Ep. 88: How to Challenge the “Big Boys" of the Food Industry

Pivot! A Vegan Business Interview Series

Serial entrepreneur, Bobbi Giudicelli, founded Read The Ingredients with her eldest son with the mission to help people eat clean, find their energy and live their passion. Bobbi’s journey from severe eating disorders to Whole-Food Plant-Based (WFPB) food choices brought her to co-found this latest venture.

Read The ingredients offers the cleanest full-meal (breakfast/lunch), baked and packaged products on the market. Bobbi is also the author of "Freedom From A Toxic Relationship With Food" which shares her struggles with food issues and offers support to others who struggle with their relationship with food.

Get to know Bobbi Giudicelli and Read The Ingredients: www.rtifoods.com

“I can't stress that enough: if you're gonna go into different industries—it is all about the inner workings of the industry—It's all about who you know, it's all about aligning yourself with vendors and partners and employees. Who are the right people? Building relationships is the key to a successful business. I don't care what product you have, I don't care what you're doing. If you can't build successful relationships with vendors, with customers, with employees—don't even bother.”

—Bobbi Giudicelli

👩‍💼 [03:38] Boobi has been in service and product industries for the last 50 years: building multiple businesses driven by passion.

🍽️ [06:24] Fixing the relationship with food and eating disorders and creating a new business because there was no clean, gluten-free packaged on-the-go food!

🤝 [09:30] Going into a business in different industries: learn everything and build relationships with vendors, customers and employees.

🦄 [11:49] Having a unique product: How to get the attention of our target market?

🔑 [15:04] Why customer service is key: transparency and integrity in building relationships with clients.

🌸 [19:23] Relationships are at the foundation of everything in life: Freedom From a Toxic Relationship with Food is a book about our relationship with ourselves, food, events and others.

🤔 [21:55] Being more yourself in business and private life: questioning relationships and being conscious.

📈 [23:12] Conversion to subscription rate is high within the company: struggles to find the target market but highly attractive to the habitual eaters.

🛒 [25:53] Creating customers: as a tool to convert them into subscriptions.

😇 [27:04] Marketing agencies and learning curves: clean eating and clean products are adding health to your life.

⚡ [29:20 Kickstarter campaign: getting RIT foods into retail will mean a lot to the whole vegan community.

🤓 [31:14] Helping people address the health issues related to food: relationships with food sometimes aren't even our own choice.

💡 [32:57] Tips on how to build a business around a niche.

😎 [36:45] Marketing needs alternative solutions and needs to be very dynamic.
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Thanks for listening to Pivot, our vegan business interview podcast. This is recorded as a live streaming session, so I hope you’ll join us for future interviews as well! If you are feeling inspired but wondering how to take some actionable steps to improve your business, I invite you to explore our two premium paid podcasts, Going Solo and Fix It.