00:00.00
vigorbranding
Everyone today I’m joined by my friend Karen Stutz she’s the president and Ceo of native foods and if you are not familiar with native foods yet you’re about to get very familiar. It’s an interesting concept and we’re going to dive into that and so much more on today’s episode before we do Karen say hello and give a little bit of backstory.

00:17.90
Carin Stutz
Hey Joseph it’s fun to spent a little time together and thanks for the opportunity to talk about native foods about the industry native foods. We always say we’re kind of the og of vegan restaurants right? We we started back in 9094 long before anybody was really thinking about plant-based food. So. The brand has really stood the test of time we have 12 locations. We’re in 3 states. We’re in California Colorado in Illinois and it’s just the boy what a time to be in plant based dining right now you know any kind of trend that you look you know at what’s going on in the industry top trends top ideas. Plant based this if it’s not number one. It’s usually number 2 so we’re having a lot of fun in this cute little innovative brand.

01:03.93
vigorbranding
I love it. So speaking about you first a little bit here. Um you this isn’t your first rodeo and I’m not very convinced that 1 rodeo would be enough to make you a pro anyway. Um, but you’ve held a number of leadership positions. You’ve been at the helm of red Robin Applebee’s wendy’s.

01:09.94
Carin Stutz
Um, true.

01:14.38
Carin Stutz
A.

01:21.70
vigorbranding
How how do you make the transition from brands of that size to a brand that is scrappy growing and the size I think you said 12 Um, and then how do you make the shift from brands that are selling an um, omnivorous offering.

01:23.94
Carin Stutz
No.

01:40.53
vigorbranding
Um, basically over to a plant-based only offering how’s that shift look.

01:43.67
Carin Stutz
Yeah, 2 I mean 2 great questions. There. So first of all, let’s just tackle tackle the size question look the the 1 big thing working for the big brands you have resources all right I mean I I have a lot of go to people and with Applebee’s I was ah, basically cheap operating officer for almost 2000 locations so tons of resources tons of ah of marketing and media muscle. So you really can get out there and tell your story I miss that I have to be honest with you and I think that’s one of the things I really enjoy about being on boards as well. Is with some of the bigger brands like that we are able to share a lot of information I’m very involved in the restaurant Illinois and the national restaurant association. So we find other ways to to do that. But leadership is leadership. So as far as that you know from a transition standpoint. Um. You know I think I’ve just I’ve I think what’s helped me is I’m an operator first I started out as an hourly team member you know working the the window we called it the lobby you know at Mcdonald’s before we even had dining room so I’m kind of dating myself there a little bit. But you know it was super fun I fell in love with the restaurant industry from day one and so I’ve always I’ve always stayed there. But if you look at my career I would say the easiest way to look at it is I followed the growth so start out in quick service right? Then all of a sudden.

03:09.89
Carin Stutz
The early two thousand s it was the proliferation of casual dining but Apple Beess we were opening a hundred restaurants a year and then this little thing called fast casual started to kind of work its way in where you know we’re looking at that What people are going to get out of their cars and go in and order I You think that.

03:26.73
vigorbranding
Um.

03:28.11
Carin Stutz
And you know the history of fast casual. Ah, you know we left that little sweet spot where we always kind of look at back then qsr was $5 an under casual dining was $10 and over and you had that little spot between five and nine dollars where fast casual worked its way in but that became the growth sector. And so when I took talk about plant based there’s 2 things I would simply say one is um I would talk about following the growth right? Where is the growth and innovation right now in the industry. There is so much going on with plant based it is so fun. To try all the new products and try a lot of the different things but otherwise I would say I’ve kind of come full circle my degree from Western Illinois University my undergraduate was in food and nutrition and my final food science project was back then there’s ah and off you’re familiar with Cincinnati but there’s a. Ah, a traditional dish back there called Gethea have you heard of that. It’s kind of like a meat extender an old german depression dish and instead of you normally make it with with like hot sausage and ground beef I made it with what back then we call tbp which is soy texture vegetable protein. So even back.

04:24.70
vigorbranding
A.

04:41.45
vigorbranding
Well.

04:41.62
Carin Stutz
40 some odd years ago I was already thinking about you know, plant based substitutions I’ve never really been that big of a meat eater I love sides. So super good.

04:50.89
vigorbranding
Yeah, the the plant-based stuff is really interesting. Obviously for every everything said I feel like every year. It’s a trend or um and I know that the plant-based industry as far as sourcing has has been troubled.

05:07.27
Carin Stutz
Okay.

05:08.44
vigorbranding
Little bit lately at least with some of the leaders. Um, what? what are your outlooks there. How do we overcome the issue where I believe it was but Beyond foods really wasn’t able to supply young brands with the orders that they needed and the quality that they were looking for especially with those chicken nuggets or they looks like erasers um look very Good. Um. You know, being in your position. How do you think we can influence better growth there and what do you think is contributing to those supply chain issues.

05:35.67
Carin Stutz
Well look I I think we’d be naive to think that it’s only happening in the plant-based sector every every organization out there whether it’s plant-based or meat based everybody’s struggling with supply chain right now and I think the you know their ah the distribution. Companies are struggling with some of the same staffing challenges as as many of us are so I don’t think that we are we are alone there. 1 of the advantages I will say is because we are plant based. We can make anything. It’s not like I have to have an animal right? Um, ah everything that we sell comes out of a garden. So I can make any of our products in-house and and and so that’s one way we do answer. We can’t answer that question. Our team members and in most of our restaurant again. We’ve been around a long time is scratch cooking so you know our burgers. You know a like set any of the products that we have. We’re certainly able to make so that does make a big difference.

06:36.91
vigorbranding
Yeah, so um, one of the things that I also have been thinking about too is when we talk about scratch made and we just talk about the very nature of creating these products at scale if we take a step back. Many people don’t quite realize this but going way back in time canning. And process foods and Tv dinners. These things were innovative at the time these things were answers to a call I believe at that time from traditionally women being overwhelmed in the kitchen and then having to juggle like entering into the workforce and things like that and so they were.

06:55.57
Carin Stutz
On that.

07:10.26
vigorbranding
Were Fantastic. We now know looking back that these things have created health issues with the overprocessed Nature. So One of the things that I’ve been concerned with personally is hey this sounds great but there seems to be a lot of processing happening here to make fake cheese to make faux turkey tofuki and things like that. Um. You being more ingrained. Can you shed some light as to am I correct in that apprehension or is it um, is it just a Mirage like is it actually very healthily made and things like that.

07:32.20
Carin Stutz
A.

07:40.64
Carin Stutz
Yeah, you know I think just like like any food that you’re going to buy anywhere. There’s certainly items that are over processcesed I think you have to draw a line in the sand of what you’re going to sell within your brand. Our chef is Chris burke he’s out with st louis he’s been ve young I want to say twenty eight years. And the man can make anything you say I want to substitute for a burger your favorite you know thanksgiving meal he can put it together and I swear you cannot tell the difference. He’s he’s absolutely amazing. But he is a traditionalist to say you know what? I don’t want to use more than 4 or 5 ingredients. Anything that you’ve heard of and I think because we do a lot of scratch cooking and a lot of our things in-house. We don’t need all of those different additives or things like that because all that ah really I think from ah from the industry perspective with what those do is just give us longer shelf life right.

08:35.61
vigorbranding
A.

08:38.50
Carin Stutz
Doesn’t really help with food quality. Ah typically it’s it’s really all about shelf life. So if you’re making your own ingredients. You’re making your own sauces and things like that. You really don’t need those but I think you’re absolutely right in a lot of ways Joseph the first thing that I looked at coming on board was just sodium levels.

08:52.64
vigorbranding
Oh.

08:54.57
Carin Stutz
And you know look I meant we’re still a little bit high. But I think you know most most companies and most you know food even that we eat at whole we have a tendency to to over salt. But the first thing I did was reduce sodium levels 25% in all of our in all of our products and honest.

09:08.59
vigorbranding
Um, well.

09:11.39
Carin Stutz
They taste better. So yeah, so sometimes I think you know that we we have to look at those and then we went through like all of the lists like I think you know the the Panera’s whole foods everybody although have their you know their do not use list or there no no list or whatever they title it. And we looked at all of our ingredients to make sure that we don’t have any of those either. So ah, Emily drain who runs our supply chain when she sources the first thing she has to look at are the ingredients to say are are these going to fit with what we’re willing to offer our guests because. We believe good wholesome ingredients have to come first.

09:46.74
vigorbranding
That’s great. Yeah, that’s fantastic to know I mean I always ah made fun some some ah so I’m not vegan but I had some friends who were and I would see the stuff they’re eating I’m like that is horrible for your body like there’s no way these words that you cannot pronounce are good.

09:55.91
Carin Stutz
Fifth fifth.

10:01.37
vigorbranding
So it’s good to hear that native foods approach is a little more purist and idealist and that you are cognizant of some of those issues and challenges and that you’re overcoming them one of the other issues and challenges that I see with a growing brand any brand for that matter is growth and what I what I ah warn some of our clients about here at vigor is. Yeah, you may be a Florida -based brand that has an opportunity to franchise in utah the question is is that the right choice so you guys are and I think you said 3 or 4 states three states. Um, what has led to selecting those locations and how has it been trying to.

10:30.32
Carin Stutz
3

10:40.22
vigorbranding
Manage Uniform operations and things like that across that footprint.

10:43.30
Carin Stutz
You know I first of all, if anybody ever gets up as a leader of an organization and doesn’t first give mad respect to their team members. They’re missing the point the our team members on the front line who believe in the brand and believe in the mission truly make it happen every day as far. Were located look a lot of trends typically start on the coast right? New York California kind of East Coast west coast things and ah you know that’s typically where you’re going to see you know, newer ingredients or trendier ingredients or like said plant based food and so. Naturally I think it was ah the perfect place for a brand like ours to start and then things start to move either towards major metropolitan areas and then ultimately out to the suburbs. So vegan ah by nature plant based by nature look everybody isn’t willinging to come out and try it. Oh they should. Um, ah I’ll try to convince you of that. But and and the way you look at it is you kind of have some ah a good amount of density too. So you have enough guests you know and the households that are willing to come in and try you to to be able to have a successful brand. 1 of the big learnings of the pandemic though and for a lot of us who are primarily urban brands you really wanted to have a more diverse portfolio right? So with this trend of you know, working from home right now. It’s been a little challenging for us because.

12:08.92
Carin Stutz
You know we? Yeah, we pay rent for a pretty big daytime population. That’s no longer in the cities. They’re coming back I think I live downtown Chicago. That’s where I’m talking to you from but we’re about they say on you know on the peak days which is primarily Wednesday. Ah. And you know Tuesday Wednesday Thursday are really our bigger days right now being in the industry ah and other than that people are typically working from home. But about 45% of the workforce is back.

12:36.50
vigorbranding
That’s great. That’s good to understand the growth trajectory I’ve seen a lot of brands fail out specifically in a franchise model where these just stretch themselves way too thin going after the dollar but the inner you know the urban areas do seem to be a strong driver. 1 thing that I think that I’ve been um.

12:54.63
vigorbranding
Notably ignorantly unexpected was that veganism is huge in the African American Community and I’m wondering. Are you seeing that at your locations as well that it’s a real good balance of demographic.

13:06.42
Carin Stutz
Yeah, absolutely yeah, absolutely and they’re they’re great guests. We have a lot of fun with them and I think what’s interesting. They’re just so willing to try new things when you mentioned a lot of the other brands I worked for whether it’s in Mcdonald’s or Wendy’s or or chili’s or Applebee’s and the guest that we can’t that would come in on a regular basis that we get to know they get the same thing every time I will tell you that vegans are more much more adventuresome and willingness to try anything new on your menu. So you know, typically if you did an lto and ah in a normal brand. You’d say oh wow we did 3 to 4% you know oh okay, great. Ah, you know we can do 10 to 15 right? People are willing to step up and try it and they give you feedback as well. You know all right? gotta leave that one on the menu.

13:46.99
vigorbranding
Oh well.

13:56.23
Carin Stutz
Is is what we typically hear just because it’s usually something new.

13:56.35
vigorbranding
Yeah, how do you fight the menu creep because that’s I think that’s one of the things that a lot of leaders have ah on a smaller scale have a tough time dealing with is when you launch an ltu and that’s wildly successful. How do you?? um. Keep it off the menu permanently.

14:13.40
Carin Stutz
Ah, well sometimes it does come on it does earn its way onto the menu. Sandra Tomb who’s our our director of marketing. She’s very disciplined so she has whenever we have our our meetings we we have a seasonal menu that we we shipped up about every quarter. And we usually put about 8 new things on but when 8 new things come on guess what 8 things come off and she is like she’s doing the math all the way through so not only we looking at ah you know the number of menu items. But we’re also looking at the number of skews right? that we’re bringing in as well. So we’re trying to be very disciplined about it.

14:41.36
vigorbranding
And.

14:47.89
Carin Stutz
But it’s it’s hard because you know in the different regions whether it’s California we would sell more tempe out there right? and Chicago typically people may not order or Tempe. Um, so sometimes you got that regional play where our gyms are saying yeah them I guess want this and.

14:53.59
vigorbranding
A.

15:04.41
Carin Stutz
You know if you sometimes you say okay well wait till it comes back next year so ah and be disciplined. Yes.

15:06.55
vigorbranding
I love it for the for those that are not familiar Tempe is not in Arizona I mean it is but in this case could you explain what Tempe is to the people who are listening.

15:18.40
Carin Stutz
Sure sure it’s it’s another way of soy. It’s a fermented soy so to speak and you know at first even when I started eating vegan food. It really wasn’t my favorite. You know, think about anything made with soy typically tofu probably be number one or Tempe would be. You know the second. Type of ah of a protein substitute that people would use. But yeah, it’s it’s it’s quite good but you know I typically don’t even always eat a lot of the the meat substitutes I really love more of the vegetables. So you know, ah a cauliflowerwarma or po po boy. Ah, would be perfect for me as well.

15:57.75
vigorbranding
And how how are you doing with um with sourcing across that footprint consistently. So I presume I mean since this is such a plant forward concept that the consistency of ingredients is is top priority. Um. And hate to throw shade at us foods or Cisco or 1 of other big carriers but a lot of times their their quality of product is at a I would say a high median but median nonetheless because it has to be sourced across the nation. How are you with that.

16:27.13
Carin Stutz
Great. Well again, we we make a lot of our our own items that are sauces we can bake sour cream we can make vegan butter right? We can make all of those type of things in-house. So but yeah, the quality of ingredients do matter up. I think that’s really the biggest challenge for our brand right now often is supply chain simply because we have ah 12 restaurants in Three States we’re pretty spread out. We really don’t sell enough to be a major player for one of these big distribution centers right. So we rely a lot on like dot foods and do we have a lot of specialty orders as well. So they’re terrific to work with but we’ve seen you know a lot of ah, a lot of mergers and acquisitions. You know one of the big players from vegan cheese. Follow your heart was just bought out and so all of a sudden you see a disruption in the supply chain there as well. So it. You know it continues to happen. We I will say we have more requests from companies today ah to bring product to us to take a look at to see if it’s something we’d put on our menu. So. Getting the product and seeing some great new ideas is never going to be our challenge There are more new items from you know, seafood and you know Pea Protein faba bean protein different types of things coming at us supply chain. How do we get them to the restaurant. So being as small as we are we have to rely on.

17:52.84
Carin Stutz
And the manufacturer to say is you need to tell us how you can get it to our restaurants. We just can’t take that on.

18:00.00
vigorbranding
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense That’s great. Um, the the proteins I think are always a fun went along with the alternative milks I think you know for the non-vegan folks out there. We’re all sort of looking like what does that even mean, but some of it has turned out really well so in in your opinion.

18:05.10
Carin Stutz
History.

18:15.79
vigorbranding
What has been some of the most surprising products meaning I did not expect that to taste so good.

18:23.40
Carin Stutz
I would say probably the new chicken products are coming out right? So we have a ah new chicken tender that we’ve been using for the last year and we had one that we would make we would like you know cut up almost in little sticks to to you know to be like a so. So. So-called chicken wing type of a substitute lot of work and we worked with another manufacturer that that was able to help us work together and come up with an item that that is absolutely delicious. I would say that. Innovation that we’ve seen in the chicken substitutes I literally had guests come across the counter and say this is supposed to be a vegan restaurant. You are serving me real chicken you know and I’m like oh my god that’s like the best compliment you could ever get me. Ah, but it it is honestly it’s so hard to tell.

19:11.65
vigorbranding
Um, yeah.

19:14.59
Carin Stutz
I just did ah ah with the Chicago public schools. They have a culinary program and so Emily and I went out and last week and we talked to a little bit of plant-based dining. You could see you know these inner city kids were like okay here they are you know going to tell us about plantbased dining and we talked about. Celebrities who are you know are vegan and and things like that whether it’s Billy Eilish or Lizzo or you know Beyonce and Jay-z well that started to get their attention. You know as far as that. But then we cooked the food together and they tried it and 1 one was like oh my god it’s a 10 out of 10 can I have another one you know and 1 guy goes I could go vegan I go well. Okay, that’s probably a stretch to get started. But I love the fact that they thought the food was fantastic and could absolutely not identify the fact that it wasn’t ah you know from an animal and that’s the goal.

20:09.16
vigorbranding
Yeah, it’s truly I can’t believe it’s not butter but like fully vegan. So um, the the vegetarian and vegan audience I think that’s another big one that is a lot of brands who are. At varying degrees of believability and all that adopting some vegan products onto their menu. The audience size is about 15% of the population. But Flexitarian is much larger. So How how is it marketing and or communicating. With Flexitarian different than purists in the Vegan Vegetarian world.

20:40.26
Carin Stutz
Yeah, you know and we we we’re having that conversation and we’re actually kind of doing a couple of side by side tests right now to say okay, let’s put this a out to vegans and let’s put this a out to flexitarians and see which one we’re gonna get the most returned. So. Ah, so far I will tell you the biggest return is still your vegan audience right? because you you already know that they’re going to support you so you put something out there. That’s new or an lto you know and and they they do come in so it’s much more challenging to find that flexitarian. Audience. Do we do we go from them more from ah I think from a lifestyle perspective is where we’re starting to see ah you know, ah better response. So you really can’t go at them from vegan. Ah, you have you know in in look there’s a big difference between. Think techomic had done a survey about three or four years ago and said how many of you would try vegan food I mean it was less than 10 percent. How many of you had tried plant based food. It was like 57% basically the same thing but it’s all marketing right? I kind of look at it this way vegan is such a lifestyle you have made a choice. In your entire you know your entire being that ah animal products you know I’m not going to ever wear leather right? I I am going to be 100 % ah responsible and compassionate around animals I have such mad respect for people who are vegan because it’s very very challenging.

22:11.48
Carin Stutz
Um, vegetarian I you know I still eat some dairy and cheese I shouldn’t say that but I do and I’m honest about it. But you know every day I can get a little bit closer. But yeah, that’s really that’s really it it’s it’s and to build a restaurant brand you have to be able to reach the flexxiarian we don’t look at ourselves as being judgmental right? and sometimes the the hardcore activist vegan can be very judgmental where we’re like okay if we can get you to try one meal and you love it. The chances are you’re going to come back for a second. So we’ll try to build you towards ah you know, but being what you but well I would say 3 reasons people typically come in number one catalyst is health. They just been to the doctor cardiologists right? The city you probably want to think about how you’re eating. Maybe yeah reduce that red meat a little bit. Well, a plant-based diet has no cholesterol right? So high in fiber nutrient dens um doesn’t mean it’s always healthy, but it has a lot of good attributes for someone looking for health. Secondly, it’s going to be around the planet and this is where we’re starting to track when you talk to flexxitarian. Audience right? The younger. The younger generation is much more conscious about being better stewards of the planet than people my age they talk about that at an early age and then obviously we just talked about compassion for animals. So ah, any of those 3 drivers can ultimately.

23:41.21
Carin Stutz
Reach the Flexxitarian audience to think about trying you know adding plant based okay maybe to Monday is steak night. Maybe you know Tuesday a spaghetti night. But maybe Wednesday now becomes plant based right? So we think about it as adding something cool and tasty to your diet not taking away.

23:51.50
vigorbranding
And he.

23:59.92
vigorbranding
I Love that you know and and when we start to talk about the the footprint on the Earth and the sustainability of how we eat specifically in westernized cultures. Um I am definitely more for vegan than the other one which is the bug people I every year.

24:10.36
Carin Stutz
Sure, um.

24:17.61
vigorbranding
Every year is the year of the bugs and I’m like I’m sorry man. Yeah I’m not gonna eat. Yeah, you know and then when I really start to rationalize it I’m like well you know, lobsters and crabs really are pretty much the cockroaches of the ocean. So what’s the real difference and I just can’t get to it yet.

24:18.64
Carin Stutz
No thank you hard pass. But.

24:32.92
Carin Stutz
But.

24:34.88
vigorbranding
And I don’t I don’t think a lot of us can but veganism and I think at least vegetarianism being maybe the first step I think is a lot easier to stomach even if it’s a visual issue that we have to overcome in your opinion. What is next for the plant.

24:49.00
Carin Stutz
Um.

24:51.31
vigorbranding
Based restaurant industry What Trends are you keeping your eye on um, you know and and are there special things that you’re allowed to talk about that. You may be testing on your menu.

25:00.20
Carin Stutz
Yeah, we can. We can certainly talk about it I mean right now we just introduced what we call it glazed and confused so it’s our it’s a chicken on ah on a donnut but it is just indulgent and we are an indulgent brand again when I first got to you know Native foods obviously looking at ingredients. And keep thinking oh gosh we should have more salads on our menu and my team kept saying you know careen we can put them on there but they won’t sell and our guests who come in and say you know when I go to the ah I’ll just use the word meat restaurants I have to get my salads when I come to your restaurant I’m gonna indulge restaurants sell what people buy right? That’s that’s really the way it works.

25:31.45
vigorbranding
M.

25:38.25
Carin Stutz
We have some very healthy ah menu items but we have some very indulgent menu items. So those are always kind of fun I think what we’re seeing now coming out. A lot is a lot of seafood. Um seafood breakfast are probably 2 big things that we get the most request for right now. Ah, in in the in the vegan space but our our next promotion and they’re doing the the photo shoot today is you know, kicking off the beginning. There’s just going to be local favorites people always looking to say is you know how do I get my hot dog or my italian bee for you know those type of items in a vegan version. And a plant based version and I will tell you if you look at chef Chriss Italian beef next to um, you know local Portillaos. You cannot tell the difference. The guy is amazing. So the challenge is is we got to replicate that in every one of our restaurants right? that consistency is super super important.

26:24.89
vigorbranding
I Love it.

26:34.43
Carin Stutz
Like that’s just the fun with the innovation and in plantt based right now.

26:36.97
vigorbranding
Yeah I love that I’m excited so any specific seafoods is it is it alternative Crab is it a alternative fish just in general.

26:43.93
Carin Stutz
Yeah, we did a we did a crab cake and but again we we ran into splight chain issues right? I mean that one was really a hard one to to keep in stock a lot of places are bringing us different types of shrimp that even visually, you cannot tell the difference. We’re definitely seeing that.

26:50.60
vigorbranding
Um, ah.

26:55.71
vigorbranding
And.

27:01.58
Carin Stutz
Ah, you know whether it’s some type of a sushi right? that that that looks attractive so that might be 1 of the things that you see show up on our menu in the near future. So just lots of fun and you know, really approachable things that you can find in an everyday restaurant. But now we’re gonna give you a great tasting. Plant based version. Sure.

27:23.10
vigorbranding
I Love it. So I Want to switch gears a little bit because I did want to make sure that we had an opportunity to talk about this before we wrap a bow on this interview. But um, you’re a founding member of the Gleamam Network and it’s something that struck me so that gleam stands for global leadership enhancement and mentorship. And I think there’s nothing more important in this industry. Especially right now than mentorship where people can see how long and lucrative of a career path exists in the restaurant World. So when I saw this it really like sparked my heart. Um, can you tell us more about gleam and its mission and maybe how people might want to get involved.

27:58.89
Carin Stutz
Yeah, thanks for asking and yes, ah, you can find us on right on the internet gleam networkwork dot net. So. It’s kind of easy to to remember that and and yes, it’s a little bit of a mouthful but I’ll tell you what I you know I often talk about my career and talking about following the growth. But. I heard Greg Flynn once say I hit my learning years and my earning years and I say I have my learning years my earning years and I’m in my get back years and I will say that you know blame I always want to feel like we want to lead this industry better than when we started the industries as we know there’s about. 500000 people that have not come back to work yet in our industry and we we’ve got to figure out how to make ourselves will go more attractive when the pandemic hit I was talking with Sanji Brasden and low middle bra and there’s a whole network of restaurant leaders that you know you’ve had a lot of them on your podcast. That when the pandemic hit everybody started working well together and I think we always did not from a competitive competitive standpoint but in a helpful nature. That’s that we are that we are in 1 of the most generous ah industries right? that that you could ever possibly imagine. But when when was we know at the beginning of the pandemic a lot of people got laid off and people were calling a lot of us saying I need help. You know what? what can I do you know everybody has kind of turned upside down and so we started talking about is how could we start pairing mentors and mentees.

29:30.87
Carin Stutz
And we came together with this idea of gleam and as we all thought about our own personal journeys it was like okay where did you have a mentor that impacted your life and your career trajectory What if it came sooner right? What if I had gotten that feedback sooner. So we put together with gleam is a simple pairing of a mentor with a mentee and that mentee is going to work on 1 big thing. 1 big thing. That’s maybe I want to learn financial skills my my delivery to my team. My communication is a little rough. It might be. Anything you know that they want to work on and we will pair them with a mentor who’s really good at that. We ask for a six month commitment from both with at least 1 call a 1 hour call once a month. It has been life changing I will tell you it is some of the best work that I’ve done. Since I’ve been in the industry and we had a call last night and you could just be in tears hearing some of the stories of of you know one that always sticks out to me as a woman came on to work when 1 big thing and she was sitting there talking to all of us kind of. Usually bring 2 or to 3 mentees on and kind of give an update how the process went and she said three months ago you could not have got me to even turn my camera on I know I came to work on my 1 big thing. But what I got was confidence you know and you just like oh my god you know if you make a difference for that one person it just chokes me up. You know.

30:50.22
vigorbranding
I Love that Wow. Um, yeah.

30:59.32
Carin Stutz
It feels great. So any of the listeners they want to get involved in Glean we were’re. Ah, we’re actually sourcing right now for our next cohort that’ll launch Mid-january So you can sign up to be a mentor or a mentee and it’s really easy to sign up just go to again. Glenetwork Dot net.

31:16.75
Carin Stutz
And and sign up and join us in January. Oh thank you.

31:17.99
vigorbranding
I love that we we’ll make sure the links are on there and we’ll make sure to add that a big part of this. It definitely struck me as well. I think we need more of that this industry you know you you graze the surface. It’s it is. If you want to come at it from a money standpoint. It is the absolute backbone of the entire nation’s economy period end a story. It is huge I defend this industry to to the like as much as I possibly can tooth and nail scratching fighting biting to make sure that. We have restaurants that not only can exist but can thrive and grow because in that there are so many ancillary companies including Vigor. You know that that thrive as a result and together we win. Um, so there’s a few more questions. 1 is usually the final question but I do have a final final question. So. The final question is if you had 1 final meal. What would you eat where and why.

32:08.91
Carin Stutz
Um, okay are okay.

32:20.32
Carin Stutz
Oh gosh gosh you know I just love food I think one of the most memormobiles I memormobiles that I had that I would go back for in that one little ah top part of italy you know, kind of at the at the where the boot to the cup of the budd is that chinquiterra area. You kind of get to go you hike the 5 cities and I know some people will take that hike and try and say okay how fast can I get through that big hike and do it an hour so I did it in 7 hours and ate and drank along the way along the way I found this pesto lasagna. Oh my god. It was so incredible I would eat that almost every day. So yes, if you get to chickarian and you get to italy they are so well known for pesto up in that area. It’s incredible. Joseph can I ask you the same question.

32:57.51
vigorbranding
It’s amazing.

33:08.49
vigorbranding
Gosh yeah, my mouth is watering thinking about it. My wife and I were going there. Yeah, absolutely so you know so for those who who haven’t heard it already. Mine is definitely a Thanksgiving dinner so not to go against the topic of this interview but it would be a turkey.

33:18.11
Carin Stutz
Are.

33:25.92
vigorbranding
With mashed potatoes and gravy and my mother makes and now I make a stuffing that is just it is next level nothing touches it and it it uses 4 different kinds of bread sour dough a white bread a wheat bread and a pumpernikel rye and.

33:37.13
Carin Stutz
Well I don’t know.

33:44.35
Carin Stutz
Um, ah.

33:44.98
vigorbranding
Just ah the it’s just a flavor experience I Love it so much. So yeah, all day long and and I would have it at the table with as much family and friends as I could possibly fit in that space. Um, so yeah I know that for a fact. Ah.

33:47.95
Carin Stutz
I Love hearing that. That’s great.

33:59.96
Carin Stutz
I Love it.

34:03.38
vigorbranding
The final final question this is this is your mic drop moment. So oh wow you looking for how this is this is I am setting you up for the slammest of slam dunks. Um.

34:06.74
Carin Stutz
Ah, okay I have no idea where this is going. Okay.

34:21.38
vigorbranding
What do you say to people who insist that a plant-based burger can never ever ever ever be as good as an animal base burger.

34:30.43
Carin Stutz
Ah, Wow Well I’d say you probably haven’t tried the right one. Ah you know and it so just real quick on burgers and I don’t believe that the best burger has been created yet from a plant-based Standpoint. Ours is kind of a mushroom by the weak gluten ah is is the basis of our ours and. I Think as I’m watching innovation someone’s going to make one better than we do I get that but a burger to me is not about the burger. It’s about a nice caramelized bun. Great condiments if the searing of that burger padty is really great. It’ll be to the point where people will not be able to tell the difference. So yeah, just. Get out there and try some and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised I Love that question that was fun.

35:09.80
vigorbranding
Um I love it. Wonderful well Karen thanks for taking the time out today I know your time is precious I love what you’re doing with gleam and I love what you’re do with native foods I can’t wait to see this growth continue on both partss. How can people connect with you.

35:25.32
Carin Stutz
Ah, you can reach me at you know, ah, any of the the social media platforms karen.stuts at Nativefoods.com or Karen Stuts on Twitter or Facebook or Linkedin pretty easy to find. I know it’s a weird spelling Karen with the cca I n but yeah happy to hear from anyone and Ken. Thank you for having me and this is a lot of fun and love what you’re doing for our industry Thanks Joseph. Okay.

35:51.90
vigorbranding
Awesome! Absolutely thanks Karen talk real soon.