71: Katlin Smith of Simple Mills On Staying Sane Through 15-Hour Workdays, Eating For Your Body, And Building A Brand That Lasts

By now, you've probably at least heard of Simple Mills: The line of gluten-free and paleo-friendly cookies, crackers, baking mixes, and frostings taking over grocery aisles around the country. But we bet you didn't know the story of the brand's founder and CEO, Katlin Smith.

Smith launched the health food brand at the ripe age of 24 after seeing how cutting out dairy and gluten completely transformed her life. She first set out to, as she says, "raise the standards of what healthy food looks like" by cooking up GF-muffin mix in an industrial kitchen on the weekends while balancing a full-time job in consulting. Back then, she couldn't even afford a mixer, but Smith didn't let setbacks stand in the way of her goal to add more nutrition to the center aisles of the grocery store. She started off demo-ing her mixes in three Whole Foods Market stores and the rest is history. Now, Simple Mills has 28 products sold in 12,000 stores across the country (and we're not talking specialty health shops either—you can find the brand in Target and Kroger.)

We asked Smith for her best advice on creating a product that will have real traction and handling stress amidst 15-hour workdays. Tune in to learn her favorite meal prep hack, her take on the biggest trends in health food, and why you'll never find turmeric in her products.

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