December 18, 2025 • 32 mins
Time managment is the theme of our second episode as hosts Austin Hankwitz and Jannese Torres talk about their strategies for maximizing the hours in a day. Then we sit down with Anna Cobb, the founder of Rejuvenation, who turned a harrowing near-death experience into a passion for healthy energy alternatives that has bloomed into a thriving business. You'll hear about how she harnesses her own time management using AI and other strategies to keep her ventures growing, and come away with tricks of the trade that you can use too. You definitely don't want to miss it!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Ruby. The views, information, and opinions expressed during this podcast
are solely those of the individuals involved and do not
represent those of Intuit, QuickBooks or any of its cornerstone
brands or employees. This podcast does not constitute financial, legal,
or other professional advice or services. No assurance is given
that the information is comprehensive, accurate, or free of errors,
and the information presented is for information purposes only.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Into it.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
QuickBooks does not have any responsibility for updating or revising
any information presented. Listeners should verify statements before relying on them.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Hi, everyone, let's kick off another fun episode of Mind
the Business Small business success stories of podcasts, brought to
you by Intuit, QuickBooks and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia. Just
in case you don't recognize my voice from last episode
or the previous three seasons, I'm Austin Hankwitz and I'm
the host of another podcast called Rich Habits. I'm also
the co founder of wits Ventures, but you may know
(00:58):
me from my TikTok videos about personal finance and investing.
Here today, co hosting with one of my favorite entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
That's me. Hi, everybody, I'm Jennise Torres and I'm the
creator and host of the award winning personal finance podcast
jokierro Dinetto and author of financially Lit, The Modern Latino's
guide to level up your netto and become financially for Rosa.
I'm so excited to be here for another awesome episode, Austin, I.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Am too, Janie especially excited to talk today since we're
bringing up one of the trickiest things in running a business,
time management. It seems like it should be such an
easy thing, but I know so many people, including myself,
get tripped up by it.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Absolutely, it is deceptively difficult. You get your day scheduled
and then you scroll on your phone, maybe answer an email,
and then you've been sucked into a rabbit hole and
you're suddenly an hour or more.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Behind, emphasis on the or more. I feel like sometimes
I blink and it's just five pm. But it happens
to everybody. So denis how do we stop it?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Well, there are a few ways to maximize time management,
and the Pomado technique is actually a pretty popular one.
So it comes down to five key steps. First, you
identify your tasks that you need to complete for your
work session, set a timer, to twenty five minutes, work
on that task until the timer is up, take a
quick five minute break to stretch and just refresh your mind,
(02:18):
and then after about four cycles of doing that, you
take a fifteenth to thirty minute break, and it really
helps you keep your focus on a specific task without
just having like an open ended scheduled for your day. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I'm right there with you.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
I've used this technique in the past, and instead of
twenty five minutes, I try and stretch it to thirty
or thirty five because I feel like sometimes I don't
get enough done in that twenty five minute period of time.
But the technique is full proof, and my humble opinion,
something I always need to do is make sure my
phone is on do not disturb during this, you know,
twenty five to thirty five minute period of time here.
You know, I think this works for a lot of
(02:50):
people for a couple of reasons.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Right.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
First one, low barrier to entry. We've all got that
timer on our phone and just click it off to
the races. The second one is you don't need to
have to ignore so much of these text messages and
emails and phone calls. You can just kind of put
them to the side for call it twenty five, thirty five,
forty five minutes. Right, if something's urgent, you're going to
be able to get back to it.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
And that's not the only way to maximize your time either.
Knowing which tasks to delegate is an important skill, and
I think it's one that's often easier said than done,
especially for those control freak small business owners out there. Yeah,
I'm talking to you. And of course, digitizing tools are
an important part of streamlining your business to better manage
your time.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
It absolutely is genius. I am one of those small
business owners that's always trying to automate, find the wasted
time in my day to day schedule, carve it out,
and really you know, focus on what needs to get done.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Hey.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
You know, one of my biggest time management struggles this
year specifically has been I am a new mom, and
so when I was child free and running my business,
I mean I could be working from you know, sunrise
to midnight and my schedules completely open. So now that
I'm balancing my calendar with a tiny human, it has
forced me to really focus and be way more intentional
(04:07):
as an entrepreneur. And like where I'm using my time
and also asking for that much needed support so that
I don't drown in all the responsibilities. So for all
the morepreneurs out there, just know that I feel your pain.
Your business might have to evolve right so that you
can manage your time differently. But I like to see
it as an evolution versus a slowing down.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
I love that evolution never slow down. Well, speaking of time, Janie,
it is now time to talk about our guest today.
This entrepreneur's story is incredible. She turned a near death
experience into a story of survival and success. Anna Cobb
was a twenty year old college student when something happened
that would change the trajectory of her life forever will.
(04:50):
Searching for a good energy supplement to help with the
exhaustion that comes up being a student, she ended up
unwittingly ingesting a synthetic ingredient in a women's vitamin that
caused an allergic reaction. This reaction was so severe she
had to be put on life support and was in
a coma for a week. When she finally revived, she
(05:11):
didn't just have a long road of recovery ahead of her,
she had a mission.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Anna was determined to save as many people as possible
from going through the same ordeal Shee did. She found
That a plant based catering company while still at Tuskegee University,
and then eventually created Rejuvenation, a beverage company that provides clean,
natural energy solutions. Her company is getting more and more
attention every day and recently won the Pharrell Williams Black
(05:37):
Ambition Prize. She also started Okra, a line of all
natural Okra sparkling water to revitalize the skin and the soul.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
From a near fatal allergic reaction to crafting a solution
that's all about vitality and wellness. Let's give a big
welcome to anacob.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Anna.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
We're so excited to have you. Welcome to the show,
all right, Anna, So let's just dive right in. You
took a very scary experience and turned it into something
incredibly positive. Walk us through what this experience was, kind
of play by play. I don't understand at all what
happened there. That's insane to think about it.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
So, in twenty seventeen, I had a severe allergic reaction
to a synthetic energy supplement. I was on life support
and in acoma and I was blessed with a second
chance at life. So I used to play volleyball and
at the time was just like really in the gym
and just training. And so I went into store one
night and the lady was like, Oh, there's this new
(06:38):
women's gummy. It's supposed to help you retain energy, and
it's supposed to help you, you know, be more functional
through your workouts and have like better workouts when you're
doing different things. And so I took the gummy and
I was like, oh, it tastes great, you know, fantastic.
Probably like twenty to thirty minutes later, I got home
and my face was extremely so swollen. I called my
(07:01):
mom at work and she was just like freaking out, like, no,
your face is really swollen, and you need to probably
call nine one one. By the time I got downstairs
to tell my grandmother to call nine one one, my
tongue had swollen up to the entire width of my
mouth and I was not actually able to form any
real words. I just remember like I was telling my grandmother,
(07:24):
like I was trying to tell her I couldn't breathe.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Nine one one. They came.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
They immediately stuck me with EPI and then it was
just like I was out from that point forward. And
it wasn't until probably three months after I had been
going through like rehabbing everything, that we finally were able
to correlate it was a gummy I had taken, because
there were other claims coming out on the market of
people that had unfortunately passed away, and then also people
(07:51):
who had had the same adverse reaction. We ended up
finding out that there were one hundred and forty four
ingredients in those gummies and only eighty six than were
listed on the actual bottle. So from that point forward,
after I had made a full recovery, which took a
long time, I suffered from extreme memory loss. I had
(08:12):
all types of just different you know problems like nightmares
and just you know things that happened once you've been
in a coma. But it was like I just remember
thinking like, Okay, I have to do something different, Like
there has to be something that can give me energy
without you know, one day thinking I'm going to have
a heart attack at twenty one years old.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Now walk me through a little bit more of that
recovery process, and sort of when throughout that recovery process
where you inspired to create your company of Rejuvenation.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
So my mom and I we went back and forth
about me going back to school that semester, and I
was like, no, I have to go back, like I
want to finish on time. And I was just like,
I was like, no, I can't let this stop me.
And she was like, I am afraid to let you
out of my sight ever again.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Reasons.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
But I got back to school and I remember I
told my professor, he was my plant science professor. I
told him what happened, and he was like, oh, my goodness,
like that is crazy, but would you be interested in
potentially working on a project that finds healthy energy sources.
So that semester is when I really dove into what
(09:25):
food and beverage formulation looks like. And he kind of
inspired me to just like start finding all of these
different fruits and vegetables that could provide energy for your
plants and herbs. And so I went and did a
study abroad in Costa Rica. While in Costa Rica is
where I found wyasa and Wayasa is a herb that
(09:49):
they used mostly in Ecuador, but also in Costa Rica
for energy.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
When I got.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
A hold of it, I was like Wow, like this
gives you a lot of energy. But I didn't feel
the jittery and then I crashed and I didn't feel
like I'm shaking out of my body or anything. It
was just like, wow, like I am still up for
the rest of the day. I feel great. And so
that is when I was like, hey, like what if
I could create something from this. And at first we
(10:16):
were doing our vegan and vegetarian plates. So my first
company was called Vegan Queen Cuisine and that started in
my dorm room at Tuski, and I was giving out
vegan and vegetarian plates. But then we started making juices
with it, like just fresh press juice, and I was like, hey, like,
do you mind if you try out our energy juice?
And so many people were like yeah, sure. And it
(10:37):
wasn't until COVID hit everyone got sent home from school.
So I went home and my mom was like, oh,
my goodness, like I used to drink almost a pot
of coffee a day, and I can drink one of
these juices and feel great. And the other thing was
a lot of people were saying they didn't have withdraws either,
so if they were drinking a lot of coffee, and
(10:58):
like caffeine, they didn't get that caffeine ache from drinking
our products. So immediately I was like, let me set
up a little website and try to see what I
can do here.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
I want to actually double click on some of that
inspiration right around wanting to start this company. Obviously it
happened as you were going the sort of recovery process,
and your professor was really kind of your biggest cheerleader.
But I'd also imagine maybe you had this underlying excitement
of really getting people to understand that there's such a
thing as clean energy versus you know, these crazy gummies
(11:31):
that you might get from these other companies.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
One of my biggest goals is trying to take the
negative connotation from energy supplements and energy drinks. It still
happens today that when I tell people like, hey, yeah,
we sell clean energy drinks, They're like, nothing that says
energy is clean, And I'm like, yes, there is, Like
there is a way that you can get energy without
(11:55):
all of the jitters and crashes and all the different things.
The one thing I will say, we did take a
huge and this was a huge leap of faith, but
I reached out to the American Asthma and Allergy Association.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
That was like.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Probably the first group that I had ever even come
in contact with with our product, and I was like, Hey,
we're doing this for this awareness. We would love to
be able to partner with you all in some type
of way, And they gave us a lot of support
with reaching out to other people that have had adverse
reactions to commercialized products, as well as just being able
(12:32):
to kind of get the awareness out there more and
get the buzz around that there are clean energy products.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
So obviously there's a number of things that you could
have done to raise awareness right of these harmful chemicals
that are in a lot of these energy products. I mean,
you couldn't just started like an Instagram and start sharing things, right,
but you took it to another level by actually starting
a business. Would you say that you have like a
natural entrepreneurial spirit or do you think that you were
(13:00):
kind of like in the right environment to foster that.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I so I have an entrepreneurial spirit.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
I tell people all the time that I am the
princess to the King and queen of side jobs and
side hustles.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
My mother and father.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
I feel like I've literally never seen either one of
them have less than four jobs at a time, not
because it was like they needed to, but I mean,
my dad used to do everything. He was a mechanic,
he was a driver, he was restaurant cooked. Like he
could do every and anything possible. And so I think
just looking at them, I was like, oh, my goodness,
(13:35):
like I have to have a job, have a business.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Have this, have that as well. I love that.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
I do think that there is a genetic component to
entrepreneurship because I think about my own grandmother. She had
a third grade education and built her own little like
bodega the bottom floor of her home, and like put
three kids through college with that, you know. And so
it's just like that hustler spirit I think you're kind
of born with and then you you know, get into
(14:02):
the right environments where you can nurture that.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Yes, well, let's talk a little bit more about time
management and sort of your experience building this company. When
I first started building sort of my company, it was
a lot of time blocking. Right, I'd sit down and
figure out, Okay, I'm going to do this for this
period of time. I'll try and do some of this,
do some of that. But it can get really overwhelming.
What were some of the biggest lessons that you've learned
over the last couple of years here now of building
(14:27):
your company around time management.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
I will say you have to kind of prioritize things
and figure out what will make the most sense and
what can kind of manage itself. Like I know that
if I schedule out all of my emails on Sunday
to go out Monday, at least Monday they go out,
but I can be doing something else. So really using
those scheduling tools and just you know, trying to be
(14:51):
as proactive as possible. Like now we're at a point
where all of our content is basically done for the
month the month before. Of course, if we didn't do that,
I would be scrambling the night before or twenty minutes
before I'm supposed to be posting and trying to create
a post. So I would just say that I really,
I heavily rely on scheduling tools, and I heavily rely
(15:14):
on just trying to knock out the little things as
early as possible, because every day is going to have
some type of fire that you're going to have to
take time away from and focus on just that.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
And then you look up, it's five o'clock.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
So no kidding. I feel like that's me every single day.
I get into it, and then I send a couple
of emails. I blink, and now it's finically pblit.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Tell us about the various ventures that you have built
beyond Rejuvenation.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
First off, yes, so Rejuvenation Beverage Company is the holding group,
and then we have Rejuvenation the energy drink, and then
we have Okra, which is the world's first sparkling Okra water.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
It is fantastic.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
What inspired you to look at Okra specifically?
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Man? So, My grandmother is a huge like wellness lady.
We always had Okra growing up, and I just remember
like she would scarf it down my throat and she
was like, it's great for you. And I started doing
more research on Okra and the benefits of Okra water.
(16:16):
I started drinking. I would drink probably like sixteen to
maybe like twenty ounces of it a day. If you
know Okra, it is super slimy.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
It's very infamous for a specific texture.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
It is very slimy. But that mucilage that is the slime,
the mucilage is what holds all the benefits.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
So of course when.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
We're frying it and we're dying it and we're making
it in chips and all these other things, we're losing
all that mucilage. But that's where the benefit comes from.
And it wasn't until I started really extracting the benefit.
I was putting on my skin, I was putting on
my hair, I was drinking it, and I was like,
oh my gosh, like my skin has completely changed, Like
I lost eighty pounds. I was just feeling fantastic. And
(17:04):
I was like, oh, right, light bulb idea, here we go.
I told my mom and I told my grandmother, like,
oh my goodness, there's not another commercialized Okra product other
than pickled Okra on the market. And we did a
super deep research in every country, in every state, in
every like everywhere to make sure, like, okay, would this
(17:25):
really be the first I went through every beverage broker
I've talked to and like, was pitching this idea and
they're like, this sounds crazy, but sure. Luckily, at the
same time, Okra Water had made this huge, you know,
boom on social media, and in six months time formulated,
did the packaging design and produced the product and then
(17:47):
launched it. Literally all this year.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Oh okay, First off, I feel like we are literally
talking to the queen of time management, because when I
think about just the logistics of launching a new product,
I mean, you have figured out how to really optimize
your time in a way that I need to extract
the gums. So let's talk about your specific techniques. Like
one that I am aware of that's pretty popular, especially
(18:13):
for folks who are neurodivergent. Is this Pomoduro technique, right,
So for you, do you have any specific time management
techniques that you found that worked for you.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
I wish I was that organized that I could say, like,
I have these techniques I use every day. I will say,
I am blessed that I have been doing this for
five years now, and we made so many mistakes in rejuvenation,
like the energy juices. We made so many, like millions
of mistakes, five hundred thousand dollars worth of mistakes. And
(18:48):
if it weren't for those mistakes and learning from them,
that was the only reason why OKRA was so seamless,
because of the fact that I took every single mistake
and like literally learned from it and then I just
implemented it. Into the next product we created. I had
to start making a pivot with my time management skills
(19:09):
because I was realizing, Okay, yes, I feel comfortable because
I have all these jobs, but realistically, am I really
putting in my one hundred and ten percent into this
and making it happen. That is when I had to
make make the decision to rely on my mother.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Which I absolutely hate doing.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
But I had to come home and I was like miserable,
But at the same time I was focused. I was
locked in love my mom to death, love her to death,
love her house is great, but I will.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Say that, you know.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
I was like, I'm twenty six, Like I want to
live on my own. I want to you know, my
friends are out here having all this fun, but I couldn't.
At the time I had to make those sacrifices. I
was like, I'll have fun when I'm rich. Like that's
just it.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
I love that question. And you know, it sounds like
your strategy is just really focusing in on those highest
return on investment activities right.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Yes, definitely, because.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
I know some of y'all that are listening right now
think that you know, creating graphics and logos and doing
cute little social media posts is actually what's going to
move your business forward.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
But it's not.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
It's the action that actually comes down to making money, right,
those revenue generating activities. And so I think you've gotten
really good at being able to pinpoint where exactly your
time needs to be focused. I'm curious with quick books,
how are you utilizing that to streamline your workload?
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Quick books has been an angel looks so.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
So we first when we first got on quick books,
it was mostly just for our bookkeeper to understand like
where the money was going. And my books were crazy because,
like I said, we were doing pop up shops. We
had random cash from selling on the side of the street.
We had just you know, all these random sources of
income in the company that didn't make any sense. But luckily,
(21:09):
there were so many great tools on quick books that
I was able to use all the different integrations as
well as be able to do payroll.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
So yeah, the.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
One thing I will say with QuickBooks, though, they had
this tool that allowed us to make up fake invoices
and pos and my mom is very much like just
dream it until you see it, like dreaming until you
see it. And so I made a fake purchase order
up and I was like, this is gonna be my
dream purchase order, Like it's gonna happen one day.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
And she printed it out and she hung it up
in my room.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
Literally just last year we had like that ExHAM amount
of purchase order and I was like, oh my gosh,
now here's the thing. Right at the time, that was
my dream. Now that's like not gonna pay anything. But
that's at the time.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
That was like huge money.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
But now I'm like, okay, now I'm just gonna I
go in there and I'm like I just put in
what I believe and I'm like, go straight to my
vision board.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
So quick Books also is a manifestation tool.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
If you all didn't know, Okay, all right, I love
to hear it.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
That's incredible.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Listen, I'm all about QuickBooks. They've got this team of
AI agents and trusted experts that are available that help
me track and complete my tasks, keep my books accurate
and compliant. So I've got more time, just like you anna,
to focus on the business that matters, the business of
creating new beverage lines. Well, listen, let's talk a little
bit about AI. You know, AI, I feel like is
(22:40):
more on the software side, right, but on you know,
you've got this CpG business going on, so I'm sure
you're utilizing AI here and there while also not forgetting
about the human intelligence. Right, you're the one that comes
up with the ideas. You're the one having the Okra
epiphany as you will. So what sort of automation have
you created in your business using artificial intelligence?
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (23:01):
So literally Oaker would not be here without AI.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
So a lot of.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Image generation that we do, and so now we're able
to upload our cans and create these beautiful backgrounds and
you know, have like the hands holding them and create
these commercials and things like that that are ways to
market the product. So having like those AI models and
using some of those images really does help us out
(23:30):
a lot. My director of operations, he's the one that
really is like deep in the weeds with the AI
tools that we use. But it has helped us out
a ton, a ton And of course, you know, chat
GBT is everyone's therapist now, so.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
No, I will say, you know, AI and AI automation
has certainly freed up a lot of my own time
and it's helped me, to your point, prioritize different parts
of the business. That are what Genie was talking about,
a better return on time spent there. I'm curious, have
you ever audited your own sort of AI automations and say, Okay,
because I'm using this, I'm able to save this much time.
(24:07):
And then now that I have this time, I'm now
you know, are you designing or you're coming up with
Okra stuff? What are you spending this new free time doing?
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Really now like building out the product set? So h
we're working on Well, our newest flavor is already pretty
much done. It's going into production the end of this month.
It will be pomegranate. So y'all are the first to hear.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Yay, Oh so.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Pomegranate Okra water will be available hopefully by the end
of January. But because of using these AI tools, I
was able to kind of surf the internet with like
my AI agents and figure out what are gonna be
the newest flavors of the year, and like what other
brands are doing, what the market looks like, trying to
(24:51):
see what the beverage trends are for flavors and for
what people are interested in terms of functionality, and so
because you know beverages, they change like every day, like
it could be hot today and then gone tomorrow, or
you know, vice versa. And so it has really helped
me be able to take out some of that research
step that I usually have to go through whenever I'm
(25:12):
formulating new products, or you know, when we're just trying
to figure out what market trends look like. Now my
AI tools can just give me all of that in
a spreadsheet and I can go through that, or it
can give it to me in like a quick blurb
and I can understand and digest it better.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Right there with you. I feel like I'm absolutely abusing
AI sometimes when it comes to my own business and
all these crazy new tools and products. It's just it's
so fun to be able to use this stuff now
as a small business owner.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Yes, I love it.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
So along that same vein obviously, there are things that
you can decide to outsource and automate, and then there's
things that you might want to keep kind of close
to the chest. So how do you decide what things
you want to do within the business versus what things
you want to outsource just to get back more of
your time.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
So formulation and manufacturing that will always stay family owned only,
like I'm sorry, they've read all the books that I
feel like are credit worthy, so I'm like it has
to stay with us. I have like talked to a
ton of formulators, and obviously we still send out everything
(26:18):
for bench testing and for you know, FDA approvals and
all those things.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
But I refuse.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
To budge on formula like that is what, like it
came from us, Like it's staying here.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
So Anna, as we wrap up this episode, I want
you to really think about this, and you know, maybe
it is personal, maybe it's something you know, some outside validation,
but like what excites you the most about the sustainable
and healthy businesses that you've created.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
I think seeing how many people are just super excited
about the product, And for me, it's really it comes
down to like my grandma and my mom, Like just
seeing them so excited and super duper supportive, Like hearing
my grandmother call all her friends and she's ninety four
(27:10):
now and so literally like she'll be on the phone
with her friends like Anna's got this business and she's
doing this and I'm like, that's what warms my heart
every day. But also just seeing like the amount of
comments and the great responses on Oh my goodness, like
I've already feel like my gut feeling better, I feel,
you know, the glow of my skin, like, oh, I'm
ordering another one. It was just amazing to see, especially
(27:33):
with just black Black Friday, just like passing. It was
amazing to see the response of people that had just
got their orders delivered and were.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Willing to make videos.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
This Black Friday was the cheapest ad spend I have
ever had because of the simple fact that we changed
the cards that we put in our orders. We said, hey,
if you record a video for us and post it
on social media, we'll give you a coupon. And so
many people have been recording videos and posting them for
us for their coupon. That that has been our own
(28:06):
organic marketing that we didn't have to spend so much
on marketing this year for Black Friday because of the
fact that we kind of have our own little UGC
content creators.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Now I love it.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
I have one question, where can we find rejuvenation?
Speaker 4 (28:21):
Yes, so Rejuvenation is on ww dot drink rejew dot com.
And then if you want to purchase okra, Okra is
on ww dot drinkokra dot com.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
We keep it real.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Simple, amazing, and the packaging is giving Instagram feed day.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
It's so good, so much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Got to get in the groove.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
With the juve here, groove with rejuvenation, no slim, just
shine with OKRA.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
I love it. I do love about Eugenius, but I
love a wonderful inspirational story by kind an even better business.
I think my big takeaway from that conversation was how
important it is as a small business owner to give
yourself grace. Right, you can only control the controllables. I
(29:11):
think that's something that my dad taught me growing up,
was not to worry about things outside of your sort
of domain, outside of your control. And it seems like
that's exactly what Anna did. There's a lot of things that,
you know, some setbacks, things that impacted her in her
business over the last couple of years here, but that
didn't stop her. She's over here doing the Okrah, she's
got rejuvenation, she's doing the packaging. I mean, she's absolutely
(29:33):
crushing it. So giving yourself grace as a small business
owner is incredibly important.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Absolutely, her story was such an important reminder that those
setbacks do not have to be the thing that define you,
they can actually be the thing that propels you and
like really forces you to become who you're meant to be.
So super super inspiring guest, and I think it was.
It's also a good reminder of how common like the
origin story is for entrepreneurs. But it usually just does
(30:00):
come down to identifying that thing that you want to
help people with, you know, that impact that you want
to have in the world. And I would say she's
having a major impact with her work.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
She absolutely is. All right, Denise, should we now challenge
these listeners?
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Absolutely? All right, friends and fellow business owners. If you
have listened this far, it's time for some homework. Over
the next two weeks, challenge yourself to try to take
a typical workday and track where most of your time
is wasted. So thinking about those waiting periods, downtime and
other areas where maybe you just aren't optimizing where you can.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
During that same typical work day, I want you to
also identify tasks that can be automated either fully or
even partially, and utilize the time save for another task.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
After identifying that lost time, try to rework your schedule
to reclaim areas that you can focus on.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
For business growth, and finally, try implementing the Pomoduro technique
or something similar for a week or more see how
it affects your work and maybe even get some feedback
from other employees about their experience as well.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Well, that's it for today's episode. You can find me
on social media at Jocciero Dinetto podcast and.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
You can find me at Austin Hankwitz. You can follow
Into It QuickBooks on all social media at QuickBooks. To
get the tools you need to start, run and grow
your business, head to QuickBooks dot com slash mtb today.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Thank you, don't forget to follow this show wherever you
listen to podcasts so you can stay up to date
on future episodes.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
We also want to hear from you, so be sure
to leave a rating and a review. See you next time,
See you next time. This podcast is a production of
iHeartRadio's Ruby Studio and Into It QuickBooks. Our executive producers
are James Foster and Ryan Martz. Our supervising producer is
(31:55):
Meredith Barnes
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Our writer is Eric Leja, and our mixing engineer is
Eric Zyler
Ruby. The views, information, and opinions expressed during this podcast
are solely those of the individuals involved and do not
represent those of Intuit, QuickBooks or any of its cornerstone
brands or employees. This podcast does not constitute financial, legal,
or other professional advice or services. No assurance is given
that the information is comprehensive, accurate, or free of errors,
and the information presented is for information purposes only.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Into it.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
QuickBooks does not have any responsibility for updating or revising
any information presented. Listeners should verify statements before relying on them.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Hi, everyone, let's kick off another fun episode of Mind
the Business Small business success stories of podcasts, brought to
you by Intuit, QuickBooks and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia. Just
in case you don't recognize my voice from last episode
or the previous three seasons, I'm Austin Hankwitz and I'm
the host of another podcast called Rich Habits. I'm also
the co founder of wits Ventures, but you may know
(00:58):
me from my TikTok videos about personal finance and investing.
Here today, co hosting with one of my favorite entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
That's me. Hi, everybody, I'm Jennise Torres and I'm the
creator and host of the award winning personal finance podcast
jokierro Dinetto and author of financially Lit, The Modern Latino's
guide to level up your netto and become financially for Rosa.
I'm so excited to be here for another awesome episode, Austin, I.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Am too, Janie especially excited to talk today since we're
bringing up one of the trickiest things in running a business,
time management. It seems like it should be such an
easy thing, but I know so many people, including myself,
get tripped up by it.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Absolutely, it is deceptively difficult. You get your day scheduled
and then you scroll on your phone, maybe answer an email,
and then you've been sucked into a rabbit hole and
you're suddenly an hour or more.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Behind, emphasis on the or more. I feel like sometimes
I blink and it's just five pm. But it happens
to everybody. So denis how do we stop it?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Well, there are a few ways to maximize time management,
and the Pomado technique is actually a pretty popular one.
So it comes down to five key steps. First, you
identify your tasks that you need to complete for your
work session, set a timer, to twenty five minutes, work
on that task until the timer is up, take a
quick five minute break to stretch and just refresh your mind,
(02:18):
and then after about four cycles of doing that, you
take a fifteenth to thirty minute break, and it really
helps you keep your focus on a specific task without
just having like an open ended scheduled for your day. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I'm right there with you.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
I've used this technique in the past, and instead of
twenty five minutes, I try and stretch it to thirty
or thirty five because I feel like sometimes I don't
get enough done in that twenty five minute period of time.
But the technique is full proof, and my humble opinion,
something I always need to do is make sure my
phone is on do not disturb during this, you know,
twenty five to thirty five minute period of time here.
You know, I think this works for a lot of
(02:50):
people for a couple of reasons.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Right.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
First one, low barrier to entry. We've all got that
timer on our phone and just click it off to
the races. The second one is you don't need to
have to ignore so much of these text messages and
emails and phone calls. You can just kind of put
them to the side for call it twenty five, thirty five,
forty five minutes. Right, if something's urgent, you're going to
be able to get back to it.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
And that's not the only way to maximize your time either.
Knowing which tasks to delegate is an important skill, and
I think it's one that's often easier said than done,
especially for those control freak small business owners out there. Yeah,
I'm talking to you. And of course, digitizing tools are
an important part of streamlining your business to better manage
your time.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
It absolutely is genius. I am one of those small
business owners that's always trying to automate, find the wasted
time in my day to day schedule, carve it out,
and really you know, focus on what needs to get done.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Hey.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
You know, one of my biggest time management struggles this
year specifically has been I am a new mom, and
so when I was child free and running my business,
I mean I could be working from you know, sunrise
to midnight and my schedules completely open. So now that
I'm balancing my calendar with a tiny human, it has
forced me to really focus and be way more intentional
(04:07):
as an entrepreneur. And like where I'm using my time
and also asking for that much needed support so that
I don't drown in all the responsibilities. So for all
the morepreneurs out there, just know that I feel your pain.
Your business might have to evolve right so that you
can manage your time differently. But I like to see
it as an evolution versus a slowing down.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
I love that evolution never slow down. Well, speaking of time, Janie,
it is now time to talk about our guest today.
This entrepreneur's story is incredible. She turned a near death
experience into a story of survival and success. Anna Cobb
was a twenty year old college student when something happened
that would change the trajectory of her life forever will.
(04:50):
Searching for a good energy supplement to help with the
exhaustion that comes up being a student, she ended up
unwittingly ingesting a synthetic ingredient in a women's vitamin that
caused an allergic reaction. This reaction was so severe she
had to be put on life support and was in
a coma for a week. When she finally revived, she
(05:11):
didn't just have a long road of recovery ahead of her,
she had a mission.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Anna was determined to save as many people as possible
from going through the same ordeal Shee did. She found
That a plant based catering company while still at Tuskegee University,
and then eventually created Rejuvenation, a beverage company that provides clean,
natural energy solutions. Her company is getting more and more
attention every day and recently won the Pharrell Williams Black
(05:37):
Ambition Prize. She also started Okra, a line of all
natural Okra sparkling water to revitalize the skin and the soul.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
From a near fatal allergic reaction to crafting a solution
that's all about vitality and wellness. Let's give a big
welcome to anacob.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Anna.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
We're so excited to have you. Welcome to the show,
all right, Anna, So let's just dive right in. You
took a very scary experience and turned it into something
incredibly positive. Walk us through what this experience was, kind
of play by play. I don't understand at all what
happened there. That's insane to think about it.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
So, in twenty seventeen, I had a severe allergic reaction
to a synthetic energy supplement. I was on life support
and in acoma and I was blessed with a second
chance at life. So I used to play volleyball and
at the time was just like really in the gym
and just training. And so I went into store one
night and the lady was like, Oh, there's this new
(06:38):
women's gummy. It's supposed to help you retain energy, and
it's supposed to help you, you know, be more functional
through your workouts and have like better workouts when you're
doing different things. And so I took the gummy and
I was like, oh, it tastes great, you know, fantastic.
Probably like twenty to thirty minutes later, I got home
and my face was extremely so swollen. I called my
(07:01):
mom at work and she was just like freaking out, like, no,
your face is really swollen, and you need to probably
call nine one one. By the time I got downstairs
to tell my grandmother to call nine one one, my
tongue had swollen up to the entire width of my
mouth and I was not actually able to form any
real words. I just remember like I was telling my grandmother,
(07:24):
like I was trying to tell her I couldn't breathe.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Nine one one. They came.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
They immediately stuck me with EPI and then it was
just like I was out from that point forward. And
it wasn't until probably three months after I had been
going through like rehabbing everything, that we finally were able
to correlate it was a gummy I had taken, because
there were other claims coming out on the market of
people that had unfortunately passed away, and then also people
(07:51):
who had had the same adverse reaction. We ended up
finding out that there were one hundred and forty four
ingredients in those gummies and only eighty six than were
listed on the actual bottle. So from that point forward,
after I had made a full recovery, which took a
long time, I suffered from extreme memory loss. I had
(08:12):
all types of just different you know problems like nightmares
and just you know things that happened once you've been
in a coma. But it was like I just remember
thinking like, Okay, I have to do something different, Like
there has to be something that can give me energy
without you know, one day thinking I'm going to have
a heart attack at twenty one years old.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Now walk me through a little bit more of that
recovery process, and sort of when throughout that recovery process
where you inspired to create your company of Rejuvenation.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
So my mom and I we went back and forth
about me going back to school that semester, and I
was like, no, I have to go back, like I
want to finish on time. And I was just like,
I was like, no, I can't let this stop me.
And she was like, I am afraid to let you
out of my sight ever again.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Reasons.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
But I got back to school and I remember I
told my professor, he was my plant science professor. I
told him what happened, and he was like, oh, my goodness,
like that is crazy, but would you be interested in
potentially working on a project that finds healthy energy sources.
So that semester is when I really dove into what
(09:25):
food and beverage formulation looks like. And he kind of
inspired me to just like start finding all of these
different fruits and vegetables that could provide energy for your
plants and herbs. And so I went and did a
study abroad in Costa Rica. While in Costa Rica is
where I found wyasa and Wayasa is a herb that
(09:49):
they used mostly in Ecuador, but also in Costa Rica
for energy.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
When I got.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
A hold of it, I was like Wow, like this
gives you a lot of energy. But I didn't feel
the jittery and then I crashed and I didn't feel
like I'm shaking out of my body or anything. It
was just like, wow, like I am still up for
the rest of the day. I feel great. And so
that is when I was like, hey, like what if
I could create something from this. And at first we
(10:16):
were doing our vegan and vegetarian plates. So my first
company was called Vegan Queen Cuisine and that started in
my dorm room at Tuski, and I was giving out
vegan and vegetarian plates. But then we started making juices
with it, like just fresh press juice, and I was like, hey, like,
do you mind if you try out our energy juice?
And so many people were like yeah, sure. And it
(10:37):
wasn't until COVID hit everyone got sent home from school.
So I went home and my mom was like, oh,
my goodness, like I used to drink almost a pot
of coffee a day, and I can drink one of
these juices and feel great. And the other thing was
a lot of people were saying they didn't have withdraws either,
so if they were drinking a lot of coffee, and
(10:58):
like caffeine, they didn't get that caffeine ache from drinking
our products. So immediately I was like, let me set
up a little website and try to see what I
can do here.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
I want to actually double click on some of that
inspiration right around wanting to start this company. Obviously it
happened as you were going the sort of recovery process,
and your professor was really kind of your biggest cheerleader.
But I'd also imagine maybe you had this underlying excitement
of really getting people to understand that there's such a
thing as clean energy versus you know, these crazy gummies
(11:31):
that you might get from these other companies.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
One of my biggest goals is trying to take the
negative connotation from energy supplements and energy drinks. It still
happens today that when I tell people like, hey, yeah,
we sell clean energy drinks, They're like, nothing that says
energy is clean, And I'm like, yes, there is, Like
there is a way that you can get energy without
(11:55):
all of the jitters and crashes and all the different things.
The one thing I will say, we did take a
huge and this was a huge leap of faith, but
I reached out to the American Asthma and Allergy Association.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
That was like.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Probably the first group that I had ever even come
in contact with with our product, and I was like, Hey,
we're doing this for this awareness. We would love to
be able to partner with you all in some type
of way, And they gave us a lot of support
with reaching out to other people that have had adverse
reactions to commercialized products, as well as just being able
(12:32):
to kind of get the awareness out there more and
get the buzz around that there are clean energy products.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
So obviously there's a number of things that you could
have done to raise awareness right of these harmful chemicals
that are in a lot of these energy products. I mean,
you couldn't just started like an Instagram and start sharing things, right,
but you took it to another level by actually starting
a business. Would you say that you have like a
natural entrepreneurial spirit or do you think that you were
(13:00):
kind of like in the right environment to foster that.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I so I have an entrepreneurial spirit.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
I tell people all the time that I am the
princess to the King and queen of side jobs and
side hustles.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
My mother and father.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
I feel like I've literally never seen either one of
them have less than four jobs at a time, not
because it was like they needed to, but I mean,
my dad used to do everything. He was a mechanic,
he was a driver, he was restaurant cooked. Like he
could do every and anything possible. And so I think
just looking at them, I was like, oh, my goodness,
(13:35):
like I have to have a job, have a business.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Have this, have that as well. I love that.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
I do think that there is a genetic component to
entrepreneurship because I think about my own grandmother. She had
a third grade education and built her own little like
bodega the bottom floor of her home, and like put
three kids through college with that, you know. And so
it's just like that hustler spirit I think you're kind
of born with and then you you know, get into
(14:02):
the right environments where you can nurture that.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Yes, well, let's talk a little bit more about time
management and sort of your experience building this company. When
I first started building sort of my company, it was
a lot of time blocking. Right, I'd sit down and
figure out, Okay, I'm going to do this for this
period of time. I'll try and do some of this,
do some of that. But it can get really overwhelming.
What were some of the biggest lessons that you've learned
over the last couple of years here now of building
(14:27):
your company around time management.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
I will say you have to kind of prioritize things
and figure out what will make the most sense and
what can kind of manage itself. Like I know that
if I schedule out all of my emails on Sunday
to go out Monday, at least Monday they go out,
but I can be doing something else. So really using
those scheduling tools and just you know, trying to be
(14:51):
as proactive as possible. Like now we're at a point
where all of our content is basically done for the
month the month before. Of course, if we didn't do that,
I would be scrambling the night before or twenty minutes
before I'm supposed to be posting and trying to create
a post. So I would just say that I really,
I heavily rely on scheduling tools, and I heavily rely
(15:14):
on just trying to knock out the little things as
early as possible, because every day is going to have
some type of fire that you're going to have to
take time away from and focus on just that.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
And then you look up, it's five o'clock.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
So no kidding. I feel like that's me every single day.
I get into it, and then I send a couple
of emails. I blink, and now it's finically pblit.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Tell us about the various ventures that you have built
beyond Rejuvenation.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
First off, yes, so Rejuvenation Beverage Company is the holding group,
and then we have Rejuvenation the energy drink, and then
we have Okra, which is the world's first sparkling Okra water.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
It is fantastic.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
What inspired you to look at Okra specifically?
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Man? So, My grandmother is a huge like wellness lady.
We always had Okra growing up, and I just remember
like she would scarf it down my throat and she
was like, it's great for you. And I started doing
more research on Okra and the benefits of Okra water.
(16:16):
I started drinking. I would drink probably like sixteen to
maybe like twenty ounces of it a day. If you
know Okra, it is super slimy.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
It's very infamous for a specific texture.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
It is very slimy. But that mucilage that is the slime,
the mucilage is what holds all the benefits.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
So of course when.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
We're frying it and we're dying it and we're making
it in chips and all these other things, we're losing
all that mucilage. But that's where the benefit comes from.
And it wasn't until I started really extracting the benefit.
I was putting on my skin, I was putting on
my hair, I was drinking it, and I was like,
oh my gosh, like my skin has completely changed, Like
I lost eighty pounds. I was just feeling fantastic. And
(17:04):
I was like, oh, right, light bulb idea, here we go.
I told my mom and I told my grandmother, like,
oh my goodness, there's not another commercialized Okra product other
than pickled Okra on the market. And we did a
super deep research in every country, in every state, in
every like everywhere to make sure, like, okay, would this
(17:25):
really be the first I went through every beverage broker
I've talked to and like, was pitching this idea and
they're like, this sounds crazy, but sure. Luckily, at the
same time, Okra Water had made this huge, you know,
boom on social media, and in six months time formulated,
did the packaging design and produced the product and then
(17:47):
launched it. Literally all this year.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Oh okay, First off, I feel like we are literally
talking to the queen of time management, because when I
think about just the logistics of launching a new product,
I mean, you have figured out how to really optimize
your time in a way that I need to extract
the gums. So let's talk about your specific techniques. Like
one that I am aware of that's pretty popular, especially
(18:13):
for folks who are neurodivergent. Is this Pomoduro technique, right,
So for you, do you have any specific time management
techniques that you found that worked for you.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
I wish I was that organized that I could say, like,
I have these techniques I use every day. I will say,
I am blessed that I have been doing this for
five years now, and we made so many mistakes in rejuvenation,
like the energy juices. We made so many, like millions
of mistakes, five hundred thousand dollars worth of mistakes. And
(18:48):
if it weren't for those mistakes and learning from them,
that was the only reason why OKRA was so seamless,
because of the fact that I took every single mistake
and like literally learned from it and then I just
implemented it. Into the next product we created. I had
to start making a pivot with my time management skills
(19:09):
because I was realizing, Okay, yes, I feel comfortable because
I have all these jobs, but realistically, am I really
putting in my one hundred and ten percent into this
and making it happen. That is when I had to
make make the decision to rely on my mother.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Which I absolutely hate doing.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
But I had to come home and I was like miserable,
But at the same time I was focused. I was
locked in love my mom to death, love her to death,
love her house is great, but I will.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Say that, you know.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
I was like, I'm twenty six, Like I want to
live on my own. I want to you know, my
friends are out here having all this fun, but I couldn't.
At the time I had to make those sacrifices. I
was like, I'll have fun when I'm rich. Like that's
just it.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
I love that question. And you know, it sounds like
your strategy is just really focusing in on those highest
return on investment activities right.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Yes, definitely, because.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
I know some of y'all that are listening right now
think that you know, creating graphics and logos and doing
cute little social media posts is actually what's going to
move your business forward.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
But it's not.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
It's the action that actually comes down to making money, right,
those revenue generating activities. And so I think you've gotten
really good at being able to pinpoint where exactly your
time needs to be focused. I'm curious with quick books,
how are you utilizing that to streamline your workload?
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Quick books has been an angel looks so.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
So we first when we first got on quick books,
it was mostly just for our bookkeeper to understand like
where the money was going. And my books were crazy because,
like I said, we were doing pop up shops. We
had random cash from selling on the side of the street.
We had just you know, all these random sources of
income in the company that didn't make any sense. But luckily,
(21:09):
there were so many great tools on quick books that
I was able to use all the different integrations as
well as be able to do payroll.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
So yeah, the.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
One thing I will say with QuickBooks, though, they had
this tool that allowed us to make up fake invoices
and pos and my mom is very much like just
dream it until you see it, like dreaming until you
see it. And so I made a fake purchase order
up and I was like, this is gonna be my
dream purchase order, Like it's gonna happen one day.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
And she printed it out and she hung it up
in my room.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
Literally just last year we had like that ExHAM amount
of purchase order and I was like, oh my gosh,
now here's the thing. Right at the time, that was
my dream. Now that's like not gonna pay anything. But
that's at the time.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
That was like huge money.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
But now I'm like, okay, now I'm just gonna I
go in there and I'm like I just put in
what I believe and I'm like, go straight to my
vision board.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
So quick Books also is a manifestation tool.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
If you all didn't know, Okay, all right, I love
to hear it.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
That's incredible.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Listen, I'm all about QuickBooks. They've got this team of
AI agents and trusted experts that are available that help
me track and complete my tasks, keep my books accurate
and compliant. So I've got more time, just like you anna,
to focus on the business that matters, the business of
creating new beverage lines. Well, listen, let's talk a little
bit about AI. You know, AI, I feel like is
(22:40):
more on the software side, right, but on you know,
you've got this CpG business going on, so I'm sure
you're utilizing AI here and there while also not forgetting
about the human intelligence. Right, you're the one that comes
up with the ideas. You're the one having the Okra
epiphany as you will. So what sort of automation have
you created in your business using artificial intelligence?
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (23:01):
So literally Oaker would not be here without AI.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
So a lot of.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Image generation that we do, and so now we're able
to upload our cans and create these beautiful backgrounds and
you know, have like the hands holding them and create
these commercials and things like that that are ways to
market the product. So having like those AI models and
using some of those images really does help us out
(23:30):
a lot. My director of operations, he's the one that
really is like deep in the weeds with the AI
tools that we use. But it has helped us out
a ton, a ton And of course, you know, chat
GBT is everyone's therapist now, so.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
No, I will say, you know, AI and AI automation
has certainly freed up a lot of my own time
and it's helped me, to your point, prioritize different parts
of the business. That are what Genie was talking about,
a better return on time spent there. I'm curious, have
you ever audited your own sort of AI automations and say, Okay,
because I'm using this, I'm able to save this much time.
(24:07):
And then now that I have this time, I'm now
you know, are you designing or you're coming up with
Okra stuff? What are you spending this new free time doing?
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Really now like building out the product set? So h
we're working on Well, our newest flavor is already pretty
much done. It's going into production the end of this month.
It will be pomegranate. So y'all are the first to hear.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Yay, Oh so.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Pomegranate Okra water will be available hopefully by the end
of January. But because of using these AI tools, I
was able to kind of surf the internet with like
my AI agents and figure out what are gonna be
the newest flavors of the year, and like what other
brands are doing, what the market looks like, trying to
(24:51):
see what the beverage trends are for flavors and for
what people are interested in terms of functionality, and so
because you know beverages, they change like every day, like
it could be hot today and then gone tomorrow, or
you know, vice versa. And so it has really helped
me be able to take out some of that research
step that I usually have to go through whenever I'm
(25:12):
formulating new products, or you know, when we're just trying
to figure out what market trends look like. Now my
AI tools can just give me all of that in
a spreadsheet and I can go through that, or it
can give it to me in like a quick blurb
and I can understand and digest it better.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Right there with you. I feel like I'm absolutely abusing
AI sometimes when it comes to my own business and
all these crazy new tools and products. It's just it's
so fun to be able to use this stuff now
as a small business owner.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Yes, I love it.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
So along that same vein obviously, there are things that
you can decide to outsource and automate, and then there's
things that you might want to keep kind of close
to the chest. So how do you decide what things
you want to do within the business versus what things
you want to outsource just to get back more of
your time.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
So formulation and manufacturing that will always stay family owned only,
like I'm sorry, they've read all the books that I
feel like are credit worthy, so I'm like it has
to stay with us. I have like talked to a
ton of formulators, and obviously we still send out everything
(26:18):
for bench testing and for you know, FDA approvals and
all those things.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
But I refuse.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
To budge on formula like that is what, like it
came from us, Like it's staying here.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
So Anna, as we wrap up this episode, I want
you to really think about this, and you know, maybe
it is personal, maybe it's something you know, some outside validation,
but like what excites you the most about the sustainable
and healthy businesses that you've created.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
I think seeing how many people are just super excited
about the product, And for me, it's really it comes
down to like my grandma and my mom, Like just
seeing them so excited and super duper supportive, Like hearing
my grandmother call all her friends and she's ninety four
(27:10):
now and so literally like she'll be on the phone
with her friends like Anna's got this business and she's
doing this and I'm like, that's what warms my heart
every day. But also just seeing like the amount of
comments and the great responses on Oh my goodness, like
I've already feel like my gut feeling better, I feel,
you know, the glow of my skin, like, oh, I'm
ordering another one. It was just amazing to see, especially
(27:33):
with just black Black Friday, just like passing. It was
amazing to see the response of people that had just
got their orders delivered and were.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Willing to make videos.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
This Black Friday was the cheapest ad spend I have
ever had because of the simple fact that we changed
the cards that we put in our orders. We said, hey,
if you record a video for us and post it
on social media, we'll give you a coupon. And so
many people have been recording videos and posting them for
us for their coupon. That that has been our own
(28:06):
organic marketing that we didn't have to spend so much
on marketing this year for Black Friday because of the
fact that we kind of have our own little UGC
content creators.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Now I love it.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
I have one question, where can we find rejuvenation?
Speaker 4 (28:21):
Yes, so Rejuvenation is on ww dot drink rejew dot com.
And then if you want to purchase okra, Okra is
on ww dot drinkokra dot com.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
We keep it real.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Simple, amazing, and the packaging is giving Instagram feed day.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
It's so good, so much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Got to get in the groove.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
With the juve here, groove with rejuvenation, no slim, just
shine with OKRA.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
I love it. I do love about Eugenius, but I
love a wonderful inspirational story by kind an even better business.
I think my big takeaway from that conversation was how
important it is as a small business owner to give
yourself grace. Right, you can only control the controllables. I
(29:11):
think that's something that my dad taught me growing up,
was not to worry about things outside of your sort
of domain, outside of your control. And it seems like
that's exactly what Anna did. There's a lot of things that,
you know, some setbacks, things that impacted her in her
business over the last couple of years here, but that
didn't stop her. She's over here doing the Okrah, she's
got rejuvenation, she's doing the packaging. I mean, she's absolutely
(29:33):
crushing it. So giving yourself grace as a small business
owner is incredibly important.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Absolutely, her story was such an important reminder that those
setbacks do not have to be the thing that define you,
they can actually be the thing that propels you and
like really forces you to become who you're meant to be.
So super super inspiring guest, and I think it was.
It's also a good reminder of how common like the
origin story is for entrepreneurs. But it usually just does
(30:00):
come down to identifying that thing that you want to
help people with, you know, that impact that you want
to have in the world. And I would say she's
having a major impact with her work.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
She absolutely is. All right, Denise, should we now challenge
these listeners?
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Absolutely? All right, friends and fellow business owners. If you
have listened this far, it's time for some homework. Over
the next two weeks, challenge yourself to try to take
a typical workday and track where most of your time
is wasted. So thinking about those waiting periods, downtime and
other areas where maybe you just aren't optimizing where you can.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
During that same typical work day, I want you to
also identify tasks that can be automated either fully or
even partially, and utilize the time save for another task.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
After identifying that lost time, try to rework your schedule
to reclaim areas that you can focus on.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
For business growth, and finally, try implementing the Pomoduro technique
or something similar for a week or more see how
it affects your work and maybe even get some feedback
from other employees about their experience as well.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Well, that's it for today's episode. You can find me
on social media at Jocciero Dinetto podcast and.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
You can find me at Austin Hankwitz. You can follow
Into It QuickBooks on all social media at QuickBooks. To
get the tools you need to start, run and grow
your business, head to QuickBooks dot com slash mtb today.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Thank you, don't forget to follow this show wherever you
listen to podcasts so you can stay up to date
on future episodes.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
We also want to hear from you, so be sure
to leave a rating and a review. See you next time,
See you next time. This podcast is a production of
iHeartRadio's Ruby Studio and Into It QuickBooks. Our executive producers
are James Foster and Ryan Martz. Our supervising producer is
(31:55):
Meredith Barnes
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Our writer is Eric Leja, and our mixing engineer is
Eric Zyler
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