Transcripts For MSNBCW Your Business 20180916

Msnbc your business sponsored by american express. Dont do business without it. Announcer your business sponsored by american express. Dont do business without it. Hi there. Everyone. Im jj ramberg. Welcome to your business, the show dedicate today helping your growing business. It is hard not to notice how rapidly the health and wellness industry is growing. People everywhere are investing in improving their minds, their bodies, their souls and medication has become one of the biggest trends in this space. The owner of inscape. Hes quickly turned his new yorkbased studio in guided meditation into up the rising the business. He hasnt done this alone. Strategic Brand Partnerships helped take him to the top. Take a deep breath. Quiet your mind. And sink into a state of serenity. Thats what the founder of inscape is asking you to do. And people are responding. I think that meditation and mindfulness have gone mainstream. Over the past few years, theyve quietly become a billion dollar industry. Inscape with one of the key players in this space, taking the ancient practice of medication into the future with its stunning high tech studio, voice guided meditation and an app that brings the experience to the masses. Located in the Flatiron District of new york, the 5,000 square foot studio opened in 2016 quickly becoming a hotspot for people seeking calm and clarity in the middle of their fastpaced hectic daily lives. The technology, bombarded with information and not education, sounds that was my lifestyle. I was in times square every day. He made a name for himself in the fashion industry with his Previous Company intermix. In 2013, he sold it to the gap for 130 million. Soon after, he turned his decade long passion for meditation into his next venture. I am probably like a Million People in that i know meditation is good for me, i would like to do it, i even did it for a little while and then kind of stopped. So you deal with people like me all the time, right . I think the idea that you its like you do it every day. You have a great day. You do it every week, youll have a great week. You do it as a lifestyle, youll have a different and better lifestyle. The Company Started with a focus on consumer marketing. Tapping into people like me who were interested in creating that habit but he knew that in order to really scale his brand, hed have to go beyond a b to c business and focus on strategic Brand Partnerships. He identified one industry in his sweet spot. It was the natural collaboration with them. He put together his pitch. Know what the branch has done before so you can show them youve spent the Time Research and that you understand what resonates with their demographic and how to potentially push them further. If you havent done your research, you potentially pitch an idea that theyve tried before and failed or succeeded and not going to do that again. When the james hotel chain was developing its inroom four bodies wellness program, inscape was an obvious choice for the meditation portion. We give them a to allow them for a month to unlock the app. Hopefully after that, they have a great experience and they become users. Inscape brought in inherent value to the in room offering and the cost was covered for each app download. It has to make sense for both sides and be a winwin. Think of what is the benefit for them. If you are investors, how would you answer it . Understanding are the brands a true match. Do they propel further . The addition Luxury Boutique Hotels collaborated with inscape to bring the feel of the actual studio to their room and theyll soon offer a dedicated inscape tv channel with exclusive guided meditation. The additional part of the sensory experience when you come into the room, tv is on already, the lighting, the mood, the sound in the background. Hes also focused on reaching legacy brands. Many are looking for innovative and hip startups to partner with in order to stay relevant in todays market. Inscape collaborated with listerine for its be Bold Campaign by creating original content and bringing wellknown influencers on board like sophia bush and eric decker who believe in it. Established brand. Might want to be with the underdog and thats a key to what we look at. Who might need that . The ideal start is to say what are your goals . Understanding the big picture of goal, going to the drawing board and coming to them. We like tapping into an audience that would never even consider meditation. It was to create short meditations to produce from scratch and compensate our production costs and efforts that we put behind us. Inscape also partnered with other unexpected brands like stella ar tios. Narrated by luke evans. I think its only your first mindful tasting experience. We like creating a buzz. But it has to be buzzed at. It gives a great outcome. Our mission is to get users and keep them actually actively using it and seeing the benefits of it. As he continues to grow, hell keep creating what may look like surprising partnerships. So far, theyve been working out. Wow. Isnt this good . It feels like Actress Jennifer Garner is everywhere. On the big screen, on red carpets and now in the grocery store. Shes one of four founders of cold press organic Baby Food Company once upon a farm. We sat down with this big star and one of her cofounders to talk about why shes turned into an entrepreneur and why this was the opportunity that caught her eye. Actress Jennifer Garner has played everything from a take no prisoners mom out for revenge in peppermint. What do i want . I want justice. To the understanding supportive mom in love simon. But being a real life mother of three has inspired her in a whole new type of collaboration. Business. I had the fortune of getting to represent businesses that i really like. But the next thing you want to do is be part of it from the ground up. When jennifer heard about two entrepreneurs in san diego making an organic cold press baby food pouch and that Food Industry veteran john faor acre was on the board would you like to meet with Jennifer Garner. Shes interested in this brand. I said sure, ill take a meeting with Jennifer Garner. We talked a lot about how business is now whats driving social change and whats driving the good in the world. Just a huge passion for organic and healthier kids foods and she just seemed also like a fun person to work with. Its kind of crazy, actually. It was kind of a moment of, im in if youre in. Okay, well im in if youre in. Do you really mean it because i really mean it. Once upon a farm, a food Company Offering cold pressed organic foods officially had two new members on its leadership team. Jennifer, serving as chief brand officer and john taking on the role of ceo. For me, just from a moms point of view, theres so many great businesses out there. But there are very few that i feeley would have done that. That would have solved a huge problem for me. This would have solved an enormous problem. I had three kids, i made their baby food. Sometimes it was an enormous hassle. Sometimes i couldnt get it done. When you open a jar of baby food sitting on the shelf for longer than your child has been alive, its so unappetizing. You cant imagine eating it. It never made sense to me why we would feed this to our kids. I was amazed. Ive been in the industry for a long time and run a wonderfully Successful Company that was one of the mainstream brands in organic. It also fascinated me that no one was doing it in baby food, really. Theyre shaking up the baby Food Industry. Our products require refrinl ration because of the way theyre processed. Theres no refrigerators in baby food aisles. No one had put them in another part of the store. A lot of moms and dads interested in conventional baby food, theyre also shopping the yogurt category. When jen and i decided to do this, we said lets attack that dairy aisle. Though jennifer is the face and voice of the company, shes making sure her involvement is far past just a spokesperson for the brand. Its a nouveau cab larry. Everybody is talking in a lingo i dont understand. Im taking notes as fast as i can and writing down the things i dont know so when i leave i can say to john what does this mean, what does that mean . Theres lots of celebrity endorsers, but we needed a partner, a hard working involved partner every day. Theres no harder working person ive met in my life, seriously. Fulltime actress, mom, partner in the business. We needed that to make this happen. John and jennifer also bonded over the desire to have once upon a farm be a brand that pushes to make fresh foods accessible to kids everywhere. One of our longterm goals is to be the first fresh wic baby food that you can buy in the country. That will be a process to get there. Its very complicated. We know that wic is very important. The kids growing up in central valley, california, the salad bowl of the United States if not the world, where all of our fruits and vegetables are huge percentage are grown. These kids do not have access to the fresh healthy food oregon began i can food whatsoever. We want to get our healthy great products out to kids all across the country and all across the social economic strata. You can find it in major retailers nation wade as well as online. This dream team has every intention of growing with their customers. How can we continue to solve problems for moms and give them options that dont exist right now, that are healthier and closer to fresh and that are still really exciting for kids palat palates. My daughter tells me, mom, it doesnt matter what the mission is and what how pretty the packaging is if kids dont like it. Whats exciting for me is seeing my 12yearold wanting it in her lunch or seeing kids just really enjoy the taste and flavor and texture of the product. Designer zack pose en wears many hats. He designs for Brooks Brothers and recently updated the uniforms at delta airlines. On top of all of that he released a cookbook. He talks about the changing face of retail and why hes starting to think about the presentation of his brand differently. So nice to see you. Nice to see you. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for stopping by. Thank you for having me. Its so interesting following your career and thinking, watching you think about fashion in relation to the public. Yeah. So you famously decided not to show at new york fashion week. Youve done this a little while. Why . I wanted to create great great collateral, imagery that connected with the fans and the consumer. I wanted to control that image. I wanted to be a better storyteller. You took these beautiful pictures and your videos that go with them. Why not that on top of doing a show fashion week . You could and some do. It really came to a decision about kind of finding a pure message. We live in a social media age where those images tell the story of your brand. Right. Its so different than when you first started out, right . Exactly. There were systems and formulas and just the very beginning of Online Reviews and its vastly changed how we sell changed, how we market changed. The consumer has changed. Right. So you kind of have to really take risk to be a tuned and aware of it. In your industry in particular, it seems so much changed. Youre talking about how youre marketing to people and speaking to people. Also, i have friends who are designers like you. Its a scary time for many of them because the way people buy is changing so much. Absolutely. I mean, i think first off, one needs a really personal product. It has to be really unique. It has to be special. And it has to be consistent. Yours has been unique and special. We try. We try each season and we have our codes, our construction and clothing that loves and empowers women and really playing with the power of glamour. Not in a subjective way. In a selfempowering way for the rare opportunities that you get to wear a ball gown. When you take your design rare opportunities we have. When you take off your designer hat and put on your business hat, how do you face the unknown of the future of how people are going to buy and where theyre going to buy your things and are they willing to spend what they wanted before. I think, looking at luxury, you know, from some distance, today theres a challenge. Its oversaturated. The veils have been lifted. That can be very concerning. Theres so many brands entering the market. Fashion loves new. They like to dispose. And its something that ive lived. Now im kind of comfortable in my own skin with my own work. And i kind of stick to that and build and its a choice. You know, today im running a profitable company. We selffund ourselves with what we do. And its a slower process. But i think its authentic. Its real. But when i look at it, theres a lot of waste in luxury. Fashion and clothing doesnt retain value in the way it did in. In the past it was designed by rarity. Exotic ism. Everything is globalized now. You can get everything shift the next day tomorrow. So that changes. We had large brands that were burning and destroying their clothing. Depressing. Moving, look at the future, im not there yet, but theres a huge Ecological Initiative that needs to be taken by the luxury in fashion industry. Youve had such a ride. Your documentary documents your ride as a designer and as a business person. Highs, lows, everything in between. All a learning pro iss long the way. Also learning. It sounds like, to hear you say youre profitable and run your company with your profits is a great success. On top of making beautiful clothes, congratulations. Thank you. Its been back to school time for both students and their teachers. As weve seen in the news, many states have cut education by just along with teacher salaries. Many of those who educate our children do it for the love and passion of teaching. Unfortunately, it doesnt always pay well. As we reported a while back, there is a business now that is gaining traction that allows them to supplement their income by selling learning materials to other teachers. Kindergarten teacher deanna jump is something of a rock star. All these teachers are coming up, wanting their pictures with me. Im still not used to it. I hope i never get used to it. Thats because shes a selfmade millionaire. The first of several teachers that have hit the jackpot on the educational website called teachers pay teachers. Similar to espy, this peer to peer marketplace makes it easy for teachers to sell classroom resource that is they develop like lesson plans to other teachers. I was the first one i was honored to be the first one and to be able to pave the way for others, so to speak. That was back in 2012. Not only a milestone for deanna jump but also for teachers pay teachers. Saw a group of teachers really adopt the platform. One of them was deanna jump, a tremendous teacher and inspiring educator. They got teachers ex kicited ab what was going on. How do you keep up with fast growth . Fast growth was the last thing new York City Public School teacher paul edelman had to worry about when he started the company back in 2006. He launched the business to connect and support the Education Community by allowing teachers to share the innovative materials they were creating for their classrooms, like lesson plans. Interactive notebooks and games. That lends itself well. Reading different version was the three little pigs, okay . While everyone agreed, teachers pay teachers or tpt was a great concept, adoption was slow. The journey was a study in the three ps. Patience, persistence and perseverance. There were highs, like the purchase of the company by scholastic and lows, after the acquisition, there was no growth. And the business almost closed down. In a lastditch effort to keep the company alive, paul bought it back in 2009 to save the community and the business from obscurity. With almost 4 million active users, two out of every three teachers downloaded something from the site. And while its no secret that teachers are notoriously overworked and underpaid, tpt became a place to escape that fate by getting help, support and ideas for their classrooms. With the potential of making some extra money themselves. The typical journey is that they start downloading for free and when they find a teacher they connect with, they start to buy. From the perspective of the teachers sell, thats a double good. They make some money and get recognition for the work theyve done and theyre having real impact in classrooms. Hope king is a teacher in atlanta, georgia. She has a blog called elementary shenanigans, as well as a successful store on the teachers pay teachers site. If i really want teachers to take what theyre learning here and let it impact their classroom through engagement, ive got to show them what engagement looks like. So thats what im doing. Cheers and chants, handson learning because i cant just show teachers, heres what you do. Theyve got to experience it, too, because thats what motivates them, inspires them and is going to impact their classrooms. Anna is a teacher in new york looking to supplement her income. Not only did her tpt store simply skilled take off in just a few days, she found exactly what founder paul edelman intended when he started the company. How important is the community of tpt for you . Its probably more important than anything. Tpt has been such a huge part of my life the last four years. They invite us here. They want your feedback. They want to know how they can better this business and how they can help children and empower teachers. Thats what theyre all about. Its amazing the collaboration and friendships that have been created by tpt. Still to come our experts talk to us about some important parts of growing your business. Sticking with your vision. Maintaining your culture and moving on from failure quickly. Dont forget that the past can speak to the future. Im going to be your substitute teacher. Dont assume the substitute teacher has nothing to offer. Same goes for a neighborhood. Dont forget that friendships last longer than any broadway run. Mr. President. laughing dont settle for your first draft. Or your 10th draft. You get to create the room where it happens. Just dont think you have to do it alone. The powerful backing of american express. Dont live life without it. How do you maintain the mission and passion in your team when youre scaling fast and having to add a lot of new hours a . So the way that you maintain vision and passion is to make sure as youre recruiting that youre not just looking for expertise and cultural fit but passion as well for the category. You need to make sure youre hiring super consumers into your business. Super consumers is a concept of high passion, high profit consumers. So the way id express this, theres a Company Called royal canine. They bring in dogs into their interviews. Theyre measuring how good are you at your job and will you fit in but theyre observing the dog to see how you interact with that. So if you are engaging with the, do its a good fit. If youre not, it might not be a great place for you to work because the category passion isnt there. When gallup says 87 of employees are not engaged and companies that have a highly engaged workplace are 147 more profitable, this is an important measure to include which is category passion. We now have the top two tips you need to help you grow your business. Lets introduce our panel. Kim perell is the ceo of Global Marketing Technology Company amobi and author of the execution factor. The one skill that drives success. And tim roach is the cofounder of Small Business funder lender. Tim, you have now, what, more 80 employees . 50 employees . 50 in new york and a sales team in im sorry, 50 in chicago and 30 in new york. And millions and millions of dollars in lending. You started this yourself. One tip . The tip or concept for me and working with our Business Owners is being able to fail fast and recover faster. The concept seems simple, but when you actually try to start executing and understanding and accepting it, it becomes more difficult. When we think of change or failure, by human nature its not a natural fit to change. We always resist it. I dont think anybody wakes up and says i cannot wait to fail today. So Small Businesses that are successful that actually deliver strategies that can execute and make decisive decisions every day, theres Business Owners that are doing that every single day. And what we found is those businesses continue to do that and they do it well. What do you mean by recovery factor. How can you get yourself to recover faster . Working with our team and our culture if you start understanding why youre fail, you may be hiring some of your team member that doesnt fit to a executive decision on a Marketing Campaign to you just had too much inventory for the fall season or your accounting or crm that is no longer working and is disrupting. To be able to fail at that, recognize it, analyze it and react and realize we failed at this decision that we need to move past on. When i say recovery, its the ability to recover and move forward from it. What were finding with our Business Owners is we talk to them in may. And were having the same discussion next june. Got it. Were saying, you had the same inventory you turned over three or four times last year. Year over year the growth was there. What happened. You started your company at your Kitchen Table and its doing a billion dollars in revenue . Yeah. In how many years . I started my First Company in 2003, almost 15 years ago. So you know a lot. Tell me one thing youve learned going through the past 15 years. Its easy to get distracted in todays world. The one thing ive learned thats really important is prioritize your vision. And thats being really Crystal Clear and putting it visibly you can see it every day. I put mine on my bathroom mirror. Every day on a postit i wake tup and see it. Before you leave you also have to tell me the name of your book is the one skill that drives success. Tell us what that skill is. That one skill is execution. So execution is what separates innovation and its a bridge between innovation and transformation. Its really easy to have that idea and ideas are a dime a dozen. Its hard to execute. The book really says that. Someone came up to me the other day, a good friend with an idea for this new company and i said to her, its an obvious idea. Why hasnt anyone done it yet. So its a great idea but for sure someone has thought of this before. So why hasnt anyone done it yet and why can you do it better than all these people who havent done it . Its so true. Its about execution. It is about execution and its about having the njd that blueprint of how to execute and thats what the book really shows. Thank you for writing it and thank you for stopping by. Congratulations. Both of you have seen great success. Thanks, jj. This weeks your biz selfie comes from zee and edwina arenas who own lemonade love in washington, d. C. They sell locally sourced fruit, and other flavors. Pick up your smartphone and take a picture of you and your business and send it to us at yourbusiness msnbc or tweet it to yourbizselfie. Include the name, the name of your business and its location and we look ford seeing those pictures. Thank you so much for joining us. I say this every week and i really mean it. We love hearing from you. If you want to get in tounch, email us. Also please go check out our website. Its msnbc. Com yourbusiness. We posted everything from todays show in case you missed anything or want to see it again. Plus a whole lot more from you. And connect on all of our digital and social media platforms. Also check out our podcast. Its called been there, built that. Download it for free from tune in or wherever you get your podcasts. We look forward to seeing you next time. Im jj ramberg and remember, we make your business our business. Dont forget that the past can speak to the future. Im going to be your substitute teacher. Dont assume the substitute teacher has nothing to offer. Same goes for a neighborhood. Dont forget that friendships last longer than any broadway run. Mr. President. laughing dont settle for your first draft. Or your 10th draft. You get to create the room where it happens. Just dont think you have to do it alone. The powerful backing of american express. Dont live life without it. Good morning and welcome to politics nation. In just a few minutes, i will be talking to senator kamala harris, democrat of california, about the upcoming midterms. The kavanaugh confirmation hearings. And her possible president ial run. And later, the tragedy in dallas that left another unarmed black man killed