AG1’s Kat Cole on Redefining Leadership in Health and Wellness

Yeah, super excited. Thanks for having me.

You know, there are some things that are, you know, to your point, so different, especially from the outside, and then there are things that are to me a very obvious progression of my journey. So, one, it's all consumer brands. So, it's physical products. It's in the supplement space, but cousin of food and beverage. And so, there's a lot of common customer approaches, insights, innovation, resourcing. So, you know, I'm able to use so much of the same muscle across the businesses. What is different is, one, Athletic Greens is at least today solely e-commerce and solely direct to consumer through drinkag1.com, whereas my other businesses were all fully multichannel. And as you mentioned, you know, while I was president of Cinnabon, I spent more time as president of Focus Brands, the parent company, which had in it a range of brands that included indulgent brands like Carvel and Auntie Anne's and Cinnabon. So very indulgent, sugar and fat, not meant for everyday consumption, full of the bad stuff, but intended to be something occasional, to brands that were more center of the plate, lunch and dinner: McAlister's, Moe's, Schlotzsky's, where you can eat very healthy and clean or you can eat on the more indulgent side. Like you can have a bowl of queso at Moe's if you wish. You can also eat vegan, paleo, you know, and incredibly healthy. So we had several brands in the portfolio, those three, where salads, soups, etc. were a core part of the menu. And so what I oversaw was this breadth beyond the indulgent. And then we had a really interesting brand in the middle which was Jamba Juice that we took private. And it was very interesting because at one time Jamba was the chain that set the tone for healthful fast food. It was more, even when it started, it was more juice than smoothies. It was fresh pressed carrot, if you remember, fresh carrot orange, smelled like fresh oranges every time you went in. Was born out of San Francisco, so a very progressive, tech-oriented... And then over time it turned into smoothies, which turned into more indulgent smoothies, and then the juice and smoothie category changed into something more green, more healthful, more plant-based, less sugar, more pro meal replacement. And so Jamba went in this direction of fun for you while the smoothie and juice category moved much closer to good for you. And so when we took it private, it was this opportunity. And this is an example of the link between the me that champions AG1 and health and the me that was championing change within a brand like Jamba Juice. When we took it private, while we needed to keep it what it was as a brand, still very connected to a younger consumer, a more indulgent, preferring a very flavor-quest customer, we set out for all innovation to cut sugar in some cases in half, to triple the plant-based options — there was only one at the time in terms of proteins or milk alternatives — and for existing products to lower sugar and bring in more natural products. And so while the average person wouldn't look at AG1 and my time at Athletic Greens and connect it to Focus Brands, this pursuit of healthfulness and to provide that at scale was actually present my entire time at Focus Brands. And I had a few brands like Moe's or like Jamba where I could do that more literally, and then there were other brands where it was about you're doing something indulgent and you want to just make sure you have the highest ingredient integrity approach to doing something indulgent. So that's a connection between the two. But the other thing that was happening behind the scenes is for a decade I've been an angel investor in better-for-you brands. And whether that was a more healthful beverage or drink, or in the kind of peak, the CBD emergence of CBD and thinking about cannabinoids as a solution for inflammation and in particular challenges for women, I was really excited to invest in those categories, and then also investing in small business tech and other technology areas including Web3. And so that is the thing that's not on my resume, that you can't see in my Focus Brands time, that had me working with founders, very health-forward companies, and companies that were venture-backed versus private equity owned. And so when you put all those in a gumbo, you get something that really does look like it belongs together in total. But when people say, 'Wow, Cinnabon and Athletic Greens, that's a massive journey,' there's so much nuance and experience and where I put my time and energy in between that does make leading AG and championing an all-in-one nutrition product like AG1 a bit of an obvious journey, but you've got, to your point in asking the question, you have to dig a little to get there.

I mean, one, I was a customer prior, so I was already a fan girl.

And aware. So, and we talked about this when we met. So I at least didn't have that hurdle to jump. I knew what it was. I appreciated it. There was so much I didn't know and didn't appreciate, but what I did appreciate was enough to make me excited about the brand. But the short version is, in the year that I was taking off after operating in Focus Brands for 10 years, I took what I thought was going to be a year off to just advise and invest. One of the founders that reached out to me for me to advise them was Chris Ashenden, the founder and CEO of Athletic Greens. And so that was really exciting. The brand was, you know, smaller to midsize compared to what I've run in the, you know, with billions in sales and millions of customers served every day in many cases. Yet it was much faster growing, you know, hypergrowth was very clear it was on its way to be something truly big and meaningful. It was also bigger than I thought. And so from a scale perspective that was different. And at first I thought, you know, is going something earlier stage — I won't even use the word smaller, but just earlier stage — you know, the right thing, the highest and best use of my time. And very quickly I got to see that that was not only not a question, but it was so clear that this was the right thing at the right time. I could apply my experience and my talents. I could learn and grow. I could help grow a business with a product that I was deeply proud of and passionate about and work with an incredible human in the founder.

You know, I've said a couple decades now when people will say, 'What's your purpose or what's your mission?' One of my most common answers that comes to mind is I am here to help people realize they're capable of more than they know. I've been saying that since I was 19, 20 years old. That whether I'm coaching a franchisee, leading an executive, working with and inspiring an hourly workforce, you know, all the different things I've done, it's all just been a version, a different version of the same job, which is helping people realize they're capable of more than they know. And there's a lot more than that, but that's what's happening. And that's what brings me the most joy when that is the journey I'm on, the work I'm doing, when it's apparent that that's the result or there's the potential for that result. And the literal mission of AG and AG1 as a product is to empower people on their health ownership journey. It is to help them realize they are capable of more than they know through the filter of nutrition. And so that to me is a direct intersection. Then add to it my very specific journey around health, wellness, and nutrition. There are many reasons why I came to it. One, I'm, you know, even though I've run indulgent brands, I've always indexed toward health and fitness personally. But over time as I've gotten older, had health scares, had health scares in my family, had children, had miscarriages, had children later, all these were just all extra reasons. Like taking care of our bodies is reason enough, taking care of the temple that is our physical space. But these were my extra drivers that made me listen to podcasts more, read more, learn, not be able to unhear the research that I heard, not be able to unlearn the stories I heard, and then being motivated enough to apply it to my life: walking more, eating more healthily, smart supplementation, getting enough macronutrients, lifting weights, right? These, prioritizing my sleep, you know, all these pillars, they just became a bigger part of my intentional life, my what's on my calendar, what gives me energy, what do I actually not just talk about, but make sure is happening in my day. And so that's been happening in my... so those two things, our missions literally align. And I personally have become more intentional and passionate about nutrition and health and wellness. And so this is, you know, bullseye.

I mean, one, when you have a product that is built for the purpose of nutritional support and built on studies and bodies of research of the connection between those ingredients that make up that nutritional support and the research of what those ingredients do or can do, that's a very different animal. You know, when we're marketing a cinnamon roll or a chicken burrito or a salad or a flatbread at Schlotzsky's, never are we talking about what it does for you. What we talk about is how delicious it is, right? Like it's about taste, it's about texture, it's about experience or customization. In the health and wellness space and specifically in supplements and nutrition, there's a different layer of responsibility and marketing dos and don'ts. On one hand, you want people to really know and appreciate what plants and these ingredients from the earth can or will or should support in the body, especially if one's diet isn't robust and complete. And even if it is, our food is not as nutrient-dense as it once was. But there's a line between that and helping people understand what it can do, what the research says it does, and making claims that are wild and far beyond what should be claimed. And there's a reason the FTC and the FDA have regulations around claims and messaging and labels. And while people say things like, well, supplements are not FDA regulated, it's not food, the FDA is very involved still because it goes in people's bodies. And the FTC, as they should, tightly regulate what you can say. And it's actually quite frustrating because, I mean, it's good and there's a reason that it's there, but in restaurants I can tell you exactly what all my customers say about the food. If they say this burrito changed my life, I can put that on social media and tell you that Julie said this burrito changed my life. If someone says AG1 helped me with a very specific illness or issue, I cannot repost that. I cannot retweet it. It is viewed as a claim, especially if it's referencing a specific disease. Now, that customer can say it all they want and I can have thousands of customers telling me that, but I cannot say it. And so there is this very interesting tension between people who have amazing experiences with our product and wanting them to tell that story, but never in a way that promises that that's the exact experience someone else is going to have. Our bodies are so nuanced and plants are medicine, food is messaging for our cells. And so that just makes the exercise of connecting the product and the messaging far more nuanced and with a heavier layer of responsibility in saying and doing and telling people the potential of the product, what the research says the ingredients in the product can do, but never crossing the line to making a promise you shouldn't make. And unfortunately there's a lot of companies that are pretty small that do cross that line and no one cares because they're small. When you're larger, you have to — I mean we've always held ourselves to a high standard, but now that we're larger, there's just that extra visibility because we're impacting more people's lives. So the seriousness, you know, that we take being a nutrition and health product, and I would say that applies to anyone who's in the health sector. Yep. That feels like what's most notably different to me.

You know, the good news is there's plenty we can say and staying so above board. So there's never a temptation to push it or stretch. What's harder is, you know, we're growing. We're hiring people from different industries and we have to do a lot of training to make sure they understand these nuances. So for example, like our legal team and regulatory team just did this amazing training for our whole company. It's required. And they were just talking about the nuances of saying, you know, as an example, 'supports occasional bloating or constipation' is okay to say, 'addresses constipation' is not okay to say, right? Like so it means understanding that well-intended PR, marketing, communications people in an effort to craft a better headline, a more compelling article, will use normal people language understanding. And so we have to put the systems to not only train and help people understand what to say and how to say it, to always be so above board and hold the highest standard, like under-promise, over-deliver always. But then we have to have a lot of processes for internal review. Because you still, no matter how much you train, people are not going to catch it all. And so that means you have to have the process and the training and the talent to, you know, to navigate those requirements. And then there's the other side. We're talking about the marketing angle. A lot of people think of marketing when they think of AG because we're such a force out certainly in media. But the other part is manufacturing. And we put no sugars, no artificial sweeteners, all natural, no juices, no artificial flavoring. And yet it's 75 ingredients, whole food-sourced natural products. And those things change. The seasons change. We get bigger, we need to get apples from a different crop in a different area of the region. And it changes the taste. And we have a blending technology that helps us keep things kind of in a similar zip code, but it is hard. It is unbelievably difficult. The process and the order. And so that is the other piece that's very different from restaurants, right? You work with a food manufacturer or a farm. You get the spec of vegetable or bread or meat that you want. You then work with a chef to create the flavors that are the flavors that you want. You put that together. You create a recipe and then you train everyone on the recipe and then you have to QA the restaurants. But that's it, right? Set it and forget it. Things don't, like, change. You don't have to constantly address that in AG1 in a whole food source, not artificially altered product, because it would be easy for us to do that. Our manufacturing partners would love to have the simplicity of me just layering in a big flavor chunk and then it doesn't matter what changes, it masks it all. We won't do it. We refuse. And therefore, it is very complicated to do. Like we say in our company, we do what's really hard and complicated to make something very important, very simple for our customers: the quality, pace, the consistency. But I never had to spend this much time on supply chain in my previous companies because it's got less nuance and complexity. This, and not just supply chain, but ingredients, sourcing, quality, regulatory, right? Everything around this is science. And the marketing is art and science. The making of the thing is science in nature. And so that is a whole different banana.

I mean, one, I think community is at the heart of any great brand and any brand now that is ubiquitous, you could go back earlier in their journey and see where they meaningfully seeded IRL communities or digital communities. And there are so many things that come to mind. One, we do invest heavily in digital marketing. We have an amazing product and we are desperate for the people we love to drink AG1 because it's really good for them. So that means you invest in telling people about it. But a downside of being such a strong marketing force is some customers will say or some people will say, well, if you have to market that hard, is it really that good? Or man, I'm seeing the commercials everywhere, you're spending all your money on that, it can't be that good. So there can be a dark side of marketing and community trusted recommendation. So maybe someone hears about AG1 on Instagram and then they hear a podcast and the podcaster talks about AG1 and then maybe they see a television commercial, but they still don't buy. They're like, they're just becoming aware and maybe being aware that it's the leader in the space and probably can tell it's premium, but not yet, it's for me. But the minute they go for their group running club the next morning or their book club or their cycling group and they see someone shake up an AG1, they're going to go, I've heard about that. Is it really good? Why do you take it? You know, and then they're sold and then they buy. And so community is at the heart of authenticity. It is the counterbalance to traditional marketing that is necessary, but it is also where we get insights. We get insights from research. We get insights from one-on-one conversations with our customers. But being in community, which is really more hearing people talk about their lives and what they're navigating and what they're going through, helps us think about how to resonate, how to support, how to show up in their world.

I mean, one, I think it is this opportunity first to define or continue to redefine what a great leader is, does, how they model behavior. And so there's one side of the answer to this question, which is health is not an acceptable trade-off for business success or management responsibilities. And when leaders clearly prioritize their health and wellness, it has an effect on what other people believe success looks like. And I think we're seeing a shift in this. You can even see like billionaires and titans of industry all of a sudden they're jacked, right? They're like doing they're vegan or they're they're eating clean and they're working out and they're so it's happening. And not that that is the pillar of success or leadership but it's an example you know of how previously you just see like this you know whether it was very successful tech founders or politicians or there wasn't a lot of focus on fitness and health and there very much is now. You can see it in how they show up in the world, what businesses, brands they affiliate themselves with, so I do think that's changing.

The other, so that stands out to me, like if leaders are clear that they prioritize their health whether it's when they share their schedule or what they talk about from time to time or how they protect themselves if they're getting ill or navigating something, that that should be an inseparable part of what a great leader does. They take care of themselves so they can take care of others and others learn to take care of themselves. But then there's this idea of wellness and the practices, the rituals, the community around wellness, the engagement that are a part of a transformation to a healthier lifestyle. It's very hard to do that alone. Very hard to do that alone.

So this idea of using wellness as an engagement and a community and connection tool or mechanism that then can help with leadership of many things feels still like an opportunity that's missed. And when we talk wellness, when we talk health, you know there are these core pillars and community and relationships is one of those. However many people have heard we use five pillars, community, that social health, community and relationships, intimate relationships are a pillar of health. And so the idea of wellness in its totality, not just nutrition, not just fitness, but mental health and community and social health and, you know, fresh air, nature, which connects to health of the planet. And if these things were more demonstrated as pillars of leadership and as pillars of management and were prioritized in groups, companies, organizations, I think we'd all be better off. And again I think a lot of companies are doing this and are on a journey. But those seem like big opportunities to connect wellness and leadership.

Yeah, we do have an unfair advantage given that our mission is to empower people. But to your point, there are plenty of companies out there that do one thing for the customer and do not model that for their teams. And we do. So, I'd start first with the foundation of just our culture. And we have cultural values that embody elements of wellness. One of them being something Chris has said for a long time that his purpose is to help people live their one spectacular life, whatever that means to them, being on a journey, learning, growing. It doesn't mean summiting Everest necessarily. It's just living your one spectacular life, which could include spending time with family.

And because that is his cultural tenet and we are very much founder shaped of course because we are still founder led, this idea that that is what he wants for himself, it is what he wants for his family, it's what he wants for the world and certainly the space in between there is what he wants for his company and he believes health and family are not acceptable sacrifices for business outcomes. But we also believe that both can be true. You can prioritize your health and your family and your social health and deliver exceptional work. We are fully global and remote. People work from anywhere. We have unlimited time off. We have some of the best health benefits I have ever seen and all the layers of things that you can imagine. Support and stipends for mental health. Extra resources for proactive diagnostics. Again, still top tier, very comprehensive medical benefits. Unbelievably long, healthily long, parental leave, bereavement leave, you know, the things that people need. So all the space, all the resources, all the benefits that I consider exceptional, but I would also say to your point, given who we are as a company, you should expect that that's what we do. And so we do that and live up to it and evolve it and grow it constantly.

And then we have to model that. So, as an example, Chris, we have unlimited PTO, unlimited vacation. But when you have unlimited vacation, sometimes people are even less likely to take it.

And so Chris, the founder with me and CEO says, "All right, Kat, I want it on the calendar. When is the next time you're going to take two weeks off or three weeks off? I want it on the calendar." And he nags me. Nags me until it is done. It's not that I don't want it. It's just that I'm so in the business, I'm not even thinking about when it's going to be. And we completely turn off certain elements of technological access. Like we always say, look, if you wouldn't go into a physical office at 9:00 p.m. And some people would, but if you wouldn't, don't open up Slack at 9:00 p.m., right? Like, so we have to protect people's mental health and prevent burnout and encourage people to use all the benefits and the flexibility that we have. Just because we have it doesn't mean everyone uses it. We have to model it, lead it from the top, encourage it, reward it, recognize it, and call it out when people aren't using it.