Katie Mleziva (Real Food Brands) & Clint Matthews (Start Right Foods)
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Looking for ways to grow your natural food business or family farm business into a strong local, regional or national brand? Find actionable tips and insights from Food Brand Strategist, Katie Mleziva, to DEFINE, ALIGN, & ACTIVATE your brand strategy to set your food brand apart and align everything you do around that North Star. You will also hear from Clint Matthews, cofounder of Start Right Foods, about food business sales strategy. Clint has a unique perspective and useful tips about working with buyers, brokers, distributors and more. Focusing on cohesive, compelling, and consistent food branding and sales will help you...
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
It connects food branding to the financial and operational decisions that determine whether a product can grow.
Katie Mleziva and Clint keep returning to the decisions that turn a food product into a durable business. Conversations move easily between brand presentation and the machinery behind it, including gross profit, grant requirements, retail relationships, freight, packaging, and…
A $10 sale leaves $5 to work with; your 'just scale it' plan may need a minute.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Three brand stories, with a clear look at how each one tries to stand out.
This episode pairs three brands the host met at Expo West, and each one takes a different route to getting noticed. One leans on a family recipe with a twist, another starts from a personal pain point in a category that still feels overdue for a reset, and the third is trying to…
A steady case for training attention before pressure hits.
The episode lands on a simple point: in high-pressure work, strategy matters less than people who can keep their footing when the room gets loud. Chad McGehee keeps it practical.
Trade-show networking gets treated as a practical way to earn a useful next step.
This episode treats trade-show networking as something to plan for, not a lucky break you stumble into. It makes the practical point that once travel, booth costs, and time are on the line, showing up unprepared is hard to defend.
A steady strategy session for food businesses when change arrives fast.
Katie and Clint frame a familiar kind of pressure in food businesses: a cease and desist letter, a key ingredient disappearing, a building sold out from under the owner, or a chance that forces bigger thinking. The throughline is clear.
Growth helps until the process falls behind.
The piece argues that growth can expose a weak spot in a food business when too much depends on one person, or when the systems behind the work do not keep up.
A clear primer on brand strategy, branding, and marketing for food business owners.
Katie makes brand strategy feel usable by separating it from branding and marketing, then showing what it can actually do for a business. The practical angle is the strongest part: abstract terms turn into clear guidance, and her experience with big Fortune 500 companies lends…
A practical reset for founders who think sales growth alone will fix the math.
This episode treats food business finance like something founders actually have to live with, not a nice idea for later. Sarah Delavan and Clint push past the comforting belief that scale alone will fix the numbers, and they make a solid case against the 50% margin myth.
Brand pillars become useful when they help a food business make clearer decisions.
Brand pillars sit at the center of this conversation, but the real value is simpler: they give a food business a better way to make decisions.
Simon Owens interviews founders about the revenue mechanics behind their media businesses.
Colin and Samir break down creator-economy news, from OpenAI's TBPN deal to AI podcasts.
AI-era marketing tactics from operators testing what works next.
Mark DeGrasse interviews agency and marketing operators on the frameworks behind their case studies.
Cory Cotten-Potter interviews B2B sales and marketing founders on AI's reshaping of pipeline generation.
Kristina Halvorson interviews content strategists about how the work actually gets done.
Clint and Katie turn Expo West into a brand-strategy conversation.
Amy opens the show by framing operations as part of brand building, not a boring back-office chore.
Clint and Katie sit down with Stephen Ossery of Stewards Unlimited to talk about grants for food and farm businesses.
Interview with John Romano, founder of Let's Go Nutrition, discussing how he built a clean energy and hydration brand by rethinking affordability and ingredients in the functional beverage space.
Interview with Cassandra Shippen, CEO of Flax for Life Bakery, discussing how personal health needs and family legacy drove innovation in baked goods.
Katie Mleziva discusses the stages of brand development for food businesses, emphasizing the importance of a strong brand strategy beyond just a good product and packaging.
The show gathers three brands the host met through Expo West.
Katie Malesova talks with Chad McGeehy about what it takes to perform when the pressure is real.
Hosts Katie Melezova and Clint Matthews provide practical strategies for food business owners to have meaningful conversations at trade shows like Expo West.
Host Katie and food entrepreneur Clint Matthews discuss how to lead a food business through unexpected crises, from cease-and-desist letters to ingredient shortages.
Katie and Clint discuss how business growth can create operational blind spots when processes don't evolve.
Hosts Katie Malazova and Clint Matthews discuss how food businesses that have gained initial traction can strategically level up.
Hosts Clint and Katie use personal stories—a snowstorm where Clint helped reluctant neighbors and Katie's bike crash where she refused help—to explore why entrepreneurs often struggle to accept assistance.
Host and brand strategist Katie Malazova is interviewed by co-host Clint Matthews to clearly define brand strategy, distinguish it from marketing and branding, and explain its practical value for food businesses.
Host and food brand strategist Katie Malazova and guest Clint Matthews of Start Right Foods explore how food brands can move beyond one-time transactions to become embedded in customers' daily routines and annual traditions.
Katie and Clint open the door to a longer, finance-heavy conversation with Sarah Delavan.
Katie Mleziva introduces the concept of a 'word of the year' to guide food business owners in aligning their personal and professional growth with their brand strategy.
The hosts share personal holiday traditions and family stories around Christmas, then pivot to discuss how food businesses can apply the concept of rituals and traditions to build stronger, more emotionally resonant brands that become part of customers' daily lives.
Host Katie Malazova and guest Clint Matthews of Start Right Foods explore the concept of brand pillars as the foundational structure for a business.
Host Katie Malazava and guest Clint Matthews discuss how food business owners can strategically choose which events and trade shows to attend in 2026.
Host Katie Malazova interviews Clint Matthews, co-founder of Start Right Foods, about his concept of 'expedited cautiousness'—a strategic approach to growth that balances speed with data-informed decision-making.
Host Katie Malazova explains why messy messaging is usually a clarity problem, not a writing issue, and shares strategic questions to build a strong brand foundation.
Guest Clint Matthews walks through his actual 10-slide retail pitch deck for his food brand, sharing the exact structure and content that has secured buyer approvals.
This episode focuses on the 'Prep' stage of a 4-part sales process, teaching food business owners how to prepare for a sales pitch.
Host Katie Malazova interviews Clint Matthews from Start Right Foods about transforming sales anxiety into confident conversations.
Katie Mleziva shares five ways to build a legacy brand in the food business, focusing on values and consistency.
Katie Mleziva interviews Kelsey Jenkins about using copywriting to align and activate brand strategy for natural food companies.
A food brand strategist interviews successful food entrepreneurs about their journey from backyard barbecue to national retail shelves.
Katie Mleziva interviews Sarah Marion of Murphy Research about understanding changing consumer habits during the pandemic to help food business owners attract and retain customers.
Katie Mleziva interviews Adam Pollack about optimizing direct-to-consumer sales for natural food brands.
Katie Mleziva shares four common brand strategy mistakes and how to fix them for food businesses.