Painterland Sisters - How Two Sisters Are Redefining Rural Entrepreneurship

Ramon Vela (00:02.918)
Welcome back everybody. This is Ramon and I have an amazing brand and Guest that we're going to feature on today's show and I can't wait to dive into this brand There's so much I want to know so please help me welcome Haley and Stephanie painter who are both co-founders and co-ceos of Painterland Sisters. Welcome to the show

Stephanie (00:41.066)
Thank you, Ramon. It's very awesome to be here. This is Stephanie Painter.

Hayley Painter (00:46.094)
And I'm Haley Painter and Ramon, when he was getting us ready, he said, let's rock and roll. And that's something our dad always told us when we were getting started. And Stephanie says a lot to our team. So let's rock and roll.

Ramon Vela (00:57.924)
Yeah, I love that. Well, I appreciate it. This is such an interesting brand and there's so much to talk about. I always like to start off my interviews with a gratitude question, gratitude question. And I asked this question for a couple of reasons just so in case there's new listeners.

One is I'm a big believer in gratitude. I just think it's such a great way to relieve stress and anxiety. I've had some dark moments as an entrepreneur myself and I use gratitude as a way to relieve that. I have a gratitude meditation practice. It saves my life practically and I highly recommend it. And you can journal, you can meditate, you can do whatever, but simply giving thanks, feeling grateful for the things in your life is a great way to...

put things in context, also help you become present and just kind of put your mind at ease. So definitely try it. But the other thing is that I really want you the listener to know that there's real people behind these brands that we feature on the show. It's easy to see a product on the shelf, on the website, online, and just think like, some faceless corporation. But believe me, it is tough.

You bleed sweat and tear to bring a product to market. You stay up late at night. You wake up early. You can't get to sleep sometimes. There is a lot of things that go on. And I just want you to know that there's real people behind these companies who care deeply about the product and the quality and the community and whatnot. So please, know, this is I want you to think differently. And one great way of thinking differently is knowing who we're speaking to.

And one way of doing that is by understanding what they're grateful for. So with that said, Haley and Stephanie, and this is each of you can answer this question. Share a moment or memory when someone did something for you that just made you feel grateful because it meant that they believed in you, your vision or your potential.

Ramon Vela (03:03.428)
Either one of you.

Hayley Painter (03:05.154)
I can go first and it's a vision that I bring with me and I've shared with our team and other areas. it's a, when we were younger, so we grew up on our dairy farm, it's.

on a dirt road on top of a hill in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania. We don't have a lot of community. It's very desolate. We grew up with 13 cousins, our uncles, our grandpa, our parents around cows and calves and a bunch of other animals. It was a messy, beautiful way of life. We didn't have a lot of money, but we had a lot of family time, a lot of time with animals in the land, fresh food. We grew most of it ourselves. And so one of the memories that I had,

used to get me flustered when I was younger. We'd all pile into our grandpa's old Dodge truck. It was beat up everywhere. He was really proud of it. We never understood because it was covered in mud or poop and had all these dents from when he, oops, had a, you know, ran into something. He'd always brush it off. And so we all piled into his truck.

He'd get us different snacks. If he had a dog in the car, he'd make sure the dog had the best snacks like ice cream. And we were all loud and wanted to get out and run and rare. So we didn't as kids enjoy these times. And our grandpa was just always so calm and steady. And he'd look out on the land and he just he'd go so slow, especially when he got to a piece of property or like the cows grazing or

you know, the clover growing or something new, right? And to us, it didn't look like anything. But he'd always stare out at that and it would make us extra wryly and loud and unappreciative. And so it's more of a time that he appreciated our way of life. And now when I go home and we ride around with our dad, because as entrepreneurs, that lifestyle and that way of life, you have to fight for it, which is why we started Painterland Sisters.

Hayley Painter (05:09.594)
And when Stephanie and I were riding with our dad and we had, can't even remember who it was. know, person who we thought, my goodness, can you believe they're on our farm? You know, and we're driving them around in my dad's farm truck, which is a very similar experience. And we're sharing to these people who we, who never even heard of our small town or why dairy farmers are important. And we're riding around with them and we're going slow by these fields.

and seeing the wildflowers grow on the side of the road. you know, especially when you get to the cows grazing, it just hits very emotionally. And so it was a time that we believed in ourselves and the power that we had and to show that to other people. So they were believing in our way of life and wanted that connection in the belief in each other as family members, like being there with Steph. I can't remember if my brothers were there.

But now every time we do that, same feeling of gratitude and appreciation comes up. And when I think of gratitude, appreciation, I go back to that moment and the value of being able to look out at that land, see the change with mother nature, stewards affecting it, animals affecting it, and then the extra appreciation when we get to bring someone new to it.

Ramon Vela (06:26.488)
Wow, I've never had that kind of example be given. But the way you described it, it's so powerful. Well, thank you for sharing that. Stephanie?

Stephanie (06:37.334)
Yeah, of course I'm thankful and grateful for the same thing. That's what ignites me. I'm also grateful for our team and especially those who were with us at the very beginning when we haven't quite proven ourselves yet and we have absolutely nothing to show for it. We just had this dream and we had this

passion and we had this purpose and these people, they believed in us and they were working to create this necessity in this world that we believed in and they didn't know if we could lose, we could just go out of business in two months. You know what I mean? Like they were really with us from the beginning. And so very thankful for all of our

teammates and employees, but also just like the first people who now we have a little proof in the pudding that we're able to continue and we're able to make decisions, right? Especially Haley and I started when I was 24 and she's 22. And so, you know, even as young women, we had a lot of people who doubted us. And so the people who got on that journey and they're like, I see what you're saying. I'm here for you. Let's work it out.

I know that I potentially am not going to have a salary in three months, but like I'm here. And so extremely grateful for that. And for the first couple, for every partner that we've made, but I know one thing specifically is our first broker, we needed to get into a store to basically utilize the milk from our family's farm and have enough milk to work with our co-packer to put that milk.

through their machines and we only had like six months to prove it because the co-packer was losing money if we're not at a certain level with the milk that's flowing through the machines and making the machines efficient. And so we were like, well, we need some bigger accounts, you know, like how are we going to do this? We didn't even know what CPG was at that point. And so we had our very first regional broker that he said, he tasted our yogurt from our sample pilot run and he...

Stephanie (08:58.378)
His name's Bob and he's actually here in Pennsylvania and he tasted it and he was like, my gosh, this is the best yogurt I ever had. And at that point, I don't know, I was probably like 25 or 26 and Haley was two years younger. so like he, you know, it took a lot for a man that was, has been in this industry for, I'm not trying to age you Bob, but like 30 years probably to be like.

Ramon Vela (08:59.622)
you

Stephanie (09:24.342)
I see what they have here and I see what they have in them and I believe in them. And then he worked and he helped us get our first major account in Giant here in Pennsylvania. And that helped us put this whole thing in motion in a big way. And he, you know, we were like, hey, we have no money to pay you. And he's like, you're gonna get in a giant. know it, we're gonna get you in and then we can work that out later. And we're like, thanks, Bob.

And like he really held our hand and believed in us and just like that at that moment that to me I was like, my gosh, like not only have we brought like some team members on that see our vision, but now partners that are putting their reputation on the line for us. And that was just that was a moment that turned turned my my head mentally for what we were about to do.

Ramon Vela (09:51.567)
you

Ramon Vela (10:18.95)
Wow, there's so many, both of these, and thank you for sharing that, there's so much in these that I feel like tell me a lot about who you guys are, who you guys are, and what you guys are all about. And those are two amazing stories, really, like I love these stories. with Stephanie, with yours, I kind of feel like there's a...

I've heard this before, something similar, and I always refer to it as a transfer of belief. It's like, there's sometimes people who help you, who might say some kind words or might do something to help you or like what Bob did. And sometimes it feels like it's sort of out of the blue, but what it is, it's really is that they see you, see what the product you've done and are transferring like this belief onto you.

through their actions, kind of making you validate you and think like, okay, well, yeah, this is gonna work, or this is like, we've got something here, this person believes in us. And it's real powerful, like it's just really, really powerful. And Haley, there's something you said that I would love to unpack a little bit more because I wanna get back, I want us to kind of start where,

in terms of the idea, why this started, why it was so important to you. You said something that I thought was really powerful as well. And you said something like when you were describing the land and the community and where you grew up, and you said something that you had to fight for it. Like you had to fight for this.

And I don't know, that's that when you said that I was just like, Whoa, that's kind of like I wasn't sure like it works on so many different levels like that. It might be I went on packet because it might be deeper than what I think. But I just felt like when you said that, I just think like, you know what you value how you grew up and you value the way this way of life, you value it so much. But

Ramon Vela (12:33.03)
your life as an entrepreneur is so difficult, so challenging. And just everyday life, right? It's so challenging that you have to like fight to find time to like stare, you know, slow down and stare at the cows in the pasture or, know what mean? Or just live that kind of life. I don't know. I read a lot into it, but it just felt so powerful when you said it. Can we start there? Can we unpack that? And then really just from there,

You said that was one of the reasons. Walk us through the other reasons why you started Painterland Sisters.

Hayley Painter (13:08.994)
Yeah, that was the fuel that led us into this direction. We have passion that helped our brand become and blossom to what it is. But our way of life was at risk. we grew up, I said, as fourth generation dairy farmers, many of these farmers are going out of business. And it's not because they'd

don't care, don't put the time and energy in. The market just gets pulled out from under them without their control or they're financially not paid a living wage. And farmers work probably more hours than majority of people and are just under, underpaid. And, and so they're stewards of our land and our animals. So they're giving it, they're all steward these things. And we experienced that growing up. So our biggest

value is are those things that we said because we didn't grow up in society norms. We kind of grew up on the outskirts of it in nature. So we really valued that and we didn't we were so naive growing up we didn't realize that we were you know poor that we had these different socially disadvantaged

advantages being farmers and having to fight every day. Like we didn't realize our dad and our grandpa, our parents were doing that and choosing to work these long hours to give, to fight for what they know is right for the animals in the land and to provide something greater than anything which is nutrients and giving those nutrients through everything. And so we almost lost the cows. My first time I remembered that was third grade.

We got off the school bus and our grandpa and dad were talking and they were crying. They didn't want us to see. The school bus kind of came. Farmer time, you don't really pay attention to it. That's when they told us our milk was being dumped down the drain for I think three weeks. That's a wage. And so we almost had to sell the cows. The milk market became stable and we were good again.

Hayley Painter (15:20.91)
And then in 2018, before Stephanie and I started, and she can get into like the passion and ideas we had, but that kind of funneled us into this path. But in 2018, our milk market became unstable again. We were getting about an eighth of what we should have been receiving in payment. And then a letter every time saying, you may not get your milk picked up, which would mean no income. And that happened for three months. So we almost had to sell the cows again.

yet we work so hard and do everything, best of our abilities. And we just don't have a fighting chance. We called every single person we could think of. We're in Pennsylvania. So we called all the way down into Florida, to Wisconsin, New England, who can take our milk? No one was accepting milk. COVID happened. The milk market became stabilized. we kept our milk going to the same market and Stephanie and I decided all this passion and drive we have to make.

This farm lasts for generations. This is what we need to do. We need to find a state to stabilize our milk market and we need to make our own product. And what can that be? And Steph, do you want to talk about our passion and like that other field of what kind of got us here?

Stephanie (16:36.342)
Yeah, I mean, so it all started with where we were born and how we were raised, right? Like Haley just mentioned and wanting to preserve that, always knowing since we were little girls that we were going to figure out our way to take that baton from the three generations before us and run with it, but just didn't know exactly what that was going to be. And when this happened with the milk, we were like, okay, well, it's milk, you know, that's what we're going to have to work on right now.

And so we then took the avenue of how are we going to, like, what are we gonna, we wanna take control of our own destinies. We don't want to be controlled and worry about, you know, all this work that our family's doing every day. you, basically my dad can get it cut on his hands and it just won't bleed because his hands are so calloused from all the hard work, right? And so it's like.

how can we take control of our own destinies and well, we're gonna make our own product and then we're gonna put this milk into something and we're gonna sell it. Okay, well, how do we do that? it shouldn't be too hard. And...

Hayley Painter (17:36.814)
We're good.

Hayley Painter (17:45.738)
never had doubt. just want to add because of that we never had doubt. We knew we were gonna get through. We just had to figure out how and that's why we never wavered. Like should we try something new? I think some entrepreneurs are like this path isn't working let me head in that path. There wasn't another path so we had to keep going.

Ramon Vela (18:04.112)
Thank

Stephanie (18:04.402)
Yeah, exactly. Like we had to do something with the milk. What are we going to do now? There was we built out our own processing facility and it was going to be, you know, over 10, 15 million dollars. And this is what we were going to do. And then that we spent a year business planning and then we twisted it and we're like, my gosh, there's a word it's called Copac. And because at that point, after we build this, you know, multi-million dollar facility, like you're going to run all this milk through it like.

Hayley Painter (18:07.246)
Mm.

Ramon Vela (18:23.974)
you

Stephanie (18:31.926)
Uh-oh, like where are gonna sell the product? And so after a year we realized, well we don't actually have a market for this. And so we realized we're a co-packer and then we realized that now we were a brand and we needed to figure out how to first put this product in the market. What is the product? We don't really know. So like calling all the dairy co-packers in Pennsylvania and surrounding areas until we...

basically teamed up with a 10th generation Icelandic yogurt maker to put our family farms milk and keep the milk in the integrity and its full integrity, which mother nature put it here with all its goodness and nutrients and 13 essential vitamins and all that good stuff. And so we were like, what can we do? Well, it's organic Sker yogurt. And so it has up to 21 grams protein naturally. A lot of other yogurts put protein powder in it.

that leaves the product super smooth and creamy. You don't get the grittiness of protein. Lactose free, we want everyone to enjoy real dairy. 68 % of people have some sort of intolerance. So we were like, well, like, yeah, sure. Like let's make it lactose free. We want everyone to enjoy that. 6 % milk fat. We are full fat girls. We grew up on a dairy farm. Like we know that cream is the most valuable part of milk and there's a dang good reason for it because it tastes delicious. And it's also really good for you. So we do a lot of education on why

Ramon Vela (19:51.194)
Thank

Stephanie (19:55.991)
Milk fat actually sustains our energy better than carbs do. And so a little bit of low sugar, a little bit of organic cane sugar and berries. so again, packed it full of probiotics, the best probiotic pack we could do a BB-12. We wanted to basically enhance what Mother Nature already provided and not strip it of its nutrients to get a better margin. And we believed in it.

and we wanted to give the consumers the choice to have a premium, high-nutrient dense product straight from a farmer at the convenience of their grocery store shelves. But when we first put that out there, everyone's like, you're crazy, this is twice as much as a normal yogurt, this isn't gonna happen. And we're like, well, we're not gonna jeopardize the integrity or the quality of this because we know like...

what the land's doing, we know what the farmer's doing, we know what the cows are doing, like we are not going to cut this up and slice it. Like we want to keep it whole the way it's supposed to be. And anyways, we're like, let's just give it a shot. Like, just give us a shot. We took some videos with our local videographer of us dancing around in some fields and worked with our first broker and, and yeah, we were national within six months in some stores. And so there's a lot more to it than that, but that's,

Yeah, part of the story is really utilizing the yogurt as a conduit for the education because people just don't know where their food comes from. And Haley and I have always found ourselves, since we were in college, high school, even being in a rural community, our high school is completely disconnected from the source of their food. And so we were like, well, we were just always speaking on behalf of the farmers, on behalf of agriculture, organic agriculture, grazing animals. And now we...

Ramon Vela (21:33.69)
Thank

Stephanie (21:45.686)
we're just continuing to do that. We continue to educate and the yogurt sells behind that education.

Ramon Vela (21:52.719)
Wow, fantastic story. I love that. there's so much, so much impact there. And I'm wondering, what do you think, like, what do you think it is that people saw in the brand? Like if you were to put yourself, I mean, I know how you guys feel, but what do think other people felt when they saw this brand? Because,

I don't know. mean, when you start thinking about what you just said, all sorts of stuff starts popping into my head. one is you guys are walking the walk. Like you guys are from this farmland. So you understand it, you speak the language. And so that's kind of unique in a world where

a lot of the products that are alongside you in the supermarket are made by conglomerates and things like that. you don't get that home feeling, that you don't get that, know, the same feeling from someone who's actually been there, know, felt the dirt in their hands and everything else. And then also,

You know, I think people in some parts want to get back to like more natural products, right? And more. And so I think there's kind of that vibe in there too, but what would you guys say? are those the things that using people are seeing when the, when the brand and what else.

Hayley Painter (23:23.138)
Yes.

Stephanie (23:23.188)
Yeah, totally. I'll start. This is Stephanie quickly. So like the main, our main market, target market is me. Like I'm a mom, I have three kids. I'm pregnant right now with my, you know, my four child. And so like, how do we give this busy mom that has a fast growing company a chance to get nutrient dense products that she can trust?

right at the convenience of our busy American schedules, right? Like, how can I use my thumb and Instacart when I need, when I don't have time to go to the farmer's market every single day, when I really want to, because I wanna know, I wanna shake my farmer's hands, but that's just not reality to me to feed my children. And so this is modern day America. And so people want to get back.

to knowing their farmer, only 15 % of people know their farmer, a farmer at all. And so we provide that service to them. And also we found our graphic designer on Instagram and we were like, she's totally the vibe. She takes everything we are and she puts it into pictorial explanation, right? And so we just honed in on and knowing like,

like our roots and knowing our values and knowing our friends. And when we were bringing our friends from college that grew up in New York City, cities in New Jersey, a lot of them, we realized like, oh my gosh, like every part of our farm was a wonder to them. Like we got to explain thoroughly everything that was going on and we got to see the connection and they felt it. And then that little spark grew for our friends.

And so we utilize the yogurt as a spark to grow in people things that they want to be connected with. want to make sure, like they want to know where their dollar's going. Like their dollar's going to keep these farmers farming. It's going to helping Mother Nature buy regenerative organic agriculture by, you know, keeping and sustaining their bodies and their children's bodies. And so they want the transparency and they just want simple.

Stephanie (25:44.147)
you know, you want to sell a natural product. Like we didn't even try it. We were just like, yeah, this is our vibe. It's a natural, like barefoot vibe. Like that's how we grew up. And you know, then Yellowstone helped us because that made agriculture like and ranching cool. And then like the cottage core farm core situation started happening from that. And so like we accidentally picked up on like all those vibes.

Ramon Vela (26:10.022)
Yeah.

Stephanie (26:10.112)
that were coming out into the world. But it was really just like stemmed seeing how we connected our friends in college that were like totally not from where we're from and like utilizing that to power our direction, I guess.

Ramon Vela (26:27.846)
Yeah. Haley, did you have anything to add?

Hayley Painter (26:32.364)
Yeah, I'll just add a little. We were very value driven, as you can tell. And so you talked about, you know, a shelf full of dairy, it's filled with a lot of conglomerates, it's filled with a lot of different options. Dairy is one of the most saturated sections on our grocery store shelves. So the advice we got when we first were telling them, hey, we're going to do something with our family farms milk, the other farms, and we're going to stabilize it through a product.

They supported us when we talked about cheese and ice cream, but as soon as we started talking about yogurt, all of the consultants, all of the different people told us, go the other direction. They told us it's the lowest margin section in the grocery store, it's the most saturated and it's very hard to do and to stick out. And so we were already faced with the drive to not do that, right? But we knew that's the product we had to make because there's not a yogurt.

Stephanie (27:12.182)
You

Hayley Painter (27:31.042)
there wasn't a yogurt on the shelf that I really enjoyed, right? And Stephanie really enjoyed. It was nutrient dense. It was transparent. It didn't just have one of the trends of protein or probiotics or lactose free. It had all of, you know, not just the trends, but the important things that consumers are wanting that don't waver with trends. It has that traceability. That's why we put cane sugar in it instead of monk fruit or stevia. We don't know how.

that would affect our bodies growing up on the farm, we know what the small amount of cane sugar does, right? That's transparency and connection and sticking to our values. And so it's just like, that is the relatability I think a consumer wants is that trust in their brands to stay true to who they are. we're industry experts, right? Consumers trust in that.

We don't know what we're doing, we just know what we want to be eating and why, so we need to share that with the world.

Ramon Vela (28:33.094)
Wow. you know, it seems to me that you guys had already and your parents, and by the way, I just wanted to say, as you guys were speaking earlier, I started thinking about something. My grandmother grew up on a farm and she's long, long since passed away, but she lived to be like 99 years old. She was like six months. She died six months before I got married.

but she was just like this, such a strong, tough person. tough on the outside, but you you knew on the inside that was, you know, she was like so kind and so generous. And I just remember how tough she was, but she was so healthy. I mean, she lived to be 99 years old. And, uh...

And she lived the majority of her life on the farm. Like I think I would say at least half of her life. But I always thought in my back of my mind, was like, you know, it's like, you see so many people, unfortunately, be stricken with different diseases and stuff like that. And I haven't think like, wow, it's like, there must have been something about living on a farm, you know, that prepared her, you know, like her foundational years were on that farm. anyhow, I just, I think.

Stephanie (29:48.662)
you're 100 % right and what it is is we are nature. And when you're growing up on a farm, you're in the middle of nature. You're you're intaking natural things. You're growing what you're eating and you're out in the sun, you're out in the soil. Your mind is also in nature. So it's not just what you're consuming, but it's also where we're.

literally meant to fit into the world. Like we are an animal, like we are nature. And so it does, it did set your grandma up in a totally different way, just like it set my sister and I up. And we didn't realize, and that's what we're fighting for, because we didn't realize like how at risk this way of life was with, you know, 45 % of family farms in Pennsylvania in last 10 years gone.

Ramon Vela (30:43.974)
around.

Stephanie (30:44.04)
And so like at that point, we're like, my gosh, like we really need to make sure that we keep this because this is so special and this is what also feeds America. Like this is what feeds the world. Like we need farmers to eat three times a day and they're just so undervalued and underrepresented. yeah, you're spot on. Like your grandma growing up and living half her life on a farm did set her up for the rest of her life.

Ramon Vela (31:09.476)
Yeah, yeah, I agree. And you know, that idea that you guys had, which I think is really, really brilliant in the sense that I wonder how scalable that is. Like if other farmers could do that in other industries, because, know, the...

you know, they are making food or, growing food and then selling on these markets. And I almost feel like there's got to be in order to survive, like what you, what you guys have done is really just kind of think out of the box. Maybe it's, maybe not everyone could do it, but I just feel like there's, there's, there's gotta be a way for, for there to be another option instead of having to deal with the same system that

that works and then sometimes it doesn't and then works and sometimes it doesn't. That's a hard life. I mean, that's really a hard life, which by the way, I was also thinking that that way you guys described it and then even what your parents gone through, it's such a...

It's such an interesting experience because it could teach you so much, but it also makes you resilient. Like if you can find a way to keep going and have that why, which you guys clearly do, you know, have this why, but it's it's tough and it builds this resilience. So, and it's not over, right? Like there's still so many farms that are dealing with this. And then you guys, course now have a whole other set of challenges, which are the CPG world.

Right. so, do you think that seeing how your parents, had to deal with these challenges and then the challenges that you guys have faced too, do you feel like that whole experience and seeing your parents, did that help you with your current challenges? Like whatever, you know, whatever challenges are happening now or, or what will happen in the CPG world, has that prepared you guys?

Hayley Painter (33:04.14)
Yeah, it definitely has, especially that ability to know that you can't give up or that you can keep finding a way around it. You can get creative, you can get resourceful, you can ask questions and be vulnerable. The farmer way is ask if you don't know, ask for help, get support, share. You talk and...

That's how Stephanie and I started the company. Our challenge was, you what product do we want to launch? So we asked like probably 200 people and they would advise us to other people and so now as we're navigating into the world, getting into different stores, finding those challenges in the stores, we ask. And we're not afraid to and be afraid to be, you know, real and vulnerable. Sometimes like the mindset in the CPG industry is it's so formal and

Buyers are so, you know, at a different level than us and unattainable, but they want to make a relationship with you as well. And you can pave a new way for new brands and new opportunity, entrepreneurs to work with buyers and these people in the CPG industry. If you treat them in the way that is vulnerable and open, and you share with them your challenges and you talk about the challenges we thought by starting the brand.

that all of our challenges would be gone. It would be stable. The farmers were at the crux of it and we needed to support them. The brands are the answers. Farmers think it's the middle of the supply chain that is preventing them. But the middle of the supply chain, we have now realized, is a very similar experience as the farmer. And so by sharing what these problems are,

and not just focusing on the farmer or helping the food brand, we need to look at the food supply chain as a whole and ensure in each agriculture industry and each CPG sector on the shelves, is there diversity and is there fair margins throughout the whole experience? And if not, we either need to re-increase prices at the end or re-

Hayley Painter (35:17.802)
a lot the distribution of margins to make sure everyone is successful because the farmers are struggling. They're going out of business. They're not organic farmers are majority of the time they don't have enough money to buy organic food or sometimes even buy food. That's a problem. Food brands. Now we're wearing this hat. 90 % of food brands go out of business within the first couple of years. There's over

you know, 10 companies own more than 90 % of the food on the grocery store shelves. There's no diversity there. Without diversity of food brands, who do the farmers have to sell their products to? Only 10 companies, approximately, you know, on average. And so if we create more diversity in food brands, there's more options for farmers, that's more competition, everything goes up. If the farmers get paid more in the food brands are more successful and stable.

Ramon Vela (35:58.246)
Mm-hmm.

Hayley Painter (36:15.95)
And there's diversity within them. Maybe an outcome, especially in dairy, dairy should be, the price should be raised. Dairy farmers, conventional dairy farmers haven't had a pay increase since the seventies. They were getting $17 a hundredweight in around the seventies, eighties. Just last week I asked our neighbor, how much are you getting? They're getting $17 a hundredweight. That's terrible, right? And then you talk to food brands, many entrepreneurs that we have met.

Ramon Vela (36:40.23)
Hmm.

Hayley Painter (36:44.622)
who started five years before us, they're out of business. And it's really sad. And so there's a problem in this space where we need to solve together and it's to create stability, diversity and healthy margins throughout our food system. Because throughout the agriculture industries, know, dairy, crops, all of it, they're all suffering and competing with each other. And then the states are competing with each other. If we work together and look at it as a holistic view,

If farmers win, if food brands win, consumers win and America wins, right? But we're so busy competing and trying to keep the prices down. You know, it's really upsetting our market and our opportunity for free trade and competition.

Ramon Vela (37:31.29)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. And, you know, in this, we're going to talk a little more about the product in a second, but I wanted to, you guys are so interesting just in the background and what you guys are so passionate about. I'm wondering too, is that given what you guys have already done with in the yogurt space, are you guys planning on...

Stephanie (37:31.318)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (37:59.718)
Are you still looking for other ways to use this dairy? Are you looking for additional products or different formats, different form, or I guess I call them form factors. Is that something that's on your guys radar to use?

Stephanie (38:17.352)
Yeah, well, I think it just speaks to what Haley said, it's diversity, right? And so if we just have one product, even though it's a killer product, we do understand that we need to have just other products that we're not just counting on one thing and that we can spread ourselves in a couple of different ways and have those options and to have that growth and stability through the diversity.

And so yeah, we're looking to just like family farms have to diversify. They don't just sell milk. They have different crops. have, you know, basically logs. have honey. They have maple syrup. They have all these different things that they can utilize. Like it's about keeping farmers farming for us and to keeping the consumer having options of nutrient dense food from farmer owned brands. And so yeah, it looks like

a of different things and so continuing to be a premium organic dairy brand and utilize this brand for our greater missions is definitely what we're rocking and rolling with.

Ramon Vela (39:31.686)
Mm-hmm. And it just feels like in the last few years there's been, I wouldn't say a reintroduction, but there was a short period where...

dairy was getting like a bad name for a little while, right? And so, and then you got all this other stuff that is alternatives. There's nothing wrong with, I guess the alternatives either, but it just feels like dairy for a while got a bad name, but it seems now for the last few years, it's kind of coming back. I've noticed like different products. mean, obviously dairy, like milk products, milk, yogurt, all these others, but even like in health and wellness, I've saw like the rise of colostrum and things like that. I mean, it's

Stephanie (39:45.718)
Totally.

Ramon Vela (40:12.568)
it feels like there's a lot, you know, beef and it's kind of coming back. mean, not that I'd ever left, but it just, for a little while, I felt like the vibe had changed on that, but it feels like it's coming back. And it's coming back, I think, and it's great, especially in light of like the way that you guys explain it. Because you're explaining it, quite frankly, this is a side...

Stephanie (40:27.392)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (40:40.642)
I mean, I kind of knew a little bit about it, but not as much as you guys explained right now. And I would even probably say that lot of consumers didn't know what these farmers are going through and what the system is like and all of this and how difficult it is. So you've really enlightened me and I'm sure the others who are listening. I interviewed somebody recently and she...

Unfortunately, it was a different case, she had the family business and her dad passed away. And so she had to kind of take over the family business. she was like, she told me that people, even family members, even like people who knew the dad and the family were like, how could this 27 year old girl

like take over the company and stuff like that. Like there's no way that she's going to make this work. And she did. And it's been like 20 or 30 years later. You know, did you guys face anything like that from the, from in terms of, cause this is, mean, the way you describe it, it's pretty ambitious. It's like, how can we, you know, not be at the mercy of this particular system and try to, you know, I think you guys,

Stephanie, you mentioned this a couple of times, control your destinies, right? How can you, you guys had this big ambitious plan, like how can you control your destiny? This plan that when you guys created is a great plan. But at the same time though, I wonder, people must have doubted you guys. I mean, you were 22, Haley, and you were 24, I think Stephanie said. I mean,

For a lot of people, they would have looked at you guys and like, hey, you guys don't know what you're doing or you're too young. I mean, how did you guys get past that?

Stephanie (42:35.35)
Yeah, we had each other first and foremost. I think that's a big part of why we survived that. We had each other and we also had our passion and our why and we just stayed right there and true to that the whole time. But my gosh, we had so many people doubt us. We had to bring in...

older men, honestly, to some conversations just to be heard. And then we could move forward on those conversations in our early in our early times. And we got we went to our first trade shows and we had our VP of sales and he's amazing. And but anyways, they would look at Haley and I and people would come over. my gosh, this product's amazing. my gosh, you're really cute marketing girls like.

Ramon Vela (43:05.818)
Hmm.

Stephanie (43:30.826)
Do you like, is this the owner over here? Like, can I talk to him? And then Trevor's awesome. He would always just be like, no, actually, know, Stephanie and Haley, they're the owners and they can let you know, they can have a conversation with you. But I mean, we, we faced a lot of challenges, especially like at the beginning, securing funding and different things. What happens if you get married and you want to go away with the, you know, your husband, like what's going to happen?

And it's like, okay, well, would you ask a man this? You know what I mean? And then to the other point, when we launched the company, I was also like launched the product. So in March of 2022, we launched the product. I was pregnant and had a baby. And so like to not only be a young woman, but to be a pregnant young woman.

You just have to keep your head high and you have to know like going into these business meetings that like you know what you have and you know who you are and you believe in yourself and you have your sister to believe in you and you have your passion and purpose to believe in and your family believes in you. But yeah, we had we had a lot of a lot of people that came back a lot of close people to that's what kind of hurt hurt the most is like you're saying like her family said that you know.

Ramon Vela (44:51.504)
Hmm.

Stephanie (44:56.156)
Most of our family did a pretty good job at, but we had a lot of people that surrounded us and our surrounded our close-knit people that definitely didn't believe in us. And now, now you just smile at those people because I always knew you could do it. Well, no, you didn't. But again, just like you can't think about that. You don't have time to think about that. Like you have to concentrate on what you have to do. And that's all there is to it.

Ramon Vela (45:07.227)
Hmm.

Stephanie (45:23.604)
And if you concentrate on the naysayers and the doubters, you will fall into that hole and you don't have time to dig out of another hole because in entrepreneurship you have a hole every day you have to figure out how to dig out of. And so you don't need to put yourself in one because of someone else.

Ramon Vela (45:38.488)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Healing.

Hayley Painter (45:41.322)
It was super challenging at times. Stephanie gave a lot of great examples. But I heard some really good advice once that I never forgot. It was that older lady, she's retired. When we were fundraising, we did WeFunder, so $100 and up. And so I got to spend, we got to spend time with a lot of community members.

So this woman was a professional woman who was a teacher or a professor at Penn State, a philosophy teacher. So she had so much wisdom. She was a black female who grew up wanting to study philosophy. She said those three scenarios made it very hard together as a combination. And she'd give me a lot of advice. So I'd like to just go there and...

listen to her and call myself and she would say, you know, my dad told me my biggest disadvantage in life, I can turn it around and make it my biggest advantage as long as that's my perspective. And that's very similar. Like your biggest disadvantages can be your biggest advantages because you have that perspective or that grit or the tenacity or, you know, as

farmers. It was hard because we started out without any family money behind us, but we had supported community and belief in, you know, doing something out of nothing. As farmers, we have that ability to be resilient and resourceful. As young women, we had the ability to really be vulnerable and say, we actually don't know. We're asking for advice and support and we'll either take it or leave it, you know? We didn't tell them that part.

Ramon Vela (47:26.426)
Mm-hmm.

Hayley Painter (47:28.91)
And so, you know, being young women in this industry can be challenging, but it also made us unique. It gave us a platform to tell our story. We got picked up by Country Living before we even had a product. That gave us credibility. So we leaned in on our storytelling. The more pieces that we got into organically, because we obviously didn't have the money, the more we told our story on Instagram. Again, we started our Instagram two years before we started.

the yogurt company. We didn't know what we were going to sell. We just knew we needed to sell the story. And so that builds credibility the more you put yourself out there and lean in on what could be your disadvantage and make it your advantage.

Ramon Vela (48:13.262)
Wow. I have to tell you that there's so much to unpack in this, in your story. I mean, there's like, I feel like I can't even like, I want to start poking on the product, but there's so many different things that I would, that I wanted to ask. mean, cause we can sit for a long time and just talk about like,

Every subject we've brought up we can probably talk about like have a whole hour and just on that but they are that particular topic there's so much to you guys are so fascinating and and I asked that because you know, there's a lot of people just in general this last question I asked that because Entrepreneurship is really difficult and I've talked to so many people now I mean people who have who have 200 million dollar businesses or half a billion dollar businesses to people who are doing

$500,000 or a million dollars and all of it in between and everybody, almost everybody, there's only like one person I can remember of almost a thousand people I've interviewed so far. There's only one person who doesn't, who, and I believe him, doesn't, hasn't had, you know, imposter syndrome or anything like that. But most people have doubts at some points of their career, some points in the journey.

they have doubts. And then of course it doesn't help when other people are like doubting them. Like you have your own doubts, but sometimes, you know, when other people start doubting you or telling you things, like it starts to get in your head a little bit. So thank you for sharing kind of like what you guys, how you guys look at this and what you guys do to not feel that way because it is difficult, right? It is really difficult in general. So thank you for that. Let's talk about the product. So,

It's so fascinating just really understanding the story. now, like I said, you guys have shared things that I didn't even know. Like now I feel like just listening to this as a consumer, I'm like, wow, this is amazing. Like I have to try this product or like, you know, if I'm sitting here listening to the show on a podcast, I'm thinking this is an amazing, like you guys are working so hard for this. You're so passionate. There's why that you have is so strong and it's such a big.

Ramon Vela (50:32.486)
feels like such a big goal. Like it feels like, you know, like there's a lot riding on this, but at the same time, it's not just you, there's the whole market and industry, but it just feels like so important. That's what I mean. It's like, it's so important. Everyone out there, you can go to painterlandsisters.com. Painterlandsisters.com is the website. If someone's listening to this conversation and thinking the way that I just, and thinking the things I just said,

where do you want them to start in their journey with the brand?

Stephanie (51:07.158)
trying it. First spoonful. I think the first spoonful, a lot of people are like, my gosh, why does it taste so good? Well, it's like, it's just real milk, just yogurt, just really good yogurt that's not stripped and watered down and by people, you know, from cows that were loved and loved by their farmers. And so I think that's where it is that first taste will really help people understand the quality and quality goes back to those

Ramon Vela (51:08.07)
Thank

Stephanie (51:35.914)
the details at the farm level and the details that we have as a team and the partners we choose to partner with. And so they can go some of our, we're actually in all 50 states. And so you can go to our website and type in your zip code and it'll bring up stores near you to try it. So we're in sprouts, whole foods, we're in natural grocers, a lot of really cool co-ops throughout the country.

And we are also in Giant here in Pennsylvania and there's Arowan and a bunch of really cool stores like Jimbo's in Southern California. anyway, so we really worked hard on getting into the nooks and crannies in the world and also the stores where it's convenient to buy our food at. so we hope we hope you can get the product in your mouth.

Truly. And then check out our website and our Instagram and learn more about what we're doing and you'll see bite per bite that, like what we're trying to educate on and what the yogurt is really being utilized for.

Ramon Vela (52:47.226)
Well, I have more questions, but.

I just, I'm on the website, which is painterlandsisters.com for everyone out there. And I see this picture, I'm on the homepage, so I'm scrolling down a little bit. And there's a picture of both of you walking by a barn, or it looks something like a barn. And you guys are in your dresses and you guys are walking, you're smiling. And now that I know the backstory,

Like it seems a little weird like you're walking and there's like I don't know there's like a pile of I don't know what it is manure or grass or something like that and and you guys are smiling but now that I understand everything like I just you know after hearing everything I heard today from both of you I look at that picture and it's like it takes on a whole different meaning now because now that I understand your background and how you feel and what your values are and so forth like

Now I get it. You guys are smiling. You guys look like you're in like your happy place walking walking through this this barn area. Anyhow, I think it's I think it's it's a great picture. I love that.

Stephanie (54:01.014)
Yeah, that is our happy place. That's our why right there. I up, yeah, walking barefoot. And, you know, we're changing the perspective of what a farmer is as well. You know, we're millennial women and we are able to milk cows and wear dresses. And that's who we are. And we're able to connect to consumers at a different level than farmers and past generations have been able to. And so we're able to bridge the gap.

Ramon Vela (54:02.591)
Thank

Stephanie (54:28.82)
between farmers and consumers and that's literally why we were placed on this earth in a lot of ways. so, yeah, that's where we grew up with mud between our toes. Well, probably some other stuff, but we won't bring that up.

Ramon Vela (54:35.75)
you

Ramon Vela (54:40.998)
Yeah. Well, okay. So how do you pronounce it? it SkiR? Is that how you Okay. And so it has a very impressive sort of nutrient profile, lactose free, packed with 21 grams of protein per serving, made with 6 % healthy milk fat, full of billions of probiotics.

Hayley Painter (54:42.156)
Thank

Stephanie (54:51.446)
Ski-er like you're skiing. Ski-er.

Ramon Vela (55:08.644)
including BB12, naturally sweetened with organic fruit and cane sugar, free of additives, fillers, and preservatives. So lots of really great info, very simple website, but very down and to the point. And you have all sorts of different flavors. So I count what is about four different, six, is it six different, seven different flavors. And you've got plain, you've got blueberry lemon, you've got metal berry.

Stephanie (55:29.738)
Seven.

Ramon Vela (55:36.474)
vanilla beans, strawberry fields, savannah's peach, passion fruit. It looks amazing. So obviously, people should try the product that based on the flavor that they prefer. But what is your favorite products?

Stephanie (55:54.198)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie (55:57.716)
I just have to plug my daughter real quick. So my daughter's, so Meadowberry is named after my daughter Meadow. She was the one I was pregnant with first when we were trying to get funds and trying to prove ourselves. So Meadowberry and then Savannah's Peach is named after my stepdaughter Savannah. And so it is a family owned company, a mother owned company, certified woman owned company. yeah, so when I'm talking to Savannah, my favorite flavor is peach. When I'm talking to Meadowberry, my favorite flavor was Meadowberry.

Ramon Vela (56:04.294)
the

Stephanie (56:27.498)
but I'm a vanilla girl, so.

Ramon Vela (56:28.986)
Hehehe.

Have a great

Hayley Painter (56:32.654)
the plain because in Iceland, which is where Skir is from, Skir just means yogurt over in Iceland. It's higher in nutrients, lower in sugar. It's kind what the Vikings used to eat. So in Iceland, it gets really cold. So it is the most nutrient dense yogurt that you can have. then ours is one of the highest nutrients of the options. And so the plain in Iceland, they use for like dressings.

Ramon Vela (56:42.054)
Mm-hmm.

Hayley Painter (57:02.051)
for steak sauce instead I put it on burgers I mix garlic with it put it with like a salad if you mix it up with some olive oil

Stephanie (57:08.022)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Hayley Painter (57:14.668)
So it's just a really, I cut it with everything. I eat it almost daily. So whatever I'm having at night, I just throw it in there. I'm really big into adding hot sauce with it right now. So it adds a lot of flavor. And then all those nutrients actually help you digest your food. And so, yeah, I'm a big playing girl. And then you get two grams extra of protein because then you don't have the fruit in it. You have more milk.

Ramon Vela (57:39.494)
Yeah, and then of course you guys go on to Nexty Awards, which are given out by the Natural Products Organization. So much here to go through. that's one of the things that I also saw that you guys have for recipes and ways for people to eat it. So there's lots of different ways and I'm sure people are using, like what you just described right now, I've never heard of that.

But that goes to show there's lots of different ways to try the product and to use it. I wanna make sure, I wanna be respectful every time. Let's tell them where to buy it. Just remind people where to go. If you wanna shout out any partners, you guys are more than welcome to shout out any partners, any retail partners. And then if you're available on any of the marketplaces like Amazon or anything like that, or yeah, just let us know where can people find it.

Stephanie (58:35.156)
Yeah. So like I said, go on our website and type in your zip code and you can find a store near you. And some of our bigger retailers, Sprouts, been great partner right from the beginning, took us in, gave us a chance within six months. Natural Grocers, same thing. Great partner. Gave us a chance, put us right on the shelves within a couple months, believed in us. Whole Foods, again, another great partner. And Jimbo's.

We have Aeroon and Publix. Yeah, we just launched into Publix in December and that's been huge for us. Huge. Yes.

Hayley Painter (59:07.534)
Thanks

Hayley Painter (59:15.886)
Kimberley and Whole Foods, Moms Organics, Fresh Time, Jewel Asko, just some fun regional ones. And then the co-ops, stuff said before, NCG and Infra.

You can see them in your local areas. And then from our hometown, we got Delivered Fresh, which is a home delivery service, one of the only areas distributors up here, along with John F. Martin, who we launched with. And Home Comfort is our local restaurant because we don't have any stores in our area. We our product. We have one store top, so.

Stephanie (59:50.794)
that carry our products.

Hayley Painter (59:54.83)
Hopefully that'll come soon. For our local restaurant, it was a lot of yogurt for us. So yeah, love all those stores. Appreciate our team, Painterland Sisters team, but also the farm team who keep our family farm going every day so we can make this great yogurt as well as our community and great people like you give us an opportunity.

Stephanie (59:56.15)
I'm

Stephanie (01:00:00.342)
you

Ramon Vela (01:00:00.923)
you

Ramon Vela (01:00:16.23)
Well, thank you for that. know, and I did want to mention just something really quick is that you guys, know, Haley, what you were talking about in terms of the food system, it reminds me of an interview I did with this. think his name was Michael Canara. Canara, Canora. I can't remember the last name. He's from a brand called Brodo. And he it's not about the farm areas, but.

His take on the food system is very similar to what you were saying. He is very passionate about it too. Because he says, know, you know, just the amount of money that is made is very little, you know, for all the work that's being created. But anyhow, I just thought I mentioned that this has been fantastic. This is you guys are so great to speak to and you guys have so many really like such a powerful backstory and origin story.

but also just like your why is just infectious. like, really, you know, I started using, I started noticing this early on on the show we've been doing for six years now, but like in year two, and I started noticing people telling me like, I really love that brand. I love everything the founder said, and I really want to support them and like, you know, tell me where to buy and all that, which is why I started using a tagline products worth buying.

brands were supporting. And I really feel like you guys epitomize that phrase. I you guys, I feel like I want to support you guys just like your why, your passion, your down to earth nature and vibe and just like what you guys are trying to do. I just encourage anyone out there listening to this or eventually viewing this, definitely go out and go take a look. And at the very least, you want to go to the website, which is

Painterland Sisters calm Painterland Sisters calm we're gonna have that link on our podcast description But thank you so much for for being on the show and and I like I feel like there's so many different topics I can talk to you guys forever But thank you so much. You guys are always welcome back on the show whenever we have new products or new anything like that Please you guys are now part of the alumni of the show. So you guys are welcome back anytime, but thank you Thank you so much for making time

Hayley Painter (01:02:36.322)
Thank you.

Stephanie (01:02:36.694)
Thank you for the opportunity, we appreciate it.

Ramon Vela (01:02:39.94)
Yeah, it was my pleasure. You guys are why I do this show, really, people like yourselves. So thank you so much, everyone out there. We have just had Haley Painter and Stephanie Painter, who are both co-founders and co-CEOs of Painterland Sisters. Again, you go to the website, painterlandsisters.com. They got a social media, they got a bunch of different channels that they're on. What's the Instagram handle?

Hayley Painter (01:03:07.97)
Painterland Sisters as well and you can see cute cows grazing and it's not just about the yogurt on there, it's about all the other amazing things.

Ramon Vela (01:03:17.828)
Yeah, so we'll have that link on our podcast description as well. And everyone out there, always say, stay safe, stay sane, stay healthy. One way of doing that is to try Painterland Sisters, it to your diet. Sounds like it's a perfect food, not only for breakfast, but it feels like it's one of those foods that's good at all times of the year. Summertime, nice and cool, but pretty much any time.

And it's a great source of protein and nutrients and things like that. So go, definitely go try it. And thank you again for being on the show. Everyone out there.

Do yourselves a favor, go to the website, sign up for the newsletter, which is probably the best thing to do. That way you can keep up to date on all the products and promotions and things that they do throughout the year. And then beyond that, everyone, last thing. We've all been going through some crazy times. Right now we're going through some tariff stuff and the economy. And before that was pandemic and the economy and all sorts of stuff, geopolitical wars. Let's just be.

to each other. Let's just remember that everyone is going through something and if we can be kinder to each other, I know we can make this human experience a better one. Beyond that, thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to another episode of the story of a brand.