S6 Ep9: Collaboration— The Key to Achieving Sustainable Solutions and Magnifying Impact with Kate Fosson
“Networking is a ripple effect… It’s hard to track how those connections play out and what the value is in the long term for the founder who makes that first connection.” — Kate Fosson
The world is changing, and businesses must keep up to remain competitive. To do so, they need to look beyond their own resources and start collaborating with others to create sustainable solutions. Engaging with other companies not only leads to creative ideas that can be propelled forward quickly but also gives valuable access to the resources of others involved in the collaborative project.
Moreover, amplifying voices through collaboration can create a larger platform on which to affect change and bring people closer together. By forming these connections, businesses generate more innovative ideas, increase sustainability initiatives and corporate social responsibility, as well as drive brand recognition.
This is the mission behind Brand Pollinators, founded by speaker, author, and connection-maker, Kate Fosson. Brand Pollinators is dedicated to helping brands spark positive change through their sustainable and socially responsible initiatives. This unique approach harnesses the importance of humanity in order to drive meaningful progress toward shared objectives.
Listen in as Justine and Kate discuss how building connections can be an asset, how to manage the community that you are building, how to ensure that your conversations are mutually beneficial, the pros and cons of having a co-founder and being a solo founder, finding the right time to charge for the value you provide, and how networking creates a ripple effect.
Connect with Kate:
Kate is a 2X founder, speaker, author, and connection-maker. She has worked alongside entrepreneurs from a variety of industries, providing expertise in branding, marketing, operations, and personal development. Kate has also served in various leadership roles with non-profits and local government. She is a certified business mentor and has an MBA from American University.
Episode Highlights:
00:51 Connection is an Asset
06:58 Managing the Community
11:30 Why Limited to Founders
13:08 Having a Co-Founder vs Being a Solo Founder
18:06 Resources for Founders
22:32 Networking Is a Ripple Effect
Tweets:
Powerful connections have become an imperative resource for businesses looking towards sustainability initiatives. Discover how collaboration drives sustainable solutions with @jreichman and Brand Pollinators Founder, Kate Fosson. #podcast #entrepreneurship #socialgood #inspiration #impactmatters #NextGenChef #EssentialIngredients #brandPollinators #businessbuilding #collaboration #founders #networking
Inspirational Quotes:
02:49 "As a founder, as a business owner, it can be isolating often at times when you're up there with this vision doing it alone. So to be able to have a community that you can connect with is such an asset.” —Justine Reichman
06:30 "Another thing that's really valuable about community is that you can learn from people that are a little bit outside of what you're doing.” —Kate Fosson
08:40 "It's hard to build a community; it takes a lot of time, a lot of energy to foster it. It doesn't happen overnight. It's a lot of work to have that community management aspect of it." —Justine Reichman
15:33 "But some of the benefits of being a solo founder is that you can really call all the shots like there's, there's nobody that is having a differing point of view. And so it can be good and bad.
17:33 “There are people everywhere that have something amazing to bring to the table. And so, it's just been really cool to be able to connect people across state lines and even outside the country, to learn from each other.” —Kate Fosson
21:02 “We probably waited too long on the paid membership but we really wanted to learn what was most valuable for people and how we could help them because we had to be clear about what the value was they were getting back.” —Kate Fosson
22:47 “Networking is a ripple effect… It's hard to track how those connections play out and what the value is in the long term for the founder who makes that first connection." —Kate Fosson
Transcriptions:
Justine Reichman Wow and welcome to Essential Ingredients. I'm Justine Riechman your host and with me today is Kate Fosson from Brand Pollinators. She is the founder and she is going to walk us through what Brand Pollinators is for those of us that are not familiar with it. And then we're going to talk about all things that have to do with mission driven businesses and food businesses and how to build them and all things that she can share with us. So hey, welcome, and thanks for joining.
Kate Fosson Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. It's such a pleasure to be here. And I love, you know, hearing all the different guests that you have on your podcast. And in just exploring what people are building, it's just so fun and that's really why I built Brand Pollinators. It's been really cool to just meet founders that are focused on making an impact in the world, and then creating products and envisioning what those can do for the future. So when I started Brand Pollinators, you know, I really had this vision of, okay, lots of founders are building companies, and they get to a certain stage, and they kind of get stuck. And a lot of times, it's because they're not clear on that kind of foundational piece of their marketing, like understanding really who their brand is, maybe they have it in their head, but they have a hard time communicating it to their team, or to investors, or to customers. And so I really wanted to help support founders in that way. And I also noticed that they would come across a lot of really similar challenges. And I thought, you know, why not? Why not connect people to each other to help learn, so that we're not like reinventing the wheel and beating our heads against a wall when you know, another founder down the road has has figured something out. So we started Brand Pollinators with this idea of building a community where purpose driven founders could connect to each other, to kind of learn from each other. And then also, we provided additional support for people at that emerging stage. So we provided brand new marketing support, and then now we've expanded and provided a lot of other support through our preferred partner network as well.
"As a founder, as a business owner, it can be isolating often at times when you're up there with this vision doing it alone. So to be able to have a community that you can connect with is such an asset.” —Justine Reichman
Justine Reichman Wow, that's amazing and that sounds like such a great resource for these emerging brands. And even for established brands, frankly, because as a founder, as a business owner, it can be isolating often at times when you're up there with this vision doing it alone. So to be able to have a community that you can fall back on, I don't want to say fall back on, but connect with that you can share your challenges, your, you know, the wins, the losses, all of it, and be able to continue to propel forward is such an asset.
Kate Fosson Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I mean, that's the whole point. And I think, especially during the pandemic, I think people realize how important it is to be connected to others. Because, you know, all of a sudden, we were just kind of holed up. And it is it's really lonely when you don't have somebody that you can talk to. And so I think, you know, at Brand Pollinators, we focus on the founders specifically. And so it's kind of a safe space where founders can connect to each other and have real conversations because it is lonely and there are things that are they seem stupid, maybe in your head, or to somebody who is not an entrepreneur that just doesn't get all the different hats that you're trying to wear. And so it's just nice to have a place where there's people that are cheering for you. And you know, maybe you can find somebody that will help you be accountable, and you can help them, or you can learn from somebody that that's been there before.
Justine Reichman I think it's a great way to support the community. And I'm curious, what is it in your background that enabled you or sort of inspired you to build a community like this?
"Another thing that's really valuable about community is that you can learn from people that are a little bit outside of what you're doing.” —Kate Fosson
Kate Fosson Well, it's several things, honestly. So I am married to somebody who's active duty military. And what that means is that we move every two years. And you know, of course, there's a lot of other things that come along with the service, but the moving is has one of the biggest effects on me, because, you know, starting over every time, you know, every two years is a real challenge. And I used to love it. I think as the older I get it's become more difficult but that's because, you know, I've got kids in school now and there's just so many challenges with, you know, finding all those local resources when you move. But I think that played a big role. When I first met my husband, and we moved the first time, I had to quit my job and start a new one, it took forever to find a new job. And so I started pursuing the entrepreneurial route, I became a web designer, and I did a lot of freelance work. And then I ended up sort of working as like a first hire for a company that I stayed with for a while, ended up as the COO. And I decided I really liked the business strategy side. So when I got my MBA, and you know, I consulted with a lot of companies that were kind of at that size and notice that there were so many challenges that they were facing. And so, you know, as somebody who moves around a lot, and has had worked with different entrepreneurs in different industries, and you know, bigger companies as well, it's really about connecting the dots for me, you know, finding what works for some people and how it could work for others. And I should know, too, that Brand Pollinators is, you know, we're focused on impact driven brands, which have like a social or environmental piece as part of their mission that's really baked in, but it's not all food brands, most of them are consumer facing brands, and there are a lot of food and beverage companies and founders that we work with. But I think that's another thing that's really valuable about the community is that you can learn from people that are maybe a little bit outside of, of what you're doing. And I think it's been really helpful for people to kind of connect, like, you know, one woman founder to another, it doesn't matter if you're, you know, selling toothpaste, or you're selling, you know, jelly, you know, it can be anything.
Justine Reichman So what platform do you use to connect everyone?
"It's hard to build a community; it takes a lot of time, a lot of energy to foster it. It doesn't happen overnight. It's a lot of work to have that community management aspect of it." —Justine Reichman
Kate Fosson So this is interesting. Yeah, for a long time, it was sort of me as like the hub of that. And I really didn't want to have another place where people needed to go and log in. And, you know, there's enough Slack channels, there's enough forums, I thought, man, I really don't want to go down that road. And so our primary way of connecting with people was just individually through email. And we would say, like, oh, you know, this is a great person to talk to, or we get on a call with somebody, we learn more about them, and then we'd send them some more resources. And so it started building. And we just created a founder matching program, where we now have like an algorithm that will connect founders to each other based on experiences that they've had and want to learn about. And so that's been really cool. People really love that. And it's something where they can get more individual one on one conversations. And so I think, for the most part, Brand Pollinators has been built as something sort of a community that's a little more II throw, it's it's sort of a camaraderie, if you will, rather than like a platform or a forum. But we are moving towards having a platform where people can have more, you know, tangible results in terms of connecting and having that written down, and reaching out to each other. So we're building that now. But it's been a long time coming, because I really didn't want to overdo another platform,
Justine Reichman I completely understand that it's hard to build a community. It's hard to, you know, build what people want, it takes a lot of time, takes a lot of energy to foster it. It doesn't happen overnight. And it's a lot of work to manage it to have that community management aspect of it. So that's a whole follow up and manage it all the time, like, and then also to manage the whole, when people are writing to each other and leaving comments and to manage that whole Billboard, and just the whole communication. I mean, you know, years ago, I owned a completely different kind of company. And it's like Yelp, right? You know, somebody goes to a restaurant, they have a bad experience, they write something nasty. And, you know, it could have been an off night, somebody could have been having a bad day. And it's really punitive when somebody writes something like this when it was, you know, who knows, either one could have been having a bad day, right? So I've always been curious how to manage those things for both sides, because I have empathy for both, both the small business trying to manage their business and the fact that people, you know, want to have their voice heard, but equally the impact that it has on these small businesses. It's so grave.
Kate Fosson Yeah. Yeah. It's true and I think that, you know, customers have, like word of mouth is so impactful on a brand in a company. So yeah, it can be dangerous.
Justine Reichman You don't want to give them a muzzle, right, like nobody's trying to say don't do that. But you know, think about what it is you're really trying to say, the impact it's going to have and take a breath, maybe. I mean, listen, I'm from the East Coast too, I like to be direct. And it's not just about, you know, we're responsible for our feelings. But I do think that sometimes people get very nasty. And I just wish that there was a way to be able to have people say what they want.
Kate Fosson Yeah. I think having a place for people to connect, I mean, with Brand Pollinators, we filter, you know, we kind of vet the people that are coming in, because we really want to make sure that they want to be there that they have a collaborative mindset. I mean, that's the whole point.
Justine Reichman So let's go back to this for a second. So when you were saying that you vet them, I think that's great, because you want people that are interested in being there or interesting want to hear what people have to say, but also have, you know, well, actively be proactive and provide constructive feedback. And, you know, I don't know how we make sure it's constructive, but that's the goal.
Kate Fosson Yeah, yeah. It's so critical. I think having it limited to just founders is important for us because, you know, I'm a part of several networks and communities and when they're open to anyone and everyone, then I think that's where it becomes more complicated, because, you know, people have different agendas for why they're there.
Justine Reichman And fails, etc.
Kate Fosson Yeah. And so having it focused on just founders really helps to ensure that those conversations are, you know, mutually beneficial for the people on the platform.
Justine Reichman So what are you hoping to launch this?
Kate Fosson Oh, soonish.
Justine Reichman All right.
Kate Fosson Yeah. We haven't-- we don't have a launch date yet. We're still looking at some different platforms. Again, I you know, I hate to reinvent the wheel when things have been resolved by someone before.
Justine Reichman Completely understand. So you've built this company. And I know that when we first started chatting, you mentioned you had a co founder. So I'd love to just, you know, talk about that for a second, Because I know that when people start companies, sometimes they start with co founders, they start alone, I'd love to just, you know, you originally started as a co founder, can you talk to me a little bit about that? And now you're, you know, no longer with a co founder, you're on your own? You know, how has that been? I mean, first of all, was it hard to find a co founder? Did you guys just come up with Brand Pollinators together, and you know, and then when you now are on your own, did you lose a lot of skills or is this just a natural thing for you to continue on?
"But some of the benefits of being a solo founder is that you can really call all the shots like there's, there's nobody that is having a differing point of view. And so it can be good and bad.
Kate Fosson Yeah. Great question. It's really cool, because I met my co founder, Channing, when we were working for a company together. And the day that we met, we had actually, we hadn't met in person yet, we had a phone call. And we were interviewing her to be the director of sales, and I don't think she knew as an interviewer. You know, as we were talking, just everything she said, I was like, Oh, my gosh, I love this person. Like, she's awesome. I was literally like writing hearts in my notebook next to things she had said, and I was making notes. And so when we met in person, I was like, Oh, my gosh, this is so exciting. And we hit it off immediately, we really dived in our views about the world and about business. And we were just so energized by working with smaller companies. And so we knew right away that no matter what happened with the company we were at, we're going to do things together. And it happened. I mean, within a year, we had both left the company at different times but we stayed in touch regularly, and we kept talking about what we could do. And that, you know, that idea of Brand Pollinators we came up with together. And it was so fun to build together and to have somebody, you know, to work with and to bounce ideas off of and we really feed off of each other well. And so whenever we would be talking with a client or, you know, really anybody we talked to, we both had things that we could add and, you know, we balanced each other out really well. So it was really awesome to have a co founder. And you know, things don't always, just don't stay the same, you know, things change and circumstances change. And it's unfortunate that we couldn't continue to work together. But I mean, she's still one my really trusted advisors and she definitely helps to keep me on track sometimes. It is a lot harder when I'm by myself running things. But you know, I've learned to build up a network around myself of other mentors and advisors that I can trust and count on for advice and support. And, you know, Channing is still a great friend and we still do a lot together and keep in touch. And so yeah, it's nice to have that. But some of the benefits of being a solo founder is that you can really call all the shots like there's nobody that is having a differing point of view. And so it can be good and bad. But I've found that, you know, sometimes I just-- when I decide I want to change something and just do it, and go,
Justine Reichman Would you consider another co founder or working with anybody else?
Kate Fosson It's possible. I mean, I think that, yeah, I think that I would, but, you know, it really has to be the right person. Channing and I always consider ourselves as like, entrepreneurial soulmates. And so, you know, you don't always have the--
Justine Reichman It's like marriage, right? You gotta, I mean, it's like, I always say, whether it's a friendship, a husband, a wife, you know, it's all-- it's like dating. You got to get to know the person, like the person. I mean, friends all of it. It doesn't--
Kate Fosson Yeah. There's challenges along the way and you have to be able to navigate those, you know, with grace, because you're gonna be with them for the long haul.
Justine Reichman So what's new and what's next for Brand Pollinators?
Kate Fosson Yeah. So we're launching the founder matching. And I think we'll have a platform soon, still exploring that. We like to run a lot of things by the community and make sure that some people are going to us. So we've run several pilots and, you know, narrowing in on exactly that.
Justine Reichman How large is your community at this moment?
Kate Fosson Yes, we have over 200 founders now. Yeah.
Justine Reichman And geographically, are they local, national, global?
Kate Fosson Most of them are in the United States. There are a few that are international and selling products into the United States, but they're spread out across the country. And, you know, I think it's true to that military lifestyle that I've been living with is, you know, there's people everywhere, that have something amazing to bring to the table. And so, it's just been really cool to be able to connect people across, you know, state lines, and even outside the country to learn from each other.
Justine Reichman So, you know, given we have founders, and we have researchers, and we have, you know, people in health and wellness and VCs and all these different people listening right now and watching, you know, if somebody was looking to connect with you, you know, what are some of the resources you might be able to provide them with?
“There are people everywhere that have something amazing to bring to the table. And so, it's just been really cool to be able to connect people across state lines and even outside the country, to learn from each other.” —Kate Fosson
Kate Fosson Yeah. So I think what's been nice about this community is that it's a great place for founders, but it's also a great place to reach founders, that if you have a service that you can provide somebody that's building an impactful business, and you really want to support that, then we can make really intentional referrals to make sure that, you know, it's like a win-win for for everyone. Because, you know, if the founder is struggling with something specific, they're trying to raise funds, or, you know, they need a specific kind of service. And, you know, I've got this whole network of basically preferred partners who, you know, I can trust, then I can easily say, you know, you should totally work with so and so they would definitely be able to help you that. So I love being able to connect with people that also want to help founders grow their businesses. And for founders, I mean, we send out an email every single week and it usually includes either words they can apply for, or conferences they can attend, or examples of, you know, really cool social media content that they could, you know, emulate or advice on marketing and branding. And then every single month, we also offer a community call that's open to anyone, and we bring in a guest expert. And it's usually a topic that people will just really need support on. Last week, we actually talked with an innovation specialist and we talked about product market fit. And it was fascinating. Nick Button, he's so knowledgeable and our community was just blown away. Like we had so many great responses back from that and how helpful it was. But we've had, you know, experts on SEO and we even had a panel of founders who'd been on Shark Tank and they shared their experience so that, you know, people can understand a little bit more about what it's like, and is it worth it? What's involved?
Justine Reichman And so curious for people to be part of this community, is there a fee?
Kate Fosson Yes. So up until this point, we haven't charged a fee for people to be in the community. And that's changing, especially with this founder matching that we're rolling out. So there will be a fee, but the weekly emails and the monthly community call are something that will always be accessible to people, whether they're a paid member or not.
“We probably waited too long on the paid membership but we really wanted to learn what was most valuable for people and how we could help them because we had to be clear about what the value was they were getting back.” —Kate Fosson
Justine Reichman So out of curiosity, because, you know, you're a founder, how did you create a revenue stream for yourself as you were building this?
Kate Fosson So we provided marketing and branding, consulting to clients along the way. And so that was kind of the primary revenue source for us. But we also can generate revenue through those referral networks. And then yeah, the paid membership is, you know, we probably waited too long on the paid membership, honestly. But we really wanted to learn what was most valuable for people and how we could really help them because it just didn't make sense to-- we really had to be clear about what the what the value was they were getting back from a paid membership. But I think we've got enough proof of how the connections that we've been able to facilitate have really been instrumental for brands to kind of get to that next level. So.
Justine Reichman I think it's a common thing for people to wait too long there. We all want to make sure that we have the right value proposition. Sometimes I think people go after too early, they get a little aggressive, sometimes we wait too long to make sure we have enough credibility. So it's finding that sweet spot of when we can finally start to charge or when we can finally or whoever it is, go after it. And say, you know what, we're ready, we have value here, and start to ask for it. And I think it's a really important conversation for people. And that's why I asked the question, because a lot of the founders out there are trying to figure out how do we integrate the revenue stream here to continue to provide this amazing value that we have here, the community, the resources, it doesn't happen for free. You spend a lot of time and effort curating those emails, putting those people together, getting the guests for those weekly, or quarterly or monthly, you know, talks and it takes time.
Kate Fosson Yeah. And it's tricky, because, you know, we looked at different models of like, oh, well, if we make a connection for you that, you know, turns into something, then, you know, there could be some kind of commission, but in the end, it's like networking is is a ripple effect. And, you know, we'd introduce one person, and they would introduce them to someone else, and they'd introduce them to someone else. And in those introductions, I mean, we had we introduced somebody to a resource, and they ended up getting on Oprah's Favorite Things that year.
Justine Reichman Wow.
Kate Fosson Yeah. And it was like, okay, cool. I mean, we didn't introduce her to Oprah. But like, we we set that motion, and pointed her in the right direction. And, you know, she obviously had a lot going for it and was able to, you know, make the most of it. But that's the kind of thing where, you know, it's hard to track how those connections play out and what the value is in the long term for the founder who makes that first connection
“Networking is a ripple effect… It's hard to track how those connections play out and what the value is in the long term for the founder who makes that first connection." —Kate Fosson
Justine Reichman Was that when you decided you needed to create a new model?
Kate Fosson No. We should have been a really big flag, but no, she was actually a consulting client of ours so we were already working with her on a consulting project,
Justine Reichman What was the moment you decided, "Okay, we really need to create a model."
Kate Fosson When the 30th person said, how do you make money? No, I think, honestly, it was several things really. I mean, people told me all along the way, yeah, you need to be charging, you need to be charging more, you need to ask for more. But when members of the community are saying, like, we want to support you, what can we do? I mean, I offered some sessions for free for people that were in the community recently, and somebody just randomly like, offered to pay, like, I didn't even ask them to pay and they just offer. And so I think we're at this point now where people know that what we have is valuable and they're ready to join, to commit, and we just need to, you know, put a price tag on there and--
Justine Reichman Well, I'm so glad that we were able to connect. This was a great conversation. I think that people are gonna get a lot out of it. I'm so glad you've joined me.
Kate Fosson Oh, good.Thank you so much.
Justine Reichman So if people want to find out more about Brand Pollinators, how might they do that?
Kate Fosson We do have a website Brandpollinators.com but definitely feel free to reach out my email is Kate@brandpollinators.com. I've done the hub of the community and I am sure I will continue to be. I'm also really active on LinkedIn so you can find me on there as well.
Justine Reichman Awesome. Thanks so much for joining me. Thanks so much.
Kate Fosson Thank you.
Justine Reichman We look forward to talking to you again soon.
