Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford

• #147 Sales Is the Lifeblood: Bootstrapping a Beverage Brand

  Send us a textHow do you build a beverage brand when the margins are slim and you have no outside funding and growth depends on you?You make sales your North Star. Every single day.In this episode of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford, I chat with Ollie Puddick, founder of Innerbloom, a functional beverage brand that's gone from farmers' markets to over 300 retail doors across Australia and New Zealand in just a few years.Ollie quit his job as a professional firefighter at the end of last year to go all-in on Innerbloom. No safety net. No investors. Just relentless focus on the one thing that keeps the lights on: sales.And he's brutally honest about the mistakes he made along the way.You'll hear:💰 The one word Ollie writes at the top of his weekly plan every Monday (and why it changes everything)📈 Why Ollie believes he can hit $1 million in online revenue in 12 months - and how online sales solved a cashflow crisis that retail created🍫 The difficult decision he's making about SKUs right now (hint: less is more)🏪 How Ollie lost retail stockists without even knowing it - and what he learned about chasing doors vs. servicing accounts🛒 The meeting filter that keeps him focused on what actually drives sales📦 How he's built a team without hiring full-time staff (and why this works for a lean beverage business)🎯 What a $10K trip taught him about being laser-focused on the right goalsOllie is proof that you don't need a big team, outside funding, or perfect timing to build a successful food or beverage brand. If you're bootstrapping, wearing all the hats, and trying to figure out where to focus your limited time and money - this conversation will give you clarity.Season 15 is brought to you by Foodpreneurs Festival - a year's worth of sales and promotion opportunities under one roof.LINKS & RESOURCES:Inner Bloom CoffeeInner Bloom Coffee on InstagramYour Free Pitch PlanBecome A Foodpreneurs Festival InsiderChelsea Ford Co. websiteSeason 15 Season 15, out now, is 'Marketing Season' and is being presented by Foodpreneurs Festival. The highly anticipated 2026 BiteBack Awards & Foodpreneurs Festival are both must-attend events dedicated to bringing consumer packaged goods food, drink (alc and non-alc), pet and supplements brand owners, buyers, media, industry specialists and distributors together under one roof. You can't miss these events. Here’s why: Thousands of stockists looking for new products for their shelves. A chance to pitch for funding + mentorship to scale your brand. Workshops tailored to where you’re at - whether you’re just starting or scaling big (THIS IS NEW!) A NEW Marketing Clinic for hands-on brand strategy - you'll leave with five key messages ready to use. Opportunities to get recognised and get your brand in front of industry experts, media, buyers, distributors and fellow brand owners. If you’re an Industry Specialist, tap into a highly engaged, niche audience. And much, much more. The full program drops early 2026. For now, block out May 21-22 and click this link to see how you can be part of it.

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• #146 How to Make Your Packaging Sell When You're Not There

  Send us a textYour product is great but is your packaging selling it when you're not there? Packaging is your silent salesperson so you need to make it work.In this episode of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford, I chat with Gwen Blake, founding director of Boxer & Co, a packaging design agency specialising in fast moving consumer goods.Here's the reality: we make 95% of our decisions by instinct. Colour, shape, and typography trigger autopilot purchases - green signals healthy and handwritten fonts signal crafted and your packaging has three seconds to trigger the right instinct - or your product stays on the shelf.In this episode, you'll hear:📦 Why packaging is a decision-making tool, not just pretty pictures🧠 The biggest myth founders hold onto (it has to do with the front of your pack)🌿 If you’re a health brand, what you must ditch to get cut-through with consumers✅ What to include in your brief to designers (and what restrictions kill creativity)Gwen breaks down how to make packaging work within retail realities.This episode is for brand owners who struggle to translate product quality into packaging that drives sales.Season 15 is brought to you by Foodpreneurs Festival - a year's worth of sales and promotion opportunities under one roof.LINKS & RESOURCES:Boxer & CoGwen Blake on LinkedInBoxer & Co on InstagramNimbusDilectioCoco and LucasGrove JuiceYour Free Pitch PlanBecome A Foodpreneurs Festival InsiderChelsea Ford Co. websiteSeason 15 Season 15, out now, is 'Marketing Season' and is being presented by Foodpreneurs Festival. The highly anticipated 2026 BiteBack Awards & Foodpreneurs Festival are both must-attend events dedicated to bringing consumer packaged goods food, drink (alc and non-alc), pet and supplements brand owners, buyers, media, industry specialists and distributors together under one roof. You can't miss these events. Here’s why: Thousands of stockists looking for new products for their shelves. A chance to pitch for funding + mentorship to scale your brand. Workshops tailored to where you’re at - whether you’re just starting or scaling big (THIS IS NEW!) A NEW Marketing Clinic for hands-on brand strategy - you'll leave with five key messages ready to use. Opportunities to get recognised and get your brand in front of industry experts, media, buyers, distributors and fellow brand owners. If you’re an Industry Specialist, tap into a highly engaged, niche audience. And much, much more. The full program drops early 2026. For now, block out May 21-22 and click this link to see how you can be part of it.

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• #145 Collabs, Community Building & Why It's a Crime to Be Boring. Six-Eyed Scorpion's Brand Playbook.

  Send us a textYou've got a great product. You're posting on social media. But are you actually building a community - or just racking up likes?In this episode of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford, I chat with Sandra and Jordana from Six-Eyed Scorpion, the award-winning crispy chili oil brand that's absolutely nailing brand building in a crowded condiment category.Sandra is a chef by trade and founder. Jordana is the head of marketing and brand (and a graphic designer). Together, they've built a premium brand that stands out in a sea of red, bold competitors by going blue, sophisticated, and unapologetically fun.You'll hear:🌶️ How they used a competitive matrix to find the gap in a saturated chili oil market - and why they chose blue branding in a category dominated by red🤝 What community actually means beyond the buzzword (hint: it's not just posting "thank you" on Instagram)🎨 Their approach to brand collaborations - from pitching Baker Blue to landing Broadsheet coverage📧 Why people actually reply to their email campaigns and Instagram comments (and what happens when brands just "like" comments instead)🏆 How having awards, like a BiteBack Award, makes such a differenceSandra and Jordana break down their philosophy: it's a crime to be boring. They show up at events face-to-face, they share behind-the-scenes content people actually want to watch, and they approach collaborations with ideas (not just asks).This episode is for brand owners who know their product is good but struggle to build the kind of community and brand affinity that drives repeat purchases and word-of-mouth referrals.Season 15 is brought to you by Foodpreneurs Festival - a year's worth of sales and promotion opportunities under one roof.LINKS & RESOURCES:Six Eyed Scorpion WebsiteSix Eyed Scorpion on InstagramHill MartinDelbociaBaker BleuSandra Seah on LinkedIn#131 From Kitchen to Retail: How Six-Eyed Scorpion Crispy Chilli Oil is Winning Shelf Space Foodpreneurs Festival Biteback AwardsSeason 15 Season 15, out now, is 'Marketing Season' and is being presented by Foodpreneurs Festival. The highly anticipated 2026 BiteBack Awards & Foodpreneurs Festival are both must-attend events dedicated to bringing consumer packaged goods food, drink (alc and non-alc), pet and supplements brand owners, buyers, media, industry specialists and distributors together under one roof. You can't miss these events. Here’s why: Thousands of stockists looking for new products for their shelves. A chance to pitch for funding + mentorship to scale your brand. Workshops tailored to where you’re at - whether you’re just starting or scaling big (THIS IS NEW!) A NEW Marketing Clinic for hands-on brand strategy - you'll leave with five key messages ready to use. Opportunities to get recognised and get your brand in front of industry experts, media, buyers, distributors and fellow brand owners. If you’re an Industry Specialist, tap into a highly engaged, niche audience. And much, much more. The full program drops early 2026. For now, block out May 21-22 and click this link to see how you can be part of it.

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• #144 Test the Ingredients, Not the Cake: Marketing Decisions That Move Product

  Send us a textHow do you really know if your packaging works? If your campaign will land? If your new flavour will sell?You ask the people who matter most - your customers. Fast.In this episode of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford, I chat with Anna Henwood, CEO of Stickybeak, a rapid consumer testing platform that delivers feedback from your target audience within 48 hours.Anna reveals her frameworks for marketing effectiveness that help you get more product into more consumer baskets. We dig into the everyday decisions that often leave brand owners stuck at a fork in the road - campaign creative, pack design, claims, naming, flavours - the ones where a wrong move can be costly, but intel is hard to access quickly.You'll hear Anna's three game-changing frameworks and:📦 Why packaging is your silent salesperson (and your brand billboard) - and how to balance sell and brand without smashing it all on the front📊 When to trust your gut and when to test it with real consumer feedback💰 How smart foodpreneurs use accessible, affordable data to avoid expensive mistakes🎯 Why what you think matters isn't always what your target market cares about (even if you have the same gluten intolerance)🛒 How to make decisions that move product off the shelf and into baskets in cluttered retail environmentsThis episode is for foodpreneurs who are tired of second-guessing their marketing decisions and want to move forward with confidence, backed by real consumer insight that doesn't break the bank or take months to gather.Season 15 is brought to you by Foodpreneurs Festival - a year's worth of sales and promotion opportunities under one roof.LINKS & RESOURCES:Anna Henwood on LinkedIn Stickybeak Research Stickybeak WebsiteGraze Churn Foods Your Free Pitch PlanBecome A Foodpreneurs Festival InsiderBiteBack AwardsChelsea Ford Co. websiteSeason 15 Season 15, out now, is 'Marketing Season' and is being presented by Foodpreneurs Festival. The highly anticipated 2026 BiteBack Awards & Foodpreneurs Festival are both must-attend events dedicated to bringing consumer packaged goods food, drink (alc and non-alc), pet and supplements brand owners, buyers, media, industry specialists and distributors together under one roof. You can't miss these events. Here’s why: Thousands of stockists looking for new products for their shelves. A chance to pitch for funding + mentorship to scale your brand. Workshops tailored to where you’re at - whether you’re just starting or scaling big (THIS IS NEW!) A NEW Marketing Clinic for hands-on brand strategy - you'll leave with five key messages ready to use. Opportunities to get recognised and get your brand in front of industry experts, media, buyers, distributors and fellow brand owners. If you’re an Industry Specialist, tap into a highly engaged, niche audience. And much, much more. The full program drops early 2026. For now, block out May 21-22 and click this link to see how you can be part of it.

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• #143 How Cremorne Street Bakers Built Three Brands to Dominate Multiple Channels

  Send us a textBuilding one successful food brand is hard enough. But what if you could leverage your existing production to create multiple brands that serve different markets and price points?In this episode of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford, I chat with sisters and co-founders Michelle Blyth and Justine Curtis from Cremorne Street Bakers, Balmain Baking Co., and cookï. Over eight years, they've built a wholesale baking business that now operates across three distinct brands - each serving different customers, channels, and price points.Their retail journey escalated when Coles Local called them out of the blue after a category manager's mum spotted their products in Melbourne cafes. They had no retail presence, no barcodes, and no retail ready packaging - but they said yes and figured it out.Today, their business spans foodservice (including Starbucks), Coles Local, independent retail, petrol & convenience, and direct-to-consumer.Listen today and learn: 🍪 Why they created three brands instead of stretching one and how each serves a different market segment.🍪 The "diffusion brand" strategy: using the same base dough to create premium, mid-tier, and convenience products.🍪 How to inflation-proof your business by diversifying revenue streams while leveraging existing production.🍪 How to make an unforgettable trade show stand.🍪 The seasonal reality of wholesale baking, and how to manage when you make most of your money in a short time of the year.🍪 Why their first salesperson after 8 years was a game-changerThis episode is for brand owners who've built strong foundations and are ready to think strategically about scaling - not just adding more SKUs, but creating multiple revenue streams that work together.Season 15 is brought to you by Foodpreneurs Festival - a year's worth of sales and promotion opportunities under one roof.LINKS & RESOURCES:Cremorne Street Bakers Website Cremorne Street Bakers on InstagramBalmain Baking on InstagramFunction 8Your Free Pitch PlanBecome A Foodpreneurs Festival InsiderChelsea Ford Co. websitSeason 15 Season 15, out now, is 'Marketing Season' and is being presented by Foodpreneurs Festival. The highly anticipated 2026 BiteBack Awards & Foodpreneurs Festival are both must-attend events dedicated to bringing consumer packaged goods food, drink (alc and non-alc), pet and supplements brand owners, buyers, media, industry specialists and distributors together under one roof. You can't miss these events. Here’s why: Thousands of stockists looking for new products for their shelves. A chance to pitch for funding + mentorship to scale your brand. Workshops tailored to where you’re at - whether you’re just starting or scaling big (THIS IS NEW!) A NEW Marketing Clinic for hands-on brand strategy - you'll leave with five key messages ready to use. Opportunities to get recognised and get your brand in front of industry experts, media, buyers, distributors and fellow brand owners. If you’re an Industry Specialist, tap into a highly engaged, niche audience. And much, much more. The full program drops early 2026. For now, block out May 21-22 and click this link to see how you can be part of it.

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