- Speaker #0
Have you ever had a moment where you see a problem and then right after that you see an opportunity? I know I have, but I often haven't just seized the day and gone after it, but some people do. And so if you do see that problem, how do you approach solving it creatively? Well, today's guest is an incredible example of that. She identified an issue that impacts the whole world and with her passion and love for the environment and her desire to see true change. She now has created a thriving company that has led to groundbreaking solutions in the reduction of waste and bettering the environment. Welcome to Unleash Your Inner Creative with Lauren LaGrasso. I'm Lauren LaGrasso. I'm a Webby Award-winning podcast host and producer, singer-songwriter, public speaker, and multi-passionate creative. This show sits at the intersection of creativity, mental health, self-development, and spirituality, and it is meant to give you tools to love, trust, and know yourself enough to claim your right to creativity. and pursue whatever it is that's on your heart. Today's guest is Caitlin Magentel. She's a food waste warrior and the founder of Trashy. Trashy reduces food waste to fight climate change by transforming what others deemed waste, the pulp, stem, peels of veggies, and other rejected produce into craveable, accessible, and highly consumed snack food products. The company offers a line of real grain-free vegetable chips made with organic produce in crave. worthy flavors, including hot mess jalapeno lime, bangin'barbecue, spacey sea salt, and sassy salt and vinegar. Very creative names too, you must admit. Caitlin's product may just be one of the most creative things I've ever seen, with literally taking something that so many of us see as garbage, or dare I say trash, and repurposing it into something that focuses on sustainability and an unwavering commitment to making the world a better place. She also recently started a full company rebrand. The company's name was originally Pulp Pantry because they use the pulp that is discarded when people juice a vegetable and they made that into the chips. But she changed it from Pulp Pantry into Trashy, which I think was very brave this many years into her business. From today's chat, you'll learn the advantages of risk-taking, how to see the opportunity in the midst of a problem, how to restart or revamp your project when you're already years in, how to pitch effectively. gain confidence, and much more. Okay, now here she is, Caitlin Magentel. Caitlin, we've already been talking for a minute and I just adore you. We met years ago and are now reconvening and weirdly our life has been kind of intertwining in ways that we didn't even know since then. and I can't wait to get to that because it's kind of wild. Just first of all, welcome to Unleash Your Inner Creative, one of the most creative people ever who came up with such a good idea. I can't wait to talk about it.
- Speaker #1
Thank you so much for having me. I love that this all comes full circle many years later, so very exciting and very excited to be here.
- Speaker #0
Me too. So I really believe creativity is connected to the inner child, and so I'm always curious, what did you want to be growing up?
- Speaker #1
I always wanted to be, I mean, since at least I would say middle school, I knew I wanted to be a scientist. So I was really excited about climate science after seeing An Inconvenient Truth, which came out, you know, way back when. And that was kind of the thing that started the boulder rolling down the mountain, if you will. And it was kind of like ever since then, I've been obsessed with the climate space and it's felt like my true call to action. So I feel lucky that it hit me over the head so early on in life, too.
- Speaker #0
Yeah. And you were at USC and you were studying, was it environmental studies or environmental science? Yes. And at that point you thought you would get into like the nonprofit space or activism, right?
- Speaker #1
Yeah, I think up until my sophomore year I had been doing a lot of hard sciences, really focused on potentially going this track of getting a master's degree and moving into a hard sciences field. But. It was actually my sophomore year of college also that professor of mine kind of sat me down. He was like, you know, we had been touring around some of the grad students, seeing their work, learning about it. And he was like, you know, I really feel like you're a people person and you won't be very happy in a lab. Like you need to be doing things that are bridging science to public communication. And so I started going down more of the, I mean, I had always been involved in advocacy and activism on campus, like part of our. campus's divestment campaign, trying to get the president of our university to sign on to divest from fossil fuels in the university endowment. And so, which actually just passed like 10 years later after we started the campaign. So go USC for making that happen and good for the students who kind of saw it through to the finish. But yeah, you know, I had definitely been plugged into advocacy and activism and it was something that was definitely just ingrained in kind of that climate justice work again, but then it was really the social justice aspects that connected me into the food industry. I had been working in the nonprofit. space as part of one of my classes, which was a non-profits class, and really saw firsthand how, again, this concept of our soil health, the food we consume, our agriculture, and the way that we basically sustain ourselves as a humanity has so many implications for not only individual health, but community health outcomes as well. And so that was really what opened my eyes to how food was kind of that connective force. It was climate mixed with... people mixed with social justice, mixed with, of course, health and well-being and kind of this overarching people piece that I was missing in some of the more hard sciences. And so that truly was what got me so excited about, you know, building a career, not just in the food industry, but just in a space where we can connect people to, you know, these broader issues through something that is relatable that we all do, which is eat every single day.
- Speaker #0
We got to do it. yeah exactly we all gotta eat so this is something i want to circle back to because i've just like as you were talking i'm thinking about this like middle schooler watching Al Gore's movie and being like, oh my gosh, I know what I'm going to do with the rest of my life. Like, this is a fascinating thought to me because that's how I felt when I saw a musical. I was like, I have to perform. And you know, it's a little like, there's something very flashy about musical theater. There's something very emotional about it, whether or not you want to be a performer, like it can move people to tears. Al Gore's movie, while very evocative, I did not hear of many middle schoolers having an emotional experience to it. And I think that's such an interesting, beautiful piece of you. Do you remember like going back to that younger version of yourself? What was happening inside of you when you're watching that, that said, this is my light up moment where I'm going to do this for the rest of my life?
- Speaker #1
Oh, man. I mean, I'm such a sucker for like polar bears and the melting ice caps imagery. I think it was the basic like seeing that suffering firsthand. It's really interesting because I feel like we have this disaster porn that is very prevalent now. But I feel like in eighth grade or like maybe that time period, disaster porn and like the kind of news cycle, it wasn't as prevalent. So like seeing something that was so tragic and so emotional. I mean, maybe that's just because I was young. I wasn't consuming that much content, but why do I feel like that's such a part of our culture today? And it wasn't as much back then because whatever it was about seeing some polar bears on a melting ice cap really got me going. And I'm like, now today it's like, we see a million of those things every day through social media. And it makes it feel so much easier to not like have that aha moment of this is what I want to connect to because we're consuming so much more. Anyways, that's a tangent, but I would say it was the moment of just kind of... feeling this like emotional, empathetic response to the experience of like, humanity has created a lot of problems that now, you know, we're watching the environment change so rapidly, so drastically, whole species going extinct and struggling to survive. And it's a lot of that pain and hardship is like, obviously caused by the human race and our consumption. But that was, I think, the thing that like really hit home for me. And I just remember being in tears watching that. So.
- Speaker #0
And like, what did it feel like? Because I always try to give people tools because there are some people who are listening to this that don't have a purpose yet or like feel like they're still searching for that. What did it feel inside you when that passion and purpose ignited? What did it feel like?
- Speaker #1
it's the feeling of being connected to something so much bigger than you. Not that you know right away, how do I as one individual contribute to this? But like, I think that was probably one of the first times, you know, being so young and not being exposed to so much. I don't know. I mean, to me, it was like this connection of, oh my gosh, this is a problem that is so much bigger than me. It's so timely. Like, this is a now situation. Like, we got to do something now. I think it was the urgency mixed with... the broader call to action that like every single one of us as individuals actually does have to change our habits because like the call to action at the end of that film was truly not just to walk away and be like oh the climate like you know climate change is happening and it's tragic but it was actually what are some of the simple things that we can all do to be engaged in that problem and and so that was definitely for me this feeling of like okay I'm emotionally connected to the problem and the situation. It feels very urgent. And then it's also like, you know, feels like my individual actions and also maybe a career can kind of be a part of the solution.
- Speaker #0
Okay. So I love all of that. Those are great tips. So when you feel ignited and you feel like you can actually do something about it, that's a good way to know you might have stumbled onto something that could be a purpose for you. So then let's go to Carrot Pulp. Let's go to the moment. You're senior at USC. You're with your friend. and you see her juicing. And tell me what happens in this moment.
- Speaker #1
Well, I had been working in this urban elementary school garden attached to a Title I elementary school, which basically meant that kids were below the poverty line on the free breakfast, free lunch program with the LA Unified School District. And through that, I was seeing what our school food looked like. And it was pizza sauce and french fries counts as your daily vegetable every day. The free breakfast is essentially a muffin that's made with refined sugar, refined flour. no real nutrition value. And we would always talk about this as the garden educators, which a lot of them are very like, they were social justice activists as much as they were. They're getting into education into the nonprofit space. And it was really interesting because the conversation that we were having was, you know, the garden was providing really more so the education on like healthy eating and nutrition. And it was empowering students to learn to grow their own produce and their own vegetables. And then. Learn to cook with those produce items. And we were watching as the kids were then influencing the parents and their families. And they would do these like farmer's market days where, you know, the families could come and access fresh produce. So I was watching firsthand how we would always talk about it was in a food desert. So there was a lack of healthy, fresh food in that community in West Adams. and like two of the main grocery stores that had been in the community for the past couple decades had closed within the past, I think it was like the past 10 years. So there were no real major grocery stores servicing the community anymore. And so again, food desert, which means people are having to shop at corner markets and places where you just aren't going to find good quality fresh produce. So it was really interesting because then I'm at USC, which is such a juxtaposition. There's that whole saying of like University of Spoiled Children, which... I mean, granted, I like I have met so many amazing people at USC, so not going to indulge in that too much. But I would say like as students on campus, a lot of people had cars on campus. A lot of people had the ability to go drive to like a Whole Foods locally to go get their fresh produce. And that was exactly what happened. My friend, I was at my friend's house. She had bought a bunch of organic carrots and she was juicing them. And I was just shocked by the amount of waste produced. And that was really to me the light bulb moment that was like. You know, this is the disparity. Like right here in West Adams where I work at an elementary school garden where access to fresh food is so hard to come by. Kids are coming to the garden eating Twinkies and Cheetos and whatever and, you know, junk food basically. And then, you know, having a friend who was very into health and wellness. But yet there was all this waste that was happening of like the same exact produce and resources that was lacking in access in the same community. So. That was that light bulb moment to me like, oh my God, you know, this is wild to be both a food waste and like I was already very sustainability minded. So seeing the pulp going to waste and my friend admitted to me, I usually throw it away. But then at the same time, it was the connection to that social justice piece that was really what like glued this concept for me of, well, what if I could take things like these nutritious byproducts that are super fresh, super. super healthy. It's all the fiber from juicing. What if I could take that and turn it into actually school food, like work with school food service providers. And instead of a muffin made from just flour and sugar, what if we added carrots or we added beets or we added apples, or we, you know, we added something that kind of brought more of that nutritional value and also got kids more excited to eat their veggies. And so that was truly the start of the, honestly, tackling school food as a bigger, broader issue and doing that through nutritious. low-cost ingredients, like upcycled ingredients.
- Speaker #0
And I mean, it started with you took your friend's food pulp and went home, and I think you made carrot cookies. Is that true?
- Speaker #1
Yes.
- Speaker #0
So how did you go from carrot cookies to prototype to selling in farmer's markets to selling in stores?
- Speaker #1
Yeah, it definitely took about a year before I started selling anything in stores. I was still in school, so... And we had a final project and I just kind of shared with my team. I was like, hey, guys, what if we did this concept of turning upcycled ingredients into like school food? Found a way to monetize basically these upcycled ingredients for public benefit, like still focused again on these Title I elementary schools. And so that was the idea that we presented as a class. And one of my classmates came up with the name Pulp Pantry, the original brand name for the company. So literally in that moment and then presented it. And it was actually my professor who after class was like. good idea. Like this deserves to exist in the world. And I actually happen to know some people who I think could help to bring it to life. Can I introduce you? And so I met a couple people who are working in school, like school food nutrition and school food service management. Like, so I was having these meetings, but as I was going to these meetings, you know, just asking questions, just learning about the structure, what I learned was, okay, for breakfast for each kid, we have 80 cents to spend. and for lunch for each kid, we have $1.20 to spend. And that, to me, was like, that's nothing to work with, right? That's such a... I mean, they have to squeeze in like, I think for breakfast, it's like milk plus the muffin plus maybe like an apple. I'm not sure, like a banana or something. So imagine those three things have to squeeze into this 80 cent budget. It was just an interesting thing. That was the first conversations. And then I pushed it along further, got into the USC incubator. And that was where my professor gave me like a $7,000 grant just to. get my business licenses formed, which I did for free at the university, and then to get the equipment I needed and the permits I needed to sell in farmers markets. So I was doing everything in my home kitchen. After graduating, I did the John Muir Trail first and was kind of like, do I want to do this? Do I really want to start a business? I have no idea what I'm doing. And then, you know, six months after graduating, I started just on weekends working the farmers markets and working part-time also with a mentor who knew what I was working on and wanted to support. but gave me a job like three or four days a week to get to pay the bills, so to speak. So yeah, it was kind of a wild, just like, all right, let's go in. Let's, let's jump into it. Let's see what we can do. And with no idea what I was doing whatsoever.
- Speaker #0
So you were like 22 out here starting a company and just going for it.
- Speaker #1
Just going for it, just winging it. I mean, it definitely took me a while, I would say, to jump in full-time because farmers markets were really tough. It was not easy to make money. I was totally winging it with the product lines. I went through five different product lines before in 2019, actually going through the Target, getting accepted into the Target incubator, which was for me, the goal of that program was I want to come out of this program with a commercialized product line that I can launch in retail. And so it was really like three or four years before I actually jumped in full time. And up until that point, I had just been working farmer's markets, working insane hours. I think my whole 20s, I didn't go out on Friday, Saturday, because I had my kitchen mornings. I would literally get home from the kitchen at like 3 a.m. and then be back at like 7 or, you know, just like, I mean, just to manage it all. So it was really wild. I don't know what I was thinking. But the Target incubator was the game changing moment for me of like. Learning how to work with a co-packer, a co-manufacturer, somebody who could make the product for me so I could get myself out of that, like going to be producing in a small kitchen, and then also navigating what does it actually mean to launch in retail with a product line. And ever since 2019, truly, it's been just a lot of really trying to get more focused on what is going to make this a national brand, right? Something that can sell nationally in grocery stores, everything from mass, conventional. you know, of course the natural channel and retailers like Whole Foods, but really with a broader goal of like, we want this to be a product that is accessible in convenience in, in kind of these channels where there aren't a lot of nutritious options and going back to the roots of what really was my motivation for starting the company in the first place too.
- Speaker #0
Right. I look back on my early twenties and I think, wow, like some part of me wishes I could be that young and. naive again because it did serve me in a lot of ways because I didn't know what I didn't know. And I was like, it can't be that hard, right? I'll just like call the house of blues and ask them if I can come play a show. And so like sometimes I think being naive in that way actually afforded me more opportunities because like I just didn't know how hard things were. Do you ever look back on that time and think something similar? And if so, what do you wish you could borrow? What quality do you wish you could borrow from your younger self to now?
- Speaker #1
You're so right that naivete is just such a like crazy strength in the end because I mean, and I think that I've, it is interesting because, you know, going through this whole rebrand, I've had to tap back into that of not being afraid to go back to kind of, I mean, it's not zero, but because you take all the learnings, of course, through every chapter of your life, but it's going back to zero in some ways and just not being afraid to like start fresh and bring in new ideas and new inspiration and allow yourself to just kind of think bigger. I would say that probably the biggest thing I wish I could take from that part of the journey was just the willingness to just explore. I feel like now it's so much easier as you get older to just put guardrails on everything and put kind of a cap on your potential because you think you've already tried this or you've heard of some person that tried it and didn't work. And so you put a limit on some of the the creative output truly, right? Because I think there's a lot of the reinvention of bringing innovation into the market. Of course, we're all beg, borrowing and stealing from other artists, so to speak. And, you know, it's the same thing that happens in art truly. Like no, people always say no art is original, almost like we're always taking inspiration from around us and from other artists and other creators. And I think so much of the same is true in entrepreneurship. And I think what I've learned in the past decade, of course, Everything kind of shapes into where I am today, but the downsides of that is, as I've learned the ins and outs of the industry, It's definitely made me feel more of the constraints that maybe are actually just they're constraints I put up in front of myself because of thinking that I this is the conventional wisdom. This is how it's always done. Whereas before when I had started in my 20s, you don't know what conventional wisdom is. You don't even know what the rulebook is. So you're just kind of like you're winging it and you're asking stupid questions of people and you're not embarrassed. And and so I feel like grabbing more of that and not being afraid to reinvent the rulebook a little bit, like, of course. there's benefits to knowing the rules, but there's also just so much more, I think, creative potential that we can unlock when you just kind of, you kind of are willing to like rewrite a little bit of the playbook too.
- Speaker #0
That's such a good answer. And I would say you're doing that, you know, like just the fact that you're doing this rebrand, which we're going to get into, but looking back on your younger self, you said just when you were in the farmer's market, you had five different types of chips. I mean, like, I like to look at the connections through someone's story and see how they always were who they are. and I really see that as a through line in your story. You were always willing to try and to ask questions and say, could this be better? Could this be different? From the very first idea, you were innovating. The other thing I see is a through line in your story, because this is just my definition of creativity is creating something from nothing. So like seeing something and then making it happen, which is obviously a gift of yours. But one other thing I noticed is you really can connect things together. So you saw... the problem, and then you saw an opportunity and then you brought them together. And that's something it seems like you continually do. And you also seem to have an ability to kind of like see from above and see from the future.
- Speaker #1
I wish. Girl, I'm looking at my crystal ball just kind of, you know, just witchy things happening over here. I appreciate that. I definitely think I'm more of a generalist. You know, you always think about like, what are the specific strengths that I bring? And I definitely feel like I've learned. I love the supply chain piece. Like you said, problem solving is such a part of operations in any company. I love the problem solving. I love when shit hits the fan and you're like. you know, burn it all down. We got to, you know, we got to find a new avenue. And I mean, I've had to do that so many times over, whether it's finding a new manufacturing partner or new supplier or building our supply chain from scratch. Like it's been a lot of problem solving and a lot of connecting the dots or remembering resources or people that maybe it wasn't a fit then, but it could be a fit now. So there's definitely a lot of that that happens. I think that for me, the upcycled space is so rooted in a massive problem. and so many disjointed players. It is really a complex challenge that is so interesting to think about because there are so many different parts of the food supply chain where food is going to waste. And from a call to action as a person who came into the space really passionate about food waste and its impact on climate, but also passionate about the people portion and the nutrition and access to healthy food in communities or spaces where maybe fresh food isn't available or accessible. I think for me, those, of course, those two concepts have always been rooted together where it's like, how do we make the nutritious option, the sustainable one? And now with this rebrand, it's also, wait, we were going the whole route of like healthy, natural, organic, but actually we need to also make the nutritious, sustainable option, the fun one and kind of mirroring what junk food behemoths have done, right? Where they like make junk food so addictive and so exciting to eat that you just like, it's a part of culture. That's really where the trashy rebrand came into. It was like, we want to root this in culture. We want to root this in fun. We want it to be lighthearted. But for me, I'm definitely more of the nerd on the side, like, oh, God, you know, just loving the supply chain pieces, the challenges, like fixing the partnerships with the suppliers into the partnerships with our manufacturers and kind of relying on all these partners to make this product happen and bring it to life. But food waste is such a global issue and it happens. food waste happens most in our consumer homes. And I think the other thing that was so exciting for me about building a consumer brand was if we can make a brand that actually has a voice and that has a platform and that people are engaged with, there's actually a lot of education we can do too around. We can't collect food waste from consumer homes and do something valuable with it. It's too disjointed, but what we can do is hopefully influence behavior and culture around you know, our own consumer interests as individuals and hopefully shape that to be something that is people are more mindful and have more tools to tackle food waste at home.
- Speaker #0
And you're doing that. You do teach people like how you can take your food waste and make things out of them. And I love that. Hi, creative. Are you yearning to share your story, expertise and heart with the world? Well, I have some exciting news for you. I am launching a podcasting course. It's called Podcasting for Self-Expression. It is a course and mastermind with live coaching to help you find your authentic voice and launch your dream podcast. During the course, I'll take you through everything you need to know to create a compelling show, from how to use your life story to find the topic you're meant to speak on, to how to find your podcast thesis statement, to the important technical aspects, to innovative ways to market your show, and more. I'm so excited to offer this because it really is different than anything else that's available on the market because it looks at podcasting not only from a tactical standpoint, but also through the lens of self-development because that's what makes a compelling show. Somebody who really knows who they are, who they want to connect with, and what their authentic voice sounds like. And in the course, I'm going to be using the same techniques I've employed to coach and produce dozens of hit podcasts like We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle, Unlocking Us with Brene Brown. Lauren Conrad asking for a friend and this sweet show you're listening to right now, Unleash Your Inner Creative. The course starts on Saturday, June 22nd. I would be honored to have you in it. And great news, for being a loyal Unleash listener, I am offering you a 15% off discount with the code UNLEASH15. That's UNLEASH and the number 15. So head over to laurenlagrasso.com, click on course and type in code UNLEASH15 at checkout for 15% off. I also have a link to the course in the show notes so you can also access it there. I can't wait to be in community with you even more and help you bring your authentic voice into the world. Before we go any further, can you just say how Trashy Chips come to life? Because I think that's such an important piece. And then I want to go into the rebrand. Yeah. I mean, I started with partnering with some small juice brands in Los Angeles County. I was just calling up a bunch and I was like, hey, can I come pick up your pulp? And they were like, what the heck? But yeah, sure. You can come pick up the pulp. So I started with a couple of juice brands who had like mixed pulp. It was pretty gnarly because you're having to hand sort through stuff to like get the usable bits. I'm like, oh my God, I can't believe that was the farmer's market days. Don't worry. We graduated from that pretty quickly. But then it was meeting these larger suppliers like. You have 80,000 pounds of pulp a day? Oh my god. Finding someone who was an entrepreneur within those organizations, we started working with Suja and we loved working with their team.
- Speaker #1
And Suja Juice, right?
- Speaker #0
Yes, Suja Juice. And then we had someone reach out from Evolution Fresh and it was really interesting because the person who reached out was an engineer, like a product engineer on the line. who was making sure their lines ran smoothly. So she was really integrated into the operations and was really passionate personally about fighting food waste. And we have this nutritious byproduct that we're doing nothing with right now. Can we partner together to find something to do? And for me, like finding those entrepreneurs is always, it's so worth it to work with companies where you have that liaison or that point person internal in the organization who's like, I'm going to make this my personal mission too, because... They're also zero waste certified. So they this is really a core value for them. And they see, you know, the work we're doing as kind of the best and highest use for the byproducts that they produce in-house. So Trashy Chips came to life. I mean, it was actually really backwards because we started with a kid's cereal. Like, again, I was in the you know, I was really interested in kids nutrition. We started with a kid's cereal that was made from carrots. and it was like a cinnamon toast crunch knockoff. We're going to produce this product again in the future. But it was something I couldn't find a manufacturer. I called like 50 manufacturers, and no cereal manufacturer would work with fresh ingredients. So then I was going back to the drawing board. Like, I need to find a manufacturing partner. I can't keep doing the manufacturing myself. and so went back to the drawing board before the Target incubator. Like, I think I entered the Target incubator with the cereal product and then came out of it with the chips. So it was kind of through that process that I was like, what are some other product categories that are, you know, highly consumed by kids especially, and that are, have room for this innovation based in fresh produce and upcycled ingredients? And I felt like veggie chips kind of, we had already produced chips in the farmer's markets. And people always loved the chips because there was no sugar added and that was a big trend. But I didn't even think about mass producing the chips. But then when I really was like, what's in the category right now, I realized there's a lot of disingenuine potato starch based chips with a sprinkle of vegetable powder for color. This is actually a great white space for us to bring real vegetable based innovation into the category and actually give consumers what they're expecting when they're buying a veggie chip, which is a chip made from vegetables. with actual nutrition and everything. So that's why we landed on the trashy chips concept or just like the concept of bringing, there's so many products we could create from these upcycled feedstocks. But I think the chip category was really interesting because everyone's always willing to try new snacks and they're a highly consumed category that is really ripe for, I mean, consumers are still wishing there were more better for you options. So it felt like a really good place to start with our telling our story. And of course is. hopefully not the only category we ever launch into.
- Speaker #1
No, I don't think it will be, but they're delicious. So originally, as you mentioned earlier, they were called Pulp Pantry. And I have bought a few bags in Whole Foods myself. I love the sea salt and vinegar ones. And I really want to try jalapeno and barbecue too. But you had this realization. This is where our stories intersect. You had this realization that started after listening to an episode of Emma Chamberlain's podcast that I actually produced.
- Speaker #0
I literally cannot believe that. I was like, what the heck?
- Speaker #1
We just figured this out way after you had this realization. I was so excited when she mentioned it though, because I'm like, oh, I like those. And I know the girl who runs them. Like, this is amazing. And I know that her podcast is so big. I'm like, I'm sure you saw like a nice little boost after that. But tell me about that moment and like how it kind of set a light bulb off and started you on this track.
- Speaker #0
It was really interesting. I had started just, I mean, because how often do you get, essentially what Emma did on her podcast was she talked about finding, discovering this product that was so disgusting and so off-putting called pulp chips. And this experience of like, gross, that sounds disturbing, right? But then she like read the back of the bag. She read the story. She saw the ingredients. and she ended up buying all the flavors and ended up falling in love with the product and then was like on her podcast being like they take the pulp from juicing and they you know she's like telling the story and i thought that was so interesting because it's like on one hand i mean we had done a study when before we launched and we had hired an agency right i had got like a ten thousand dollar grant from the target incubator and was like i'm putting all that ten thousand dollars into doing the branding and product design for this company and what was wild was the number one we did a survey with 1,500 target consumers who are already like skewed towards healthy eating and skewed towards natural products and were already self-selected that like they would be interested in trying this product. And from the comments, the number one comment we got, the open like comments section, was how disgusting the word pulp was, how disgusting the word upcycled was.
- Speaker #1
That's so funny. I thought it was cute. I was like, oh, pulp.
- Speaker #0
Oh,
- Speaker #1
Pulp. I don't know. Even when I was editing that, I'm like, I totally hard disagree. Like, I think it's fine. But I'm happy with what you landed on. What you landed on is cool, which is very different.
- Speaker #0
Yeah.
- Speaker #1
So anyway, sorry, keep telling the story. But I just wanted to give a little like shout out to Pulp.
- Speaker #0
And I truly like me too. I'm obsessed. Like I love the word pulp. I think it's so fun, but I do think it's really interesting. Like we went completely against what the data was showing us and we just decided to launch with pulp chips anyways. And part of that was the agency I worked with was like really bullish on the veggie chip category is so highly saturated and it's not really like the brands are disingenuous. Like you said, you can't just launch another veggie chip and name it a veggie chip. And so there was no other really, we were kind of struggling with like, what's the other route that we go. So we ended up doing it and it was last year I did also 400 demos where people like automatically too it was like, hey, you want to try a new veggie chip that just launched in store? And people would be like, yeah. And then they would look at the bag and they'd be like, pulp? It was just such a constant story over and over and like seeing the demo staff, you know, their reports after the demos and they were like, yeah, another person was really not excited about the word pulp. It was just like, oh my God, what have we done? So those were the two kind of shopper focused insights, I would say. And then It was also like we had started presenting to national placement in Albertsons and Sprouts. And my buyers were just not enthusiastic about bringing us into national because to them, they were like upcycled. And your very focused positioning doesn't resonate with mainstream consumers yet. Like they don't know what upcycling is. They don't know why they should care about it, which I thought was so interesting, too, because obviously the brand like for me, I was like, I want to launch in conventional retail. I want to be able to launch in these channels. and the way that the brand is positioned right now is so natural, organic-leaning, and so heavily on the upcycled side that we're not able to reach those consumers. And it's funny because people are like, well, you went from pulp to trashy. Like, that's disgusting too. But, I mean, hopefully what people will start to see as the brand comes to life more is that the way that we're of course, like, there is that connection of trashy and this idea that, like, we're taking what was discarded by other not, and it's not stuff that was rightfully discarded, right? This is like high quality nutrition, super clean ingredients. Like if you watch the, if you come to our manufacturing facility or watch our behind the scenes videos, like this stuff is handled in a way that's like extremely food safe and extremely, and handled with a ton of care.
- Speaker #1
Anyone who's ever juiced something knows how much crap you're left over with at the end. And I always did think like, God, I wish there was something I can do with this. Like, It feels like I didn't get my money's worth out of that carrot or that beet. It's honestly beautiful what you're doing. Like it could bring a tear to my eye thinking about the fact that all of that stuff that was just getting thrown away is now getting thrown away into my mouth.
- Speaker #0
See, love the way that you're phrasing it. And that's the thing. I think it's like, it's so funny just to be a little more tongue in cheek about things. But at the end of the day, we're tying it. We want to tie it into just like relatable things that like as humans, we're all imperfectly kind of fumbling through the darkness, trying to be better humans, trying to live more sustainably. And we still miss the mark all the time. And we all have these relatable experiences like juicing and being like, oh my God, there's so much waste. I feel bad about the waste. What do I do? And we all have these relatable experiences where it's like, we just. I mean, we have our trashy behaviors. Humans are trashy. So we're trying to find these ways to connect what we're doing to this broader ethos and just broader cultural moments, too. When you eat salty snacks and junk food, quote unquote, categories, of course, we know they're not the healthiest. But these are like fun moments that we're tapping into where you're being a trash human, like you're permissible indulgence. You're enjoying life. You're just you're letting you're not following the rules so strictly. And I think there's so many connective factors from culture and what's happening in culture and us, you know, and then this idea that, like, we need to rewrite the script on what. what is trash and waste? Because right now we live in a society where waste is so rampant. 40% of food goes to waste in the United States.
- Speaker #1
Which is a sin with knowing that there are literally so many people starving on our planet right now.
- Speaker #0
Exactly.
- Speaker #1
It's a true sin. And I love that you're doing something about this food and not letting it go to waste so that there's a lot less. Okay. Also talk about the bags. How did you think of the bags? Because the bags are what really sells it for me. the packaging is so brilliant. It makes me feel like this is the chip that a Barbie would eat. I love that.
- Speaker #0
In the Barbie movie. Oh my gosh, that makes me so happy. The designer I work with has been so much fun to riff on stuff and she's not a graphic design, like packaging design background, which I think has been really fun. Again, getting creative outside of the box, but really like the concept for the rebrand wasn't just... we're going to rename. I mean, we of course knew we wanted to rename away from pulp chips and really focus on what are people buying in the category, which is flavor, but also what are people buying in the category novelty, like nostalgia. And so we were like, well, how do we tie in really compelling flavors that are like bestselling flavors, but everyone can do a jalapeno lime chip. So how do we do something that's like giving people that experience of something unique, something that's a talking point, something that is more of that entertainment value that I think. junk food categories historically like do represent. And so that's where we were like, hot mess, jalapeno, lime, duh, you know, let's, let's find ways to tie it into pop culture. When you look at this bag, it's not just a jalapeno lime chip, but it's like, wait, hopefully someone doing a double take like hot mess. Okay. I feel like we've had a lot of fun just brainstorming. This could be amazing if we want to do collaborations, like one of my dream collaborations that I'm putting out into the universe. I'm like, we want to work. I'll say we want to work with Jane Fonda and her fire drill Fridays, like making the bag really modular so that like if we want to do collaborations and we want to do these really cool things, like let's give a percent of proceeds to fire drill Fridays and Jane Fonda's climate change, you know, advocacy organization. Like there are ways that hopefully we can bring in different logos or, you know, different names like, OK, we're doing a fiery hot fire drill, you know, Friday flavor.
- Speaker #1
Fonda. fiery hot Fridays.
- Speaker #0
Love that. So Jane Fonda, come on, let's go.
- Speaker #1
I actually think she'd be on board.
- Speaker #0
I think so, too. I mean, I've DM'd, I've, you know, whatever. You do all the things and you're like, these celebrities are very hard to reach, but which I'm sure you know more than I than I do. But I would say, like, it is it's been really fun to just think about having these different aspects that are really changeable and movable gives us a lot of flexibility to think up really creative collaborations and think of ways to, again, as collaborating across the aisle to take synergies from. outside of the food industry and take those synergies and build towards mutual goals. Like, again, climate advocacy in a lot of these organizations where it's like, it's a new way to fundraise for them. Hopefully we can do something really cool to help them drive more benefit for their organizations by selling a product and like a snack and something that people might be curious about. Right. So I think there's a lot of room for creativity there too.
- Speaker #1
Yeah. And just describe the bag for me, because I want people to get a visual of what it looks like.
- Speaker #0
We start with the inspiration of produce stickers. So a lot of the inspiration is coming from retro vintage produce stickers and the type, some of the different shapes and things that you would see there. But from a basic standpoint, I mean, it was our designer's idea. She was like, have you ever thought about doing a silver bag and something really shiny? Because I feel like a lot of the industry has moved towards this very bright colors in your face. We stripped it down. We were like, we're not going to print on top of the bag any color. It's just going to be. eating the flavor really big and bold, our trashy logo, and then like one or two callouts about the product. So grain-free, gluten-free, and very good veggie chips. Like dumb it down to the simplest thing, which has been really a helpful exercise. And it's just one of those things where we're like bold, simple, big letters, and really focused on that flavor aspect. So the flavor is the biggest part of the bag. And we have really fun, bold colors that pop off of the silver backing of the bag.
- Speaker #1
So pretty. I love it. I want to decorate my office with it.
- Speaker #0
I can't wait to hook you up with some real trashy chips when we're ready.
- Speaker #1
Same here. Okay, so tell me this, because when you're going through a moment like this, where you're like, I think we need to rebrand. it takes a tremendous amount of self-trust and courage to actually make that venture. Because you had to go through a lot to get to where you are now. I know you're probably still going through a lot to continue with this rebrand and to launch. How did you work on your self-trust as you were starting to realize, I think I need to make this change? And how did you finally say, I'm going to do it?
- Speaker #0
And the name, when the name finally, because we knew we wanted to change it for a while, but it took me a lot longer than I, I think I had started working on it in like October and it wasn't until February that we landed on Trashy or that Trashy came into our lives and that we were like, all right, ready to go. So, I mean, it took a really long time to just get comfortable because I felt like if I'm going to rebrand this, I want it to be like something we can really run with. And we had been brainstorming a ton. nothing was truly sticking. And then yeah, when Trashy came about, it all clicked. And so it was a lot of work up until that point, just being aside from, I mean, I had started with basically the brand, the guidelines on the packaging and like what was missing from the current packaging that we wanted to correct. And it was really just, again, it was focused on the upcycled story. People might not be ready for that to be the main call to action on the front of pack. Like, let's focus on what people are telling us they do care about. And that being. the flavor that they love, right? The taste that they love and then the fresh vegetables and like the better nutrition essentially. So we really decided to focus on that as the front of the pack call outs. But I still didn't have this like general concept of how does what we're doing root larger into like social media and, you know, how the brand is coming up alive in external marketing. And that was when the Trashy name came into play. And it was truly just conversations with a ton of creatives like... I mean, I talked to founders I admired. I talked to agencies I admired. And a lot of people were willing to just like give advice on what they would do as a person who came from an advertising background or wasn't in an advertising agency. And a lot of the words that kept on coming up were like compost chips or garbage chips or people were like coming up with the craziest stuff. And I was like, again, we're going back to pulp chips. Like this is kind of the same thing as like. garbage chips. That's the same, you know, ick factor that pulp chips had. But when I thought more about just changing the brand name to something that would connect all of these different ideas, like Trashy was kind of the one that just really stuck. And it was crazy because I was like, no one has the trademark. And in the food industry, because of course, who would be crazy enough to name a food brand Trashy? But yeah, I think the self-trust piece, you're so right. It's like, it's so fucking scary. I remember like, And for a month, how brutally painful it was to be putting everything in motion to like really make the switch because also nothing was fully fledged. Like we didn't even we only had one flavor mockup done. And it was just like it just said jalapeno lime chips on the front. And we weren't even anywhere close. But I was like, I need to start rolling with just getting this out there to start building the momentum and building a fundraising campaign to essentially launch the brand. And like. do the full manufacturing and everything. So I was like, I don't really have the luxury of time to wait for everything to be perfect and whatever. So it was kind of fun because it allowed me to put stuff out there imperfectly. And that helped to build the trust over time, even though it was extremely terrifying. It was like, we just got to put one foot in front of the other and little things to drop here and there to get people excited overall.
- Speaker #1
Hey, creative, if you love the show and it is meant a lot to you, could you do me a favor? Rate and review on Apple. Give it a review on Spotify. Share it with a friend. These things all make a major difference in a podcaster's life and in growing their show. And I really want to build up this community of creatives who love, trust, and know themselves and love, trust, and deeply know others. So if you could do that and share the show with someone you care about, that would mean so much. All right. I love you. And I even love the way you've been like trolling yourself online. Like it's just so endearing. And it really brings me into your brand story. Tell me why you've decided to do that.
- Speaker #0
I think because it was so chaotic, right? Like to go from pulp pantry to trashy. And I realized how ridiculous it was. Like this is somebody who's fully lost their mind a little bit. And because it was, it was like, I mean, I realized something wasn't working about the way we were doing things. And I fully just changed my mind about how I wanted to continue building the business going forward. And I realized I'm the only person that has to decide whether or not to do it. No one else is telling me whether to do it or not. And I think that's the one advantage that we have is like as a small brand, you can at any point pivot and change course. And I really wanted to highlight that I knew that it was like a full. jarring rebrand. And I really tried to bring our customers along for the journey as much as possible because I knew a lot of the people, especially from Shark Tank, who are a bit older of a demographic, would not get it and would not be on board with the trashy thing. So it made me really write a lot about my thoughts and try to put that out there as much in our email list and everything. And then when it was clear that it was just going to be full chaos, it was like, let's just give in and admit what's happening here. It's fully chaotic. things are going to be shits hitting the fans everywhere. So, so that was why I was like, we can be a little tongue in cheek also about the fact that like, this seems like a brand that has fully gone through a midlife crisis, which is what one of the comments was that you saw.
- Speaker #1
I loved it. I love that you highlighted it because you know what, we all have moments where we think we should do that, but we don't. And what I love about you is that you trusted it and went through with it. Even when people are like, what the fuck? and you're like, well, what the fuck? I don't know. Let's try it. Let's see what happens. Yeah. And I really think, and I have a good sense about these things. I really think you're going to see so much success from taking this leap. I really, really feel that. I did want to ask you because you brought up Shark Tank. That is one of the best pitches I've ever seen, certainly on Shark Tank, but just in general. How did you get so great at pitching and what's your advice for people who have to pitch something?
- Speaker #0
Girl, I think that I just got to a point where I was like, I had been trying for a really long time to professionalize my operation because I was so young. And because I was so like, I don't know anything, you know, naive that I was trying really hard to be rigid and be like professional sounding. And, and then I kind of recently, maybe in the past, like three years, I just realized I was like, you know what, the only thing that we really have the true strength that we have is what we bring to the table as entrepreneurs and the authentic story of like how we got here, how we ended up building this product, this brand. So I just ended up, I feel like I've just recently been a lot more, it wasn't scary to go on TV because I felt like I had nothing to hide or no like storyline that I was trying to project. It was kind of just like, this is the story. This is what happened. And let's just. be true to that and let that shine through and have fun with it. And also I think having fun, like that's the one thing that a lot of my entrepreneur friends talk about now where some, it's so easy to like degrade yourself so much as an entrepreneur through the journey, through the negative self-talk and. things that are just like really dark things that you uncover about how tough the journey is and how much it'll stretch your limits. And we realized we're like, especially talking to entrepreneurs later in their, their stage or like that have exited. And it's like the number one regret always is that I wish I had seen how all of those challenges, all of those missteps were really like the, that was the fun misadventure that was unfolding in front of me. And so I think that that's also been a mindset that I've tried to play into is like, I know the risk, and the chance of failure in this realm is so high. So how can it be the thing that gives me life and doesn't like take your life? take your life exactly. And so finding more balance and finding a way to integrate fun into the journey more.
- Speaker #1
How are you doing that? I really, really struggle with that. I get bogged down so easily.
- Speaker #0
So bogged down. I think for me that has been, I mean, it's an ongoing challenge for sure, but it's like little things where I realized I was like, okay, as I'm building this rebrand, that was a big thing was how do I want to change the day-to-day for myself? Because I was feeling super burnt out. at the end of last year with everything I was doing. And it was really hard for me to get the energy to like put this rebrand forward. But once, once I really started thinking about how I could reprioritize my day, like one of the things I was like, I love the idea of connecting the broader climate movement and also like broader tastemakers and curators in this zero waste upcycled space. And I was like, this is amazing. What if I could do pop-ups with like thrift fluencers or thrift shops or plate, like curate more high end, like curators who really buy into this lifestyle of like not buying anything new. And there's a lot to learn from that. And I was like, things like that got me excited where I was like, I can build community around this. Like it's so fun because it's not, there are ways that I see this brand fitting into pop culture a lot better than Pulp Pantry did. And hopefully ways that we can like tie that in with unique sales channels and unique pop-up events and these unique collaborations that helped me to feel more excited about bridging connections and creativity there. So I think it's more about just like, how do I instill the things that I love doing into the business and let those be priorities too, because it brings me joy and it brings me excitement. And a lot of that is rooted in collaboration.
- Speaker #1
Yeah. How do you keep the faith in those in-between moments? Like between when you, you see the idea, you have the idea, you know where you want to go and you're here. and then that space in between here and there. How do you keep the faith in that space?
- Speaker #0
truly leaning on people because I had so many conversations with people when I was thinking about what to do. That was just like the illumination of people simplified the idea so much. Like if you can just figure out how to pay yourself a living salary and pay this person a living salary, and then you can pay that person a living salary, like kind of just distilling it to the bare minimum of what I needed to do to be able to be quote unquote successful. I was like, oh. yeah, that's a good, you know, and I think there were a lot of times where it just like all the challenges felt so much bigger. And then when you kind of distill it down to like the basic fundamentals, I was like, oh yeah, I think I could figure this out. Like, I think I could, you know, I can continue to make this work. So anyways, those conversations with people really helped me to feel okay about burning everything down and starting from scratch because it was like. this is the blueprint. Like I will help you. I will open my Rolodex. I will whatever. And so it made me feel like I had more courage to do that. But it is really hard if you're doing it alone, right? And you don't feel like you can be vulnerable or open up to people. But the more that I've opened up to other entrepreneurs, the more that they've opened up to me too. And I realized how much our journeys are all very similar in this stage of like startup world, right? Where capital is tight. and cash flow management is a challenge. It's like we all go through very similar challenges and people have creative solutions that they've worked through that we can share once you're willing to share the real challenges that you're experiencing too.
- Speaker #1
So beautiful. Yeah, the baby steps and vulnerability. That's really good advice. What is your biggest hope for this rebrand and how can we support you?
- Speaker #0
My biggest dream with Trashy is just, I want to be the national. like the brand that you find in every retailer in the veggie chip aisle. I'm like, come on, we got these bullshit, excuse my language, veggie chips everywhere that are just the same cut and paste potato starch, sprinkle of vegetable powder, no nutrition. Consumers deserve better. So I really would love to be wherever you see those BS veggie chips. It's like, let's get some trashy chips in there. Let's do something really authentic in the category and let's give people what they deserve. That is definitely in terms of distribution. you know, being everywhere that we, that people are consuming chips. And part of me is just thinks about it. I'm like, we, it's about time we build like the next generation consumer brands. You know, we have these incumbents that have been around forever. What would it look like to build a platform brand that really is rooted in kind of a mission to, for, you know, people's health and for the planet. And I think that's kind of like, to me, I'm like, I get so excited to think about what it would look like to. you know, build the next generation Frito-Lay, basically, which sounds so ignorant because that company has been around for a hundred years, but I hope we can be around for a hundred years too.
- Speaker #1
They started somewhere. Why not you?
- Speaker #0
Right.
- Speaker #1
Candles have been around since like, I always say this whenever somebody says like, it's a crowded space. I'm like, okay, whatever. Candles have been around since I think it's like 500 BC and were invented by the Egyptians and a new candle company pops up every week. So if candles can do it. So can you, if somebody says you can't just say candles, bitch.
- Speaker #0
There we go. Candles is the motto, baby. Candles is the motto. But truly, there's enough room for all of us. And I do think like each of us brings a unique voice and a unique spin. And hopefully it resonates with people. So my biggest wish right now is just I hope that what we're putting out resonates with people. I mean, we recently had the good fortune of just sharing our like a behind-the-scenes look with the folks at Going Green Media on Instagram. And it was like this beautiful video they put together. And... Yeah, I mean, it had a ton of engagement and a lot of people who were like really excited learning about the brand that way. I just think more sharing the story in a way that hopefully just connects and resonates with people where they want to follow along and hopefully we're providing value in some way too in exchange with just how people can get involved day to day at home.
- Speaker #1
Well, you definitely are. I can't wait to try the new trashy chips. And right now people can go to your website and pre-order, right?
- Speaker #0
Pre-orders are open and we have an under $20 sample pack that's only for pre-order folks. And then we will be hopefully launching like official swag. We kind of put some placeholders up there, but we're going to be releasing some of those designs in the next few weeks as well, which I'm very excited about. So lots of things to come.
- Speaker #1
Well, everybody go check it out. Caitlin, your delight. What a personality on you too. We need to get you a podcast.
- Speaker #0
You know, anytime, anytime. We're here to chat.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, it's an open invitation, but I just so appreciate you. You have been wonderful. And thank you. Thank you for following your gut. Like you're a great example for us all.
- Speaker #0
I mean, thank you so much for having me. What an honor and so happy we got to reconnect and connect all these fun dots.
- Speaker #1
Thank you for listening. And thanks to my guest, Caitlin Magentel. For more info on Caitlin, follow Trashy at Trashy underscore chips and visit her website, Trashychips.com to pre-order some bags, which officially launched this August. Thanks to Rachel Fulton for helping edit and produce this episode. Follow her at Rachel M. Fulton. Thanks to Liz Full for the show's theme music. Follow her at Liz Full. And again, thank you. If you like what you heard today, remember to rate, review, and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Share the show with a friend and post about it on social media. Tag me at Lauren LaGrasso and at Unleash Your Inner Creative and I will repost to share my gratitude. Also tag the guests at Trashy underscore Chips so she can share as well. My wish for you this week is that you trust your intuition and see the potential in everyday moments, especially in areas where you see a problem. What's the opportunity there? Sometimes the wildest ideas can lead to the most impactful changes in your community and even in the world. I love you and I believe in you. Talk with you next week.
