Always Keep an Eye on Your End Goal: Interview with Brad Charron, CEO of Aloha
I recently went one-on-one with Brad Charron, CEO of ALOHA.
Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?
Brad: I’m a bit of a nomad, Adam. I’ve lived across the country, in Europe, and spent a lot of time in China when I worked at Under Armour. It’s an old joke among old friends - “where is Brad really from?” From my own narrative though, there’s no question; I’m a Minnesotan. I spent my formative years growing there - it’s also where ice hockey became part of my spirit, pretty much dating back to my first memories as a child. Growing up in Edina, MN, an ice hockey mecca, it was my passion. I learned early on that goaltending was my superpower, playing year-round, sunrise to sunset, even in the summers (which in MN means “August”), with the dream of one day joining the NHL. I went on to the University of Notre Dame and was fortunate to have access to nutritionists and strength coaches who instilled in us the importance of health and nutrition to allow peak performance. Unsurprisingly, my NHL dreams didn’t pan out; I simply wasn’t good enough. I had to find a real job…quickly.
My career as a brand marketer took off in earnest after grad school when I joined Under Armour at a time when the company was sub $1B and perched on the precipice of truly exponential success. I eventually went on to Chobani where I was involved in virtually every part of the brand, including product creation. I had the opportunity to shape how consumers perceive the word “healthy”, in modern food terms. One of the first things I did upon joining in 2013 was visit the manufacturing plant with the Founder in Upstate New York to see firsthand how the yogurt was made. What was a passion became an obsession after that - I saw that the business “status quo” could be successfully challenged if the pieces of the consumer-puzzle were well-designed and flawlessly-executed. Everything at Chobani had a purpose - the ingredients (for certain), but also the surrounding infrastructure - the wood (the farms), the metal (american manufacturing), the glass (transparency), even the paint on the walls.
I carried those experiences from other Founders’ companies into my own in 2017 –“building down” a failed food-tech venture called Aloha. On the brink of bankruptcy, I began rebuilding it from the ground up, soup to nuts. Not only was I a first-time (re)Founder, it was my first true CEO role. Like the hockey goalie mentality, where others saw big problems, I forced myself to only see the opportunity. The previous Aloha iteration was a brand with big dreams and aspirations but extremely poor execution– with the massive losses to prove it. I had to unravel a million messes, which took the better part of eighteen months, before I could start rolling out the company for sustainable growth. I learned a lot during those initial years, including what works, what doesn’t, and what not to do if you want to keep a business of any size afloat.
Every upstart I’ve been a part of has had a major problem to solve, whether it was the yogurt wars at Chobani or the underdog battle against Nike at Under Armour. At Aloha, there was a revenue problem. There was none. Zip. Zero. There was also a product problem. The offering was far too broad, way too poor and totally undifferentiated in the marketplace. And, lastly, there was a culture problem. The previous company was toxic. No one really wanted to work there. The incentives to win were neither fair nor transparent. So I started from the beginning to restructure the company, culture and products into what they are today. I didn’t dabble with making sequential improvements in those days. I had to bring in the dynamite and press down hard on the lever. I have the battle wounds to prove it….but managed to survive.
Adam: In your experience, what are the key steps to growing and scaling your business?
Brad: Scaling a business isn’t about running the race the fastest, it’s about sequential progress, answering the question “can I run the next lap slightly faster?” It’s all about knowing how to choose a pace that you can sustain for the long haul, avoiding burnout, not utilizing all your resources on a single push. The key is sustainability. You must first secure the future of your business; only then can you follow through on your mission, purpose, and commitment to consumers.
The following are steps you should consider to not simply grow and scale your business near-term but do so sustainably.
Take the owner-operator approach. Make every $1 work like $3. This was so important to Under Armour in its early days that the phrase was taped onto the office printers.
Dream big, but operate within reality. John Adams said that “facts are stubborn things.” You need to be transparent with others and honest with yourself about what you know (and what you don’t).
Don’t be afraid to modify your playbook. Companies that can shift on a dime to put ideas into action always have a first-mover advantage, especially against the larger multinational corporations. Watch out: always keep an eye on your end goal and know what “winning” looks like.
Read up on modern history and learn from its great economic/political/cultural lessons. I’m not saying to go and buy a bunch of business books and pretend to read them (something embarrassing I did early in my career). I’m taking real practical lessons, biographies, studies of key moments in the world. History often repeats itself. Outsmart the future, as best you can, utilizing the clues from the past. If I wasn’t in business, I would have been a history teacher.
Ask for help. “I get by with a little help from my friends” sung the Beatles. Still true. Very true. Smaller companies can benefit from working together. There is more power in your network than you think. Tap into it, but make sure to return the favor. Reciprocity matters.
Over-communicate with EVERYONE…but then don’t forget to listen. Even if you don’t like what you’re hearing. Especially if you don’t like what you’re hearing.
Not to be a broken record, but please “pace yourself.” Above all else, prioritize simplicity and incrementality when making bets. Next to cash, your most precious resource is your energy. Spend and use it wisely.
Adam: What do you believe are the defining qualities of an effective leader?
Brad: The job of a good leader rests on a quality I call “Goalie Mentality”. I’ve seen firsthand how thinking and acting like a goalie can help any leader, whether or not they’ve been in the net themselves or even played sports.
A goalie is practical, yet strategic. They’re forced to make real-time decisions with incomplete information, solve for probabilities and strategies outside of immediate control, and navigate the mental and physical spatial isolation inherent in the position itself.
A goalie never stops leading by example; living in the moment and acting fearlessly, all while empowering their team to do the same. Great leaders stay responsive, quickly diagnose and rework every problem, and embrace new approaches for solving them. In a crisis, bravery means facing reality. Your team needs to know wholeheartedly that you’re ready to deal with whatever is whirled at you head-on and with the calm intensity necessary to stop the puck.
Adam: How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?
Brad: Recognizing the immense power of your team is the key to great leadership. This means surrounding yourself with the people who truly believe in the cause and will do what it takes to reach the collective goal. It also means never forgetting to listen to them. Asking for constructive criticism from members of your team at all levels, especially if you work at a small company, will not only demonstrate your commitment to them but it will make the whole team stronger.
I travel constantly for my daughters’ hockey games. Hours spent in the car creates a great opportunity to gather insights from business and leadership podcasts. Listening to folks who have “been there and done that” helps and inspires me to be better.
Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders?
Brad: One of my favorite sayings is “life is too short to work with a**holes.” So my first tip is to surround yourself with good people who you actually look forward to working with every day. That doesn’t mean people that will agree with you all the time. It’s far from a perfect science but I built a team from scratch so I wouldn’t ever have to escape from my work. Starting a company is hard enough as it is.
Another tip is to think about product development in terms of “betterment.” Look, there are some revolutionary companies and products out there. Tons of them. But, if I remember my history right, most revolutionaries get shot and quartered. Hard pass. Companies need to offer consumers something materially and holistically “better” but, speaking in the context of food or consumer goods, not so far advanced that consumer adoption is limited or the education required to become commercially viable stresses the financial future of the company.
And, lastly, if you’re in the retail business (which I do believe is a fantastic awareness builder for brands), try not to overextend yourself too early. Don’t go big and wide, go narrow and deep. It’s not a race for how many doors my product can be in; that never pans out. Build proof points in a select group of like-minded accounts and take that momentum elsewhere with patience and purpose. Once you’re convinced that you’re no longer an emerging brand then you can shift confidently into expansion mode. Your bottomline will thank you for it…and that will allow more resources to throw into making that greater expansion into the kind of success that gets noticed across the entire retail landscape.
Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams?
Brad: Building a team is like being a sports franchise’s GM and picking your roster (don’t forget about the salary cap). You need them to be able to perform at the highest level but you also need them to WANT to play for you. That means getting your hands dirty, a lot. It means letting them see that you are human, fallible and that you truly care about more than just the bottom line. It means showing instead of telling, balancing hard work with opportunities for personal creativity and expression, and consistently and clearly elucidating what “winning” means. Cue the old adage around the “player/coach” (makes me think of Reg Dunlop from SlapShot),
Adam: What are your best tips on the topics of sales, marketing, and branding?
Brad: Here are a few crucial ones I learned along the way as I rebuilt ALOHA.
If winning hearts and minds before all else is your business strategy, you will fail. I can almost guarantee it. Having a best-in-class product and bulletproof commercial strategy are crucial 1st and 2nd steps. If I hear another company say they are a “lifestyle brand” but doesn’t have a kick-a** product, I think I might be sick. Brand matters for certain…but it can't be the entire unique proposition.
Ease into spending marketing and ad dollars as efficiently as you can. It’s easy to build a company on sales if you don’t care how much money you’re wasting. Many industries did that in recent years and it is a cautionary tale (if you don’t believe me, just ask the VC/PE firms that got burned). I don’t know about you, but I definitely care about holistic business sustainability. Profitability should be a key focus from the get-go and not just when a company says they reach scale (or tries to sell and assume a bigger company will figure out how to make them profitable).
Retail overextension can be a fatal flaw. You must get to know your customers first and do your utmost to make sure a consumer’s first impression of your brand/product is a positive one. What you learned from Mom is true - “you only get one chance to make a first impression.” Once you wade deeper into physical retail and start to truly scale, you will lose some control. First, figure out what makes your target consumer happy, “learn what they want for their birthday”, and understand how your business adds value to their life on a daily basis. If done correctly, no matter where they end up purchasing your product in the future (they will determine that, not you), you’ll know who they are and be able to deliver the right experience to them.
Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?
Brad: I’ve received tons of advice over nearly 25 years of business. The older I get, the more I listen. First-hand experiences with entrepreneurial, challenger brands in America shaped me into the “re-founder” of Aloha that I am today. I think my best advice, however, came from my Father, a business leader and former CEO in his own day. I don’t remember where or when he first gave me this counsel; whether it was after a great day on the ice or after a business win. I don’t think it was after a loss, as I believe he was more interested in teaching me humility as opposed to shoring up resilience. My Dad said, “Brad, you know that you’re not as smart as people think you are.” He paused and then continued. “And you’re also not as stupid.” The message was re-delivered multiple times in myriad circumstances over many years…and eventually sunk in. The confluence of emotion, fortitude, determination, and competitiveness is all critical in life (certainly in entrepreneurship). But as someone who has been in the game a decently long time now, I find that staying calm, keeping even-keeled, retaining humility in success, and confidence in defeat; these are aspects that have helped me balance the razor’s edge in what is required to lead a start-up/growth company. It’s the same in hockey. It’s the same in business. It’s the same in life.
Adam Mendler is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, educator, and nationally-recognized authority on leadership. Adam is the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal-winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations. Adam has written extensively on leadership and related topics, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. Adam teaches graduate-level courses on leadership at UCLA and is an advisor to numerous companies and leaders. A Los Angeles native, Adam is a lifelong Angels fan and an avid backgammon player.
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