The Keys to Success with John Foraker of Once Upon a Farm

Written By Modern Species

To make a true impact, your mission needs to be baked into the DNA of your brand from the get-go. 

Joining us today to share the keys to the success of an impact-driven brand is John Foraker, Co-Founder and CEO of nutrition-focused kids’ food brand, Once Upon a Farm. In this episode, we discover the most valuable lessons John learned from scaling Annie’s Homegrown, how he came to partner with actress and Once Upon a Farm co-founder, Jennifer Garner, and how he weaves impact into the brands he builds. 

Tune in for this revealing episode on scaling without compromising culture, and committing to making an impact.

Key Points From This Episode:

  • Introducing John Foraker, Co-Founder and CEO of Once Upon a Farm.

  • John’s advice for scaling an impact-driven brand.

  • The importance of baking impact into the DNA of your brand.

  • The three most valuable lessons John learned from scaling Annie’s Homegrown.

  • How and why both John and actress Jennifer Garner got involved with Once Upon a Farm.

  • The fundamental belief that drives John to use business as a force for positive social change.

  • The benefits of the public benefit corporation model.

  • Hiring advice and criticism of the historical corporate mindset.

  • The importance of authenticity as a leader (and the danger of imitation).

  • Reframing the term “organic”.

  • How John married his passion for food and farming with business.

  • The value of graduate studies and continuous learning in business.

  • Once Upon a Farm’s purity promise and their partnership with Save the Children.

  • The evolving nature of B Corp.

Tweetables:

“I think graduate studies in business can be really valuable to people in their career, mainly because it expands your horizon and exposes you to lots of things and ideas that you’ll never ever see.” — John Foraker [0:08:53]

“There’s no such thing as being done learning, you’ve got to keep learning.” — John Foraker [0:10:35]

“The key to success in any business is 100% about the people.” — John Foraker [0:13:43]

“Hiring for culture and fit doesn’t mean sameness.” — John Foraker [0:18:04]

“This historical corporate mindset of people as chattel and ‘easy to hire, easy to fire’ diminishes the kind of values that we should be bringing to work where we’re really trying to lift each other up and be successful together.” — John Foraker [0:22:53]

“It’s a big, beautiful world, but there are lots of problems in it and I don’t believe that government alone is going to be able to solve them. I think business has to be part of the solution.” — John Foraker [0:39:21]

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Modern Species

A sustainable brand design agency helping better-for-the-world brand launch, evolve, and grow to scale their impact.

https://modernspecies.com/
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