Thirsty Thursdays @3PM EST
I'm a 20+ year veteran in the wine and spirits industry who loves innovation. I'm interviewing those who are creating it from agriculture to glass. We will deep dive into their journey and provide insights to help yours.
We will discuss their major industry pain points and outlook for the future. If my guest has an item to drink or eat we will try it throughout the podcast. Come on the journey with us!
Now On YouTube!! https://www.youtube.com/@ThirstyThursdaysat3PMEST
Thirsty Thursdays @3PM EST
🚀 From Merch to Market: How Debbie Wildrick Built Fiji, Vitamin Water & a $4B 7‑Eleven Beverage Empire! 💧👩💼
📢I talk🎙️with Debbie Wildrick, Founder of Debbie Wildrick👏🍷 🎇 🎉 ✨ 👏 🥂 😁
Watch the Premiere Here @ 3PM EST May 22!
In this Thirsty Thursdays episode, host Jessie Ott sits down with the legendary Debbie Wildrick—Founder of Debbie Wildrick Consulting and the “Queen of Beverages.” 🌟
Debbie takes us through her incredible journey from merchandising grocery aisles in Texas to leading the $4B beverage business at 7-Eleven, helping launch iconic brands like Vitamin Water, Honest Tea, and Fiji. 💧🔥
We discuss:
- How to scale brands in the modern retail world 🏪
- The startup hustle: launching FRS with Lance Armstrong 🚴♂️
- Her “10 Pillars of a Successful Company” program for founders 📈
- The power of mentorship and sponsorship 🙌
- Why today’s brands need differentiation and distribution to win 💡
If you’re in the CPG, food & bev, or startup world—this one’s a must-listen. 🎙️
🖱️ Connect with Debbie: https://www.debbiewildrick.com
📄 Download her free resource on market opportunity: https://free.debbiewildrick.com
👇 Drop your questions in the comments & don't forget to subscribe for more Thirsty Thursdays!
📢 Hashtags:
#BeverageIndustry #StartupLife #WomenInBusiness #ConsumerGoods #BrandBuilding #RetailStrategy #CPGFounders #ThirstyThursdaysPodcast #DebbieWildrick #MentorshipMatters
🔑 Tags:
Debbie Wildrick, Jessie Ott, Thirsty Thursdays, Beverage Consultant, 7-Eleven Executive, CPG Strategy, Functional Beverages, Fiji Water, Vitamin Water, Honest Tea, Startup Growth, FRS, Mentorship, Women in Beverage, Brand Launch
NOW ON YOUTUBE!!! Thank you for Listening! Join us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter!
Host Jessie Ott's Profile on LinkedIn
Jessie Ott (00:30)
Hello everybody and welcome to Thursday Thursdays. I am Jessie Ott and I have Debbie Wildrick here, Owner and Founder of Debbie Wildrick Consulting. Excited to have you here, Debbie.
Debbie Wildrick (00:43)
Thank you. I'm excited to be here today.
Jessie Ott (00:46)
Yeah, excellent. Well, where are you calling from?
Debbie Wildrick (00:49)
I'm calling from Naples, Florida, and it is hot and sunny here. Hot, hot.
Jessie Ott (00:52)
Ugh.
Yeah,
Super hot in Florida this week.
Debbie Wildrick (00:58)
yes.
Jessie Ott (01:03)
So where are you originally from?
Debbie Wildrick (01:05)
Well, my story is I was born in Cincinnati, grew up in Indianapolis and got to Texas as fast as I could. I have been in Florida and Colorado recently in the last 10 or so years, 10, 12 years, but I spent most of my career and certainly a lot of
Jessie Ott (01:18)
Okay.
Debbie Wildrick (01:27)
growing and selling and building in Dallas, Texas.
Jessie Ott (01:32)
Okay, yep. I'm familiar. I've lived there for a few years myself.
Debbie Wildrick (01:36)
Yeah.
and I came back in September, 2022, right before hurricane Ian,
Jessie Ott (01:49)
So you, you moved to Texas. Was that to go to college or did you start working there?
Debbie Wildrick (01:49)
Exactly.
I actually moved to Texas to follow my first husband who woke up one day and said, how'd you like to move to Houston? Because his best friend had moved to Houston. And I was already in the food and beverage industry, in the food and beverage business. That's really how I got my start. worked.
for a major retailer in Indianapolis and then went to work for a food broker. And so I was able to actually, when he said he wanted to move to Texas, I was able to call my leads and it just so happened that I became the manager of the field sales office for the Clorox company, which was the Kingsford.
beverage division, the Kingsford Charcoal Division and Food Division. And so I started my career there and it was there that of course we split eventually and I had a couple of mentors there who really loved what I was doing and encouraged me to get into sales. I trans...
Jessie Ott (02:56)
Nice.
Debbie Wildrick (03:01)
I actually moved to Dallas and started working for a major food broker in Dallas that really taught, showed me the ropes because I believe in this industry that it is absolutely important. And this speaks to, you know, the entrepreneur who really comes to fruition to develop a food or a beverage.
and has no industry experience. We talk about this a lot over the years in this industry. I was a merchandiser calling on Proger stores in the Dallas Fort Worth market. And I worked wall to wall, managing the shelves and selling displays and understanding, checking the SKUs, the item tags and cleaning honey shelves.
Jessie Ott (03:48)
Yep.
Debbie Wildrick (03:57)
everything. And I believe that that in order to really know and understand and grow in this industry that you have to start on the street.
Jessie Ott (04:08)
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. mean, that story's been told time and time again. I mean, you don't really understand the job and the job function and the pain points if you don't really understand the whole piece of the pie. Yeah, for sure.
Debbie Wildrick (04:25)
That's right.
That's right. Yeah.
Jessie Ott (04:28)
Yeah. So, you went to the University of Texas, correct? Was that after you started working?
Debbie Wildrick (04:36)
So that's part of my story. I didn't necessarily, when I thought about this today, because my story is, I was married early. I talked about going to Texas and I really didn't plan on taking it this direction. But it's a really cool part of my career because I was going to IUPUI in Indianapolis, which is
I was going to Indiana University's, the division and commuting to school and my husband decided that he wanted to move to Houston. And so when we moved, I eventually took that job up in Dallas after we had split and I looked around the building and it was a big major food broker in the Dallas market.
And I looked at all the executives and I said, every single one of them comes from the manufacturer side. So they came from Procter & Gamble. They came from the Clorox company. They came from General Mills. They came from Colgate. And they also all had a degree. And I had an associate's degree basically. by now I'm really...
looking at my third promotion while I'm at the food broker and I decided to go back to school. And so I went to the University of Texas at Dallas and I finished in two and a half years at night while working full time. And with the promotion, this was my third, I think I I started,
Jessie Ott (06:05)
Mm-hmm.
With the promotion? Wow.
Debbie Wildrick (06:21)
during the second promotion and then the third promotion, I was marketing and I was building promotional materials for the sales team to take to headquarters, the headquarter retailers and going to school at night, working full time. I was, believe it or not, I was at a Moody Blues concert with
a lady who was the field sales manager for a brand called Sundance Juice Sparklers, which I happened to be representing from a marketing perspective and working on for the broker. And I told her at the Moody Blues concert, said, you know, I'm going back to school and I really would like to go work for a manufacturer and
You know, we were just talking, we became friends and lo and behold, her regional manager, which we, these were broker managers, just like in the alcohol industry, you you've got distributors and you're managing the distributors. And so we were introducing, we were launching a brand called Sundance Juice Sparklers and it was going across the entire
US and they were using brokers even though they were owned by the Stroke Brewery Company. And so it was a DSD environment, direct store delivery, but they hired brokers all over the country. And I was working on that and she lost her region manager. He left to go to work for somebody else. And she actually came and spoke to me after she had spoken to
the leadership at my company and said, would you like to interview for this job? And I said, yes, I'd love to. so she, yeah, she sent me up to, she sent me up to, to Stro headquarters in Detroit to interview. And I, you know, had a great time. was really, I was really, really nervous, but yet I was
Jessie Ott (08:11)
Nice.
Debbie Wildrick (08:31)
I was in, you know, I was just, I'm fired up. got to get this job. And, and, and, you know, one of the guys that would eventually hire me later onto another company, he was asking me things like, you know, what kind of sports did you play in, in, in college or what, what did you do in high school? All these things that, you know, I came from an intellectual family, so I didn't.
Jessie Ott (08:32)
Fired up.
Debbie Wildrick (08:59)
We didn't even, you know, we didn't even really play sports. I was the last one to be picked on the kickball team, you know? And so, so I was like, wow, you know, he's trying to test my competitiveness. And, and I even interviewed with Peter Stroh and I, you know, so I fly back home and they told my boss who was Kay, she was a
she was a little four foot nine pistol. She would cuss like a sailor and wear mini skirts. She had been with Gatorade before building the Gatorade brand. And that was when Gatorade was only a hundred million dollar brand. she comes to me and she says, well, they liked you. They really liked you. And of course you don't have any experience managing brokers.
You've only worked for a broker. But they said they really liked you, but you don't have a lot of experience. But they told me that if I want to hire you and I believe in you that I can. And she did. my salary went up by 40%. I had a company car. I had a bonus. I built my first house by myself.
Jessie Ott (10:05)
Hey!
Debbie Wildrick (10:16)
right after taking that job and I was traveling all over, managed, I had 12 states. And I also learned some really critical things during that time. Number one, I was always kicking myself because I didn't go to college for four years. Oh, the other thing about that story, because I think this is really neat, because I like your...
you know, this is so much part of my story is that she said to me, this was January and I was graduating in May. And she said, you know, you're gonna be traveling a lot. So you might have to put off your graduation. And I said to myself, I said, by God, there's no way. It took me two and a half years to do it. I'm graduating in May. I've got three classes left this semester. And so I went to each one of those professors
and I negotiated with them terms on how I could continue with the class. One of them had me grading papers. Another one had me giving a presentation on how to build a brand, believe it or not. And I gave it on building a brand using the broker system when you're owned by a DSD company. And I know I'm using terms that...
Jessie Ott (11:19)
Ha ha.
That's cool.
Debbie Wildrick (11:40)
you know, not everybody may know,
but I know you know. Yeah, and so she said, she said, you know, you're not going to be able, and I went to all three professors. Somehow I negotiated a way to not be in class all the time. I tried to make the class whenever I could. And I graduated in May. She was at my graduation. And I just became,
Jessie Ott (11:43)
Yeah, you're okay.
Debbie Wildrick (12:03)
It was such an important part of my career because I was always kicking myself. I was just getting ready to turn 30 and I was like, why didn't you go to college for four years and go to work for Procter & Gamble and get trained like everybody else gets trained? And now you're behind and you're making $24,000 a year and yeah, you've been promoted.
a good job, but this was, was career changing. And believe it or not, I saw her on an airplane 20 years later and I still go, I tell her she changed my, she believed in me and changed my career. And not only that, she was also, she was, she was fun. She was, but she was aggressive and she,
she managed the broker, even though she, the brokers, even though she had a regional manager. And I remember that I said, okay, I've also got to learn how to manage Kay. And I've also got to, I've got to go into my broker system and they, I've got to teach them to respect me. And so,
We would, you know, of course she followed me around for my initial meetings and, and, and I would sit at the head of the table and I would start the meeting and by, you know, five to 10 minutes into the meeting, she'd be doing a lot of talking, but, know, I always, and I would meet with my brokers separately and I, you know, I just learned so many things by that first career change that, that really took me.
um, a long way in my career. And it also, I will say about that first job and even later jobs is that this was a new brand. We were the first, we call ourselves a new age beverage. The, were 70 % juice, 30 % sparkling water. And the only thing on the shelf was Coke, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper and Perrier in a green bottle.
bottled water the way that it exists today wasn't even on the show. Yeah, so.
Jessie Ott (14:24)
Yeah, not even close. Maybe some
Capri Suns, but that doesn't have sparkling in it.
Debbie Wildrick (14:30)
Yeah, Capri Sun. Yeah, exactly.
Exactly. And it was we built that brand to a hundred million dollar brand. And we got bought out by some investors and I ended up leaving and going to work for an early stage, a bakery company and building that brand for a couple of years. And then
Jessie Ott (14:38)
Wow.
Debbie Wildrick (14:50)
I went to work for Tropicana and I was on the team that built the single serve juice business in the convenience store and food service business and also, you know, moved through their system and promoted a couple of times while I was there. And that led me eventually to 7-Eleven, which led me to lead.
uh, all of beverages for seven 11 after a couple of promotions and it was a $4 billion business. um, it's, it's a career path that, that had certainly it's ups and downs, but I've always been, I've always been on to print in an entrepreneurial role, even seven 11, you know, even though it was a 70 year old chain by then, but, but
We were always bringing on new products. We were challenged to create our own products. And so I created products in every single category. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jessie Ott (15:52)
That's cool.
Oh,
that would have been so much fun.
Debbie Wildrick (15:59)
Yeah, yeah. And then that takes me up to the startup days. So don't know if I should stop now, but.
Jessie Ott (16:07)
No, keep going.
No, I want to hear more. Keep going.
Debbie Wildrick (16:11)
Okay. All right. So 7-Eleven, which was really, really fun. I, it was, it was the one of the hardest, well, one of the hardest jobs yet. One of the most fun jobs. And I actually, because I was so, I, because I was so good and so well known,
and I came from the supplier side, that job has really made me famous. And I've got on my new website that I've been touted as the "Queen of Beverages" And people still to this day, I was really thrilled to be on the forefront of launching and helping so many of the brands that we know today.
the famous brands that we know today that built, that got built like Vitamin Water, like Honest Tea, like Fiji, that came to me in the early years of my 7-Eleven days and became brands. And I would still have, I would still have people come to me many years later and say, Debbie.
Thank you so much. just had somebody do it a couple of weeks, weeks ago. said, you're definitely the "Queen of Beverages". You're the one that helped me get Fiji into, 7-Eleven it was. Yeah, it was awesome. And, I'll, I'll digress for just a little bit before I move into, you know, what led me into really the startup industry because.
Jessie Ott (17:35)
That's awesome!
Debbie Wildrick (17:48)
I tell lots of stories about making decisions and I believe that having the experience of making the decisions that were dependent on having products on the shelf that left the shelf into the consumer's hands and into their mouths over and over again, because our job as merchandisers was to make sure that our
our stores had products that we offered to them that they could continue to have sales and profits. And that's what our job is as a retailer. And so, we were constantly, 7-Eleven's a little bit unusual in that we introduced new products 52 weeks out of the year. And we could, especially through our distribution system, we could...
We could turn that around in six weeks if somebody came to me with a new product. And, but yeah, yeah, still managing, still managing our categories. And, and so Fiji came to me and I was managing the water category from a tiered perspective. So you have a premium tier, you have the mainstream tier, and then you have the value tier, which is
Jessie Ott (18:47)
Wow.
Debbie Wildrick (19:08)
which was our own brand, which we called Classic Selection. And then the mid tier is where the bulk of your business is. And the premium is really, it still remains only about 10 to 15 % of the total bottled water category. And so I only had Evian on the shelf and I really couldn't afford to have another premium brand unless that brand
would be able to grow the category and water, know, what's different about water really, you know, and there are a lot of differences about water and I've been in the water business.
Jessie Ott (19:45)
Yeah. It depends on if you believe
what they say on the bottle or not.
Debbie Wildrick (19:50)
Yeah,
exactly. Exactly. And it is regulated though. But anyway, Fiji comes to me and they've got this square bottle. It's beautiful. They've got their story and you can see through the bottle and you can see this waterfall. And I said, you gotta have differentiation in order to come on the shelf in a...
in a segment of the category that only represents 10 % of the business. don't have enough room in the doors to put additional brands on there unless you've got something different. And that was my decision on Fiji. Nothing really about the water except the Mystique, you know? But the bottle was different. And sure enough, they were at about a $10 million brand at that time and they became eventually a $200 million brand.
And I love stories like that because I'm in the process of writing a book and a program. And the number one thing that you have to have in order to really understand that you've got a viable product is do you have the market opportunity and is there a consumer need?
And behind that, my pillar number two is product differentiation. But those things are critical to understanding whether or not you're going to have success. yeah, yeah. So I followed, yeah. ⁓
Jessie Ott (21:18)
Yeah, 100%.
Interesting. That is
just crazy times to be involved in a big enterprise. mean, 7-Eleven is massive.
Debbie Wildrick (21:33)
Well, and we were 5,500 stores then, an $11 billion company and the beverage business that I ran at the end, which was all non-alcohol, including juice and milk. And it was alcohol. I ran all the alcohol brands and I ran Slurpee, Big Gop and 7-Eleven Coffee. So I was the first.
I was the first senior director to actually run what we called both proprietary and vault beverages. And there's a lot of synchronicity there. I had six category managers working for me. The guy that was running the alcohol business, which was primarily beer, but he had put together a whole wine program within CABS.
that still today, 7-Eleven still does pretty good with it. Even did two Buck Chuck, followed the Trader Joe's, which at the time was two Buck Chuck wine. And yeah, and he really did well with the beer business because he really focused on capitalizing on imports because
Jessie Ott (22:36)
Yeah. Yep.
Debbie Wildrick (22:50)
The main guys, the Anheuser-Busch and Miller and Coors of course were stable to declining. And so he really kept the beer business going because of really capitalizing on imports. I praised him. I actually recommended that he took my position when I left and he ends up not being a very good manager, which I...
sort of knew that that might happen, but still he was a really smart guy. But I had six category majors working for me and I had been following a brand that was not even a brand. I had been invited up. I had a gentleman help me create my own energy drink and we called it Mad Kroc and it had the original label had a
a bull with a crocodile. No way. It was a crocodile with a bull out of its mouth. And eventually we, we, I had him take the trademark because he got sued and by, by Red Bull. But anyway, but it was a very successful energy drink. And so he calls me up one day and he says, how'd you like to come up to
Jessie Ott (23:58)
no.
Debbie Wildrick (24:05)
Harvard and meet the chemist who's doing a functional beverage for me and and see what it's all about and I flew up to Harvard and I met this chemist who was doing a beverage that was based in quercetin and so it was really high in antioxidants and and had some other elements to it but they had already done
some cognitive testing on it. And it was a concentrate. And so I met the chemist and I met, and it actually built your energy levels through the strength of the antioxidants and actually helping to, so we build up free radicals either through toxins in the environment or,
our eating habits or even working out, we actually build up these free radicals and they can even cause cancer. I mean, we really, we all have cancer cells in us. if we're having issues with the free radicals and our cells are not really linking together, it's been a while since I talked about this science, but
then we've got all kinds of problems. so eventually, so he starts shipping me this product in big green jugs and I'm mixing it at home. And my husband at the time and I are drinking it every morning.
He would actually say to me, we need some more green shit because it came in a green because you, it was one of those products where you didn't necessarily feel it immediately, but you missed it when you didn't have it. And yeah. And so I kept on following them. kept on following them. And they eventually, he eventually, this investor that invited me up to Harvard, he,
Jessie Ott (25:49)
of it. Yeah.
Debbie Wildrick (26:01)
found the CEO, found somebody to run it and started marketing it and eventually put it into a can. And they came to present to my category manager at 7-Eleven and they called me up and I told my category manager that I wanted to be in the meeting. because I had been following them so long, I...
found myself selling the product for them. so, you know, I kept on thinking about it and I kept on thinking about it. And, I called them two weeks later and I said, how'd you like for me to come and run your, your national sales organization? And they said, yeah, please come interview. And I had, I had, you know, I was in
the greatest job at 7-Eleven, I had the second year of a big bonus coming. And so it also meant that if I did this, that I needed company ownership, stock options. I needed a pretty extreme increase in salary to make sure that I covered that bonus that I had coming in. And sure enough,
I did it. And then, yeah, yeah. And so.
Jessie Ott (27:07)
Wow. It's a big step. It's
hard to leave that paycheck in that consistency, but it's also fun to start fresh on something completely new and different.
Debbie Wildrick (27:16)
Yeah!
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yeah. And while I've, that particular startup, the paycheck was there, the bonus, the ability to make even more money was contingent on our ability to have success. And one of the things that,
really hurt us at FRS. We called it Pre-Radical Scavengers. FRS stood for Pre-Radical Scavengers. One of the things could be the name, but also we did an excellent job of penetrating all across the Western coast of the United States and even selling to our first major retailer hiring teams. And it did not leave the shelf.
It did not leave the shelf. And part of the reason we even had Lance Armstrong as our spokesperson, because we had done testing with cyclists and we increased cyclists by 3%, which was unheard of unless they were high altitude training and their performance by drinking FRS, they increase their performance by 3%. And so,
Yeah, it was really incredible. Yeah. And we had, we, got Lance Armstrong cause he believed so much in the product and we were really, we were doing well, but we, we made, we made some mistakes along the way. And I'm still convinced that, you know, I told you the story where when we would run out of the green shit, we'd have to get some more because you recognize the benefits when you
Jessie Ott (28:34)
That's incredible.
Debbie Wildrick (28:59)
drank it and not when you drink it immediately, but the consumer is so and the consumer is still this way. I mean, this is why functional beverages are continuing to increase, but they are still a challenge because the consumer wants immediate gratification and they weren't.
If you were sitting on your couch drinking an FRS and not really moving, you didn't feel anything. If you drank FRS before you went out for a run or a bike ride, you got great results from it. If you drank FRS before you were going to stay up all night and do spreadsheet work, which I did that a lot, you got great benefits because we had the cognitive.
results, but to every day to be able to market that to the consumer and have them pull it off the shelf. so, you know, in the long run, we were we were not successful. so so ⁓ yeah, I know, I know it's not even on the market anymore. It tried for a long time. But yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was great. So
Jessie Ott (30:00)
Bummer! I'd like to have some of that right now.
Hmm. Bummer
Debbie Wildrick (30:14)
So I proceeded
for the last 20 years or so. I've worked either directly for startups. I came to Naples the first time around and we're still, again, working on this, but we had to shut the company down the first time that I was here, which is a source water from Brazil, which is a premium water.
with really low what's called total dissolved solids. So it's marketed as the purest water in the world. We just, we haven't been able to get it off the ground because we haven't been able to raise money. And the first time around we had to shut it down because the CEO ran off with money. And so, you know, I'm talking about all the kinds of things that can happen in the startup world. And it's,
It's crazy.
Jessie Ott (31:01)
Yeah, it is. You gotta be careful. And you know, I guess that's kind of why I always just said, I can't do this. I can't work for anyone else anymore. I just had to do it myself. And that's not easy either. It takes time.
Debbie Wildrick (31:15)
Absolutely.
No, it's not because there isn't that paycheck that you talked about that stability. so you've always got, you know, raising your money. I've, I've, I, I helped to start a consulting firm up in New Jersey with a couple of partners and we, I ran the strategy business and our investors actually came in and said to us,
you know, we're gonna put you all on salary. And, you know, that was a blessing because we weren't on salary in the beginning. whenever I'm on my own, it's, you know, the next, it's very dependent on where the income comes from as to the next client that you.
acquire or what you're doing to build your business otherwise, the podcasting, the building programs like you've done.
Jessie Ott (32:10)
Yeah. So why don't you talk to us about what you're doing now and the services that you provide.
Debbie Wildrick (32:17)
Yeah, that sounds great. So I am, I'm working on building a program and the program is the 10 pillars of a successful company. And I'm actually going to start the beta in about 40 days. The program will take you through the 10 pillars of building a company and, and
how to make sure that you're doing all of it effectively. And that's because so many people who start companies, the entrepreneur may start it right out of college. They may have an idea because they saw a consumer need that, and they didn't see a product, but they have no clue. So I'm building a program.
to help the entrepreneur actually move through that. And then the other piece of my business that I really specialize in because I have experience across all verticals, I understand every aspect of the business from sales and distribution to raising money to the financials that are needed to effectively run the business. I'm actually consulting, coaching those companies that are
in the early to mid stage that need assistance in a particular area. And I like to start out with doing due diligence. So digging into their business and understanding where they are today and then giving them specific areas that they can take action on immediately to begin to scale their business to the next level. So that's what I'm doing. Yeah.
Jessie Ott (33:55)
Okay, very cool.
Nice. So just a few things. Just a few things. So you're keeping busy, that's good. Staying out of trouble. Well, how can people get a hold of you?
Debbie Wildrick (34:01)
Yeah, just a few things.
That's right. That's right.
So my website is really easy, debbiewildrick.com. That's D-E-B-B-I-E-W-I-L-D-R-I-C-K.com. And I'm at debbie@debbiewildrick.com. If you go to my website, you can find my email address, you can find a contact page, and you can find my phone number even, and certainly text me. I also have a...
calendar that you can book a 30 minute meeting with me that we can start. And then I'm just about a day away from finishing a page that we can put in the promotional materials, which is free.debywildrick.com. And if you go to that page, you'll get an overview of market opportunity and consumer need.
free download, which is like a white paper that gives you, yeah.
Jessie Ott (35:09)
Yeah, nice.
Yeah, that's cool. Little education. Yeah.
Debbie Wildrick (35:14)
Yeah, that's right.
That's right.
Jessie Ott (35:18)
That's awesome. Well, is there anything else that you want to talk about before we head over to mentors and resources and all those fun things?
Debbie Wildrick (35:27)
I think I talked my, I think I told everything that I feel like has given hopefully the teams that are listening or the people that are listening a great story. Thank you.
Jessie Ott (35:43)
Yeah, I think so too, for sure. Yeah.
Well, you mentioned someone that you considered a mentor when, you know, your career kind of, you know, I guess took off in a new direction. Do you want to talk about any other mentors that were instrumental in your career transitions? Is there anyone else?
Debbie Wildrick (35:57)
Yes.
Yeah. And that was really that particular mentor was, in my life through a lot of those early years and, and the one that, that actually encouraged me to get into sales. But one, one mentor, you know, and I've, I've actually written a program on mentoring because I think it's, it's key to our success, whether it's anything from personal to business.
But we don't always just happen to get a mentor. when I was with Tropicana, I had been promoted to national accounts. And I had interviewed three different times for the director level. And the last time that I had interviewed, I thought I was a shoe-in for the job.
It was managing the convenience store and food service business as a managing the business as a director. And I had been in national accounts and managing brokers and so forth. And I thought I was a shoe in and it had been very successful. And they, it was a,
a guy who really didn't know me that well, who hired one of his buddies and promoted him. so, so I called, yeah, I called one of my best friends in the company who had started with Tropicana on the same team, but he was in Florida. I was in Texas. And I said, Scott, and I knew when I called him, I said, Scott, will you be my mentor?
Jessie Ott (37:22)
Mm-hmm.
Same old story.
Debbie Wildrick (37:41)
and this is what's happened and he's already a director. And he said, yes, I'd love to be. And he actually took a mentoring course and followed that with me. I will never, you know, I'll never forget the things that he did for me. And so I've actually written
Jessie Ott (37:56)
Wow, that's super cool.
Debbie Wildrick (38:05)
I've written a couple of different, I've given speeches on it, but it's really about knowing a time in your life when you need a mentor and then managing your mentor relationship. Whether, Scott, course, managed it for me because I didn't know anything about it. I just called him and said, I need you to help me.
The way that he managed it taught me to then understand not only the next time around when I needed a mentor, which there are several stories where I chose to do that because I had hit some sort of roadblock. But he also really taught me how to be a valuable mentor to others. And I've been doing that for years and years as well, especially women, by the way.
Jessie Ott (38:55)
That's great. I
love that. That's really awesome. think that, you know, being able to pay that back is, you know, really important to the future generations. You know, and helping them with the greatest success that an individual can get because if you don't get it in a lot of ways, it can become difficult.
Debbie Wildrick (39:02)
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely.
Mm-hmm, absolutely.
Jessie Ott (39:19)
Most people don't know how to navigate that or ask or do things like that. But I think when you're in an environment like a Tropicana it's probably, it could be from the corporate side of things where, the company paid for the mentoring course. And, you know, some companies are just really good that way to have access to mentors. think my situations, people kind of wanted to try to figure it out, but it was just never a thing.
Debbie Wildrick (39:31)
and
Mm-hmm. And you know, I want to add something to that because I had what's called a sponsor. I ended up having a faux pas because everybody wondered why at 7-Eleven, my boss who got me promoted twice actually, because I ran
Jessie Ott (39:47)
So I find that very, very important.
Nice.
Debbie Wildrick (40:11)
snack. I ran all the center of the store. talk a lot about beverages, but I do have, I do have food, experience too. And my first, one, which he promoted me to was managing center of the store. anyway, he was, he was one of those guys where he kept on growing in the organization near and everybody's behind the scenes saying, how does Kevin really do that? And,
And so I wouldn't, I wouldn't necessarily call him a mentor, but he was a huge sponsor. And sometimes it's just like Kay, my, my early example, when she got me the job at Stro, she was my sponsor. And when you have a sponsor, it's, it's the, person who really may not necessarily teach you anything or.
or maybe teach you some things, but they're really, they just really got your back all the way through helping you through the organization. And those are key to growth as well.
Jessie Ott (41:13)
Yeah, no, 100%. What about any resources?
Debbie Wildrick (41:17)
resources like, what do mean by that?
Jessie Ott (41:19)
Like, I don't know,
outside of mentors, did you read any books, podcasts, like any YPL organizations or anything like that from a professional standpoint?
Debbie Wildrick (41:31)
Yes, absolutely. Well, I'm a geek from that perspective too. First of all, just had my Toastmasters meeting this morning. I've been a Toastmaster since I was 25 years old and ⁓ it's a public speaking organization, of course, but I've been in leadership roles and I'm just such a believer and self-help. My mentor that encouraged me to get into sales originally, he,
Jessie Ott (41:44)
That's great.
Debbie Wildrick (41:57)
He always called me really shy and I was considered shy in high school and, and, you know, making the decision to join Toastmasters years ago helped. But, I also became very involved with Anthony Robbins and eventually when I got the big job with Stroh, I would sit in my, on my bed at night and listen to his tapes and
I had to go work, walk on fire. The things that Anthony Robbins taught me, taught me over the years have been huge. Things that I still use. I've read, I mean, I'm looking at my shelf now. I've only kept some of the books that were the most valuable, but was constantly through my career reading any number of books.
Collins, Jim Collins, I can't remember my favorite book, but we were introduced to him at 7-Eleven by the second CEO that I worked under. And it's about servant leadership. so, yeah, I'm just always, always looking to learn more. ⁓ Right. Yeah. Yeah.
Jessie Ott (43:08)
You're a learner like me.
Debbie Wildrick (43:11)
Yeah. Yes.
Jessie Ott (43:12)
I love learning. It's fun.
Debbie Wildrick (43:15)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It absolutely is.
Jessie Ott (43:17)
You know, enjoy it. Yeah.
So what about pain points that you're seeing in, you know, the industry now? I don't know if you have beverage and or food, you know, clients at this point, but what are you seeing as the main pain points that they're they're experiencing now?
Debbie Wildrick (43:30)
Mm-hmm.
Well, certainly the environment, I think the biggest pain points is that we're in this stage where, well, first of all, especially the entrepreneur believes that social media can change, can do everything for them. I like to say, even having
a hundred thousand Facebook followers is not even beginning to reach your consumer base. But the challenges that we have in this industry is that the consumer has changed. Certainly COVID has changed the way that we shopped, the way that we consumed, the way that we consume messaging. However,
We haven't necessarily figured out how to do it differently. We're still launching in the same way. Publix is still running Bogo's as their main way to promote to the consumer as an example. And I think Publix is a great retailer, but I just was in there buying a couple of Bogo's yesterday. Plus, recently.
Jessie Ott (44:52)
It's nuts. Yeah.
Debbie Wildrick (44:57)
sold to law, we lost our ass on, on, you know, promoting. mean, one of the biggest challenges that I spent the last two years as the president of the beverage division of a produce company. And we sold among other things, hundred percent watermelon juice and Publix had on our Agua Frescas in particular, but both watermelon juice and
Agua Frescas, had demanded that we, the only way that we could grow our business was to run these BOGOs every other month. And it killed us, it killed us. And I did, you know, I ended up doing a bunch of analysis and discovered that we were not gaining.
Jessie Ott (45:34)
Yeah.
It's not sustainable.
Debbie Wildrick (45:43)
Yeah, it's not
Jessie Ott (45:43)
Yeah.
Debbie Wildrick (45:44)
sustainable and losing our butt. And so, you know, we stopped doing it and then eventually we got discontinued. And the reason I tell that story is because I think that we're still trying, even though so much has changed in our environment and I don't have all the answers or even to begin to know the answers. I've thought for the last...
three to five years that the most important thing that I could really work on was to figure out how we begin to change the way that we do business based on shopping patterns and shopping habits. And so I think that's probably the biggest struggle right now is that we're in this middle of the road and then
you know, recently we had all inflationary issues that have, you know, killed us with regard to our food consumption, you know, and certainly our cost of goods if we're on the manufacturer's side. So that's the biggest pain point. How do we move forward effectively? And how do we make a difference?
I actually did a podcast last night and, you know, he talked about, with me, he talked about, you know, do you really see products that are different coming out anymore? You know, and I go to the biggest trade show in Anaheim every year and you walk away from there and you think about, now, what was the most innovative product that you've seen? And there's always, there's always a handful.
But can we really differentiate enough with the consumer?
Jessie Ott (47:32)
Yeah. I think that it's yes. I just think that you got to find them. like one of the best cocktails I've ever had, you know, they just didn't make it because, you know, marketing or whatever the case may be, it's so upsetting because the flavor and, you know, all the things were there. It's just...
Debbie Wildrick (47:39)
Yeah.
Jessie Ott (47:55)
They couldn't, I don't know if they, don't know. wasn't, you know, that involved. I, I interviewed them and I thought they were some of the best cocktails I've ever had. And, you know, they just don't always make it. So you got to find them. And that's something that we do with specialty brands is we find those brands that are unique and different. And it's been a lot of fun seeing what's out there. Cause we're talking to people all over the world with different products. And, and you know, a lot of, a lot of them aren't even
Debbie Wildrick (48:20)
Yeah.
Jessie Ott (48:24)
in the US yet. But you're right, it's either going to be a really good story, there's a reason you created this company, or you're really different.
Debbie Wildrick (48:38)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Well, and I like to say, when in creating the 10 pillars that, you know, there's so many things in addition to that's the starting point. And, but if you're not ticking on at least eight of those 10 pillars really, really well, you've got...
a much greater chance of failure. And one of them is financing. One of the biggest reasons that people don't make it is because they run out of money or they don't start with enough money.
Jessie Ott (49:07)
Yep.
Yeah. They don't understand, especially people that are from other cultures. They don't necessarily understand all the laws and rules of a different country. I mean, that's a huge learning curve. You know, I'm finding out as we're exporting products. So, you know, label requirements are different. Size requirements are different. Ingredients are different. They have a lot, you know, the EU as we know in the UK.
Debbie Wildrick (49:28)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Jessie Ott (49:44)
They don't allow a lot of the things we allow here. it's, you know, we got to check all the ingredients and make sure it's, it fits within the law.
Debbie Wildrick (49:53)
Yeah, absolutely.
Jessie Ott (49:55)
What about your outlook? What are you thinking for the rest of the year? Are we gonna finish strong?
Debbie Wildrick (50:01)
Well...
I am very optimistic. I'm really optimistic that we're going to finish strong. And I'm a big supporter of the craziness without naming names or getting into any kind of politics, but I'm a big supporter of what's going on right now. And I believe that it is going to change, that we're only going to go upward.
and onward and things like egg prices have already come down. The strange thing is about gasoline, which I have a little bit of interest in oil and gas. So I understand it a little bit differently than that just because gas prices were really low right after COVID hit because oil sunk and
We don't really want oil to sink because some of us get royalties from oil that we need to be producing here. anyway, I'm watching this morning, I drove up airport pooling and it was 299 on every gas station. And this afternoon it was 320 and two days ago it was 340. And I know a little bit about gasoline and how you manage it because of 7-Eleven days, but
It's like, boy, it's crazy, but I think that we're going to see very positive growth and changes over this year and beyond.
Jessie Ott (51:32)
that's good. I think so too. think, you know, people are panicking about this, that or the other or, you know, people aren't drinking anymore and they're taking the shots and they're drinking in a bev, but they're still, we're still chugging away out there. mean, different sectors are kind of going up and down, but, you know, I think that all in all are
will still be a healthy economy. always rebound. I think we do need to get inflation under control and interest rates down because what is it, 7 % for a house now? People aren't going to buy houses. It's just not going to happen. So I think when you think about the economics and where we fit in, for you more on the food side,
Debbie Wildrick (52:01)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Yeah,
Jessie Ott (52:23)
People need to eat to live, but people don't need to drink alcohol to live. We're kind of an added benefit to the day. And so we're dependent upon that extra income for us to fit in that lifestyle.
Debbie Wildrick (52:31)
Yeah.
Jessie Ott (52:36)
So a lot of times, especially with the RTDs, they're smaller pack sizes. And so I think that also hits the pocketbook a lot less. So I'm with you. I really hope that good changes can come. It's really hard to do on an economy that is a world economy. It's not the American economy. It's not the Europe economy. It's not China. It's global.
Debbie Wildrick (52:36)
Yeah, but...
Yeah.
Jessie Ott (53:04)
And that's going to be a hard, hard challenge to overcome, but hopefully there will be some good that comes out of it. And I think there will be.
Debbie Wildrick (53:15)
Yeah, and we can't really expect it to happen overnight because economics tells you that it won't happen overnight. And sometimes the needles that you move in the right direction can take two, three, four years. We used to talk about this a lot that just because a president has a good economy when their president
Jessie Ott (53:25)
Yeah.
Debbie Wildrick (53:41)
does not mean that they were the one that affected the change of that economy and vice versa. But it certainly can be. mean, some changes can be made that are so disastrous. mean, to nobody's fault other than how certain things were handled, the disaster around the world of
of COVID and how we chose to handle it will forever be a destroyer of economies because of the shutdowns and the continued shutdowns. I can't get into it, but I'm just a huge believer that we made so many mistakes along the way.
you know, and let it go on way, way, way too long and destroyed businesses and destroyed people's lives and so forth. So that is hard to recover from.
Jessie Ott (54:36)
Yeah. Yeah, it really is. All right, Debbie. So I have one final segment. Do you want the rapid fire questions or do you want to talk about your passions outside of work? I'll let you choose.
Debbie Wildrick (54:42)
Okay.
How about rapid fire questions?
Jessie Ott (54:54)
Okay, if you were a cocktail, what would you be?
Debbie Wildrick (54:56)
If I were a cocktail, I would be a Tito's martini with a lemon twist.
Jessie Ott (55:07)
Ooh, yummy. Yummy. Yum. We just had him a favorite martini the other day. Dirty though. Not with a twist.
Debbie Wildrick (55:15)
Well, and I said, Tito's, I just told you what I drank on a regular basis, but I'd like to throw in the Tito's, I happen to know Tito. And I'm, yeah, yeah. And I just think, yeah, I just think, you know, the simple but the pleasures of,
Jessie Ott (55:31)
that's cool.
I've heard his story.
Debbie Wildrick (55:45)
having something, that's just who I am. That's just who I am.
Jessie Ott (55:52)
Yeah.
My wife is a vodka drinker and she loves Tito's too. Yeah. I'll make, I'll make martini sometime, time to time, here at the house. It's actually sounding really good. Sounding yummy. okay. what's your favorite food?
Debbie Wildrick (55:56)
really?
yeah.
that goes. So my husband who is new to me as of January, we just got married in January. He and I are both cooks. He's a spectacular cook. But my favorite food is, I can't say, can't say. Bone and rib eye.
Jessie Ott (56:26)
Mmm.
Debbie Wildrick (56:27)
I mean, we cook so many things. He does a lot of Indian style cooking with Indian spices and so forth. He actually sold beef Wellingtons over the holidays. so I'm a big, I'm a big beef person. I practice keto. So, but we always say, make, we make
Jessie Ott (56:35)
Yummy.
Debbie Wildrick (56:50)
We make so many things so well at home that we don't even like to eat out that much anymore. So, yeah, yeah. But bone and ribeye, I don't know why I just picked that. But, know, beef and, yeah, and we have one in the freezer, so that may be dinner tonight.
Jessie Ott (56:58)
Yeah, I understand that.
Your body is wanting it.
There you go.
Sounds good. What do you cook for sides then with keto? You do greens?
Debbie Wildrick (57:24)
Greens, greens, I am, we usually do a salad. He usually does, a lot of times he'll do spinach, bok choy. Yeah, that kind of, mm-hmm, yeah.
Jessie Ott (57:38)
Nice.
Okay, third and final question is, what's your favorite place to visit?
Debbie Wildrick (57:43)
There you go again with the favorites.
Jessie Ott (57:47)
Well, okay, what's the first
memory that comes to mind? What was the first place?
Debbie Wildrick (57:51)
What,
the first memory that comes to mind was Spain. So love, love, love Spain. So my first trip to Europe was Spain and we did nine cities in 12 days. It was awesome.
Jessie Ott (57:59)
Okay, nice.
wow.
Debbie Wildrick (58:16)
flew into Madrid and out of Barcelona and I've been back a couple of times. We just got back from a nine day trip in Santa Monica, which I wouldn't have called that. I've been there so many times. We had a great, great time. And we're going to New York City for a wedding in a couple of weeks. And New York City is always a great city to visit. Yeah, yeah.
Jessie Ott (58:38)
Always. Yeah. I lived
there briefly. was, it was interesting. Interesting place. Yeah. You could get some of the best meals was the best wines for affordable price, even in my twenties, because there's just so much competition, you know?
Debbie Wildrick (58:44)
Yeah.
really? Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jessie Ott (59:00)
Yeah, I do miss the food and wine culture, cocktails, bar hopping, the Sundays where you just go from place to place, neighborhood to neighborhood, and then you can't walk for two days, you know, because you've eaten all the junk food and you've had too many drinks. ⁓ But you meet people from all over the world. It's just, it's such an incredible place.
Debbie Wildrick (59:08)
you
Yeah.
That's right, that's right.
Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Jessie Ott (59:27)
Well, Debbie, go ahead.
Debbie Wildrick (59:27)
And I think I've,
I was just gonna say I've traveled quite a bit all my life. And so I've been to most of the states, not all of them. And I've been to a lot of countries. had somebody come to work on something on the house and he said that he's been to 23 countries. Now my husband's probably been to more countries and he was born in Africa.
But I decided I was going to stop and count how many travel, how many countries I've been to. now you're by those questions, you really got to my personal interest.
Jessie Ott (1:00:05)
Yep. Travel.
Debbie Wildrick (1:00:08)
Travel
and food. And wine. And wine. ⁓
Jessie Ott (1:00:10)
Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah.
Right up my alley. Yep. Well, we're going to Montreal this summer, so I've not been to Canada, so I'm excited.
Debbie Wildrick (1:00:16)
Hahaha.
⁓
Yeah, I was in Montreal about three, four, no, six years ago. I have to always think of six, seven years ago because my husband died and it was one of our last trips. Yeah, thank you. He's been gone now almost seven years, but anyway.
Jessie Ott (1:00:39)
I'm sorry to hear that.
Debbie Wildrick (1:00:45)
Yeah.
Jessie Ott (1:00:45)
Okay.
Well, Debbie, thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your story with us. You have some amazing experiences. I can tell how much you really enjoyed that 7-Eleven experience and then the FRC product that you were very passionate about. It's too bad that didn't work out because the world would be going nuts over it now. Yeah, for sure.
Debbie Wildrick (1:01:03)
Yeah.
I think so. ⁓
Jessie Ott (1:01:13)
But yeah, thank you so much. I'm excited that you came on to talk about all the things you're up to and hopefully, you know, somebody will see your segment and get in touch with you.
Debbie Wildrick (1:01:26)
That sounds great. Thank you so much. It was a real pleasure.
Jessie Ott (1:01:28)
Hehehehe
good, excellent. Thank you so much. I'll let you get back to it and wave goodbye.
Debbie Wildrick (1:01:37)
Okay.
Jessie Ott (1:01:38)
All right.
