#24: From DTC to Retail Ready | Umaimah Sharwani, Paro

In this episode of Local Marketing School, Emily Steele interviews Umaimah Sharwani, founder of Paro, a food brand specializing in South Asian flavors. Umaimah shares her journey of creating Paro out of homesickness for her mother's cooking and her experience scaling digitally native brands. We cover various aspects of building a food brand, including the importance of being retail-ready, community building through events and social media, and the challenges of entrepreneurship. We also touch on personal branding in CPG, the realities of running a startup, and the importance of having a strong support system!

TUNE IN FOR TOPICS LIKE:

2:35 Umaimah’s career journey and startup experience at brands like Glossier, Jet.com, Fab.com and more

7:02 Going down the path of entrepreneurship and launching a CPG food brand, Paro

10:39 Navigating DTC, e-commerce

12:43 One thing you need to know if you’re launching DTC

14:16 Two things you need to do to get retail ready

16:42 How to know when you’re ready to launch in stores

18:16 Creating a strong brand story and conveying that to your audience

20:57 Ways to keep people engaged with your brand beyond initial touchpoints

23:49 How to ensure your brand exists beyond you

27:22 Advice for fellow entrepreneurs getting started

Listen to this week’s Local Marketing School conversation!

Other episodes you'll enjoy if you enjoyed Umaimah’s episode:

• #2: Local PR for CPG Brands & Beyond | Delaney Vetter, PR Strategist and Copywriter
• #7: From Local Markets to a National Spotlight | Steven Vigilante, OLIPOP

Don't hesitate to reach out! We'd love to hear from you on Instagram and find out which episodes you're enjoying the most. Your feedback is so important to us! Please take a moment to rate the show and leave a review - it supports our ongoing Local Marketing School journey and helps us develop more content that addresses what you’re hoping to learn more about!

Find Umaimah: LinkedIn

Find Paro: Website | Instagram 

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