Ep. 131 [Bonus] - On Innovating in Food and The Benefits of Podcasting

Check out our slides here

This episode is a bonus episode where I rehearse the two little presentations I did in the past two weeks. I was wondering how I was going to practice them, so I thought...well, I have the mic and the script, why not practice through a podcast!

Unfortunately, these rehearsals are not the final product, but they might be more informative than the final product because it has me flesh out my thoughts a bit more. The timeframe I had to complete these presentations is much shorter than what you will be hearing today, but perhaps that's a good thing.

Here is a little background of the two presentations:

On July 10th, Berkeley for the Developing Future Foods Seminar was an event hosted by Alex Shirazi, who does the Cultured Meat Symposium and a killer podcast.  I found his podcast really cool and we actually met at Food Funded in San Francisco. I was helping another person podcasting at the time so I helped him improve his podcast in terms of strategy and audio improvements.  Alex asked me to be a speaker at this one and with some encouragement from my co-founder, I did so and rocked it. This was the first time in a while I did a live presentation but after I was done, people kept on coming and talking to me, which is probably a good sign. This was the same result with IFT.

On July 16th, I joined the first ever IGNITE Session, which takes 6 passionate young professionals and they build a presentation to inspire others by discussing a pivotal point in their career.  The people they choose relate to IFT award winners, young board members, people who create communities, and me. Debra Zabloudil did a great job facilitating this, and I've worked with her before at the Emerging Leader Network last year. I was chosen to do my presentation twice. One in the middle of the expo hall and another at a New Professionals Networking event. It was really fun and a lot of people came and talked to me. Every discussion I had was fruitful and inspiring.

On Friday, expect an article about public speaking tips. I think that's what I'll be calling the article. It gives you my philosophy on public speaking as long as some tangible tips I use, such as cutting your hair last minute, to rock your speech.

You can also find the slides on the top of the shownotes at myfoodjobrocks.com/131presentation

Overall, the experience of public speaking was really energizing. If you want me to speak anywhere, let me know. Email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com and we can set something up.

No ads this time, this one is a freebie.

Note: These are very rigid scripts and most were made to flesh out content than to be conveyed, but this is the raw version of the content. The cooked version is volatile and colorful, which is only beneficial when seen live.

Berkeley Event

Hi everyone, I’m Adam Yee. Let’s ask a few diagnostics questions before going with this.

Raise your hand if you know what food science is.

Raise your hand if you have a science degree

Raise your hand if you have a business degree

Ok thanks!

One more question: What does innovation mean to you?

What I’m going to teach you today is the foundation to innovate in food. We’re all here today to see the forefront of food technology. It’s actually quite an exciting time to be in the food industry and I’m loving what Alex is trying to put together.

I believe that there are so many different ways to innovate, there’s really no wrong answer, but I do think there are a lot of fundamentals that you need to hammer down to truly make something special.

So a little bit about me, I have my bachelors of Food Science about 4 hours down south in Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Back in high school, I wanted to be a chef, but being a food scientist was a safer path. During my time in Cal Poly, I took charge of my creativity when it came to cooking to making food products. This includes entering and winning a lot of national competitions in the food science space.

I’ve worked in the industry for about 4 years. Mainly in the protein bar field. And now recently, I’ve been recruited by some really cool people to be in a stealth mode plant based meat startup. If you’d like to know more about it, come see me after the show.

Within industry, I made about $15 million in new product sales, maintained and innovated production lines and current categories in the bar space. And today I want to share with you what I’ve learned that helped me create good products.

I’ve developed this sort of pyramid of innovation, what I thinka re truly the fundamentals of innovating in this particular field. On the bottom, you have Theory, or what a lot of thought leaders are saying, “mindset”. This mindset is super important because it basically allows you to not take no for an answer.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the fixed versus growth mindset, and that’s one of the things we’ll be talking about.

Next is knowledge of process, the technical nuances in creating products. I’ll tell you how my first job at a factory really amplified my ability to create really cool products. I think this is really important especially in the technical side of things to take away from.

And the tip of the pyramid is hot trends. How can we recognize hot trends and how can we get them acceptable to the public?

Theory of innovation

Everyone has a different focus when it comes to innovation and a growth mindset. I think in general, there’s too many experts about it. That’s why it’s really important to carve your own path but do so by reading an accumulation of experts. Luckily, this field will always recommend excellent people.

But books, podcasts, online courses, these were all fundamental to my growth mindset. I’ve listened to everyone from bad marketers to grand innovators and eventually, the people I liked, were starting to say the same thing.

Small note: I recommend paying for the books and courses you plan on reading unless you are a huge passion for learning, buying things will force you to be more invested in the material and it’ll stick better.

Eventually, you can build your own theory of innovation. For a small example, these are the books I’ve listened to that I’ve distilled have the most value for me. There are plenty of other podcasts and media that have helped me build my own theory, but let’s just focus on books.

As you amass all of this knowledge, start to break them down into simple mantras that can guide you whenever you’re put upon a difficult situation. This will help you guide your thought process and come up with a solution based off of your personal beliefs and the experts you follow.

So for me, a lot of the media I read is about asking great questions. This is amplified by my experience podcasting. The better questions you ask, the easier you can solve the problem.

Taste is King is all about how products must taste good to be the best. There are plenty of products that taste terrible but sell a lot, but the best products taste good.

And Spray and Pray is probably more counterintuitive than what you think of. In most circles, focus is a huge buzzword. I think focusing is very important, but if you can’t litmus test all potential avenues, you are missing out on potential opportunities.

Here’s a list of other mantras based off of other people I’v emet. Maybe you recognize some of them.

For example, the hustler. The guy in the suit who will grind it out to success.

Or the visionary, who believes that they need to take action now.

Or the life style designer, who really wants an easy life and that’s ok too. The best part is that these different mantras all work and all lead to innovation.

Knowledge of Process

So my first job was at a granola bar factory. It was actually a startup plant. Nothing was done, everyoen was new, and I had to be the expert.

I got my hands dirty, sometimes doing the line worker’s job even though it was under my paygrade. It didn’t matter, I enjoyed the process and I learned a lot. Basically, it’s really tough!

So within a year and a half, I learned how to make granola bars, dog buiscuits, crackers, and knew the machines, how to process them and the efficiency needed to make life easier for the workers.

This was hugely valuable when I moved to corporate. The pain of create the products at the granola bar factory instilled the technical knowledge I needed to formulate protein bars to make the company millions.

Most formulators don’t even think of commercializing, or the process of taking an idea to profit, until way later. But if you think of a way to commercialize first, then you eliminate a lot of wasted effort because the problem is scalable.

And remember, every single product must be commercilizable to succeed.

This is one of the hurdles with Clean Meat but luckily, there is already huge amounts of data that say it’s feasible to commercialize clean meat based off of the tissue replication industry.

Clever Crossovers

Once you get enough knowledge of the process, you can be creative and start applying processes towards new concepts. Here I have three examples.

One project was when I first started my job at Isagenix. There was this 6 year long vegan bar in limbo and I took one look at it and recalled form my chocolate experience, that you can mask plant proteins with chocolate!

Another was the template forms we used for granola bars. As long as we could templatize our bar formulas in Isagenix, we could create so many different types of flavors. By learning how to template my formulas, you can create a lot of products fast.

Another example is what I’m currently working on. At my time in Isagenix, I learned how to make protein chips and we use a similar method to make this new product I’m working on with great success.

So now let’s talk about Hot Trends.

Everyone what’s a current trend everyone’s talking about right now?

Ok, so another question I’ve always asked myself is that if you know the trend, how many other people know?

Unfortnately, finding a trend that will explode is like finding the next bitcoin, it might be already happening.

However, there are tons of opportunities where you can get ahead of the competition.

Expos and Conferences, like IFT which this next week in Chicago, Expo West, Fancy Food Show, all really important places to find new trends and viable ingredients to make these trends happen. And a good piece of advice is that if you’re small, focus on the innovative ingredients because the big players will be too slow to apply these ingredients. It’ll take then 2 years for them to apply an ingredient. For you, it should take months.

Seminars, like the protein Technology Seminar I went to last month was extremely useful. But it was really expensive. At about $1000 dollars, this price barrier filters out a lot of small players. However, I find seminars much useful than a 5 figure white paper and most startups don’t go to seminars because of the pricing barrier. But that’s a pretty big mistake.

Newsletters like Food Dive and Food Navigator, I would even say following the Good Food Institute is beneficial as well. These will give you small tidbits of information that might be useful.

Places like this, and create a network of cutting edge innovators is probably the best method. For me, the podcast I do has created a network that is so close to the cutting edge, I know all of the latest plant proteins, and clean technology. Networking with he right people is probably the best way to get info.

So now we transform this foundational pyramid, and break it down into lego pieces. You’re free to build your own structure, integrating parts and pieces to create the newest innovation.

Yet there is a way to do it. The difference between a Segway and the iphone has been written in many books but the most important takeaway is that it must be familiar and the marketing must be good. The better your marketing is, the more hands will try your product, but what will make the product stick is a good product. Then that creates kind of an infinite loop which kind of is this formula for virality.

So an example is Taco Bell’s naked chicken chalupa, which is now being reintroduced. I could also say the taco fries are a hit too. It’s familiar, but slightly different. This is important for innovation.

Beyond Meat has an incredibly powerful brand. I love them because every employee I met there is awesome. They are honest, Ethan Brown goes on viral podcasts, I honestly think this is why they sell at first. However, because their product is so good, people keep on coming back and they will keep on talking about this wow factor. A plant based burger than actually tastes like meat.

Another probably older example is 5 hour energy. It was positioned really well in super markets and gass stations, advertising was spot on. So people will buy it. In most situations, the product works really well. It’s fast, convenient, and it works unbelievably well.

SO as much as I would love to give you the secret formula to innovate, nothing beats trial and error. You have to actually do it to become innovative, but what I’m giving you is a foundation to innovate and keep on innovating.

The more experiences you have, the more you can cross pollinate and create something cool. Jump into many things and eventually, they’ll connect together as long as you have the right mindset.

If you can’t think of a way to innovate now, probably the best way to innovate is to try and gain traction from blogging or podcasting, or whatever. Take two of your favorite hobbies, combine them and talk about it.

My Food Job Rocks was basically this. I enjoyed career advice podcasts and I thought it would be cool to interview people in the food industry. But the reward is getting people to actually listen to your stuff!

But it’s a start to get the gears going. It’s the easiest way to get started.

Anyways, that’s all, are there any questions.

IFT IGNITE Event

Introduction:

Adam Yee is a food scientist and product developer. His experience ranges from granola bars, protein bars, protein chips, jams, chocolates, deli meats, and now plant-based meats. In his spare time, he hosts the podcast My Food Job Rocks! where he interviews an expert in the food industry weekly. My Food Job Rocks is a fully sponsored podcast that boats 45,000 downloads and has guests from the Nutritionist of Taco Bell to the CFO of Tyson ventures. My Food Job Rocks ‘ main goal is to showcase cool people in the food industry and inspire its listeners that they can have a  cool job like this too.

[Adam enters stage]

Hey everyone, how’s everyone going?

So I go by many names. I’m a food scientist at my day job, I’m an expert at protein bars so a lot of people call me bar man, and I eat everything so I’m sometimes called garbage disposal.

However, today, I come to you has the host of the podcast, My Food Job Rocks. A side project that started two years ago that has changed my life.

But My Food Job Rocks didn’t start as a random idea, it was actually there to solve a problem. I think a lot of people who want to try something, think an idea just falls out of the sky, but the easiest way to create something amazing is to solve a problem

This is the article that started a podcast that has over 45,000 downloads. It was posted by Nicole Gallace who at the time, started Foodgrads, a platform which would act as a bit of a niche food industry recruitment site. Since she was starting her thing, I aske dhow I could help. We decided to end up doing a podcast.

So my task was to interview an expert in the food industry every week with the sole purpose to showcase that there are really cool jobs in the food industry.

After doing this for 2 years, I’ve noticed some really cool things happening that I’d like to share with you today.

 

After about 120 episodes, you realize that passionate people, no matter if you are a food scientist, food safety auditor, event planner, or entrepreneur, you have the same things happening. Lessons, advice, they all say kind if the same thing.

Posting an episode and an article every week also helped me retain information.

We are all here today also, to network, and that’s great! But by having a genuine, passionate conversation, the network becomes a bit more substantial, the value of a good conversation was a worthy investment.

And I also realized that, why am I the only one doing this? At the time, I can’t believe people aren’t doing podcasts about food science. So I really want to share that you can do this too.

Skills

I ask a set list of questions to all of my guests on My Food Job Rocks. I find asking the same questions gives me a set of data and trends that I can convince myself that this is the right thing to do. However, recently, I’ve been asking more indepth questions to make each interview unique.

Here are 4 questions I picked out that resonated with me the most.

How did you find out about food science? – Most people found out by surprise, or that their path wasn’t a straight line. Most people who received a degree in food science found out by switching. In fact, only younger guests really stuck with food science from freshman to senior.

What are some important soft skills? – The most important skill is to be curious. And this is amplified by being inquisitive, passionate, and creative. As long as you love learning, you can get far in the food industry.

What types of food technologies are really exciting you right now? – The umbrella of Sustainability has been one of the biggest topics that’s brought up but luckily there are many ways to approach the problem. We have cool products like Plant based meat and clean meat exciting most food scientists, but food waste has also been a huge topic to save the world.

What is one piece of advice you can give someone in your industry? – Love what you do is the most common answer, and I think in the food industry, this is the easiest profession to love what you do. Food connects with people in such a different way than anything else, that those who love it, are obsessed with it.

Blogging is hard

Being Consistent is tough, it takes 6 hours a week to maintain and do things for the My Food Job Rocks Platform. That’s like, 12 netflix episodes.

It can get tough, I think most people who start stuff like this don’t expect the long game.

But this is about falling in love with the journey. The knowledge I acquired just doing one interview was more than enough to convince myself that this is worth doing. This is why I edit all of my own podcasts, because I can absorb the information once again. Sharing these interviews is icing on the cake.

If you keep going, and try your best, week after week, you develop a sort of snowball effect. The more people you talk to, the more guests you have on the show, the more consistent your quality is, the easier it gets.

What used to be about begging my friends I went to in college to try out this podcast, ends up being begging people on linkedin to give it a shot.

But eventually, people start to get word of your stuff. As you refine your craft podcasting, or even blogging, you can convince experts to be on your show!

Not only that, but the conversations you have will give you the ability to ask for really high profile guests to be on the show. A good referral is quite a powerful tool with the right network.

And recently, I’ve received tons of Public Relations pitches so now I don’t even have to beg guests anymore!

Network

Now I would say the best part about doing these interviews are the people I’ve met. I make it an effort to connect with all of my guests in My Food Job Rocks. For some, I buy their products, others, I buy their services or partner up to do some amazing stuff. Usually, when I go to a conference, or expo, I ask if anyone one of my guests will be there and I got to say, I always meet someone!

I think this type of networking is really important. Though the things we do here is awesome, nothing beats a good conversation with passionate people. It sticks, and I’m sure many of you can relate, if you work with passionate people, you can get things done a lot faster.

You can Do This Too!

Throughout my time doing My Food Job Rocks, I’ve met a ton of cool people. But it’s not just my guests. There are other people in other platforms such as Instagram, twitter, podcasting, blogging, that have asked for my advice and we push each other forward. This is the most rewarding part. Building a community of people will want to take destiny into their own hands. I offer as much help and support as I can.

And so the biggest takeaway I want to give, is that you can definitively do this too. I am not special. In fact, I’d say I’m just a bit crazy, but I think all passionate people are crazy. It may seem daunting to create something like this in 2 years, but the benefits in all aspects of your life is incredibly rewarding. There is so much room in this space. Without podcasting, I wouldn’t know how to speak on stage, or ask for advice, or meet so many incredible people.

The Ultimate Reward

But maybe that won’t convince you. Educating people is nice, but what is the actual benefit? This might motivate you.

How far can creating a platform really springboard your career? Well, for me, I left my corporate job in Arizona to join a plant based meat startup with some really high profile players. This would have never happened if I didn’t start the podcast.

So this is just a simple story of someone who started a little blog, and how it opened so many doors for my career and all I want you to take away from this, is that you can do this too. And if you decide to put a lot of effort, and post consistently for a year from now, I’ve got your back. We’ve got your back. The world needs more science communicators. You can do this too. You got this.

 

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