The Pandemic Pivot | When Crises is the Catalyst for Success With Vitaminis Founder, Leslie Danford
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When the world came to a standstill, Leslie Danford saw an opportunity to nourish change. Her pivot from hospitality to health gave birth to Vitaminis, reshaping how we think about nutrition in our daily lives. Our latest conversation dives into Leslie's entrepreneurial journey, marked by her transition during the pandemic from a career in hospitality to founding a whole food-based supplement company. We explore the significance of nutrition and how the collective reevaluation of our careers leads to taking command of our professional paths.
Juggling the roles of a new mom and a budding entrepreneur, Leslie's story resonates with the struggle for balance that many face. We share candid reflections on the challenges of working from home, managing a household, and the ever-present tug-of-war between business dreams and family needs. Listeners will find solace and inspiration in Leslie's strategies for carving out dedicated work time, as well as the wisdom she imparts on nurturing both a growing family and a fledgling business.
As we wrap up, Leslie provides invaluable insights into the competitive functional beverage industry and the crucial role of FDA guidelines in establishing consumer trust. Additionally, the conversation turns to the art of branding and packaging, essential for capturing customers' attention in a saturated market. The episode culminates with Leslie's reflections on the power of resilience and optimism, offering encouragement to entrepreneurs who are navigating their paths amidst life's unpredictable ebbs and flows. Join us to hear how Leslie's tenacity and innovation have paved the way for success in the realm of wellness and entrepreneurship.
Backstory on Leslie [02:06]
Since Leslie was a kid, she showed entrepreneurial tendencies. She also viewed nutrition like a math equation, always being sure to have a vegetable, a carb, protein, etc. As she began her career she became more interested in entrepreneurship, yet still found herself on a more traditional career path. Leslie found herself working in corporate, consulting, and in the alcoholic beverage industry. This was the time when she really started taking notes on all the research around health and wellness, functional foods, clean labels, better trends, etc. From there she moved into the hospitality industry which ended up evaporating with the pandemic, so Leslie found herself being a stay at home mom and this is when she came up with the idea for Vitaminis.
Disruption of the day to day [06:48]
The pandemic came with a multitude of stress, one being that many were left looking for new jobs. When Leslie got laid off in March, no one was hiring, so in the meantime she focused on making sure her family was taken care of and getting the proper nutrients and diet to keep them as healthy as possible. This came with its own set of challenges and Leslie was reminded how difficult it was to meet all the nutritional needs through diet alone. On top of that, she’s never been satisfied with supplement options out there. Leslie recognized the gap in the market for a whole food-based, clean and natural option to get these nutrients.
How it started [08:54]
The first step Leslie took was to interview friends and family about the space. She would ask questions like “where do you struggle with nutrition?” and “Do you read labels on products you buy? If so, what do you look for?”. From these interviews, Leslie gained confidence that she was onto something, but at the same time she also realized that not everyone in your friends and family are your target customer.
Getting a business off the ground, in the midst of a pandemic, AND being a stay at home mom [16:27]
Whatever you’re pursuing, you have to carve out the time. Even if it’s just 15 minutes a day, if you’re thinking about your business idea and you’re moving it incrementally forward in those 15 minutes, it can make a huge difference and can really add up.
Leslie began with working at nights or squeezing in some time whenever she could. A couple months into it, she lined up childcare for a couple hours so that should could focus on Vitaminis. Eventually the schools opened back up and she could take more time to focus on work. It’s an investment if you’re doing your own business and you might have to have that conversation with your spouse to line up childcare so that you can work on your business. You have to treat it like a real job.
The moment Vitaminis was brought to fruition [23:36]
It all kind of creeped up on Leslie. When she validated her idea with her friends and family, she took that confidence and reached out to someone in the beverage space, in the startup world to see who they worked with. Then she reached out to that person to see what it might cost. It was very incremental. Once she knew that she had a product that could actually fulfill the vision that she had and be sellable, that’s when she thought, okay now I could sell this, but even then she wasn’t committing to doing it full time.
Leslie wanted a business name that was self-explanatory. It had to be inspiring and catchy, but self-explanatory. She was not the one to come up with the name Vitaminis but when it was first said out loud, Leslie knew that that was it! It’s communicating that it is vitamins, but in mini tasty formats.
Functional Beverage or Vitamin Supplement? [28:21]
Vitaminis are labeled as a beverage over a supplement. It’s a gray area, but the reason it’s labeled as a beverage is because it's operating under the FDA guidelines, which gives customers comfort. What’s said to be in there is there, it’s proven, the claims being made are substantiated, whereas in the supplement space claims can be made that are not substantiated by the FDA. In other words, supplements are not regulated so you don’t really know what’s in there. In the food and beverage industry, there are very clear guidelines about what ingredients can be used. You know that everything in Vitaminis are safe, proven safe to be consumed by people, because it is regulated by the FDA. Even the claims made on the bottles are regulated. For example, immune support is written instead of immunity because immunity would be implying that when you take the product, you would never get sick or you’re going to be invincible, which wouldn’t be true. This does provide comfort to both Leslie and the customer because it ensures that Leslie is following the rules and the customer can find comfort that the claims are accurate.
How do you differentiate in a saturated market? [36:39]
Based on Leslie’s personal experience with not finding a product like Vitaminis in the past, she created specifically for the gap she saw. As she received feedback from customers, she would take that information and apply it to her product. For her, the differentiation itself was the easy part, but communicating the differentiation has been more of a struggle. Slow and steady progress is what she’s seeing right now, but it takes a lot of time to build up the momentum. Leslie thinks that this is why a lot of start up brands can take 5-10 years before they really begin to emerge on to the scene in a big way.
The role of design and packaging [38:55]
Packaging is huge, it’s the thing that makes you pick up the product and try it. Two things when it comes to packaging. One, when you’re trying to get into retailers and business contracts, the look and feel of your packaging communicates a lot about your professionalism. It communicates whether your product is legitimate or not, for better or for worse. Two, once it’s on the shelf, continuing to refine the packaging to ensure that it’s communicating quickly and easily to the customers.
Using crisis to pivot [43:20]
It’s easy to look back on hard things and see the silver lining. It’s really hard when you’re in the hard thing to keep that mindset. Just have faith that you will find a way, you will find a meaning, you will find your path. LIfe throws all sorts of stuff at you. You cannot predict it. You have no idea how it’s going to shake out. So just try to remain positive and true to yourself, you will in the end come out of it okay as a result of that mindset.
Key Quotes
“Grit can also mean continuing to adapt and change and listen. So you're sticking with something but you are also changing.”
Leslie Danford
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