Brewing Change and Scaling Impact
Brewing Change and Scaling Impact
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In this week's discussion, Emily chats with Jarrhod ‘Rod’ Johnson, Co-Founder & Chief Values Officer at BLK & Bold, the specialty coffee and tea company that prioritizes domestic social impact. Through their 5% For Our Youth Program the brand donates to youth in need locally and nationally. They also quickly became the first Black-owned nationally distributed coffee company and a top seller on Amazon since launching on the platform in 2020. Rod joins Emily to share insights into the journey of creating a coffee company from scratch, highlighting the challenges and triumphs of scaling from Shopify to securing distribution in national retailers. The conversation delves into how BLK & Bold balances its commitment to social impact with the pursuit of product excellence. Additionally, Rod and Emily explore some of the exciting partnerships that the company has engaged in, such as their limited edition Change is Brewing flavor collaboration with Ben & Jerry’s.
TUNE IN FOR TOPICS LIKE:
1:52 Rod’s journey from nonprofits to entrepreneurship
4:14 The moment that sparked BLK & Bold’s start
5:47 Learning the coffee industry from scratch
7:25 Iterating and testing to find the perfect SKU
8:58 First distribution channels & sourcing feedback
12:31 Advice for founders looking to gain the attention of retailers
14:55 Getting clear on your message & values as a brand
17:21 What it means to be a B Corp
18:34 Securing partnerships with brands like Ben & Jerry’s, NBA, Black Panther
22:40 5% For Youth program and creating direct impact with your brand
26:12 Where to find BLK & Bold
27:02 Launching a non-profit foundation & brick & mortar coffee shops
Listen to this week’s Local Marketing School conversation!
Other episodes you'll enjoy if you enjoyed Rod’s episode:
#7: From Local Markets to a National Spotlight | Steven Vigilante, OLIPOP
#8: Sourcing, Supply Chains, and Scaling from Scratch | Lucy Dana, One Trick Pony
Don't hesitate to reach out! We'd love to hear from you on Instagram and find out which episodes you're enjoying the most. Your feedback is so important to us! Please take a moment to rate the show and leave a review - it supports our ongoing Local Marketing School journey and helps us develop more content that addresses what you’re hoping to learn more about!
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Emily Steele (00:14)
All right, welcome back to another episode of Local Marketing School. My name is Emily Steele. I get to be the host of the show and bring you amazing guests. Today's guest is Rod Johnson, who's the co -founder and chief values officer of BLK & Bold, their specialty coffee and tea company that prioritizes domestic social impact. Through their 5 % for our youth program, the brand donates to youth in need locally and nationally. And under Rod's leadership, BLK & Bold has donated $100,000 to youth in need.
Johnson is currently building a supplemental organization to funnel direct resources to the community through the foundation. Founded in 2018, BLK & Bold has quickly become the first Black-owned nationally distributed coffee company, a top seller on Amazon since launching on the platform in 2020 as well. Rod brings his unique perspective to the brand with a 15 plus year career as an academic and healthcare nonprofit fundraiser. I'm so excited to dive into everything with you. Welcome to the show, Rod.
Rod Johnson (01:08)
Thank you so much. That's quite the intro. I need to... I'm glad this is recorded. I may have to hit play on that when I enter rooms going forward.
Emily Steele (01:16)
Mmm. Yeah, I love that. I could just be the hype the hype message as you went to the room. My gosh, well tell us a little bit about your background I obviously shared that but like say it your own words like where you from how did this idea come to be?
Rod Johnson (01:20)
Yeah, yeah, well, no, again, thank you for having me today. I really appreciate the opportunity to share a little bit about my personal story and the story of our brand with your audience, because that's what it's about. It's about community at the end of the day. And that's really a recurring theme that'll be throughout today's conversation that I'm hoping people will resonate with. But I am originally from Gary, Indiana, and that's about 30 minutes outside of Chicago for those who are not familiar with the area and, you know, growing up in a city that is as unique as Gary in a sense of it being so close to a major market, but being ill resourced in a lot of different ways. And, you know, having that, that background or that being the soundtrack to my upbringing that all been influenced by the decisions that I made going into nonprofit fundraising and then ultimately having a business that's predicated on social impact. And so, you know, I grew up in Gary and graduated from Indiana University, started a career in academic and nonprofit fundraising with the intent to connect people back to these initiatives that they really cared about and that's ultimately what influenced BLK and Bold's business plan.
Emily Steele (02:56)
Cool. And so did you picture yourself as an entrepreneur as you went through that kind of nonprofit path?
Rod Johnson (03:03)
I met with a lot of entrepreneurs, right? So my goal was to convince them or rather persuade them to look at their alma mater as the means of investment. And many of those benefactors were entrepreneurs themselves. So, you know, it was always around them and really inspired by their stories, but didn't necessarily see myself as one. You know, this venture that Pernell and I are on, my business partner. You know, it was very much so organic in how we decided to pursue it. So I think I can speak for both of us in saying that this wasn't always the dream of being entrepreneurs, but I'm glad that we did land on it because it gives us a lot of control on the issues that we want to impact.
Emily Steele (03:44)
Yeah, so it's not like either of you had a background in like coffee production and like building a brand like this. So you two come together, you've known each other for a long time, right? So he's been a friend of yours for years and somehow this idea sparks. So can you just double click a little bit on like that spark moment?
Rod Johnson (04:07)
Yeah, yeah. So again, I had my career in the nonprofit space and Pernell was on the opposite side of the aisle working in for-profit world and actually had a little bit of experience building small brands and bridging the gap between their distribution from D to C to retailer, which ultimately lent itself to how we build our business. But you know, there comes a point in time, regardless of what path you're on, where you get a little introspective and you ask yourself, like, you know, am I, am I still fulfilled by this path that I'm on? You know, am I still energized and motivated to put forth my best effort? You know, especially if you are a self-starter, you want to make sure that the work that you put out really represents you at your core and if you're not in it, or if your heart's not in it, then I think that's about to show. We were having those same or having similar aha moments on our respective paths. And one day he gave me a call. He's like, hey man, you know, do you drink coffee? He's like, not really. I spent a lot of time in coffee shops because I travel for work a lot. And you know, where do you set up shop? You go to your nearest Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts or whoever has the cheap wifi. And that's where you set up shops. So I had some level of connectivity to it, but not necessarily as a consumer.
Emily Steele (05:13)
Yeah, exactly.
Rod Johnson (05:38)
But that was really the first domino that fell in us deciding to use coffee as a vehicle for a persona drink.
Emily Steele (05:49)
Cool, so you're basically, we're gonna start a coffee company. We better figure out some, like, how this works to get beans and source this and then sell it. So was that a pretty significant undertaking time-wise to be able to really get that figured out?
Rod Johnson (06:07)
Absolutely, right. The world of importers is very vast, right. And even more so are the products in which are being imported, right. Coffee is the second most consumed beverage in America behind waters. And there is, which means there's a plethora of options, right. And we just did our homework, right. A lot of YouTube videos, a lot of cold calls, a lot of doors closed. It was, you know, a very much so an organic grassroots type of learning process, you know, across all aspects of the business. Because while we were a part of building businesses for other entities, when you are building one for yourself, if you will, there's an added layer of accountability and knowledge that you are expected to have. So we took that very seriously, whether it be from product sourcing to the equipment needed to bring that to life to even the marketing to increase our brand awareness. It was very much so grassroots and organic in that regard.
Emily Steele (07:07)
Yeah, yeah, so when you land on like the drink, the roast, whatever you call it, like how do you, did you get like local people excited to try it or how did you know that you would really hit something magical with the product?
Rod Johnson (07:37)
Yeah. Funny story. So the, you know, there's a learning curve, right? And, you know, people have a learning curve in manufacturing the product, but then there's also a learning curve that might how do you manufacture it to the taste of the masses. And that's just so nuanced within another cell. And so, you know, we had our taste testers, aka our friends and family, like, hey, tell us what do you think about this? And in the very beginning, it was like, this is awful. This is unsellable. And you should rethink your entire idea. This is not for consumption. But you need that brutal honesty because ultimately that led us to finding that recipe that really embodied the product that we wanted to have represent our brand. And you know, we had some, once we were able to, to convince the, the harshest of the critics, right. you know, some of those, our older friends and family members who were more accustomed to, you know, I would say a less premium experience. Once we were able to, convince that demographic, we felt that we were on to something. And from there we started to, prepare to launch our online store via Shopify.
Emily Steele (08:41)
Okay, yeah, cool. So that's kind of how it started getting, how you started getting the product out was the Shopify direct to consumer. But obviously going the retail route, I think, are you in 12,000 stores? Is that what I read? It's probably growing a lot.
Rod Johnson (09:07)
Yeah, but even before then, right, you know, we definitely stood to the local approach and showing up at like farmers markets and like, you know, other, you know, in-person activations where we could get that direct feedback, right, from our local community and see what their thoughts are and be able to take that and leverage it in our R &D process. And, you know, from there, we stuffed our, or rather, did our toe into the into the retail world by securing a few local grocery stores to carry the product. And at the top of 2020 is when we were awarded our national award with Target to the tune of about 360 stores. And from there, we've just been trying to grow and service that distribution network as best as possible.
Emily Steele (09:45)
Yeah, to go from like a handful of local stores to 360, I can't even imagine like the operational impact of that. That's a lot of coffee we have to have available. Was that like a, my gosh moment? It has to be, right?
Rod Johnson (10:17)
Yeah, yeah Absolutely, right? So, you know when we started the business back in 2018 We were in my friend's garage and we had a small table top roaster that you know weighed I don't know call it 20 pounds and it was able to produce about a pound of coffee every 15 minutes and at that time that was plenty right me only we didn't have the distribution that one but obviously that's not sufficient to serve as a national distribution network. So we graduated from his garage to ultimately leasing space in the back of a brewery here locally in Des Moines, Iowa. And that's when we bought our first piece of commercial equipment. So there's another learning curve because you go from, for lack of a different term, an easy bake oven to operating the gas range, right? It's night and day, if you will. And there's just been this upscaling that has been synonymous with our journey, especially on the manufacturing side, which is ironic because that wasn't the path that we wanted to embark on for the journey. We didn't want to necessarily manufacture the product. Because that's not how the industry typically operates. There are a lot of co-manufacturing relationships and it allows for the brand to focus on the brand and growing the brand and its distribution that we're getting. You're not distracted by the manufacturing of it. We had so many doors closed in our face that it forced us to learn how to actually roast the product and so, you know, to your point about how did we grow our business to be able to service from a couple stores to a lot of stores. There's a lot that had to happen that we don't often get to talk about or rather that people don't see. They just automatically think, this happened overnight. But no, there's a lot of pit stops and checkpoints along the way that had to transpire.
Emily Steele (12:21)
Yeah, I was just at the Fancy Food Show. I don't know if you know, like it's a CPG event in New York City and you know, I met so many founders who are in this, like they're bringing the product to the market. Like they're, they really want to get the attention of retailers. They're like, how, like I have something. I know people like it. Like I want to get into more people's hands. Like you've obviously done this. I'm sure it's a little bit of like, art, science, luck, timing, like a little bit of everything, right? And you can't repeat that, replicate that for everyone, but is there anything you can recall on the journey that you're like, I would absolutely recommend this or like share this advice to people who are early on in their journey in case they're listening.
Rod Johnson (13:10)
One, we honed in on the quality of our product because it doesn't matter what the cause is. It doesn't matter how cool the branding is. It doesn't matter who owns the business if the product is not consumable, right? Or if it's not one that is differentiated or on par with who your competitors are. So we really honed in and made sure that what we put out to the world really embodies our interpretation of specialty coffee. Specialty coffee typically is defined by, or rather, guarded by cafes and restaurants. So you think about your hipster cafes, like they have owned this idea of specialty coffee and it hasn't existed in other in other areas, right? Whether it be at home or at your job or at your college campus. And what our thesis was, it was like, okay, let's take specialty coffee and go to where the people are. And that forced us to really say, okay, well, if we're gonna do that, we wanna make sure that the quality isn't diminished once we take that product from the coffee house to your home coffee bar, if you will. So. That's the first piece of advice, make sure that the product is of quality. And then also that your messaging is clear and able to be digested very, very quickly and succinctly. So, you know, ultimately we are, you know, a specialty coffee company that meets community impact by giving a portion of our proceeds back to organizations that support youth in need. That's something that people can wrap their minds around pretty quickly and they don't have to like try to decipher who or what you're about. So by way of us having that clear and concise messaging, it allows for us to adopt new people who are looking to be more conscious with their consumerism. There's a heightened emphasis on people actually caring about where their dollars go, right? Like, you know, they don't want to just shop with brands that are not reciprocal back to the communities in which they inhabit.
Emily Steele (15:12)
Totally, yeah.
Rod Johnson (15:27)
And so by us having that clear, overt message, it allows for us to be found more easily than if that was layered, if you will.
Emily Steele (15:27)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Have you heard directly like we chose BLK & Bold because of your mission and your social impact? Is that like a resounding message beyond quality?
Rod Johnson (15:48)
Yeah, well, we have many points of entry for our brand, right? So again, it starts with the product. We have a premium product experience that those who are looking to upgrade their morning can consider us. So that's one aspect of it. There is obviously, to your point, the social impact mission and the fact that we give 5 % of our gross profits back to these organizations. That's something that really resonates with people because we've done the vetting for you, if you will, and we've found these organizations in your local communities that are doing some really transformative work for the people who need it the most. And that's youth in need. And so for those who care about these issues and want to be a vessel or beacon of hope for the next generation, you can participate in doing so by just changing the product that you were already going to consume, right? Again, coffee is the second most consumed beverage. You're already drinking the coffee. You cannot only upgrade the tasting experience, but then also the impact that you have by the beverage that fuels your life. And so yes, that's something that people resonate with.
Emily Steele (16:49)
Yeah, and I can say like that's why I've Yeah, and that's why I've been a long -term customer too I'm like, I get an incredible cup of coffee and like I feel like I'm making a difference with my dollars and I do like that does resonate to today's consumers and like even like you being a B Corp Can you just like share what that means for people who are maybe unfamiliar with that?
Rod Johnson (17:22)
Yeah, yeah, the easiest way I can put it is that these are organizations that prioritize purpose as much as profit, right? So they care about their shareholders, shareholders as much as they do their stakeholders, right? And so some examples of B Corps are Tom's Shoes, for example, right? Remember the buy pair of shoes? They give a pair of shoes. There's Patagonia, there's Shea Moisture.
Emily Steele (17:41)
Mm -hmm. Yeah. Yep.
Rod Johnson (17:48)
There's Ben & Jerry's, which in my opinion is the premier before, right? They are a social impact company that sells ice cream. And that's really who we modeled our business plan behind. And that, you know, it's coffee is the vehicle for the good that we are doing in the community. And it's always about that. And, you know, what if we think about the balance of, you know, where do we from a marketing perspective place emphasis? Do we focus more on the product or do we focus on the social impact? I would say they are hand in hand and neck and neck and where we put our focus and our emphasis because our audience is split pretty evenly across either of those points of entry.
Emily Steele (18:21)
Sure. Okay. Cool. So Ben and Jerry's, I think that's a great segue. Like they've, you've had a partnership with them and some other really cool partnerships over the last few years, right? And so I'd love to hear about like the Ben & Jerry's one specifically since you mentioned that, but also like the work you've done with NBA and NBA Cares and like movie Black Panther, is that right? Like you've done like some really interesting things and I'm just curious, like how do those come about? Do you initiate? Do they come to you? Like what can listeners learn from those experiences? How fun.
Rod Johnson (19:03)
Yeah, no, it's been as cool as it is for you saying it, it's been even more cool living through it, right? And being able to express my fan through my business, right? Like connecting all of the things that I really like and it being meshed into this really cool product experience for our consumers. So with Ben & Jerry's, that's probably the coolest, no pun intended of them all whereas, you know, we got a chance to have our ingredient be a part of not only to be a part of the coffee, but be a part of something that was that I think is necessary. And those just awareness to legislation that really matters. Right. And so the first year that we worked with Ben & Jerry's, that the coffee was used to bring awareness to the People's Response Act. And that was the intent for Congress and local municipalities to refocus their resources into the things that really benefit the community, right? As opposed to taking a one-size-fits-all approach, right? And when you go to the doctor, you don't just get medicine, right? Like they prescribe you something very specific for whatever it is that you're there for.
Emily Steele (20:00)
sure.
Rod Johnson (20:28)
We need to have a similar approach when it comes to assisting these communities in need and not over policing because we're too lazy to come up with some more prescriptive solutions. So it was really cool being a part of that and trying to get that bill passed. And then also, and then the follow-up year, we were, they brought back the limited edition flavor that was called Change is Brewing. Sorry if I didn't reference that. So, you know, they're they get really cool and real funky with their name. I love that one. The Change is Brewing and I love it because it was evergreen, right? And the sense of that, you know, we can just plug and play different initiatives and causes that need a little bit of spotlight so that next year we were able to bring back that limited edition flavor and use it to try to reduce and therefore eliminate voter suppression in some key areas across America, of course, but in some key areas as well. So again, Ben & Jerry's and the fact that they are on the forefront of this progressive thought and the fact that they welcomed us to be part of furthering those issues is something that is a top of the list partnerships that we've been able to be a part of.
Emily Steele (21:29)
Yeah, that's so meaningful. Is it kind of like the intention to continue finding ways where it just Change is Brewing, overlaps with things that BLK and Bold and Ben and Jerry's kind of both value and are going after in terms of impact?
Rod Johnson (21:53)
Yeah, it'll definitely be an ever-evolving relationship. It won't be so heavy all of the time. I can assure you that we're definitely going to have some fun with them and I can't wait for those things to come to fruition. So just stay tuned on some ways that will be working with some of the previous partners.
Emily Steele (22:08)
Okay, leave us on the hook, I love it. Okay, just to hear a little bit more about the social impact in the 5 % for our youth program, can you just share a little bit about, you know, I mentioned like $100,000 has gone to these programs, like what's happening with the dollars, where is the impact you're kind of seeing through that?
Rod Johnson (22:42)
Yeah, yeah, so slight update. As of very recently, it is a quarter billion dollars that we've been able to generate and donate to these different organizations. And that's in just our short existence. You know, we've only been around now for about six years. The fact that we've been able to contribute that to these very worthy organizations, I think speaks to the need and the gap that our business is feeling that consumers are looking for brands that, again, do good in their respective neighborhoods and communities. So the 14 organizations that we support are in markets where we have retail distribution so that we can help close the loop for consumers.
Rod Johnson (23:38)
So ultimately the idea is you know, you go to your local Target or your local Albertsons or Safeway or shop right or wall brings in you see our brand you can know that that brand is supporting an organization that's that's in your own backyard and so that was the idea of how we decided to map out the organization that we support. That what they focus on is really impressive. Many of them are focusing on health and wellness by way of like urban farming and like just teaching about healthy lifestyles. Some of them are providing technological access, mentorship and life services. Our thought in choosing these different organizations is that we understand that the need that kids have are great and it's not monolithic. So let's find a way to pour into all or rather a diverse set of disciplines or areas of focus, if you will.
Emily Steele (24:35)
Cool, love that. And congrats on, yeah, 100 to 250, right? That's a big jump in terms of what you've been able to allocate and it has to feel so meaningful as a founder to be like, wow, like I get to see this in action, right? Like it's 5 % at one point, which is nothing until you grow, right? Like, I know, so it's like, my gosh, I become something more. And like the more you grow, the more reach it, like you can feel that increase. And so huge congrats. That's really incredible to be part of that.
Rod Johnson (24:59)
Thank you. Thank you. It's super awesome, right? And I sit on the board of one of our organizations, the one that's located here in our local market. It's called By Degrees Foundation. And what they do is try to strengthen the pipeline between secondary and post -secondary education by providing kids to participate in the program with college savings accounts, right? And to your point, it's not a ton of money, right? But it's something tangible that makes the idea of going to college for somebody who may not have the resources very real, right? Like they have money earmarked for that progression should they choose to go and it increases their performance and it increases their self-confidence, right? And so the fact that we're able to support organizations like that in a real meaningful way is very fulfilling.
Emily Steele (25:43)
Yeah, I love it. So cool. Okay, my final question is like, what's next for BLK and Bold? Anything on the horizon that we should know about? And of course, like where can people listening grab some coffee?
Rod Johnson (26:14)
Yeah, well, I mentioned I'll answer the second question first. You can buy our coffee wherever coffee is sold, pretty much. So your Targets, your Albertsons, Walgreens, you got some regional groceries, you got other relationships like Hy-Vee in the Midwest or HEB down in Texas, ShopRite in the Northeast. And the intent is to show up where our consumers are and get them the opportunity to participate in solving these societal issues. And then of course online, right? You go to BLKandbold.com, that's BLK, and bold .com. We ship pretty much anywhere where you are, including internationally. So that's where you can find the product. What's next for us is, one, it's standing up our foundation. We just launched our nonprofit foundation earlier this year, which is meant to be at the center of this nonprofit ecosystem that we are trying to build, this social enterprise that we are trying to build. So we'll have some programming and some opportunities that will stem from the foundation. But then also, we're going to be looking to, on the for-profit side of the business, going to be looking to embark on brick and mortar.
Rod Johnson (27:38)
That's something that is, it's always been on the horizon. I would say that we're closer than we have ever been. You know, we took a very much so atypical approach with standing up BLK and Bold in the sense that we don't have a brick and mortar space and most coffee establishments have that, like they look to have that impact in their respective communities. You know, we did the inverse of that. We wanted to have a national impact and then now look to build out our local footprint by way of a brick and mortar store. So that's something that is something we're actively looking to bring on board and it'll be really cool because you know it'll give people a chance to experience BLK and Bold like directly from the source if you will. We've been very dependent upon our partners to help bring that tasting experience, the life by way of some food service contracts and some having a product on college campuses and hotels and things of that nature. So now we get a chance to really own and curate that in-person experience. And I'm really excited to bring that to life.
Emily Steele (28:39)
Do you have a timeline on it or is it too? I was like, if it's in Des Moines too, like, my gosh, I wanna know, but it's okay if you can't tell. Okay, fair.
Rod Johnson (28:52)
Yeah, I can't spill all the beans right now, but soon we will be a little bit more, we'll be shouting from the rooftops when that time is right.
Emily Steele (29:07)
Okay, well I'm excited to hear that that news breaks. So amazing. Thanks for taking time to share your story, BLK and Bold, with listeners and yeah, offer some advice too. I think a lot of people tuning in are really trying to figure out what's the local marketing strategy that works for where I'm at my stage of company and it's cool. You've done the local thing but gone national and now you're kind of coming back to local too. And so I think it's just interesting how BLK and Bold has really taken the path you have.
Rod Johnson (29:14)
Absolutely.
Emily Steele (29:37)
Thank you for being on the show today.
Rod Johnson (29:39)
Thank you. I appreciate you having me.
