Maya J French

Hello, just started a new twitter account. For ranting and useful information

If you want a high valuation, say your industry is “food tech”. TECHnically, the scalable formula was made in a food LAB, #amiright ?

CPG founders: Dominating your local market first is critically important. You will always be strongest in your local market. You know all the best stores to approach first. When you are visualizing your plan, you can see it play out in the local market, you know it so well. You also know a lot of people who can have some influence and help you get your product in stores. Your friends and family will support you, buy your product, tell other people about it. You will receive promotional opportunities through contacts that others would never know about. And you are in the market. You naturally walk in and out of stores in everyday life. You have your finger on the pulse and can move quickly if anything changes. You can over-service your customers. Your friends, your mom, your friends' moms will do things like ask stores why they don't have your product or straighten up your product on shelf when they see it on the weekend. All these little 1% increments add up. So if you can't dominate your local market, you're not ready to go anywhere else. Shooting for national distribution too early is both a vanity achievement and a death sentence. Perhaps pushed by the need to tell investors a compelling story. But you will spread yourself too thin. You will under-service your product. You will not even know that despite being on the planogram and theoretically being ranged, the product hasn't made it out of the storeroom in that store in Minnesota, or the one in Iowa, or North Carolina. You will discover that the merchandizing field team that you rely on, isn't that reliable. What they tell you is happening in store isn't truly the case when you turn up unannounced. No shoppers will know what your product is in a new market because it might be in Target but they've never seen it anywhere else like the local mom and pop grocer or convenience store. Before you know it, your units per store per week sales numbers are not meeting benchmarks. And you are called in for a meeting with the buyer. Or worse, you just get the dreaded email. And you're out after six or twelve months. So stay focused and disciplined. Dominate your local market first. Then use what you have learned to start a new market. Then once you have succeeded in a new market, make that your new market playbook that you keep iterating. It will take longer than you think. But then you are ready to expand.

just keep showing up with good intentions & good things will happen

Know your worth and act accordingly 💁🏾‍♀️

Join me to tomorrow for our Juneteenth chat on LinkedIn Life linkedin.com/events/7072663…

Lol

Jordan year

Advice for emerging brands trying to break into retail What should you have on your mental checklist before considering retail distribution? @Road2Retail

Biggest pet peeve: Giving advice to someone, watch them ignore it then months later watching them follow the same advice just because it came from someone else

The goal is to set a good example for the generations after you

@ArlanWasHere Adonis 🙌🏾

Even I know this man is gorgeous.

Create products that make your sales team’s job a walk in the park. I feel bad for the teams that have to push hard to sell things people don’t want.

Ego-driven decisions often result in short-term satisfaction. It can also lead to stubbornness in sticking to poor choices (doubling down) that inevitably lead to long term dissatisfaction. I see it too often and sometimes you have to sit and watch it play out. #hardtruths

I have a love/hate relationship with co-working. I really hate being interrupted every 5 minutes.

What business would you start if you had absolutely NO morals?

Strive to be the healthiest or live long enough to turn into shelf stable.

ChatGPT makes Google feel archaic.

#truestory I ran into Kanye West today and we had a little exchange. He looked so stressed and in that moment, we locked eyes and gave each other the peace sign. Honestly, even if you’re the most hated, you still deserve love and appreciation. I hope I made his day. ❤️