AI transcript
0:00:11 Hello, I’m Guy Kawasaki.
0:00:13 This is Remarkable People.
0:00:15 We’re on a mission to make you remarkable.
0:00:18 And today, we’re about to embark on a journey
0:00:21 with two remarkable sisters.
0:00:24 They are not only disrupting the yogurt industry,
0:00:28 but also embodying the essence of the American dream.
0:00:32 Meet the dynamic duo, Hayley and Stephanie Painter.
0:00:36 They are the entrepreneurs behind Painterland Sisters Yogurt.
0:00:39 They hail from picturesque Painterland farms
0:00:41 in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania.
0:00:45 These sisters have transformed their family’s legacy farm
0:00:47 into a thriving venture.
0:00:49 In their first full year of business,
0:00:56 they are poised to surpass a projected $3.5 million in revenue.
0:00:58 Their products currently graze the shelves
0:01:02 of over 2,000 stores in 49 states.
0:01:07 If you ever tried to get shelf space in a store,
0:01:11 you understand what a remarkable accomplishment that is.
0:01:14 However, their success extends beyond the yogurt aisle.
0:01:18 They have raised an impressive $825,000
0:01:20 through a Wee Thunder campaign.
0:01:25 Two sisters, who once ran barefoot on the Painterland farms,
0:01:28 are creating a delicious bridge between consumers
0:01:30 and American farmers.
0:01:33 Join me, Guy Kawasaki, on “Remarkable People”
0:01:36 right now with the Painter Sisters.
0:01:46 I interviewed Sarah Frye, and she
0:01:48 is the pumpkin queen of America.
0:01:52 She sells more pumpkins than anybody out of Carbondale,
0:01:54 Illinois, or something.
0:01:56 And kind of a similar story.
0:01:59 She grew up on a pumpkin farm.
0:02:01 She took over the business at 16.
0:02:05 And now she sells millions and millions of pumpkins.
0:02:07 I’m going to have to listen to that one.
0:02:08 You would enjoy that.
0:02:09 Woman after her own heart.
0:02:11 I think I got a book about her, and I’ve never read it.
0:02:16 So I’ll just have to listen to your podcast first.
0:02:20 Maybe I can introduce you to, and you can make pumpkin yogurt.
0:02:21 Pumpkin spice.
0:02:26 Honestly, pumpkin spice yogurt has been on the docket
0:02:27 every fall when it comes around.
0:02:30 People are like, hey, this is one thing you absolutely need.
0:02:32 First question that I already know the answer to,
0:02:35 but I’m going to ask you anyway, is,
0:02:37 what’s the origin of your company?
0:02:41 So first of all, I’m Stephanie Painter and my sister.
0:02:45 And we are fourth generation on our family’s organic dairy
0:02:48 and crop farm in northern Pennsylvania in the rolling
0:02:50 hills of northern Pennsylvania.
0:02:53 We grew up barefoot running around free,
0:02:56 connected with the animals, connected with the land,
0:02:58 connected to our community, and of course,
0:03:00 connected to our farm and our farm family.
0:03:04 We basically always knew that we wanted
0:03:05 to do something with our family farm
0:03:09 to continue the great base that the generations before us
0:03:11 have provided to us.
0:03:14 And we didn’t know what exactly we wanted to do.
0:03:17 We just knew, hey, we want to connect the world to this farm.
0:03:21 And we want the farm to be connected to the world.
0:03:22 We have something great here.
0:03:26 And as we went to college, we saw the disconnection
0:03:27 incredibly.
0:03:28 Like, people are totally disconnected
0:03:31 to where the source of their food comes from,
0:03:32 which is the American farmer.
0:03:35 We meals at least three times a day.
0:03:38 If you’re a lucky person, a fortunate person,
0:03:41 especially in the United States, we need a farmer.
0:03:46 And we realized the way that the story was constantly
0:03:49 being told wasn’t really fun to listen to.
0:03:51 So as millennial women farmers, we
0:03:55 felt like we had an obligation to the general consumer
0:03:58 and to the world to talk on behalf of the farmer.
0:04:00 And so that’s where we–
0:04:02 there’s a lot more to it, but we now
0:04:04 have an organic skier yogurt.
0:04:07 And every cup of yogurt that we get into somebody’s hands
0:04:11 basically is a conduit to open up the conversation
0:04:15 about sustainable agriculture, real dairy in our diet,
0:04:17 and just being connected to the source of your food, which
0:04:20 is the American farmer and how important that is for your diet
0:04:23 and for your family’s health and the health of Mother Earth
0:04:25 herself for generations to come.
0:04:28 Something tells me you’ve answered that question before.
0:04:32 Oh, my goodness.
0:04:36 We were just actually speaking with the Secretary
0:04:41 of Agriculture for USDA yesterday a little bit
0:04:43 and said our story there.
0:04:44 We say our story.
0:04:46 We’re set up at the Pennsylvania Farm Show right now
0:04:48 trying to give back to the community.
0:04:50 And that’s why Haley’s voice is a little coarse.
0:04:51 I don’t know, Haley, how many times
0:04:53 have you said that story in the last week?
0:04:54 Oh, probably thousands.
0:04:59 But I think it’s a good point because people–
0:05:03 they connect with the story, and that’s what sells the yogurt.
0:05:05 But it’s not, yes, the yogurt is delicious.
0:05:07 And when you have your first bite,
0:05:10 you get a little hooked, but people connect to the story.
0:05:12 And that’s really important when you’re
0:05:14 advocating for anything, but especially
0:05:17 little old agriculture.
0:05:20 Which one of you got the better grades in school?
0:05:23 I’d say we both did pretty good comparatively to our brothers.
0:05:31 We definitely were the ones that were pushed to go to college.
0:05:34 We were the first ones that graduated from college
0:05:37 in our family, I guess, in our extended families.
0:05:38 And that was our long haul.
0:05:40 They said, hey, you guys need to go to college.
0:05:42 And then we were like, OK, well, we’ll go to college,
0:05:44 but we’re going to come back to the farm.
0:05:45 And we’re going to figure out something
0:05:47 that we can do with it as well.
0:05:49 But I would say Haley was always definitely
0:05:51 better at a couple of subjects than I was.
0:05:56 And likewise, you were better at math and business and–
0:05:57 or math and science and–
0:06:00 I was good at organic chemistry, but I stunk at biology.
0:06:02 Isn’t that kind of funny?
0:06:06 I took a marketing class for agriculture in school.
0:06:09 I was good at that, but I wasn’t good at philosophy.
0:06:12 So it’s a balance.
0:06:15 And I love philosophy and creative writing
0:06:16 and that kind of stuff.
0:06:19 And yeah, we’re a good balance of each other.
0:06:22 And who was the better athlete?
0:06:23 Oh, OK.
0:06:25 So we describe everything.
0:06:26 We’re very competitive.
0:06:26 We grew up on a farm.
0:06:30 All fierce elbows, just get stuff done.
0:06:31 Kind of mentality.
0:06:33 If a bull’s running at you, don’t be scared.
0:06:34 Just deal with it.
0:06:38 And so, yeah, we’ve been very competitive.
0:06:39 We can’t answer that.
0:06:41 Or we’ll get into a sisterly quarrel afterwards.
0:06:43 We did basketball together.
0:06:45 And we looked very similar on the court.
0:06:47 She was five, and I was four.
0:06:52 And we would go and dog people and high defense, right?
0:06:53 And constantly running around.
0:06:55 Like, that was our strategy.
0:06:58 And so sometimes, the referee would give me her points.
0:07:01 And sometimes, they would give her my fouls.
0:07:03 And so it’s funny, because now that we’re doing a business
0:07:06 together, that same basketball mentality,
0:07:08 like how we would outrun the competitors,
0:07:10 you just keep hustling.
0:07:11 We’d attack, attack, attack.
0:07:14 And if you get someone’s fouls, you just go with it.
0:07:16 [LAUGHTER]
0:07:17 Yeah.
0:07:20 And I think another cool part about basketball is our coach.
0:07:22 He made a defense just for Haley and I.
0:07:24 And it was called Organized Chaos.
0:07:26 And that’s literally–
0:07:29 I kind of brought that up at the beginning when we were speaking.
0:07:31 But we– that’s how we run things.
0:07:33 We just go all in.
0:07:35 We have a great team.
0:07:38 And that can help us manage what we’re doing.
0:07:40 But it’s really– I think a little bit of entrepreneurship
0:07:43 anyways, it’s just always organized chaos.
0:07:46 Just figuring out when to pivot and how to deal with things.
0:07:50 And what pray tell did your brother or brothers
0:07:53 do in the midst of all this chaos?
0:07:55 Our brothers did basketball with us.
0:07:58 So it was like four of us always doing everything together.
0:08:01 They always wanted to stay on the farm.
0:08:04 They loved the equipment, the crap farming aspect of it.
0:08:05 And then fell in love with the cows,
0:08:08 versus we fell in love with the cows first.
0:08:10 To be honest with you, I completely stink at driving
0:08:11 equipment.
0:08:12 Stephanie was great at it.
0:08:16 And so they farm full-time on Painterland Farms,
0:08:18 which is our fourth-generation farm.
0:08:22 So they allow us to be able to have this nutrient-dense milk
0:08:23 to put into our yogurts.
0:08:26 And then we can tell their stories and our story
0:08:28 and use it to sell this yogurt.
0:08:30 But really, we both have the same mission.
0:08:32 How do we sustain this farm?
0:08:35 So we really work symbiotically together in that way.
0:08:38 So can you describe your farm?
0:08:41 Because those of us in tech, I think
0:08:46 our understanding of a farm is basically whatever
0:08:49 Kevin Costner did on Yellowstone.
0:08:51 Is your life like Yellowstone, where
0:08:54 you’re driving a Bentley, but you’ve got 10,000
0:08:58 herd heads of cattle, and you’ve got a foreman named Rip.
0:09:01 And he’s like shooting people and killing the wolves.
0:09:03 What’s life on a farm today?
0:09:08 I think we can both answer that Stephanie go first.
0:09:10 OK, there’s some similarities to that,
0:09:12 but there’s definitely not some.
0:09:15 But when you come to the peacefulness
0:09:20 and how much the farmer loves the land and fights for the land
0:09:23 and fights for the animals and the soil
0:09:25 and teaches people about the importance of it
0:09:27 and just the sheer beauty, and you
0:09:29 can see the peace when you’re watching that in some scenes.
0:09:31 And there’s a lot of things that you don’t see the piece in.
0:09:33 But that is part.
0:09:36 That shows a connection to the farmer with their land.
0:09:36 Communities.
0:09:39 And that shows the connection to the farmer
0:09:41 with their communities and with their animals.
0:09:44 So that is very similar to our family’s farm in that way.
0:09:47 But what we’re representing is a small family farm,
0:09:49 small to medium scale family farms,
0:09:51 because that’s what we know, because that’s what we are.
0:09:53 And how we could do that well, but–
0:09:55 I’ll paint you the picture of Painterland.
0:09:58 Painterland is a northern PA, which
0:10:01 is a very rural part of our country,
0:10:04 rural part of Pennsylvania and upstate New York area.
0:10:07 These hills are so rolling, people don’t think of it like that.
0:10:08 But imagine Vermont.
0:10:09 I know it’s crazy.
0:10:10 Imagine Vermont.
0:10:12 And so our farm sits on top of a hill,
0:10:15 but it’s still in a valley because there’s just
0:10:17 tremendous hills around it.
0:10:21 So we grew up hiking those hills, going to bring the cows in,
0:10:24 going to feed the baby calves, their bottle of milk,
0:10:29 hanging out with our cousins barefoot, playing in mud,
0:10:31 if you will.
0:10:33 Mud mixed with a little bit of something else,
0:10:34 but we didn’t care.
0:10:35 We were just farm kids.
0:10:38 We were just outside all the time.
0:10:41 We were helping our family all the time with the work
0:10:41 that needed to be done.
0:10:43 That was family time.
0:10:44 We didn’t watch very much TV because there
0:10:45 was no time for that.
0:10:46 It was working.
0:10:48 And I think that’s one of the reasons
0:10:50 why we also decided that we wanted
0:10:53 to do something else with the farm, but not milk the cows.
0:10:54 We were up milking cows.
0:10:56 And we were like, mm, yeah.
0:10:59 One thing about farmers is it’s opposite of what you said,
0:11:01 like driving a Bentley.
0:11:03 We– I still drive.
0:11:05 I’m just like, now I’m not able to.
0:11:08 But like a car with the exhaust that’s off
0:11:10 and like it’s totally beat up.
0:11:12 Like farmers– there’s some farmers that are really
0:11:14 struggling in our country, but they’re
0:11:18 so rich with that ability to connect with all those things
0:11:19 Stephanie was talking about.
0:11:21 And so we really have that mission.
0:11:24 How do we keep rich in the way of not money,
0:11:29 but like that fortune of living on a farm and having community.
0:11:31 And so in order to sustain that lifestyle,
0:11:34 we really needed to find a way to create our own market
0:11:38 for our family’s milk and the milk in our area.
0:11:40 And like how many acres is it?
0:11:42 How many heads of cattle do you have?
0:11:46 We have quite a few acres, but a lot of these acres
0:11:49 are treelands and rivers and hills.
0:11:52 And we milk around 400 cows.
0:11:54 But we have around 1,000 head total
0:11:56 because we raise the little babies up.
0:11:58 And it takes them about four years to be mature.
0:12:01 So we have a bunch of different age cattle on the farm.
0:12:03 We also have a bunch of sheep and pigs and goats
0:12:05 and things like that too for fun.
0:12:06 Yeah.
0:12:08 When you have a farm, you just collect animals.
0:12:10 People drop off cats and dogs.
0:12:12 And I have this sheep.
0:12:14 You want it and pigs and chickens.
0:12:16 And that’s just how it is.
0:12:18 They know you’ll take care of that animal.
0:12:22 And in these modern times, what’s it like?
0:12:25 Are you up at 4 AM and you’re like milking cows?
0:12:28 But the cows all have RFID tags.
0:12:30 So you know where each cow is.
0:12:33 And there’s like, you’re applying AI to milking.
0:12:34 And you know, what’s it like?
0:12:36 Because I’m telling you, all I know about cows
0:12:37 is yellowstone.
0:12:40 Yeah, it’s so different on each farm.
0:12:43 My biggest piece of advice is to know your farmer.
0:12:47 So specifically on our farm, we graze cattle.
0:12:50 And so we have these huge hills that people can’t live on,
0:12:52 that we can’t grow other crops on to provide
0:12:54 for human consumption or anything.
0:12:57 You just let the cattle roam free on it.
0:12:58 They fertilize it.
0:13:00 It helps keep the soil healthy.
0:13:02 Every morning, the family gets up.
0:13:03 We don’t as much anymore.
0:13:05 We’re getting up early to sell yogurt
0:13:07 so that they can keep milking the cows.
0:13:08 And we get to hang out with them.
0:13:09 We get to work with them for a fun time.
0:13:12 Your brothers are milking the cows.
0:13:13 Yeah.
0:13:14 We’re behind a computer now, pretty much.
0:13:17 We’re on sales calls and events.
0:13:19 We’ll help on our days off.
0:13:22 And we’ll feed cows and drive in the tractors with them.
0:13:25 But their day usually starts around 5.30 in the morning.
0:13:28 They’ll start with a cup of coffee, bring the cows in,
0:13:31 milk the cows, and feed the calves, and feed the cows.
0:13:34 And then they all come in for a big breakfast around 10 AM.
0:13:37 And this breakfast is like a five course meal.
0:13:40 It is never breakfast food, first of all.
0:13:43 It is like meat, potatoes, veggies, pies.
0:13:45 And most of the stuff comes from the land,
0:13:47 like the gardens that we grew in the summertime,
0:13:49 and things like that.
0:13:51 And then after that, the day really begins.
0:13:53 And all the project starts, whether they’re
0:13:59 building a new barn, or going to chop corn, or plant soybeans.
0:14:00 We don’t really do soybeans.
0:14:03 We do wheat and things like that.
0:14:04 It’s orgum.
0:14:04 Wow.
0:14:05 Yeah, we do a lot of hay.
0:14:08 Our cattle, they’re all diversified.
0:14:11 So they all look so different, because our biggest thing
0:14:14 is having a healthy cow so that they can live a long life,
0:14:16 and they can hike those hills.
0:14:18 And so we don’t get the most amount of milk,
0:14:19 but we have a really healthy animal
0:14:23 so that we have more nutrients in their milk.
0:14:25 And that’s what makes our yogurt different as well.
0:14:28 So it’s, of course, the main ingredient in our yogurt
0:14:28 is the milk.
0:14:32 And we know exactly how the animals are being treated
0:14:35 on our farm, and how the soil is being treated.
0:14:38 And when you treat the soil right, like my sister said,
0:14:40 it basically intakes to the animal.
0:14:43 And then their output is better quality milk.
0:14:45 So you’re getting more nutrients in the cup of yogurt,
0:14:49 because we know every detail of that cow’s diet.
0:14:51 And not to mention, that’s the other thing
0:14:53 we educate a lot on.
0:14:55 We have little cute flyers and printouts
0:14:58 of regenerative agriculture, and how
0:15:01 we need grazing animals to combat the environment
0:15:03 crisis that we’re all in right now,
0:15:06 and what that means to people, and why it’s important for people
0:15:07 to understand this.
0:15:10 We source from other farms around our area
0:15:12 that do things very similarly.
0:15:15 They usually feed them from those pastures
0:15:17 and grow their own feed for them.
0:15:20 And it really builds up that community and that pride
0:15:23 by doing that, so that the farmers grow together.
0:15:35 Before I forget, one of our guests in the past
0:15:38 was a woman named Temple Grandin.
0:15:41 You had the honor of speaking with Temple Grandin?
0:15:42 Oh, my goodness.
0:15:44 Yeah.
0:15:45 Yeah, she’s been a guest.
0:15:46 She was a great guest.
0:15:48 Yeah, I can imagine.
0:15:49 So you know her.
0:15:49 I do.
0:15:51 I fan girl over Temple Grandin.
0:15:53 Can you just walk us through?
0:15:56 So now, let’s pretend that the cow has come in,
0:16:01 your brother has milked, and now the milk is in this can.
0:16:07 So from that can to my table, how does it become yogurt?
0:16:08 That is a very good question.
0:16:12 How do you get the cow from the pasture to the yogurt?
0:16:15 First of all, we don’t use cans anymore.
0:16:16 OK.
0:16:20 The cows, they sleep outside at night.
0:16:23 They’ll drive a little side by side and bring them in,
0:16:25 because they’re pretty far spread out.
0:16:28 We have a small border collie that walks behind them.
0:16:29 They know it’s time to milk.
0:16:32 And the cows start coming to the barn before we do.
0:16:34 They see the sunrise, and they’re like, oh, I
0:16:37 can’t wait to go get milked, because if all the ladies out
0:16:39 there who are listening, you know
0:16:41 you want to breastfeed your baby,
0:16:43 that’s the same with the cows.
0:16:45 They’re like, all right, we need to get milked.
0:16:47 So the cows get brought into the barn.
0:16:48 They have accessibility to the barn,
0:16:50 but they’re primarily grazing.
0:16:51 They’re grazing outside.
0:16:52 They come in, they get milked.
0:16:56 It goes to basically a tank, a bulk tank.
0:16:59 And then truck driver comes, picks it up, all refrigerated,
0:17:01 all tested to make sure there’s no contaminants.
0:17:03 Milk is very finicky.
0:17:05 We have to make sure it’s very timed out.
0:17:07 As soon as those cows get milked,
0:17:10 there’s a specific time that it needs to get cooled down
0:17:12 and tested, all that good stuff.
0:17:15 And then it goes from a truck in northern Pennsylvania
0:17:18 to our co-packer in central Pennsylvania.
0:17:19 The co-packer takes it in.
0:17:23 We add lactase enzyme, because our product is lactose-free.
0:17:26 And that’s really important, because 68% of people
0:17:28 have some sort of lactose sensitivity.
0:17:31 And we want all people to enjoy real dairy.
0:17:35 We’re combating right now basically plant-based dairy,
0:17:38 which it’s not dairy, because dairy comes
0:17:40 from a lactating mammal.
0:17:44 And I’ve never seen a nipple on an almond, but regardless–
0:17:46 I bet that’s the first time you use that joke.
0:17:49 [LAUGHTER]
0:17:52 I really want to take a video of somebody
0:17:55 trying to milk an almond right now.
0:17:57 One day, that’ll happen for our marketing.
0:18:02 Yeah, so we also add the different cultures.
0:18:05 It goes to the creamery, and at the creamery we pasteurize it,
0:18:08 because all milk has to be pasteurized.
0:18:10 That goes into yogurt, so that everyone is healthy,
0:18:12 and all the bad bacteria is gone.
0:18:15 If there is any, which typically there’s not.
0:18:18 And then we send it to the yogurt-culturing tanks,
0:18:21 where the yogurt gets cultured, which is pretty cool.
0:18:24 You add the lactase enzyme, and then you
0:18:27 send it to the ultrafiltration machine, which actually
0:18:28 filters out water.
0:18:32 All of the other things in the milk stays in there.
0:18:34 And then it goes to the cupper, and all
0:18:38 this warm, cultured yogurt goes into these cups.
0:18:40 And it’s so thin you can drink it.
0:18:42 We love that part of it.
0:18:44 And then the foil goes over top of it,
0:18:46 goes into the refrigerator.
0:18:50 24 hours later, the yogurt is solid.
0:18:51 And it’s thick and creamy.
0:18:56 We can even put it upside down, like a dairy queen.
0:18:59 That’s what really makes our yogurt different
0:19:00 is that piece, basically.
0:19:02 It’s a very thick, creamy yogurt.
0:19:05 We don’t add any protein powders to it,
0:19:06 because the protein in the process
0:19:09 that we utilize, the protein stays in there.
0:19:12 We want things to be in its purest form.
0:19:14 When you eat, if you just think about the way
0:19:17 that it was put here, if you try not to touch it
0:19:18 as much from that point, then you’re
0:19:20 getting the best product, you know what I mean?
0:19:22 And so that’s what we try to do.
0:19:24 We do not put protein powders back into our yogurt.
0:19:27 That leaves the grittiness that you see in other yogurt.
0:19:28 Also, it’s frankincining food.
0:19:30 We want pure food here.
0:19:33 So after the yogurt’s made, a truck picks it up.
0:19:35 It takes it to our cold storage facility.
0:19:37 And from the cold storage facility,
0:19:41 we have orders coming in from national, natural distributors,
0:19:43 as well as local distributors, because it’s really important
0:19:46 to us to make sure that we get this yogurt into the nooks
0:19:48 and crannies of the world, because we’re
0:19:50 from the nooks and crannies of the world.
0:19:53 And so we want to make sure everyone has accessibility,
0:19:56 even in the rural, depressed areas, like where we’re from.
0:19:59 They have that, even in the bigger cities.
0:20:00 They have them in the bodegas, where
0:20:03 they can get a real food from a real farmer.
0:20:04 So then it’s distributed.
0:20:07 We’re in 49 of the 50 states.
0:20:10 What exactly is Icelandic style?
0:20:13 Yeah, so Icelandic style yogurt.
0:20:16 Like when yogurt was being founded,
0:20:20 each area in our world created different types of ways
0:20:21 to preserve milk.
0:20:24 So cheeses came about, yogurts came about,
0:20:27 and they had all these different cultures to do that.
0:20:28 And with the different cultures you add,
0:20:32 it creates different styles of yogurt and cheese.
0:20:35 And so in Iceland, they had these cultures
0:20:36 that would make the yogurt thicker.
0:20:40 And then they would strain it, so it would make it extra thick.
0:20:41 And it’s a little more tart.
0:20:43 It leaves the product higher in protein
0:20:45 and lower in sugar naturally.
0:20:49 So it’s similar to Greek, but it’s even higher in that protein.
0:20:52 And in Iceland, in the ’90s, they
0:20:54 created that ultrafiltration.
0:20:58 So it’s this new technology to strain out the whey,
0:20:59 but it filters it.
0:21:02 And so it maintains all the whey protein in the yogurt.
0:21:05 We are able to just have water that comes out,
0:21:08 leaving all the nutrients left into the yogurt.
0:21:14 I have a question, wearing my marketing hat, OK?
0:21:16 So I looked at your label, and I
0:21:20 have to say that it’s hard to figure out, for me,
0:21:22 as a marketing person, what do you
0:21:26 want your customer to go into a store and ask for?
0:21:27 So is it?
0:21:29 I want yogurt from Painterland sisters.
0:21:31 I want skier.
0:21:34 I want Icelandic provisions.
0:21:37 Which term do I use to get what you make?
0:21:41 Because if I wanted a Macintosh, I say it’s made by Apple.
0:21:43 It’s called a Macintosh.
0:21:44 I don’t have to explain.
0:21:48 It’s skier Icelandic provisions from Apple.
0:21:51 What’s the key term here?
0:21:54 I would say if someone goes in the yogurt aisle
0:21:55 and says, I want the best yogurt,
0:21:58 they would just point them to Painterland sisters.
0:22:00 OK, that’s the marketing answer.
0:22:03 Now give me the real answer.
0:22:06 Yeah, well, I think it comes from different angles,
0:22:08 and that’s what we’re really trying to get at.
0:22:12 We want to be known for the purest, most premium,
0:22:13 farmer-owned product.
0:22:17 So it’s like, when they go in, and if it’s just
0:22:20 their psychology thinking, if they know our product,
0:22:22 that’s what we want to give them.
0:22:24 But it’s really not about Painterland sisters.
0:22:26 It’s about just a premium yogurt.
0:22:30 Let’s give them a premium yogurt, like a lot in one package.
0:22:33 Let’s give them a high protein, 6% milk fat,
0:22:37 lactose-free, premium yogurt.
0:22:38 Natural, and that’s what we really
0:22:43 try to push on all of our social media,
0:22:45 and all of our, when we’re working with different retailers,
0:22:49 like this is a woman-owned premium product.
0:22:51 That’s really good for your health.
0:22:54 I hate to burst your bubble, but when I’m in Whole Foods,
0:22:56 I’m not going through this whole dissertation
0:22:58 about what kind of yogurt I want.
0:23:00 In a perfect world, what one word
0:23:02 would I ask for your yogurt?
0:23:05 What one word is your brand?
0:23:08 Is our brand Painterland sisters, yeah.
0:23:11 People usually just like you are Painterland right now,
0:23:14 but then once they get in our product,
0:23:16 like they eat it consistently, then they
0:23:18 feel like they join the sisterhood.
0:23:22 So then they’ll go in thinking with that mindset.
0:23:25 In a perfect world, people would walk into their store
0:23:29 and say, I want Painterland sister yogurt.
0:23:31 OK, got it, got it.
0:23:36 Now, I have a dumb question, but a serious one.
0:23:38 My family consumes a lot of yogurt
0:23:43 because we make a lot of smoothies and a lot of aside bowls.
0:23:46 And one of the things that makes me feel guilty every time we
0:23:50 buy yogurt is the largest container we can get
0:23:52 is a quart plastic.
0:23:54 And I know every time we buy that,
0:23:57 we’re adding to plastic in the world.
0:24:00 So is there no other way to buy yogurt
0:24:02 that in this plastic that’s going to be around
0:24:06 for the next 50,000 years floating on the Pacific Ocean?
0:24:12 We have looked under rocks for the most sustainable container
0:24:14 for our yogurt.
0:24:19 And there’s a couple problems when thinking about this one.
0:24:24 We literally started growing hemp on our family farm
0:24:26 because we wanted to make our own cup.
0:24:29 This is a real deal that we really tried to dig under.
0:24:32 Like, we’re like, we’ll grow hemp, we’ll make hemp plastic.
0:24:34 Everything will be from the farm, including the container.
0:24:35 Because why would you take this premium yogurt
0:24:39 and put it in a container that’s not as premium as it is?
0:24:40 You know what I mean?
0:24:42 And so we went down this rabbit hole tremendously
0:24:44 because it is so important.
0:24:47 And one, if we go with maybe like a cardboard,
0:24:52 it just doesn’t function correctly with this yogurt, right?
0:24:56 It gets soggy and leaks.
0:24:58 It’s kind of like, OK, if you leave your ice cream container
0:25:01 out for too long, what kind of happens to it?
0:25:02 It gets all mushy and stuff.
0:25:03 We look at that.
0:25:05 And then the taste gets weird, too.
0:25:08 It starts tasting a little bit like cardboard.
0:25:13 And honestly, like if we could, we would start our own.
0:25:14 And maybe in the future, we will do this
0:25:16 because we were trying to do both of these things
0:25:17 at the same time.
0:25:20 The most sustainable container for yogurt
0:25:21 that we could possibly have.
0:25:24 But at this point, we just do a lot of reviews
0:25:26 if there’s something more sustainable out there for us
0:25:27 to put yogurt in.
0:25:29 And we feel like the container we do have
0:25:34 is the more sustainable option on the shelves comparatively.
0:25:35 So it’s reused plastic.
0:25:38 And then we can reduce the amount of plastic
0:25:40 because we have a paper label around it
0:25:43 so that strengthens the plastic walls.
0:25:44 If we didn’t have that paper foil,
0:25:47 then we wouldn’t be able to use that.
0:25:49 So we’re able to use just a sheer amount of plastic
0:25:53 compared to the amounts we would use for another container.
0:25:55 So if anybody that’s listening to this,
0:25:59 if they know of any great, more sustainable packaging,
0:26:02 we’d shoot it our way because we’re always open to that.
0:26:04 And I think that’s something really important about business
0:26:06 and about my sister and I in general.
0:26:09 We’re always very open to pivoting
0:26:11 and to doing something better.
0:26:14 Did you know that the labels are coloring pages?
0:26:15 No.
0:26:17 So then we had this lady.
0:26:19 I went to our knitting club the other day
0:26:22 to talk to her about investing into painterland sisters.
0:26:23 So that was fun.
0:26:25 But she brought out all of the yogurt
0:26:28 she’s been consuming for three months.
0:26:30 She keeps all of the labels.
0:26:33 And she had a stack so big.
0:26:36 So I recommended she brings it into the local elementary school
0:26:39 so that they can all color it and hang them up.
0:26:42 So that’s a way we can like reutilize them a little bit
0:26:44 to create some art out of it.
0:26:47 And then she takes the plastic containers
0:26:49 and makes starters for her veggies.
0:26:51 But I mean, there’s only so much plastic
0:26:53 you can utilize for that kind of stuff.
0:26:54 OK.
0:26:58 I think one of the most remarkable things about your business
0:27:02 is that in less than a year or in a year,
0:27:08 you’re on a $3.5 million run rate in 49 states and 2,000 stores.
0:27:10 I interviewed the woman who started
0:27:13 Hint, the flavored water.
0:27:17 And she told the story about how she got into Whole Foods
0:27:20 locally because she made friends with someone in the store.
0:27:24 And he convinced his manager to put Hint in.
0:27:27 I want to know how you opened your first account.
0:27:31 And then how in the world did you get to 2,000 stores
0:27:35 because when I go to Whole Foods, there’s about 16 yogurt brands.
0:27:39 It’s not clear to me the world needs the 17th brand.
0:27:41 So how did you pull this off?
0:27:41 Yeah.
0:27:44 The first sale is different than the first real big sale.
0:27:46 So we can tell you both stories.
0:27:48 So our first sale is like, oh, we got yogurt.
0:27:49 We got a sprint on.
0:27:50 I’ll tell that one.
0:27:52 And Stephanie can tell the other one.
0:27:53 It started with farming.
0:27:56 We had 14,000 yogurts.
0:27:57 And that was our small batch.
0:27:59 And we’re like, how are we going to sell this stuff?
0:28:02 So we had two months to try to sell it
0:28:04 until our next batch was made.
0:28:07 And we ran around to the agriculture community.
0:28:10 And we met a local distributor that distributes
0:28:14 only farmer’s stuff door-to-door in our northern PA area.
0:28:16 So we started with them.
0:28:19 And then the second one we started with at the same time
0:28:23 is we have an Amish friend who we
0:28:26 connected with to try to do different things within the past,
0:28:29 like maybe make some other dairy products.
0:28:30 It didn’t end up working.
0:28:31 But we had all this yogurt.
0:28:33 And he’s like, hey, I have a cold storage
0:28:35 facility in Lancaster County.
0:28:38 We’re like, OK, we’re not making money on this yogurt.
0:28:39 Can we store it there?
0:28:42 And he’s like, yeah, I’ll let you store it for the first time.
0:28:44 We want to give you a start.
0:28:46 And that asteroid is powered by a generator
0:28:47 because he is Amish.
0:28:47 Yeah.
0:28:48 You know what I mean?
0:28:51 So we’re dealing with our first cold storage, totally
0:28:53 generated by, yeah, with a generator.
0:28:54 But how wild was that?
0:28:55 So then we’re storing it here.
0:28:58 And we’re like, oh, now how are we going to get it out?
0:29:00 Because this small little distributor up north
0:29:01 is not going to do it.
0:29:04 And so Jake and Stephanie and I would
0:29:06 drive in our little broken-down car.
0:29:07 We’d go to New York City.
0:29:08 And we’d go to Philadelphia.
0:29:11 And we’d go around Lancaster County trying to get sales.
0:29:15 And we ended up meeting a company called John F. Martin,
0:29:18 which is a men-in-night meat and cheese distributor.
0:29:20 And they were like, oh, we don’t typically
0:29:22 do this kind of stuff.
0:29:24 But we really love your passion.
0:29:25 We’ll give you your yogurt to try.
0:29:28 And so they were technically our first sales.
0:29:32 And we hand-labeled the first 60,000 yogurts with them.
0:29:38 Because now we started this company really during COVID.
0:29:39 And so the supply chain was all monkeyed up.
0:29:43 And so you’re supposed to have the labels beforehand
0:29:44 and on the cups.
0:29:47 And they’re like, oh, yeah, it’s going to be like one or two months.
0:29:48 And we’re like, oh, my gosh, we already
0:29:50 have milk committed.
0:29:52 We already have everything scheduled.
0:29:55 We already have our sales committed, all this stuff.
0:29:57 And so we’re like, well, I guess we literally
0:29:59 asked all of our cousins, the farm crew, anyone we knew.
0:30:01 And this is where community comes into it.
0:30:04 And in the community, you’ll see that everywhere in our story.
0:30:07 And we were hand-labeling 60,000 yogurts,
0:30:09 picking, packing them, getting them shipped off.
0:30:13 And yeah, so our first sale, like Hailey said,
0:30:15 we went into this board meeting.
0:30:16 And we were so nervous.
0:30:20 We were like, oh, my goodness gracious, it’s all older men.
0:30:22 And we’re just trying to sell this on this very
0:30:23 feminine looking yogurt.
0:30:25 Something totally different than what they’re doing.
0:30:27 And it’s at least double the price of the yogurt
0:30:28 they’re selling now.
0:30:30 They sell most of the conventional products.
0:30:32 And we’re an organic brand.
0:30:33 And we’re skier.
0:30:34 And no one knows how to pronounce it.
0:30:35 They’re like, what’s skier?
0:30:38 And we’re like a skier on a slope.
0:30:41 And we’re explaining not only why this is different,
0:30:43 but what this is.
0:30:45 And so anyways, we go and we’re so nervous.
0:30:47 And then we just tell our story.
0:30:51 And it becomes the best-selling yogurt for them in a month.
0:30:56 And so they’re distributing to local mom and pop shops,
0:31:00 small chains, and really great little shops that sometimes
0:31:02 get overlooked by the bigger distributors.
0:31:05 And then we built a loyal following that way.
0:31:07 But within a month of starting that,
0:31:10 we got notification that we got into Giant, which
0:31:13 is a 300 store chain here in Pennsylvania.
0:31:17 We partnered with them as basically like a local advocate.
0:31:19 Hey, we’re partnering with a local farmer.
0:31:22 Giant came to our family farm, took videos,
0:31:25 basically showcasing the farmer and why people–
0:31:28 like why Giant is helping connect people to their food.
0:31:32 So in July, just a couple months after we launched
0:31:34 with John F. Martin, we were in 300 stores.
0:31:35 And then we had to figure out–
0:31:36 And we got it now.
0:31:36 We’re really–
0:31:39 Central Market found us on LinkedIn.
0:31:40 And that was like a huge honor.
0:31:43 We’re like, there’s this guy from Central Market
0:31:46 who wants our products in Texas.
0:31:48 What we thought we were going to be a regional brand.
0:31:50 We thought we’d be able to sell enough of our yogurt
0:31:52 in Pennsylvania.
0:31:57 And we quickly realized that 60,000 yogurts a week,
0:31:59 people in Pennsylvania can’t just up and start eating.
0:32:03 And so we’re like, all right, we’ve got to sell it to Texas.
0:32:06 And the funny thing is, we had a lot of milk.
0:32:11 And we have to take the milk in trucker tank loads down
0:32:11 to the facility.
0:32:13 They only want to do–
0:32:16 their MOQs are really crazy.
0:32:19 And so we’re just working with the supply and demand.
0:32:20 And what do we do with this?
0:32:22 And we just wanted a little farm store.
0:32:26 So then in the Central Market came on at the same time.
0:32:29 And then Natural Grocers gives us a call up.
0:32:30 And we pitched it to them.
0:32:33 Like, we’re pitching it through anywhere we can find it.
0:32:35 Like, we’re getting on LinkedIn.
0:32:36 We’re getting on.
0:32:37 We started hiring a broker service.
0:32:39 We had no idea what that meant.
0:32:43 We started sharing out our hand-labeled yogurts everywhere.
0:32:45 We’re like, gorgeous, get them out.
0:32:49 Literally, in my garage, we just had these samples.
0:32:50 We hand-labeled them.
0:32:53 And we just sent them anywhere we could send them.
0:32:54 Anyone that had a lead on anything,
0:32:57 we just went crazy and set yogurts.
0:32:59 We had all this cute little marketing stuff
0:33:02 that was different, showing pictures of our farm,
0:33:03 showing videos of our farm.
0:33:05 Anything that we could do to tell the story
0:33:07 and get that story in front of these buyers,
0:33:08 that’s what we were doing.
0:33:10 Natural Grocers calls us up.
0:33:12 And we want you in all of our stores.
0:33:13 We’re like, oh, my goodness.
0:33:15 We don’t even know if we have distribution for that.
0:33:18 We said we want you in within a month.
0:33:19 Yeah, and we’re like, OK, cool.
0:33:20 So we’re going to be a national brand.
0:33:23 We just launched a couple of months ago.
0:33:27 And we’re figuring out brokers, and the retail world,
0:33:29 and promotions, and all this crazy stuff.
0:33:31 It’s a whole different language.
0:33:32 It is so hard.
0:33:35 90% of the food on the store shelves
0:33:38 is owned by 10 companies nationwide.
0:33:42 And so here we are, essentially, these two farm girls
0:33:43 that just want to sell some milk.
0:33:46 But we have a lot of milk, and we
0:33:48 have to sell it all over the country now.
0:33:51 And now we have to figure this big logistical battle out.
0:33:52 Anyways, we’ve hired some great–
0:33:54 we started out with some fractional people,
0:33:57 and now we’ve hired a great internal team.
0:34:00 But after that, Sprouts picked us up within a couple months
0:34:02 after launching with Natural Grocers.
0:34:06 And that really got us coast to coast with 400 stores Sprouts.
0:34:09 Now we’re hiring our brokers to be not only–
0:34:11 as our distribution is across the country,
0:34:14 we need to saturate all of that–
0:34:16 those distribution hubs across the country.
0:34:18 Now we need a national broker team.
0:34:20 So now we hire a national broker team.
0:34:21 And now, yeah.
0:34:24 And then Whole Foods Mid-Atlantic picked us up.
0:34:26 Moms, Organics.
0:34:27 Kimberton Whole Foods.
0:34:29 Kimberton Whole Foods, really great.
0:34:33 Like, we are focusing on saturating the natural channel.
0:34:37 And because that is a buyer, that is more apt to just look
0:34:37 at the shelf.
0:34:41 And you were like, I’m not going to be going in and thinking,
0:34:43 I want the most premium product, I want this, I want that.
0:34:45 But we have strategically made sure
0:34:47 we’re saturating the natural channel.
0:34:50 So it’s more people that have that in their mind
0:34:53 when they’re going to the store instead of conventional.
0:34:54 Jeez.
0:34:58 You know, I also know the founder of Lauren’s Cookies.
0:35:02 And I know Lauren’s, and I know Hint, and I know Frye,
0:35:03 and now I know you.
0:35:07 So I’m cornering the food podcasting market.
0:35:13 And let’s just say that I’m a little hesitant to publish
0:35:14 this interview because everybody’s
0:35:17 going to listen to this and say, oh, it’s so easy
0:35:19 to start a food company.
0:35:26 Let me tell you, 99% of food brands, new food brands,
0:35:28 go out of business.
0:35:31 99%, if we would have knew that before we
0:35:34 sold our first yogurt, I don’t know if we would have sold it.
0:35:37 Yeah, and I think it’s really about, again, not
0:35:39 leading with the yogurt sales, but leading
0:35:42 with the education on the farm.
0:35:46 And what makes us an actual national necessity
0:35:51 to have real farm fresh products on the store shelves
0:35:54 that people can access without going five miles up
0:35:56 a dirt road on their Sunday day off,
0:35:58 which just doesn’t happen anymore.
0:35:58 People are busy.
0:36:00 People want convenient stuff.
0:36:02 And we’re just telling that story.
0:36:04 And we do not have a huge marketing budget.
0:36:06 Like, we had to figure all this out.
0:36:09 Like, we just hit $1 million in crowdfunding last night
0:36:11 at the Pennsylvania Farm Show.
0:36:12 And my sister has been–
0:36:13 I’ve been pregnant.
0:36:16 She’s been running around, literally, the entire East
0:36:18 Coast, just pitching to people and asking for investment
0:36:23 because we know that what we’re doing is very mission-oriented.
0:36:27 And we didn’t want to give that vision up for anyone else
0:36:28 to come in.
0:36:30 And so that’s why we went with crowdfunding.
0:36:31 But it’s been wild.
0:36:33 And we’ve just been pivoting.
0:36:33 We’re farm girls.
0:36:34 We didn’t have a choice.
0:36:36 We had to wake up, and we had to work.
0:36:37 And that’s what we’re doing now.
0:36:42 And God forbid, did you ever think of going on Shark Tank?
0:36:43 Oh, we’d love to.
0:36:45 That’d be fun.
0:36:48 People have been telling us that almost every single day.
0:36:50 Besides, are you twins?
0:36:51 Are you going to go on Shark Tank?
0:36:53 I know people who have been on Shark Tank.
0:36:55 I can give you some of the–
0:36:57 what really happens.
0:37:00 Yeah, we’ve heard some of those brands as well.
0:37:03 Up next, on Remarkable People.
0:37:06 Just being fearless in your approach, and like, yeah,
0:37:07 you might get turned down.
0:37:09 But you’re not going to know unless you
0:37:11 shoot your shot and try.
0:37:14 And growing up on the farm every single day
0:37:15 was one of those lessons.
0:37:17 Hey, Stephanie, get in the tractor.
0:37:18 And there’s a hill that’s literally
0:37:20 facing down like a roller coaster.
0:37:24 Get in the tractor and basically break the hay up.
0:37:26 And I’m like, dad, I don’t really know how to drive this.
0:37:27 And he’s like, you’ll figure it out.
0:37:28 This is the basics.
0:37:30 He gives me like a one-second thing.
0:37:31 And I’m like, I can’t do it.
0:37:32 He’s see you later, staff.
0:37:33 And then I do it.
0:37:34 You know what I mean?
0:37:35 And that’s how we grew up.
0:37:43 If you find our show valuable, please do us a favor
0:37:46 and subscribe, rate, and review it.
0:37:49 Even better, forward it to a friend, a big mahalo
0:37:52 to you for doing this.
0:37:57 Welcome back to Remarkable People with Guy Kawasaki.
0:38:02 So have you made the trip to the Holy Land, i.e. Bentonville?
0:38:04 Where is Bentonville?
0:38:05 Oh my god.
0:38:09 Bentonville, Arkansas is the headquarters of Walmart.
0:38:12 Oh, I don’t know.
0:38:14 We have not.
0:38:18 That’s not really in our scope at the moment.
0:38:22 We’re looking more for if we had a perfect cross arrows.
0:38:24 And yes, I’d love to speak loudly about this.
0:38:29 We would go for Whole Foods National.
0:38:31 Because that’s our buyer, right?
0:38:35 We don’t want to focus on what’s not necessarily for us
0:38:36 at the moment.
0:38:40 We want to focus on the natural channel because and then,
0:38:44 you know, as we continue to grow, then we look outwards
0:38:45 and more regional conventional.
0:38:50 But we’re very specific with how we want to be perceived.
0:38:53 And so your dream account right now
0:38:55 would be Whole Foods National?
0:39:00 Whole Foods, Wegmans, and all of those stores
0:39:03 that look like those in regional areas.
0:39:04 Yeah, we love.
0:39:09 We absolutely love what the NCG accounts,
0:39:12 like the National Co-op Grocers, like the co-op stores,
0:39:15 any of the very regional natural stores,
0:39:18 like Huckleberries and Nugget, those kind of stores
0:39:20 that they bring so much.
0:39:22 They bring an experience when you go shopping.
0:39:24 And when you’re eating our yogurt,
0:39:26 we want to give you an experience.
0:39:28 We want you to be on a story with us.
0:39:30 And even if it’s just one time out of the 1,000
0:39:32 yogurts you eat of Painterland Sisters,
0:39:36 that’s how we can educate people on agriculture.
0:39:39 And so, yeah, we are optimists.
0:39:40 And we’re positive.
0:39:43 And we lead with that with the hard-pressed aggression
0:39:46 from working on the farm and just getting stuff done.
0:39:48 So that’s a–
0:39:49 Yeah, that’s us.
0:39:54 Do you have any great stories about making pitches for sales
0:39:57 or for money to older men?
0:40:00 And they mistake you for the receptionist
0:40:02 and tell you to go get coffee or something like that?
0:40:04 You got any great stories like that?
0:40:05 We have so many.
0:40:07 First of all, people call us–
0:40:10 like, when they want to just put us in our place,
0:40:11 people feel like they have to do that.
0:40:14 Sometimes, hey, don’t dream too big.
0:40:16 You’re just your girls.
0:40:17 And literally, say girls.
0:40:18 Like, we’re saying, oh, that’s cute
0:40:20 that you’re doing that, little girls.
0:40:22 We battled a lot with that at the beginning
0:40:25 as we were explaining our dreams and explaining
0:40:26 what we’re going to do.
0:40:29 And we got, oh, that’s cute, little girls.
0:40:29 That’s fine.
0:40:31 We hired a VP of sales.
0:40:33 He’s a guy from California.
0:40:35 He’s awesome.
0:40:37 So VP of sales, they go to our big trade shows.
0:40:40 We set up with our fancy boo, Stephanie and I are there.
0:40:45 We love to wear floral dresses and stick out, right?
0:40:46 We’re so happy and energetic.
0:40:50 We greet everyone, like, oh, like, have you heard of us?
0:40:51 Oh, what stores are you in?
0:40:55 And many times, we’d walk right by us.
0:40:57 And our sales guy would be behind us.
0:40:59 And they’d be like, oh, are you the owner of the company?
0:41:01 Or, oh, are you their dad?
0:41:05 So one, they would just think we were ambassadors there
0:41:05 to look pretty.
0:41:07 Yeah, ambassadors, showgirls, models,
0:41:09 hired to get people to the booth.
0:41:11 We’re like, no, we’re the owners.
0:41:13 We’re the ones that built the business plan
0:41:15 and got the funding and figured out how to do this.
0:41:17 Our sales guy every time would be like, yeah, that’s fine.
0:41:19 But they’re who you need to talk to.
0:41:20 They’re my bosses.
0:41:22 So he’s, like, very supportive of it.
0:41:26 But it’s just bizarre how many times that happened.
0:41:29 We’ve gotten a lot of questions, like, when you do have children,
0:41:30 do you know what your capacity is?
0:41:33 I don’t think you understand that you can’t really do this.
0:41:36 When I have three kids now, I have a six-year-old, a two-year-old,
0:41:37 and a three-month-old.
0:41:39 And we are really doing this.
0:41:41 I do have to shut off my camera sometimes
0:41:42 when I need to breastfeed.
0:41:45 But that is what it is.
0:41:47 And I think that’s what’s different about Haley and I.
0:41:52 Like, we understand that there is a world where this is how a business looks
0:41:54 and this is how you handle business.
0:41:58 But then there’s also a world where you can bring your authentic true self
0:42:03 into that structure and marry who you are
0:42:06 and how you handle things and your authenticity.
0:42:09 And basically, like, that thing that’s making this work, whatever it is.
0:42:11 OK, now we have this great structure.
0:42:12 This is how we handle business.
0:42:16 This is our processes and our SOPs and our quality assurance,
0:42:20 all that stuff, married with– this is just us.
0:42:21 We weren’t great with boundaries
0:42:23 because we never really had them growing up on the farms.
0:42:24 So we were like, why not?
0:42:25 We’re free.
0:42:26 Why not?
0:42:27 Let’s just go try it.
0:42:30 Let’s run around and just do it.
0:42:34 And we’ll figure it out as we go and build great plans and hire great people.
0:42:39 When I interviewed Sarah Frye, the pumpkin queen of America,
0:42:42 she told a story that when she was eight or nine years old,
0:42:46 her and her father were driving in the pickup truck
0:42:48 and they came across this big snapping turtle,
0:42:51 which apparently is dangerous, me being from Hawaii.
0:42:53 I have no idea.
0:42:57 And her father made her go out and face that turtle and grab it
0:43:01 and throw it in the back of the pickup truck so they could eat it.
0:43:04 And decades later, she tells me this story.
0:43:08 And she said, that story taught me to get over my fears
0:43:10 and go for it.
0:43:11 Go for it.
0:43:16 And she says that story helped her break into Walmart
0:43:19 because she overcome her fear of snapping turtles
0:43:21 so she can overcome her fear of Walmart.
0:43:25 And that’s very important.
0:43:29 Just being fearless in your approach and like, yeah, you might get turned down.
0:43:33 But you’re not going to know unless you shoot your shot and try.
0:43:37 And growing up on the farm every single day was one of those lessons.
0:43:39 Hey, Stephanie, get in the tractor.
0:43:42 And there’s a hill that’s literally facing down like a roller coaster.
0:43:46 Get in the tractor and basically rake the hay up.
0:43:48 And I’m like, Dad, I don’t really know how to drive this.
0:43:49 And he’s like, you’ll figure it out.
0:43:50 This is the basics.
0:43:52 He gives me like a one second thing.
0:43:53 And I’m like, I can’t do it.
0:43:54 He’s see you later, Steph.
0:43:55 And then I do it, you know what I mean?
0:43:57 And that’s how we grew up.
0:43:58 Hey, hold that gate.
0:43:59 Make sure do this.
0:44:02 Get the cow in there and just do it.
0:44:02 Just figure it out.
0:44:08 I believe in you and our parents instilled a belief in us and our abilities that we
0:44:10 could conquer and figure things out.
0:44:15 And that is a driving force in what we’re doing today because it is so scary.
0:44:18 Like when we gave our first pitch to the men and I distributor, like I was saying,
0:44:20 we were in there and we were like, oh, we don’t know.
0:44:21 This is so scary.
0:44:26 And now we’re just every single day as we like face our fears, we just learn like
0:44:30 everyone is who they are and we are who we are.
0:44:31 And all we can do is our best.
0:44:33 Just like everyone else is doing.
0:44:39 And there’s no need to be scared or feel anything differently than who we are.
0:44:41 Madison is from Nebraska.
0:44:43 So she’s your kindred spirit.
0:44:46 She’s like, yes, you are.
0:44:49 We almost named the yogurt kindred spirits.
0:44:52 Oh, that was a really hard time figuring out.
0:44:56 We actually hired somebody to help us with the yogurt brain.
0:44:57 Like, what are we going to do?
0:44:58 We didn’t even know what we’re going to do.
0:45:02 And we ended up on painterland sisters, which is something that we knew before we even paid
0:45:04 someone to help us figure it out.
0:45:07 But we were like, trying to get all the market research, trying to do all the things.
0:45:10 And then we’re like, we are painterland sisters.
0:45:11 This is who we are.
0:45:12 This is what we are.
0:45:15 So we just went with that, even though there was probably something that would have been
0:45:16 easier.
0:45:24 I have to say that painterland sisters or painter sisters, I think is a great name, a great
0:45:25 name.
0:45:26 Yeah, thank you.
0:45:31 The painter sisters is associated with such positivity in my mind that pointer painter.
0:45:33 They’re they’re both so positive.
0:45:35 Well, we appreciate that.
0:45:40 And the sister is just everything that we try to do is it’s family based, but it’s not
0:45:44 just that it’s to tap into our community and say, Hey, listen, you’re a sister too.
0:45:50 We’re just trying to live this life and eat healthy yogurt and, you know, be nice to mother
0:45:53 earth, be nice to mother earth, eat healthy food.
0:45:54 Okay.
0:46:00 Let me give you the floor, pitch your yogurt to all my listeners, why they should go, especially
0:46:06 into whole foods and demand painterland sisters yogurt do that one stuff.
0:46:07 All right.
0:46:12 So painterland sisters is a certified woman owned mother owned.
0:46:18 So we will not give our kids what we wouldn’t want you to give your kids.
0:46:23 We are a completely transparent farmer owned right from the direct source of your food
0:46:24 product.
0:46:30 We’re a 6% milk fat, extra creamy, defiantly dreamy milk fat is actually better for your
0:46:31 energy than carbs are.
0:46:32 So eat all that good fat.
0:46:33 We’re dairy farmers.
0:46:35 We love all that good fat.
0:46:40 It has billions of probiotics as well as incredibly high protein.
0:46:44 So 16 to 21 grams of protein and that’s 100% natural.
0:46:46 We do not add protein powder back into our yogurt.
0:46:48 We do not like Frankenstein food.
0:46:51 We like food as originally as it came from the source.
0:46:56 So not only do we know where this milk comes from, but we know how the animals are being
0:46:57 treated and what they’re eating.
0:47:03 And that translates into a very nutrient dense product, something that you can just grab
0:47:08 and grow, be transparent and confident with what you’re eating.
0:47:12 This product will not only help your body, it’ll help the bodies of your children and
0:47:17 future generations because with this yogurt, you’re taking care of mother earth herself.
0:47:21 Your organic gear yogurt is found nationwide in every state but Alaska.
0:47:27 If you want to find out a yogurt near you, you just go to our website, painterlandsisters.com
0:47:33 and you can see the mom and pop stores, the big sprout stores and all in between that
0:47:34 you can find our product on.
0:47:40 And yes, when you get that yogurt, you will be able to color the back of the yogurt page.
0:47:42 I was going to say you will become a sister.
0:47:43 You will become a sister.
0:47:44 Join the sisterhood.
0:47:47 And maybe you’ll want to be a sister with us.
0:47:52 And correct me if I’m wrong, but I swear you can order it from Amazon.
0:47:53 No way, Jose.
0:48:00 We have tried to ship yogurt and we have not mastered that skill.
0:48:05 One day if anyone’s listening and they know how to ship yogurt to somebody’s front door
0:48:09 without it getting weird because yogurt can’t be too hot or too cold and if it’s shaken
0:48:16 too much, it’s so finicky, oh my gosh, and I forgot to say it’s lactose free because
0:48:22 68% of people have some sort of lactose sensitivity and we want people to eat real dairy and
0:48:25 enjoy real dairy.
0:48:27 I’m going to give you a little bit of homework.
0:48:34 No matter where you live, go into your market and ask for painterlandsisteryogurt.
0:48:41 And if they don’t have it, insist that they stock it and give it really great shelf space.
0:48:44 There’s a lot to love about the painter sisters.
0:48:47 I hope you’ll take their message to heart.
0:48:53 It’s about entrepreneurship and it’s about growth and grit and grace.
0:48:56 Oh, what a great tricolon and alliteration.
0:49:01 I hope you enjoyed this episode of the painter sisters.
0:49:03 I just love that name.
0:49:07 I have very positive feelings about the pointer sisters.
0:49:12 So the painter sisters, I mean, how could I not have them on this podcast?
0:49:18 Anyway, thank you very much painter sisters and thank you very much to the remarkable
0:49:26 people team, Jeff C. and Shannon Hernandez, Sound Design Wizards, Madison and Tessa Nizmer,
0:49:30 the Nizmer sisters, unlike the painter sisters.
0:49:37 Madison is the co-author of our book and also the producer of this podcast, Tessa.
0:49:45 Tessa is our researcher and transcript perfecter, along with Louise Magana, Alexis Nishimura
0:49:47 and Phalan Yates.
0:49:49 That’s the remarkable people team.
0:49:55 And speaking of growth, grit and grace, Madison and I have published this book.
0:50:02 It’s called Think Remarkable, Nine Pads to Transform Your Life and Make a Difference.
0:50:07 It basically takes all the knowledge that we gained from over 200 remarkable people,
0:50:11 plus a few decades of work in Silicon Valley.
0:50:18 And this is a tactical and practical book about how to make a difference and be remarkable.
0:50:22 Please check it out until next week.
0:50:24 This is Guy Kawasaki.
0:50:32 This is Remarkable People, Mahalo and Aloha.
0:50:33 This is Remarkable People.
In this episode of Remarkable People, join host Guy Kawasaki as he speaks with entrepreneurial sisters Stephanie and Hayley Painter. Together, they discuss how the Painters are disrupting the yogurt industry and sustaining their family’s legacy dairy farm by launching an organic yogurt company using the farm’s milk. Learn how they achieved rapid growth, getting their yogurt into 2,000 stores within their first year. Discover their inspirational journey advocating for family farms, spreading messages of sustainability, and empowering young female founders in a male-dominated industry.
—
Guy Kawasaki is on a mission to make you remarkable. His Remarkable People podcast features interviews with remarkable people such as Jane Goodall, Marc Benioff, Woz, Kristi Yamaguchi, and Bob Cialdini. Every episode will make you more remarkable.
With his decades of experience in Silicon Valley as a Venture Capitalist and advisor to the top entrepreneurs in the world, Guy’s questions come from a place of curiosity and passion for technology, start-ups, entrepreneurship, and marketing. If you love society and culture, documentaries, and business podcasts, take a second to follow Remarkable People.
Listeners of the Remarkable People podcast will learn from some of the most successful people in the world with practical tips and inspiring stories that will help you be more remarkable.
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