March 31, 2023 • 31 mins
On this episode of Next Question with Katie Couric, produced in partnership with The Wonderful Company and Katie Couric Media, Katie sits down with marketing guru, philanthropist, and Vice Chairman and co-owner of The Wonderful Company, Lynda Resnick. With decades of experience developing successful marketing campaigns for major brands, Lynda has long been a leader in her field. Together with her husband, Stewart, they have created some of the most recognized better-for-you brands on grocery store shelves, including POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice, Wonderful Pistachios, Wonderful Seedless Lemons, Wonderful Halos, FIJI Water, and JUSTIN Wines. But 11 years ago, Lynda had an epiphany: it was time for her to give back. As we celebrate Women’s History Month, we’re shining a light on what could be Lynda Resnick’s most important contribution: her philanthropy. She has made a major impact on communities in California’s Central Valley, and on the reach and depth of climate change research around the world.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
I'm Katie Kurk, and this is Next Question. My company,
Katie Kirk Media, wouldn't get to do all the cool
things we do, like bring you this podcast if it
weren't for the really innovative, smart and forward thinking companies
were lucky enough to partner with. One of those is
The Wonderful Company. Based in Los Angeles. The Wonderful Company
(00:26):
is one of the biggest privately held businesses in the
United States. You probably know their famous healthy products, including
iconic brands like Wonderful Pistachio's, Wonderful Halos, Wonderful Seedless Lemons, Palm, Wonderful,
Fiji Water, Justin and Landmark Wines, and Teleflora. On this
(00:47):
episode of Next Question, I'm sharing a conversation I had
with The Wonderful Company's vice chairman and co owner, Linda Resnick.
Every time I get a chance to sit down with Linda,
it's a real tree. Her genius in marketing comes from
her unique and very clever way with words. I mean,
who else would be crowned the palm Queen. But more
(01:10):
than that, Linda and her husband Stewart, who together co
owned The Wonderful Company, are deeply committed philanthropists, starting with
their wide ranging efforts to enhance the lives of people
in California's Central Valley and communities where many of their
employees live and work. The Residus are also major supporters
of the arts and of champions supporting the health of
(01:32):
the planet by funding major climate change initiatives. Over the
past several years, their philanthropic gifts have included seven hundred
and fifty million to the California Institute of Technology, fifty
million to the University of California Davis, and fifty million
to Technion University in Israel, all to further research on
(01:53):
environmental sustainability across the globe. Since its Women's History Month,
we could all benefit from hearing from this extraordinary, self
made woman who today lives her life with one mission
to give back. And by the way, if you want
to get smarter every morning with a breakdown of the
top news stories and fascinating takes on health and wellness
(02:16):
and pop culture, sign up for our daily newsletter Wake
Up Call by going to Katiecuric dot com. Now let's
get to it. Linda. First of all, thank you for
inviting us into your magnificent home. I don't think we've
ever been treated so well. We're in this beautiful library
(02:38):
or office your office, yes, surrounded by incredible art, little
sandwiches on trays, on tea trays, and all sorts of suits.
So thank you so much for inviting us here. It's
a real treat. It's my pleasure. Of course. I wanted
to start by talking about you and how you became
(03:02):
the woman you are today, because you built this insane success.
And I'm always interested in people's origin stories because I
think they explained so much what motivated you and the
people who shaped you. So I want to go back
to your childhood in Philadelphia. Okay, your dad was a
(03:23):
film distributor. He was, and he moved your family to
LA after he produced the now classic horror film The Blob. Exactly. Yes,
daddy moved us here in nineteen fifty nine or sixty,
I think, And I was a young teenager, but I
was in twelfth grade. And so how was adjusting to
(03:47):
life in La How did your mom adjust to it?
I think it was difficult for my mother to leave
her parents and her support, and for me it was
a beautiful adventure. You wanted to go to art school,
I did, and instead you decided you were going to
start your own ad agency. Well, I did go to
(04:09):
college for a year. My father felt that it wasn't
worthwhile financially to send me to art school because he
had to pay and I couldn't get a scholarship. And
when I asked why I couldn't get a scholarship, they said,
there's two Rolls Royces in your driveway. We don't feel
so sorry for you. So I couldn't go to art school,
which was a blow. And I went to Santa Monica
(04:31):
City College, which by the way, is still a magnificent college.
It really is a two year college. It's fabulous. And
then I went to work because I, frankly, I was
a little bored, as you can imagine, and I opened
my little advertising agency when I was nineteen. It was
called Linda Limited, and eventually it grew till where I
(04:51):
could get a proper office. Where did your ambition come from?
Was it your father? I mean he sounds as if
he was a very charisma addic, you know, good salesman. Yes,
And he looked like Harry Graham. I mean he was
absolutely a magnificent specimen, which I realized was not what
you look for first, it may be what you look
(05:13):
for third. But having said that, he had a lot
of other incredible qualities. Oh he did. He was into
the arts, he was into poetry, he loved film, and
we had a lot of fun together. I mean, if
it weren't from my father, I don't think I would
have loved the arts. He carried me into the Philadelphia
Art Museum in his arms when I was a baby.
(05:35):
So you get your outgoing personality, your kind of jazz hands,
if you will, from your dad and my mom and
your mom they both had fabulous sense of humor, fantastic. Now,
my mother couldn't speak in front of a crowd, she
was terrified, but in a closed circle with girlfriends, she
(05:56):
was amazing. So both parents were kind of personality us
that's usually like there's one quieter spouse and one sort
of more outgoing one. But which is why their marriage
didn't last. I wanted to ask you about you wanted
to know where I got my ambition. Yeah, I wish
I knew where I got my ambition. And I've been
(06:18):
through therapy and mindfulness and all sorts of things to
find out why I'm so driven. And I think because
one of the reasons is my mother criticized me so
heavily my whole life. She did. Yeah, she never enjoyed
with me my success, and so the more I did
(06:40):
to try to impress her, the worst it cut. Did
you ever come to terms with your mom about that?
Did you ever talk to her? Did you ever have
a come to Jesus conversation? No? I never did. I
waited on my mother hand and foot. I was there
every day of my life. I took care of her financially, emotionally.
(07:03):
On her deathbed, which I was there holding her hand
when she died, she said I wasn't very nice to you,
and that's it did was it? Did she say I'm sorry? No,
but she acknowledged it. She thing it meant something that
she knew. But she had a horrible childhood, so she
didn't know how to give love because she hadn't been
(07:25):
given it. My grandmother and grandfather saved my life. They
made me what I am today. Their love was so profound.
They lived in Baltimore, but I would go as often
as I could. It's interesting because it sounds as if
(07:45):
you grew up in tremendous privilege. Is that correct? I
mean I wouldn't call it tremendous. This is tremendous privilege. Yeah,
right where we're sitting now. I mean, but this home
is so opulent and beautiful, full of our and treasures.
And you mentioned the two Rolls Royces in the driveway
when you were younger. Yes, so I was curious if
(08:08):
your father was successful from when you were very little.
He wasn't enormously rich, but he was successful. I would
say we were upper middle class. He just cared about
Rolls Royces. I've never owned one, okay, and I never
will because it stands for my college education to me
that I didn't have. But my life turned out great,
(08:30):
So why am I complaining. We'll be right back. Let's
talk a little bit more about how you were really
a woman ahead of your time, Linda. I mean, most
(08:51):
women at the time you started your ad agency, they
were pretty traditional, right. They were getting married, they were
raising families, they were homemakers. What was it like to
be in the work world? And what year was that?
That was right in the heart of the Madmen era?
(09:11):
Absolutely so, it was sixty sixty two, sixty three. All
the way through the sixties. Running the ad agency was
fabulous because I'm very creative, and so the creative spirit
that I would have put into fine art parentheses. I'm
not that great an artist. I'm doing much better than
(09:34):
in business that I would have as a fine artist.
But that creativity was expressed every day in the copywriting,
in the art direction that I did, and eventually I
could hire staff and I tried to get better people
than me, and so that the agency did grow and
it did extremely well. And you were a single mom.
(09:55):
I was a single mom. It was very expensive. My
ex husband was a deadbeat and he wouldn't I had
to take him to court. I had no money, and
quite frankly, when I married Stewart, it was he had
no money either. He just seemed like he was going
to someday be successful and he would understand my drive
(10:16):
to be successful and not be outshined by me. I
know when you first met Stuart, you said he was
cute but kind of a jerk. He was kind of
a jerk, because I can't imagine Stewart being a jerk,
like you can't, well, let me enlighten you. So what
happened was someone recommended me to this job. He needed
(10:36):
someone to do some advertising for a men's clothing store
that he bought. I said, I'm not going on that
meeting Doug. You go. So Doug Spellman when he was
my head of new business, and he went like three
or four times. He said, this guy's amazing, he's so fabulous.
I said, we'll sign the deal. He said, he won't
do it unless he meets you. So I go. Now.
(10:57):
I was provocative and adorable. I must to admit I
had on boots that went above my knee, brown leather divine.
I had on a lovely little tunic with nice lung
sleeves and a high neck. So I think we went
out to dinner for like three months and I said,
are you going to give me the business? And he said,
(11:18):
I'll give you the business, I'd rather have a meaningful
relationship with you. And that's how our love affair started.
And it was pretty amazing. And all these years later,
you're still happily married. Yes, except for this week. You
are working together, and you've been phenomenally successful, and I
think you compliment each other in terms of your skills,
(11:40):
and you have said that together we make one perfect person. Right.
We're like salton pepper shakers. Can you explain that and
sort of what qualities he has and what qualities do
you have, and why it's worked, not only in a
marriage but in a business, which isn't easy. It's not easy,
you know, it's so hard to be in partnership with
your husband. First of all, he's the boss. I figured
(12:03):
that out about forty years ago. He's the boss. So
that's fine. I understand that. But I do what I
want because I have circuitous roots that I've managed to discover.
He is a genius in business. He sees the potential
of every company that he looks at for acquisition, and
(12:27):
he knows what you're going to do well and which aren't.
And we have made very few mistakes in acquisitions. He
obviously and you have become just built an extraordinary business
and a really slate of businesses that encompass everything from
pomegranates to Pistachio's water wine. I'm sure I'm leaving many
(12:51):
of the product Teleflora, Yeah, Teleflora oranges. I love my
little Kalos. What is his business? And your business philosophy
been from the get go? Well doing well by doing
good has certainly been our philosophy for the last twenty
five years. We care about our employees. We know that
(13:14):
without our employees, or in the case of tell Aflour,
without our florist, for instance, we wouldn't have a business,
and so we do concentrate on making sure that they
have a healthy, happy environment. We do our best to
do that. Everything we sell is healthy for the planet.
People will say that feeds you water, you know, a
(13:37):
single serve, Well it isn't anymore. It's recycled plastic. I
was so happy when we could do that. Gosh, there's
so many questions I want to ask you. From that answer,
you have a sort of unique sense of taste. That's
one of your gifts, where you're able to distinguish wines
and what year they were produced. Did you always have
(14:01):
this unique ability. No. Until I would start tasting things
like palm. For instance, when I was in the orchard,
they would make pomegranate juice with a makeshift champagne press
in the dirt. We would be out there and I said,
(14:22):
I wanted to taste like this because this is what
it is, because what we sell is pure pomegranate juice.
And when they would line up the different taste profiles,
I would pick one that the taste, panel would pick,
and that's when I started to learn that I knew it.
With wine, it was uncanny that I could pick even
(14:43):
the shipper in some Burgundies. It was crazy. I don't
do that so much anymore, but I did have this
ability to taste, and I don't know why. It's just
a god given gift. Palm is your baby, and it's
the twenty anniversary, yes, and you shepherded the development of it.
(15:07):
And in your book Ruby's in the Orchard, you write
about all the marketing quote unquote geniuses around the table
and how they wanted to mix pomegranate juice with other
juices or juice products, or you know, they wanted to
put ten percent in and they wanted to make it sweeter.
This is not high Sea. This is not high Sea honey.
(15:29):
But you know the Greeks and Romans knew it. If
you go back in history or even go to our website,
you'll see the history of the pomegranate and how it's
been revered for the centuries. The Egyptians King tut took
a pomegranate invase into the afterlife. Didn't do them much good,
but it's there now we can see it. You also
designed the bottle I did. I want to talk to
(15:52):
you about your marketing acumen. I know that people have
called you a genius, and very cutely in the book
you say I never get tired of hearing that. But
you're very self effacing and say you're not. How have
you been able to have your finger on the pulse
and figure out how to convince people to buy products?
(16:12):
It's a gift. So I believe the most important thing
in marketing is listening, and I base so much of
what I do not completely on research, but we have
a very brilliant research department where we study the consumer constantly,
(16:32):
and if you noticed in our products, we're very direct
on what we talk about, so we're honest and straightforward.
In it's called palm wonderful because palm, well, if you
wrote pomegranate, by the time you read it, as I say,
you'd be in the lettuce department. So the variety is wonderful.
(16:54):
That's the type of pomegranate it is. So it's palm wonderful.
And if I have line extensions, I call them what
they are, blueberry, cherry whatever. I believe that if the
product is good, you think within the box. The solution
to the problem is within the box. But our products
are so solid, you know, citruses from the tree, it's unadulterated.
(17:20):
Our our pistachios are just harvested and roasted and sent
to you and so forth and so on. So that
is the intrinsic value of our products. The intersection of
people carrying about their health and the products you were
producing was very beneficial. Yes, it was, kis Met. We
(17:44):
were in the orange business since the eighties eighty nine,
I think and tell a flora we started in seventy nine.
But the other the almonds, the pistachios, all of that
grew in the nineties and came to fruition in two thousand.
It was two and fifteen, though before Stewart felt that
(18:05):
we should have a brand for pistachios. This is an
interesting story if we have a minute and you can.
There was a recall in pistachios, and it had nothing
to do with us. It was a small supplier who
had seminell at the plant, so they cut off selling
pistachios everywhere. Everyone had to throw out their pistachios. So
(18:28):
I was at the airport in Washington and Stewart called
me and he said, you've talked me into it. We
need brand because if we were wonderful pistachios, our pistachios
would stay on the shelf because we had no issues.
And that's when the big brand push started. It may
have been earlier than that because I was on my tour.
(18:50):
I think one of your sort of mottoes or edicts
about marketing, Linda, is insight. Every threat is an opportunity,
and so we call threats opera threats because what is
the opportunity within that threat? And you have face challenges
to your brand in the past, and you write about
(19:13):
a situation with Peter upset that you were testing on
mice and rats, although they they blew it up to
say you were testing on rabbits and all kinds of
dogs and dogs and you had protesters in front of
your home. Initially, Stuart said, it'll go away, it'll die
down right, yes, And then you all realize, no, we
(19:37):
have to respond to this because you talked about things
proliferating online and damaging reputations permanently. So how did you
handle that criticism because you were testing on animals, rats
and mice. I know that then you stopped it later on, No,
(19:58):
not later on, we stop op it. That's how we responded.
They were right about testing on mice. There was no
reason to do it. It was just kind of the
way that well silence worked in those days. But Peta
was right, You for a juice, you don't need to
test on mice. We've learned other ways of doing it.
(20:23):
And we stopped that immediately afterwards because I realized that
it was wrong. Fiji water was criticized and frankly can
still be because of the plastic water bottles. Right, there's
not enough recycling that goes on, we know, absolutely tragically. Well,
I'm hoping that the money that we've given to Caltech
(20:46):
and sustainability will find a solution for plastic. You know,
there are enzymes that they're testing now that just dissolve plastic.
And if we can get that up to scale, because
we're never going to get the recycling of the sapping
is it doesn't get recycled, No, it doesn't. So but
(21:07):
this bottle has probably you know, the recycling of this
plastic has gone on and on and on. I don't
know if we're the endgame or not. That depends on
whether it's being recycled or not. Twenty four seven, we
are looking for a biodegradable container for Fiji water. But
we keep looking, and if anyone's listening to this podcast
(21:27):
and wants to send me some ideas for a biodegradable
good data, I'm all for it. The cardboard containers that
you see with water, you are fooling yourself. They're lined
with aluminum, and aluminum is not biodegradable. The first aluminum
that was ever mind is probably still in existence, so
that's a good thing if they remind it. But I
(21:48):
think it goes to the landfill, so the paper product
will disappear, but the aluminum will stay forever. So you're
still trying to figure this outlasts the worst why because
it's so heavy. So if you're shipping glass from Fiji
to America, it costs like four times as much. The
other thing is that if you get a glass container,
(22:10):
it has to come from France to Fiji. It's got
to be cleaned three times with water. You see all
the water we're wasting. We'll be back right after this.
Let's talk about your philanthropy, because you and Stuart you've
(22:33):
given away two and a half billion dollars in the
last five to seven years. What is your philanthropic philosophy?
Because there are a number of causes that you support,
and I know you're a huge fan of the arts.
You've been very generous to the Aspen Institute, and I'm
on the board of that institute, so I know firsthand
(22:54):
the impact you all have had there. So when you
have so much money, how do you decide where to
give it? Well, our employees' lives come first. I had
an epiphany eleven years ago that I had to give
back in a really meaningful way, and that meant going
(23:17):
to work to do it. Besides my day job, I
have a philanthropy department that is dedicated to giving back
to the Central Valley and to the Fijian Islands. That's
what they do. We also give big gifts to our institutions,
but other people do that. We like to give to
places that nobody else is interested in. Let's start with
(23:40):
wonderful giving. I don't know how long it's been fifteen
or twenty years that we've given every employee that works
for us between five hundred to one thousand dollars to
give to the charity of their choice. As long as
it's a five O one C three and to date
fifty seven million dollars are employ always have given to
(24:01):
their local area. And so that is a very powerful
thing to teach philanthropy to the employees. Well, not only
that you have provided educational opportunities and all kinds of
things to the people who work on your farms, the
people who work in your factories. Talk about that because
(24:26):
that is changing lives. Yes, So it was a pivotal
moment in my life where I realized that I had
to give back. So I looked at places that I
cared about, and I ended up at home in the
Central Valley. It's one hundred and forty five miles away,
but my employees, I have five thousand employees in the
Central Valley and their families. And I started in Lost Hills,
(24:49):
this little unincorporated town, and about half of the people
in that town had someone in their household that worked
at the wonderful company, and they didn't trust me. It
was really hard. I did a lot of research to
see what they wanted and what they felt they needed.
And the first thing we did, which we thought would
(25:10):
benefit everybody, was to redo the park. And today we
have two beautiful buildings at the park, and I fell
in love with these people because I realized that I
am no different from those mothers except for the fact
that I had luck and privilege. I had the luck
to be born in a family that would put a
(25:31):
roof over my head, that would educate me at least
up through high school and feed me, and they didn't
have that. And so we started with the park. Eventually
we built a school, and so today we have a
beautiful Priest School. Through graduation, a hundred of those kids
(25:55):
have come back to work at the wonderful company, which
is the thing that I wanted to do to end
the cycle of poverty in the Central Valley. By bringing
educated minds to the valley that didn't have to work
in the fields, that could change the dynamic there. We
give free healthcare to every employee and their entire family.
(26:19):
They never pay for meds. We triosh if they need
cancer or other dangerous diseases. We save lives every single day,
and we have free therapy. We have wonderful gymnasiums where
people can go after work and work out. Every bit
of food that is served. You will not find a
(26:41):
vending machine unless it has bubbly water in it. There
are no soft drinks. Every bit of food is cooked
fresh every day, and it's all healthy, low sodium, low fat,
and it's working new and Stuart pledged seven fifty million
dollars to cal Tech for sustainability and climate change research
(27:04):
to work on things like alternatives to plastic water bottles.
What other things have you asked the smart people at
cal Tech to focus on? You don't ask Nobel laureates
what to focus on. They know what our desire is there.
We embrace the same desire. They want to save the
planet more than we do, as much as we do,
(27:26):
as much as humanly possible, and so we don't give
them directives. In closing, you know this is Women's History Month. Yes,
and you have been a powerhouse woman for many years.
With so many women becoming CEOs or in the c suite,
(27:48):
and of course so many women becoming entrepreneurs. What advice
would you give them? Well, where women are today makes
me very happy. Look should be in business. We have
an insight that's different than men. Men and women need
to work together to build businesses and countries, and all
(28:10):
of that work we add so much. What would i
say to women, be true to yourself. In the end,
when you look back at your life, that is the
thing you'll be the most proud of that you stood
up for your beliefs. Try to work in an area
(28:32):
that you believe in that you think is making the
world better rather than the world worse. Have a family.
There's never the right time. Look, I had two kids
or twenty three, and by the time I was twenty nine,
i had five because I inherited Stewart's three kids that
are the loves of my life. Have children. There's never
(28:54):
the right time. But boy, when you reach my age,
if there's no one there to talk to, it's sad.
And so make your babies, make the world better. What
do you hope people will remember you and Stewart for
our philanthropy. I was put on this earth to do
(29:17):
this work, and I I mean, there's nothing about our
work that's out in the public domain. We don't talk
about it, but we just do it. And I think
that my legacy will be changing the paradigm of poverty
in the five or six cities in the Central Valley
(29:39):
that we serve. That's a pretty good legacy, I hope.
So you are wonderful. I'd loved talking to you. I
could talk to you for another hour. Oh, I loved it.
Thank you, Thanks for listening everyone. If you have a
question for me, or want to share your thoughts about
how you navigate this crazy world reach out. You can
(30:01):
leave a short message at six O nine five one
two five five oh five, or you can send me
a DM on Instagram. I would love to hear from you.
Next Question is a production of iHeartMedia and Katie Currekmedia.
The executive producers are me, Katie Curick, and Courtney Litz.
Our supervising producer is Marcy Thompson. Our producers are Adriana
(30:24):
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Up Call, go to the description in the podcast app,
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(30:45):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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I'm Katie Kurk, and this is Next Question. My company,
Katie Kirk Media, wouldn't get to do all the cool
things we do, like bring you this podcast if it
weren't for the really innovative, smart and forward thinking companies
were lucky enough to partner with. One of those is
The Wonderful Company. Based in Los Angeles. The Wonderful Company
(00:26):
is one of the biggest privately held businesses in the
United States. You probably know their famous healthy products, including
iconic brands like Wonderful Pistachio's, Wonderful Halos, Wonderful Seedless Lemons, Palm, Wonderful,
Fiji Water, Justin and Landmark Wines, and Teleflora. On this
(00:47):
episode of Next Question, I'm sharing a conversation I had
with The Wonderful Company's vice chairman and co owner, Linda Resnick.
Every time I get a chance to sit down with Linda,
it's a real tree. Her genius in marketing comes from
her unique and very clever way with words. I mean,
who else would be crowned the palm Queen. But more
(01:10):
than that, Linda and her husband Stewart, who together co
owned The Wonderful Company, are deeply committed philanthropists, starting with
their wide ranging efforts to enhance the lives of people
in California's Central Valley and communities where many of their
employees live and work. The Residus are also major supporters
of the arts and of champions supporting the health of
(01:32):
the planet by funding major climate change initiatives. Over the
past several years, their philanthropic gifts have included seven hundred
and fifty million to the California Institute of Technology, fifty
million to the University of California Davis, and fifty million
to Technion University in Israel, all to further research on
(01:53):
environmental sustainability across the globe. Since its Women's History Month,
we could all benefit from hearing from this extraordinary, self
made woman who today lives her life with one mission
to give back. And by the way, if you want
to get smarter every morning with a breakdown of the
top news stories and fascinating takes on health and wellness
(02:16):
and pop culture, sign up for our daily newsletter Wake
Up Call by going to Katiecuric dot com. Now let's
get to it. Linda. First of all, thank you for
inviting us into your magnificent home. I don't think we've
ever been treated so well. We're in this beautiful library
(02:38):
or office your office, yes, surrounded by incredible art, little
sandwiches on trays, on tea trays, and all sorts of suits.
So thank you so much for inviting us here. It's
a real treat. It's my pleasure. Of course. I wanted
to start by talking about you and how you became
(03:02):
the woman you are today, because you built this insane success.
And I'm always interested in people's origin stories because I
think they explained so much what motivated you and the
people who shaped you. So I want to go back
to your childhood in Philadelphia. Okay, your dad was a
(03:23):
film distributor. He was, and he moved your family to
LA after he produced the now classic horror film The Blob. Exactly. Yes,
daddy moved us here in nineteen fifty nine or sixty,
I think, And I was a young teenager, but I
was in twelfth grade. And so how was adjusting to
(03:47):
life in La How did your mom adjust to it?
I think it was difficult for my mother to leave
her parents and her support, and for me it was
a beautiful adventure. You wanted to go to art school,
I did, and instead you decided you were going to
start your own ad agency. Well, I did go to
(04:09):
college for a year. My father felt that it wasn't
worthwhile financially to send me to art school because he
had to pay and I couldn't get a scholarship. And
when I asked why I couldn't get a scholarship, they said,
there's two Rolls Royces in your driveway. We don't feel
so sorry for you. So I couldn't go to art school,
which was a blow. And I went to Santa Monica
(04:31):
City College, which by the way, is still a magnificent college.
It really is a two year college. It's fabulous. And
then I went to work because I, frankly, I was
a little bored, as you can imagine, and I opened
my little advertising agency when I was nineteen. It was
called Linda Limited, and eventually it grew till where I
(04:51):
could get a proper office. Where did your ambition come from?
Was it your father? I mean he sounds as if
he was a very charisma addic, you know, good salesman. Yes,
And he looked like Harry Graham. I mean he was
absolutely a magnificent specimen, which I realized was not what
you look for first, it may be what you look
(05:13):
for third. But having said that, he had a lot
of other incredible qualities. Oh he did. He was into
the arts, he was into poetry, he loved film, and
we had a lot of fun together. I mean, if
it weren't from my father, I don't think I would
have loved the arts. He carried me into the Philadelphia
Art Museum in his arms when I was a baby.
(05:35):
So you get your outgoing personality, your kind of jazz hands,
if you will, from your dad and my mom and
your mom they both had fabulous sense of humor, fantastic. Now,
my mother couldn't speak in front of a crowd, she
was terrified, but in a closed circle with girlfriends, she
(05:56):
was amazing. So both parents were kind of personality us
that's usually like there's one quieter spouse and one sort
of more outgoing one. But which is why their marriage
didn't last. I wanted to ask you about you wanted
to know where I got my ambition. Yeah, I wish
I knew where I got my ambition. And I've been
(06:18):
through therapy and mindfulness and all sorts of things to
find out why I'm so driven. And I think because
one of the reasons is my mother criticized me so
heavily my whole life. She did. Yeah, she never enjoyed
with me my success, and so the more I did
(06:40):
to try to impress her, the worst it cut. Did
you ever come to terms with your mom about that?
Did you ever talk to her? Did you ever have
a come to Jesus conversation? No? I never did. I
waited on my mother hand and foot. I was there
every day of my life. I took care of her financially, emotionally.
(07:03):
On her deathbed, which I was there holding her hand
when she died, she said I wasn't very nice to you,
and that's it did was it? Did she say I'm sorry? No,
but she acknowledged it. She thing it meant something that
she knew. But she had a horrible childhood, so she
didn't know how to give love because she hadn't been
(07:25):
given it. My grandmother and grandfather saved my life. They
made me what I am today. Their love was so profound.
They lived in Baltimore, but I would go as often
as I could. It's interesting because it sounds as if
(07:45):
you grew up in tremendous privilege. Is that correct? I
mean I wouldn't call it tremendous. This is tremendous privilege. Yeah,
right where we're sitting now. I mean, but this home
is so opulent and beautiful, full of our and treasures.
And you mentioned the two Rolls Royces in the driveway
when you were younger. Yes, so I was curious if
(08:08):
your father was successful from when you were very little.
He wasn't enormously rich, but he was successful. I would
say we were upper middle class. He just cared about
Rolls Royces. I've never owned one, okay, and I never
will because it stands for my college education to me
that I didn't have. But my life turned out great,
(08:30):
So why am I complaining. We'll be right back. Let's
talk a little bit more about how you were really
a woman ahead of your time, Linda. I mean, most
(08:51):
women at the time you started your ad agency, they
were pretty traditional, right. They were getting married, they were
raising families, they were homemakers. What was it like to
be in the work world? And what year was that?
That was right in the heart of the Madmen era?
(09:11):
Absolutely so, it was sixty sixty two, sixty three. All
the way through the sixties. Running the ad agency was
fabulous because I'm very creative, and so the creative spirit
that I would have put into fine art parentheses. I'm
not that great an artist. I'm doing much better than
(09:34):
in business that I would have as a fine artist.
But that creativity was expressed every day in the copywriting,
in the art direction that I did, and eventually I
could hire staff and I tried to get better people
than me, and so that the agency did grow and
it did extremely well. And you were a single mom.
(09:55):
I was a single mom. It was very expensive. My
ex husband was a deadbeat and he wouldn't I had
to take him to court. I had no money, and
quite frankly, when I married Stewart, it was he had
no money either. He just seemed like he was going
to someday be successful and he would understand my drive
(10:16):
to be successful and not be outshined by me. I
know when you first met Stuart, you said he was
cute but kind of a jerk. He was kind of
a jerk, because I can't imagine Stewart being a jerk,
like you can't, well, let me enlighten you. So what
happened was someone recommended me to this job. He needed
(10:36):
someone to do some advertising for a men's clothing store
that he bought. I said, I'm not going on that
meeting Doug. You go. So Doug Spellman when he was
my head of new business, and he went like three
or four times. He said, this guy's amazing, he's so fabulous.
I said, we'll sign the deal. He said, he won't
do it unless he meets you. So I go. Now.
(10:57):
I was provocative and adorable. I must to admit I
had on boots that went above my knee, brown leather divine.
I had on a lovely little tunic with nice lung
sleeves and a high neck. So I think we went
out to dinner for like three months and I said,
are you going to give me the business? And he said,
(11:18):
I'll give you the business, I'd rather have a meaningful
relationship with you. And that's how our love affair started.
And it was pretty amazing. And all these years later,
you're still happily married. Yes, except for this week. You
are working together, and you've been phenomenally successful, and I
think you compliment each other in terms of your skills,
(11:40):
and you have said that together we make one perfect person. Right.
We're like salton pepper shakers. Can you explain that and
sort of what qualities he has and what qualities do
you have, and why it's worked, not only in a
marriage but in a business, which isn't easy. It's not easy,
you know, it's so hard to be in partnership with
your husband. First of all, he's the boss. I figured
(12:03):
that out about forty years ago. He's the boss. So
that's fine. I understand that. But I do what I
want because I have circuitous roots that I've managed to discover.
He is a genius in business. He sees the potential
of every company that he looks at for acquisition, and
(12:27):
he knows what you're going to do well and which aren't.
And we have made very few mistakes in acquisitions. He
obviously and you have become just built an extraordinary business
and a really slate of businesses that encompass everything from
pomegranates to Pistachio's water wine. I'm sure I'm leaving many
(12:51):
of the product Teleflora, Yeah, Teleflora oranges. I love my
little Kalos. What is his business? And your business philosophy
been from the get go? Well doing well by doing
good has certainly been our philosophy for the last twenty
five years. We care about our employees. We know that
(13:14):
without our employees, or in the case of tell Aflour,
without our florist, for instance, we wouldn't have a business,
and so we do concentrate on making sure that they
have a healthy, happy environment. We do our best to
do that. Everything we sell is healthy for the planet.
People will say that feeds you water, you know, a
(13:37):
single serve, Well it isn't anymore. It's recycled plastic. I
was so happy when we could do that. Gosh, there's
so many questions I want to ask you. From that answer,
you have a sort of unique sense of taste. That's
one of your gifts, where you're able to distinguish wines
and what year they were produced. Did you always have
(14:01):
this unique ability. No. Until I would start tasting things
like palm. For instance, when I was in the orchard,
they would make pomegranate juice with a makeshift champagne press
in the dirt. We would be out there and I said,
(14:22):
I wanted to taste like this because this is what
it is, because what we sell is pure pomegranate juice.
And when they would line up the different taste profiles,
I would pick one that the taste, panel would pick,
and that's when I started to learn that I knew it.
With wine, it was uncanny that I could pick even
(14:43):
the shipper in some Burgundies. It was crazy. I don't
do that so much anymore, but I did have this
ability to taste, and I don't know why. It's just
a god given gift. Palm is your baby, and it's
the twenty anniversary, yes, and you shepherded the development of it.
(15:07):
And in your book Ruby's in the Orchard, you write
about all the marketing quote unquote geniuses around the table
and how they wanted to mix pomegranate juice with other
juices or juice products, or you know, they wanted to
put ten percent in and they wanted to make it sweeter.
This is not high Sea. This is not high Sea honey.
(15:29):
But you know the Greeks and Romans knew it. If
you go back in history or even go to our website,
you'll see the history of the pomegranate and how it's
been revered for the centuries. The Egyptians King tut took
a pomegranate invase into the afterlife. Didn't do them much good,
but it's there now we can see it. You also
designed the bottle I did. I want to talk to
(15:52):
you about your marketing acumen. I know that people have
called you a genius, and very cutely in the book
you say I never get tired of hearing that. But
you're very self effacing and say you're not. How have
you been able to have your finger on the pulse
and figure out how to convince people to buy products?
(16:12):
It's a gift. So I believe the most important thing
in marketing is listening, and I base so much of
what I do not completely on research, but we have
a very brilliant research department where we study the consumer constantly,
(16:32):
and if you noticed in our products, we're very direct
on what we talk about, so we're honest and straightforward.
In it's called palm wonderful because palm, well, if you
wrote pomegranate, by the time you read it, as I say,
you'd be in the lettuce department. So the variety is wonderful.
(16:54):
That's the type of pomegranate it is. So it's palm wonderful.
And if I have line extensions, I call them what
they are, blueberry, cherry whatever. I believe that if the
product is good, you think within the box. The solution
to the problem is within the box. But our products
are so solid, you know, citruses from the tree, it's unadulterated.
(17:20):
Our our pistachios are just harvested and roasted and sent
to you and so forth and so on. So that
is the intrinsic value of our products. The intersection of
people carrying about their health and the products you were
producing was very beneficial. Yes, it was, kis Met. We
(17:44):
were in the orange business since the eighties eighty nine,
I think and tell a flora we started in seventy nine.
But the other the almonds, the pistachios, all of that
grew in the nineties and came to fruition in two thousand.
It was two and fifteen, though before Stewart felt that
(18:05):
we should have a brand for pistachios. This is an
interesting story if we have a minute and you can.
There was a recall in pistachios, and it had nothing
to do with us. It was a small supplier who
had seminell at the plant, so they cut off selling
pistachios everywhere. Everyone had to throw out their pistachios. So
(18:28):
I was at the airport in Washington and Stewart called
me and he said, you've talked me into it. We
need brand because if we were wonderful pistachios, our pistachios
would stay on the shelf because we had no issues.
And that's when the big brand push started. It may
have been earlier than that because I was on my tour.
(18:50):
I think one of your sort of mottoes or edicts
about marketing, Linda, is insight. Every threat is an opportunity,
and so we call threats opera threats because what is
the opportunity within that threat? And you have face challenges
to your brand in the past, and you write about
(19:13):
a situation with Peter upset that you were testing on
mice and rats, although they they blew it up to
say you were testing on rabbits and all kinds of
dogs and dogs and you had protesters in front of
your home. Initially, Stuart said, it'll go away, it'll die
down right, yes, And then you all realize, no, we
(19:37):
have to respond to this because you talked about things
proliferating online and damaging reputations permanently. So how did you
handle that criticism because you were testing on animals, rats
and mice. I know that then you stopped it later on, No,
(19:58):
not later on, we stop op it. That's how we responded.
They were right about testing on mice. There was no
reason to do it. It was just kind of the
way that well silence worked in those days. But Peta
was right, You for a juice, you don't need to
test on mice. We've learned other ways of doing it.
(20:23):
And we stopped that immediately afterwards because I realized that
it was wrong. Fiji water was criticized and frankly can
still be because of the plastic water bottles. Right, there's
not enough recycling that goes on, we know, absolutely tragically. Well,
I'm hoping that the money that we've given to Caltech
(20:46):
and sustainability will find a solution for plastic. You know,
there are enzymes that they're testing now that just dissolve plastic.
And if we can get that up to scale, because
we're never going to get the recycling of the sapping
is it doesn't get recycled, No, it doesn't. So but
(21:07):
this bottle has probably you know, the recycling of this
plastic has gone on and on and on. I don't
know if we're the endgame or not. That depends on
whether it's being recycled or not. Twenty four seven, we
are looking for a biodegradable container for Fiji water. But
we keep looking, and if anyone's listening to this podcast
(21:27):
and wants to send me some ideas for a biodegradable
good data, I'm all for it. The cardboard containers that
you see with water, you are fooling yourself. They're lined
with aluminum, and aluminum is not biodegradable. The first aluminum
that was ever mind is probably still in existence, so
that's a good thing if they remind it. But I
(21:48):
think it goes to the landfill, so the paper product
will disappear, but the aluminum will stay forever. So you're
still trying to figure this outlasts the worst why because
it's so heavy. So if you're shipping glass from Fiji
to America, it costs like four times as much. The
other thing is that if you get a glass container,
(22:10):
it has to come from France to Fiji. It's got
to be cleaned three times with water. You see all
the water we're wasting. We'll be back right after this.
Let's talk about your philanthropy, because you and Stuart you've
(22:33):
given away two and a half billion dollars in the
last five to seven years. What is your philanthropic philosophy?
Because there are a number of causes that you support,
and I know you're a huge fan of the arts.
You've been very generous to the Aspen Institute, and I'm
on the board of that institute, so I know firsthand
(22:54):
the impact you all have had there. So when you
have so much money, how do you decide where to
give it? Well, our employees' lives come first. I had
an epiphany eleven years ago that I had to give
back in a really meaningful way, and that meant going
(23:17):
to work to do it. Besides my day job, I
have a philanthropy department that is dedicated to giving back
to the Central Valley and to the Fijian Islands. That's
what they do. We also give big gifts to our institutions,
but other people do that. We like to give to
places that nobody else is interested in. Let's start with
(23:40):
wonderful giving. I don't know how long it's been fifteen
or twenty years that we've given every employee that works
for us between five hundred to one thousand dollars to
give to the charity of their choice. As long as
it's a five O one C three and to date
fifty seven million dollars are employ always have given to
(24:01):
their local area. And so that is a very powerful
thing to teach philanthropy to the employees. Well, not only
that you have provided educational opportunities and all kinds of
things to the people who work on your farms, the
people who work in your factories. Talk about that because
(24:26):
that is changing lives. Yes, So it was a pivotal
moment in my life where I realized that I had
to give back. So I looked at places that I
cared about, and I ended up at home in the
Central Valley. It's one hundred and forty five miles away,
but my employees, I have five thousand employees in the
Central Valley and their families. And I started in Lost Hills,
(24:49):
this little unincorporated town, and about half of the people
in that town had someone in their household that worked
at the wonderful company, and they didn't trust me. It
was really hard. I did a lot of research to
see what they wanted and what they felt they needed.
And the first thing we did, which we thought would
(25:10):
benefit everybody, was to redo the park. And today we
have two beautiful buildings at the park, and I fell
in love with these people because I realized that I
am no different from those mothers except for the fact
that I had luck and privilege. I had the luck
to be born in a family that would put a
(25:31):
roof over my head, that would educate me at least
up through high school and feed me, and they didn't
have that. And so we started with the park. Eventually
we built a school, and so today we have a
beautiful Priest School. Through graduation, a hundred of those kids
(25:55):
have come back to work at the wonderful company, which
is the thing that I wanted to do to end
the cycle of poverty in the Central Valley. By bringing
educated minds to the valley that didn't have to work
in the fields, that could change the dynamic there. We
give free healthcare to every employee and their entire family.
(26:19):
They never pay for meds. We triosh if they need
cancer or other dangerous diseases. We save lives every single day,
and we have free therapy. We have wonderful gymnasiums where
people can go after work and work out. Every bit
of food that is served. You will not find a
(26:41):
vending machine unless it has bubbly water in it. There
are no soft drinks. Every bit of food is cooked
fresh every day, and it's all healthy, low sodium, low fat,
and it's working new and Stuart pledged seven fifty million
dollars to cal Tech for sustainability and climate change research
(27:04):
to work on things like alternatives to plastic water bottles.
What other things have you asked the smart people at
cal Tech to focus on? You don't ask Nobel laureates
what to focus on. They know what our desire is there.
We embrace the same desire. They want to save the
planet more than we do, as much as we do,
(27:26):
as much as humanly possible, and so we don't give
them directives. In closing, you know this is Women's History Month. Yes,
and you have been a powerhouse woman for many years.
With so many women becoming CEOs or in the c suite,
(27:48):
and of course so many women becoming entrepreneurs. What advice
would you give them? Well, where women are today makes
me very happy. Look should be in business. We have
an insight that's different than men. Men and women need
to work together to build businesses and countries, and all
(28:10):
of that work we add so much. What would i
say to women, be true to yourself. In the end,
when you look back at your life, that is the
thing you'll be the most proud of that you stood
up for your beliefs. Try to work in an area
(28:32):
that you believe in that you think is making the
world better rather than the world worse. Have a family.
There's never the right time. Look, I had two kids
or twenty three, and by the time I was twenty nine,
i had five because I inherited Stewart's three kids that
are the loves of my life. Have children. There's never
(28:54):
the right time. But boy, when you reach my age,
if there's no one there to talk to, it's sad.
And so make your babies, make the world better. What
do you hope people will remember you and Stewart for
our philanthropy. I was put on this earth to do
(29:17):
this work, and I I mean, there's nothing about our
work that's out in the public domain. We don't talk
about it, but we just do it. And I think
that my legacy will be changing the paradigm of poverty
in the five or six cities in the Central Valley
(29:39):
that we serve. That's a pretty good legacy, I hope.
So you are wonderful. I'd loved talking to you. I
could talk to you for another hour. Oh, I loved it.
Thank you, Thanks for listening everyone. If you have a
question for me, or want to share your thoughts about
how you navigate this crazy world reach out. You can
(30:01):
leave a short message at six O nine five one
two five five oh five, or you can send me
a DM on Instagram. I would love to hear from you.
Next Question is a production of iHeartMedia and Katie Currekmedia.
The executive producers are me, Katie Curick, and Courtney Litz.
Our supervising producer is Marcy Thompson. Our producers are Adriana
(30:24):
Fasio and Katherine Law. Our audio engineer is Matt Russell,
who also composed our theme music. For more information about
today's episode, or to sign up for my newsletter, wake
Up Call, go to the description in the podcast app,
or visit us at Katiecurrek dot com. You can also
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