We were lucky to catch up with Julia Baker recently and have shared our conversation below.

Julia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

Before starting Brothy, I had no intention of being a business owner. I just wanted to make bone broth for myself because I’d been hearing about all its health benefits. I would source my ingredients at local farmers markets, test different recipes and techniques after reading about a million different food blogs, and (when the broth turned out well) I’d share it with my friends. Its those same friends who are the ones to credit–or blame, depending on how you look at it–for my foray into the unpredictable and opaque realm of entrepreneurship.

The original vision was simple: “why don’t you start selling this at our local farmers market?” And that’s what we set out to do, one small task at a time. Because my background is in marketing and my wife’s a graphic designer, we were most enthusiastic about choosing a name, creating a brand identity, and designing our packaging. It was a random whack-a-mole approach to everything else that cascaded from that–finding a commissary kitchen, forging relationships with local farmers and building out our source base, applying to farmers markets, iterating the perfect arrangement of market supplies so that everything fit in my station wagon… Essentially everything fell into a few different categories–product, sales, marketing, and operations–but I’m only able to give it those classifications with the hindsight of a few years.

Here’s what I cannot emphasize enough–absolutely nothing could have prepared me for launch. At times it was so overwhelming and there were so many pieces to it, I had to put metaphorical blinders on and simply tackle one task at a time. And even after we launched, random roadblocks and opportunities would come up that gave me this gut reaction that can only be verbalized as, “Yeah, I should probably take care of that.”

For example, I started the business wanting to package exclusively in glass jars. Sustainability is important to me, and I liked the idea of creating a community around returning and reusing the jars. But here’s the catch–we sell Brothy frozen to get get the most out of our shelf life without pasteurization. I filled and froze a few different glass jars at home, and when it came time make our first batch in the commissary, about a third of the jars cracked. This was a micro disaster that almost led to me quitting before even starting. Eventually we found waxed paper cups that work well for our product, but that was after months of trial and error.

Having operated Brothy for almost three years and faced countless mild inconveniences, I find that a lot of folks like to share their small business ideas with me–friends, acquaintances, and strangers! I love talking shop. Most everyone I’ve talked to has brimmed with enthusiasm and joy when they’re in the idea phase.

Now are you ready for my hot take? I think most people never make it out of the ideas phase because they aren’t stupid enough. You have to be at least a little stupid to be an entrepreneur, and I really am saying that with a deep reverence and more than a little skin in the game.

There are basically two ways things can shake out: you either move forward with the knowledge your plan is half baked plan and the confidence you’ll figure it out–or you move forward with the delusion your plan is flawless and the audacity to meet every inevitable challenge as a surprise. The experience of starting a new business is not immune to the Dunning Kruger effect. When people are smart and see all the risks for what they are–and then they consider the probability of failure–their smarts stop them from starting.

Julia, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started a company that makes bone broth with the painstakingly high standards an uptight health food influencer–pasture raised bones source directly from small, local, regenerative farms; organic vegetables and herbs; 22 hours of simmering; and the highest protein and collagen content of anything I’ve personally found on the market.

I never wanted to get into the food industry. To be honest, I was never really that passionate about food. Then my horrible eating habits caught up with me and I started experiencing the worst gut health symptoms–life altering tummy aches, really, on so many levels. Brothy was born from that experience.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

Friendship is at the core of everything we do. I love investing in moments for the whole Brothy team to come together, I love getting to know the farmers we source from, and I love connecting with our customers face to face every weekend at the farmers market. There’s nothing better than watching their kids grow up and chatting about upcoming vacations, meeting their partners and hearing that Brothy helped them recover from a cold. It is genuinely my favorite part of this work, and I do think it’s a big part of our success now. Over 50% of our sales week over week come from returning customers.

With social media and the prevalence of pop-ups, there’s no shortage of ways to stay engaged with your customers and community. The tactics are pretty simple, and it all starts with taking an interest.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Oof… now this is a cliche I almost don’t want to admit, but have you ever heard Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford? I probably rewatch a couple times a year. There’s one bit in the middle he talks about connecting the dots going backwards. I can’t do it justice. You should really just invest the 15 minutes into watching it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.brothypdx.com
• Instagram: @brothypdx