit about this party.
00;06;08;04 - 00;06;32;14
Jessica Berger
Yeah. So we decided, oh, I'm like leaving this job. I don't have I don't know what I'm doing. Let's throw a retirement party. It sounded great. I mean, I should not be retiring that. But it was a good excuse for us to have. You know, it's interesting. I almost recommended to everybody because it felt more finite, like it felt more like a door had closed.
00;06;33;28 - 00;06;43;23
Jessica Berger
You know, a new chapter, because sometimes you leave jobs and you don't necessarily closure. You're still having you don't I don't know. There's some kind of dissonance still there.
00;06;43;27 - 00;06;44;22
Djenaba
Yep.
00;06;44;22 - 00;06;50;14
Jessica Berger
And I don't know. I recommend it. I mean, it was one night. It was just a fun, silly thing.
00;06;50;26 - 00;07;01;01
Djenaba
It sounds wonderful. We got Yeah, we're going to start recommending that to everyone because it's not. You're right. It's nice to kind of close the door on a chapter and and celebrate that and then move forward. So that's why.
00;07;01;25 - 00;07;45;10
Jessica Berger
I love it. So I was supposed to take six months off and regroup and get myself back together and figure out what self-care was. We were talking about self-care earlier, but that didn't last long because I then I had all this time to think about all these ideas and, you know, all of a sudden you disconnect, you have this clarity of thought and freedom, which is, I think, where a lot of us entrepreneurs, we're put into situations where suddenly at the end, you know, the end occurs or something stops or you're just going so much in investing so much of yourself into something and then it's over and you go through it.
00;07;45;10 - 00;08;04;15
Jessica Berger
It's a little bit of an identity crisis, but then your brain is just like clear, like you all of a sudden, all these things that you had as passions or desires or dreams or thoughts start to come back slowly. And that was a pretty cool journey.
00;08;05;05 - 00;08;20;23
Djenaba
It's like all of a sudden you can breathe like you just it's just such a big difference, like a big weight off your shoulders and that's right. You did have that time to be creative. That actually happened to me as well when I was actually laid off from my job. But like I did, I was able to take a little bit of time and figure out what the next move is.
00;08;20;23 - 00;08;23;04
Djenaba
So that's great. So what happened next?
00;08;23;24 - 00;08;44;12
Jessica Berger
Yeah, so I had remembered that I knew a Whole Foods buyer was, you know, potentially looking at kind of a refresh or relaunch within some of their pet products. And so I reached out to them and said, Hey, I'm starting my own thing, which I never know what that really was at the time, but, you know, just make it up as you go.
00;08;45;02 - 00;09;11;26
Jessica Berger
And I said, Hey, you know, so I participate in your your upcoming category review bit kind of program. And he said, Yeah, sure, I'd be happy to do that. I'm just like, just, no, you're there's already five or six other people big You know, companies already included. And I was like, just, just give me a chance. And so I took about six weeks and I figured out all the pieces that I had never done before, like packaging.
00;09;11;26 - 00;09;37;20
Jessica Berger
And I called called Menu called manufacturers Code manufacturers, which I don't really tell people this a lot because it makes me sound crazy, but I literally, you know, did the research, knew who I wanted to work with, called them. My whole manufacturer now laughs and says that I'm a little bit crazy. And I was crazy because I just kept calling but eventually had to call me back because I wasn't going to stop.
00;09;38;07 - 00;10;02;05
Jessica Berger
And long story short, we ended up winning the bid and for some private label pet food. And that just sort of started my journey of figuring out what all I needed to still learn and what I needed to launch a pet brand. So it wasn't my own, it was private label. But I always recommend that as a great starting point for people.
00;10;02;05 - 00;10;22;04
Jessica Berger
If you can put private labels a whole nother beast. But you know, it allowed me the opportunity to really learn the pieces that I still needed with smaller risk, right? Because it wasn't my brand. I wasn't having to create everything from scratch, but it really helped me to build the skillset to where I am today, to build my own brand.
00;10;23;08 - 00;10;42;06
Djenaba
I think that's great too, because you were able to take your your past experiences, which I think people always like when you're starting a business, you're not starting from scratch. You had 15 years of experience in an industry and you know, thankfully you were in the pet industry, but you could have been in any industry and taken what you learned there and applied it to your business.
00;10;42;06 - 00;11;00;09
Djenaba
And then, you know, you figure out the pieces from there. You, you, you do the research or you just hire someone else to help you fill in the gaps where that where you have them. So that's great. So, so you say you started your own business, you got Whole Foods, which is a big get. Let's be honest. Congratulations to that.
00;11;00;09 - 00;11;04;06
Djenaba
And so did you end up taking on more clients after that or how to how did that work?
00;11;04;16 - 00;11;13;21
Jessica Berger
Yeah. So then we just started to take on more clients. I always laugh. I say we and sometimes we laugh. I'm like, well, you know, we as me, we have me, me.
00;11;13;21 - 00;11;14;12
Djenaba
Myself and I.
00;11;14;21 - 00;11;40;03
Jessica Berger
Yeah, that's how it starts, right? So. So we started, you know, bringing our clients and some outside of that as well. And, you know, I really this was like open to what the universe would bring to me. I mean, as we work with some local restaurant partners, we worked with people sporting good apparel. Like it was just kind of as opportunities would come, I'd be like, okay, well, let me hear about what you got.
00;11;40;03 - 00;12;02;01
Jessica Berger
And then I'd say, Well, here is what I would recommend. You're sort of the bare bones you need. You need a pitch deck, you need Craigslist, you need whatever the kind of things that were missing, or you need a promotional strategy or you need a loyalty strategy. And and it was just fun. It was it was great. And at the end of the day, it gave me more time at home and gave me more time with my family.
00;12;02;01 - 00;12;21;22
Jessica Berger
And I would never change that for the world. And I was able to work with all my traveled a little here and there, but it was fun because it wasn't all the time and I was able to create something. But, you know, for me, what it really did was set up the building blocks and the foundation of what we're doing today was fun to enjoy.
00;12;22;17 - 00;12;42;18
Djenaba
So let's talk about that. So you have launched your own company. So I've actually seen the packaging, which is beautiful and so different from other pet brands on the markets. I'd love to just hear about how you came up with the idea for Bundle. Enjoy and just all about you kind of what are the steps that you took to create the brand?
00;12;43;15 - 00;13;11;23
Jessica Berger
Yeah, the pet industry is so amazing. I love it. It's $110 billion industry last year and there is so much opportunity for growth and innovation. Yet the industry for whatever reason has has stayed pretty stagnant. So those of us that live in the natural products world, you know, we're constantly seeing evolving packaging products, you name it, right in the pet space.
00;13;12;03 - 00;13;48;05
Jessica Berger
There's innovation in nutrition here, there, which I would say innovation lightly, but there hasn't really been a ton of innovation from my perspective that I saw a gap really in packaging, design purpose and really something more focused on the female shopper, the female consumer. You know, today the vast majority of pet food is purchased by women. And you know, largely the pet companies are ran with more of a masculine sort of approach or path packaging.
00;13;48;05 - 00;14;14;09
Jessica Berger
It tends to be more masculine. Louis Browns messaging tends to be very safe, very traditional. And I just thought, well, I'm seeing all this amazing innovation in the natural products industry and health and wellness and I'm not seeing it in PET. So I remember telling someone, Hey, I want to launch some pet food packaging that's like pink and purple and yellow.
00;14;14;09 - 00;14;41;23
Jessica Berger
And they looked at me like I had four eyes or something. And so I just wanted to develop a pet brand that was different. And the way that it looks, the way that it speaks and messages and communicates and connects with the customer. I wanted to create a pet brand that was more centered around community. You know, this sense of belongingness and inclusivity that, you know, to date has not really been the case in PET.
00;14;42;23 - 00;15;11;21
Jessica Berger
And that was sort of my wife. And so we worked on the brand the first year. The brand was a big investment from a time perspective early on because I wanted to make sure that the brand very quickly communicated what I was trying to build and what I was trying to be centered on, which was purpose. So we're bundling joy, bundled with a purpose, and we also incorporate a 3% give back.
00;15;11;21 - 00;15;21;03
Jessica Berger
So on my packaging, it's as bundled with the purpose and it says we fund women. And that's pretty bold.
00;15;21;03 - 00;15;23;08
Djenaba
It is that for sure. Absolutely.
00;15;23;15 - 00;15;48;08
Jessica Berger
Yeah. We had to sit with that. You know, I had to have interesting conversations, even with family and friends of like, why are you doing this? Like, are you being too niche? Are you are you being too bold with your statement and at the end of the day, as a marketer, I believe that if you're trying to be everything to everyone, you're nothing, right?
00;15;48;09 - 00;16;10;06
Jessica Berger
And so that's what I had seen so far. Yeah, I'd seen that so much. So I just was like, this is I want to be different. I want to be very much something to a community of people who are here for it and for those that are not, hey, there's tons of other pet brands out there for them and we don't judge right.
00;16;10;06 - 00;16;26;03
Djenaba
And so you mentioned also that community is a big foundation of your brand. That was for me as well. I my business actually launched on creating a community around food natural food, business, CPG businesses. So I would love to hear how you're incorporating community into into bundle. Enjoy.
00;16;27;02 - 00;17;06;23
Jessica Berger
Yeah, I love I was you know, doing more research on Hudson Kitchen and I wrote down inclusion and community which is so funny because even though I'm I don't have a shared space, I also am trying to build a brand based on inclusion and community, which is a very beautiful thing. So you know, when we talk to some pet brands who we would consider to be start ups, we started to do some panels and some different sessions and we were hearing from a lot of these pet care startups that they felt very much isolated when they did events.
00;17;07;13 - 00;17;37;09
Jessica Berger
We didn't feel like anyone looked like them. They didn't feel like it was a welcoming environment and I had experienced that myself. But I was also so close in the industry that someone from the outside would say, Oh, she's she's a part of it, right? She's in the club. Right? But I never did feel that way. So starting to hear that a big part of what we've done is say we're going to really not just win ourselves, we want others to come along.
00;17;38;04 - 00;18;12;01
Jessica Berger
So I'll give you examples. We with every partner that we work with today, when and if we can consider, you know, women owned, underrepresented companies will partner with them. So everything from the pallet racking that we have in our warehouse purchasing of a forklift and our paid media partners, we're trying to work with other underrepresented companies and founders and we don't you know, it's interesting, we don't necessarily say that that's like the prerequisite.
00;18;12;11 - 00;18;14;17
Jessica Berger
We've definitely met with lots of partners.
00;18;14;26 - 00;18;15;08
Djenaba
Sure.
00;18;15;22 - 00;18;35;26
Jessica Berger
But it's amazing when you're so aligned in your vision because it's like those partners just somehow show up on your door sometimes. And that's been that's been amazing to work with a women owned company for our warehouse infrastructure is I mean, and they reached out to me like, you know, it was just it was amazing. It worked out really well.
00;18;35;26 - 00;19;13;09
Jessica Berger
And so so we do that on on the op side. But the other piece is really about us helping to elevate and empower other underrepresented founders with products. So we've developed a nice partnership list of others in the pet industry who are selling products that we can also sell on our website. So we'll be slowly in our launch plan here, adding more partners where we can actually feature their products, help tell their story, you know, share them so that our community is knows us, but also starts to know other underrepresented founders space.
00;19;13;17 - 00;19;32;29
Jessica Berger
Because I don't even care at the end of the day, if they develop a relationship with another company and me because that's great. If they're going to buy pet products that I don't offer, I would love for them to purchase them from another and to represent a founder. And so we're we're finding ways to actually speak about them and cross-promote.
00;19;34;00 - 00;19;56;28
Jessica Berger
It's so funny. We get on and we buy each other's products and and we post pictures and because at the end of the day, it's I can't be the only one that wins. We want to be a part of more of a larger community and movement, very similar to what you're doing. And that competitive nature that is been ingrained in a lot of us is really not the way to go.
00;19;56;28 - 00;20;15;07
Djenaba
Now, you're you're absolutely right. There's something for everyone. Like there's I always tell people when I'm when I teach art, we teach a boot camp, a food business, boot camp class that McDonald's and Burger King and Wendy's have existed for years. And they're all billion dollar companies and they're all like, you know, a mile away from each other.
00;20;15;13 - 00;20;21;11
Djenaba
And they're still thriving. So why can't we all, as founders thrive together? So I think that's amazing.
00;20;21;28 - 00;20;48;02
Jessica Berger
Absolutely. And I think, too, as as we're successful, you know, I, I found that a lot of very successful businesses made commitments very, very early in their success or in their efforts, their startup stage. You know, a lot of companies, oh, well, when I get to this number, I'll figure out a give back strategy, or when I get to this stage, I'll figure out a way to support my local community.
00;20;48;02 - 00;21;12;23
Jessica Berger
And I felt like we needed to make that decision and put that stake in the ground early and first. And so we have a 3% give back. It's on all of our packaging. Again, I say we find women on our bags predominantly focused on women entrepreneurs. But, you know, that was really important that if I put that on the back, that's me saying, Hey, I'm sticking to this.
00;21;13;09 - 00;21;45;00
Jessica Berger
This brand is about purpose first, and we're going to honor that first. And so with that, what we are excited to do is to do like a quarterly grant program where will allow founders to apply to essentially be our funded entrepreneur of that quarter will work with them. We'll provide mentorship. I'm also really excited about that, that as part of that, they get time with our team to help maybe mentor and support them and maybe some of their challenges.
00;21;45;00 - 00;22;05;00
Jessica Berger
We can help them with distribution or the other challenges they're having, but we can also then sell their products. You know, they may not. A lot of these founders didn't have the ability to just set up their own website and their own infrastructure and operations. We can sell their products on our website and then use that 3% give back to give them a start.
00;22;05;00 - 00;22;32;06
Jessica Berger
We know that less than 3% of funding today goes to women. Less than 1% by a landslide goes to, you know, under representing female founders. And so our thought was, if we can tip that scale even above that 2.2, 2.3% kind of statistic, that's why we picked the 3%. And if it helps somebody else start their journey, like at the end of the day, that brings me so much more joy than anything else.
00;22;33;01 - 00;22;41;15
Djenaba
That's great. So are you focused on founders that are creating pet products, or have you opened it up to other founders as well?
00;22;41;25 - 00;23;06;11
Jessica Berger
Yeah. So today, thus far, we've actually worked with some nonprofits just because we were so early stage. So we actually have worked with a couple of different females, sort of led nonprofits. I'm focused on grief support for loss. We have an organization that had a lot of loss, supporting families with loss during COVID and then we have another organization that gives women a fresh start.
00;23;06;11 - 00;23;34;03
Jessica Berger
So I started the organization helping women get on their feet and sort of recovery through different domestic abuse or different things that might be as we move forward and we're going to take applications from all. One of the amazing things we've quickly learned is our community wants things for themselves. I never thought it, but I'm selling scrunchies and hoodies and these other products that I've been asking for.
00;23;34;03 - 00;23;55;19
Jessica Berger
So we'll probably figure out the way that we do it. In a way that's a maybe it's a pet product and that's maybe something for our community as well. That's the part I'm really excited as it comes to life. As we get to the third quarter, that'll be our first quarter where we'll really be able to have a meaningful giveback and to see where we go with with partners there.
00;23;56;17 - 00;24;11;08
Djenaba
So I read that your product is like customizable. So how does how does it want a consumer comes to your website or how do they how do they work with you to get something special for their pet?
00;24;11;08 - 00;24;46;02
Jessica Berger
Yeah, So my vision was always to make sure that there is a very personalized, customizable experience. You know, there are a lot of pet direct to consumer websites out there, but there's very limited support, education and guidance around nutrition. And what's really best for your pet. The most common example I give is somebody might know that their pet has like a poultry allergy or grain allergy, so they'll get a food that is poultry free or grain free, but then they end up adding all these treats onto their purchase that aren't aligned to that.
00;24;46;02 - 00;25;12;16
Jessica Berger
And so they're not actually fixing the problem. And so we have a new website launching here really, really soon and very excited where we actually walk the our community through kind of a quiz questionnaire where we learn the basics of what we need to know. It's and done some crazy questionnaires with like 50 questions. And I'm like, yeah, it's not too much, but we learn what we really need to know because it's actually not that complicated when it comes to pet nutrition.
00;25;13;13 - 00;25;47;20
Jessica Berger
And then based on that, we actually recommend a customized bundle for your pet. So based on, you know, allergies, intolerances, health concerns, age, weight, all of that, we then recommend this customized bundle that would work perfectly for your pet each month and for as little as $2 a day for some of our smaller pet. So what's beautiful about it is when you have your food, you have your treat for your adventures on the go, and then you have your supplements for your kind of health concerns and everything is aligned right.
00;25;47;20 - 00;26;14;03
Jessica Berger
So everything fits within the same nutritional needs. In some cases, the packaging is all the same color, which for me I always kind of like that, but me too. Me Right. Or you might end up with a beautiful rainbow of color. But yeah, so and then it's very simple. So it's subscription, it's to your door every month. And then we also allow you to customize it with add ons and partner products.
00;26;14;17 - 00;26;33;29
Jessica Berger
So it's just, it's more fun, it's more engaging every month. It should be more of a joyful experience because it's not just pets, you know, they're they're important to us. And I want to have our experience every month. And I know every package that comes to my door when something's it's for him. And what kind of joy actually is, right.
00;26;33;29 - 00;26;35;07
Jessica Berger
So that's exciting.
00;26;36;10 - 00;26;52;02
Djenaba
That's so great. So I wanted to find out from you like what you're celebrating right now at Hudson Kitchen. We have what we call a money bell. It's in the foyer. So when someone walks in the door, they can ring the bell. And so we like to try to celebrate as much as possible, because we know as founders, we don't celebrate.
00;26;52;02 - 00;27;02;00
Djenaba
We kind of like meet the goal and move on to the next thing. So I wanted to take this time to acknowledge you, and I'd love to hear what you're celebrating about your life and your business. Could be anything.
00;27;02;22 - 00;27;21;29
Jessica Berger
Yeah. Yeah. We love the idea of the money, though. Oh, my gosh. I had to share my version of the money ball right now is what we call the Whac-A-Mole. So at one point in a in a founder live on a Friday, I talked about how most days as an entrepreneur I feel like I'm playing a game of whack a mole.
00;27;21;29 - 00;27;50;11
Jessica Berger
You know, I'm just trying to hit a mole before the next one pops up and somebody sent me the whack a mole, which was the best gift that ever received. But, you know, so we need that. We need a bow. We need something like that, because you're right. It's so as an entrepreneur, I my job is to prepare for react to and resolve problems, you know, on the hour, every hour, every day.
00;27;50;11 - 00;28;27;12
Jessica Berger
Right. And so I love what you're doing about celebrating because that is such a good reminder for all of us, because you have to take every win. But right now we're celebrating that we are going into retail doors in Q3. And and I keep saying, like, don't count it. So it's like on the show. But, you know, celebrating that very quickly, the vision, all the hard work is resonating because it just reaffirms that the industry really is ripe and ready for more for me.
00;28;27;26 - 00;28;49;08
Jessica Berger
And I need to celebrate that. I need to celebrate what we have coming in Q3 and celebrate the fact that we're going to be able to quickly inspire, you know, this moment where someone's like, wow, this is pet food and they and they have fun women on their bags. Like, that's that's pretty cool. So that's.
00;28;49;09 - 00;28;50;15
Djenaba
So cool. Yes.
00;28;50;18 - 00;29;05;15
Jessica Berger
I am celebrating the fact that our vision and our purpose will be in front of a lot of eyes starting in Q3 and just what that means for what we're able to do to help fund other founders in the back end.
00;29;06;03 - 00;29;24;28
Djenaba
Congratulations on that. Amazing. Amazing. So do you have one piece of party advice for our listeners that those that are want to start a CPG and natural foods business or ones that, you know, may just kind of be kind of in the middle of their journey. I would love to hear what you with the best piece of advice that you have for them.
00;29;25;26 - 00;29;57;15
Jessica Berger
Yeah, so I'm definitely a marketer. I love marketing. I think I eat, sleep and drink marketing. My but you know, marketing is all around the four PS and I sort of at one point decided like, what were my personal four piece? And this is kind of geeky of me, but because I think of everything and in sort of theory, I took some time to say first and foremost, like, what are what are my passions?
00;29;57;15 - 00;30;16;21
Jessica Berger
What are the things that I'm really passionate about? And some people will say, I think it's I think it's still really relevant, you know, what were the things you did as a child when you weren't sort of worried about the worries of the world? You know, did you like to play school? Did you like to play store? Did you record interviews?
00;30;16;21 - 00;30;38;06
Jessica Berger
I mean, I hear all kinds of different stories When I asked this question of people and, you know, there's something to that like that passion is innate and you for a reason. And so identifying that first and then purpose, like at the end of the day, what do you feel like your purpose is on this? Or I guess at the end of the day you accomplish something you gave back.
00;30;38;07 - 00;30;59;29
Jessica Berger
What would that be? What do you believe your personal purposes, the third highest priorities. So what are you prioritizing today that should or shouldn't be prioritized and really, what are the things you should say yes to? And maybe consider the things you should say no to, because there's a lot of things you can say yes to.
00;30;59;29 - 00;31;00;17
Djenaba
Yes.
00;31;00;19 - 00;31;22;19
Jessica Berger
Yes. And maybe making a short list, you know, so you're focused on those. And then the fourth one is people like who are the people that you're surrounding yourself with and are they helping to you to pursue those passions and the purpose and the priorities in the right way? And if not, who do you need to have in your life to help you kind of pursue those things?
00;31;22;19 - 00;31;27;03
Jessica Berger
So for me, it boils down to four peas that I made up myself.
00;31;28;04 - 00;31;28;25
Djenaba
I love what's.
00;31;28;25 - 00;31;52;06
Jessica Berger
Great. I think if you're really identifying those things, those can be your true nor because it's probably already inside. You probably already know what it is you would be doing if you had no care in the world. And when you identify that, run after it fast and hard. Because when you have those things behind it, the rest just kind of comes into play.
00;31;52;06 - 00;31;58;10
Jessica Berger
It won't be easy. Nobody saying it was is easy, but it will be much easier if you're being true to yourself.
00;31;59;08 - 00;32;08;26
Djenaba
Well, thank you. Thank you so much. And thank you for being here at the Food Means Business podcast. Please tell everyone where they can find out all about Bundle, enjoy and all about you.
00;32;09;21 - 00;32;35;00
Jessica Berger
Yeah, so we'd love for you to visit our website. It's bundle x Joy dot com. We're also on Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram, LinkedIn, bundle x, Joy all the places you might even find some silly reels or tiktoks of me on occasion. And then we'll be in some stores very soon. I'm very excited to be announcing that as we go into the the third quarter this year and can't wait for what the next year holds.
00;32;35;27 - 00;32;37;26
Djenaba
I thank you so much for being here.
00;32;38;14 - 00;32;46;09
Jessica Berger
Yeah, thank you for having us.