We were lucky to catch up with Roberta Townes recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Roberta thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

This mission matters so much to me because it’s about leveling the playing field. Through the podcast, I get to celebrate and amplify the voices of amazing female entrepreneurs, and at the same time, provide actionable guidance to indie brands building their path to retail. My hope is that by listening, more founders will face fewer hurdles, gain more confidence, and ultimately achieve lasting success.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have been a retail buyer for over 15 years. Throughout that time, I saw firsthand the major gap between established big brands and indie brands when it came to connecting with retail buyers, pitching their products, and launching successfully in stores. Big brands usually have seasoned teams who know exactly how to present to buyers and support their products once on shelves. Meanwhile, indie brands often struggle in three key areas: pitching effectively, securing that “yes” to get on shelf, and most critically, having a plan to sell through and sustain a successful retail partnership.

In 2019, I wrote Shelf Talk to help bridge that gap — offering a step-by-step guide for emerging brands looking to break into retail. Over the years, as more founders reached out sharing how the book helped them or asking for deeper advice, I realized I wanted to make an even bigger impact. Additionally, coming from the buying side I wanted to be able to share the other side of brands landing on shelf from the actual founders that have created the brands. That’s what inspired me to launch the Shelf Talks podcast – a platform where I could spotlight the incredible journeys of female founders who have successfully made it onto retail shelves providing listeners tips, insights and actionable steps for them to do the same.

The female founders on the podcast range in product categories, retailers they have launched in and how they started their brand with a goal to show the breadth of what success could look like in many different ways.

I am most proud of the fact that I am able to create a platform where indie brands can hear these amazing stories of founders that have launched in retail allowing for them to believe that they can do it too.

Shelf Talk the book is available on Amazon. Shelf Talks Podcast can be listened to wherever you listen to your podcasts including Spotify and Apple Podcasts – episode release weekly.

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

The book The Twelve Week Year has impacted my entrepreneurial thinking as is allowed me to be clear in my goals, devise an aggressive plan to achieve them continuously follow up on my progress.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The goal of creating my podcast is to help more indie brands successfully land on retail shelves, increasing the diversity of brands available to consumers and supporting founders in growing their businesses financially.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.shelftalks.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/shelftalkspodcast
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/shelftalkspodcast
• Linkedin: Shelf Talks Podcast
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@shelftalks?si=bi3HZKfJ5yhNHsz0
• Other: Listen to Shelf Talks podcast wherever you listen to your podcast including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.