Simek's - How a Family Recipe Became a B Corp Powerhouse

Ramon Vela (01:27.374)
Welcome back everyone. This is Ramon Vela and I have an amazing brand that I want to feature on today's show. So let me introduce you to our guest. Please welcome Lindsay Hickey, who is CEO and co-owner of Cimix. Welcome to the show.

Lindsey (01:46.316)
Thanks for having me today.

Ramon Vela (01:48.386)
Well, I appreciate you making time. I know you're busy. You're running the company and it's just an amazing company. can already tell by just looking at the background there. It looked delicious. It is lunchtime. I'm, you're making me hungry just by looking, looking at your background. and I'm sure that's part of your strategy, right? so I appreciate you again, that you're making time. And, I always like to start these interviews with a question of gratitude. And for those who are new listening to the show,

Lindsey (01:57.145)
Thank you.

Lindsey (02:06.879)
Absolutely.

Ramon Vela (02:17.39)
I really love to ask this question for two reasons. One is we're all a little stressed out, lots of things going on in the world. Everyone has a little bit of anxiety, depending on what it is, but gratitude is a great way to relieve stress and anxiety. And I highly recommend it. I've used it in some of my most difficult moments as an entrepreneur. And I just, think there's, it's such a simple tool for you to, it's such a simple tool for you to use.

Whether you meditate, whether you pray, whether you journal, whatever it is, it's just an amazing tool. However, I also want to make sure that the people that we feature on the show, and you the listener, realize that there's real people behind these brands. Not just some faceless corporation, but real people who care about the product quality, care about the brand, care about their community and whatnot. And it's a...

great way to figure out and learn about someone by understanding what they're grateful for. So that's another reason why I asked that question. So Lindsay, if you don't mind, can you share a moment or a 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?

Lindsey (03:32.225)
Yeah, I love that. I love the emphasis of gratitude. And honestly, I think I could spend this entire episode talking just about all the people who have helped me along the way or believed in me. But I think for any of those instances to be impactful, I have to start at the beginning. And the beginning for me and one of my most grateful moments is truly my beginning in my career and me getting the opportunity from my parents who were

the company and running the company at the time to take over running the day-to-day business and become a business partner with. And I was 26 years old. I did not know what I was doing at all in the food space. But I was really determined and I was really passionate about getting involved and making a difference with a company and really focused on food and where we could take it. they have always believed in me, even at times when I didn't believe in myself and that confidence. was just such a good lesson.

on believing in others, giving others a chance. There was no reason for them to lean in and to give me that opportunity, but I'm forever grateful that they did.

Ramon Vela (04:41.122)
Well, I love that. And that goes to the heart of the question. And just to kind of really put a little bit more emphasis on it, you know, it is really a big deal for them to trust you with the business and to have you lead the efforts. And it's really a big deal because there's something about you and your personality, your skill sets, your experiences, your passion that they saw that in you.

and really took this opportunity to give you the reins of the company and for them to trust you. And then of course, the other employees, I'm sure, but it really is a big deal because even when you're looking for investment, I always tell people, even when you're looking for investment, yes, the business has to be solid, the idea has to be solid and all of that, but what investors...

focus on is can that person do what they say they're going to do? Can they execute on the idea? And in this case, you know, it's, it's, you know, them giving you saying like, we trust you, you're going to, you're going to do great. And, and it's, it's a wonderful thing to see. And, but it's even really great now that you've been in it and you've really kind of grown into this and you're really doing an amazing job. And so I love to see that as well. So I'm sure you tell your family, your parents and whatnot.

how grateful you are, but I'm sure they're looking back and saying like, we made the right move.

Lindsey (06:12.188)
Well, that's kind of, know, there's definitely falls along the way. And I think that that lesson too is, you know, being able to try and fail, right, as much as being willing to try and succeed. I think my greatest learning lessons is, I'm so cliche, but it's so true, have come from those failures and where you go from that point on versus the big wins that you get. And I think that, you know, that's where it all started.

Ramon Vela (06:33.506)
Yeah. And you know, I'm glad you mentioned about the, there's, you know, challenges and failures or whatever you want to call it along the way, but that is, that's the road of, of owning a company, of being a business owner that they're in. And I'm sure that they took this into, in their calculation, but it's, it's not about whether there's failures. It's about how are you going to.

respond to those failures. You know, and so that's just important too. And I'm sure we'll get into a little bit of that, but thanks for sharing that. I, you know, it's so interesting that in another interview I had this week, or was it last week, I can't remember, I also had someone who,

Lindsey (07:05.239)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (07:25.898)
who has that same experience. Actually, I've interviewed several people in the last few weeks that have had that same experience. I interviewed the CEO of Lifeway, is, you know, like a, I think they call it Kieffer or Kieffer. And she also had that experience where she was, I think, 27 and she took over the company. Unfortunately, her dad had passed away. that was part of that result of that.

Lindsey (07:27.608)
Thank

Lindsey (07:41.388)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (07:55.406)
Um, but I also interviewed a woman from, uh, the CEO of biolite, which is like a hydration company. And she also had that same experience as well. Um, so I just love to see that. And honestly, as an entrepreneur, I always hope, hopefully have like maybe one of my kids take over for me. It's like one of those dreams as a parent. So are you a parent? You're a parent as well. Yeah.

Lindsey (08:18.36)
Yeah. I have four kids. Yes. Yes.

Ramon Vela (08:23.456)
I don't know if, you know, like we don't want to push things on our kids, I'm sure, but I know there might be a part of you that maybe wishes that this continues to be a family run operation, right?

Lindsey (08:33.238)
Yeah, I mean you're building this legacy of something that there's something pretty special about it being passed on from generation to generation. So if they can find a passion for it, think that would be.

Ramon Vela (08:44.578)
Yeah. And so how long has the company been around? When did your parents found the company?

Lindsey (08:51.192)
So the company started actually in the 70s, in the early 70s as a specialty retailer. Actually it started as a distributor, a wholesale distributor selling food to restaurants. And then the concept from there evolved into bringing restaurant quality food to consumers. So my dad had a business, Bill Simic, which is the name where Simic came from, had a business and they merged together to form what became Simic.

in that time period, they ended up building 15 retail stores that sold only our own branded product, but all restaurant quality food. So it's all these foods that you're delivering to restaurants for them to cook, for consumers to come in and eat it at their restaurant. Why not just make it easy for consumers and give them that same quality that they can make in their own kitchen? And that's really where we began.

Ramon Vela (09:38.743)
Wow.

Wow. And I love those stories too, because you know, the seven, since the seventies, obviously that's quite a, quite a number of time, right. So there's a certain, there's a certain secret to that longevity, right? There's, there's a secret to that because there's so many people who, who, or there's so many brands who don't have the longevity, right? They last maybe five years, six years. And I mean,

Lindsey (09:50.008)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (10:09.806)
the business environment is extremely challenging. But I would love to see brands like this and I always wonder like, is the secret to their longevity? And if you can maybe give it a one or two word description, what would you say is the longevity of the brand?

Lindsey (10:28.984)
It's really simple. Listen. Listen to the consumer, lead by listening. Our business model has changed so many times over our existence, but it's always led with the consumer first. So when we had our retail stores, we had consumers and customers coming into our store saying, oh, we love your products, but you're trying to make meal time easy for me by giving me convenient quality food. our stores were located in Minnesota and there's

three feet of snow outside and our customers are coming to the store with kids in the car and they're saying, I don't want to have to my kids in and out of the car and make another stop at a swimming store. Make like easy for me and let me get your product where I'm already shopping. And so that evolution from a specialty retailer to a CPG brand is really what brought us to where we are today. It just took us a little while to get there as you know, we have 15 stores closing down our stores. Not an easy choice, right? Those are

big commitments with 15 retail locations, but it was grounded in a need for the consumer, so it was the right choice. that change happened under my dad's leadership, and when I came to the company, we had just closed down our last store about a year and a half, two years prior to that, and then just began selling into the local grocery stores in the Minnesota market.

Ramon Vela (11:51.65)
Wow, and you're right. mean, that is, even if it just comes down to like the change, like just change, right? Not even taking the strategy into account, just to change is a difficult one because you're used to running these stores. You figure out how to maximize profitability. You figure out how to make a business out of it. You figure out all these different things.

And then you change strategies and turn it more into a CPG type company. Still, I mean, that's scary. It's like a whole new strategy and old new business to kind of figure out and learn. I mean, I'm sure you knew some, it's still there.

Lindsey (12:25.29)
Yes.

Yeah.

Lindsey (12:33.176)
Not much. I'll be honest. that lens, mean, the way a retailer looks at the business when you're your own retailer, too. It wasn't like we were working with brands and we're, you know, running. I mean, we were running our ads for just our own products. I mean, they were smaller format stores. We would sell our own items. And so the way that we looked at the business is so different than the way a traditional CPG brand looks at the business. I didn't know what TraceBend was. Nobody in our company

was talking about tradespends. That was the first thing. We reduced the cost of the price of our products to sell it at a deal for consumers in our stores. So there was this whole concept of we knew promotions, but we didn't know this larger aspect of tradespends and funding buckets and things like that. So there was a lot of learning beyond just that. And then supply chain.

Ramon Vela (13:24.108)
Yeah. Yeah. mean, and, so as you sort of started taking over the reins of the business and while this time you're still learning the CPG business, there's obviously a lot of changes, like, we mentioned that occur with the business in terms of not just the business model, but just how you approach customers, how you build awareness.

how you get people to know about the products and so forth. What were some of the first things that you did that may have been different? Because I'm sure running a retail store, obviously there's marketing involved, but were there any big changes that you made in terms of just making people aware of it?

Lindsey (14:11.512)
Yeah, I think first it started with our product strategies. So when we had our retail stores, we were able to have all different types of items. We had breakfast items, we had appetizers, we had meals, we had bread and cinnamon rolls. So we were able to have all different types of product categories in our stores. When we went into a retail environment, now you're selling to the meat department. But wait, I have to go sell this item now to the frozen department? And now that's a whole nother.

And then our brand becomes disjointed in the store. We were really used to having our brand locked together. So we went through some big skew rationalization and said, one of the first two things we did was that let's not be everything to everyone. Let's just do a few things, but do it exceptionally well. So let's go back to our roots. What are our top items? What are we known for? And what can we always continue to over deliver on for our customers? And those are the items that we're going to lead with.

So we got rid of a lot of items that were really hard to do because they were nostalgic for our company. They were nostalgic for us as a family. Getting rid of the cheesy potatoes was, I was afraid to show up for Christmas dinner knowing that I decided to get that item. But there was full support on it. It's just hard when you have to look at your top 20 % of your items or driving 80 % of your sales. so especially when you retail fire and it's really expensive to scale that. And so that was a big thing we did.

Ramon Vela (15:18.478)
Thank

Lindsey (15:36.364)
And also on the product side was we removed anything, any artificial colors, flavors, ingredients, all of that. just, and we didn't have much. There was a few tweaks to a couple items that we had to really refine and set a playlist. So was the right products, the right products assortment and the right products and ingredients. And that's what started us before we started to scale into other markets.

Ramon Vela (15:58.7)
Yeah, and I would imagine that the, I guess the fallback or the good, well, I don't know how to describe it, but maybe like the thought that you have these other recipes.

of in your historical records, right? Like, you know how to make these that makes it simple that when you did want to like start adding some more SKUs, you already had products that you knew were good, or tastes great, people enjoyed them. So that's often like a way to look at it too and say like, hey, you know, from an innovation standpoint, we've got a lot of really great stuff that we have in our back pocket that we can always explore and see if we can bring to market.

Lindsey (16:25.218)
next

Lindsey (16:38.2)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Ramon Vela (16:42.978)
But also in terms of just the change, know, like I'm sure when your father and parents started the business, there were things like direct mail or, you know, all sorts of stuff. Obviously things have changed. mean, I know there's still direct, like someone pointed out to me, there's still direct mail. And I do know that, but let's face it, a lot of consumers discover brands differently now. How have you guys adapted to that?

Lindsey (17:00.45)
Thank

Lindsey (17:05.911)
Yeah.

Yeah, have focused, we do a lot of focus on digital, on e-commerce. think you have to, especially nowadays when we understand that you've got your in-store merchandising, then you have your digital shelf, which is equally as important and growing in importance. So we live by trial and error and repeat when we succeed. So the way consumers are shopping is constantly changing, so the way that we're reaching them has to constantly be changing so that we're adapting to what they're doing.

And sometimes it works and then we continue to replicate. Other times we don't get the return on it. We say, okay, now we know, let's try something else and go from there. But we're constantly learning. I mean, you had said that, you know, back then I was learning the CPG business and I'm still learning it. I think as a team we're still learning it because it's changing faster than ever. And so I don't think we'll ever be at the point where, you know, we've got it down 100%.

But we stand behind our products and that focus and keep driving.

Ramon Vela (18:09.922)
Yeah. And you know, and I would imagine too, from a digital standpoint, know, social media and things like that. I'm just looking at the background, like I mentioned earlier, and it's making me hungry. And so there's the, the, product is very sort of, social media friendly. Because like just showing that image back like behind you, I think those are meatballs or something. And, it's very internet friendly because it's very, you know,

Lindsey (18:34.24)
Yeah, we're very meatball, yeah.

Ramon Vela (18:39.638)
When people look at that, the good news is that, right, that people see that image and that image conjures up all sorts of, you know, memories and people's taste buds and everything else. Cause I'm looking at it right now and I'm assuming I'm salivating a little bit because of that and thinking, Ooh, that looks really good. And so it is sort of like social media friendly. So that, that's a good plus because now you can have people showcasing the food. You can show that you show how to.

how to make it, how prepare it, recipes, all that kind of good stuff. So I would imagine from a social media standpoint, it's a leg up to have such a delicious looking, this was the meatballs, but I'm sure the others look just as delicious. So that's a leg up, I would imagine.

Lindsey (19:26.85)
Bye.

Lindsey (19:32.344)
It definitely is. Meatballs are so versatile and protein is such a big thing. It's a big thing now, but it's really here to stay. And consumers really trying to get good protein in their diets. And so when we look at our entrees and our meatballs, have really great sources of protein. And so you can do a lot with meatballs and different recipes with it. And so that our influencers have a lot of fun.

Ramon Vela (19:57.198)
Yeah. did the demographics, obviously you, probably, I think you, sounded like you also sold B2B at some point into businesses, restaurants, things like that. Has the demographic changed or the target customer changed now that you're a CPG business and who is that, that, that potential customer? it,

you know, individuals, foodies, it, you know, is it geared towards, you know, families, you know, people wanting to have a delicious product that they can, you know, make quickly and easily. Who is that? Who would you say is sort of like that target customer?

Lindsey (20:41.88)
Yeah, I think it really boils down to people who like quality and convenience and weigh them equally. So there's definitely a consumer that is just looking for the quick win. And then there's a consumer who's looking more at the foodie side of like, about this quality and what's the experience? And we're trying to bring those together. And so we're trying to deliver on both without sacrificing either. And that's really whether you're, you know,

Ramon Vela (21:06.67)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsey (21:10.326)
independent single coming home after a long day of work and just not wanting to cook a huge meal like we've got you we're here we're quick we're ready and can feel good about serving it. You're a busy family solving the dinner dilemma and you're going in between sports and music lessons and all the things that busy families do and can sit in between the five to eight o'clock at night time period you know there's not a lot of time to be making these elaborate dinners and so that's really the focus it's something that you can feel really really good.

to your family, to your friends, to yourself, but can be ready in really minutes.

Ramon Vela (21:45.526)
Yeah. And I can attest to that. I remember being, when I was single, would, you know, foods like yours were like a godsend because they were easy to make and you didn't have to think about it. You can, you know, create your own little recipes or inventions, you know, in your own kitchen, you know, depending on your taste, but also as a parent, it is a godsend too, because I mean, there are times where you're tired, you don't feel like cooking. And if you have something that you can use as a base,

Lindsey (21:54.744)
I'm

Ramon Vela (22:15.478)
and then add different things to it, whether it's pasta or vegetables or whatever it is, it's just so easy to have something like, you know, like these meatballs or some of your other products are just there. You can trust that they're delicious and made well and can be easily made. And that itself is just such a convenience for a lot of people. so there's so many different, I guess, demographics or target market that you can approach. Walk us through a little bit of

the ingredients. like right now there's so many people who are, there's all sorts of different buzzwords out there in terms of the ingredients. What would you say is the most, or how would you describe if you were to use one of these phrases, you know, like simple ingredients or, you know, clean ingredients or, you know, protein, you know, what would you, how would you describe the, the, the

the foods that you guys provide.

Lindsey (23:15.32)
Yeah. Clean ingredients, we talked about that. We talked about better for you. Clean ingredients and quality sometimes can be used interchangeably, but also sometimes they cannot. And so we focus on both. I think let's take our lasagnas and our entrees, for example. So from start to finish, our entrees are something you can make in your home. So our noodles for our pastas are made fresh in-house with the plant. So we're not bringing in noodles from one company every day.

Everything is being made fresh on the line there. Noodles get produced fresh, get brought over to our area where we're making our meals. And then our ground beef is cooked on the line. Our cheese comes in on blocks and is shredded right on the line. So we're trying to replicate that whole process as close as we can and still making it in small batches. On our entrees, for example, we have somebody who is

on the line that is making sure the cheese, so there are cheese kits put on top of the lasagna and then there's somebody making sure it's spread evenly, because nobody wants to get that piece of lasagna that skims on the cheese. So, you know, we just take a lot of pride in the quality aspects of it. Other things that are unique when you think about meatballs, they're brown, right? Well, not every meatball out there is brown, believe it or not. And so that's something that's really important to us, is making sure that we're bringing an actual brown meatball to market and bringing that authentic feel of what a meatball is.

Ramon Vela (24:16.782)
Thank

Lindsey (24:38.7)
We also launched this last year, Align with Whole Foods and some other retailers and that is antibiotic free, animal welfare certified, vegetarian fed, and no added growth for months as well. we're continuing to raise the bar and figure out what can we improve and how do we keep raising the standards of our products.

Ramon Vela (25:02.286)
I love that. as you were saying that, was just thinking like, it's it's like just delicious food made really well. And that itself is just such a, it's such a great find for a consumer out there who's not familiar with, with your brand to understand. And in terms of, you know, the evolution of the business, obviously there's been a lot of events, I guess call them, you know, one is of course a pandemic.

How did the pandemic treat you guys? I mean, that's a challenging time for everybody, but at the same time though, I think it also gave people an opportunity to discover new foods since they were all cooking at home.

Lindsey (25:39.449)
Yeah, was the pandemic was, you know, it was good for us in certain areas for sure from gaining trial. We also were always changing. And so as the pandemic hit, one of the things that we started working on in tandem and not driven from that, just this was on the radar and we didn't want to wait. We didn't want to hold off.

making this change for our company because that that hit. And that's one thing about our team is we work really hard, we're lean and we're mighty, but we persevere through a lot of things. so one goal of ours was to become B Corp certified. And when the pandemic hit, you know, a lot of companies probably would have caused them that huge undertaking to go through that certification process. And we charged forward and said, we're gonna, you know, we're gonna figure this out while we're trying to manage obviously a really difficult retail environment.

supply chain standpoint, from getting many products manufactured at the time, just a lot of change going on. But we did and we ended up getting our certification on our first try for re-corporation. And that was, I think, one of the things that helped us grow as we came out of the pandemic state. But it was definitely a big push for us. The other piece I think the pandemic really helped is on e-commerce. So we were an early adopter to platforms like Instacart,

Prior to that COVID happening, were doing running promotions with Instacart. We were already doing those things. So when the pandemic hit, we already had a leg up on what marketing the brand that way looks like because we'd already been doing it versus some of the brands that were just having to get involved in that for the first time under that type of situation. So I those are kind of our two biggest moments in the 2020 pandemic situation.

Ramon Vela (27:20.077)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (27:32.334)
Well, and you know, a B Corp certification just for people out there, it is a really difficult and it's an extra thing that you do. Um, and it's, I've heard people say that it's so difficult. wish it was less difficult because they really want it. And it is a strenuous thing to go through and you've got to go through all sorts of stuff. And you, it's a commitment to not only just how you do business, but how you treat employees and how you treat your community and so forth. And so for me, it's like, it's really impressive when a brand.

kind of goes that extra mile because you you as a consumer, you want to see a brand obviously go the extra mile in how they make their food, how they prepare their food. You know, what's the output and the inputs within that whole supply chain and also, you know, that they treat employees correctly and so forth. I think it's a big deal. I mean, you don't have to do that. lot of companies don't do that. And

Lindsey (28:30.08)
Right? Right.

Ramon Vela (28:32.268)
You know, let's just be honest. If you didn't do that, you know, like this is, there's a cost to doing what you're doing. And so if you didn't do that, you would make it more profitable. It could potentially be more profitable. Maybe, you know, per unit or whatnot. But my assumption is that you, you see the benefit outweighs the cost. And also I think from a consumer standpoint, I'm just more impressed when companies do that. When companies say.

Hey, I'm going the extra mile. This is why we want to do it. This is what we do, and this is what we're doing. And we're going that extra mile. And I think it feels like it builds trust to people. you, is that what you've, it.

Lindsey (29:15.676)
Yeah, so for us, we've always been a mission-based company. So it used to be a focus of donating a percentage of profits to charitable organizations. And in 2017, we decided to talk more about it. So was something that we've always done as a company. We've never done it to drive our business. We drove our business to be able to give back and make a difference. It's really in the DNA of who we are and why we exist.

And so for us, we through B Corp certification, we had already been doing all the things that they require from a B Corp company. We just weren't really talking about it. And it wasn't out there as much. it was really important for us to kind of pull back the curtain on that a little bit and to be in it with our consumers. So in 2017, we launched a partnership with Seeding America to donate a meal locally for every product purchase where the purchase occurred.

So hunger and food insecurity exists in every county in the United States, unfortunately. And I truly believe as a food company, we're responsible for helping to solve that crisis. So we changed our corporate bylaws and our corporate structure to be a specific benefits corporation, which means that we equally weigh the success and profits of our company with the impact we have on food insecurity as well as the environment.

So our partnership with Seeding America is donating meals locally. We've donated over 13 million meals since we partnered with them. And it's a hyper local approach to fighting hunger. So it allows us to support the communities who are supporting us as we grow and as we expand. And then our second piece of that of the environmental outside of our animal welfare certified items in that area is around plastic. So the plastic crisis in our world is extremely significant.

until there is a solution for packaging that doesn't jeopardize first and foremost food safety and quality and taste. And also is at a price that is affordable for the consumer. This is our way of not making the plastic prices worse. So we remove the same amount of ocean bound plastic as used in the packaging and shipping of all of our products. So we have a, there's a, we partner with Free Purpose Global. They have a team of about 20 people in Goa, India.

Lindsey (31:34.841)
And it's 100 % additionality. So we fund the removal of the plastic, and it gets removed. And that plastic otherwise would have been ocean bound or potentially burned in a field. And so we've removed a significant amount of plastic. I think it's like 180,000 pounds worth, which is 15,000 plastic grocery bags or so worth of plastic. I'm sorry, 15 million.

blanking on my number here, I'm going through all the different numbers. So maybe we'll scrap that back and get you the correct steps. But so we've removed a ton of plastic from the environment. And really, as we focus on what's next, how do we do more? How do we continue to make an impact as we grow? And so that's every time a product is purchased, first and foremost, we have to excel and we have to win at the table. Like we're a food company, we're here to delight in that moment of mealtime. It's something that's easy, it's nutritious.

Ramon Vela (32:04.162)
You're right.

Lindsey (32:31.03)
and it tastes good. And then from there, a meal gets donated and Ocean Mill Classic gets moved.

Ramon Vela (32:37.038)
You know, and I want to emphasize something you just said because there's a lot of brands who do the sort of like the buy one, get one free and so forth. But what you're just describing, please correct me if I'm misstating this, you donate where the purchase occurred, right?

Lindsey (32:59.682)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (33:00.238)
Well, that's, that's, you what's referred to as localization. I, I love that. And I think, you know, the listener, you out there should be, should really take heart to this because that basically means that when you buy a product from Cimix, you are not only buying this delicious product and, whatnot, whatever it is, but you are helping someone in your own community.

fight hunger. And so I think that's really important. I think that I just want to emphasize that because I think that is that is really cool. I love when a company is able to not only do the, you the, you know, a donation per purchase, but also localize it so that the consumer you're helping. I mean, of course you want to help anyone, I'm sure, but it's always kind of nice to know that, hey, I'm making a purchase and they're helping someone in my local community and.

I think that's fantastic. So that's more of a comment than a question.

Lindsey (33:54.905)
Oh, thank you. Yeah, we like to think about impact of like, okay, what are we doing in our community, in our country, in our world? And so it's a scale of impact and hoping that we're impacting along also in our scale.

Ramon Vela (34:07.842)
Yeah, no, I love that. So there's some, like we just talked about the pandemic and so forth. There's so many challenges to running a business and you, you know, I love this sort of, you know, idea that you were learning as you're going and you're still learning. If you were to kind of take a step back and think about all the things you've learned so far, the insights, the challenges you've had, the solutions.

What would you, you like if, you know, you can think of either as someone that you run into, which I'm sure you get asked as a CEO, you know, what lessons would you impart? What insights would you impart? But you can also look at it as if, you know, if you had a time machine and you went back to Lindsay, you know, 26 year old Lindsay who was starting this business, what would you share? What advice would you give?

Lindsey (35:06.104)
It's always such a hard question. I really believe that we're exactly where we're supposed to be. And if we did anything different, our outcome would be different. And I'm grateful for where we're at. I think when I look at, you know, for other companies trying to scale a CPG brand and in a similar situation, I mean, our hardest, we had, you know, 10 years, were probably our hardest grind of like trying to get over a plateau of growth.

And I think a big piece of it is the data. I'm so numbers and data focused. And I think the sooner you can get data, because the brands you're competing with have access to all of it. And so when you're a small brand, it's really hard to find the data purchases that's needed. But really, that's going to be your secret weapon as you go in to talk with retailers. So having a pulse on the market, having a pulse on the data, and having a pulse on the consumer, those, I think, three things are just

And I wish I would have known that to do it sooner to hopefully scale quicker. And then I think the other piece is just continuing to which we built out just an amazing team, but just continuing to surround yourself with incredible people who are extremely passionate as you are with what you're doing and your impact that you're making. I passion is so important.

Ramon Vela (36:29.838)
Yeah, those are two really great pieces of advice. And I'm sure you'll share others as you talk about the brand. And I really appreciate that. the data, that's actually, I don't know, I don't think anyone's ever said that before, or maybe they have, but they don't say it often. But yes, the data is huge. And then it also makes me think of another question, and I do wanna get into the product, so I wanna make sure people know where to go and...

We'll talk some more about some of the other products, but in terms of the data, it made me think of any sort of direct to consumer type of efforts that you guys have. do you, along with your retail strategy, do you also have a direct to consumer strategy? You know, whether it's marketplaces, is that part of, that going to be part of the roadmap there?

Lindsey (37:20.456)
You know, it's not right now. Frozen direct to consumers really expensive. We have phenomenal retail partners who have fully embedded ecom solutions to get the product from their store to the consumer. And so we thought about it for a while actually, and really looked into it. And we thought, you know what, let's, we like to store where the strengths lie and leave, you know, stick with what we're good at and leave the rest.

to those that are really good at doing that and doing fulfillment to the consumer. And so that's really been our approach. Let's just partner with them on their econ strategies and lean in more with our retail partners to help get the consumer if they're looking to get it delivered to them through, you know, one quick convenience or whichever way that may be, making sure that we're meeting the consumer where they are. So they're still able to get it from that way, but it's not coming direct from the warehouse that way.

Ramon Vela (38:16.13)
Well, yeah, that makes that makes a lot of sense when you put it in that way. And we haven't really talked about the whole cold chain. So for consumers out there, you know, sending a product and shipping a product to retailers and or to consume potentially to consumers is difficult when you when you require it to be frozen or cold. that's why they call it cold chain. It can be really I know, I know people who who deal with beverages and all sorts of other stuff. And it's a big headache. Right. I mean,

Let's not play around. It is a big headache and it's a constant challenge. So yeah, I get it. One last thing before we get into the products, I do want to ask, I'm a big believer in that business ownership is like we want to like society tells us to compartmentalize.

And we have to do that to a certain degree, but it's really hard when you're a business owner. And I often think that it's better to just try to figure out how to incorporate your life as a business owner with your family, with your relationships and all of that. And there's challenges to that. So from that perspective, do you have any lessons learned and how do you have a family and relationships and run the business?

are there any pieces of advice that's run that? Cause that's, that's a, that in itself is a challenge for any working person to have a family is a challenge, but to have a, being the business owner, it's like you're adding all sorts of other things to your, to your list of things to do.

Lindsey (39:51.513)
Yeah, it's definitely a challenge. I grew up in a really entrepreneurial family. So I grew up, you we were always talking business and ideas, whether it was the company my family owned at the time or just new ideas of businesses that we could clear and we're still that way. So I think that exposure is important. I like exposing my kids to that side of what I do and help them have them help get involved. We have a kid's line of mini meatballs and you know, they each have their favorite

Now we only have two of those and I have four kids. So my three year old is like, are my meatballs? So he's wondering what's going on there when we come up with that. But you know, so really involving them in that aspect of it I think is really important. And my husband's just an incredible supporter of that and of the business. One thing that we do at Simic that I'm really passionate about and really firmly believe in, we are constantly connected to our phones. And I think that

When you're sitting at home, whether you are reading a book, you're putting your kids to bed, you're having dinner with a friend or a spouse, if somebody emails you at nine o'clock at night, you are just taking that person out of that moment because there's no way they're not going to see it. They're going to see it. They're going to think about what you're talking about. They're going to think with the request is. So we put a policy in place a few years ago that unless it is

business critical. I mean, you got to put the business first. So something critical, truly critical is going on that warrants a text, an email, a Slack, any of the different channels you communicate on after hours. But if it's not, and we all like to work outside of our regular day, and a lot of times we have to, especially as the CEO, I'm constantly working outside of my regular day. But if I'm emailing my team at 10 o'clock at night, one, I'm setting the expectation that that's we should all be doing.

And two, I'm disrupting all of them from that time that they need to be disconnecting from the business so that they can show up and be their best selves the next day and also have that break. And so we don't email outside of work hours. We don't reach out from a business standpoint. work and then I will, and the rest of our team does this too if they want to work at night or on the weekends where we schedule the email. So I space it out so everyone's not getting emails at like 8 a.m. on Monday morning, but you can.

Lindsey (42:13.334)
you can do your emails and can do your work and get ahead and you can outlook makes it extremely easy to say send this on this date at this time and now I was able to get done what I needed to get done but I

Ramon Vela (42:25.006)
Hmm.

Lindsey (42:25.496)
That's something that work-life balance and having that moment to completely disconnect and be present in where you are, because it's hard. But at least if we can remove that barrier, it makes it a little bit more easy to be focused on where you are. So that's one thing that we do.

Ramon Vela (42:33.986)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (42:41.954)
Yeah, I love that. And that's always like a work in progress, right? Because like you said, there's things that sometimes need immediate attention. But I think that if you, it's better to have a policy like that and sometimes have to digress from it than to not have that policy because...

Lindsey (42:46.689)
Okay.

Ramon Vela (43:02.624)
You're basically what you're saying is, you know, this is the goal. This is the way that we want to work, where you have a time to be with your family and be present. and only if it's emergency, do you need to like answer this? think it's, it's, it's great to have that policy, even if it's not always perfect, it's better to have that policy because it shows like, this is what we're striving for. This is what we want. And this is, this is how we want to operate. And obviously, you know, there'd be times where you have to change that, but

Lindsey (43:25.464)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (43:32.022)
You know, this is the policy and I, I, I, I can appreciate that and admire that that you guys do that. And, and yeah, you know, it is, it is really difficult, especially, when you need to get things out. But I, when you were saying that I was thinking about the scheduling because I really loved that Google, I use Gmail. And so I really loved that they added that feature a couple of years back or whatever it was because I even like.

Lindsey (43:50.794)
Okay.

Ramon Vela (44:01.934)
for when I communicate with people like yourself or your PR people or whoever your marketing people, it's like, feel bad sometimes sending stuff on weekends. I like sometimes my email builds up and I have to like, you know, send emails at night or during the weekend. And I feel bad sending them on weekends. I almost feel like, you know, should I, I should put it like a little note saying like, don't answer this, you know, until Monday or whatever. But now that I, now that the whole scheduling,

Lindsey (44:11.265)
Yeah.

Lindsey (44:15.768)
See you next time.

Lindsey (44:23.798)
I can't do this.

Ramon Vela (44:28.878)
function appears, it just makes it much easier to kind of like write it, but then just send it on Monday or whatever that is. So I get it. Even, you know, even as just a, as a partner, like I, I, I want to be respectful of people's times too. Um, uh, so let's get into the product. it's, um, let me, the website is, so if you're out there, you interested in what we're talking about, you can go to a simics.com and that's spelled S I M.

Lindsey (44:34.486)
Definitely. Yeah.

Lindsey (44:41.6)
percent.

Ramon Vela (44:56.82)
EKS.com, S-I-M-E-K-S.com, Simix. And when you're on the website, so like, I'm always imagining, so someone's listening to this episode and they're thinking, ooh, I really like what, you know, Lindsay has to say about how, you know, what we just talked about, how they, how you treat business emails, how you treat your employees, how you, how, know, you work with the environment, how you.

Take great care in creating this delicious food and made really well So they love all this Where do you want them to start? Is there a place that you want them to start in terms of their journey with the brand? Is there anything like I don't know maybe one of your favorites or a best seller where you want them to like, okay You taste this you're not going back anywhere. You're gonna stick with us

Lindsey (45:48.729)
Great. No one's ever asked me that question before. Where does their cynics journey begin? I love that. I think it depends on your time of day and what your preferences are, but one of our team beloved favorite items are our breakfast sausage meatballs. There are many meatballs. There are many breakfast sausage. They are just a

They're my favorite. They're so easy for a quick grab and go. I love them for my kids to get some protein in them in the morning. So I love, if that's available near you, I would say definitely start there. If you're looking for a party to go to or just a quick meal that you can throw together with our meatballs, if you're going to be like an Italian style meal, I do our Italian meatball. Or if you're going for your tried and true barbecue sauce, maybe a little grape jelly.

That's when we our original meatball as our OG, our hero skew for that. And then our entrees. Our veggie lasagna, I would say, is a surprise and delight. I a lot of people initially hear veggie lasagna and it sears them the wrong way, but it's delicious and we love that surprise moment after somebody tries it. like, oh my gosh, I love veggie lasagna. I didn't know I did. So that's a great option as well as our, I'm listing them all now because they're all so great depending on the day.

Ramon Vela (47:12.881)
Yeah.

Lindsey (47:13.538)
I love this one here which has ricotta in it. That's a new recipe for us. And then our turkey as well which is gluten free. So we've got a lot depending on your dietary needs, your stage in life with the kids or just looking for a night in but you want a lasagna and you don't want to make it.

Ramon Vela (47:31.958)
Yeah, well, it all looks really delicious. And it's in. I love that you have something for everyone there because there's some some some of my family prefers turkey versus beef. Some prefer half of us are plant based. The other half are meat eaters. And so having that vegetable, Lathania is is great. And and then, of course, all the others just look really amazing, too. And you have this the big ziti there as well.

And then you have the kids line. Walk me through the kids line again. think you have a couple of skews on that one.

Lindsey (48:06.384)
Yes, we have an antibiotic-free beef meatball, and that is available both regionally and also nationwide at Whole Foods, so it's depending on the market that you're in. And that's a quarter ounce smaller meatball, so it's made for little fingers and little mouths, and it's just a great product. Like I mentioned, it's antibiotic-free, it's animal welfare certified, it's about half the size of our other meatballs.

just a little bit smaller, a little bit easier for kids. It's also great for adults in soups. And we have a lot of consumers who tell us, I know this is meant for kids, but I'm eating it all the time now in soups or in steaks or different things like that. So we've got the breakfast sausage, so we hit your morning. And then we've got our beef mini meatballs, so we can hit the other day parts for the kids.

Ramon Vela (48:42.798)
you

Ramon Vela (48:55.581)
yeah, those many ones I think would go really well like in a minestrone or something like that if someone's making a minestrone soup.

Lindsey (49:00.532)
Yes, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And then with our classic line, here's maybe one place I would start getting at least for us in Minnesota, everybody's getting their grills out now because we've been in the frozen tundra for quite some time. So we're coming out and everyone's really excited to be grilling. In other parts of the country, you know, they started a lot sooner than we did. But meatballs on the grill, not a traditional way, you would think, to make meatball kebabs. But if you take, you know, saw a bag of our original meatballs, saw them out.

Ramon Vela (49:13.345)
you

Lindsey (49:30.264)
some barbecue sauce and then do some peppers and barbecue sauce and other vegetables on it. Throw it on the grill. It's one of my favorite ways to have our meatballs. They get charred. just, they're great.

Ramon Vela (49:39.64)
No.

Yeah, and that's one of the beauties, I think, of a product like yours or products like yours, especially with the meatballs, is that you give them, give the consumer such a leeway in terms of how they make their food. Like I have a son who's a little older. He likes to cook on his own. And so he kind of just looks in the fridge and says, okay, what do I have in there that I can make and so forth? Meatballs, pasta, he'll just throw in whatever. But that's the point is that you give them, you create this really great foundation of protein.

And then you give the consumer a leeway as to like, how do you want to prepare that? And what do want to pair with it? And I love that you have like the recipes in there, which are amazing. look, I mean, like I said, I'm getting hungry just looking at these pictures here. I'm going to like after this interview, I'm definitely going to go eat something. And yeah, so I love that you have the, and just so everyone else knows it is simics.com.

Lindsey (50:16.737)
Thank

Lindsey (50:26.54)
Okay.

Lindsey (50:32.984)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (50:41.39)
EKS. That's S-I-M-E-K-S dot com is the website. And you'll find a navigation button for the products. You'll see an impact a little bit about like what we talked about earlier about the environmental impact as well. And I love that you have it highlighted here. You've got it says 10.75 million

meals donated, which is that the big deal. And then you also talk about the plastics removed, which is on here. It's 74.2 K or 74.2 thousand pounds of plastic removed, which is fantastic.

Lindsey (51:23.448)
And we just finished our impact report for 2024. So those numbers are going to go up here in the next week or two once we pull all of our 24 numbers in. So continuing to grow.

Ramon Vela (51:34.414)
Yeah, that's amazing. And then then you have the where to buy. So is there any retailers out there that you want to shout out?

Lindsey (51:45.273)
Oh, favorites with my children there. That's tricky. They're all great. I mentioned our nationwide, so depending on where, if you're looking like central to west coast, we're primarily Whole Foods there. And then when you go more east coast, we're in most of the local grocery stores there. So if you're in the south, down in public, mid, we're in Food Lion, up to Hannaford, Giant.

Ramon Vela (51:49.87)
Well, yeah.

Lindsey (52:12.632)
In the Midwest, we've got Cal Foods, we've got Target, Walmart, we're kind of in all the main players. My air out of Michigan, so.

Ramon Vela (52:20.034)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (52:24.12)
Well, I'm looking at, just so everyone knows, there is a where to buy button that you can click on and see if there's a place near you. And for me, when I click on it, I'm in Southern California, I'm in the Los Angeles area, so I have a whole list of whole food markets. I have one in Pasadena or two in Pasadena, which are nearby me.

There's one in Upland, which is this east of me. There's Glendale, is, where's my family, my, my brother and sisters live. So yeah, there's plenty of places, around me and to do that. And so that makes it easy for people to kind of choose. is there, in terms of the, the products, is there anything new coming out that we should be aware of and, or in the future?

Are there anything that's coming out in the next year or two that like other form factors, anything beyond just the meatballs and the lasagnas and the ziti and anything like that. Is there anything new that you guys have come up? Cause I know we talked about a little that you, guys have this probably it's amazing backlog or not backlog, but just like a cookbook of all sorts of different recipes. Are you introducing anything else new?

Lindsey (53:41.401)
I'd love to bring a throwback recipe back in. That's a great idea. fun. We're definitely working on innovation. Nothing that we're ready to put out there yet in the world as far as dates and exactly what's coming. But we've got some good things in the hopper. So there's a little stay tuned. More to come on that for sure.

Ramon Vela (54:01.356)
Well, I'm telling you, it looks amazing. It looks delicious. My stomach rumbling and hopefully the mic can't pick up on that. But it really does look amazing. And I love how you have this here on the website of Simmix.com. You have homemade taste. Every meal goes back to your community. Woman owned, clean and simple ingredients and then plastic neutral.

And I love how you have those highlighted. yeah, this is amazing. Anything else you want to leave with the audience? I want to be respectful of time. know you've got to go run a company. But it's amazing. I mean, we've talked about so much. We've talked about the B certification. We've talked about the ingredients. We've talked about some of the products. We talked about some of the challenges and the insights you've learned. We talked about parenthood, which I always like to throw in because

I just don't think people talk about that enough from an entrepreneur and business owner perspective, because that's part of life, right? mean, the entrepreneur's life and it incorporates your family and your loved ones and so forth. So we've covered a lot, but is there anything that we haven't covered that you want to leave with the audience?

Lindsey (55:10.114)
Yeah.

Lindsey (55:13.708)
You know, just think that you just mentioned, you know, entrepreneurial life and having a family. And I think, you know, for me, that was always something that I had two goals in my life. And one, you know, I wanted to grow Simix to be a national brand. That was always like laser focused. I know we can get there, even though sometimes it felt like the impossible, but I just, knew we could get it there. The other thing is I always wanted to have a big family.

And I think a lot of times, especially for women in business, you we feel like we have to choose and it's really hard to navigate that. But I've had some incredible mentors who have kind of paved the path before me. And so it was really symbolic the week that we welcomed our fourth baby, the week I had my fourth baby, all of our trucks left our warehouse to start shipping nationwide for full food. So they were within like 24 hours of each other.

Okay, we're officially nationwide. We just had our fourth child and it was really special. And I think that, you know, I don't know that I would have had the ability to necessarily get there without having, you know, really great mentors and support systems that people have done before or just supporting me in that journey to say, you you can do both. And it's not always going to be easy, but if you have incredible people around you on your team and in your family and in your village.

whatever that village looks like for you, you know, it's all doable.

Ramon Vela (56:39.948)
Yeah, well, that's a great message. you know, something you just said right now that I wanted to emphasize as well, because and please correct me if I'm wrong, you manufacture your food.

Lindsey (56:50.988)
No, use co-manufacturers for all our products.

Ramon Vela (56:52.846)
Oh, okay. just want to make sure that, yeah, because, you know, that's another hard one to do is manufacture, but I just wanted to ask that. But this has been incredible. Thank you so much. We have an hour to do this and I have to pick and choose what we talk about, you know, and I want to make it interesting for the consumer, but I'm just so impressed with what you're doing.

First, like the product itself is just, like I said, it looks amazing from what I can see in the background and from the pictures on the website. And it's such a great product to have for, like we talked about, whether you're single or you have a family. And for me, I have a family, it's just so easy to take a product like yours, create a whole meal around it, use it as a foundation, add pasta, add whatever you're going to do with it. But it's a great starting point for someone.

You couple that with the B Corp with your focus on quality, your focus on the ingredients and so forth. I think it just makes a really good brand story and one that consumers can really take to heart and really trust in terms of what they're buying. So I think you really are what I refer to in this, on our podcast, which is our tagline, which is products worth buying.

brand for supporting. And I feel like I want to support you, especially after, you know, as a parent, I hear you and I think, you know, that's, it's so hard to be a parent. It's so hard to be a business owner to do both is really just an incredible thing. And, and I can appreciate it. So thank you for sharing that. And thank you for everything you guys are doing. I think it's, you guys have a wonderful brand.

Lindsey (58:43.384)
Well, thank you so much and thank you for helping us share our story. You know, we couldn't take a word out there on us and what we do without opportunities like this. So, really grateful.

Ramon Vela (58:47.234)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (58:52.524)
No, the honor is mine. My show is what it is because I feature companies like yours and people like you. And that's what our show is all about. And that's what we do. It's a labor of love on our end. But I love finding great brands that I feel excited about and that I feel like, yeah, I can get really behind that because I love everything you're doing. For me, that B Corp thing, I know that, you I've talked about this in the past before when I do run into B Corp, but

That's a big deal. That really is a big deal to me. That indicates that you and the brand are willing to go the extra mile. It's not something you have to do. It's not something that's part of regular. It's not regulated by the government or anything like that. It's something that you choose to do that is hard. And when a company chooses to do the hard things because they feel like that's the best way to go for the consumer and for the community that should be held. And thank you for that. I think that's a really great, great thing.

So yeah, this has been amazing. Thank you so much. Everyone out there, we have just had Lindsay Hickey, who is a CEO and co-owner of Simix. And thank you again, Lindsay. Lindsay, I appreciate you being here.

Lindsey (59:50.328)
Thank you.

Lindsey (01:00:06.518)
Thank you so much for having me.

Ramon Vela (01:00:08.686)
And one last thing, social media. Where do we find you on social media?

Lindsey (01:00:12.849)
Instagram, all the social media channels, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, threads, we're out there.

Ramon Vela (01:00:19.662)
And the handles at Simix, at Simix, okay. We'll make sure everyone out there, we'll make sure to have the link to the website, which I've mentioned before, simix.com. But we'll also have a link to their social media so you can take a look at that. Honestly, I think the best thing to do is to go to the website, sign up for their newsletter, and that way you can keep up to date on any promotions, any new product launches, all of that, that they do. And that way you know what's going on.

Lindsey (01:00:22.124)
Yes, yes, yes.

Ramon Vela (01:00:46.946)
But beyond that, thank you so much again for being on the show and everyone out there, you can find all those links on our podcast description, which you can find at Apple or Spotify or pretty much anywhere you listen to podcasts, simply type in the story of a brand show and you should be able to find it. Beyond that, everyone, I always tell you, stay safe, stay sane, stay healthy. And one way of staying healthy and eating good is finding a product like Simmix and using that as your foundation to build a meal for yourself, for your family and whatnot.

But it looks great. I might actually just go to the store right now and and and go buy some semix right now because I'm so hungry just looking at this I Guarantee you you go to semix calm you are going to get hungry Looking at the recipes and other food that they have there. So Do yourself a favor go to the website and check it out Beyond that everyone as I mentioned before one last thing that you we've all going through a lot of stuff going on pandemic economy

Lindsey (01:01:20.12)
Thank

Ramon Vela (01:01:43.886)
politics, geopolitical wars, whatever it is, we're all a little bit stressed out. So let's do ourselves a favor and let's remember that everyone is going through something. That person in front of you at the grocery line, that person driving on the freeway next to you, whatever it is, remember everyone's going through something and if we can just be a little 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.