Sara Couch is the General Manager of Splendor Water USA, a premium bottled water brand known for its unique mineral content sourced from volcanic springs in Ecuador. She leads US growth strategy, retail expansion, and brand development, overseeing partnerships across major retailers while shaping marketing and distribution. Sara blends her background in education policy, nonprofit leadership, and a bilingual MBA from IE Business School to scale Splendor Water in the competitive CPG market while maintaining its mission-driven identity rooted in wellness and sustainability.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- [1:38] Sara Couch’s background in education, nonprofit work, and beverage entrepreneurship
- [2:16] Why Sara shifted from public policy and psychology into operations, fundraising, and CPG
- [7:38] What went into building the Splendor Water brand identity, including its origin story and wellness positioning
- [15:13] Packaging decisions and tradeoffs between sustainability, product integrity, and consumer use cases
- [21:57] How Splendor Water used a DTC-first approach to build traction and support retail growth
- [26:55] What Sara learned from retail expansion across Erewhon, Sprouts, KeHE, and regional partners
- [30:35] The team building shift from lean startup to in-house hires, consultants, and sales leadership
- [37:07] Sara’s leadership focus on strategy over execution, delegation, and staying clear under pressure
- [42:07] The use of AI and digital tools to improve marketing efficiency, retailer workflows, and content creation
- [45:18] Three women-led CPG brands Sara thinks everyone should know
In this episode…
Wellness products often look simple on the surface, yet the path from early traction to retail scale is rarely straightforward. Every decision, from packaging to positioning, influences whether a brand can grow beyond its first wave of customers. So what actually determines which products succeed in mainstream retail?
Sara Couch, a CPG operator and beverage brand executive, explains that scaling a wellness beverage comes down to aligning story, product integrity, and channel strategy from the beginning. She emphasizes that DTC traction is critical for validating demand and shaping how brands approach retail partnerships. Sara also points to packaging as a major decision point where sustainability, cost, and usability must stay in balance, while highlighting that team structure and selective use of AI help brands scale without losing identity. The result is a clearer view of how disciplined decisions across early growth stages determine long-term success.
In this episode of The Missing Ingredient, CJ Bruce is joined by Sara Couch, General Manager of Splendor Water USA, to discuss launching a unique wellness beverage in today’s market. Sara unpacks how Splendor Water evolved from an Ecuadorian spring discovery into a layered wellness brand with a strong mineral-driven identity. She also shares advice on lean teams, using AI for efficiency, and protecting focus on strategy over daily execution.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- CJ Bruce on LinkedIn
- The Missing Ingredient
- Sara Couch on LinkedIn
- Splendor Water USA: Website | Instagram | Discount code: TMI15
- Korimana Healing Retreat
- KeHE
- Erewhon
- Lucy Dana on LinkedIn
- One Trick Pony
- Jade Taylor on LinkedIn
- Angel Oak Smokehouse
- Audrey Melville on LinkedIn
- Buffy Protein
Quotable Moments:
- “I actually have always been interested more in the health and wellness side.”
- “I studied, majored in psychology and public policy, made a shift along the way through there to kind of lean more into the public policy side.”
- “Not the work that I was doing so much on the ground with teachers, but actually how the business ran and how they built it.”
- “It’s hard when you’re in it day-to-day to get out of the we got to do all these different things.”
- “I think it’s really about the people and working, working in tandem together.”
Action Steps:
- Align product and brand story early: Integrating storytelling with product development ensures messaging feels authentic and supports stronger market positioning, which is critical for long-term differentiation.
- Build DTC traction before scaling retail: Establishing direct customer demand provides proof points, improves negotiation leverage with retailers, and reduces early distribution risk.
- Evaluate packaging beyond aesthetics: Balancing sustainability, usability, and product integrity helps avoid costly tradeoffs and ensures the product performs well across real-world use cases.
- Strengthen clarity between strategy and execution: Creating separation between high-level planning and day-to-day tasks helps leaders avoid getting stuck in operational noise and improves decision-making quality.
- Invest in the right team structure at each stage: Building roles that match growth phase needs improves efficiency, reduces bottlenecks, and ensures specialized expertise is applied where it matters most.
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is sponsored by The Missing Ingredient, a food and beverage marketing agency that believes a better future starts with food. They partner with purpose-driven brands to drive growth through smart, results-focused marketing — without the “set it and forget it” approach.
From brand awareness and paid media to content, influencer partnerships, and loyalty programs, they act as true strategic partners invested in your long-term success.
To learn more about how they help food and beverage brands grow with impact, visit themissingingredient.com today.
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Full Transcript
Introduction and Guest Background
Intro: 00:01
Welcome to The Missing Ingredient podcast with CJ Bruce, where food and beverage founders, operators and experts share the real strategies behind building successful brands. Let’s jump into today’s show.
CJ Bruce: 00:15
Hey, I’m CJ Bruce and welcome to the show. This is the podcast where founders and leaders of high impact food and beverage brands who are serious about scaling. Each episode, I sit down with the people who power the food and beverage industry, brand operators, agencies, vendors, creators, and retailers to uncomplicate strategies that take brands from early traction to serious scale.
This episode is sponsored by The Missing Ingredient, a food and beverage marketing agency with over a decade in the industry. We take a different approach, starting with your business goals, looking at the full picture and building a marketing strategy that actually ties back to growth. From content performance marketing to influencer partnerships and AI powered workflows. We’re an extension of your team, not just another vendor. Learn more at themissingingredient.com.
Now, before introducing today’s guest, I want to give a big shout out to Christof from the images. You can check out their website at theimages.com. Who introduced me to Sara Couch.
And now for today’s guest. So Sara Couch started started the teach for America program in NYC after graduating from Duke undergrad after a short lived career in education policy in Sydney and New York, she made the jump to CPG after deciding to complete her bilingual MBA at IE Business School in Madrid to help her family grow the Splendor Water brand. As their general manager in the US market. It’s been a roller coaster of wins and learnings ever since and we will get into some of that today. Welcome to the show, Sara.
Sara Couch: 01:35
Thanks. Glad to be here. CJ nice to see you again.
CJ Bruce: 01:38
Good to see you too. And yeah I should say that mentioned that we did work together at the beginning of the Splendor Water, the early days of Splendor Water. So we’ve got some, you know, background.
Sara Couch: 01:49
Part of the early roller coaster. You got to witness it yourself.
CJ Bruce: 01:53
Yes. Yes, exactly. So let’s go start from the beginning. So, you know, teaching in the Bronx and like nonprofit education and then going into, you know, the beverage brand beverage world. So maybe just talk a little bit about, you know, that that shift and kind of, you know, you were going into education and then decided to make the pivot.
So what, what happened there and how did you make that decision?
From Education and Public Policy to CPG Pivot
Sara Couch: 02:16
Yeah, very, very nontraditional pivot, you would say. But I actually have always been interested more in the health and wellness side. I had studied a lot of integrative medicine and like back even in high school and was really interested in it. Did my senior speech on it, started school at Duke as pre-med, mainly leaning toward going into psychiatry. And that’s where I was interested.
I studied, majored in psychology and public policy, made a shift along the way through there to kind of lean more into the public policy side. Hence the starting, you know, with the teach for America program, worked at a nonprofit for a while at that nonprofit in New York, actually then shifted into development, work and fundraising and got a lot more interested in. Not the work that I was doing so much on the ground with teachers, but actually. How the business ran and how they built it, you know, where were we getting our support from? From fundraisers interest and how did we continue to grow this mission beyond, you know, the work that was actually happening on the ground, which is of course, really important as well.
At the same time, I have learned about actually back senior year of college is when I very first learned about Splendor Water. And my family did was introduced to it when we were down in Colombia. My mother is Colombian and my grandmother was sick with Alzheimer’s at the time. She was really, you know, no longer in her body, much not very verbal. And so we had gathered as a family to sort of just let her know we were at peace for her passing on, trying to kind of encourage her soul, if you will, to, to leave her body.
And one of a good family friend of ours who is a functional doctor and is a group of a functional. A part of a group of functional doctors across Latin America and Spain that they deemed as synthetica, but essentially integrative medicine. All traditionally trained doctors, but that also use a lot of, you know, work with energy therapy, Reiki, work with really high quality food and organic water. They had actually invested in Splendor. And that’s where we first learned about it.
So one of the doctors who led this ceremony for my grandmother had different elements of what the fact that we’re all connected in the world and all one had representations of, you know, water, air, aether, and the representation that he had for water in this ceremony that we did was a bottle of Splendor. Serendipitously, my father, despite being divorced from my mother at the time for 15 years, had come down to be a part of this ceremony with my grandmother and said, you know, what is that blue bottle? Got very interested in it. Initially invested and it’s a much longer story. How we then ended up overall acquiring the company.
So we are not original founders certainly pay homage to to their original founders, which I can share more about as well. But fast forward to when I was at the nonprofit in New York, a lot had been going on behind the scenes in terms of growing Splendor in Ecuador before then, and I started helping out on the side while working at this nonprofit to help organize us for a launch in the US market. We did with Christophe at the images. A lot of rebranding at the time actually explored different names. You know, a lot of prep work to initially launch the product in the US during 2020.
On e-commerce. The pandemic, of course, gave some challenges to that launch timeline. So we ended up actually bringing it to market in 2022. But you know, I having studied psychology, public policy. Nothing about business.
Did you decide that I needed some sort of way to educate myself? You know, no. No econ background, no CPG background, of course, which the best I now know the best education is while you’re actually doing it. But within the first year, while we were mostly e-commerce based and remote, I did complete the bilingual program in, in Madrid. Wanted to have I grew up bilingual, speak Spanish, of course, because of my mother’s side, but didn’t have Spanish, you know, concretely in my business vocabulary.
So that was why it was also a one year program, really phenomenal fit for my needs. And, and of course, Madrid’s a wonderful city. So that’s why that that program for me was the best. And it was definitely a roller coaster year. As you remember, you were still with me that time trying to run the business and school at the same time.
So have since been back and, and just venturing now into retail in the last couple of years in a more meaningful way with Splendor. So it’s exciting to beyond just the launch timeline, there’s, as you probably know, speaking to a lot of brands, a lot of years that went into growing it before, before actually bringing it to market.
CJ Bruce: 07:06
Yeah, absolutely. Appreciate that background. And we’ll definitely going to get into into some of these pieces. So I think let’s go. Let’s go to the establishing of the brand.
So you mentioned, you know, like without getting into the details of, you know, acquiring the company and you have that now, there was some existing branding. So can you just talk about, you know, the, the distinct identity of Splendor? Because I think there’s a lot of great elements in there. And just how did that. Talk a little bit about that process.
Like what went into that? How did you land on the the current identity? Yeah. Take us into that journey.
Defining Splendor Water Brand Identity and Story
Sara Couch: 07:38
Yeah, absolutely. So Splendor has actually been a brand in Ecuador, very small in the first 10 to 15 years since 2001. So I mentioned we, you know, our family has really been instrumental in growing it. We love it like our own, but we were not the original founders. It was actually first founded by a man named Guillermo Sotomayor in back in the 80s, kind of accidentally.
He was a scientist excavator really in the area that we’re from to search for rich minerals like gold and silver. And his daughter at the time was ill. She was terminally ill, had meningitis, and he had a dream to bathe her in the springs on his land, which is now the Splendor plant and the spring itself, and give her this water for several weeks on end. And she ended up getting better. So he then kind of completely pivoted his life’s mission, believing that this was a in a healing water and wanted to get it out to the world.
Of course, we’re careful in terms of that, but we deeply believe that this water is very special as well. He then later went on to study what was in the water. Why? Why these functional minerals? What was so special about it?
And found that it is one of the only sources in the entire world that has natural. Where the water picks up natural colloidal gold and silver. So it starts its filtration naturally atop the Cotopaxi volcano, and then the spring itself. And the artesian source is in Ecuador, which is at the foothills of the Andes rainforest. So a little bit of of where the water comes from.
But he decided to bottle it and was actually under a different name, La Mana water there. And that local community for the first like 15, 20 years before selling it off to the new owner and it becoming the brand Splendor. So she’s really grew it just locally for the first 10 to 15 years, was actually in a place where she was going to sell it off to a different, you know, owners in the area until the group of doctors that I mentioned previously came in and actually decided that they wanted to be a part of it, helped invest in the company and grow it prior to, to now, you know, my family getting involved. When we did so, the, the prior identity branding, again, it was Splendor the name, but very focused on, on the gold and silver aspects. So just kind of like not to be just sort of elementary and beginning branding, right?
Never with the intention of necessarily like scaling this to other markets, despite that being Sotomayor’s like initial mission to get this out to the world. And so when we first started to look at elevating that a little bit, we wanted to ensure that the backstory of the water that, you know, unique kind of mystical story got told. One fun fact as well is that Sotomayor in this area, that is again, the plant when he first discovered the water, also discovered a tunnel of 300 plus unknown artifacts. A lot of these artifacts, we actually don’t know how they got to this area. And the source they have, a lot of them had it writings like Sanskrit or patterns or likeness to Southeast Asian culture.
So no business being in like the Incan culture. So our whole brand story really has a lot of mystique. And again, we believe that that indicates ancient civilizations also flocked kind of to this area, this source. So that’s what we wanted to communicate that in the pyramid and the logo and all of the visuals of the brand, a bit of sort of just intrigue as well as, of course, be clear around the gold and silver and the unique elements that this brand does have that, that no other water really in the world does at the time of starting to think about bringing this over to the US, Splenda, the artificial sweetener was pretty hot. So that was a bit of a contentious point in terms of the name itself.
We actually, you know, looked at so many different names trying to honor the kind of ink and history of of our source. We were trying to incorporate subtly elements of healing without, of course, making claims, knowing that that’s something to be very careful of with FDA regulations and all, you know, worldly regulations. But FDA being one of the strictest. So for a very short period, we actually did change the name to health to. Oh, and the, the typography of that was designed to look like the word heal plus H2O.
So heal plus water so that we subliminally were talking about, you know, the health of it, the healing without, of course, making any direct claims. We started with my family also has a grass fed beef farm and a natural products market in Summerfield, North Carolina. We slowly started to export the product just there and sell it kind of locally in North Carolina. And in that product, so many early day customers might know and have some old health, two bottles out there and still know it. But in that same time frame, and over the course of those kind of 5 to 10 years, the brand was growing in Ecuador and becoming a household name as Splendor.
So we eventually came to a crossroads of saying, okay, we, you know, we need a brand that we’re going to grow internationally one day. We hope and we need consistent brand identity. We don’t want to confuse the Ecuadorian market, which is really our home market. And you know how everyone knows and the lifeblood of the brand itself. So we ended up changing it back to Splendor.
But the Buy Health two that you’ll see on a, you know, any bottle underneath the Splendor sort of stayed as an homage to the health two name that was short lived, but also as a potential Umbrella company branding, if you will. If we do end up bringing out other products. The doctors themselves have have a great, you know, visions around having Splendor as the base of a lot of their medical tinctures that they use today. So health two May 1st day be other parts of the product. But right now it’s a basically an homage to that name that was short lived in the US market before it went back to Splendor.
CJ Bruce: 14:08
Nice. That’s such a rich brand story. Just the background and the depth of it and the, you know, there’s.
Sara Couch: 14:15
A lot of layers. It’s hard to speak in a short form about it, as you can see from my long winded answers.
CJ Bruce: 14:24
But no, it’s good. I think it’s, you know, it’s, I mean, having tried the product, you know, it is, it’s a delicious water in itself. And then it’s, you know, it’s the, you scratch a little bit and there’s more and more to it at every level, you know, as deep as you want to go. So I think it’s, there’s a lot of value in that, you having that. Curious to go into the format.
So packaging and you have you know I mean the beautiful bottle and glass bottle as well. And so curious about, you know, as you think about I know when we were working together too, there’s a lot of the plastic, recycled plastic, the sustainability side of it. So just can you talk a little bit about, you know, the decisions around the actual packaging itself and, you know, maybe some, some trade offs that you had to make in that and take us into that decision a little bit.
Packaging, Sustainability, and Material Tradeoffs
Sara Couch: 15:13
Yeah, absolutely. Yes. So water, bottled water in and of itself, right. I think is a is one to be extremely conscious about just because there’s such a conversation around water itself, we our main purpose always is to maintain the integrity of the water in every aspect of our bottling process, from the beginning of the source to the bottle itself. And with that, we’ve explored, you know, a lot of options still and can share some of the future ones that we’re thinking about as well.
When we first got involved initially, splinter was just being packaged in plastic, both in the sparkling and the still. When we first started bringing it over to the US, we were exporting both. We found that the shelf life and the like ability to stay carbonated and sparkling for long on the on the sparkling and plastic was really difficult. So we first we started to just keep that. That actually does still exist in Ecuador now, but we’re still in tests of whether or not the shelf life and the the plastic sparkling will will last now that we are moving faster.
But that was a strategic decision to just sort of in the beginning, export only still, while we were only in the plastic. But we were always exploring glass, mainly from a a taste and integrity of the water perspective and also, of course, from a sustainability perspective, but mainly in consumer choice. I think people have really become educated themselves on the potential dangers of plastic in terms of consumption and microplastics. Obviously, there’s the much larger conversation around sustainability of plastic, which is a nuanced one, right? Because I think plastic is often painted as much better and, and the worst, but there’s a lot of differences in terms of how plastic is built, created, reused, how much energy it takes to produce as opposed to glass, how reusable it is, and certain municipal counties.
So we have strategically therefore kept the plastic as an option simply because it. Glass, unfortunately, is not always applicable to all situations. Right? We do a lot of outdoor type of events when people are going to the gym or by the pool, glass is not necessarily safe and or always allowed in certain situations. It’s also much heavier and more difficult to ship and to produce, right?
We reuse all our glass bottles. We do have a both for the glass and plastic in Ecuador, a whole bottle like reuse and retake back program. So our large format plastic bottles are reusable 20 plus times. The glass ones are reusable 60 plus times. But to recreate that take back program in the US and other markets and also be mindful of our carbon footprint.
Of course, not sending them all the way back to Ecuador to be reused is something that takes more time. And so actually the production of glass in terms of carbon footprint is often a deeper impact than the production of plastic, especially if it’s the type of plastic that we use. So knowing that that plastic was sort of a necessary choice to maintain for us, at least for now, we have really been intentional around the plastic that we create. It is a 100% recycled pet. 100% recyclable.
Again it is. It does have a firm structure so that it can be reused and that there’s not risk of it breaking down. Right. A lot of people are touting brands that are using less and less plastic, but all too often a lot of those bottles that are kind of flimsy plastic especially and clear are much faster to break down. And actually a lot more of the ones that are leaching in a bigger cause of microplastics.
Despite the sustainability. So it’s a little bit of a double edged sword in terms of the health aspects and the sustainability aspects within the plastic world. So keeping a firm or bottle, that is also, of course, being mindful of not being subjected to light heat a lot. The blue bottle in itself is a good protection of the water for that sense. If you think about beer being in green or brown bottles, it’s really designed to help the structure and molecule of the water stay intact as it was from its source.
So it’s pretty and it’s a brand identity function, but the blue in itself is actually very functional for the protection of the quality of the water both. And so that will remain in glass, plastic, aluminum, anything that we do. So my, my choice, my ideal scenario really would in the future be to have plastic glass, aluminum options. So that really it’s then up to, to the buyer, right? Dependent on the activity that you’re doing what it is you need the water for that day.
You can make your choice whether or not it’s a sustainability aspect that’s more important to you, whether it’s the, the health aspect that’s more and us just be really transparent as a brand of like, these are the pros cons of each. They all have pros and cons and all the packaging choices and and then really it’s up to you. So aluminum is a is one that we’re certainly discussing. It’s, it’s difficult to maintain the taste quality of the water in aluminum. There’s a lot of great brands doing aluminum, you know, from a sustainability perspective, but even those, it’s hard to find high quality aluminum that’s not actually lined with plastic and not therefore that’s still recyclable.
So despite it being kind of marketed as the most sustainable choice, the reality of that is, is a lot more nuanced in terms of what’s actually reusable. And to make sure that it doesn’t affect, again, the taste or the quality of what’s in the bottle.
CJ Bruce: 21:15
Interesting. Yeah. It’s such a nuanced conversation. It’s so many again, many layers, many decisions. Yeah.
I think it’s smart to, you know, get the options and get it all on the table. So you let consumers decide. Yeah. Interesting. So I want to shift a little bit into, you know, growth of the brand.
And, you know, things have evolved over the years. And I want to start with just the channel. So sales channel. So early days you mentioned, and when we worked together, like heavily DTC focused, now, you know, shifting more into, into retail. And so can you talk a little bit about, you know, how you think about the channel and the channel strategy and how that’s evolved a bit?
Channel Strategy: From DTC to Retail Expansion
Sara Couch: 21:57
Yeah, absolutely. And actually, materials play into this big, right? In terms of shipping parcel, glass, plastic. I should mention too, we are now exporting the sparkling in the glass we’ve chosen. We did find through a lot of testing that the sparkling upholds its carbonation for a lot longer a year plus in the glass bottle.
So that’s why our sparkling is right now only available in the glass. But we are looking at, you know, availability of bringing that over in plastic as well. Since we are able to do it in Ecuador, we first, I think, as I mentioned, we initially launched the brand just on e-commerce. Our retail, which I’ll get into, is very difficult. It’s very data driven, especially in larger stores.
So in order for us to be able to build up a bit of foundational data and sales to go and show these retailers and buyers, hey, look, look at what we’re doing, the traction that we’ve been able to create ourselves on our own channels. We also have subscription options and services. So our returning customer rate is really impressive. With that. And just the data that we were able to show as a very new brand in some of these conversations from building out first, our e-com channel really gave us an edge and, and not showed that we weren’t really just starting from scratch.
Right? And we were through you all through our, you know, PR partners actually doing a lot of marketing. We built a whole brand identity and pushed sales prior to even trying to go to retail. So that was the strategic decision to start via e-commerce and also really to just test and learn in terms of customer feedback, were they liking the materials? How were we going to do the glass?
We actually, because the glass was delayed and supply chain over Covid for nine plus months, the glass production, we said, let’s just launch, let’s start in the plastic alone. And then we can sort of intro the glass as a new product, which was good that we did because we would have waited around for another year in the end, had we had we not gone ahead and launched, but the idea was to have them both at the same time. So we, we first built that and then again started bringing on some consultants to help us decide how to build the retail business. Again, our family is this is not our background. We’re very humble and that we don’t really know what we’re doing.
We’re learning as we go. And within the natural channel, I would say there are two predominant distributors that really hold the key to a lot of the like store shelves outside of just regional markets. And they can be challenging to work with just because they are. You have to be a certain level to, to even get in. There are all types of different fees that go into their structure, and depending who you talk to, they would really encourage you to go, you know, outside of those with other like more regional partners to begin, which we did start building.
But truthfully, looking back, we’re now working with KeHE, one of those two big ones and the doors that get opened for you upon just starting to work with them is a huge game changer. So I think I would have probably fast tracked actually trying to work with those two quote unquote necessary evils, if you will, you know, sooner than what we tried. I think we, upon trying to go into retail, thought that we would have better success with potentially direct business. You know, we built this e-commerce side. We thought we had so much to show, but ultimately we didn’t have any shelf sales to show yet.
And that’s really what a lot of these bigger retailers and competitors want to see. It’s a risk for them to be first to bet on you, right? Despite you having a successful business online. So we did start working with some regional distributors, both in the North Carolina area, Southern California. They’ve been great partners.
We’re still working with a majority of them. Not all, but I would really say that we launched with KeHE in October of last year. That’s when we started selling on with sprouts nationwide and the doors and ability and just sort of looks that we’re getting since that, it really feels like we’re in another level of, of our brand at this stage.
CJ Bruce: 26:22
That’s awesome. Yeah. The A curious digging, you know that the roll out a little bit because I think Southern California, if I remember correctly, were Erewhon. Right. And so is it.
So you had that. So talk a little bit about that. The kind of rollout strategy or I mean, you mentioned, you know, in hindsight, you kind of go start with the big ones first, but was there benefit in having the, you know, some smaller regional or even I mean, Erewhon feels also very brand aligned. And then that, you know, helping to tell that retail story to help get that broader distribution. You talk a little bit about that background.
Retail Distribution Strategy and KeHE Expansion
Sara Couch: 26:55
Yeah, absolutely. And yes, let me caveat that’s more in the distribution. I think regional markets and again, regional distributors therefore do play a big part. So it’s a little bit of the chicken and egg scenario, right. But Erewhon was actually our first kind of well-known retailer that we went to market for.
We were fortunate and that their review process is quite simple, straightforward, especially for our water. They do require a lot of organic certifications and certifications on the food side that I think can be a little more challenging for a new brand on the food side. But of the reviews that we’ve done, perhaps because it’s so brand aligned as a market, right? I have to say it was one of the easiest and I, you know, big shout out to Erewhon. I wish all retailers were like them.
Just the transparency of the data, the opportunity that you get to market with them and be indifferent, you know, pop ups and scenarios is, is really great. And they’re, they’re a fantastic retailer to work with, obviously marketing to a very niche market that doesn’t ultimately get to a majority of shoppers around the country and meet our long term goals of being accessible and available, getting this water to, to the world. But starting with especially a well-known brand like Erewhon was fantastic. I’d say Southern California is our hero market right now. It’s just it’s such a well-aligned market with our brand and so open to, I think, high quality products of their label readers.
The people also, I think a little bit more open to our esoteric backstory, if you will, and the mystique of the product. So we’ve now, you know, since Erewhon, I think others like Bristol Farms came on through that regional distributor. So we work with high touch there regionally. Shout out. They’ve been a great regional partner.
We were they they’re the ones that service right now Erewhon and Bristol Farms. We are now through KeHE also in pavilions. Let’s see Lassen’s a lot of just regional Southern California markets and are able to knock down some of those doors and other regional places. Like I said, since being with with KeHE as well. But it’s tough, right?
I think the service, even on the retailer side that they get from regional partners is so is more curated. They’re they’re more often there’s lower barriers to entry in terms of the amount of product they have to drop off at each time. So there’s certainly benefits to both. And I think the perfect puzzle does involve both, you know, big players and small players. But it’s hard as a small brand to, I think, build those piecemeal piece by piece without having to have your own team internally to that’s really supporting those.
At the end of the day, there’s merchandising tools out there. We have some great ones as well that we use that are checking up on shelves, but without having to grow out a big internal team, it’s, it’s difficult to manage a lot of regional partners and also ensure that they’re going to be backing your brand as much as you would be if it were you.
CJ Bruce: 30:02
Yeah, yeah, that makes total sense. And that’s actually a good transition to the next question we talk about is, is staffing and resourcing. So you have, you know, thinking about, you know, internally versus externally working with partners, you know, bringing on internal team, like how have you? I mean, obviously that’s evolved over the years too. So how do you you know, how do you approach that?
How do you think about that? Like, when are you working with a, you know, a consultant versus when are you bringing someone in-house? What stage does that happen? How has that evolved as the brand has evolved over the last few years?
Team Building, Hiring, and Organizational Evolution
Sara Couch: 30:35
Yeah, I, I will say, I don’t think I have the perfect answers or the perfect mix yet. It’s always evolving. But we do have a really good team right now that everyone’s very bought into the product and the story. I think that’s the most important part, right? It’s people that are bought into what it is we’re trying to build.
We’re not just in our minds, right? It’s not we’re not just selling water here. We’re really trying to change the world. And we’re deeply in belief that this water can do that. And so I think especially with the unique backstory and people getting excited about that, that’s the, the number one thing I look for in a partner or a team member.
But to, to answer your question in terms of how it started and how we’ve evolved. As you know, we did just really start with it was me and one other full time team member here there. And based kind of in North Carolina doing a bit of everything on the marketing sales, direct, you know, building out campaigns and, and supporting you all and review of everything in terms of in house only two of us, we had you all as a digital marketing partner, a PR partner at the time, which we evolved from really to bring people in house after a couple of years, because we found, especially on the content marketing side, to have someone that’s like fully focused on your brand at all times and really thinking about that was, was important to me. We actually continue to work with Christoph at the images as like a brand partner that he’s been involved with us because we’re now doing a lot of external events and bringing. We brought in a couple large partnerships over the past couple of years.
We worked with the Inter Miami soccer team last year. We’ve worked with Lifetime Fitness over the last two years. The the high end gyms, they put on a number of athletic events across the country that are a lot of energy and effort from a resource and just like team perspective. So we’ve got an events manager now in house to help support that so that we didn’t have to outsource a lot of the production of those big events, which which can get quite costly, but that that was critical. So we’ve got Asia, who’s been a fantastic addition to the team to, to oversee that on the marketing side.
And as we started to head into retail again, I think we were a little naive on the distribution side that as we first garnered the first couple distributors, it was like the great the product was going to sell itself. And we quickly realized that was not the case. You have to be out there supporting them doing ride with, you know, selling the product, training, even, you know, restaurants have brand new water. There’s a lot to talk about here, as you see, and sort of train, whether it’s on a shelf or at a restaurant or like, how do you accurately sell and succinctly sell all the benefits and the attributes of this water? So we were through another consultant and advisor of ours, introduced to our first hire on the sales team, who also who came from a water background.
Fantastic. On both the West Coast and East Coast. So we do now have two full time hires and sales directors who have sort of split the country and oversee the the whole eastern US and Western US and an advisor. We worked a little bit with a broker as we were trying to get into the more natural channel distribution. We worked more directly with her in an advisory capacity now.
So she helps oversee the sales team. So we’ve I honestly done a lot of like non-traditional hiring. I will say our team has evolved. I think based on connections, our advisors have had connections through our partners determining in the, you know, day to day really what our needs are and the extent of those needs. And, and that’s constantly changing, right?
I’d say that now venturing into retail, hence the conversation that picked up with you, realizing that there’s all these new marketing channels on like Instacart, every retailer now has its own digital way of advertising. That’s completely different from what we’ve been doing on the paid media or digital marketing side for e-commerce, you know, with meta, Google, etc.. And, and I’ve limited knowledge of that, but we need someone that’s an expert like that really knows what they’re doing to get in there and set it up well versus just wasting time trying to kind of like, you know, I don’t know, set things and see how they do. Like I, I have learned over the course of the year, and I think I, of course, of the years with Splendor that at least from a marketing perspective, it is very difficult for everyone to be an expert at everything, right? And I kind of see the value in having niched out buckets of, of marketing.
And people who really are in their expertise is in that lane. I think I was naive to that in the beginning, but as far as marketing, I see the value in that. And I think that having an in-house team that’s still small enough and manageable enough for myself now being a kind of sole leader on the US side anyways is critical as well. Just for I’m starting to now learn the balance of my own work life balance, mental health and despite how wonderful our team is, managing people always comes with a whole other set of, of responsibilities, right? And time and energy and effort.
And so, you know, we’ve had to ebb and flow in terms of the number. That’s the sweet spot. And we’re about ten right now. And I think that’s a really good place to be.
CJ Bruce: 36:14
Awesome. Yeah. I appreciate you going into detail. And it’s, you know, it’s helpful to hear just the evolution. It is something, you know, continually revisiting.
And as you know, as the business changes and the needs change and the resources change, you know, evolving, you know, your staffing and team and partners makes a lot of sense. Yeah. I want to pick up on, you know, you just mentioned work life balance and I want to get into that a little bit too. And just, you know, you’re now managing this brand and, you know, it’s a lot of times from the outside, people are like, oh, well, you’re running this brand. And that’s so cool and interesting.
But there’s always, you know, a lot that goes into the day to day and trade offs. And so just to touch a little bit on that, you know, the emotional side of it and, you know, ups and downs and how you manage that or even touching on what you just mentioned. And, you know, maybe it sounds like maybe too much work and then bring back the work life balance. And so how do you, how do you handle that? And how do you think about that?
Work-Life Balance, Leadership, and Founder Mental Load
Sara Couch: 37:07
Yeah, I will say, you know, I think. Having the right team and really right leadership in place, I’m learning is is the key to help me sort of check myself on. Okay, what what is our strategy? What is our roadmap like? Is the strategy we’ve set correct?
Let’s also think about it’s hard when you’re in it day to day, at least for me personally, to get out of the we got to do all these different things and zoom out to the 100 foot, 1000 foot view of do we have to do all these things? Or like, are these the right things? And, and what are we, you know, constantly measuring against ROI and what is impactful? And, you know, we’ve had a couple of pivotal years in big partnerships, events and on site things I’ve really like, as I said, take a lot of energy. So I’m trying to.
Be more strategic around where we’re having like almost sprints around high busy peak areas, especially when it’s seasonally important for water and rest for the team. I know that that’s something that we’re focused on and the team is very important, especially after these like big weekend events that we’ll have. But I’d say again, leadership and having a little bit of honestly, like a filter of keeping me so out of the weeds, I can get very detail oriented sometimes. And that’s, it’s hard for me to like, learn and accept that that’s often not the best use of my time. Like my brain really needs to be on the strategy and communicating to the team sort of what is our vision?
Where are we headed? This is where we’re tracking and making sure that those through lines of communication, across marketing and sales and now finance operations are all very clear and that everyone’s marching in the right direction rather than getting bogged down in sort of the the day to day and what needs to be done in the oversight. So I think, again, leadership on each side to help support those things has been has been critical for me. And sleep, I don’t know, sleep is very important. And, and no, honestly, like not to go back to the water itself, but like the hydration and the quality of what you’re putting into your body and how you’re treating your body is the foundation for everything.
No matter how busy things get, I think protecting your mind, making sure that I go outside ahead of every day now and like, take a walk and just actually meditate a bit and, and really sort of remind myself of the purpose of why we’re all here and making sure that I remind myself of where we’re headed. Why are we doing this? Because in the day to day, despite how beautiful our story is and how much I deeply believe in this product and feel that it’s like, you know, a calling and it brings together both sides of my family, like I’m in it, right? But in the day to day, of course, there’s moments that I’m like, oh my gosh, like, this is what are we doing? And so, so I think having the, the reminder of, of that, like, honestly, on a daily, weekly basis and just being grateful for the, how I, how we got into this and the fact that my family gets to play a role and bringing this incredible product to, to market into the world is, is really important.
And I don’t know that I do that enough for my team. Truthfully, they probably would want more of that. But I think I’m constantly working on my leadership and like listening to leadership podcasts, just, just understanding how I can grow and be better and also learning so much from them. Right? So many of our team has way more experience than me and everything that they’ve done in the past and learned.
And so keeping a really open mind that like, I don’t want to be the smartest person in the room often. Like really, they should be leading me. I should be constantly learning from them. Providing direction and a sense of like marching together, but also really bringing people to the fold that are incredible workers and extremely smart and ready to take things on and, and help alleviate, you know, the stuff that takes up my brain space every day. I think it’s really about the people and working, working in tandem together.
CJ Bruce: 41:33
That’s awesome. Yeah. I appreciate you going into that. I think it’s really helpful for everybody to hear and to think about as it, you know, you do get sucked into the day to day of things and in the weeds. So thanks for digging into that.
I want to just a couple more questions. I think I wanted to touch on AI. So asking everybody about this question. So it’s, you know, AI is definitely changing the way that we work, changing the way people find products, changing a lot of things about the world. So I’m just curious, how is AI showing up in, you know, in your business and your work and your life.
And how are you thinking about it?
AI in Brand Building, Marketing, and Retail Operations
Sara Couch: 42:07
Yeah. So day to day, I’d say we really mainly use AI just for efficiencies in our work. Again, I truthfully, there’s probably so much more that we could be doing in AI, but a lot of what we’ve had to, especially this year and last year, we’ve had to tailor, for example, retailer submissions to be very strictly. A lot of these retailers are often using because they get so many applications per year from products. Of course, using AI to also help sift through layers of when they’re evaluating products.
So knowing that we have to strategically build out our submissions to ensure that they are AI compliant, that there were like two of the following exactly what they say, so that we’re not weeded out by one of these reviewers. So that’s something that’s applicable in how we’re thinking about things. And then, you know, a lot of different tools in terms of what we’re looking at with marketing now, a lot of marketing, as you all know, in and of itself, that’s more PR based or article or even events, right? Like it’s a lot of awareness driving, but when it gets down into the nitty gritty of how to measure the ROI or the true impact of that, tools become more difficult. So there’s a few ones that we’re looking at now to better integrate.
For example, when we’re in content out there on the internet or at events and being captured, how they can sort of capture our bottle and images to like count the number of even if it’s not a like or a mention or whatever, like the number of views in, in different ways that we’re showing up in these events or otherwise, like marketing style things that are hard to measure. So that’s something that we’re looking at right now. And of course, just, you know, for efficiencies of like writing content, writing our press releases, emails, all of that, you know, the team is, is using those to their. One of my pet peeves as a leader I’ve share with my team is like obviously using that to assist in all work, but to really maintain like the critical thinking and sifting through to ensure everything is, well, brand aligned and true to our voice. Right.
But, but I think it’s been an incredible tool in terms of just efficiencies in the ways that we can like turn things around. We’ve got a lot more to learn. And truthfully, there’s probably so much more we could be doing that, that that will be part of a strategy sessions in terms of how we, we build out further efficiencies.
CJ Bruce: 44:33
We’ve developed a method or craft method is what we’re calling TMI craft method of basically, how do we work with AI? And I think exactly what you said and how to. How do you incorporate the human element, make sure that you actually have, you know, the checks and balances things say on brand, all of that. Anyway, I can send you a link. I’ll link in the show notes too, just as a, as a reference.
I think it’s relevant to what you were just talking about.
Sara Couch: 44:57
Thank you.
CJ Bruce: 44:58
Cool. Running on time. So I do want to one yeah. Quick question before we wrap up outside, I wonder I’m curious if there are any brands in food and beverage that you think are, you know, doing great work that maybe could use some more attention that they’re not getting?
Spotlighting Emerging Food and Beverage Brands
Sara Couch: 45:18
Yeah. So I have to shout out, there’s a few different great brands that we, you know, from people I graduated from Duke with a few women led brands that we are kind of have a little group that we can speak to one another, ask all the crazy questions that you feel like you should know, but often don’t. Right? And it’s like, not, not afraid to.
So a couple of those are One Trick Pony led by Lucy Dana. They’re actually doing great. They’re recently launched Whole Foods Sprouts. They’re really seeing a lot of success in retail as well as growth. So doing really well. It’s a peanut butter brand based with Argentinian peanut butter or peanuts and just salt. So also a family owned company. They’re doing fantastic.
Another one of those is Angel Oak Smokehouse. That’s also a family led brand from my friend Jade. She is based in Charleston. Her and her husband started this brand based on her family history of her father smoking salmon. So they’re based out of Charleston. Also just launched Whole Foods regionally. So seeing a lot of success within their first year. And she’s also considering the e-comm play. So a little bit smaller, but seeing some great traction in their initial year as well.
And then Buffy Protein is led by Audrey Melville, another friend of ours, actually, we’re in the same sorority together, so somehow it’s all aligned in the CPG world several years later. But she is doing cottage cheese based like protein and buffalo dip. So like a healthier version on a lot of different dips there at Buffy Protein that are high in protein and just a much healthier option. So also seeing a lot of great early traction, they’re a bit smaller than the other two, but those are some fantastic brands that I’ve been trying. And just, of course, so proud of, of the, the women behind them and what they’re doing and building.
CJ Bruce: 47:17
I love it. Awesome. Thanks for sharing that. Okay, so we’ll wrap up. We got one one last question. So just before we do that, just want to point people to the website. splendorwater.com and obviously follow on the socials as well. Instagram. And is there any anywhere else you want to point people to or anything else before we wrap up?
Sara Couch: 47:39
Yeah. Well, we did make you a special Missing Ingredient discount code, so I’ll share that with, you know, you in the show notes, but TMI15. If you want to check us out on splendorwater.com, you can use that special code for 15% off your first order. We are also doing a lot of exciting website revamp right now, so be on the lookout now for our store locator, which is launched on there. You can find all the different stores that we’re located in now on our website, our most of our handles, our Instagram handle is @splendorwater.
We also have all new store launches coming out there monthly, a lot of new, a couple new NYC locations coming out in May. All the Foodtown locations were now in Gristedes and D’agostino’s there. Like I said, sprouts, nationwide, Erewhon, a lot of regional markets, anything depending where you are, you can now search. That was a big labor of love on the website that recently launched and then at Splendor Water on socials. Awesome.
Yeah. And we’ve got that discount code. You can also check out subscriptions. It’s 15% off subscriptions. Like I said, we do glass bottles, we ship them.
It is challenging, but yes, we do ship glass bottles and our plastic from like a 16.9oz up to a 1.5l. So really a lot of optionality for any place, day, time of the day that you might need Splendor because we really encourage it to be a daily hydration ritual, right? It’s an amazing water, amazing health benefits in and of itself with that, the gold and silver functionality. And so yeah, check us out and you can have us at any and all times at dinner parties or, you know, when you’re heading to the gym.
CJ Bruce: 49:26
Awesome. Thanks so much, Sara. We’ve been talking to Sara Couch, the General Manager of Splendor Water. Be sure to check them out splendorwater.com and use your discount code TMI15. Sara, thank you so much for being on the show.
Sara Couch: 49:37
Thank you. Thanks, CJ, good to see you.
Outro: 49:41
Thanks for listening to The Missing Ingredient podcast. We’ll see you again next time. And be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.