Mid-Day Squares - UNCENSORED!

Achieve your highest potential with this Mid-Day Squares podcast episode featuring Jake, Nick, and Lez.

Discover the secret to maintaining the right mindset during challenging times, leverage the principle of consistency to achieve forward momentum and learn the key to unlocking your brains reward system for optimal performance.

This is an opportunity to gain valuable insights that can help you reach peak performance, tune in now.

We share key takeaways on:

• How to focus on feeling good
• Hacking your body’s reward system
• Focusing on the small wins
• Using momentum to fire up your brain
• Saying “No” to societal pressures

Show notes:

Stay up to date with Mid-Day Squares on Instagram and LinkedIn

0:57 - Jake in Forbes 30 under 30

1:57 - Negative response to Forbes

3:29 - It’s all about the mind set

4:34 - Look Good, Feel Good

6:39 - Understanding your body’s reward system

8:41 - The myth of the “All or Nothing” attitude

15:45 - The power of Momentum

19:10 - We wouldn’t have survived 2022 without Momentum

21:40 - THERAPY

22:22 - Using movement to get away from negativity

24:12 - Let yourself get lost when going on walks

25:10 - How Jake turned around the energy at the office

26:46 - Cutting negativity out of your life

26:24 - What does your body need to achieve peak performance?

29:00 - Nick & Jake cutting out alcohol

32:17 - Stop caring about what others do to achieve peak performance

33:00 - Kobe and Micheal Jordan VS Dennis Rodman / Hacks for peak performance

35:00 - The people that inspire us

For more tips on how you can win in entrepreneurship, subscribe to Mid-Day Squares: Uncensored on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

In this episode, Jake, Nick and Lez answer questions from the audience on our upcoming flavor and tips they would give to new founders building in the CPG space

We discuss Jake taking over R&D without permission, how we pump ourselves up when stress gets too high, how mentorship is a cheat code for founders and so much more.

We share key takeaways on:

• Why flavor development is challenging
• How failure can lead to success
• How finding World Class mentors changes the game
• Helping people without an agenda
• The struggles in finance for early CPG companies

Show notes:

Stay up to date with Mid-Day Squares on Instagram and LinkedIn

1:21 What’s going on with Cookie Dough?

2:52 Why Cookie Dough is so complex to make

4:40 Cookie Dough’s origin story

6:03 Jake brings the momentum up

6:45 Jake hijacked R&D to make his own flavor

9:52 Go-to motivational techniques when stress becomes too high

16:10 Who’s bought into the concept of sleep?

17:53 Jake’s PTSD

19:10 How important trust is with mentorship

21:45 Lez’s trust issues with mentors

25:34 Have no agenda when helping people

27:13 Mentorship is a cheat code

29:55 Tips for starting a new CPG company

32:13 Be at stores as often as possible

37:00 How difficult finances are as an early CPG company

For more tips on how you can win in entrepreneurship, subscribe to Mid-Day Squares: Uncensored on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

In an impromptu podcast recording, Nick and Lez choose to no longer be miserable.

 We discuss the issues that have arisen in the last few weeks and the mindset we’ve adopted on misery and how even though things are tough at Mid-Day Squares, we’re choosing to no longer be miserable.

We share key takeaways on:

• What it means to be a World Class organization
• How important mindset is in tough times;
• The “secret” to our relationship as married co-CEO’s;
• The importance of working on your ability to have hard conversations;
• What you should expect out of a relationship

Stay up to date with  Mid-Day Squares on Instagram and LinkedIn

Show notes:

1:00 Why we’re working till 11pm tonight

2:57 Is Mid-Day Squares a sh*tshow?

4:30 We aren’t World Class. Yet.

5:37 Surprise appearance from Alba Saltarelli

7:25 Accepting that we aren’t World Class

9:53 How we evolving our leadership to be World Class

12:40 How accepting misery makes you more miserable

15:13 Acknowledge the misery but don’t let it consume you

18:48 Getting juicy with Nick and Lez

19:55 How therapy helps our relationship

21:33 Hard conversations

24:35 How we have more capacity for hard talks.

27:20 You need to constantly be working on your relationships

28:15 In a partnership you need the output of 3x

29:44 What our relationship means

31:04 What World Class is to us

For more tips on how you can win in entrepreneurship, subscribe to Mid-Day Squares: Uncensored on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Description:

This episode is about how it's sometimes necessary to take 3 steps backwards to take 10 steps forward.

We discuss the transition we're going through at Mid-Day Squares moving from a 2 square per package to a 1 square per package product and how it's slowly eating away at our spirits and the realizations we have had as we go through it.

We share key takeaways on:

• How to convert your energy into something that propels you and doesn’t eat away at you;
• Why the negative person in the room always feels the loudest;
• Why survival is painful;
• How your true measure of success is thriving in bad times;
• The suffering in our world and how this has made people project their emotions rather than deal with them.

We leave you with our biggest learning:

“No one has achieved anything significant without a course of critics standing on the sidelines explaining why you shouldn't do it or why it can not be done and you should go for it anyways.”

Show notes:

We share our unorthodox approach to building a chocolate empire & how to win at raising  capital, the importance of “just starting” and demanding what you want at all costs.

Stay up to date with  Mid-Day Squares on Instagram and LinkedIn

1:00 The difficulty of transitioning from 2 squares to 1 square

2:27 Jake’s notes on negativity and his personal breakdown

3:30 Emergency therapy session pre-recording

4:34 How to use energy to your advantage

5:23 Why we changed from 2 square format to 1 square format

6:42 How the change is keeping our business alive

8:05 The fine line of figuring it out: does the world want a good product? Or a low price point?

9:25 Why the fringe minority is the loudest in the room

14:15 Why change is hard and what we are going through

16:30 The difference between making a decision for change and living through it

18:48 Milestone: we opened our 3000th store

20:15 Jakes demoralization

23:30 Why founder conflict happens

25:10 How putting in the work pays off in communication

26:29 Were under attack: Who is attacking Mid-Day Squares right now

27:56 Why do people police us?

30:41 Be okay with going 3 steps backwards to go 10 steps forward

31:15 A powerful note on critics

For more tips on how you can win in entrepreneurship, subscribe to Mid-Day Squares: Uncensored on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

EP 34 : When scaling a business, every growth point  brings the same  struggles with higher stakes, and for MDS the stakes have never been  higher! Just months away from closing a 10 million dollar raise, it's  time to distil what blitz scaling actually means and why once you hop on  the train, there's no getting off.

We Also Talk ...

- Embracing chaos

- Crushing vs Crashing

- Why Slowing Down isn't An Option

- Mental Preparation 

- Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable

- No Going Back

Ep 33: MDS founders Lez, Nick and Jake share their strategies on how to  make money in the ROARING 20's! A data driven, roundtable with tons of  takeaway, as the entrepreneurial minds of MDS use what they've learned  to identify what's next in the world of CPG.

We Also Talk ...

- Trends

- Data Makes The Difference

- How MDS Used Data To Create A Winning Product

- 3 Ways To Win Big In The Roaring 20's

- Turning The Page On The Pandemic

- Innovation vs The Machine

www.ahrefs.com 
trends.google.com

EP. 32 :
The great debate! Is it better to build a company that's self-funded or start one that raises money to scale? Spoiler alert: It doesn't matter! We discuss why conviction is  the only thing you should care about.

We Also Talk ...

- Mentors

- Money Is Fictitious

- What Side Are You On?

- Choosing Your Lane and Staying There

- Scarcity

- Value vs. Profitability

Ep 31 :
It's all jokes as we unpack our recent trip to the US and discuss the importance of face to face meetings, being kind, and the legends we look to as we blaze our way to the top.

Special Shout Out to …
- Mark Smith, President, Pandion Investments Ltd.
- Barry Turner, Founder, Lenny & Larry
- Sam Blumenthal, Partner, Circleup Growth Partners
- Wade Yenny, Director of Grocery, Jimbo's Natural
- Blake Mitchell, Principal, Interact Boulder
- Lauren Rinkey, Ex-Global Brand Director, Nike

Ep. 30 : 

The US launch is in full swing and our  boldness is paying off! It’s time to update listeners on our brand  growth, international presence, and the marketing strategies we’re using  to do it.

We also talk …

- The Influencer Game is Alive and Well … in fact, it’s THRIVING!

- When it’s time to trigger influencer marketing

- Why Strong Content and Brand Identity Attracts Influencers

- Trial and Error is Key But Brands Have To Put In The Work

- How to look for influencer’s today and measure their value

- Finding the 5000 people who reach 368 million others

Ep. 29 : In a very special episode, the founders of Mid-day Squares honour  the man, the myth and the legend that is Jim Gavin as he joins the team  to discuss the business benefits of healthy communication.

We also talk …

• The importance of therapy for a successful start up
• Resistance to therapy as a tool to navigate a company
• Hard conversations... and why they’re hard to have
• How therapy feeds an individual, a company, it's team and partnering relationships
• Verbalization vs Communication
• Going through the Pressure Cooker
• Sharing the MDS Love

Ep.28:
In a world of constant noise we discuss who to listen to, where to share your story and how to satisfy a glutinous audience.

We also talk ...

- When to block out Social Noise

- Another Platform, Another Way Of Telling The Story

- Piloting Product Release

- Keep It Fucking Simple; Quality Over Quantity

- It's Not Doing More, It's Focusing On Less

- Building A Brand By Building An Army

Ep 27 :  Hold on tight as we talk blitz-scaling through first  principles thinking, non-traditional hires and how identifying your  superpower will blow up your business.

We also talk …

- Verbalizing vs Communicating, Stop talking AT each other

- Revenue solves everything - Do management levels really work?

- Knowing when to put out a fire and when to let it burn

- Assume no one knows anything, it's common sense!

- Reasoning up from your own ideas

Episode 26 : Building a brand begins with giving zero fucks. Listen up  as we share how upping your boldness, scaling grass roots and making  people feel something leads to massive returns.

We also talk ...

- Why we wear hoodies

- The pay off of atypical partnerships

- When PR comes into play

- The importance of methodical thinking when building a brand

- Maximizing your YOC by building tribalism into your brand

Episode 25 - We’re kicking off 2021 with EMPATHY! Why? Because it’s the only  way to build a billion dollar business. We discuss how leading your team  with empathy is the key to building revenue.

We also talk …

- Filling the tank to go the distance; the importance of recharging your mind and spirit

- Re-directing your energy! Anger is an emotion that pays zero dividends

- Shifting your mindset to focus on understanding others rather than being understood

- Why brut force management doesn’t work

- Using customer complaints to learn from in lieu of lashing out 

- Respectfully looking to crush our entrepreneurial OG’s

- Asking WHY and actively listening

- How curiosity leads to financial success

- Heading to the USA!

Episode 24 – In our final podcast of the year we share our strategies on  launching in the US and reveal the unaverage decisions that lead to BIG  money!

We also talk …
- Nailing the customer experience – they are the center of everything!

- Hammering down your network to build the HYPE

- Winning over local markets to gain countrywide success

- Negotiating with celebrity attention on social media 

-  Be different! That's the marketing game plan. Simple.

- Company transparency is key to building partnerships 

- Building a community that focuses on people, not product

Episode 20!

Can't believe we made it to 20. This episode is a continuation of last episode. We try to distill how you can build your entrepreneur muscles. 
- We talk about the confidence it took for the Dunkin' Donuts founder to forge through
- Question: Is Entrepreneurship a game that can be taught, and how do you learn it? 
- To build the muscle I challenge you to go off the beaten path, cause you’ll start hearing noise.
- We also talk about how to build your first  $1 million in revenue.
- Lezlie comes clean about being terrified about some of the decisions she's had to make and not letting us know she was terrified.
- We get into the stages of company growth from Y combinators course Blitzscaling: 
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFQgHujBBZjsdDeNVcsepyEfuxW53PqaJ   

In Episode 19  we try to answer a question asked by one of our listeners "Are entrepreneurs born or made?" 

-The show starts with updates on setting up our Automated Production Facility.

-We talk about our consensus that Entrepreneurs are made.

-Some people are born with traits that may make entrepreneurship more natural, but these are traits that can be learned.

-We talk about how you can get inspiration to be an entrepreneur by telling you all what we would do if we weren't at Mid-Day Squares and needed to get inspiration.

-The number one trait that you must train yourself on is the ability to handle risk.

-Nick mentions www.finviz.com to find inspiration by looking at companies and the public presentations.

-Entrepreneurs are the lifeblood to founding thriving economies, it's worth trying at least once in a lifetime.

Episode 17  is a great roundtable discussion about what has been on our mind lately as Entrepreneurs trying to grow Mid-Day Squares.

-We talk about good books you could be reading
-The importance for you or any company to have a "cheerleader" on your team
-Lez gets into the pressures of having to be creative on demand
-Conversation regarding the current schooling system and how it's failing to prepare people to help new-age companies execute and win
-We finish off with the importance of being vulnerable and how therapy and vulnerability will set you free as humans and creators

Episode 16  is about how important an IPO may be to actually unlocking the full value of your Brand. We get into the misconceptions of brand value to private market investors.

-Its Lez's 30th Birthday!

- We talk about how the CEO of Dunkin' Donuts proved the true value of brand.

- There's no ONE road to successful outcomes.

- Getting your brand advocates invested in your company is a great way to align your fanbase and help propel and grow your company through word of mouth.

-We talk a little bit about the philosophy of value and how its not black or white.

-We talk about values of public companies and how brand driven companies are way more valuable then non brand driven companies.

In Episode 13 we celebrate our 2 year anniversary.

For Jake's birthday, we ask him what he's learned during his 27 years on the planet. We talk why it's important to be told you're not good enough early in life. We discuss the Mid-Day Squares journey and what you could learn from it so far.

Things get a little weird at the 40 min mark :)!

In Episode 12 we dive into everything that went into launching our new flavour "Busta PEANUT"

This is a great show for any of you that are interested in what it takes to develop a food product to sell to consumers.

We talk about experimenting with flavour profiles. Making a recipe that matches the calories, fats, and sugars you want people to see. The complexity of building a recipe that makes financial sense for the business. Lastly, we dive into what you should be thinking about when figuring out your "best before" dates.

One of the number one questions we get asked is: "How do you build a community?". In this episode, we try to answer that question from our unique journey of building Mid-Day Squares.

We also touch on the most impact thing that Mid-Day Squares has taught us over the last 12 months.

This is our first ever episode in "The Interview" Series. We welcome Mike Fata to the show, founder of Manitoba Harvest. We start at the early beginning of the idea all the way through the sale of the company at $419 million dollars.

We talk about the education system. How hemp went from being illegal to being legal. How he got the business started. Starting small and scaling very large. How pivotal universities and governments can be in scaling your business. The difficulties of starting a business where you have to educate the entire category on why they should demand it. 

Lastly, why being early can pay you huge!

Episode 9 is all about trying to give you value based on some things we've been through on the Mid-Day Squares journey so far. We talk about the importance of building the right team. We touch on things we believe they don't tell you when becoming a founder. As well, we get into the tension that builds between founders and why therapy is so important.

Is Jake actually allergic to nuts?

Episode 8 is all about that Branding vs Marketing and NEW FLAVOUR ALERT. We talk finding your groove and role in a company as a Founder. Jake gives an epic Braveheart speech. We discuss how you as founders should be seeking therapy and why it's so important. We also talk about why it's hard playing the line of sharing everything to your audience vs not and we finish it off with what fires us up as founders.

We also find out that Lez was in another TV Show growing up!

Episode 6 is all about that Manufacturing life. We each choose two things we believe will make your Brand rock. We talk why its important for you to balance how fast you grow based on your circumstance. Why creativity is your key and Manufacturing inspires it. How to scale up from micro Manufacturing and why margins are everything. We finish with the downfalls of using a contracted Manufacturer and a glimpse into what Jake, Lez and Nick mean when they say Mid-Day Squares was 10 years in the making.

Episode 5 is fresh and hot out the oven. It's all about how to make Online work for your Retail CPG business. Social is a MUST. It's networking on steroids. "Sneezers" are important to a Brand growing. Building up hype before launching your Brand in a City. Dealing with stress and hitting mini breakdowns along the journey. Do we reveal the new flavour? and is Jake actually allergic to Nuts?

This episode is all about our journey raising money for Mid-Day Squares, how to get started without money, the type of investors to choose, making sure your product is great. Oh and we find out more about Lez: She was a cartoon character!

Episode 2 is all about Founder Tension, fact-Checking Jake, how Gym Steam Rooms are epic for Networking, and most importantly "How we believe you can Make Ideas happen!". We also find out Lezlie tried starting a Hotel. Happy Friday!