🎙️ From Dropout to 9-Figure CPG Empire | Mike Fata on Building, Selling & Giving Back

 📢I talk🎙️with Mike Fata, CPG Exit, Author of Grow and Investor and Mentor for many companies and individuals 👏🍷 🎇 🎉 ✨ 👏 🥂  😁 

Watch the Full Episode Here

Professional Speaker, Best Selling Author, Founder and CEO, Chairman of the Board, Investor, Advisor, Ambassador, Host and Producer

 Mike Fata went from a 10th grade dropout weighing 300 lbs to building and selling three CPG companies for NINE FIGURES. 🤯 On this episode of Thirsty Thursdays, Mike shares his incredible entrepreneurial journey, how he founded Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods, and the mindset that turned adversity into abundance.

💥 Topics Covered:

• Losing 100 lbs and turning it into a business
• Building the global leader in hemp foods 🌱
• Selling to private equity + exiting big 💰
• Mentorship, peer networks (YPO), and mass mentorship resources 📚
• The real grind of building a CPG brand—no shortcuts here

Why he's all-in on helping the next generation of founders through FataFleishman.org, 60 Second Pitch, and more 🎯

🔗 Resources Mentioned:

→ Free mentorship tools: https://fatafleishman.org

→ Mike’s book "Grow": https://mikefata.ca

→ Mike on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mikefata🙌

Follow  ⁨@ThirstyThursdaysat3PMEST⁩   for more inspiring interviews from founders, makers, and brand builders!

#entrepreneurship #cpgfounders #hemp #mentorship #thirstythursdays #mikefata #manitobaharvest #founderstory #cpgsuccess #growbook #jakekarls #60secondpitchEmbark on a transformative 

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Host Jessie Ott's Profile on LinkedIn

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Mike Fata
• 2:18 The Importance of Giving Back
• 3:53 Defining Entrepreneurship
• 5:31 The Abundance Mindset
• 6:48 Dropping Out of High School
• 8:54 Health Journey and Its Impact
• 10:35 The Birth of Manitoba Harvest
• 12:15 The Entrepreneurial Mindset
• 15:05 Growth and Success of Manitoba Harvest
• 16:30 Transitioning to Mentorship and Investment
• 18:22 The Power of Mentorship
• 22:30 Building a Supportive Community
• 24:16 Resources for Entrepreneurs
• 25:03 Podcasting Journey and Insights
• 30:30 The Importance of Growth Mindset
• 32:43 Navigating Business Challenges
• 34:35 Final Thoughts and Encouragement
• 36:29 Produced by Fedora J Productions
• 36:51 Tune in Next Thursday & Have a Great Week!

Transcript

Jessie Ott (00:29)
Hello everybody and welcome to Thursday Thursdays. name is Jessie Ott and I this week I have an exciting guest. I'm so pumped that I was able to get Mike Fata on the podcast. Mike is truly an unbelievable entrepreneur. He has sold three CPG companies for nine figures. He's a bestselling author of the book Grow Other titles that are common for Mike or professional speaker, founder and CEO, Chairman of the board, investor.

advisor, coach, ambassador, host, and producer. And he's a podcaster as well. So welcome Mike Fata, super pumped that you're here.

Mike Fata (01:05)
⁓ awesome. Yeah. Thanks for having me. I was teasing you saying after 30 years, I just keep on stacking things to my name of what I do, but it's nice to hear it on the intro. Nice to be here.

Jessie Ott (01:15)
Yeah, well, I mean, you're you're such a giver too. I mean, you've you've been so successful throughout your career, of course, and you have a great story to tell. So I can't wait to kind of dig into that. And and now you're just out there really helping other entrepreneurs kind of, you know, guide them along the way.

Mike Fata (01:32)
Yeah, I've always, back has always been a big part of how I've moved forward. I write about it in my book, a couple chapters even, that's part of the success. Now, what the world sees now is ⁓ I have more time on my hands, I have more resources, I have a bigger networking community, but giving has always been really important for me. My mom was my best mentor on that, really taught me how to pay it forward, I guess.

Jessie Ott (01:55)
That's great. I love that. And if I remember right from when you're post your mom, you, grew up with a single mom.

Mike Fata (02:00)
Yeah, yeah, did. She raised my brother and I.

Jessie Ott (02:03)
Yeah, that's pretty impressive. That's pretty amazing.

Mike Fata (02:06)
Yeah, think growing up poor, I think the survival instinct in me is really strong, which has helped my entrepreneurship. Trying to make something out of nothing, trying to make a little extra cash or get by has always been the mindset.

Jessie Ott (02:21)
Yeah, no, 100%. I mean, that's kind of the mindset of an entrepreneur and different people have different opinions of what it takes to be one. you have a definition that you like to use with your coaching?

Mike Fata (02:34)
You know, think, well, nowadays, I think there's some executives that are trying to say, in some organizations, like, you don't have to found the company to be an entrepreneur, but...

You know, that is really the definition of it is, is starting a business and putting the risk on the line, putting yourself on the line, ⁓ to start something new. and, because, know, that's no small feat, wherever you're at in life, young or older, it's a full hustle or side hustle. Like I say, being an entrepreneur is like a magician. know, you're making something out of nothing. ⁓ you have this idea, this concept, this vision, and then, and then you, it takes like kind of everything to birth that into,

Jessie Ott (03:06)
Yep.

Mike Fata (03:13)
a real business.

Jessie Ott (03:14)
Yeah, and it's not overnight, as we all know.

Mike Fata (03:17)
And unfortunately nowadays, you know.

Lots of social media and people just say, Hey, you you can, you could cheat the system or here's these, ⁓ know, here are these extra hacks and then you can go from zero to like a seven figure exited founder or something. I see that as the, as, as, as confusing a lot of people, right. ⁓ and I'm the opposite of that. say, if you're, if you could buy, if you could find something that you really enjoy doing, and, turn it into a business or an opportunity, you'll do that forever. You know, like you,

Jessie Ott (03:38)
Yeah.

Mike Fata (03:48)
you'll be interested in learning it and executing it and building community around it. That's the real way that you can win. And not to say that there haven't been some like short wins. They just get over popularized and people don't understand that's like a one in a hundred thousand or one in a million, you know? So it's kind of like you winning the lottery. It's not going to happen for most people.

Jessie Ott (04:03)
Yeah.

Yeah, no, it's true and it's perseverance and grit and you got to really believe in what you you know what you're what you're doing and then have a value, right? It's got to have a value. It's got to mean something to somebody, but I love go ahead.

Mike Fata (04:18)
Yeah, I think we're, yeah, I think,

yeah, I think we're living in the time where, listen, you know, I became an entrepreneur. It's almost 30 years ago, 27, 28 years ago. there was less resources. nowadays we have so many resources as an entrepreneur, like, yeah, business is still hard, but you can, you can really find the thing that you want to do. That's like special for you. And, and because there's so many different ways to segment business nowadays and start business and, and, and that's the real gift.

Jessie Ott (04:44)
Yeah, I mean, in short, there's room for everybody because not everybody's your customer, right?

Mike Fata (04:50)
Yeah, I always think about it. it's, it's, you know, abundance mindset is really good to have as an entrepreneur, because you need to you need to be able to thinking that and think that that there's there's a larger opportunity for you tomorrow. If you put your work in, there's an ever expanding customer base, you know, starting in your hometown, but then like working out, you know, regionally, nationally, internationally, like there's just a tremendous amount of opportunity if if if you're smart, you know, and measured with your with your

and how you're actually going to execute your business.

Jessie Ott (05:20)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So Mike, where are you calling from?

Mike Fata (05:23)
I'm based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, so right in the heart of the prairies. And I grew up here.

Jessie Ott (05:29)
Okay, nice. Born and raised, that's awesome. That's really cool. And so what happened after high school? Did you go to any school and?

Mike Fata (05:32)
Mm-hmm.

I know I never

even I never finished high school so I dropped out of school in grade 10. Really I you know because of my because I was overweight as a teenager and up to 100 pounds overweight I weighed 300 pounds. High school was I realized was like more of a social club and I just really didn't fit in and and so I convinced my mom to let me drop out of school and start working and I started working full time and working.

Jessie Ott (05:56)
Yep.

Mike Fata (06:06)
various different jobs when I was 14, 15 and then onwards until I became an entrepreneur.

Jessie Ott (06:13)
So what was that transition like from, you know, being a kid, you know, I know people, you know, I don't know a lot of people that have dropped out of high school and what that you carry that along with you. I know that there's people that do that with college, but for me, it's just a piece of paper. You know, it doesn't really mean it means something, but you know, it's like it doesn't, it doesn't, you know, have have like this enforcement, but it has the discipline of it. You know, the paper.

of getting that paper to put on your resume and whatnot. Yeah.

Mike Fata (06:42)
It used to be, it used to be really important. think it's probably

less important now, but you know, think dropping out of high dropping out of university or college, because you're doing something, you hear that a lot of times from entrepreneurs, right? They started out going to university, even some of the smart, most successful entrepreneurs in the world, started going out in the university, started a business or a project when they were going to school, it became something. And then they dropped out of school so they could focus on it. And then they became wildly successful.

It's different when you it's dropping out of high school just because so young and, and, uh, I didn't, I wasn't going to, Oh, I have this successful thing that I'm after. Uh, I just didn't want to be in school. Uh, I did find out after that, when I started working, I really enjoyed being working and, and making money for myself, you know, at 15, 16, bought my first car, paid for the insurance, like all those things, because I was, I was working construction and I never worked for less than $10 an hour. And I think at that time.

minimum wage was like five dollars an hour so you know that that was the positive for me and but

Jessie Ott (07:38)
Great.

Mike Fata (07:43)
hey, a lot of people weren't sure and teased me and made fun of me and thought that I was gonna turn into nothing and be a loser. And I wasn't sure at that time because I was overweight. I was still young and growing up and I didn't know if I kind of messed things up by also dropping out of school and not having my education. But it ⁓ turned out well after I found my passion and really got into entrepreneurship.

Jessie Ott (08:05)
So how did that happen? So you're in construction, you're making 10 bucks an hour. Did something else kind of come your way?

Mike Fata (08:12)
Yeah, I just came to a point where, you by the time I was 18 years old and I was weighing 300 pounds, very unhealthy, not happy, you know, like just physically unhealthy and, and, uh, and in pain and suffering kind of every day. And I just decided that I wanted to change things and I, and I saw myself, um, being a different way. And so I started on the journey, my health journey. Um,

when I was 18 years old in 2000 and or 1995. and now so this is my 30th anniversary year of actually being on that health journey. But that health journey helped me lose 100 pounds and then get interested in kind of all things health, health food, which got me super interested in hemp and hemp seed. And that's how we started Man To Be Harvest and really grew it was my personal passion and my business passion aligned.

Jessie Ott (09:03)
So that hemp product that you created, if there wasn't anything on the market that could give you the nutrition and the protein that you were looking for at the time.

Mike Fata (09:11)
I, you know, I, there, I was, I was researching kind of all things health and health food. So I was eating other, essential fatty acids like flax seed, and I was eating different protein sources and playing around. was a vegetarian at that time and, playing around with different food sources, but I always thought hemp was cool. You know, I had a hemp.

bracelet when I was, ⁓ when I was like an early teen, but hemp was illegal in Canada, to grow at that time. And, and I thought, that's even like, was the laws were just changing to, ⁓ to legalize hemp production, in Canada. And I thought that's really cool. Like I could stand up for this and, and, and, and learn that it was more nutritious than a flax seed. And it was a great source of protein. and it was just had this like mystique

Jessie Ott (09:42)
Yeah.

Mike Fata (09:55)
it everyone thought that hemp was a drug hemp was marijuana and so that even at that age you know that even fired me up more to to to to represent it you know and try to figure it out yeah educate yeah yeah educate educate farmers help

Jessie Ott (09:57)
Right.

to educate people and help people get.

Mike Fata (10:10)
consumers that were trying to find their healthy path, you know, when I could just simply share with someone, Hey, I lost a hundred pounds by changing my diet, starting to work out. Here's all the things that I do in my, in my lifestyle as I'm researching them foods and stuff and connecting and growing that community. Yeah. It, it felt like I was really helping the world by introducing them to this product that most people were confused about.

Jessie Ott (10:33)
Do remember the point where you go, you're looking into all this information? Do you remember the point where you said, I can do this or I want to do this? Or was it the passion that you believed in it so much because you saw some results that you just wanted to build your own and maybe build it your kind of your own way.

Mike Fata (10:52)
It kind of came from two ways.

I started the mental harvest when I was 21. And by then I had worked construction for six, about six years. And I was, I had worked my way up to like a management level to a foreman where I had a crew of people working with me to do these jobs. And so I was getting to the place with this business that I thought, you know what, I'm working and I'm really like the whole job is mine now, I understand it. My brother and I both work for a similar company. And we thought, why don't we go and do this ourselves?

why wouldn't we start our own business? So the entrepreneurial mindset was starting to brew in me because I understood the work that we had to do. But I think from like, as it came to also the health side and hemp seed.

Jessie Ott (11:29)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Fata (11:36)
I became obsessed and I just, were on a panel the other day and, and, and someone was talking about entrepreneurship and just nailed ice. would say, you know, passionate or super interested in something, but it was more than that. I became obsessed with like, that sounds like something that I could do. I could be interested in. And I didn't have anything figured out. I just thought I wanted to put attention there. And then literally each day I would learn some new stuff, try some new stuff as it was, as it related to put the business together and then say, okay, I'm so excited to do the same thing tomorrow.

And it was literally 20 years of that, or the first 10 years were that.

Jessie Ott (12:10)
Right.

And that's how you had to figure out where to get get a farmer to grow the product and

Mike Fata (12:15)
Yeah. The first farm you're like at first,

you know, my, and my mom was a big mentor because she was, she worked at shoppers drug mart, which is like the largest drug chain, drug store chain in Canada. She was an accountant and so, not on the product side on manufacturing, but on the retail side. so there was a number of things in business that, that she helped me with, like how to establish a company and how to set up your financial statements. And, and yeah, but it started at like, you know, how to source that one first farmer to grow the seed and turn it into a product and then.

it to the first health food store which was literally right across the street from my mom's place because I was living with my mom still at 21 when I like for this first six months that we started the business I was living at home and then moved out after that.

Jessie Ott (12:54)
Yeah, that's awesome. So how long did it take you to get your first product to sell?

Mike Fata (12:59)
it, was the from, from, got into business to actually sell the product. was about four months. and, and, and the great thing is that's one of the beautiful things about living in Manitoba.

Jessie Ott (13:06)
bad?

Mike Fata (13:10)
and, and as anything to do with agriculture and food, there's a lot of resources here, like government resources, the university, back in the, was like the food development center, which was helping entrepreneurs that wanted to bring new, especially new novel food products to market, ⁓ help all the way along from like, how do you manufacture that? How do you go and source labels and other things that you need to, for, for a finished food product and as well as quality control and regulatory and those things. So it really helped out.

Jessie Ott (13:26)
Nice.

Mike Fata (13:39)
to not only cut cost down on the first introduction, but time as well.

Jessie Ott (13:43)
Yeah, no, that's awesome. I had a beverage, a lady from Seraphim. She did the same thing with university and they were really impressed that she had already, you know, done a pretty thorough job of coming up with the formula, but it's amazing how they can help you really scale that and grow. Yeah.

Mike Fata (14:00)
Yeah,

and it's different. I always tell entrepreneurs like wherever you are in Canada, in the U S and different provinces or states like go and search out the resources that are, that are there because they're there, that they're usually are including sometimes grants to help offset some of those costs to have those, of those, development partners.

Jessie Ott (14:09)
that are available.

Yeah, no, definitely. Those are certainly, certainly helpful. So, so what came after that? How long did you have the company?

Mike Fata (14:26)
Grew the company 21 years. We we sold it now six years ago in 2019. So basically from 1998 to 2019 we grew the business from zero to over 100 million dollars in sales. Which included.

selling a majority of the business to private equity and using those ⁓ funds to buy our biggest competitor and really continue to ramp up to become the global leading hemp food manufacturer and brand.

We had we had two facilities in Manitoba totaling 80,000 square feet where we took hemp seed and turned it into a number of different food products We worked with about a hundred farmers that grew upwards of 75,000 acres of hemp and that then brought into the facility for manufacturing and we sold to 16,000 retail partners in Canada in the US and 20 countries around the Yeah

Jessie Ott (15:13)
Wow.

That is awesome. Are

you bummed you sold it?

Mike Fata (15:26)
No, no, I think everything happens for a reason. there was, you we had a number of investors that were in our businesses supported us from right from this from from the start, like, I put $10,000 into to start the business as did to the other co founders. And so we raised capital without without investors, we wouldn't even wouldn't been able to ⁓ build a $100 million business. And so it was it was time and

Jessie Ott (15:28)
Yeah.

Mike Fata (15:50)
Now I'm fortunate over the last five or six years that I've created the second part of my career, which is helping other founders and entrepreneurs to grow their businesses by investing in them, advising them.

being a growth coach or just simply inspiring people and providing forms of mentorship and mass mentorship with my book and podcast and talks and stuff and just being able to show people what's possible.

Jessie Ott (16:18)
And you're pretty much all in the CPG market and food-focused, correct?

Mike Fata (16:22)
Yeah, I mean, that's my lane, so to speak. You know, like I have a, I have a diverse portfolio of investments and stuff, but the, you know, in, public market and so on. But as it relates to my private investing that I do, it's all in better for you, natural and organic food and beverage.

Jessie Ott (16:24)
Yeah. ⁓

Yeah, and for the audience, we had Jake Carl's on here a few weeks ago and I know you guys work together. There's a bromance there for sure. There it is. Nice. Yeah.

Mike Fata (16:44)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I just had, I had a midday square right before we jumped on. So I'm all fired up for the conversation, but yeah, I,

⁓ I've known Jake and Les and Nick, for five years now, and, have been an investor and advisor to them. But we also hang out a lot and just, you know, ⁓ looking to create, grow, create momentum. Jake and I are, the dangerous duo when it comes to like speaking on stages and doing events and, yeah, just, ⁓ having a good time.

being ⁓ a positive inspiration for ⁓ founders. Because we know that it's tough, being an entrepreneur is tough. So if we can make it fun and positive, that'll help everybody out.

Jessie Ott (17:22)
Right.

He

Yeah, for sure. mean, Jake is definitely very positive too. Yeah. Yeah, he's got dancing. Yes.

Mike Fata (17:31)
Yeah, he's got the he's got the he's got the youthful energy, you know, I, I try to, I try

to bring it with the rigor of all the business stuff, too. And because we know we need both, right?

Jessie Ott (17:42)
Yeah, I see videos of him dancing in shorts in a long coat in Canada and I just, I don't know how he does it, but it makes people smile, you know, it's just the little things.

Mike Fata (17:48)
Yeah.

Yeah, well, we do have that in common. I've worn board shorts throughout the winter for like the last four or five years, and it's minus 30, minus 40 in Canada. It's just part of it. Yeah.

Jessie Ott (18:03)
That's nuts. ⁓

I'm too weak. live in Florida part time and Dallas is not too cold. So there you go. ⁓ Do you have any mentors that you want to talk about that you've you've had along the way?

Mike Fata (18:13)
Yeah, not too cool, no.

Yeah, I have definitely had a number of mentors. Unfortunately, two of my mentors have passed away now.

John Anthony and Mark Ragland, which were two industry veterans in the natural and organic product industry. And one was my sales mentor and one was my marketing mentor. Cause that's kind of how my brain works in business. I think about kind of departmentally. And so when, when we started mental beharvest, maybe we're in about year.

seven or eight, which was probably five or six million dollars in sales, I really thought, I need people that have done this before that can see things or have experience with five times, 10 times the size of the building. so Mark and John really helped me there. But I have now a number of other not.

traditional like they were both 20 years my senior and have kind of done it before, but I'm a big, I'm also a big believer in peer to peer mentorship. And so I have a lot of friends in the industry that I grew up with, that, ⁓ we're at a similar stage in their business or a little bit ahead or behind that we all.

we all became successful because we shared knowledge with each other and good times. And we're kind of doing it right now. Like when we just talked about like Jake, yeah, know, Jake is, I'm invested in midday squares and I'm 20 years older than Jake. And so many people may see like me as the mentor and him as the mentee, but we're really in a number ⁓ of ways peer to peer mentors and we learn from each other and grow with each other from the experiences. And so I've been fortunate to have that.

part of my success for the 27 years that I've been an entrepreneur.

Jessie Ott (19:54)
that's great. Yeah, well, probably in terms of products and manufacturing, I don't know if you owned as much as they did on the manufacturing side, but that's a lot of investment that you've got to go and ask for and fundraise and all the things. And so I'm sure there's.

Mike Fata (20:09)
Yeah, we, yeah, on the front, on

the back end of the business and the front end, like I always took for some of my peers, my friends that were building other businesses. And I tell entrepreneurs like go and seek out maybe like four five people that, that, that are, yeah, again, maybe in a similar size revenue business that you are, but in non-competing categories, but in the same industry is a lot, makes a lot of sense. And, and then even if you just meet once a month and, and you have coffee or you go out and spend some time together.

and share and be open to sharing information.

Like when we'd go to all these trade shows and we'd hang out as a group and so we'd have a good time because we were having dinners and, but at the same time we'd be sharing knowledge. Like who's the buyer at target right now, or, or do you have a, do you have, you know, demo or promotion person in this area and like all these things that just really help you move the needle forward. But it can also apply on the backend of the business in ops and finance, like knowing investors are getting introduced to different investors or, understanding systems and, and.

process and HR and hiring best practices and all that like you could do you could do I think arguably you could do more with the right peer-to-peer mentor group that are in similar businesses then you can with that old guy or gal one mentor which is you know the traditional form of mentorship or have both or have both yeah yeah

Jessie Ott (21:24)
Yeah, no, I, yeah, or have both. Yeah. I love

this, this community and network that you're building. ⁓ I just had this conversation yesterday with another very successful, entrepreneur, and it seems to be that's, that's like kind of a differentiation of, you know, people that are successful and then people that are, you know, you know, maybe in the next level of success. And I really liked that a lot and I don't do it enough at all.

Actually, I don't do it at all. And when it comes to what you were talking about, was that YPL like as a resource? Because the next question is sort of what kind of resources that you used along the way. And it sounds like something of the form of YPL was part of that.

Mike Fata (22:08)
Yeah,

I've been a YPO member for 14 years now. There's a certain scale to YPO. think you have to, YPO is a membership group of 35,000 executives around the world and your business needs to be like $15 million in sales. Started in Texas, right? Back in like 75 years ago or something. So I've been a member now for 14 years. Usually impactful on my executive level growth in business. I think when we joined that year, we were doing about 10 million in sales and then from over the next

Jessie Ott (22:22)
Okay.

Mike Fata (22:36)
nine or 10 years we went from 10 million to 100 million dollars in revenue and having that having a peer-to-peer group like YPO that a lot of people were going through something similar you know rapid growth in their business running a big business you know along with family and kind of other other items so i'm a big believer in the ⁓ in in communities and there's

Jessie Ott (22:39)
Wow.

Yeah.

Mike Fata (22:56)
There's a lot of different ones. like, whether it's just simply a nonprofit ⁓ association or organization like the food, and beverage, there's, different nonprofits or, or whatever your industry is in hanging out at their conferences and kind of in those membership groups

you find your kind of your tribe, right? but then there's also more formalized executive ones like a YPO or entrepreneurs organization, EO, or there's tech or, founders club or Hampton. There's a number of other groups that are kind of been forming that are, that are all community-based groups for people to get together and have some fun, learn from each other and, and just really power network, you know, get, get resources from each other.

Jessie Ott (23:37)
That's awesome.

Is there any other resources that you want to mention?

Mike Fata (23:41)
I mean, I you know, I have a...

a great free resource for people, our mass mentorship toolbox at fatafleishman.org. So Greg Fleishman and I, it's been three years now, ⁓ basically, all of our forms and tools and templates that we use to grow our businesses, we made them available on the web for free. So you can go to fatafleishman.org, sign up for an account. we have business planning templates and investment presentation templates and HVAC.

our documents, kind of everything you'd need for each department to start up a business and grow your business. So it's a great resource and I want to make sure that people are familiar with it and aware of it.

Jessie Ott (24:17)
Wow, that's incredible. Yeah.

Yeah, I'll be sure to share that in all the postings that I do. Yeah, that's really awesome that you have that. So what about your podcast? Do you want to talk a little bit about what you're doing on the podcast and when you started it?

Mike Fata (24:27)
Great. Thank you.

Yeah.

Yeah. on one hand for me, it's a little bit dated, but, I started the podcast in, in 2021. and my thought process was I have access to all these great founders, especially founders in the, in the food and beverage CPG industry that have been successful or creating success right now, or, you know, up and coming and so I thought, why not have conversations and bring some of those.

conversations forward for other entrepreneurs benefits and dig into how those how those founders created their success, their strategies, you know, in marketing and sales, how they think about operations, like all the different aspects of growing their business. and so I recorded for two years. There's about 75 episodes that are available on major podcast platforms on my website. And then I took a break from it a year and a half ago to because I wanted to

flex my creative mind. I went from, from podcasting to shooting my 60 second pitch show, which is basically, yeah.

Jessie Ott (25:36)
Yeah, let's talk about that. That seemed,

that looked really interesting and fun.

Mike Fata (25:40)
Yeah, well, learned,

I learned through podcasting, you know, we'd go and shoot an hour podcast and, and, ⁓ and, some people really like to get, in depth and, kind of listen to the whole episode. But what I learned from marketing the podcast was we would make these great clips of smart things that.

Jessie Ott (25:44)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Mike Fata (25:55)
myself or my guest would say, and you know, 30 second clips, 60 second clips, and people just obviously love that a lot more and their reach was a lot further. And so the concept to a 60 second pitch is kind of like Shark Tank or Dragon's Den meets, you know, Instagram reels, right? Like, and really highlight and introduce these founders that are, these businesses and like how they think about the business, how they got started in the business and where they're at in the business now and, and bring some exposure to them because

Jessie Ott (26:10)
Yeah.

Mike Fata (26:23)
a lot of them are just either promoting their company or looking to raise capital to grow their company. So I've shot and produced and hosted 50 episodes of 60 Second Pitch. yeah, and so those all can be also on my Instagram page.

Jessie Ott (26:38)
Was it to help them get investment or to practice to get investment?

Mike Fata (26:42)
I'm having both.

mean, I, I, I'm a big believer when I talk to, when I coach founders and I do masterminds and stuff of like, you have to nail your, your elevator pitch. Like you have to, you have to nail your one minute pitch and you have to nail your two minute pitch. And in one minute pitch, every word matters. when you have a chance to think about it and craft exactly what you're doing. ⁓ so people really get it. And so, just, but, you know, just for, for exposure of great businesses and products that I like, I'm, I'm

Jessie Ott (26:50)
You do. Yeah.

Mike Fata (27:08)
⁓

Selfishly, I like discovering new products. And then if I have them in my house, I'm like, these are, these are great products. These are cool founders, like helping the founders out, help them with awareness or attention or some growth coaching or, some investments, some advisement. Like it's all the same. It's all the same thing. at the same time, I learned a lot about, ⁓ producing a show, hosting a show.

video lighting, recording, video editing, all that as we put that together. so that was also an interest of mine as I have been, you four years ago, five years ago now, I wasn't on social media. So I've only been the last, call it four or five years on my personal brand. And so I've been doing a lot of work understanding.

Jessie Ott (27:44)
really? Okay.

Mike Fata (27:50)
and putting effort to growing my personal brand on, on LinkedIn, mostly, but all these different formats of sharing my story, whether it's written, written in picture, video, long form, short form. So yeah, I'm obsessed with it a little bit. I appreciate that.

Jessie Ott (28:04)
Yeah, well you're really good at it. Whatever you're doing,

you're knocking it out of the park. You've got 50,000 some followers and people I think really respond. And I know Jake is the same way where you just kind of put it all out there, not hiding in behind anything. You're just telling people how it is and to encourage them to keep going.

Mike Fata (28:24)
Yeah.

Yeah. I found like it took, it took a little while to, ⁓ to, be as raw. ⁓ but I found that just documenting the journey that I'm going on and sharing stuff that I'm learning or that I have learned.

is helpful for other people, right? It's inspiring, it's motivational, and then it's actionable if there's some strategic advice put into it as well. But I enjoy it, it keeps me, like I don't have a social media company doing it, it's just me, it keeps me in a creative space, I've learned to use some tools and stuff when I wanna make different pieces of content, but yeah, it keeps the brain healthy. I usually do it combined with some exercise.

Jessie Ott (28:49)
Wow, that's impressive.

Mike Fata (29:04)
is keeping the body healthy and then keep the mind healthy and active by being creative.

Jessie Ott (29:07)
Yeah, no, a hundred percent. I I struggled with my previous life in that it was like, you know, pushing emails, filling out forms, and it was more analytics. And even though I love analytics, I needed that balance. And so that's what the podcast has allowed me to do is to have that balance of creative, you know, with the social medias and learning all that. I'm still in process and learning because all that changes all the time. So it's just constant learning, which I love to learn.

Mike Fata (29:31)
Yeah.

Jessie Ott (29:34)
But yeah, I think you gotta grow, right? In whatever way that makes sense for you. And I think that you've created this need to be more creative. There you go, I was gonna actually lead into that. Let's talk about it.

Mike Fata (29:46)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, gotta grow.

I'm all about growth, know, that's why I why I titled my book grow. I, after spending 20 years really building myself and building my business, what I wanted to share with other people is it's, a, it's a constant. If you can find that gear where you're always looking for, you know, the 1 % better or the continuous improvement personally, and, how you can improve in business and in life, it's just such a strong mindset. And, and, ⁓ and some people are not in that spot.

Jessie Ott (29:52)
Yeah.

Yes.

Mike Fata (30:17)
And for one reason or another, know, challenges in life, transitions. Like I've done so much work on myself to help stay mostly ⁓ in a growth mindset that I want to share that with the world. I want to share it with others and get them motivated and fired up to do it.

Jessie Ott (30:32)
Well, and it's been so instrumental, right, to your success. And you've seen it work, you know, and it's not just, it's not just an idea. You're, you're an example. Yeah.

Mike Fata (30:44)
Yeah.

Everything's possible.

I mean, I have hundreds of examples now because I get to spend time with these great, especially entrepreneurs, but you don't have to be an entrepreneur. could just be, you know, so we all see the story of someone that turns their life around with like, you know, gets maybe in better physical shape, heal some of their emotional traumas or some of their, some of their mental things that they're dealing with. then they could literally be a janitor at a company and work their way up to being the CEO because they become the most passionate, most interested and just, you know, so I break it down. I break it down on my

book, but like, you know, if we, become our best self, like get ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, our best self, then we can do our best work. And it's like, it's more effortless to do our best work. And the third part is building our best community. If we, line those three things up, I don't care who you are or what you're interested in. You're, you're going to, ⁓ find ultimate success.

Jessie Ott (31:36)
I love it. The three areas to focus on to find success. I like it. That is really cool. So, you know, there's a lot of tension in the world with the tariff conversation, and I don't really want to not be positive about it. what are people saying in Canada? Because I know that, you know, they threw our American products off the shelves and the

Toronto area, so I don't know, what are people in Canada saying? mean, are they they disliking Americans or is it something that they feel like is going to blow over?

Mike Fata (32:13)
Yeah, I know. You know, I try to,

I try to stay out of the politics and then I'm not, I'm not hugely into politics. I think about the business aspects of it. And, and, and, you over the 30 years in business, there's been a lot of different, actions by regulatory actions and different things that I've been exposed to. And so that's just, that's just a, that's just one of the realities of doing business. You have to, you have to grow and change with what the day and, what's being, what the world's looking like right now.

Jessie Ott (32:22)
Yeah.

Mike Fata (32:41)
I think on the on personal side, yeah, there's a lot of consumers on both sides of the border that would just their patriotism shines through. And then there's a number there's a number of consumers that are frustrated with the whole process. Right. And I think, you know, I always bring it back. I mentioned before, like we started, I always bring it back to just because I think we can learn a lot from sports, like I bring it back to like hockey, you know, because it's so it's so dear to Canada and the US. Like, for now, how many decades have Canada and the US been like

Jessie Ott (32:53)
Yeah.

Mike Fata (33:09)
fighting it out in hockey and, and one person, one country wins or the other country wins, but, they're fighting tooth and nail and at the end of the day, they're, you know, shaking hands and saying like, can't wait till the next match, you know? And so I like to think about things more like that. Cause I think it does hold the positive light. Doesn't not realize that there's challenges. Like there's some people that are getting feeling like they're getting punched in the face or they are. ⁓ but some of that is just.

Jessie Ott (33:29)
All right.

Hahaha

Mike Fata (33:34)
part of doing business and life too. Like you gotta, the stronger you are to go and zig and zag and figure it out, that's, know, those people will survive and thrive.

Jessie Ott (33:36)
part of the game.

Yeah, and it won't last forever. Nothing lasts forever. It's just a matter of, you know, figuring it out so we can all move on and and hopefully grow grow together.

Mike Fata (33:55)
100%.

Jessie Ott (33:56)
Is there anything that we haven't talked about that you want to mention before we go?

Mike Fata (34:02)
I think we covered a number of things. If people are more interested in anything that I'm doing, either portfolio companies or my book or podcast or whatever, go to MikeFatta.ca and engage with me. I love connecting with people. So go onto LinkedIn and send me a note. Tell me that you heard this episode and happy to connect.

Jessie Ott (34:27)
All right, awesome. Well, I am so appreciative of your time. You are a rock star. As an entrepreneur myself, you are someone I really look up to for sure. I just kind of launched my tech platform a couple of months ago, so I'm just a few months into it. I've had the podcast over two years, so about two and a half years. So still kind of in the infancy stages of building out a business, but just thank you for all that.

you know, you do for everybody and I look forward to continue to watch your progress on LinkedIn and all the people that you touch in the meantime. And hopefully, go ahead.

Mike Fata (35:04)
Yeah,

no, I appreciate that. Jessie, it's, I would just say, you know, for you and everyone else is kind of in the space of,

know, starting out or where you are in building your dream, take time out of the equation and just keep at it. then, you know, that's how I feel I built my success was all of a sudden it's 10 years and 20 years of ⁓ focusing intently on one thing and keeping that obsession. I would have never saw that in year one or two, you know.

Jessie Ott (35:36)
Yeah, okay. Good to know. Good to know. I love it. Well, I appreciate you coming on so much and, you know, all the best.

Mike Fata (35:39)
Yeah.

Yeah, thanks again for having me.

Jessie Ott (35:46)
Alrighty, I'll let you get back to it. Okay, bye.