Intro 0:05
Welcome to the Gooder Podcast where we talk with powerhouse women in CPG about their journeys to success. This episode is sponsored by Retail Voodoo. A brand development firm guiding mission driven consumer brands to attract new and passionate consumer base crush their categories through growth and innovation and magnify their social and environmental impact. If your brand is in need of brand positioning, package design or marketing activation, we are here to help. You can find more information at www.retail-voodoo.com.
Diana Fryc 0:43
Well, hello Diana Fryc here I am the host of the Gooder Podcast where I get to talk with the powerhouse women in the food, beverage, and wellness categories about their journeys to success and their insights on the industry. Thanks for joining us today. Really, thanks
Suzie Yorke 0:59
for having me, Diana.
Diana Fryc 1:00
Yeah, you’re very welcome. Quickly before we get into our episode, Retail Voodoo is the sponsor of this episode. Retail Voodoo is a brand development firm. Our clients include Starbucks, Kind, Rei, PepsiCo, Highkey, and many other market leaders. We provide strategic brand and design services for leading brands in the food wellness, beverage and fitness industry. If your goal is to increase market, share, drive growth or disrupt the marketplace with new and innovative ideas, give us a call. And let’s talk you can find out more on retail-voodoo.com. Now before officially introducing today’s guest I want to give a big thank you to Jeremy Weisz for introducing me to my guest today. Rise25 specializes in helping b2b businesses reach their dream 100 clients and partners using products or podcasts I should say like mine, to learn more about them and how to use their podcasts for your business check out Rise25.com Well, today’s guest is Suzie Yorke who is founder and board member of Love Good Fats. Suzie is a triathlete, 11 Time Ironman finisher, a yogi and marketing executive, and a proud supporter of the LGBT community, which she is a proud member of. Love Good Fats was born out of the pursuit to empower others to embrace a totally new way of eating. Now Suzie spent years cutting fat out of her diet, only to find that she felt worse than before. After a little research, she learned that sugar and carbs might actually be the culprit. She immediately shifted to a high fat low carb diet and never felt better. And she’s on a fierce mission to spread the word that fat is back and sugar is out. Well hello, Suzie how are you?
Suzie Yorke 2:52
Well, I’m great. Thank you for that really nice introduction.
Diana Fryc 2:56
Of course. Now where are you calling today or where are we recording from from today?
Suzie Yorke 3:01
Well today I’m in I’m in Montreal at a little Airbnb for a few weeks and I have my one of my doggies is on my lap because they’re doggies but restless I have three little rescues and two of them with me so I’m I’m just managing through here and have have some company to make sure they don’t they don’t bark it’s been a crazy morning with a huge snowstorm so there’s been a lot of stuff going on and the snow the porch the good concierge so they’re a little bit on edge this morning.
Diana Fryc 3:32
Oh my goodness. I love Montreal I’ve only been once beautiful city. Absolutely gorgeous city. Yes. Quickly I wanted to congratulate you on I read that Love Good Fats surpassed 100 million in revenue was that just in the last few months?
Suzie Yorke 3:49
No, we there was to eat two years ago. So oh my god. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We launched five years ago in September 2017. And within within just over three, three years or so or 36 months we exceeded 100 million sales which is smashing you know smashing a lot of lot or most of the food startup serves in Canada for sure. And then we’ve been you know, kept growing since COVID. Certainly slowed the brand down because we’re a portable on the go bars. And people were have not been on the go for the last two years they’ve been baking banana bread and right you know, homemade comfort food. So the on the go, new category really took a hit. However, you know, the brand had a pretty fast start and a really loyal consumer base, especially in Canada. So we you know, we had to the big P word. We had to do many pivots and realign our strategies, but certainly very proud of the last five years.
Diana Fryc 4:58
Yes. Well, I We’ll say 100 million in three years, passing 100 million in three years is almost unbelievable. It really is. So that is an astonishing feat in and of itself. Now, I was introduced to Love Good Fats always been on my periphery. And also heard about you through another friend of mine, Andrea Heuston, who has a podcast Lead Like a Woman. And both Jeremy and Andrea spoke so highly of you when they introduced it introduced me to you. Maybe tell us a little bit about Love Good Fats, can you tell us why does it exist?
Suzie Yorke 5:37
Well, the A as per my in as per your beautiful intro I was I’ve been a Brand Builder for 20 years I graduated McGill and engineering, but I went straight into marketing at Procter and Gamble. And then a fall my job my boss at Frito Lay and then I went to Heinz because the Heinz ketchup, the strongest brand in Canada at that point had been mining for 10 years, oh my goodness, and they needed you know, a brand builders, I went there and I was there for four years, and put all the building blocks in place to, to profitably grow the brand again, and I did the same with Weight Watchers right after. So I kind of had a background of either launching brands and a launch to see those reap or repositioning brands to to to fix, you know, what was inhibiting growth. And at the same time, I was, you know, kind of restless, I started running biking, I met a community of triathletes in Toronto, and that became my life in my 20s just do starting to do short course races and then longer and longer and Boston Marathon all these Ironman’s and then I had my soul back then, in the 90s that was the enemy so we would be training and you know, we would be eating pasta with tomato sauce, like never touched butter, never touch hamburger, he never touched any, you know, anything eggs, you know, because egg yolks were full of fat. Yes, salmon was full of fat, all the stuff that’s really that I ingest now was off the table. And, you know, I was trying always to lose 10 pounds and 1015 pounds leaner now than I was then. Because I was doing these races and, and you know, I kind of was carrying a little bit and I was following a little bit more than I wanted. And I was following a low fat diet. And then, you know, after 20 years off, you know, became director at a young age. And then I became VP at a young age. And I’m juggling, I was single mom in my 40s and I’m juggling, you know, my two kids and the carpool and the three lunches and breakfasts is and also training for for Ironman and you know, very demanding jobs and travel and my mid 40s My body just like totally told me this is not working even though I’m always getting up at 444 in the morning and have a full routine. It just, you know, my blood pressure kept going up and up. And I was like, okay, like my doctors, like you can’t eat any better than you’re eating. I was fat. And my IBS would you know, would I’d have flare ups and what I’d have flare ups you know, when your GI is a mess, like I just be laying down in the middle of the day and not great. And then I read Nina Teicholz’s book, The Big Fat Surprise and it said, you know, one study Ancel Keys in the 60s, flawed methodology, a diary, you know, post postwar diary study that’s now been disproved with first the Harvard method studies etc. One study created 40 years of misinformation. 6000 LOW FAT skews a whole world of me believing that fats are bad and looking for the little green, you know, fat free logo. Yes. So once I read that book, first I you know, I tracked down Nina on Twitter, and now we’re, you know, we’re friends. And I’ve met her multiple times, and she’s an incredible woman. And then I immerse myself in the science, I’ve gone to, I think 12 of the low carb, scientific and medical conferences in North America. And, and I realized about the science and how it was flawed. So I was like, Okay, I’m a marketer. We don’t need another book because all you know, the big names, row. Row Row books didn’t really need a marketer writing a book. I said, What can I do, I can launch a brand, because I saw how you know the protein
movement with Chobani coming into the US really accelerated right to gluten free brands for accelerated Atkins, low carb, you know, a brand can do magic to kind of accelerate awareness. I have a new trend. And I said, you know, someone’s gonna read the book. And we’re just going to look at, you know, the cover of Time Magazine and fortune, like fats were back everywhere, cheese and meat and full fat, you know, eggs and that were on cover of magazines everywhere in 2017. So I said, someone else is going to look at all this and say, Whoa, let’s launch a brand with the word fats and tell the world that fats are here, and they’re good. So that so I was just like, okay, you know, this is what I’m going to do and see if I can do it first. I was on the plane to natural product Expo. And if you’re in the food startup, you know, that’s kind of where new brands start and where marketers live. And I walked the show, and there was no other fats brand yet. So I was really excited. But there was a lot of fats, you know, 2017 they had, you know, meat was coming back full fat cream was coming back. Yes, letters were everywhere. So I knew, you know, like, it’s coming. And and then, you know, I went back to the hotel and Google USPTO for for brand names. And I was like, Darn it, you know, I’m, I’m 50. And I’m going to launch a brand with the name fats. So good fats, I mean, healthy fats would have been the best name. But you know, FDA would write like that too much. So I settled on good fats. And then I played around the good fat company, I launched a Suzie’s Good Fats, and three years, anyone who wants advice on trademarks call me. I learned a lot on Yes, Canada and US trade. Oh, my goodness, yes. So that’s how it started. And then I just literally had a PowerPoint on the plane back. They had, you know, buckets and names that I knew. And then I just wrote the brand positioning, which is what it’s been for 30 years, but now is for my own brand. So now I had like a mini pitch deck. And this was before you know, now there’s all these other incubators, there’s right house, there’s, you know, pitching 101 There’s a lot of help now, first startup, but this was kind of before that, but I just did you know, I’ve launched brands before, just not with my own money. So I just did what I knew how to do. And I, I went, I went to former bosses and colleagues and said, Hey, I have an idea. You know, I’m doing consulting here to build brands, but by the way, I have an idea here. And I had you know, everyone wanted to meet me, no one wanted to talk about my consulting everyone wanted to talk about tell me your brand idea. Oh, yeah. And I didn’t know if I really believed in it or myself. Like I don’t think at first the first 20 and then 40 I’ve done 100 pitches. I don’t know if I really believe that I would actually at age 50 Take my life savings as a single mom with a mortgage in Toronto with two kids needing to go to university Yeah, I don’t know if I really believed in myself deep down but you know, what happens is, you know, I have a pitch to like 40 Different people a couple of them said I’ll be on the board. About eight of them said well, you know, we’ll Angel invest in you. Yes, just you know, get samples you know, we’re kind of your packaging because I was doing concept testing but that’s kind of how it happens right? Wow. Even if deep inside I was like oh, I don’t know like um, you know, 25 years who would have would have salary it just all came together really really well because the idea was so strong the timing was perfect. Yeah, the bars were delicious. So then once I started getting samples of the bars Yes. Oh my god. I’d be starting the pitch Yes. And then the person across the table would be listening Yeah. Okay, like flipping through the deck and then they take a bite and the whole meeting would change. Oh my god. Yeah, cuz back then, you know, there’s no like protein bars or protein bars right like they will
Diana Fryc 13:56
write your bars. Yes, I have I purchased after we booked our session I went out and purchased a mix pack and the the truffle leanness of it is quite something and what I love about it my what I secretly love about it is that my kids will eat it and and they love it. My daughter has gone through almost all of it and she’s in athletics in sports. Both of my kids are athletic and to have something portable, they eat their fruit but fruit has a lot of sugar. So I like to balance it out in the in their snack pack. So it’s been hit in the house. It’s been it’s I can imagine what it was like in the room at the time. It’s a bit of a novel product compared to what was happening in the bar category at that time. But
Suzie Yorke 14:49
yeah, the one of the big benefits of eating a lot of good fats with with the fibre that we have is you feel full long. A lot of the unfortunately a lot of the energy bars are sugar because, right for years, you know, sugar equals energy. And as rains, we would even say, oh, but they need sugar, you know, for for energy. And I remember when my son was little doing cross country and, you know, we would feed all the kids a bit of sugar before the race because you get an energy boost and right,
Diana Fryc 15:21
and then crash afterwards. Yeah, and
Suzie Yorke 15:24
crash, but that was okay. It was the sugar crash. And I was like, Oh, my goodness. Now what you know, now we kind of know what we know. And if you can, if you can have the right balance of fat and fibers, which, which we stroke, strike the right balance in the bars, you’ll feel for much longer. And so that was one of the first things when we launched the bars. In the first six months, I went to every single consumer show every single trade show, every single demo that I could go to, I did the first demos, the first 10 demos, the first 10 demos in Calgary for 10 demos in Toronto. I did demos in Vancouver, and, and, and Vancouver Island. But the feedback that kept coming back, even though we hadn’t positioned it that way was oh my god, I eat half a bar and I feel full. So a lot of women were having the bars of snacks in the afternoon and then realizing Well, wait a minute, like this is fantastic, right? Like you’re driving home and you’re not starving. And the science, then we kind of went back and looked at the fat and fiber and then we had some, you know, some experts like Thomas tell us, they’re they’re designed to, you know, help you feel fuller longer.
Diana Fryc 16:41
I love it. Well, I, I am thinking about this, you know, one of the things that’s special about your story is you had the trajectory that you had. And at the point in which you decided to start your own business here, you’re saying it was at 50, you had accomplished a lot of success with the you know, like you said, Frito, lay Procter and Gamble, ConAgra, Weight Watchers, etc, you came into this with a lot more ammunition. While you hadn’t started your own brand, or your own company, technically, you came in with, with a lot more ammunition and success than a lot of other brand owners do when they are starting. Is there any like one thing? It might be difficult to say that there’s one thing but is there anything that you think that like, the benefits of being in the industry so long? And starting it at 50? Is there? Is there a net benefit at 50? Yeah,
Suzie Yorke 17:41
well, there’s three benefits. The first is I’m a Brand Builder, and all startups start with your positioning, and then you’re ready the rest, you’re just spending money to execute distribution to get placed, you know, to get the rest of the piece. But it starts with what is your brand positioning? What’s the insight and the problem solving? And what does your brand stand for? And why should the consumer believe that you will actually deliver that benefit. So I had 25 years of doing that. So that was really key. I also had, you know, with with executive kind of maturity of working in range of companies, I I’ve experienced a lot of you know, the grey zone, the different styles, the different coaching styles, a different employees, different cultures, cultures up and down needing to kind of, you know, shift cultures improve, needing to downsize, needing to upsize, you know, like, I’ve I had just years of experience in a lot of multinationals. You know, like, there’s like, like, there’s a lot of things that just, you know, has you manage a business, right, and terms of the management, like how to Yeah, you know, how to team building Sure, and team building and all that stuff. Many generations have passed, but a lot of the fundamentals have changed, have not changed in terms of kind of how you motivate your employees and, and how you kind of hire and retain and inspire. So that, you know, that executive experience helped a lot and help kind of also have the wisdom of you know, you have to manage risk and, and how to make good decisions and all that kind of stuff. And then I think the third thing is, I had contacts, right? I had even though I always felt bad in the last 30 years that I hadn’t done a good job nurturing, you know, my network. And, you know, back then you didn’t have LinkedIn really was kind of like, Oh, I’m not doing a good job at keeping in touch. But I did, you know, five years ago, have, you know, a couple 100 people on LinkedIn and networks and then it allowed me to kind of go back in the past and now I have, you know, 11,000 compounds and you know, so I had a little bit in network so I kind of had like there’s benefits to going later on didn’t have a lot of money because, you know, I was just some marketers single mom, you know, paying down the mortgage. Yes. But and sometimes you can have, you know, you can be financially better off later in life I was okay, but not okay enough to, you know, sell fun my launch but right benefits there’s benefits to going later.
Diana Fryc 20:23
I think I wonder as well, you know, I’ve gone back just recently to get my MBA and one of the things that we talk about that is often a challenge in business in general is the concept of making some ethical decision making. And I would think that starting your own business, you can make some tricky decisions without context, as you said, and I wonder if, if, if you if there is validity behind that 2020 You know, hindsight is 2020 vision, what I could see in the past, I could now take as a strength with me in the future making some of these really complicated and tricky business decisions. Would you say that’s accurate?
Suzie Yorke 21:07
Oh, yeah, for sure. The Weed experience, you know, you just kind of learn more and more. And as long as you kind of retain your learnings and able to kind of make sense of it, I’m on a little bit of a walk in case study, like anyone who knows me knows I have about 200 business cases on my head, and I kind of, you know, tap into this and tap into that. And I’m really kind of passionate about figuring that out. And, and then kind of taking the learnings, it’s still, you know, it’s still not easy, I had worked on two hypergrowth brands before starting my own, which was a third. So two brands that had gone from one or 10 to 100 million annual revenue in call it 18 to 24 months. So very rare, right? There’s not a lot of people that worked on hypergrowth, I had to buy, but driven by some, some CEOs that that I really admire. And I was just very fortunate to have been in those environments. And then I launched my own. And lo and behold, we’re also like a hyper growth, right. And hyper growth is very unique. You know, I’ve also worked on many brands that, you know, took 10 years to get to 5 million in sales. So it’s a different world. So you, you know, you kind of have to tap into all of these things and have a little bit of experience and also know that things can go really sideways. You know, a lot of smart people have launched a lot of great brands, and, you know, innovation fail rate is 80% in CPG and 98%. In startups, right. Startups, right? So, yes, so you kind of have to know all that we hit COVID, right? Like when we were doing our strategic plans, and, you know, at all our meetings with the boards and decided to launch in the US, we never had on our SWOT, as you know, a threat or weakness, the world will go into a shutdown, right? And we’re in the portable nutrition, right. So even though you have the best of teams, the best of advisors and board and executive teams and the consumer demand, still, things can still go sideways. So I think, you know, just having the humility to kind of know that, you know, a lot of things can go sideways. But a lot of things can go incredible to as the successes we saw,
Diana Fryc 23:36
humility is a is a big, I think, a necessary component when in, in business in general, but in particular, in startup, I really do believe that. Now, I, I want to talk Suzie, you shared with me at one point, as we were kind of planning this time together, that you are on the autism spectrum, and I want to ask a question about that. But first, I want to ask, was this a diagnosis that you’ve lived with pretty much your whole life or was this more of a newer? Learning for you? Yeah,
Suzie Yorke 24:15
well, the the, the awareness of the diagnostic is more recent, the last two, half years. Gotcha. So it you know, in theory, I had it all my life, but it was Yeah, were right. But now, you know, looking back, my awkward teen and 20 years and my, you know, quirkiness and even you know, even in the last five years, I would, you know, get feedback afterwards. Like, yeah, you know, like, I’m a little bit different. Like, it kind of all makes sense, but, but, you know, I kind of was going through life, like not aware. It was a different time back then. And now I think there’s a lot a lot of high performing artistic executives? I believe it. Yeah. And the coach that I found, I think he’s the, the top expert in Canada. He’s been coaching high performance artistic executives for like, I guess for nearly 30 years. And, and, and it’s kind of really enlightening to be able to kind of see like, wow, you know, a lot of things make sense now. Yeah. And, you know, so that’s been helpful to kind of put a pin in it. That being said, you know, the, the things that don’t change is like, Okay, well, now I’m more aware of it, but I kind of still have these ways of thinking and framing. Yes. Yep. And, and just more awareness in terms of what does it mean, for me and for others,
Diana Fryc 25:52
right? My sister in law has, she works at Microsoft, and she has my, my nephew is on the spectrum. And when she received the diagnosis, and she was working with her HR team, I think it was at Microsoft at the time. And, and the HR team said, first of all, it’s going to be okay, because without people on autism spectrum, companies like Microsoft would not exist. So she said, this, this is it’s a blessing that we’re finding it at the age that we’re finding it out at. So I guess for me when I am, the question that I want to ask you about this is, now that you know about this, do you have different structures that you put in place? Now in order to help others understand this quirkiness? I’m not exactly sure how to ask the question. Or I would just say, you know, how do you work with this in a way that helps you and helps others and kind of amplifies this diagnosis?
Suzie Yorke 26:56
And that’s a really good question. So I think that in the short term, I stepped away from the CEO, day to day management, I Love Good Fats. So my kind of my role is at the board, and I’m not, you know, 60 hours a week, managing executives making decisions, gogogo meetings, like nine hours a day. So my role is quite, my roles are quite different. I’m just doing consulting, brand building innovation and all that. So it’s a different dynamic than when you’re leading men and employees. The the, so my strands that come like I have this left and right brain that yo, engineering, left brain electrical engineering from the gill honors with this insight and creative that’s kind of always been very unique, that’s kind of allowed me to kind of see problems in a different way, and be able to kind of find the insights on the brands and put all the strategies together to turn around the brands. So that’s always kind of in there. And now what I’m doing more is just helping brands do that. So it’s more you don’t want on one with a founder, or the head of marketing, etc. So different hats, when I have, you know, or if I ever have large groups, and that I’m managing again, and going really fast, I have to kind of put steps in place that I think very differently. And, and the feedback that I’ve gotten for 30 years, but especially in the last five years is I’m so so so fast. And I’m like five steps ahead. And I’m kind of in Division up here and kind of that ABA, for a lot of direct reports. It’s like, well, wait a minute, like, where’s she going break it down, slow it down, you know, shape it. And when we were always on hyperspeed, too, so I kind of you know, like I needed to adjust that. Now what I’m doing now, in terms of the consulting, it’s not as much like I have like the tools to kind of break break down the the issue that I’m seeing with the brands and how to solve them in a kind of templated weigh in, I think the additional thing is when you’re aware, and you can share, hey, you know, the way I think and process things and communicate is something a little sometimes a little bit different. So if I kind of don’t make sense on kind of where I’m going, let’s just you know, we’ll slow it down and back it up because I’m on the spectrum. I think just just that awareness allows everyone to feel better, right allows like, okay, I can understand where she’s going. Because sometimes when you’re 10 steps or five steps ahead. Yes, not everyone sees it and they’re like, Well, why are we doing that? Yes, like I don’t get it. So I kind of have to go back little kind of steps. And then it makes sense. But if you kind of Like, share that you’re self aware about that. And then it’s a win win. And it’s like, you know, I’ve done Myers Briggs in five or six of the companies I’ve been in, like, let it and I’ve participated and then let it and brought it is the same principle of being self aware of what your preferences are with your peers manager’s direct reports are and then adapting your own approach so that you can have a better win win in terms of understanding and being understood. It’s kind of all the same principles.
Diana Fryc 30:35
Yeah. What was there some event that made you think I need to find out what’s happening? I’m curious as to, you know, why, why the diagnosis now, just, I’m just thinking there might be people out there that are going, Oh, I hadn’t considered that I can go and diagnose myself now for something.
Suzie Yorke 30:56
Well, I’m very, very fortunate that I have my adult daughter, Nikki is, you know, over the top insightful, she’s in personal growth, mental health, and she’s this generation that is 25 steps, yes, deeper and ahead of, you know, what I was in my 20s when I was like, Oh, I think I’ll do some, some coaching and therapy and personal growth, like now the whole world is incredibly, that generation tuned into mental health and, and being sensitive to kind of understanding different needs and being, you know, also incredibly respectful of the diversity and yeah, and compassionate. So she was like, mummy, you know, and she has her challenges because she had a learning disability or Oh, okay. And but she was like, Mommy, you know, go see, you know, those See, or we have the same doctor, like, you know, like, I’m sure this is what you have. And she was really this research. Yeah. So I’m very, very grateful to my, to my Nikki Yeah. Oh, that she was right. Well, yeah.
Diana Fryc 32:08
Okay, and so, so in. So here we are, right. With a, call it now you know, what, you’ve got another set of tools that you’re aware of? I mean, you had them all along, you just didn’t know they were there. And now, you know, that they’re there. I, I, I’m thinking to myself, you know, as you look back, at your time with Love Good Fats? Is there any one moment that you are particularly proud of? Is there something that happened, a group that you were able to impact? Anybody on your team? Well, there’s
Suzie Yorke 32:52
hundreds and hundreds, like proud moments, like it was one high after another because like, when you do a start up, you know, you’re in 10 stores, and then you’re like, I wonderful sell, and then I start selling in the 10 stores, then 100 stores and by Christmas, we’re in 150. And then you know, Loblaws, Sobeys, Walmart, everyone was calling and then and then you fill out the forms, you’re listed, you know, six months later, you’re on the shelf, and then you’re like, Oh, we did we’re doing really well in natural. But I wonder if we’ll do well in grocery because it’s, you know, usually, yeah, conventional, and then mass. Oh, but okay, we’re doing great and gross grocery channels that have natural products, but Oh, mass is like, you know, many brands take 510 years to go into SAS then club, then E comm then repeat for the US, right? So it was it was constantly you know, when I look back to those first three years is when will you know that we’ve made it? And it my whole life was like, Oh, no tomorrow, right? Like, we don’t like him today is just today, we’re just kind of do the best, but we don’t know if and then you you know, then by year three, you’re selling 47 million in a year. And it’s like, okay, you know, we’ve arrived, yes. The but still it’s you know, there’s 20 year old brands that are you know, that fail, right? Like you never ever take a break from building your brand.
Diana Fryc 34:22
Yes. So good advice. But there
Suzie Yorke 34:25
was a lot of like, really, really incredible moments. I also I think my proudest moment is when I decided in my second year that I wanted to do a big splash for the LGBT community. We were still just a small company, right? Like 20 $30 million and run rate and then I was like, I want to go to every single large retailer. I’ll start in Canada because the buyers knew me personally. Yes. And and tell them, Hey, pride month. I would love to have your support, to have you know The Lovers love the pride flags a display in the front of your store. So when, you know kids walk in, when the community walks in, you see a celebration of our community. Yes, um, and it’s more than just the banks who are fantastic and LCBO, who had, you know, celebrated pride, like, I want the grocery stores that we want it to do the same. And there wasn’t a lot, you know, two, three years ago, and all the head offices said, love it, Suzie, you know, so I put myself out there, like the call started with, Hey, I’m lesbian. And, you know, a lot of the buyers didn’t know, and I was like, this is important to me. Yeah, we, we were donating $1 per box to railroad. So the goal was to sell a million dollars in June and donate $50,000 to save lives, Rainbow railroad brings brings at risk community and to safe harbor and Canada and the US. And that’s the charity, you know, I picked and we continue to sponsor to this day. And I think, you know, I really kind of did a big splash on LinkedIn for the last two and a half years and, and in a nice way, I’m, like, egging on the larger companies like, Hey, guys, come on, guys, we should all be celebrating us. And, you know, Kroger had my picture and our promotion in, in their windows across the US stores that we were in all of the Canadian retailers supported us. Like, it’s, it’s been fantastic. And I just felt, you know, what, we didn’t need to do that. It’s not about selling more bars, right about doing, you know, doing our little part, to have our social message out there. And I’ve had hundreds and hundreds of parents contact me on LinkedIn and say, you know, my, my, my kid, my adult, you know, my adult kid, or my teen kid has seen your message is inspired by your story. And thank you.
Diana Fryc 37:13
So you know, amazing. I love it. I always find that people’s proudest moments are generally not financial. And I love that you shared that story. Thank you. Suzie, I’m loving our time together. I am before we end, I wonder if you might be able to share. I was like it when people are able to share who they’re watching in the marketplace. Is there any other women out there in the marketplace in CPG? Or otherwise, that you want to elevate? Or just acknowledged for the work that they’re doing right now?
Suzie Yorke 37:51
Yeah, there’s, you know, I feel very fortunate, there’s about 20 female founders just in Canada that I network with, and we’re, you know, we’re starting to kind of exchange and maybe start a formal group. And, you know, I think that kind of the best thing is, maybe we’ll kind of put a link on on your podcast. Yeah, I have a whole bunch of them. There’s so many new brands coming out and and or brands that are a couple years old would have amazing female founders that I would love if you know, we could kind of promote a larger group. Sure. Just naming a few I’ll kind of send you names of 20. And we can put them on on your I love it. Yes, yeah, I’m really trying, I have a little bit more time now. Not a lot more but wanting to reinvest in the female founder community. So that’s kind of like a big effort of mine right now. And to see how much I can get back and and find a kind of a formal way to promote all of us. Yeah. So all I’ll connect with you, and I’ll kind of give you and then maybe, you know, we can grow that list as terms of how to support other women.
Diana Fryc 39:01
Yes. And maybe there might be an opportunity to have them as guests on this podcast as well. Wow. Well, so what’s what’s next for you or for Love Good Fats, anything that you can share? Yeah, well,
Suzie Yorke 39:15
I’ve still kind of, you know, just a month out of kind of managing the day to day or a couple months out of like, totally out of managing the day to day so I’m kind of looking at a bunch of stuff right now. My big focus is just I want to help other startup brands, and that’s my sweet spot. You know, I’ve and then you know, maybe I’ll kind of launch something else. I don’t know. We’ll we’ll see. We’ll see. Okay, it kinda is in the cards.
Diana Fryc 39:41
Okay. Well, we have been talking with Suzie Yorke, founder and board member of Love Good Fats. Suzie, where can people learn more about you and your company?
Suzie Yorke 39:53
The best place to contact me is on LinkedIn. I answer all my DMs. That’s me. Is that a Robot are a helper so if you want to contact me LinkedIn, Suzie Yorke, or just google me and you’ll, you’ll quickly get to my LinkedIn. The company is lovegoodfats.com and really easy to find Amazon and our website and we’re in 1000s and 1000s of stores in North America but find us online Instagram, and Pinterest and then our website and and follow the journey.
Diana Fryc 40:27
Thank you. Suzie, thank you so much for your time today. excited to have you and I look forward to watching what you do in the future. Perfect. Thank you and anyone else? Yes. And to everyone else. Thank you for your time. If you liked this episode, please share it with a friend. Otherwise, have a great rest of your day and we’ll catch you next time on the Gooder Podcast.
Outro 40:53
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