Advice Line with Tariq Farid of Edible Arrangements

0:09 Hello and welcome to the advice line on how I built this lab. I'm Guy Raz. This is the place where we help try to solve your business challenges. Each week, I'm joined by a legendary founder, a former guest on the show. Who will help me try to help you. And if you're building something and you need advice, give us a call and you just might be the next guest on the show. Our number is 1-800-433-1298. Leave us a one-minute message that tells us about your business and the issues or questions that you'd like help with. Alright, let's get to it. Joining me this week is Tariq Farid, he's the founder of Edible Arrangements. Tariq, it's great to have you back on the show. Oh, it's so great to be back. Thanks for having me, guy. Awesome to have you. You were first on the show back in 2017. Um and of course, if you haven't heard it, we will put a link to it in the show notes. It's an awesome episode.

0:56 In that episode Uh, you told us about how your family emigrated from Pakistan. You were twelve. You y as a teenager you worked in a in f in a flower shop at a McDonald's and to helping you know, bring in money for the family, and then eventually you guys would go on to open a flower shop of your own. Uh and then In the late nineties you decided that you wanted to get into a different kind of a flower arrangement business. Not flowers per se, but fruit.

1:22 Why don't we Make fruit into bouquets and and I've I've told this story so many times to people, you know, uh uh about how An idea like that would have been laughed at, or people said, This is not a who's gonna want that? But you understood so clearly that this was gonna be a hit. And of course it did. It became And I think today it has over

1:45 Thirteen hundred locations worldwide. They're h it's on hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Before we get to our our colours, Tariq, I want to ask you a few questions. Sure. Uh first of all, g give us an update of of what you've been up to. We haven't been on a show in a couple of years, and I'd love to hear what's been going on. Yeah, so you know, kinda grew up in Connecticut, started everything in Connecticut, and about six months before the pandemic, uh, everybody moved on to Atlanta. Uh You move the whole business to Atlanta. Business and everything. Uh you know, the my my whole plan from the beginning was for the next generation to take over. And now we're facing the other side that everybody's facing. You almost have to reinvent. And uh after twenty five years, you pretty much gotta take everything together and uh uh take everything apart and you know, uh put it together again, which is what Solia, my daughter, took over as CEOs of last year.

2:32 And that's what she's doing. And um the brand is uh much broader. We we b bought in a concept called Roti, which is a modern Mediterranean. Um, out of Chicago. Yeah. Yeah. And then uh edible arrangements, you know, it's that You know, uh it it became more of an e-commerce company, uh 100% e-commerce in the pandemic. Um you know, and now we're trying to figure out the store and also the e commerce part. And then of course this phenomenon of edibles that kind of hit us out of nowhere, uh, which we're trying to just figure out how to do that, um, which is that like uh C B D. Well, we we own the trademark Edibles, uh, and we own edibles.com. So we're trying to figure out like, you know, where's this going? And that's been

3:14 quite a journey and and we figure it out. I think there's a whole health and wellness side of that. that uh that we'll we'll do and we're opening our one of our first units here, like CBD and THC and and but more in the health and wellness space. Wow. So it you know I I've always said that you know opportunity is what you go after, risk is what you mitigate. So a lot of people that will be getting advice, they're so hung up on risk that they've totally missed the opportunity. They're afraid because they wanna figure everything out. And uh it you know, it it's it's been quite an interesting journey and we're making an online marketplace with an app and you know, people are taking this product and as they take it, how can we have a a trusted brand that you can show from? Interesting. Um

3:58 I wanna I wanna ask you about um about edible arrangements for for a moment because You know, I'm curious because as you know, there you know, in recent years there the uh among a certain kind of chattering class of people. Edible arrangements has a reputation for being a little outdated. corny let's say like a like a granny brand. And I I think

4:18 sort of culture and tastemakers assume that that is a bad thing. But in actual fact There's a massive market. For uh products and services that might not be quote unquote cool

4:30 But that still have a huge Audience, how do you respond? when, you know, in some eyes the brand image is like oh it's a granny brand or it's corny or outdated. D d do you ignore it? Do you go with it? Do you try and change it? Yeah, no I I I think the i it's not that the next generation won't accept that product. You have to kind of make it relevant for the next generation. And that's what

4:55 uh the next generation is doing. So Somey is doing that and and she's gonna do a much better job. She ha takes a totally different approach. Uh, she's thirty-two years old, so uh I started Edible when I was thirty one. So it was so nice to see her, you know, kinda take the reins early. And our family is evolving a brand that we're defined by. And Everybody's excited and you know, uh some of our other younger kids are looking forward to coming in and they have very unique ideas, but it's it's it's just a natural progression. You go through it in personal life and the same way a brand goes through. And that's what's

5:26 been happening and and uh um you know she's really excited. She's built a a great team And uh in a in a love the approach to that and it' and it's a lot easier going from sixty to ninety instead of starting from scratch again. Yeah. Yeah. Um, what do you say, Tariq? You ready to take our first call? Yeah, let's do it.

5:43 All right, let's bring in our first call. Welcome to the advice line. You're on with Tariq Fareed. founder of Edible Arrangements. Please tell us your name, uh where you're calling from, and just uh one line about your business, please. Uh hey guys, it's such a pleasure to be here and chat with you. Uh my name is Jake De Leon and I'm calling from Arlington, Virginia. So I'm the founder of Philomonilla. We make food products inspired by iconic Filipino flavors.

6:07 This includes our award winning banana ketchup and Ube Purple Yam spread. Welcome to the show, Jake. Thanks for calling in. So Fila Manila Minala Manila. Manila. Like Manila, like the town. Like the capital of the vanilla. Yes. Correct. And uh so get tell us about first of all, banana ketchup. I've seen this before. Yeah, no, I've I've been searching for that. I haven't found it. So this is I mean it's like ketchup. You would dip french fries or or put on burgers and it's made from bananas, not tomatoes. It's a fascinating story and history connected to the Philippines. So it's very kind of iconic to uh Filipino cuisine. And is the taste identical?

6:47 So it tastes um tangy and sweet just like tomato ketchup, but because of using bananas, it has a nice tropical vibe to it. It's very delicious. Alright, I'm seeing in your on your website you've got um an Ube Um Um yams kind of spread for for sandwiches or bread or or whatever. And you've you've got a c a couple of other cool things here like um

7:08 peanut sauce. Tell me a little bit about the business. How did you start this? Yeah, I'll start just uh to explain who I am and how I came about the business. So I'm a first generation Filipino American immigrant. Uh but with most I guess immigrant families food is always a center of our household. And the inspiration actually came during Covid. I did some data and research and I found out that Filipinos

7:30 are one of the largest Asian American groups in the US, the largest in eleven states, including California, and our cuisine is the fastest growing as well. Yet there's almost zero representation of our cuisine in mass grocery. And that was the inspiration of film and off to finally add representation uh in a delicious way. All right, so you start this brand and and now where is it being sold? Obviously online. Where else uh is this are the are the products sold? Yeah, well we're we're available nationwide in select stores with Walmart, Whole Foods, uh Kroger, Meyer, um and And uh some other independents as well. And as as you mentioned, Guy, we're available online on Amazon and our own direct to consumer site. Okay, and I'm looking at your website and I'm just gonna say it, you a clearly you were on Shark Tank,'cause that's the cover of your website, a picture of you on Shark Tank.

8:15 How'd I go? Oh I've been a huge fan of the show, so it's uh in a strange way, it felt like I was meeting uh some my common friends for the first time. Incredible experience. Yeah. And w tell me uh how how are your sales doing? What are you projecting for this year? Yeah, I mean we did about one point five million uh lifetime sales. Uh this year we'll probably be doing around uh six hundred thousand or seven hundred thousand. Um and Bird K and we're essentially we're the only brand representing Filipino cuisine um on the shelves right now. So we have a really interesting position.

8:46 So there's not a single brand out there That does that is Filipino for Filipino cuisine, like there is for obviously for Italian foods or Japanese foods or Indian foods. There's no National brand. There are national brands, but they're mostly uh the exports from the Philippines. So think the heritage Filipino brands that come from abroad.

9:07 I think with Philomonella, we're probably If not the only, the first nationwide available Filipino American brand, which we make our products here in the US. And you can see from the branding and from the ingredients it's uh positioned for the uh I guess the US customer. Got it. Okay. Before we dive in further, what is your question? Oh yeah, so um you know, I started Dilmanila to introduce uh delicious Filipino flavors in the uh US market, uh, but since many Americans haven't yet experienced Filipino cuisine

9:36 It seems like we're essentially creating a category while building an emerging brand. And so my question is is what have you seen work for brands That need to educate people about something unfamiliar. Before I can go mainstream. All right, cool. Uh Tariq Fried, I want to bring you in here. Um

9:53 Thoughts, questions, ideas for Jake. Hey, my my first question always is what's the end game? Like, you know, five years from, four years from now, are you trying to you know, is there a brand that you're trying to mimic in the US that you would like to become that or What's the objective? Yeah, great question. Thank you, Tariq. So at least for us, the the vision is to represent the next generation of Filipino American flavors.

10:17 Uh we don't really compare ourselves to what what brand we wanna be. What we do say is that Ah, you know, we believe in five years. Filipino cuisine will be pretty mainstream. And our goal is that if you ask any random person in the US What brand do you think about when you think about Filipino food? Uh the first brand comes to mind will be Philominoa. And is there a brand that you know, kind of other ethnicities that

10:38 You You know you you know, you admire or you think they've done a great job? Oh yeah, there's a lot of brands in the industry. For example, Ciette Foods. They did a phenomenal job. Many years ago. Yes, yeah. Great rounds of family. Um They did a great job of almost Reintroducing, I guess, Mexican American cuisine into the US with clean labels, modern branding, and we hope to do the same with Filipino food. And is is the focus your focus isn't just to go after Filipino American Filipinos or Filipino Americans, it's to go after Americans.

11:09 Oh correct, Tyrique. Yeah, you know, through our own research we found that actually um eighty percent of our customers are not Filipino. I think you're right, uh Jake, that there is we're we're at a moment now, and I I think we've been there for for a while where Filipino cuisine is really like just you know, sort of exploding. I think'cause you know, you think about like even Vietnamese and Thai cuisine, even ten years ago Fifteen, certainly twenty years ago. It wasn't what it is now. I mean T Thai food, Vietnamese food is as ubiquitous as Chinese takeout now, right? And Chinese takeout's been a thing in the United States for at least fifty years. Exactly. Yeah, we we usually s explain to potential investors and also category managers at the stores

11:52 Exactly what Guy mentioned. So where Filipino cuisine is today is exactly where Korean food and Vietnamese food was maybe five years ago. Uh so back then, like no one really knew what Goju Chang was or bubble tea, but now Yeah, bubble tea and bubble t this is interesting because bubble tea really started as a cultural kind of touchstone for type pr particularly Taiwanese and Chinese American kids. Now bubble tea is is totally universal ubiquitous everywhere, right? And I wonder whether

12:22 There's a parallel to be made with Filipino Americans as your ambassadors, right? How much are you tapping into? young s young sort of Filipino Americans. Yeah, for sure. You know, I I gave you that stat about eighty percent of our customers are non Filipino, but it's that twenty percent that tend to be our cheerleaders. You're exactly right, guy, who are Filipinos. So they may not buy our products. Uh, but they're so excited about this modern representation of what they grew up with. They tend to tell a lot of their social circles or friends.

12:51 co workers about our brand. And we see it on social media. We do a lot of social media with TikTok. on our accounts and we see a lot of people that share and commented uh happen to be Filipino Americans usually. So um look I I I think You know, one, you're doing your right. It all depends on you know, what's the mission? Is it is the mission to flip the brand? Is the mission to kind of get bought out, or you wanna scale it to be the Goya?

13:16 of the Filipino. Food. Uh the only thing I would be careful on, uh that I've seen other brands do is they'll spend a lot of money in the mar you know, in CPG the margins are really, really tough. Um especially if you're producing the product. That's the only thing I saw uh that was a bit of a concern right now that I you know, I think you should try to import if you can, just from a cost benefit point of view, unless you're making a a new product that is just not available.

13:44 And that's where a lot of people will sp you know, you're gonna spend a lot of energy introducing the product, but then you're not making the margins because of cost. So you've introduced the product and but then built it for someone else. So I I think you've got to keep an eye on both that not only do you wanna introduce the product, and your question had the answer in it, which is like hey, how do I educate? That's the thing. You gotta educate. You're gonna go out and sample and educate and teach people about it. Um but just make sure you own the source of it and everything and the brand. um that you what you don't want to do is that that somebody from gets a banana ketchup that tastes just as good, is branded well, and then just brings it to the US and you did the introduction They're the ones who took benefit.

14:27 So I I think, you know, just keep that connection and you know, catch up is a commodity, right? So people are gonna look at price. So you may be able to you may have a price advantage getting it out of Philippines that you may not have by producing it in the US. Yeah, I I agree. I mean, I think you have an opportunity. Uh you're right that you ha you are in a a great position to educate consumers. But you want at the same time you want consumers to Асоцій філа Міла ви

14:54 Filipino food, right? As the brand, the go to brand. Sort of like you know, you think of Sriracha, right? And there is that one brand that everyone thinks of with the Roosters, you know, there are other Sriracha brands, but they really kind of introduced the product it was around, had been around. They introduced it to American consumers, and now that's the one that kind of dominates. Um so you have this this interesting opportunity. The other thing I think Have you had any any contact or com communication with Trader Joe's about uh collaborating, maybe seeing if they you know, if there's a product that you're selling that they would be willing to try. Yeah, uh uh to answer the first point, Guy, I think you and Tariq had a really good point about focusing on single products. I think it was one of the big lessons we learned as a business.

15:38 Early on, believe it or not, we had up to eight skews, eight products. Oh wow. Uh but due to, you know, getting our butt kicked in the market, we're focusing it now to two skews, the Ube and the banana ketchup. And we're doing exactly what you're saying, trying to connect uh those wider commodities to the fill of manila brand. Uh for Trader Joe's no we have not reached out. I know I hear from uh my my other founder pr uh founder friends that it's uh one of the most difficult retailers to to get into just because they're very selective with their own brands as well. But If you know anyone at Trader Joseph, uh Well, I'm sure you can get I mean g given given your track record so far and where you are, I don't think it's gonna be too too much of a leap to try and get in front of them because something like banana ketchup is just so unusual. I and I think it's a product people would have to try.

16:22 Right, there's a reason why it's the number one condiment. In the Philippines. Probably'cause it's delicious, right? But it's like Even the concept of eating mayonnaise and french fries for many Americans is weird, even though that's how most Europeans eat French fries with mayonnaise. And it's delicious. Bana ketchup to me seems like actually

16:41 uh an easier sell'cause it's already a catch up. It's already has that sweet savory, tangy you know, element that uh that vinegary element that ketchup has, tomato ketchup has. And so Are you doing everything you can to get that on social media, to put videos out, to have people using it incentivize your

17:01 existing customer base to to to post about it? Uh great question, Guy, and good point. Uh actually in the last few months, as a business, we're actually skewing more towards our online sales, right? And we're doing a lot of that through the support of content marketing and affiliates. So now we're kind of engaging influencers, you know, affiliates, and also people who just love food just to try our banana ketchup. And just maybe make content about it. Another idea we've been exploring is partnering with food service. So perhaps food trucks, maybe fast casual restaurants.

17:33 that want to provide this condiment the same way that Chipotle has the uh Tabasco products, maybe they can have it The banana ketchup with their fries, their wings. Just to taste it. Just to see what it's like. And if they like it. That could be a great opportunity for a uh repeat.

17:47 buyer who can find the market. Yeah. Have you done any sampling at like Whole Foods or Costco or talk to them or even I know you're not Trader Joe's, but that's a like Costco is a great way to kind of go present, especially it's a new product. Oh yeah, we so when maybe we sell in Whole Foods, we did we do our demos and then we could do our sampling and when I sample it to people, their their minds are blown. Because it tastes like a ketchup, but it's delicious. But you usually serve it with nice freshly cooked French fries. And uh everyone seems to enjoy'cause everyone loves fries and ketchup. Uh Costco is definitely on our radar. We wanna work with Costco because a lot of Asian Americans shop at Costco and they're familiar with the concept of banana ketchup and Ube.

18:24 And so I think it's a great kind of condiment to reinvigorate. And add some uh energy back into the sleepy catch up category. Yeah. Uh look, I I think you've done great and uh You know, time is it's gonna take time, you know, especially when you're doing it. You gotta, you know, do one outlet at a time, one customer at a time, and Then it just clicks. Uh you know, so th why I I'd say, you know, look at the Costco part.

18:48 I can send some stuff, I can you know get you in contact with some people. just to at least get an introduction. And if your samples have gone great, I mean, you know, they they like supporting new brands and everything that you know, I've known a lot of brands that have, you know, launched from there. Absolutely. Um Jake

19:08 Tariq and I agree, banana ketchup, that's your that's the pride will really push out there, even though it's you've got the other one for sure. That's your hot sauce. Uh but hopefully you both of you get to try it. Maybe but I hey yeah, look, I I I'm gonna get you in contact with the roti people. I think if it's clean ingredients people will go for that. Uh, you got a story behind it? I I I'd say write a story behind this, man. Write a story behind the catch up, why the catch up, you know, what's unique about it. And if you can, I would take that one product. So Uh, it's probably easy to execute and everybody knows what catch up is. Yep.

19:46 It's just more of It just sounds cool. And I think you'll get a lot of trial out of it. Jake Tillion, the brand is called Fila Manila. Uh good luck, man. Thanks for calling in. No, thank you, Guy and Tariq, for inspiring the entrepreneurial community and you know, just bringing new people into the fold and just helping us grow and learn more.

20:05 Awesome, good luck. And we'll get you some context as well. So thank you so much. Good luck. Thank you. Good luck. That's a lot. Uh yeah, I mean I I have not I gotta admit, I have not tried banana catcher. I've seen it. I've seen it, but I haven't tried it. I've got to try it. You can have a lot of fun with that. If he gets with the right and exciting agency. So I I think just a few changes and I I I kind of see a fun looking bottle that may be unique that he can kind of pretty much own a trademark on.

20:35 Uh to launch this product and really stand out. For sure. And by the way, do you know apparently ketchup did not it's start like as a mushroom con it was made from mushrooms. It was not made from tomatoes. So like we We think of tomato ketchup as ketchup, but actually that came a lot later. So there you go. Excellent. Stay with us because after the break, we'll talk to another founder working to take their business to the next level. That's after the break. I'm Guy Roz and you're listening to the advice line right here on how I built this lab.

21:08 Welcome back to the device line on how I built this lab. I'm Guy Roz, and today I'm taking your calls with Tariq Farid, the founder of Edible Arrangements. Tariq, you ready for next caller? Let's do it. Sounds great. All right, let's bring in our next caller. Hello, welcome to the advice line. You're on with Sriek Fareed.

21:44 Tell us your name, uh where you're calling from and just a little bit about your business. Hi Guy, hi Tariq. It's such a pleasure to be speaking with you both today. My name is Heather Thorkelsen. I'm calling from Gothenburg, Sweden, and I am the founder of Minimal Impact Cruises. Minimal Impact Cruises is a polar voyage company that offers an entirely new style of polar travel on a sustainable 36 passenger. Expedition cruise vessel. Wow, well thanks in. Scottenburg, Sweden.

22:15 And your company is Uh you you you arrange trips, like tours of The Arctic? It's the Arctic, but it's specifically on a vessel that's currently being built that is the most sustainable luxury vessel that will be I got it.

22:32 Yeah. Okay, before we talk about that, so so you have a A business that is not yet has not yet started or you or you are working on a yeah, c help me understand what your what you do. Sure, absolutely. So I have a mother company, Polar Trax Expeditions, which is a um polar tour agency. Minimal Impact Cruises is a division of that, and it is the the whole reason that it exists is to represent uh to operate expeditions for the English market on this new vessel that's coming out. The vessel is about 60% built.

23:04 the trips are already for sale, so we are on the market. Um and I have uh you know ten years in the industry as a business owner for PolarTracks Expeditions, but this is sort of a new arm a new vertical in the company, uh, and we're Yeah, we're we're sort of pushing the envelope of what's possible for sustainable travel in in the Arctic. Got it. Okay, so just understand Polar Track Expeditions is a is a travel agency that is separate and then you've started this new kind of vertical called minimal

23:33 impact cruises and this is a boat that you're being that is being built It's a ship. Tell me about this ship. What makes it Unique. Yeah, this ship is so cool. It uh nothing exists like it. It's only thirty-six passengers, which is a real advantage when you're going out into nature and trying to minimize impact, of course. It's entirely fueled by wind and solar energy. So it has uh solar sails, 35 meter high solar sails that are covered in solar panels. Um it has clean electric propulsion, it has autonomous water production, it has an organic heating system, and it has um we we

24:12 Um, put it zero waste at sea. So it is 90% more carbon neutral than any other vessel out there, besides straight up sailboats, which are Obviously relatively small. And the boat is designed to do like to to go, you know, through like ice flows and Around the fjords and stuff like that.

24:32 Yeah, it's it's purpose built for the polar regions. And uh that's partially because the person who's building it, who's a friend and colleague of mine, she's an ice captain, and she's the one who came up with the idea because we had both been, you know, working in and um uh living on these ships, for lack of a better term, up in the Arctic and in the Antarctic for many years and seeing that ultimately, you know, like many forms of transport, cruise ships or or expedition ships, they they have a carbon footprint, right? We can't get away from that. And so her whole idea was what if we actually just built something from the ground up that was as carbon neutral as possible? And so there's lots of ways that this ship is

25:13 engineered for the polar regions to be safe, to be effective, and to just provide a completely different way of experiencing this region. And when are you planning on having the first uh Cruise. In fall of twenty twenty six, so just over a year from now. It's coming up quick. And you're selling you're selling packages for for the for that trip. Exactly. We also have

25:37 Uh private charters. I mean this is an ideal vessel for private charters because of its size. So yeah. Right. And how much does it cost to go? Depends on the location. Uh in Northern Norway it's about all of our pricing is in Euros, so it's around uh eighteen thousand euros per person. In Svalbard you're looking at forty or forty two thousand euros per person depending on uh the length of the departure. It's a luxury trip. It is. In Greenland we're around thirty five thousand. So you're going after a very n particular clientele. I mean this is a this is gonna this is a narrow clientele. Okay, before we d dive in more, what what is your question for us? Okay, so the question is really a gut check on the name of the company, actually. We haven't had any kind of negative reaction to it. It's just something we've been talking about internally. The minimal impact part we really like because it explains exactly what we're doing, but

26:26 The word cruise is kind of cringe in the expedition travel community because when people think of cruises, they think of large ships, they think of a more sedentary vibe, um, you know, entertainment. But we put cruise in the name for the sake of SEO and because it's easy to remember, minimal impact cruises kind of rolls off the tongue. So my question is From a gut check perspective, do you feel like that's a positive, negative, or neutral having Cruz in our name? Got it. All right. Lots to think about. Um th this is something that only, you know, uh relatively narrow slice of the of the of the world can do, but still Amazing um opportunity if you can do it. What do you think, Tariq? Yeah, and and you know, one question, Heather, is uh

27:08 Do you think that this will become mainstream? I think because the way you're asking the question is That is this where people are headed? Do you think even of the bigger cruise ships? Can do this minimum impact? Are you kind of the Mercedes bends on the BMW of it, or are we thinking there's some merging happening that everyone else will be moving this way as well?

27:30 I think that's an excellent question. And it's something that we're really kind of keeping our eye on and talking a lot about in the industry. It's a relatively small industry, as you can imagine. Um My firm belief is that and and hope. is that this is something that will become much more mainstream. I think with every new technology, with every more sustainable option that you bring into the market, it's always gonna start With something that's very exclusive and very high end, like electric cars. There was a time when only a few people had electric cars, and now everybody has them. Yeah so we are Pushing the envelope, we're introducing a different way of doing things. We're proving that it's possible.

28:07 And our hope is that more and more people who are building ships in the future will take on some of this technology when they see that it is That it it's something that's totally doable and and then change change things for the better. And would would you I mean would the cost come down? That would be the hope. Do you do it make sense to me that the word cruise is used because as you mentioned the SEO part, right? People are still gonna search For that word.

28:31 And I wonder whether you can split the difference, right? So First of all, have you tried any A B testing? Have you tried to to to advertised as a cruise versus Expedition. We have not.

28:46 We use The language. sort of together a lot, you know, minimal impact cruises, we take people on polar expeditions, so it's often within the same Language. Um, but we haven't A B tests like a name difference. Why don't you try that? Why don't you run small ad campaigns. One you call it minimal impact expeditions or voyages or adventures or something like that. And see what gets better click through. Yeah. That's a really good idea.

29:14 Yep. That that's a low stakes option that w w would definitely be worth testing. Hey, so look I I'm gonna share a little story with you. When we started, um We were putting fruit in baskets. And our cost was of course much higher than flowers. And so when we were originally looking at the name

29:31 We were going by the design, not necessarily as much the experience or what's going to happen. So the the original name was Delicious Designs. But we struggled with that because that could be anything. Right, okay. And and there were a lot of names out there that people were using that were s similar delicious to this delicious as if you're gonna try to get a trademark. So we started working on the tagline. They say, How do we describe it? And that's when the you know the one of one of the people in the room said, Oh, we could call it the edible arrangement. Then that our tagline became the name.

30:03 Because You know, so I think I think you have a name for your company from my point of view. I think this Name that you had of the New polar Expedition company?

30:14 Mm-hmm. And because you're such a niche market. I think there's a new way of exploring the polar. And then what I had come up with the same thing, like adventure travel, eco tourism, or expedition travel or experien because experience travel is really big, right? But what you're doing is you're giving an experience. So I I think the name wise Um

30:36 I I I think you're struggling with something because you're trying to deliver on a mission and you want your company to be named that mission. So I think you gotta go. You're already doing it. I don't think you need to wear that on your sleeve. I mean I know I was thinking blue pl planet voyages or you know, blue planet journey, but you already have it. It was in that brief Tell it, I think you need to write a story. And that story is what's going to get some of your customers to pay the the premium because the experience from the time you step on this boat is going to be very different than any other boat that you stepped on. Absolutely, absolutely. Not not the least of which as well, given how it's powered, it's silent and it's vibration free. So unlike being on a ship or even a twelve passenger boat,

31:19 You know, it's it's really like Very immersive. You know, it's a very, very special thing. And then there is another boat being built. So this is not the only one. This isn't a once and done. Like the the the shipbuilder is building a second one. Eventually we're hoping for a fleet. So Yeah, we're trying to really change the game. No, it looks it it it looks absolutely amazing. I mean in and I think look a couple things. I I definitely think that some people will be attracted to the low minimal impact. But I'm not convinced that most people will. I think most people are gonna be interested in the luxury and in the other people going on the boat and and the experience.

31:54 Um one of the things that I and and this you know Um I think that An expedition like this, I think, would do you would do

32:07 Um you'd benefit from having either a direct or even indirect connection to some kind of environmental group or a group that does uh conservation with polar bears. I don't know what I'm assuming maybe you'll have lecturers on the boat, you know, who will come and give talks at night. Uh or and if you're not, if you if you don't have that plan, it's something you might want to consider doing. Yes, we've thought of all of that actually. We will have affiliations, we will have special guests, and also expedition cruises, they always have a guide team. And these are people who are, you know, have science backgrounds, have spent years working in the polar regions. And so it's there there is a an educational element, there's

32:46 definitely gonna be some affiliations with some key conservation uh organizations and Yeah, so to answer your question or or or address that, it's absolutely on our mind and it's something that's gonna be a key feature of what we offer. Yeah. Um my take focus on the words expedition, voyage, adventure. I think you should try the A B thing and see if if

33:07 The cruise, the word cruise may ultimately have zero impact on how pe not have a huge impact on whether or not people are are interested. And especially with the type of customers that are gonna come to you, it doesn't matter if it's called cruise or not, they're going after a certain experience, right? And they know and they're paying for it. And and the other thing is like w I I think you're struggling a little bit with trying to be authentic. I think your actions make you a bet. You're trying to do this. So I I wouldn't struggle with that. I mean I think with all the things that you have, I don't think you're gonna have Any difficulty filled in that. Yeah.

33:43 Probably not. I I agree. Heather Thorkeleton minimal impact cruises Good luck. Thanks for calling in. Thank you so much. We have best of luck. Yep. I take that cruise. I go on that. Yeah, same here. You know, like a lot of times in the beginning, even when I started, I'm sure you were the same way. We got sometimes stuck on the little thing. Like you would spend hours on it. And then I always was lucky enough that I had mentors that were way ahead of me and they're like, you know, no one's gonna notice that.

34:09 I'm like, what do you mean? But I wanted it to be blue. He says, No one's gonna notice if it's light blue or this blue stop. Exactly. They're gonna taste the product. And if they go wow by tasting your product, you got a customer for life and focus on that. Stop worrying about the blue. And because you're surrounded by people that are constantly talking about that, right? Like, oh, is it cruise? You want to be associated with cruise. Uh, and then you kinda get stuck. Yeah. But great idea. Great idea. We're gonna take a quick break, but when we come back, another caller, another question, and another round of advice. I'm Guy Raw, stick around, you're listening to the advice line on how I built this lab.

35:00 Welcome back to the advice line on how I built this lab. I'm Guy Raz. Alright, let's bring in our final caller. Welcome to the advice line. You're on with Tariq Fareed, founder of Edible Arrangements. Tell us your name, where you're calling from, and just a little bit about your business. Hi Guy. Hi, Tariq. My name is Ryan Burkhardt. I'm calling from Austin, Texas. I'm the founder of Kong Screen Printing. Um and we're a customer service focused based business um that manufactures custom apparel and promotional items. Awesome. Okay, so tell tell me more. Tell me ha what uh apparel, t sh t shirts, uh sweatpants, everything. You name it. Um we do a lot of work for various types of businesses. Uh some are international brands like Coke or Sprite. Tobo Chico is one of our customers. Mm-hmm. But we also work with a lot regional clients.

35:47 А гір і Текс What we do for them is help create branding apparel that makes their business memorable to their customers, their audience. And so tell me a little bit about so T shirts, uh hats, those kinds of things basically, right? Yeah, if it's a textile that you can wear, we can print on it.

36:07 How long have you been in business? Uh Kong will turn fifteen years old in January. What makes you guys different from other T shirt brands or makers or yeah? Um basically we have really focused on customer service. So what we do is really work more like a a contierge or a shirk, I guess you could say. Um, trying to guide the customer through that experience without using jargon that is really in Very common in our industry.

36:36 Um, and without short circuiting them with too many choices. What are you guys doing in in revenue right now? Uh right now we're at three million annually. Okay. And tell us uh that's pretty awesome. Congrats. That's really great. It's a solid business. How many employees do you have? Uh we have thirteen employees right now. And and what's your question for us?

36:55 Well, we are after more than a decade, we're at a pivotal moment. Um, we've proven that our model works and that we're able to really give attention to customers. Um but our Growth has really been powered by just our great reputation. We've never done any marketing. We've never done any advertising. It's just been word of mouth and people who want to work with us because we treat them well.

37:18 Um, so we're really looking to scale from three to five million in revenue in the next eighteen to twenty four months. But we'd like to do that. And find new customers without losing our soul and our hands on approach. So

37:32 I mean h how long has it hovered around three? Oh, for about the past five years. So we've sort of plateaued. Um, it has been irregular with the pandemic. Were you ever higher? Were you ever higher than three? Not consistently, no.

37:47 No. Okay. All right. Yeah. So um What would the extra two million do for you? Well, it'll allow us to do a lot more for our employees. It would allow us to do a lot more in terms of acquiring equipment and helping our customers, as well as possibly to expand into other types of services.

38:05 Got it. Printing is a very fractured industry. You you you go to one person to print apparel, another person to print Pamphlets, so on and so forth. Um and we really want to be able to offer all of those kinds of things to our customers. So it allow us to grow and expand. Have you have you spent any money

38:25 So far on advertising? No, that's a new development this year. We uh we recently started working with uh A company here in Austin, Blackhawk Media. Um, and we're putting a significant amount of our resources towards uh branding the company and raising our profile online, uh SEO, S E M, as well as running uh advertisements, which is not something that we've done before.

38:51 And and you've tried going back to your customers For their needs of trying to see because you already have a reputation with your customers. Have you gone back to them and see if there's more sales or more products that You know, that you can get out of them. We do. We through direct newsletters will make them aware of new products that are on the market, new things that they can do, make suggestions, as well as showcasing Um, like we call it a customer profile, but basically we'll we'll showcase and highlight our customers who've used their merchandise.

39:22 In a way to create a secondary revenue stream. Um so Saint Elmo's is a brewery here in town. And I they don't sell as many T shirts as they do beers by any stretch, but Um They've really been able to build their reputation as a fine brewery.

39:39 And their merchandise has become a significant revenue stream for the business. So we'll highlight how we did that. What we did with um the brewery And how it makes the people who support that brewery feel when they buy that t shirt or they buy that hat. Um but we just haven't really seen a lot of response from it. I mean lots of pats on the back. But it hasn't really increased sales.

40:01 But from this brewery. Did you get more sales from this brewery from what you were doing previously? Was there an increase in sales? Absolutely. Okay. About about how much. Um there Um, on a any given month, they'll put in a between a twenty five hundred and a five thousand dollar order.

40:21 Got it. You know, since you've done this re engagement with them, are they Pricing twenty percent more orders or fifty percent more orders? Well they've they're probably about Ten percent more. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

40:34 This is why you've had this sustained business with for a small business to be at three million, that's phenomenal. I think the easiest way to go without diluting all of that is by kind of going back to your customers and maybe I I I think because I don't think you're a screen printing company. I I think you're kind of like a solution provider. You're going in and if anything, you're more of a promotion company. How do you re engage with your customer? How do you go and promote your product? Yeah, I agree with that. I think I so you you I m just read me through the lines, you've hired a PR firm here to help you out and you're tr trying to figure out how best should they help you, I guess, in a sense. And and in a sense, you are kind of a PR firm. I mean you're you do campaigns, right? I mean you mentioned how you work with brands and cut and you know, small retailers to help them

41:22 Tell their story. you know, as Tariq said, not not only going back to your existing customers, but doubling down on those industries where you're already doing that work, right? So these are I'm assuming CPG brands that uh wanna break into retail, small businesses, or maybe even big companies that are launching new products or or doing things at events, right? En so I I would think that you wanna build like

41:47 case studies on your even on your website for what we've done And then you target companies that do the same thing, that that are you know, look alike companies. So you You you sort of say here's what we did for Coca Cola, or here's what we did for, you know, uh so and so barbecue in in Austin and how we helped them Come up with this awesome shirt and design.

42:09 And Uh, and this is what we can do for you kind of thing. Do you guys have an outbound sort of biz dev like outbound salesperson. We have never done Outbound until about the last year and we have not had much success with it. It's a weird commodity though, because you kind of need

42:26 So you need something custom printed when you need it and you don't When you don't. And so that's really been the hard thing is to to figure out how to use outbound sales because it's very difficult to call uh or walk into a place and say, Hey, have you been thinking about printing five hundred shirts lately?

42:45 Yeah, look, I will tell you at the same time I've I've go to brands where they've given me the same shirt the third time. So they're not thinking of mixing it up. They're not looking at the seasonal change. So I think having this business development and these days you can build that with college students, incentivise them really well. And you know, like you almost have to show them a sample, like hey, we did this shirt for you, look at the new one. Look at this. And you know, that's when they were like, Oh, that looks really cool. And you don't want to say to them they're giving it to you free. You don't want to say, you know what, this is the same shirt you gave me three times. So uh but if they could just mix it up or every month you can because you could do small prints, right? Yeah.

43:24 Yeah, which is small runs, which you're not gonna get from others. So I I think Your easiest way to get to this five million are your same customers do what you've done so magically up to now, which is take care of the customer and really look out for them first. And this is why you are where you are. I and I just add a a few college students to the top of this, and there are so many of them looking for jobs right now, go pound on the pavement with a small kit. Uh and I I think you'll get there a lot faster than if you try to go introduce new customers. Okay. That's interesting. Yeah. And I think you you asked like how do we do this without losing our soul? And I I'm just kind of r again reading between the lines here. If you go online, you type in t shirt printing and there's a million companies that do this and you it sounds like you don't want to become like some of those brands. But you can protect your culture by

44:12 building systems, right? By by really the way you onboard new hires and you really help them understand w why you guys are different and why you aren't just a T shirt printing company, but you are about helping businesses express their ideas. Um you you really want to spend time and and effort and training and and even uh like a br a brand Bible for the company. You know, if you've got some kind of If you don't have it already, if you don't have even an employee handbook, turn that into a brand bible. What who are you? What what do you stand for?

44:45 Uh why do you do what you do? Make sure everybody who you hire reads that and understands that. And you haven't updated the brand for the last fifteen years, right? It's y you haven't really did you do rebranding? Yeah, yeah, you didn't need to. No. No, we really haven't. We've just been so focused on helping other people brand. Um

45:03 And work with them that we haven't really paid much attention to our own. So so look, I I'll tell you one thing. I'll share this with you. My my gr when we were young, my grandfather would always say, uh brawn to brain. And we never understood it. He was in his sixties at that time and and he's like you gotta you gotta take all that that you learn physically and it's gotta you gotta use your wisdom at one point because the body's not gonna keep up. You can't keep up with everything. So what guy's talking about is how do you bottle what has worked so well for you?

45:33 Yeah. And I think this whole part of very high touch type of uh um interaction, it's getting back to that. Back in the, you know, I remember the printing companies back in the 80 when I started my business. I was 17 years old. I didn't know anything, you would go to them and say, What do you think I need? And they would tell you everything that's needed. And they would create the logo for you. They will tell you to do it this way. And they would ask you what's your favorite color. And by the time you did it, they made you look really good. I I I look, I think you have a lot of experience. I think you can a lot have a lot of fun with the rebranding, but Like

46:07 I love the part you said that we don't want to go to five and lose our identity, which is what happens to big brands, small brands. Everybody starts to chase the dollar. And then after that point, you know, they they just can't keep up with it. So I I think You have a good business. And just simply going back to your customers, you may be pleasantly surprised how much more orders you get. For sure. That's Thank you for that advice. I really appreciate that.

46:31 Yeah. Ryan Burkhart, the the company's called Cong Screen Printing. Good luck. Thanks for calling in. All right, thanks so much for having me. And best of luck. So, Tariq, here we are, like right back where you started. In some ways, like At scale the pr the problems just kinda scale. The challenges scale. They still they're still there. Tariq, if you could go back it it it's a question I ask every founder comes on the show. If you go back to where you were when you were just coming up with this idea for, you know

46:59 carving cantaloupe and melon into flowers and selling them to people. And you could give yourself advice like hey At this is what I know now, you know. twenty five years later, thirty years later. What do you what would what would have been helpful for you to know? I've thought about that a lot because I have to give that advice to my kids. Yeah. Um, so I I don't think if I went back I could do anything different because I never really had any money and anybody I bought the idea to pretty much, you know, walked me out and said it's not gonna work.

47:28 Yeah. But the customers told a different story, guy. Every time a customer got a product, they wanted to order it, they would always use the word wow, that was great. It was so unique. I didn't realize twenty five years would go by so fast. Um so th that that I would say the respect of time, and that's what I'm trying to do with my daughter now. She's thirty three, she at thirty two, she just took over. Like, hey, it's a ten year journey, work hard, really, really ten years, and at that point advise someone else. Let the next leader come in and advise them. And um you know, which I didn't know because we went from kind of nothing to building a brand and you you just keep thinking you gotta keep working this hard when you actually don't need to.

48:09 Yeah. That's great advice. That's edible arrangements founder, Tariq Farid. Tariq, thanks so much for coming back on the show. Thank you, guy. Thank you very much. It was a pleasure. And by the way, if you haven't heard Tariq's original how I built this episode, please go back and check it out. Uh, you can find a link to it in the show notes, and here is one of my favorite moments from that interview. No, I didn't know what a focus grip was, but he asked me to do a focus grip and I kinda said something to him that I think he didn't like. I said, I did do a focus grip, I took it home and I put it on the dining room table, my mother looked at it and said, Oh my god, honey, this is gonna be big I said, Yeah, so if mom says it, I think it's gonna be cool. Hey, thanks so much for listening to the show this week. And by the way, please make sure to check out my newsletter. You can sign up for it for free at guy.com or on Substack. And of course, if you are working on a business and you'd like to be on this show, send us a one-minute message that tells us a little bit about your business and the questions or issues that you're currently facing, because we would love to try and help you solve them. You can send us a voice memo at hibt at id.wondery.com.

49:11 or call us at 1-800-433-1298. Leave a message there and make sure to tell us how to reach you and we'll put all of this information in the podcast description as well. This episode was produced by Ramel Wood with music composed by Ramteen Areblui It was edited by Andrea Bruce. Our audio engineer was Robert Rodriguez. Our production staff also includes Chris Massini, Alex Chung, JC Howard, Casey Herman, Sam Paulson, Carrie Thompson, Catherine Cypher, Niva Grant, and Elaine Coates. I'm Guy Raz, and you've been listening to The Advice Line. on how I built this lab.

49:50

What you see above is a preview of the first minutes. One unlock costs 10 credits and covers this episode forever: full segment and word-level timestamps on this page, plus .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like.