Leveraging Thought Leadership With Peter Winick – Episode 90 – Kara Goldin

Peter Winick

Episode 90 - Leveraging Thought Leadership Podcast with special guest, Kara Goldin

How do you go from being a major player in the tech industry to the owner of a lifestyle-based water company? It’s an amazing journey – and Kara Goldin tells talks about how and why she did it on her own terms.

Kara Goldin is Founder and CEO of Hint Inc, a San Francisco-based lifestyle company specializing in flavored water. She shares with Peter her transition from technology to water, and gives proven strategies on competing with the advertising budget of larger companies. Lastly, she looks at work a s a win-win situation, and encourages entrepreneurs to always hire people who know something you don’t.

If you need a strategy to bring your thought leadership to market, Thought Leadership Leverage can assist you! Contact us for more information. In addition, we can help you implement marketing, research, and sales. Let us help you so you can devote yourself to what you do best.

Transcript

Peter Winick Welcome, welcome, welcome. This is Peter Winick. I’m the founder and CEO of Thought Leadership Leverage, and you’re joining us on the podcast today, which is Leveraging Thought Leadership. I’ve got a really interesting guest today. Her name is Kara Goldin. She’s the founder of Hint, Inc. You’ve probably enjoyed her beverages, or company’s beverages. It’s a healthy San Francisco based lifestyle company, known for Hint water and more recently Hint sunscreen. She’s been an operating entrepreneur to grow the brand, which is now worth millions, hundreds of millions of dollars. She’s created a purpose-driven business focused on the end consumer. She’s a regular speaker. She speaks to large teams and executives and companies, Google, LinkedIn, Instagram, Oracle, Chobani, and such. So ultimately, Kara is a great example of a founder, a CEO, that’s sort of dabbling in thought leadership to get the message out and evangelize a bit. But anyway, welcome aboard, Kara. Thank you for joining us today.

Kara Goldin Thank you, thanks for having me.

Peter Winick So let me sort of take a guess how this probably didn’t happen, right? So you’re running your company, it’s growing quickly, you’ve got a lot going on and you said, well, I don’t have enough things to do to fill the hours of my days. What else could I take on to consume my time? Is that how you started at this?

Kara Goldin That’s so funny. Well, which part of started at this, I guess I should say.

Peter Winick Ah, there you go. Said the underachiever, right. So the start of this meeting, the dabble, getting the content out there, the speaking, the workshops, a little bit of the writing, how you’re basically getting the message which very much aligns with the Hint brand out into the world in ways that are, you know, sort of unique and somewhat dependent on you.

Kara Goldin Yeah. I mean, I think for me, I was just really trying to solve a problem for myself around drinks that were sweetened and I always aspired to be a water drinker. I never really like said, oh gosh, I could drink water. But then when I really started to pay attention to my own health, I recognized that I really hadn’t been drinking water for years. I had been drinking diet soda. And so this really happened for me at a time when I was in a transition, moving away from, I had left a great job actually in tech that I had been working at for seven years. And took a couple of years off with starting my family. And then I just started to pay more attention to just ingredients and what I was putting into my body and not just my own, but also for my young family. And I just thought you know, wow, it’s like this whole new world for me that I just thought, you know, if you actually pay attention, then you can actually make changes. And, and unfortunately, I just didn’t feel the food companies and the drink companies that I had been, you know. Purchasing their products. Um, I didn’t just feel like they really thought about health in the same way that I did. And so, um, so again, I mean, I, I was sort of being a consumer first and recognizing that this product wasn’t out there. And then, and that’s really what forced me to kind of just launch it. And again, my hope was that someone else like would do it. But then I recognized all the politics behind how many of these brands are built and unfortunately for large companies who, you know, are especially large public companies where they are operating on a level of making sure that the mother ship, I always call it of the brand of the company is doing well. They can’t really, many of them can’t actually talk about health because they start to undo the rest of their products that they have in their portfolio and they would have to reformulate. And, um, and so, so anyway, so that was the big kind of aha moment.

Peter Winick Right, and where I was leaning towards is, so that’s the big aha which led to the birth of Hint, and I get what you’re saying in terms of, if you’re one of the many brands at a Pepsi or a craft or whatever that is health-focused, you can’t sort of throw the mothership under the bus. In your case, given that Hint is Hint and there isn’t a Hint cigarette or something that’s not healthy, everything you put out is aligned with the values of the brand, where I wanted to sort of focus on a little bit is how you use your content and thought leadership to get out in the world and the speaking that you’re doing and all that, how that aligns with the values of the brand and ultimately helps the business, whether it’s from a awareness perspective, recognition perspective, how does that all sort of tie together?

Kara Goldin Yeah, so, I mean, I think it’s a couple things. I mean first of all, just the actual starting hint I think is something that people ask me to come speak on quite a bit, only because, you know, it was really, I switched tracks from being in the computing, you know internet industry over to working on beverages and That’s a little bit crazy, but also, you know, some people would call it brave, stupid, I mean, whatever, especially in Silicon Valley. And so I think that, you know, I frequently end up being asked to speak not only on launching a company and in a totally different industry, but also really finding that passion of, you know, what I want to get up and do every single day. It’s interesting, I speak on a ton of college campuses these days too. And it’s funny because I’ve gotten into some discussions, dialogs with even professors that are at some of these universities. And I just speak from the heart of where I was when I was in school. And I, I felt like, you know, I was really being taught to, to go, you know, and find this, this job that was going to be, that I was going to be good at. and that potentially I’d make some money at right like those were the things that I sort of thought okay that’s kind of what I think many people think about when they’re in college but you know I run into so many people that over the years um they’ve sort of had the same mindset at that point but then they’re like I never really wanted to do this job anyway like I was good at it

Peter Winick Right, careful what you wish for, right?

Kara Goldin And so, so I didn’t really have that problem necessarily, but I think like it’s sort of the, the other aspect of that really I think is about leadership is, can you actually find something that you’re passionate about because it ends up that, you know, I think it’s really tough to lead if you don’t really believe to, right? And so it, and Yeah, and I mean, maybe you can, maybe if you’re a really good actor, you can do it for a little while, but I think the transparency tends to come through.

Peter Winick Right, right.

Kara Goldin And so this is something where, you know, not just college campuses. I mean, you could, you can sort of catch them as my theory before they actually get out of the gate. Yep. But then also, you now, I speak to a lot of groups where they’ve I’ve, for example, I spoke to a law firm that had, you, know, a number of people had sort of been on the partner track that kind of woke up after having tons of student debt and. all kinds of other things and, you know, along the way, great schools. And then suddenly they’re like, why did I, why didn’t I aspire to be a lawyer? And so I’m also, you know, sharing this theory and what’s the, the world is a beautiful thing. If you can find something that you actually want to do every single day.

Peter Winick But let me ask you this, though. So time is the scarcest resource, right? So you get an invitation to speak at X event. There’s gotta be some sort of a process that you go through to say, yeah, that sounds good or that doesn’t. And the benefit might be, you know, on one end of the spectrum, you love it, right, it’s engaging, it’s fun, there’s an intrinsic sort of benefit to you. The other might be strategically, for the business, this is a great place for me to get up and talk. How do you, because that’s the thing that… I work with a lot of my clients, sort of guiding them a little bit on too much, too little, where to go, when to go and how to do it well so that it aligns with your business. Or even if it’s just intrinsic and say, listen, I just do this because I love it. Okay, great. But let’s still get you in front of the right place to get the message out to the right people. How do you sort of thread that needle?

Kara Goldin Yeah. So, well, first of all, having a physical product like water is, um, it’s really, you know, kind of a currency, right? That you can ask people to order the product or case if I’ve spoken at a number of tech firms and I’ve said, Oh, do you actually, we’re the largest beverage in Silicon Valley to tech firms. And so I’ve set like, Oh do you have hint and stocked in your refrigerators and if the answer is no, then I’m like, Okay. Well, first of all, you need to stock hint in order for me to come, because it’s going to be really awkward and embarrassing for me to come and talk about this great product and you guys don’t actually have it.

Peter Winick OK, so there’s a sales function there. There is an evangelist, right? There’s a benefit. So if you pick up an account or two here and there, that’s great.

Kara Goldin And then I think like the second thing is, can I actually really inspire and really change the environment in some way for the better? So I, like I said, I really love speaking on college campuses. I’ve been asked to speak at, I’ve been asked to speak at, you know, some large companies. I generally will not speak at if one of the large soda companies asked me to come and speak to their innovation team. I probably wouldn’t accept that. And also, you know, frankly, I think that this is a whole other piece of leadership, I think, as well. And something that I’ve been really thinking a lot about lately is the leaders that really get bored. I think there’s a couple of things that and not just bored, but ultimately don’t really lead as well as maybe they did early on ones that are one, they don’t believe what they’re actually talking about anymore.

Peter Winick They become a bit of a talking head, right?

Kara Goldin Right. A talking head for it. And then the other thing is, is if you’re speaking to an audience that you’re not really going to learn anything from, or it’s not going to help you grow. And I think that this is also holds true for hiring people, right? Like I always tell people like, especially people on my team, I’m hire people who you’re actually, they tell you something that you don’t know. Because if you’re gonna, at all levels, because if you gonna hire somebody who’s just pushing the Kleenex box across the table, like that’s, after a while, it’s just gonna be irritating.

Peter Winick Well, and that’s the whole the whole growth mindset and the lifelong learning piece and all that. I mean, obviously hiring people not just smarter than you that’s different, but people that bring things to the table from a diversity perspective in terms of thinking life experiences or whatever. I mean, here you are an internet tech person from AOL going into the water business. It’s like, what the hell how the hell is right like it can’t digitize that.

Kara Goldin Yeah, no, totally. And so I feel like when I look at these events that I’m gonna be speaking at, it really is, I’m really speaking audiences of all gender, all ages, but ones that I feel like I can probably put some challenge into it. I was asked, for example, I’m going over in a little bit to Berkeley to speak to a group and they. They came back and said, it’s just 20 minutes. And for me, like that’s not impactful. It’s really not, it’d hard for me to actually talk, especially to an audience for 20 minutes, because even if I speak for 15 and do Q and A for five, I just don’t feel like it’s like beneficial for anyone.

Peter Winick Part of that is we’re living in sort of the age of Ted and can you just tweet me your entire life’s work and you know, there’s a piece of that. But to your point, I think there is something about depth and richness of really embracing a topic. And you know 15 minutes you can probably give me a quick overview of what you’re about, what you thinking, but it’s not gonna get to the level of, you know sort of resonance or introspection that really is needed at times.

Kara Goldin Yeah, totally. And I feel like, look, if I can actually create some kind of impact, I mean, I spoke to a whole group of ad tech executives at a conference a couple of months ago. And, you know, when they first called me, I was like, do you know what I do? I’m a CPG brand person. Like, I definitely came from the tech side of things and we buy lots of ads. But it was their perspective that they really didn’t. want to hear just from ad tech executives. They wanted to understand from brand executives, exactly what they were looking for. So it really runs the gamut. And, you know, somewhere in there, it’s hopefully I can share some wisdom of what I’ve learned over the years and talk about dial-up services and…

Peter Winick which are now in the history books, right? Google that, the squeaky sound of getting onto AOL is forever in my brain. So I want to get back to a point that you made earlier that is interesting to me. So I think of thought leadership, right, and it’s really about getting your content out there in a way that’s new and different and improved. So it’s not just a regurgitation of something else, but you took a different path at it, which is fascinating, which is sort of the… the leadership side of being a thought leader, that a subset of leadership is being out there and putting some thoughts out into the universe. Unpack that a little bit, because I think that’s an interesting potential trait of the successful leader of today, is that they’re willing to sort of dive into thought leadership.

Kara Goldin Well, I think it’s, again, it’s like along the way. I mean, I feel like, look, if you’re, if you’re standing for long enough, not to age myself too much. It’s like, you’ve just learned stuff just by staying in the room, right? And sort of like, and that’s how you get perspective, right. And so I feel, like, You know, I end up talking to my team first, but then other people as well. and, you know, I mentor. a few people here and there. And I feel like if I can actually help audiences in a way that really allows them to be more successful, then that makes me feel really good. And I love when I get feedback too, because it really helps. It helps me just to really enhance the thought. And maybe I can even take it back to my own life or to you know, LinkedIn or whatever, and just expand on like what my thoughts, and you know I always say like it’s just my thoughts and frankly my thoughts can change too, but I also feel like just, especially on social media, I mean it’s also a way for me to sort of test different thinking as well, I mean I love Twitter, I really got into Twitter about a year ago, and it’s a place where I can just get perspective.

Peter Winick Well, the testing part is interesting because you might have an idea or something and say, well, let me just throw it out there. Right. And then you say, you know, it doesn’t resonate. It doesn’t respond. You’re like, okay, I guess it wasn’t a great idea or nobody’s interested or I got to do something else with it. But it’s almost this sort of immediate feedback. Totally.

Kara Goldin And that’s how I view it. In fact, I often say too that I’ll throw stuff out on Twitter just to get people’s kind of like quick thoughts on it before I’m even writing on a topic like on LinkedIn. Even though the audiences seem to be a little bit different, I think that it’s just an opportunity to see if people are gonna react to something.

Peter Winick No, that’s great. So as we start to wind down, I want to ask you to speak to the founders, the CEOs, entrepreneurs, people running companies, et cetera, give them a little bit of advice if they’re pondering sort of going down this thought leadership road, whether that’s that authorship or whether that being a contributor at Forbes or speaking more, talk about sort of how you would advise them to start thinking about it, make smart decisions and either dive in or not.

Kara Goldin Well, I think if you are working for a company and you’ve got like a product or a service that potentially you could really enable people to know more about, then I think it totally makes sense.

Peter Winick Which, by the way, are most products and services, right? You do have…

Kara Goldin Absolutely, or if you have, here’s another example. I have a friend who just left the US government from a pretty high level position and she’s an immigrant and decided that there were some alignment issues with the administration that she just wasn’t comfortable with and so she decided to leave. You know, I thought, wow, like here she’s off teaching in great places, you know, Ivy League schools to teach you classes, but I thought could you actually bring that message into more places where more people could hear it? Because, you now, not everyone’s going to Harvard or Stanford, right? And if you could take those messages out about, for example, you know, what you went through and why it’s, you know it’s almost therapy in some ways, you know, at times just sort of talking about you’ve been through and frankly, I think that the one other thing that I share with people is that I don’t do decks anymore and people are like, what do you mean you don’t do decks? And I really found that I’ve really always relied on my gut and to really understand audiences. And so that was for me, something that was not, it was just, I was almost forced to follow what I had written before I actually saw the group. And so, and so a few years ago, I was invited to speak and they said no decks and it was terrifying, right? Like I was like, oh my God, what am I gonna go do? And now, and then after, yeah. And then after that I was like. Forget it. I just won’t, I mean, that’s one more sort of cross-off. Like I won’t do this if I have to actually do that.

Peter Winick May you start a trend that takes off like wildfire?

Kara Goldin Well, I have, I haven’t. In fact, like, I mean, a lot of people have said, like your, your whole ability to storytell and not sort of hooked on some slides in the background. And frankly,

Peter Winick that you thought about three weeks ago, right? That might not be relevant today. I want to touch on one other piece relative to the thought leadership as a CEO in a competitive space, right. So when you come out into the marketplace, you’re literally competing against some of the biggest CPG brands on the planet with marketing budgets bigger than most companies, you know, GDP. And then here’s this little water company that could. So one way that you can differentiate, you couldn’t outspend them, right, you can’t out distribute them. We don’t have to go through the list of all the cans, but here’s. all the things that may be not so much in your favor as you’re starting this company out, but you can outthink them. And you can use the content and the thought leadership and this message of not putting this stuff in our bodies, et cetera, to get attention in a different way that might not be a Super Bowl ad or something like that. And I think a lot of CEOs and startups and founders need to start thinking that way because it’s easy to be outspent, but you fight back by out thinking.

Kara Goldin Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s just, I very much consider our brand today an Omni-Channel brand. And, you know, another thing that I speak at, speak about often is, is that we, we recognize that we had a choice. We could either spend a ton of money and basically a lot more money than we had to get shelf space, which is the game that’s played in the typical food beverage industry, or we could figure out. where else our customer is going. And, and it sort of like speaks to, I mean, we have a lot of relationships with our customers. And so we really started to think about how do we, how is this consumer getting stuff in their home? So that is just really unique and really different and actually costs less money, uh, in many cases as well. So it’s just thinking differently about it, but also the aspect of Just a greater relationship and more one-on-one with the customer.

Peter Winick Well, that’s great. Well, I appreciate your time and the candor and all that you’ve shared with us today. Great perspective coming from sort of the founder CEO track and the use of thought leadership to get you to sort of think things through and evangelize the message and sell a little bit of product along the way. But appreciate your and I thank you for joining us today

Kara Goldin Yeah, thanks so much, Peter.

Peter Winick To learn more about Thought Leadership Leverage, please visit our website at thoughtleadershipleverage.com. To reach me directly, feel free to email me at peter at thought leadership leverage.com and please subscribe to Leveraging Thought Leadership on iTunes or your favorite podcast app to get your weekly episode automatically.