Bulletproof Your CPG Brand is the founder-first podcast for entrepreneurial and growth-stage CPG brands that want to protect runway, improve execution, and compete smarter at retail. Hosted by Daniel Lohman, CPSA, founder of Retail Solved, the show helps natural, organic, better-for-you, food, beverage, wellness, and mission-driven CPG founders understand what really drives profitable retail growth. Most brands do not have a spend problem first. They have a clarity problem. Each episode helps…
336. I found a roughly $15 million growth opportunity gap inside a brand that was already in the stores. They did not need another retailer. They needed the right products in the retailers they already had. The brand had 16 SKUs, growing distribution, brokers, promotions, and plenty of reasons to believe things were moving in the right direction. But store by store, the assortment told a very…
335. If you're trying to get into retail stores, a better-looking CPG pitch deck is not enough. Retail buyers hear versions of the same founder, product, traction, growth, and market-size story every day. The brands that stand out make the retailer's decision easier . In this episode of Bulletproof Your CPG Brand , I explain what retail buyers actually need to understand before taking the risk on…
334. Your promotion is live. The retailer approved it. The funding is committed. Inventory shipped. The team believes everything is ready. Then someone walks into the store. The sale tag is there. The shelf is empty. Or the display never got built. Inventory is sitting in the back room. The product was moved. A competitor took the space. Something changed between the plan and what the shopper…
333. What makes one shopper willingly pay more while another keeps chasing the lowest price? It is not always the product. It is whether the product solves a problem the shopper recognizes and whether the brand communicates that value in a way the shopper and retailer can understand. In this episode, Daniel Lohman talks with Marise May, co-founder of Cha's Organics, about the values,…
332. A promotion can increase sales, make the retailer happy, and still quietly drain cash, margin, and runway. That is the part most post-event recaps miss. In this episode, Dan Lohman explains why a promotion can look successful on paper while quietly creating margin pressure, deduction issues, forward buys, execution gaps, and weaker baseline sales later. He shares the promotion lesson he…
331. Most growing brands are being sold some version of an easy button. Hire another person. Add a dashboard. Plug in AI. Automate the report, and the business will finally become easier to run. Those tools can help. The problem begins when the business expects them to replace the commercial decision capability it never built. Dan Lohman explains why the same recurring decisions keep returning to…
330. Your Dashboard Can Be Accurate—and Still Mislead You More dashboards. More reports. More spreadsheets. More software. So why do so many CPG leadership teams still struggle to make confident decisions? In this episode, Daniel Lohman explains why more reporting doesn't automatically create more clarity. You'll learn: • Why accurate reports can still mislead • The $100,000 reporting lesson that…
329. Growth feels harder right now. That does not necessarily mean your brand, product, mission, or founder instincts are broken. The environment around the business changed, and the margin for error got smaller. Sales may be growing while cash still feels tight. Promotions may move volume while compressing margin. Shoppers may still love the brand but buy it less often, wait for a promotion, or…
328. Your sales report may be one of the last places you learn that the shopper changed. By the time velocity slows, repeat purchase weakens, or a retailer starts asking harder questions, the shopper may have already made a different decision. This episode uses trade shows as a practical example, but the bigger lesson is not really about trade shows. It is about turning shopper conversations,…
327. What if your biggest growth opportunity isn't another retailer? What if it's the customers you already have? In this episode, Chrissy Hammer, co-founder and CEO of Sunshine Buns, shares her journey from family recipe to national retail expansion. She shares the story behind Sunshine Buns, the lessons she's learned scaling a founder-led brand, and why the future belongs to brands that build…
326. Most founders believe growth solves problems. More distribution. More retailers. More sales. More opportunities. But what if growth isn't the thing that's putting pressure on your business? What if the real problem is complexity? In this episode, I sit down with Mike Fata, founder of Manitoba Harvest and author of Grow , to discuss one of the most overlooked challenges facing entrepreneurial…