CPG Insiders

Landing a purchase order from Walmart, Target, Walgreens, or another national retailer can transform your business overnight. But it also creates one of the biggest challenges CPG brands face: financing inventory before you get paid. In this episode of CPG Insiders, Dr. Mark Young and Justin Girouard sit down with Rohit Mathur, Co-Founder & CEO of Bridge, to discuss how modern purchase order f...

AI isn't coming—it's already here, and it's transforming how CPG brands launch products, manage compliance, and compete with industry giants. In this episode of CPG Insiders, Mark Young and Justin Girouard speak with Ronnie Coleman, founder of puntt.ai . Their chat talks about how AI is helping brands automate packaging reviews, regulatory checks, content approvals, and global compliance processes...

The future belongs to the curious. In this episode of CPG Insiders, Mark Young and Justin Girouard discuss why mindset, imagination, and continuous learning are becoming the most valuable skills in the age of AI. They also share the books that have had the greatest impact on their thinking around entrepreneurship, growth, leadership, influence, communication, and innovation. Topics include: The 10...

What separates brands that scale at retail from brands that struggle to stay on shelf? In this episode of CPG Insiders, Mark Young and Justin Girouard sit down with Scott Fuselier and Matt Jones from BCI (Buckeye Corrugated ) to break down the real role packaging plays in retail growth, operational efficiency, sustainability, and customer experience.  The conversation goes far beyond “just boxes.”...

Breaking into retail isn’t just hard—it’s brutally unforgiving. With only a fraction of new CPG products surviving beyond two years, what separates the winners from the rest? In this episode, Mark Young and Justin Girouard sit down with Bruce Montgomery and Tracey Priest of  Road2Retail  to unpack what it really takes to succeed in brick-and-mortar. They go beyond the usual advice and get into the...

Most entrepreneurs build their business for freedom—but end up creating a prison they can't leave. In this episode of CPG Insiders, Dr. Mark Young and Justin Girouard sit down with Greg Heeres, author of Passing the Baton, to unpack one of the most overlooked—and emotionally complex—parts of entrepreneurship: what happens when you step away. Whether you plan to sell, pass the business down, or sim...

In this special episode of CPG Insiders, the tables are turned as Justin Girouard takes the interviewer seat to ask Dr. Mark Young about his highly anticipated new book, The 27 Unbreakable Rules: Build a $100 Million+ Brick-and-Mortar CPG Brand. Mark breaks down the brutal reality of the CPG industry, where 95% of the 30,000 products launched every year fail, and explains exactly how to beat those...

A lot of founders believe scaling a CPG brand is about working harder, running more ads, or grinding through incremental growth. But what if the real path to scale is completely different? In this episode, Mark and Justin sit down with Keith and Ryan DiGregorio—founders building a breakthrough cleaning product—to talk about what happened when they got an early look at the new book "27 Unbreakable...

You don't need a bigger team to scale your CPG brand. You need the right who. Most founders think the next move is hiring a full-time VP of Sales, a marketing team, or a supply chain lead. But at $5M, $10M, even $20M, that kind of overhead can crush your cash flow before retail ever pays you back. In this episode, we sit down with Les Hamilton, founder of CPG Integrated and former Target buyer, ag...

In this episode of CPG Insiders, Dr. Mark Young and Justin Girouard tackle one of the most common—and most misunderstood—questions in direct-to-consumer marketing: How do you budget for DTC when there is no fixed budget? They explain why traditional retail budgeting models break down in a modern, multi-channel DTC world and why brands must instead focus on cost per acquisition, lifetime customer v...

Quitting a cushy job at American Airlines to sell recipe cards? Sounds crazy—until you realize it's an eight-figure business. Josh Hadley, host of the podcast Ecomm Breakthrough and founder of Hadley Designs, shares how he and his wife turned a passion for design into a scaling e-commerce brand. From moonlighting in the corporate world to leveraging Amazon arbitrage, Josh breaks down the gritty tr...

Most brands fail—not because their ads are bad, but because they're not seen enough. In this episode, Mark and Justin unpack the misunderstood power of frequency and how it drives real results in CPG advertising. You'll learn how often consumers really need to see your message before they act, why "being a little bit pregnant" with your budget leads to wasted spend, and how to engineer frequency t...

A big seasonal order might look like a win—but it can quietly crush your margins if you're not careful. In this episode, Mark and Justin break down the real mechanics of seasonal (in-and-out) retail: how timing, payment terms, inventory risk, and retailer behavior can make or break your business. They share practical insights from real CPG brands, plus hard-earned lessons on managing product life...

What if the smartest tool in your business isn't a dashboard or a spreadsheet—but your own brain? Dr. Angus Fletcher, author of Primal Intelligence, joins Mark and Justin to dismantle the myth that data and AI are the future of innovation. From working with U.S. Army Special Operations to decoding Shakespeare and Pixar, Angus reveals the four brain processes that drive human ingenuity in chaotic e...

When you've been category captain at brands like Coppertone and Dial, shelf space is handed to you. But what happens when you leave the big leagues and start from zero? In this episode, Tony Guiliano shares the raw, behind-the-scenes story of going from running household names to helping Blue Lizard, an unknown sunscreen brand, break into retail and change the game. He shares war stories, unexpect...

How do you hire a celebrity for your CPG brand without getting burned? In this episode, Mark and Justin pull back the curtain on the celebrity endorsement game — from navigating inflated egos to structuring deals that actually make sense. Mark shares rare insight as someone who's been on both sides of the table — managing talent and negotiating for brands — and lays out the hidden traps most compa...

Most brand leaders say they value transparency — but few truly live it. In this episode, Mark and Justin pull back the curtain on what honesty really looks like inside a CPG business — from your marketing claims to your retailer relationships to the way you work with your agency. They explain why every shortcut built on exaggeration eventually destroys credibility — and how facing hard truths can...

TikTok might look like cat videos and dance challenges—but for CPG brands, it's a massive opportunity. In this episode, Dr. Mark Young and Justin Girouard are joined by special guest Mark Young II, Founder + CEO of Ryze Agency, to break down how brands can use TikTok effectively without wasting budget. From understanding why TikTok works on impulse buys, to navigating creative fatigue, to explorin...

Retail isn't dead—it's evolving. Despite the noise about Amazon taking over, brick-and-mortar still drives the majority of CPG sales, and the smartest brands are using it as their exponential growth engine. In this episode, Mark and Justin break down why e-commerce isn't replacing retail, which categories thrive in stores versus online, and how omni-channel strategies are shaping the future of CPG...

Most business leaders are unprepared for the wave of AI that's already reshaping entire industries. In fact, only 1 in 1,000 CEOs are ready to integrate it into their companies. In this episode, Mark and Justin break down what's driving that hesitation—and why ignoring AI could cost you everything. From driverless trucks to AI-powered marketing to "Virtual Mark," they explore the real risks and ga...

Too many brands pour endless time and money into "perfecting" their logo, thinking that's the brand. It's not. In this episode, Mark, Justin, and Jekyll+Hyde's Creative Director, Paul Perzyk, break down what truly makes a brand memorable — and why overcomplicating your design can hurt more than help. From international slogan mishaps to why Jaguar's rebrand tanked sales, this conversation is packe...

Everyone's chasing influencers and TikTok—but there's one old-school channel quietly crushing it for CPG brands: radio. In this episode, Mark and Justin pull back the curtain on how they've used radio to drive explosive in-store sales, cut through media clutter, and dominate overlooked markets with laughably low CPMs. They're not just talking theory—they break down real campaigns that worked (and...

You’re not stuck because you don’t know how to grow. You’re stuck because you don’t know who can help you do it. In this episode, Mark and Justin unpack one of the most powerful mindset shifts for CPG entrepreneurs: the “Who Not How” philosophy popularized by Dan Sullivan. If you’ve been trying to do it all—handle retail, ops, legal, marketing—you’re slowing your brand down. They get real about wh...

Want your product on store shelves? It’s not as simple as you think. In this episode of CPG Insiders, Dr. Mark Young and Justin Girouard reveal the step-by-step guide for building a bulletproof retail channel strategy. You’ll learn why getting into the wrong store can kill your brand, how to identify the perfect retail partners, and why your first retailer sets the tone for your entire launch. Plu...

The future of CPG is cleaner, leaner, and more honest—and if you're not already preparing for it, you're falling behind. In this landmark 100th episode, Mark and Justin unpack the rising Maha movement (Make America Healthy Again), its momentum in retail, and why it matters right now for every CPG brand. From Kroger’s food-as-medicine strategy to the shift away from artificial ingredients and seed...