Architects of Impact

About Architects of Impact

Architects of Impact is a podcast hosted by Shawn Edwards, founder of mindsight, for founders, operators, marketers, and investors building better-for-you brands. Each episode explores the high-stakes decisions that shape growth: the tradeoffs, the pressure, and the moments when leaders need real clarity to move forward. Through conversations with founders, operators, and investors, Architects of Impact reveals how smarter decisions create stronger brands, greater impact, and more valuable outcomes.

Publisher

mindsight

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

16 Jun 2026

Latest episode

20 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

11 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   20 Oct 2026

   What Makes Consumers Care About a Brand | Sasha Auguste, CMO at Death Wish Coffee

   In this episode of Architects of Impact, host Shawn Edwards sits down with Sasha Auguste, CMO at Death Wish Coffee, whose career has taken her from equity research on Wall Street to General Mills, Pepperidge Farm, and emerging brands like Kidfresh and YumEarth. That range has given Sasha a clear view of what actually drives a purchase. Big brands taught her how to manage at scale. Smaller brands taught her to scrutinize every dollar, move quickly, and get creative with what she had. And across both, she kept coming back to the same question: what does the consumer actually care about? Sasha shares what she’s learned about finding the emotional benefit behind a product, using consumer pain points to guide innovation, and why a bigger budget doesn’t necessarily produce better marketing. She also gets into how DTC can bring brands closer to their consumers, why authenticity matters more as trust in influencers changes, and how to innovate in established categories without overcomplicating the idea. The conversation also turns to leadership. Sasha talks about finding her voice, the value of having a network of women leaders, and the advice that changed how she works with her own team: it’s okay to say, “I don’t know. I’ll get back to you.” About the Guest Sasha Auguste is CMO at Death Wish Coffee and a marketing leader with more than two decades of experience in CPG. She began her career in institutional equity research on Wall Street before moving into brand marketing, with roles spanning General Mills, Pepperidge Farm, Kidfresh, YumEarth, and Little Remedies. A psychology major who has always been interested in why people make the choices they do, Sasha brings together big-company experience, small-brand scrappiness, and a deep focus on understanding the consumer. She is also a member of Chief, where she has found a peer network of women leaders to share ideas, challenges, and advice. Connect with Sasha on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sasha-auguste-173737/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sasha-auguste-173737/) Learn about Death Wish Coffee: deathwishcoffee.com (http://deathwishcoffee.com) Key Takeaways Sasha’s central belief is that people buy on emotion. At YumEarth, she saw that allergy-friendly candy meant more than a list of claims. For a parent of a child with allergies, it could mean their kid felt included and they felt like a good parent. That emotional payoff changed how she thought about brands. Bigger budgets don’t automatically make better marketing. Some of Sasha’s scrappiest work came from smaller brands where every dollar counted. That mindset also shaped her approach to innovation: learn from what established brands have taught consumers, then find what makes yours worth choosing. Consumers bring problems, not ready-made solutions. They can tell you what frustrates them, what they value, and where something falls short. The marketer’s job is to interpret those signals and decide what to do with them. DTC also gave Sasha a way to stay close to consumers. Beyond another sales channel, it gave her teams direct access to loyal buyers they could learn from, test ideas with, and use to inform innovation. On leadership, Sasha learned to be more vocal and let go of needing every answer before speaking up. A boss telling her it was okay to say “I don’t know, I’ll get back to you” changed how she leads, and it’s a lesson she passes on to her team. Her advice for better-for-you brands comes back to the consumer: the label alone isn’t enough. Understand who you’re serving, what they care about, and what makes them choose one brand over another. About the Show Architects of Impact is a podcast hosted by Shawn Edwards, founder of mindsight. Each episode explores the high-stakes decisions that shape growth: the tradeoffs, the pressure, and the moments when leaders need real clarity to move forward. Architects of Impact reveals how smarter decisions create stronger brands, greater impact, and more valuable outcomes. Learn more at mindsight.inc (http://mindsight.inc)

2. 

   6 Oct 2026

   How Great Marketing Wins at the Shelf | Lindsay Mecca, Brand Marketing & Insights, Bradshaw Home

   In this episode of Architects of Impact, host Shawn Edwards sits down with Lindsay Mecca, Marketing & Insights at Bradshaw Home, whose career has taken her from PR for cloud-storage startups to Aquafina at PepsiCo, OXO, and emerging brands SkinnyDipped and Wilde. That range has given Lindsay a unique view of marketing. Big companies taught her rigor, discipline, and how to think through the downstream impact of a decision. Smaller brands taught her how to move quickly, build with limited resources, and figure things out while the business grows around you. Lindsay shares what those environments taught her about building brands, creating demand, understanding consumers, and making marketing matter to the broader business. She talks about why marketing gets real at the shelf, why performance marketing needs brand building behind it, and how to balance rigorous research with staying close to real people. The common thread: good marketing requires more than knowing marketing. You have to understand the consumer, the business, and what happens when your strategy meets the real world. About the Guest Lindsay Mecca is Head of Marketing & Insights at Bradshaw Home, where she works across brands including GoodCook, Casabella, and Evercare. She began her career in tech PR before earning her MBA and moving into brand marketing at PepsiCo. She spent more than five years at OXO, helping grow marketing from a support function into a lever for the business, before joining emerging brands SkinnyDipped and Wilde. Her experience has shaped an approach that combines big-company rigor, small-brand scrappiness, and a deep focus on the consumer. Connect with Lindsay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsay-mecca-2569815/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsay-mecca-2569815/) Learn about Bradshaw Home: https://bradshawhome.com/ (https://bradshawhome.com/) Key Takeaways At PepsiCo, Lindsay learned how much happens between a good idea and the person standing in front of the shelf. Even the best strategy has to contend with packaging, economics, placement, competitors, promotions, and execution. Marketing is often about quarterbacking all those pieces. At OXO, she helped prove that marketing was more than packaging, copy, and pretty pictures. With limited dollars, the team focused on fewer, bigger, better efforts and demonstrated marketing’s impact. She also saw true consumer-centricity in action: OXO built products around real problems so intuitively that people understood their value without much explanation. Emerging brands brought different lessons. At SkinnyDipped, Lindsay saw how easy it is to get consumed by constant doing while putting off the strategy, systems, goals, and KPIs needed to scale. At Wilde, she saw the limits of relying too heavily on performance marketing. You can capture existing demand, but eventually you need to create more of it. Lindsay learned to keep consumer attention in perspective. Marketers think about their brands far more than consumers do. If it takes ten minutes to explain why a product matters, the story probably isn’t sharp enough. The goal is to make the brand easy to notice, understand, and choose. For insights, Lindsay looks for the space between big companies researching an idea until it “loses its pointy edges” and small companies changing course because of two Instagram comments. Research should uncover patterns and drive decisions, not make them for you. Her closing advice: learn the business. Understand how the company and retailers make money, what consumers care about, and what it takes to make and sell the product. That broader view makes you a stronger marketer and leader. About the Show Architects of Impact is a podcast hosted by Shawn Edwards, founder of mindsight. Each episode explores the high-stakes decisions that shape growth: the tradeoffs, the pressure, and the moments when leaders need real clarity to move forward. Architects of Impact reveals how smarter decisions create stronger brands, greater impact, and more valuable outcomes. Learn more at mindsight.inc (http://mindsight.inc)

3. 

   22 Sept 2026

   How to Build a Brand That Outlasts Trends | Stacey Hartnett, SVP of Marketing at Chomps

   Episode Summary In this episode of Architects of Impact, host Shawn Edwards sits down with Stacey Hartnett, SVP of Marketing at Chomps. Stacey's path to one of the fastest-growing CPG brands in the country is anything but traditional. She started on the vendor side at News America Marketing, moved to performance media at Rise Interactive, where every dollar had to prove its ROI, and joined Chomps as employee number 10 in 2019. Since then, she has helped scale the brand to over $1B in valuation, selling 2 million meat sticks a day. The conversation explores how Chomps ignored category conventions to reach an entirely overlooked consumer—70% of buyers are women, and roughly half had never purchased a meat snack before discovering the brand. Stacey unpacks the tension between performance marketing and brand building, why she had to evolve her definition of measurement, and how the brand has maintained its bold, unapologetic voice while scaling a team of 40 marketers. She also addresses the current protein boom head-on: while protein has been a massive tailwind for Chomps, she is clear that an attribute is not a brand strategy, and that long-term durability comes from trust, consistency, and a distinctive brand world. About the Guest Stacey Hartnett is the SVP of Marketing at Chomps, the clean-ingredient meat snack brand valued at over $1B and one of the fastest-growing brands in the better-for-you snack space. She joined Chomps in 2019 as Director of E-Commerce—employee number 10—and has since expanded her scope to lead all marketing for the brand. Prior to Chomps, Stacey held roles at Rise Interactive, where she ran performance media programs for major brands including Ulta Beauty, and at News America Marketing on the shopper marketing side. Her non-traditional path, from vendor to agency to in-house, gave her a rare, full-funnel perspective on how consumers actually behave versus how brands talk about them. Connect with Stacey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacey-hartnett-berger-6b2aa124/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacey-hartnett-berger-6b2aa124/) Learn about Chomps: https://chomps.com/ (https://chomps.com/) Key Takeaways Stacey's defining insight is one she keeps coming back to throughout the conversation: consumers don't buy brands because of the category. By refusing to look, talk, or act like a traditional meat stick brand, they were able to bring an entirely net-new consumer into the space. Half of Chomps buyers had never purchased a meat snack before. That is not share theft. That is category creation. She draws a sharp distinction between a product attribute and a brand strategy. While the broader protein trend has been a significant tailwind for Chomps, Stacey is direct: protein is not a brand strategy. Attributes get you trial. They do not earn a permanent spot in the pantry. What earns that spot is trust. Her evolution from performance marketing to brand building produced one of the most honest reframes in the episode: the most measurable marketing is not inherently the most valuable. Coming from an agency where every dollar had to justify itself on a real-time dashboard, Stacey had to learn to hold space for investments in brand equity that take longer to prove out. Value, she argues, is all related to each other. Discrediting tactics that have a different form of measurement is a mistake many growth-stage brands make. Stacey also reframes how the best teams use data. When a test comes back differently than expected, the natural instinct is to get defensive and challenge the strategy. She argues the opposite: data should create curiosity and drive action. About the Show Architects of Impact is a podcast hosted by Shawn Edwards, founder of mindsight. Each episode explores the high-stakes decisions that shape growth. Through conversations with founders, operators, and investors, Architects of Impact reveals how smarter decisions create stronger brands, greater impact, and more valuable outcomes. Learn more about mindsight at mindsight.inc (http://mindsight.inc)

4. 

   8 Sept 2026

   The Art of Driving Focus in Premium CPG | Jen Beechen, SVP of Marketing at Serenity Kids

   Episode Summary In this episode of Architects of Impact, host Shawn Edwards sits down with Jen Beechen, SVP of Marketing at Serenity Kids and a powerhouse CPG marketer with over 25 years of experience leading category-defining brand turnarounds and product launches. Jen brings an elite, blue-chip foundation built at Procter & Gamble, Campbell’s, and Bimbo Bakeries—where she led the creation of Sandwich Thins, the most successful product launch in the company’s history—paired with an entrepreneurial track record of scaling pioneering better-for-you brands like Silk, Vital Proteins, and Champion Pet Foods (Origin & Acana). The conversation explores the universal truth that runs across premium pet, baby, and human food: consumers aren't just buying products; they are buying confidence. Jen shares her playbook for simplifying brand complexity, explaining why trying to communicate "the kitchen sink" on a package destroys a brand’s value proposition. She unpacks the unique "two-consumer" emotional dynamic of buying for someone you love who can't choose for themselves, shares the inside story of Champion Pet Foods' acquisition-worthy consumer relationship, and explains how Serenity Kids is actively raising the bar and challenging the status quo in a baby food aisle that has been stagnant for a decade. About the Guest Jen Beechen is the SVP of Marketing at Serenity Kids, a rapidly growing, premium baby food brand pioneering nutrient-dense, savory, and ethically sourced meats and veggies for littles. Jen is a highly accomplished general manager and marketing leader with 25 years of Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) experience specializing in simplifying complexity, driving strategic focus, and building deep, trust-based consumer loyalty. Jen began her career on the agency side at FCB Chicago before transitioning to brand management at Procter & Gamble. She went on to hold key marketing leadership roles at Campbell’s and Bimbo Bakeries, where she led the $100M+ launch of Sandwich Thins. Jen then drove Silk's pivotal master brand expansion into almond, coconut, and oat milks at White Wave. She subsequently served as a marketing executive at Vital Proteins, leading the breakthrough "Feed Your Beauty" campaign, and VP of Marketing at Champion Pet Foods, where she built the brand's premium natural equity leading up to its acquisition by Mars Petcare. Connect with Jen on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenbeechen/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenbeechen/) Learn about Serenity Kids:  https://myserenitykids.com/ (https://myserenitykids.com/) Key Takeaways Jen reveals a fundamental consumer truth that spans every premium category: consumers don't buy products; they buy confidence. In a world crowded with endless options, every purchase is an act of hope that a product will make life a little better. She highlights the unique emotional dynamic of the "two-consumer" problem in pet and baby food, where the buyer is a human but the user is not. When buying for a baby or a pet, the purchaser carries a deep, emotional responsibility for a loved one who cannot make the choice themselves. Jen shares the strategic lesson behind her Silk and Sandwich Thins breakthroughs: stop defining your brand by your product, and start defining it by the consumer’s desired outcome. She addresses the unflashy but essential discipline of driving focus in challenger brands. In high-growth startups, there is never a shortage of good ideas, which often leads to teams trying to fund and execute everything at once. About the Show Architects of Impact is a podcast hosted by Shawn Edwards, founder of mindsight. Each episode explores the high-stakes decisions that shape growth: the tradeoffs, the pressure, and the moments when leaders need real clarity to move forward. Through conversations with founders, operators, and investors, *Architects of Impact* reveals how smarter decisions create stronger brands, greater impact, and more valuable outcomes. Learn more about mindsight at mindsight.inc (http://mindsight.inc)

5. 

   25 Aug 2026

   Growth is Hiding in the People Who Love You | Joe Wilbeck, VP of Marketing at Remedy Organics

   Episode Summary In this episode of Architects of Impact, host Shawn Edwards sits down with Joe Wilbeck, VP of Marketing at Remedy Organics and a seasoned CPG executive who has spent his 17-year career successfully scaling emerging brands to the 9-figure sales threshold. Joe brings a unique perspective shaped by his time at the intersection of big CPG discipline and challenger brand speed — with an established track record across General Mills, Hain Celestial, Dr. Praeger’s, and Remedy Organics. The conversation dives deep into the "growth mindset" that separates true challenger brands from small brands, why the most dangerous thing a marketer can do is sell attributes instead of outcomes, and how to navigate the high-stakes transition from natural to conventional retail. Joe also shares his playbook for scrappy consumer research, the massive market shift happening beneath the surface due to GLP-1 usage, and his favorite question to force real consumer truth: "What did you buy instead of us last time — and why?" About the Guest Joe Wilbeck is the VP of Marketing at Remedy Organics, a leading producer of plant-based, functional nutritional shakes and wellness shots crafted with organic superfoods, ayurvedics, botanical herbs, and prebiotics. Joe is a seasoned general manager and marketing leader with 17 years of Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) experience specializing in crafting insights, driving innovation, and implementing marketing programs that fuel the growth of challenger brands in the better-for-you space. Joe began his career at General Mills, which he views as his foundational "brand camp" education. He went on to serve in brand management at the Hain Celestial Group, where he helped scale natural organic pioneers like Garden of Eatin' to rapid growth. He subsequently led marketing at Dr. Praeger’s Sensible Foods, managing their PE-backed growth phase, before joining Remedy Organics. Throughout his career, Joe has consistently steered brands toward profitable market share increases, established them as category thought leaders, and built multiple brands to the $100MM+ sales threshold. He also serves as a mentor and community lead for emerging founders through the Beyond CPG accelerator program. Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-wilbeck/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-wilbeck/) Learn about Remedy Organics: https://remedyorganics.com/ (https://remedyorganics.com/) Key Takeaways Joe outlines the "growth mindset" that separates a true challenger brand from a small brand: it is not about resources, but about a risk tolerance to put something out in the world faster than others, challenge the status quo, and relentlessly iterate in market. He notes that once a marketer experiences the autonomy and speed of a successful challenger brand, it is incredibly difficult to go back to the multi-layered gating of Big CPG. He shares a core strategic compass passed down from his mentor, John Carroll: always go back to why your loyals love you. Whether navigating a turnaround or launching a major innovation platform, understanding that core "brand love" is the ultimate anchor that prevents a brand from drifting as it scales to conventional retail. Joe addresses a critical mistake common among emerging brands: selling product attributes rather than emotional outcomes. He argues that if you are only selling a transactional list of attributes (e.g., "protein" or "low sugar"), you are selling a commodity. True brand building is about delivering a deeper emotional experience and a clear, desirable outcome. He warns that the GLP-1 drug wave is a massive, permanent force reshaping CPG, and any marketer who doesn't understand it is "dead in the water." He points out that GLP-1 users are rapidly expanding the natural products marketplace because they now have the biological willpower to eat better, but they are desperately looking for nutrient-dense guidance. All that and more on the latest episode of Architects of Impact with Shawn Edwards, founder of mindsight. Learn more at mindsight.inc (http://mindsight.inc)

6. 

   11 Aug 2026

   What Building Your Own Brand Teaches You About Everyone Else's | Sarah Meis, SVP Innovation at JustFoodForDogs

   Episode Summary In this episode of Architects of Impact, host Shawn Edwards sits down with Sarah Meis, SVP Innovation at JustFoodForDogs and former Co-Founder and CEO of The Humble Seed. Sarah brings a perspective that is genuinely rare in CPG: she has been a senior marketing leader at some of the most respected better-for-you brands in the industry — Vans Natural Foods, Lily's Sweets, Purely Elizabeth, and Good Karma Foods — and she has also sat in the founder seat, building a brand entirely from scratch and successfully exiting it. The conversation covers the cross-functional empathy that only comes from doing every job yourself, the strategic discipline behind naming a brand as a platform rather than a product, and the honest lessons Sarah would apply if she launched The Humble Seed again today. She also shares how the pet food category is the next frontier of the better-for-you movement, why the buyer and the consumer are two entirely different problems to solve, and why the most important question a marketer can ask is simply: what is the job this product does for you? About the Guest Sarah Meis is SVP Innovation at JustFoodForDogs, a premium fresh pet food brand on a mission to improve the health and longevity of dogs through real, whole-food nutrition. She brings over two decades of experience building and scaling better-for-you consumer brands. Sarah began her career at White Wave Foods, where she worked in brand management on International Delight. She went on to serve as VP of Marketing at Purely Elizabeth, SVP of Marketing and Innovation at Lily's Sweets, and SVP of Marketing at Good Karma Foods. In 2022, she co-founded The Humble Seed, a grain-free, seed-based snack cracker brand, which she launched into Sprouts and other national retailers before exiting in 2024. She joined JustFoodForDogs in June 2024. Sarah is known for her instinct for unmet consumer needs, her ability to move fast in resource-constrained environments, and her belief that great taste is always the non-negotiable first principle in better-for-you food. Connect with Sarah: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-meis (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-meis) Learn about JustFoodForDogs: https://www.justfoodfordogs.com (https://www.justfoodfordogs.com) Key Takeaways Sarah opens with a reflection most senior marketers never get: what it actually feels like to run every function yourself. Founding The Humble Seed forced her to think about cash conversion cycles, contract manufacturer minimums, and truckload economics in a way that years of senior marketing roles never had. The result was a level of cross-functional empathy she couldn't have built any other way. She makes a case for naming a brand as a platform, not a product. When she named The Humble Seed, she was deliberate about choosing a name that could flex across multiple seed-based snack categories — knowing the first product line might not be the one that ultimately scales. Her most candid moment is what she'd change about The Humble Seed. She wonders whether the grain-free formulation was over-engineered — adding cost and pushing the price point to a level that limited velocity, in service of an attribute only a select group of consumers saw as meaningful. Her sharpest strategic story involves Vans Natural Foods. The team was certain their equity was in breakfast. A mindsight attitude and usage study revealed the opposite: their real equity was in great-tasting gluten-free foods. That single insight unlocked nine new products across three new categories, all shipped within nine months. About the Show Architects of Impact is a podcast hosted by Shawn Edwards, founder of mindsight. Each episode explores the high-stakes decisions that shape growth: the tradeoffs, the pressure, and the moments when leaders need real clarity to move forward. Through candid conversations, Architects of Impact reveals how smarter decisions create stronger brands, greater impact, and more valuable outcomes. Learn more about mindsight at mindsight.inc (http://mindsight.inc)

7. 

   28 Jul 2026

   Why Emerging Brands Stall Out—And How to Win the Aisle | Lauren Start, Chief Marketing Officer at NuTrail

   Episode Summary In this episode of Architects of Impact, host Shawn Edwards is joined by Lauren Start, Chief Marketing Officer at NuTrail, a premium nut-based granola brand backed by EagleTree Capital. Lauren represents a rare breed of CPG marketer who successfully transitioned from the highly structured, resource-rich world of Big CPG to the fast-paced, high-stakes environment of emerging, private equity-backed brands. Lauren shares her "player-coach" philosophy, her scrappy approach to consumer research on tight budgets, and a high-stakes brand crisis at Rudy's that taught her the most important lesson of her career: the consumer's perception of your brand is their truth, and you violate that trust at your peril. About the Guest Lauren Start is the Chief Marketing Officer at NuTrail, a brand redefining granola with clean, high-quality, nut-based ingredients and no added sugar. She began her career as a research analyst at Nielsen, then went to BCG before moving into brand management at Danone, where she ran International Delight. She subsequently led marketing at Lily's Sweets, Good Culture, Good Clean Love, and Rudy's Organic Bakery before joining NuTrail. Lauren is known for her deep consumer empathy, her research-informed decision-making, and her ability to build high-performing brands in resource-constrained environments. Connect with Lauren: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-start-3252a411/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-start-3252a411/) Learn about NuTrail: https://nutrail.com/ (https://nutrail.com/) Key Takeaways Lauren describes the courage required to leave a stable Big CPG portfolio for an emerging brand, and outlines the "player-coach" model: smaller brands need leaders who can design the 3-year strategic roadmap and fill out retail coupon forms in the same afternoon. She shares a scrappy consumer insights playbook for emerging brands: leverage your existing email database for free surveys, use social media polls to test product ideas, and always prioritize qualitative in-home research when budget allows. She notes that consumers are not good at accurately reporting their own behavior—there is always a gap between the "aspirational self" and the "actual self"—and that research is about signals and direction, not certainty. Lauren also addresses a critical mistake she sees repeatedly among emerging brands: investing all resources into getting on the shelf while forgetting that the real battle is getting the product off the shelf. She emphasizes that packaging and targeted consumer marketing are critical to driving pull-through. Her most powerful story comes from Rudy's Organic Bakery, where a product line expansion inadvertently violated the trust of the brand's loyal gluten-free consumer base. The lesson: what consumers know and believe about your brand is their reality, and you must honor that truth or systematically earn it back. About the Show Architects of Impact is a podcast hosted by Shawn Edwards, founder of mindsight. Each episode explores the high-stakes decisions that shape growth: the tradeoffs, the pressure, and the moments when leaders need real clarity to move forward. Through conversations with founders, operators, and investors, Architects of Impact reveals how smarter decisions create stronger brands, greater impact, and more valuable outcomes. Learn more about mindsight at mindsight.inc (mindsight.inc)

8. 

   14 Jul 2026

   The Consumer Signals Private Equity Investors Trust Most | Sharon Fox, Operating Partner at Stride Consumer Partners

   Episode Summary In this episode of Architects of Impact, host Shawn Edwards sits down with Sharon Fox, Operating Partner at Stride Consumer Partners. With over two decades of experience spanning brand management at Kraft and Unilever, e-commerce leadership at Ralph Lauren and Quidsi, Sharon brings a rare, 360-degree perspective on consumer brands. Sharon demystifies Stride's core investment thesis—the "Passion Brand"—and explains why true passion brands enjoy structural economic advantages that make them highly defensible investments. She shares the exact consumer metrics she trusts to separate healthy brands from those built on temporary marketing hype, and addresses the common "founder blind spot" that prevents many promising brands from scaling beyond their initial community. About the Guest Sharon Fox joined Stride Consumer Partners as a founding member in 2019. She has over 20 years of hands-on experience across brand management, performance marketing, e-commerce, consumer insights, and new product innovation. Prior to Stride, she was an Operating Partner at Castanea Partners. She has served as CMO at Freshly and Melissa & Doug, led e-commerce as SVP at Ralph Lauren, and held senior roles at Quidsi (Amazon). She spent over a decade in brand management at Kraft and Unilever, working across food, ice cream, and beverage portfolios. Stride's portfolio includes brands such as Chomps, Serenity Kids, Jennie's Ice Cream, Tatcha, Drybar, and First Aid Beauty. Key Takeaways Sharon defines a "Passion Brand" as one that has an extraordinary, authentic connection with an underserved consumer group. These brands possess structural advantages: lower customer acquisition costs driven by word-of-mouth advocacy, higher loyalty, higher buy rate, and greater resilience to economic fluctuations. When evaluating investments, Sharon ignores trial rates (which can be bought with marketing spend) and focuses on two metrics: Repeat Rate (how often consumers return, proving product efficacy) and Sustained Velocity (how fast the product turns on the shelf over a long period compared to category benchmarks). Sharon also addresses the "founder blind spot": while founders understand their "founding consumer" deeply, scaling requires transitioning focus to the "growth consumer"—a broader segment that may not yet be aware of the brand. She uses the Graza olive oil squeeze bottle as a brilliant case study in how packaging can function as a psychological "permission structure" that transforms consumer behavior. Connect with Sharon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-fox-b979265 (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-fox-b979265) Learn about Stride Consumers: https://www.strideconsumer.com/ (https://www.strideconsumer.com/) About the Show Architects of Impact is a podcast hosted by Shawn Edwards, founder of mindsight. Each episode explores the high-stakes decisions that shape growth: the tradeoffs, the pressure, and the moments when leaders need real clarity to move forward. Through conversations with founders, operators, and investors, Architects of Impact reveals how smarter decisions create stronger brands, greater impact, and more valuable outcomes. Learn more about mindsight at mindsight.inc (mindsight.inc)

9. 

   7 Jul 2026

   The Indulgence Paradox of the GLP-1 Journey | Erin Krubeck, Executive Director of Insights at mindsight

   Episode Summary In this special bonus episode of Architects of Impact, host Shawn Edwards is joined by Erin Krubeck, Executive Director of Insights at mindsight, to break down the findings of mindsight’s massive, custom GLP-1 consumer study. Moving past clinical trials and superficial trend reports, Shawn and Erin dive into the deeply human, emotional, and strategic realities of the GLP-1 consumer journey. The conversation explores how GLP-1 medications are reshaping culture and CPG, scaling from just 2% of US adults in 2023 to 11% today. Erin reveals the "Indulgence Paradox"—why cravings for sweets and fatty foods disappear, but the desire for the emotional and social rituals of food remains as strong as ever. They map the four distinct consumer segments of the GLP-1 journey, explain why brands must shift from "healthy" to "useful" claims, and discuss the massive opportunity to support lapsed users who are navigating a difficult "tug of war" as their cravings return. To download mindsight’s complete, 100% free, and ungated GLP-1 strategic research report, visit mindsight.inc/glp-1 (http://mindsight.inc/glp-1). About the Guest Erin Krubeck is the Executive Director of Insights at mindsight, a leading consumer insights and brand strategy firm that helps CPG brands make smarter decisions at critical growth stages. Erin is an elite researcher and strategist who specializes in designing mixed-method studies that pair large-scale quantitative validation with deep qualitative empathy. She led the design, execution, and analysis of mindsight’s landmark GLP-1 consumer study, translating complex behavioral data into actionable strategies for better-for-you brands. Connect with Erin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekrubeck/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekrubeck/) Learn about mindsight: https://mindsight.inc (https://mindsight.inc) Key Takeaways Erin explains that the GLP-1 experience is not just a biological shift; it is a deeply human journey marked by both triumph and grief. While users celebrate rapid weight loss, they also describe a profound sense of loss and grief around food. This "Indulgence Paradox" reveals that even when cravings for chocolate or pizza disappear, the desire for the emotional and social rituals those foods represented—comfort, reward, family pizza nights, and sharing ice cream with their kids—remains entirely intact. She dismantles the myth of the single "GLP-1 consumer" by mapping four distinct segments along the journey. New Adopters are in a reactionary phase of safe experimentation, navigating side effects and the sudden, quiet removal of "food noise." Active Losers are solution-oriented problem solvers, making them the most open to trying new brands and remaking their routines. Maintainers have reached a stable "cruise control" where routines are locked in and harder to penetrate. Lapsed Users are not "exit stage left" but are actively trying to maintain habits while fighting a difficult biological tug of war as cravings return. Erin makes a critical distinction between "healthy" and "useful" positioning. For a consumer with a finite plate and smaller portion sizes, vague health halos like "all-natural" are no longer enough. GLP-1 users are highly purposeful shoppers—over 70% are actively reading nutrition labels. They demand specific, functional utility: high protein to prevent muscle loss, high fiber, digestibility, and nutrient density. About the Show Architects of Impact is a podcast hosted by Shawn Edwards, founder of mindsight. Each episode explores the high-stakes decisions that shape growth: the tradeoffs, the pressure, and the moments when leaders need real clarity to move forward. Through conversations with founders, operators, and investors, Architects of Impact reveals how smarter decisions create stronger brands, greater impact, and more valuable outcomes. Learn more about mindsight at mindsight.inc (http://mindsight.inc).

10. 

    30 Jun 2026

    How Suja Life Repositioned Cold-Pressed Juice for Double-Digit Growth | Saxon Seay, Chief Strategy Officer at Suja Life

    Episode Summary In this episode of Architects of Impact, host Shawn Edwards sits down with Saxon Seay, Chief Strategy Officer at Suja Life. Fresh off the milestone of Suja Life going public, Saxon shares her journey from business school to leading major brand transformations at both The Coca-Cola Company and Suja Life. Saxon discusses the critical concept of "Brand Edge"—how a brand uniquely delivers on a consumer's deepest needs compared to its competitors—and explains why the product itself, along with its packaging, is always a brand's most powerful billboard. She also reveals the exact consumer insights that drove massive turnarounds for Coke Zero Sugar and Suja Organic, and explains why being closest to the consumer makes you the most powerful person in any boardroom. About the Guest Saxon Seay has served as Chief Strategy Officer of Suja Life since May 2025, having previously served as Chief Marketing Officer from December 2022. She brings more than 15 years of consumer marketing and brand-building experience across the better-for-you beverage and consumer goods sectors. Since joining Suja Life, Saxon has helped drive 19% topline growth across the company's portfolio, which includes Suja Organic, Vive Organic, and Slice. Prior to Suja Life, Saxon spent nearly seven years at The Coca-Cola Company, where she was part of the leadership team that orchestrated one of the brand's most significant commercial turnarounds and helped establish Coke Zero Sugar as the number-one share gainer of the decade. Key Takeaways Saxon defines "Brand Edge" as a brand's unique point of difference—identifying the exact attribute a consumer wants most, and positioning the brand to deliver on it in a way competitors cannot. She argues that product and packaging are the primary consumer impression point for any brand, regardless of media budget. She details how Suja Organic's repositioning came directly from listening to consumer "breadcrumbs" in focus groups. Health-engaged buyers were describing Suja as a "nutrition and health drink," not a juice. This led to a packaging redesign that listed ingredients clearly on the front of the bottle—like a "Kind bar and an RXBAR having a baby"—which drove double-digit velocity growth. Saxon also makes a passionate case for qualitative, face-to-face research. She shares how a Vive Organic consumer described the shot as "a cold plunge for your mouth," an invaluable insight that a quantitative survey could never surface. Her ultimate advice: the person who knows the consumer best holds the most power in the room. Connect with Saxon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saxonseay (https://www.linkedin.com/in/saxonseay) Learn about Suja Life: https://www.sujalife.com/ (https://www.sujalife.com/) About the Show Architects of Impact is a podcast hosted by Shawn Edwards, founder of mindsight. Each episode explores the high-stakes decisions that shape growth: the tradeoffs, the pressure, and the moments when leaders need real clarity to move forward. Through conversations with founders, operators, and investors, Architects of Impact reveals how smarter decisions create stronger brands, greater impact, and more valuable outcomes. Learn more about mindsight at mindsight.inc (mindsight.inc)

11. 

    16 Jun 2026

    Move Fast, Just Don't Move Blind: Launching Architects of Impact | with Shawn Edwards at mindsight

    Episode Summary In this inaugural episode of Architects of Impact, host Shawn Edwards introduces the core mission of the show and shares the philosophy behind mindsight, the consumer and brand research firm he founded to help better-for-people and better-for-planet brands scale. Shawn breaks down why early traction can be a deceptive metric and how deep consumer understanding is the ultimate catalyst for durable growth. He discusses the difference between simply selling a product and building a resilient brand that tightly delivers on a consumer's core needs. Architects of Impact is a show about the high-stakes decisions, tradeoffs, and moments of pressure that determine whether a brand breaks through or stalls out. If you are a founder, operator, marketer, or investor in the better-for-you space, this show was built for you. Subscribe! Key Takeaways The show opens with a foundational truth: brands that completely understand their consumer's needs—not just who they are, but what they need and what motivates them—will scale far faster and more effectively than those that don't. Shawn references CPG pioneer John Foraker (Annie's, Once Upon a Farm) who put it plainly: if brands "tightly deliver" on a consumer's need, they will scale effectively. Shawn also introduces mindsight's ongoing research as a recurring resource for listeners. The show will serve as a platform for sharing proprietary consumer and brand research to help operators and investors make smarter decisions at every stage of growth. About the Show Architects of Impact is a podcast hosted by Shawn Edwards, founder of mindsight. Each episode explores the high-stakes decisions that shape growth: the tradeoffs, the pressure, and the moments when leaders need real clarity to move forward. Through conversations with founders, operators, and investors, Architects of Impact reveals how smarter decisions create stronger brands, greater impact, and more valuable outcomes. Learn more about mindsight at mindsight.inc

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Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

10 ratings

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