160. Smart Growth for Food Brands: Are You Using “Expedited Cautiousness”?
Food Business Marketing - Brand Strategy Tips to Build a Business You Love
Release Date: 11/26/2025
166. Profit and Margins and Cash Flow...OH MY! A Mini Masterclass in Food Business Financials with Sarah Delevan
Food Business Marketing - Brand Strategy Tips to Build a Business You Love
A mini masterclass in food business finances with Sarah Delevan. We're covering margins, growth scenarios, and why "scale" isn’t a financial strategy.
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165. Choosing Your Word of the Year: Lean Into Who You’re Becoming as a Leader
Food Business Marketing - Brand Strategy Tips to Build a Business You Love
How choosing your Word of the Year can help you lean into who you were meant to be....a benefit to your brand, your business, and beyond!
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164. Curating Holiday Traditions & Year-Round Food Rituals
Food Business Marketing - Brand Strategy Tips to Build a Business You Love
In this fun episode, Katie & Clint swap stories about holiday traditions—and close with a simple idea about how brands become part of year-round rituals.
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163. Brand Pillars: The Backbone of Your Brand That Makes a Major Impact
Food Business Marketing - Brand Strategy Tips to Build a Business You Love
A simple framework to help you review where you’ve been, regroup your resources, and refocus your next 12 months anytime you want more clarity and alignment. Great for year-end, or any time of year to reset!
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162. Your Next 12 Months: Review, Regroup & Refocus to Align With Your BHAG
Food Business Marketing - Brand Strategy Tips to Build a Business You Love
A simple framework to help you review where you’ve been, regroup your resources, and refocus your next 12 months anytime you want more clarity and alignment. Great for year-end, or any time of year to reset!
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161. Should You Go? Choosing Events & Shows That Will Move Your Food Brand Forward
Food Business Marketing - Brand Strategy Tips to Build a Business You Love
If your message feels messy, it’s likely not that you’re bad at writing...it’s because your brand strategy needs more structure. In ep 159, Katie shows how a strong foundation makes your messaging clearer + more consistent everywhere.
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160. Smart Growth for Food Brands: Are You Using “Expedited Cautiousness”?
Food Business Marketing - Brand Strategy Tips to Build a Business You Love
If your message feels messy, it’s likely not that you’re bad at writing...it’s because your brand strategy needs more structure. In ep 159, Katie shows how a strong foundation makes your messaging clearer + more consistent everywhere.
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159. Does Your Message Feel Messy? Start With Strategy Before You Start Writing
Food Business Marketing - Brand Strategy Tips to Build a Business You Love
If your message feels messy, it’s likely not that you’re bad at writing...it’s because your brand strategy needs more structure. In ep 159, Katie shows how a strong foundation makes your messaging clearer + more consistent everywhere.
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158. Using Grants to Grow Your Brand: VAPG and Beyond
Food Business Marketing - Brand Strategy Tips to Build a Business You Love
Learn how food and farm businesses can use grants, including the USDA’s Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG), to fund growth, strengthen brand strategy, and scale with intention.
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157. PERSIST: After the Sales Pitch...How to Turn a Yes or No into Next Steps (4Ps Sales Process Step 5 of 5)
Food Business Marketing - Brand Strategy Tips to Build a Business You Love
In Ep 157, we share what to do after the pitch — how to follow up, build buyer relationships, and turn every yes or no into forward motion for your food brand.
info_outlineHow food business owners can stay focused & grow intentionally, while building a brand that's in alignment with their strategy.
Here's one major advantage smaller food businesses have: the ability to move fast. But that freedom can also leave room to move too quickly into new sales channels, partnerships, or operational decisions...before the business is truly ready.
In other words, just because you can doesn't mean you should.
That’s why today, Katie and Clint are digging into a concept and mindset Clint and his co-founder developed early on: EXPEDITED CAUTIOUSNESS — the idea that you can move quickly, but only when you have the clarity and data to make a confident, aligned decision.
It’s a fresh, practical way to navigate growth and respond to opportunities without reacting out of pressure or FOMO.
Together, we explore how this approach can help other food business owners grow smarter, avoid costly missteps, and build a business and brand they truly love.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
- Why “expedited cautiousness” can help you grow quickly and responsibly
- How to avoid reacting too quickly
- Why hoping financials “get better later” is a growth trap
- How to use your brand strategy as a decision filter for new opportunities
- Examples from Clint’s business where moving too fast backfired — and what he learned
- Growth tips and mindset shifts to help you build a business & brand you love
Related Episodes:
- Ep 152: Sharing Lessons Learned to Build a Strong Food Brand
- Ep 158: Using Grants to Grow Your Brand: VAPG and Beyond
- Ep 141: Bridging Brand Strategy & Sales: Don't Just Sell More, Sell Smarter
- Ep 134: How to Shift From Running a Business to Growing a Brand
WHAT TO DO NEXT?
1. 📧 Katie's Friday Newsletter - including a Weekly Worksheet to help you apply these ideas directly to your food business. Sign up here.
2. 💬 Join the Conversation! Tune in to the podcast, then join us in the Real Food Brands Marketing Round Table - a free food & farm business owner community to ask questions and meet other people who love producing real food as much as you do!
3. 📞 If you're ready to talk about building a clear, cohesive brand or integrating your brand + sales strategy, you can Request an Intro Call to discuss the ways we work with food, farm, and natural product brands.
Thanks for listening – let’s go shake up shopping carts!
Katie Mleziva
Host & Food Brand Strategist | Real Food Brands