#187 President & COO of AG1, Kat Cole: Wings to Supplements
Apr 22, 2024
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COO of Athletic Greens, Kat Cole, shares insights on embracing uncertainty, interview questions, and the power of focus in business. From her journey from Hooters to Rourke Capital, she discusses overcoming challenges and the importance of continuous learning.
Success is linked to continuous learning and personal growth through seizing opportunities and creating distance from past challenges.
Resilience and determination fueled a remarkable career journey from humble beginnings to executive roles, highlighting a drive for self-improvement.
Transformation of a struggling brand like Cinnabon required innovation, modernization, and strategic adjustments to drive significant growth and success.
Deep dives
Journey to Success Through Learning and Diverse Experiences
The speaker equates success with learning, viewing it as the currency that allowed for new experiences and growth. By embracing opportunities and consciously creating distance from their challenging past, they continually sought personal and geographical advancement. This approach led to a wealth of diverse experiences and a successful career transition.
Transition from Challenging Childhood to Professional Growth
Growing up in difficult circumstances marked by family struggles and financial hardship, the speaker navigated a challenging childhood. However, a drive for self-improvement and a willingness to seize any opportunity prompted a remarkable journey. From humble beginnings, such as working multiple jobs including as a Hooters hostess at 17, to eventually thriving in executive roles, the speaker's career path reflected resilience and determination.
Revitalizing a Beloved Brand Amidst Financial Struggles
Joining Cinnabon at a turbulent time marked by revenue declines and financial difficulties, the speaker faced the formidable task of revitalizing the iconic brand. While inheriting a challenging situation, the business mission centered on innovation, modernization, and strategic adjustments. Through insights, adaptations, and a focus on multi-channel innovations, the speaker successfully transformed the business, leading to significant growth and establishing new avenues for success.
Improving Business Operations Through Questions and Actions
The podcast delves into the significance of asking specific questions to enhance business operations. The host emphasizes the importance of three key questions: what to stop doing, what to start doing, and what to do differently to enhance the business. By seeking actionable patterns from stakeholders, including employees and franchisees, the host discovers areas for improvement. Through strategic questioning and decisive actions, such as eliminating non-essential tasks and investing in profitable initiatives, the podcast highlights a methodical approach to driving positive organizational change.
Embracing Focus and Simplicity for Business Success
The episode underscores the value of focus and simplicity in driving business success. By sharing insights from AG one, a company known for its singular product focus, the host highlights the rewards of maintaining a streamlined business model. The discussion articulates how the company's dedication to a single product offering, rooted in efficacy and customer simplicity, has proven advantageous. Rejecting the notion of diversification for the sake of it, the episode emphasizes the benefits of aligning business strategies with customer needs and core competencies, ultimately leading to sustained growth and customer loyalty.
You can’t make smart decisions if you don’t know the truth — the “true truth,” as Athletic Greens COO Kat Cole puts it. “As you get bigger and you have success, innovator’s dilemma, you end up talking to yourself instead of really being rooted in what’s going on.” That’s why she has embraced the anxiety of the unknown, channeling what she doesn’t know about the market into productive questions for her team and her customers. Anxiety can be harmful, she concedes, but “there’s a healthy version of believing you never really know what’s going on, and you never really know the true truth, because things change so quickly.”
In this episode, Kat and Joubin discuss Huberman Lab, ultra-endurance athletes, Chris Ashenden, founder-owned businesses, “fancy jobs,” international trips, unplanned succession, private equity, the Atkins diet, inheriting a bad situation, omni-channel marketing, working with franchisees, fully remote companies, “if not for...,” and why Athletic Greens has only one SKU.
Chapters:
(01:04) - Podcast superfans
(06:54) - AG1 and Kat’s professional journey
(11:14) - Her “Jerry Springer childhood”
(14:31) - Learning, moving, thriving
(16:18) - The Hooters business school
(24:05) - Leaving Hooters and joining Rourke Capital
