How to Get Your Food Product into Thrive Market with Jason Bidart
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In this episode, Jason Bidart, the Vice President of Merchandising for Food at Thrive Market discusses his career trajectory in the supermarket industry and his current role at Thrive Market. He shares how Thrive Market is structured and its mission to make healthy, sustainable living affordable and accessible.
Jason shares insights into the evaluation process for brands and products, as well as the timeline for launching new products on the platform. He also touches on self-care, his love of all things Taylor Swift, and celebrates his amazing #foodfam.
Subscribe to The Food Means Business Podcast with Hudson Kitchen founder Djenaba Johnson-Jones to hear the personal stories and “secret ingredients” of abandoning your day job and starting a CPG food business.
In this episode, you will learn…
Jason’s decision to abandon his law school dreams for a career in grocery
Thrive Market’s department structure and a day in the life of a VP of Merchandising
Characteristics of the Thrive Market member
What he’s looking for in new brands to add to Thrive Market’s product assortment
How to submit products to Thrive Market and the timeline for evaluation
Jason’s advice for brands that want to get their products onto Thrive Market
About his love of Taylor Swift, baking and running as a form of therapy
Subscribe to the Food Means Business Podcast with Hudson Kitchen founder Djenaba Johnson-Jones to hear the personal stories and “secret ingredients” of abandoning your day job and starting a CPG food business.
Links mentioned in this episode…
About Jason Bidart:
Jason Bidart is a 20 year veteran in the food/grocery industry with a passion for bringing the highest quality and best tasting food products to market while making a positive impact on people, communities, and our planet. He is currently the Vice President of Merchandising of Food at Thrive Market where he manages a team of passionate Category Managers and Product Innovators tasked with building and maintaining a highly-curated catalog of food products; following strict standards and ensuring every product aligns with our core values of sustainable and ethical sourcing and mission of making healthy living affordable and accessible. Through his years in the industry, Jason has gained extensive experience in category management, merchandising, e-commerce, product innovation and development, and brand building in various roles at The Fresh Market, Earth Fare, Fairway Market, and Thrive Market.
About Thrive Market:
Thrive Market, Inc. was founded in 2014 with a mission to make healthy and sustainable living easy and affordable for everyone. As an online, membership-based market (1.3M members), Thrive Market delivers the highest quality, healthy, and sustainable products at member-only prices. At the same time, every annual membership sponsors a free membership for a student, teacher, veteran, nurse, first responder, or a family in need. Thrive Market carries a hyper-curated catalog of organic and non-GMO products and offers 90+ filters and values, allowing you to shop by diet and lifestyle. The brand’s social impact arm, Thrive Gives, has raised more than $12M since its inception to fund food access and environmental sustainability causes. Thrive Market has been carbon neutral since 2014; in 2020, it became the largest online grocer in the U.S. to be a Certified B Corporation, and in 2023, it converted to a Public Benefit Corporation. By 2025, Thrive Market is committed to becoming carbon negative and the world’s first climate-positive grocer. Visit ThriveMarket.com or follow @ThriveMarket to learn more.
CONNECT WITH JASON:
Visit the Thrive Market website
Follow Thrive Market on Instagram
Follow Thrive Market on LinkedIn
Connect with Jason Bidart on LinkedIn
STAY CONNECTED WITH DJENABA JOHNSON-JONES:
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Djenaba Johnson-Jones (00:02.255)
All right, Chris, Welcome to the Food Means Business podcast. I'm so happy you're here.
Kris (00:06.626)
Thank you very much. Obviously, thanks for inviting me. This is great.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (00:11.723)
Yeah, so I'd love to hear your story, which I think is pretty unique and interesting. I do talk to a lot of people and you were an Olympian before you started your food business. So I'd love to hear a little bit about that.
Kris (00:23.682)
Yo, You want to hear how he came in fifth place? It's a great story.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (00:26.9)
Yes, I do because you were in the Olympics. I can't say that and not many people can say that. So there you go.
Kris (00:34.162)
I know that's what everyone always tells me when I complain about it, but it was obviously a really great experience in me to be in my 20s. And I played from basically as 18 till 20 on the US or till 30 on the US team. We got to travel the whole world for free. Um, we weren't staying in luxury or anything, but we got to, um, we went to every continent except Antarctica. Um, yeah, so it was a great experience.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (00:37.495)
Yeah.
Kris (01:04.798)
saw a lot of other cultures, had my mind opened, you know, probably a lot more than the average 20 year old. And I wouldn't trade it for anything except for a few games here and there, do some do some stuff differently. And I would have eaten a lot better too, had I known. Oh, we'll get into that.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (01:23.035)
So, you, I guess, retired is the right word and launched a food business. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Kris (01:32.574)
Yeah, the first thing I did was open GOODONYA Deli. So it was a little office park deli in San Diego, and it was a great business model. You know, Monday through Friday, no nights, no weekends, no holidays. And I'd worked in one as a kid and thought the guy was pretty smart. So ironically, I ended up opening one about a half mile from his near my home. And I ran that and grew it to five locations of the office park situations. And over the years, I've learned a lot, obviously, about running a restaurant. And I mean, I'll be honest, I majored in field hockey, so there wasn't a lot of business training going on in my younger life, but, you know, restaurants, thank God, are a common sense type of business. So we just learned it as we went and my mom did our books for us. She still does them 30, almost 30 years later, thank God. And yeah, I had a lot of people help me along the way as most entrepreneurs do.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (02:28.963)
Yeah, that's really important. I was just thinking about that this morning. Sometimes I sit down and reflect about how many people kind of just gave a helping hand. Sometimes people I didn't even know who had heard about what I was doing, so people are really great, yeah.
Kris (02:40.55)
Yeah, I think this industry in particular, you know, I don't know about other industries like software and that kind of stuff, but food, it seems the CPG industry people are always out there just willing to talk to you and give you advice and it's really nice.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (02:57.415)
It's really nice, especially me coming from marketing and magazine publishing and not knowing anyone or anything, I really felt welcome with open arms.
Kris (03:06.474)
Oh, that's great. Yeah, yeah, so many mentors that became my really good friends. And now I should publish a book of everything not to do. I think a lot of us probably feel that way. Just a list.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (03:20.82)
Yeah, of course. I know everybody has this long list of regrets. Or lessons, because you're supposed to call it a lesson. It's supposed to be a lesson.
Kris (03:26.68)
Uh, yeah, it's-
Yes, I know, and I'm supposed to be grateful for just going to the Olympics. I get it. I understand these things, people.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (03:37.173)
So you found success with the delis and then eventually launched some CPG products. I love to hear about those.
Kris (03:45.302)
Yeah, along the way, you know, it's kind of a funny story. I had met this raw food chef when the raw food vegan thing was kind of a big deal. And he made these cookies, you know, these quote unquote healthy cookies. And I was doing a tour of like a wellness center that my friend had opened. And I, and I ate one. I was like, wow, these are delicious. And so he ends up getting fired. He calls me and he said, did you really like the cookies? And I said, yeah, they were great. Said, if you can make them, I'll buy them for my delis. And we'll sell them all day long.
So he said, well, what if we made this into something like a CPG product and we took it to market? And back then, I didn't feel comfortable marketing a cookie as healthy. That just wasn't resonating with me. Now, of course, it's a genius idea, right? So I said, as an athlete, how about we make it into a bar? Like it was a high fat bar at the time. So that Brazil, it was all nuts and seeds based. So we launched the Good Anya bar.
and quickly realized that he was a chef and he didn't wanna do the business. So I ended up giving him 10 grand for the recipe. And I don't know where he is today. I kind of took the formula of that and made four flavors and we launched the GOODONYA Bar. And that was our first product.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (04:59.107)
Well, and you sold it in your restaurants first?
Kris (05:02.89)
Yes, we sold it in the restaurants kept iterating and then which is really great to be able to like have this working kitchen To do this kind of stuff and bought a tiny little Sealer, you know you did with your foot you put it in a package and you can seal it and that was fun And then we took it into our local natural food store Jimbo's in San Diego It's kind of one of the most legit grocery stores around kind of everything you dream Whole Foods should be but isn't?
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (05:30.06)
Yeah.
Kris (05:32.382)
And yeah, he took it right away and ordered four boxes of each flavor for each store. And I panicked, I'm like, oh my God, how are we gonna make that much? So it was a really good kind of validation that we'd created something great.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (05:38.863)
Great.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (05:45.771)
So what happened with that product?
Kris (05:48.146)
Oh, where do you want to start? It was a very difficult bar to make its scale. We didn't have any gums or weird stuff holding it together. We just used honey or maple syrup and nut butters. So it was really hard to seal and keep the nut oils from leaking out. So we would get pallets of bars from our supplier, and the whole boxes would be just darkened with oil. So and once you do that as a young company, now I've spent, you know.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (05:50.226)
Hahaha
Kris (06:18.178)
$50,000 on bars, the co-packers like, well, it's not our fault. And I'm like, well, I didn't wrap them. It's not my fault. So it just was, it was hard. I know a lot more now and how I could make it, but bars are actually very difficult to seal. It's a weird thing, but if you're thinking of making a bar, go into the grocery store, pick up some bars and hold one end of the seal and press the other end and just watch the air come out. Still to this day, I kind of do it sometimes just to make myself feel better.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (06:22.371)
Yes.
Kris (06:48.778)
And very few companies can wrap them. It's often why you see big packages around bars as well. Or refrigerated stuff is still leaking, but it's more solid. So yeah, it's a really tough industry. Hundreds and hundreds of bars are launched every year, very competitive as well. So we stopped that and started making an electrolyte drink kind of along the way, and we just morphed into that.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (06:54.84)
Oh, got it.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (06:59.959)
Hmm.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (07:13.635)
Why an electrolyte drink? Because it's kind of a departure from a bar. I mean, it's in the same, I guess, kind of serving the same customer, but it's really a departure from a bar. Like why, why did you decide to do it?
Kris (07:23.378)
Yeah, you know, we quickly realized that actually our bar really moms were resonating with it. Good on ya. When we had opened our full service restaurant in downtown Encinitas, our customers really were families. Moms that were, you know, once you become a mom, you're a little bit heightened about what you're putting in your body. And then you're also older in general, you know, usually in your thirties and starting to think about this stuff. So I realized we were a family restaurant. I never went out with a marketing plan.
You know, I never did a business plan, none of that. I just made this food and opened the door and hoped for the best. So I've been a little bit lucky, but I did start at first advertising towards athletes because I was an athlete and I knew that Gatorade and Powerade and the sports drinks, you know, the big guys were too much sugar. And that had kind of, I retired and had a really bad case of hypoglycemia where my body just couldn't regulate its blood sugar.
And I realized when I went back to school for nutrition, how much sugar is detrimental to our health, especially liquid sugar. You're just drinking it and instantly causing inflammation. There's all kinds of problems that we don't have to go into that. So I wanted something to help me drink more water, but as a retired athlete, I knew I wasn't gonna burn those calories. And I did burn them when I was playing, so I didn't know anything was wrong about that when I was playing.
But I knew later on intuitively I didn't want 40 grams of sugar in a 20 ounce drink. You know, older and wiser type of thing. So yeah, we created it and it's just gone through iterations from a bottle beverage into a powder so we could be more DTC.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (09:13.596)
So how did you, being on the Olympic team and training as an athlete, kind of prepare you to launch a food business, a CPG business?
Kris (09:24.774)
I think that launching any business, especially in this industry, well, probably any, you know, you just have to have a whole lot of, I'm not giving up in you. And being on the Olympic team, you usually train with a squad of 30, 20, 30 people, and there's only 16 that will make the team. So you could be training for four years and then get cut right at the last minute.
But those four years, there's World Cups, there's Pan Am Games, usually a major tournament every year. And then you're training and you're constantly trying to be a starter or make a practice tour, we're gonna go to Australia for two weeks. You're never safe. So you're just grinding and grinding and trying to get better all the time and working out three to nine hours a day. So you're used to long hours, you're used to hard work, you're used to not giving up.
That is what it takes to be, and you used to just having stuff thrown at you. I think so. And on the flip side, you're used to being on a team. So you, you're okay, depending on people asking questions, trying to get better, bringing in people that are smarter than you and having like a team mentality. I think it, I think being on a team as a young kid, I see it with kids we hire in our restaurant. It's so valuable.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (10:45.859)
Yeah.
Kris (10:45.942)
They are learning lessons when they're running around in the soccer field at age six. If they're helping pick up the balls at the end of practice and helping bring the cages in, they're learning hard work and teamwork and not just strutting off and say, you guys get it. Sure, there's kids where you gotta like go back out there and get those balls.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (10:59.695)
I'm going to go ahead and turn it off.
Kris (11:06.658)
So we love hiring little athletes because they can run around the restaurant and bus tables and get yelled at by the cooks to go get more forks and not freak out. They just get the forks instead of start crying and yeah.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (11:17.071)
Because they know it's like, they have to do their part, right? Like I think that's the whole part of being a team is like you, it's all for the greater good. Is that right?
Kris (11:24.51)
Yeah, yeah, and they can take a little bit. You know, the cook's not yelling at you. He just needs more forks and he needs them right now. So go to his hustle up and go get them.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (11:30.283)
Right, right, right. So how are you balancing the restaurants with having a CPG business? I mean, while they're both food, it's like two different animals, right?
Kris (11:45.37)
Yeah, I mean, only with really good people. Uh, and that takes a lot to hire in this, in a restaurant industry and find good people because it is a transient industry. People in many of the roles will come and say, Oh, go wait tables in between. My career because it's smart. You can make them. That's the smartest part-time job is waiting tables. You work part-time and you make really good money if you're in a good spot. So we have amazing managers that run the restaurant.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (12:03.64)
Right.
Kris (12:15.914)
And yeah, that's how I do it. It's just with a team around me.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (12:19.859)
And right now, is the product is being produced at a co-packer or are you self-manufacturing?
Kris (12:24.574)
No, I think, you know, when you get to scale and especially doing powders, you got to have the right kind of equipment. Um, there's so many things you can do if you're renting a kitchen, but we couldn't do that in the restaurant space, not big enough. So we have a local guy in San Diego that does that. And another one in Texas that does our stick packs, a specialty supplier that does those.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (12:45.419)
And you're selling right now the Hydrate product on Amazon and on your own website.
Kris (12:49.666)
We're on, that's right, and on Thrive. And then we are in like naturopathic offices, boutique, wellness centers, chiropractic offices. We really don't, we're not gonna go into the grocery channel. That's a very difficult and expensive channel. They say you need about five to $10 million to properly launch a product in the grocery channel. Because you sell it to the distributors and then they sell it to the store. So you're losing 30 to...
another 40-50% margin, you have to have a massive margin. And then even if the little bit the distributor is supposed to pay you, they just don't. They just don't pay you.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (13:30.043)
Mm-hmm. So it's really mostly directed to consumer, and so you're keeping more of the money in your pocket, essentially. Right.
Kris (13:35.526)
Yeah, I mean, Amazon's expensive. You got to grow, you got to advertise, but at least, you know, same with, you know, advertising and meta, you can pull these levers up and down and do your ads. And you can control things a little bit better control your spend. You can't control your spend in the grocery world.
Sadly.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (13:55.523)
What challenges that you come across, if you can talk about this one challenge in building the CPG business and how you were able to overcome it.
Kris (14:06.054)
Honestly, I think if anyone is really thinking of going into the CPG, our biggest challenge was understanding that whole network. And so you have to get an advisor that understands that we were told too late, we raised $500,000 for our bar and we needed $5 million. So what was the point of that year of slogging away, taking investors to meetings to get this and then be out of money in a year? We would sell a pallet for...
couple thousand dollars and get paid like 200 because of deductions. So I can honestly say that we didn't get over that mistake and we were so grinding. So yeah, it's really understanding that network. And another mistake we made is not understanding how our bar was really being made. You have to be in the room when your product is being made. You cannot trust somebody else to make it. They're not going to do it correctly.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (14:56.888)
Mm.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (15:03.823)
Right.
Kris (15:03.882)
And then all of a sudden you have $50,000 worth of product that wasn't done right. So it's really being involved. And if a co-packer won't let you in the room, then they're not, they're not the partner for you. So that's really a question to ask day one.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (15:17.547)
Yeah, that's a really good point. If you had a piece of advice that you would give to someone that was just starting out, I know we just talked about being in the room with a good hacker, but is there something like you have this idea, you're kind of ready to move forward with it, you've gotten maybe some people tasting it and they think it's good and you think you're going to make a go of it. What advice would you give them?
Kris (15:19.746)
Yeah.
Kris (15:27.831)
Yeah.
Kris (15:42.45)
I was thinking about this because I knew you were going to ask me. There's a couple of things. Now there's 60,000 products in the grocery channel in a typical grocery store and the grocery department. So forget about meat and produce. Right? So you are trying to create something very unique and you have to be honest with yourself, do you have something really unique? And if you don't, you're probably not going to get a nod. So on the flip side.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (15:44.671)
Yeah.
Kris (16:08.566)
You could maybe not need something unique and have the best packaging and the best marketing. I thought just create the best ingredients and it's going to sell. Well, that's not true. If you're riding a wave of like a paleo, maybe craze at the moment or a CrossFit, I probably could have put some rocks in a package that looked beautiful and put paleo on it and sold it and would have done great. I really think that because I've seen product over product that.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (16:30.56)
I'm out.
Kris (16:37.142)
hasn't been very good, not good for you, but had really slick packaging. Do well. So you must invest. You don't want to pay the designers. My first logo I did on Word with ClipArt for Garaña Deli. I mean, I've had a lot of luck in this world. But when I went to a proper designer that did our latest hydrate packaging, the guy was a genius. And he understood the brand and where we were going.
expensive but it is worth it. So be honest with yourself if you have something unique and delicious. Maybe it is a better for you delicious product of something that's popular but the marketing and the packaging has got to be spot-on.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (17:21.423)
Yeah, I completely agree. There's probably some, because as a person, just as a consumer, I walk into a grocery store, and if I was in the bar aisle, I'm looking to see, and I'm wanting to try something new, other than a Clif bar, or whatever the main things are out there. I'm looking at the packaging, like, oh, that looks pretty. Before I'm looking at it, it attracts your eye, right? That's what it is, it's pretty. And hopefully it tastes good, because it looks good.
Kris (17:39.371)
Yeah, I did.
Kris (17:46.594)
You just teed me up here. So a designer told me that the front of the packaging is like a first date. So that's what attracts you. That's why you go in. And then all the stuff on the back is your second date. Hmm, this tastes good. I think I'll go on a second date. And your website's like your third and your fourth date. So it's really difficult. But keep your packaging clean, especially that front panel. All the logos and all the different things you can have.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (17:48.719)
Yeah.
Kris (18:16.394)
It's that cleanliness. You got, what do they say? Three seconds to attract somebody on the grocery show. So keep it clean and beautiful. That's what sells.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (18:22.381)
Yeah.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (18:27.179)
Yeah, I think there's this need to tell the whole story on the front of the package. And so, yeah, I think you're right. Keeping it clean is good. Yeah.
Kris (18:36.174)
Yeah, that's third date stuff. I just stuck with me, this lady. Because I was like, it's gluten-free organic. Non-GMO, I want it all in the front. They have to know. She's like, they'll find out.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (18:53.783)
So what do you love most about being a food entrepreneur?
Kris (18:58.206)
You know, for us, what's really special is that we can make something. Um, and I can stand in front of them at their table or even at the counter and kind of watch them put it in their bodies and know that I'm really doing something positive. I think a lot of CPG brands miss that connection with their consumer, but because we've been in a restaurant for 28 years, we've had families come in. We've had kids little, little notches on our wall as they're growing, you know,
We've had people go into labor, we've had marriage proposals, you know, the whole thing. So I love, I love hearing from the customers and seeing them and knowing we're doing right by them. It just, it makes me feel that that's what our whole kind of slogan is. And yeah, it's, it's a, it's a pretty special bond. And it's one, honestly, that a lot of CPGs and restaurants need to take a little bit more seriously.
80% of our immune system lives in our digestive tract. So we are giving these people food for their, that directly affect their health and their immune systems. And I know restaurants don't often think about it. They're just thinking about their bottom line and their margin. And so we all have to, but on the consumer side, I would say the consumers have to be willing to pay for the quality and a lot of people aren't and they get frustrated, but it's worth it. We just really think about food the wrong way in this country more for less.
It's not the way to go.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (20:26.903)
Talk about that a little bit more. Like what do you think is wrong?
Kris (20:30.378)
Well, you know, we're how are we obese on a large percentage and then we're also malnourished. It doesn't make any sense. So when you eat processed foods, your body is constantly starving for nutrition. That's what your body's reaching out. You're not actually hungry. You're getting plenty of calories, but we overeat because we're eating this, like kind of just processed dead foods. So.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (20:38.496)
Mm.
Kris (20:57.946)
I got really sick from the food I ate. I got Hashimoto's, I developed Celiac, I have hypoglycemia, I have vertigo, and I probably would be, I was on my way to becoming an adult diabetic type one diabetes. My pancreas was just completely under attack. And then with all the other autoimmune conditions, I was a mess. So I had to really change things and I realized the power of food and.
It's quality over quantity. We see it with electrolyte brands giving us what consumers need to understand is it's nothing about the nutrition facts panel. That panel, the white panel on all the packaging, it's actually a lie at some times. You could have zero trans fats. You can say that zero and then look in the ingredient list and there's hydrogenated oils. That's because if it's less than one, the brand can put zero.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (21:45.251)
Right.
Kris (21:53.794)
The numbers don't really matter. I look at the numbers for the sugar grams, but I'm really, we need to start looking at the ingredients and what we're eating. It's so simple, but we still don't do it. We have 32 milligrams of sodium in our electrolyte powder and I get athletes all the time. This is a joke. This is not an electrolyte powder. I'm like, I really need to spend some time with you. Of course they're like on Instagram.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (21:57.592)
Mm-hmm.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (22:19.696)
Of course.
Kris (22:22.07)
There's brands selling 500,000 milligrams of sodium in their product, which is from table salt. Highly processed, causes mineral imbalances, causes blood pressure to rise. It's just, it's a processed food. You're way better to have quality over quantity, nature over lab all day long. Those 32 milligrams of sodium from the pink salt go into my body, attach to 80 other trace minerals, and do exactly what it's supposed to do.
That's how we evolve from nature. I put in a thousand milligrams of table salt and I don't really know what's gonna happen, but we know we're a more is better culture.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (23:00.771)
Right, right, that's true, that's true. So you talked about what you eat and kind of taking care of yourself. Talk about other things that you do for self care.
Kris (23:02.924)
Yeah.
Kris (23:13.41)
I do massage. I do Pilates. I try to just stay active. I walk a lot. I don't do high-intensity stuff too much anymore. Again, it's kind of this quality over quantity mentality. But I really try to find time when I'm not thinking about work. Because I went from being so ultra focused in field hockey to another 20 years of ultra focused in work. 24-7.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (23:17.059)
Nice.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (23:31.619)
That's so hard. Yeah.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (23:39.011)
great.
Kris (23:41.89)
So now I really try to shut it off and do anything else but work I consider my meditation.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (23:49.303)
That's great. That's yeah, because it's definitely I don't know. I'm like now learning how to turn it off a little bit. It's still a challenge. It's a challenge. I'm learning. So I'll learn from you.
Kris (24:00.894)
Yeah. Actually, golf has really helped because it's so hard that I really have to think about it. I surf and have for like 30 years, but you can get lost and sitting there waiting for a wave. And then your mind starts going. And you're in nature, and it's beautiful. And that definitely helps. Yeah. So learning something new, which is what you just don't have time for as an entrepreneur.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (24:27.607)
Right?
Kris (24:29.374)
at all, especially golf, I have no time for that. But you gotta do it. You have to, you have to find a way because it's quality over quantity. But maybe, you know, I say that now after 30 years, I didn't do it in the first 20.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (24:33.527)
No, I guess, yeah, it's true. You're right, that's true.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (24:46.687)
Right. No, it's just, I think we evolve as humans, like we're learning and growing and you kind of figure out, I think for me, as I've gotten older, I figure out what is my priority? What's the most important thing I need to be doing versus trying to do all this other stuff. And I found that in my business as well. I'm like, what's the most important thing you should be doing today? And then leave the rest for another. Yeah. And be okay with it. That's the being okay with it is the part. So I'm getting there.
Kris (25:07.539)
and be okay with it.
Kris (25:15.506)
Yeah.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (25:17.111)
So at Hudson Kitchen we have what we call the money bell that we ring when we're celebrating something. So I'm wondering what are you celebrating? It could be personal or professional.
Kris (25:26.466)
Um, well, I've gotten down to single digit handicap. That's pretty exciting. Um, in my golf, um, I mean, we grew, uh, 80% over last year. So, you know, with, with not a lot of effort and really not a lot of money, you know, we don't have investors. So I'm pretty proud that we're growing at a steady pace, um, year over year. And, and people are kind of finding us and, and enjoying the product. So yeah, I think those are.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (25:30.659)
There you go.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (25:37.491)
Oh wow. Wow. That's amazing.
Kris (25:56.357)
really good things.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (25:57.895)
What do you think accounts for that growth? Because that's pretty big. Is there something in particular that you discovered?
Kris (26:04.854)
Well, you know, it's having a good team, knowing how to, you know, we can still do a lot better with what we're doing. You know, I see these companies that are obviously spending $100,000, $1,000 with design firms and this kind of stuff. So we do have to get there. And I think that will catapults us. But, you know, as much as I get mad at consumers for not understanding ingredients and the nutrition facts, I have to remember that the people who find us do and they understand it and support us and they thank us. So it's really the consumers that are.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (26:29.934)
Yeah.
Kris (26:34.686)
making this switch from whether it's they just don't want sugar or they want organic or they understand natural minerals that's probably a far better stretcher most people aren't there yet but you know one gram of sugar over 40 is a pretty easy sell nowadays.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (26:45.071)
Okay.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (26:50.932)
Well, thank you. So Chris, let us know, let the audience know where they can find all about you and GOODONYA.
Kris (26:58.026)
Yeah, goodonyaorganic.com is our main website. We also, if you're in California, have good So we do a really amazing, we didn't talk about that, a natural wine club.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (27:09.355)
Oh, well, let's talk about that for two seconds. Just a little bit more information.
Kris (27:11.398)
Yeah, it was kind of fun. We decided to sell beer and wine to get on. We got our license, we opened for dinner and we don't do dinner anymore, but we stopped after COVID. But I wanted to dive in and find the healthiest wine I could find. And there's a whole industry out there and it's really fascinating. So yeah, it's a bottle of wine, a mass produced wine, doesn't matter how fancy it is, could have a hundred grams of added sugar.
or the wine bottle sitting right next to it could have zero residual sugar, zero added. So there's no labeling, there's no nutrition facts panel on alcohol. So it's like, what's up with that? It's very much in purpose. So if you're out and you're trying to get wine, you're in a shop in a restaurant, ask for, do you have any natural wines? In food, the word natural means nothing, but with wine, that's what they call them. And anyone versed in the who's selling them is gonna know what you're talking about. Yeah.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (27:46.807)
Right. True.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (28:08.239)
Thank you.
Kris (28:09.386)
And if you're in California, we can ship to you. It's a really fun club.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (28:13.719)
that. Great. Thank you so much.
Kris (28:16.971)
Yeah, thank you so much for doing what you're doing. You're making the world a better place, leaving a positive.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (28:22.275)
Thank you, thank you.