Brunch & Learn Podcast

About Jen: Jen Toth is a digital illustrator and fashion model with a big heart for local haunts. Like many, Jen spent most of the 2020 quarantine looking for ways to get out of her head. Inspired by the comradery in her community of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, she began scribbling local landmarks, bringing brick and mortar buildings to life through a mixture of watercolor and digital technology. Throug...

About Lindsay: As the CEO of Simek’s, Lindsey Hickey is on a mission to make mealtime a better time for all. Hickey joined Simek’s in 2008 and became Co-Owner & President in 2010 to firmly established the company as a second-generation family-owned and certified women- owned organization. Under Lindsey’s leadership, Simek’s has grown from a local frozen food company to the fastest growing froz...

Laura Sorkin is a farmer, writer and sugar maker who lives in northwest Vermont with her husband and two children. She has a BA from McGill University and a Masters of Environmental Management from Duke. She also graduated from the French Culinary Institute (now the International Culinary Institute) in New York City and worked for several restaurants there. She is the author of Vegetables: The Ult...

Cindy Greenstein is a mother of three young adults and a credit-card points expert who loves to travel for free. During her more than 20 years of marriage, she has used credit card points to travel the world while rarely paying for airline flights and hotel rooms. Cindy—an attorney and former certified public accountant—founded The Points Mom to share her credit card rewards-program expertise with...

Speciality Food Association : The not-for-profit Specialty Food Association (SFA) is the leading membership trade association about the specialty food industry. SFA owns and operates the Fancy Food Shows —which are the largest specialty food industry events in North America—as well as the sofi™ Awards .  SFA produces the Trendspotter Panel annual predictions, the Spill & Dish podcast, year-rou...

About Rachel: Rachel is a creative entrepreneur with a passion for ushering in a "revival" in the foodspace, starting with better-for-you nut butters that actually taste good, with no added sugars, preservatives, or palm oil. When she's not deep in the throes of building this almond butter business, she's busy being Mom to her three kids (ages 3, 4.5, and 6.5) alongside her hus...

Meet Allison: Alli Ball is the founder & CEO of Food Biz Wiz, Inc. and the creator of Retail Ready ®, an online course and strategic support community for producers of packaged products in the food industry. As a former grocery buyer-turned-wholesale consultant, Alli has helped thousands of emerging brands understand what it takes to get on the shelf and have high sales once they’re there. Fin...

Meet Jeanne: Jeanne Muchnick is a longtime journalist currently covering the food and dining scene in the Lower Hudson Valley for The Journal News/ lohud.com . A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she's a crabcake snob who's also a lobster lover, a coffee aficionado and a big fan of Brussels Sprouts. She's also big into doing what she can to promote local Westchester and Rockland County...

Meet Ali: Ali Bonar is CEO and co-founder of Oat Haus, a food company on a mission to bring fun & play back to food. Their flagship product, Granola Butter, is the world's first oat-based spread and was born out of Ali's eating disorder recovery. Oat Haus is available at over 1,200 stores, including Whole Foods, Sprouts, Harris Teeter, The Fresh Market & more. Ali lives in Philad...

Meet Marissa: Marissa kickstarted her professional career in 2012 gaining invaluable sales and marketing experience within a large corporation. She enjoyed the structure that corporate-life offered, but ultimately made the decision to transition over to a small agency focused in event design and production and immediately felt at home. After spending close to 5 years managing and growing teams, nu...

Meet Leesa: Leesa works as a commercial photographer and creative thought partner for natural food brands, hospitality groups, and wellness publications. Website:  https://leesarenae.com Instagram: instagram.com/itsleesa__ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/leesarenae What You'll Learn in this Episode: How her background and studies in nutrition play a role in what she's doing now with photograph...

Meet Megan: Megan O'Brien is the Founder & CEO of Arch Insights, a market research company helping startups and small businesses better understand their consumer bases. Prior to Arch, Megan attended Harvard Business school, was the Business Operations & Strategy Lead for Flamingo (Harry's Inc.), and was a consultant at Bain & Company. Website: https://www.archinsights.co Inst...

Meet Jamie: Jamie's Farm is an award-winning granola company based in New York, crafting creative flavors baked with thoughtfully sourced ingredients. I initially started the business in college as a passion project in 2017, then turned it into a full-time business. Prior to that, I worked in the hospitality industry interning at a 3 Michelin star restaurant as a high school student. I'v...

Meet Brooke: Brooke Shapiro is a 15-year CPG marketing veteran who has worked on parent targeted brands such as Band-Aid, Johnson Baby, Coca-Cola and Glad, Hidden Valley, Kingsford and Clorox. Her visionary and trend spotting expertise allow her to help brands launch with the right channels to the right people. She has the innate ability to lead and bring people together in fun creative ways, and...

Meet Ashley: Ashley is a mom on a mission! A momtrepreneur! Her mission is the same as the brand she created. To bring families together in the kitchen making mealtime more nutritious, convenient and fun! About Happy Grub: Happy Grub is the only Squeezable Instant Pancake Mix , made of natural and organic ingredients. Designed for the whole family, our mix comes in four great flavors: Buttermilk,...

About Eileen:  Sunday Night® Foods was founded by Eileen Gannon, a former corporate executive and award-winning baker who turned her passion into a profession when she launched the company’s first products in 2021. The specialty food company offers luxurious, shelf-stable, premium chocolate ganache crafted in small batches with only the finest pure ingredients. In its first year, Sunday Night won...

Allison is the founder of Cortland Consulting, a brand strategy and marketing studio that specializes in building strong, resonant CPG brands and helping them scale both in stores and online. She founded Cortland nearly 4 years ago after helping to grow Sir Kensington's to and through Unilever acquisition. Since then, she and her team have worked on brands including Belgian Boys, Hu Kitchen,...

Meet Anna Vocino: Anna is a voice over talent and stand up comic who also happens to be a Celiac who writes cookbooks. She co-hosts the “Fitness Confidential” podcast with Vinnie Tortorich. She has voiced thousands of commercials, cartoons, movies, promos, radio stations, and video games, which is a super cool day job to support her passion of food blogging and cookbook authoring. Her bestselling...

Meet Anouck:  Anouck Gotlib, CEO of Belgian Boys, is on a mission to turn up the happy - one sweet moment at a time. Launched in 2015, BelgianBoys is in the business of fun, offering a delicious assortment of breakfast, sweet treats, and desserts available in 5000 stores and online. She leads a passionate team dedicated to growing more than just a revenue-driven business - creating joy for custome...

Meet Erika:   Erika Ferszt is the founder of Moodally, providing mood management solutions for the workplace; improving employee well-being & performance. After having suffered a stress-related vision loss burnout incident in 2015 that forced her to leave her role as Global Advertising, Media & Digital Director at Ray-Ban, Erika returned to school to study the effects of stress on the mind...

Meet Maame Boakye: Dine Diaspora co-founders Maame Boakye and Nina Oduro launched their Black-women owned and operated agency steeped in culinary, community and commerce in Washington DC to connect people and brands to African diaspora food culture. “There is no food system without Black women. This is why we center their contributions in the global food system by honoring and supporting them as w...

Meet Marla: Marla Isackson is the founder and CEO of Ossa, the industry's only Indie women’s podcast network and two-sided marketplace connecting over 1300 women-hosted podcasts with women-focused brands, reaching over 12MM monthly. She helps womxn podcaster micro-influencers monetize their content with brands interested in connecting with hyper-targeted audiences. She spent over 25 years in...

Meet Julie: Julie Schechter is the co-founder and CEO of Small Packages (Techstars ’21), a relationship-building company working to end the loneliness epidemic. Her work centers on helping busy people find personal connection and maintain their friendships despite the pressures of physical distance. Julie’s work on millennial friendship has been featured by The Everygirl and Elite Daily, and she w...

About Jenny: Jenny Blake is an author, podcaster, and keynote speaker who loves helping people move from friction to flow through smarter systems, powered by Delightfully Tiny Teams. Her third book, Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business (Ideapress, March 2022) will help free your mind, time, and team for more of your best work. Jenny’s previous book, Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is...

Meet Lindsay: Lindsay MacMillan is a writer, TEDx speaker, and hopelessly hopeful romantic. After growing up in Michigan in the land of cows, cornfields, and kindness, she graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College. She was formerly a vice president at Goldman Sachs and has worked in both New York City and London. The Heart of the Deal is her first published novel, and she shares unfiltered...