 All right, fantastic, welcome back. You're still hanging out with us right here on Why In The Morning. My name is Brian Sarko, and I'm so excited that you're still hanging out with us. But before we go too far, let's interact on our socials. And that includes Instagram, Facebook, as well as, yes, YouTube. Yeah, sure. Why not? YouTube, including TikTok, but I'm sure that you follow us at Why In The Morning channel. But you can always find me at Brian Sarko on one with the hashtag Why In The Morning. That's where you can plug in on. And we had to ask you an interesting question, by the way. I'll be sampling your feedback towards the tail end of this show, because you have an amazing programming lined up for you. But before we get too far, we're going to talk about how to manage a business successfully. Or either way, managing a successful business or successful business management. And we're going to speak to someone who has already established something for themselves and they're actually in competition as well. So joining us live in studio is an amazing, beautiful lady, gorgeous lady. She is Liz Kuhi-Jiraini. She is the founder of Pop Fusion and also our world coach. Our world coach, in short, she teaches you how to be rich, how to amass assets. And I remember she told me passive income. Good morning to you, Liz. Good morning. How are you this morning? I'm fantastic. Nice to meet you. How are you feeling? Good to meet you. I'm feeling great to be on the show this morning. All right. Yeah, and to speak to your listeners. Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you. All right, so just tell us a brief history about yourself and how you find yourself starting a business that's actually taken over. I feel like it's a fast lane business because looking at the background and just a description of your business, it doesn't look like a business that's struggling. It looks like a business that has a lot of support. How did you actually even get there as well? Yeah, so we started Pop Fusion just a few months ago, December last year. And as you rightly put it, it's a business that is on the fast lane. And just to take you back, before we started Pop Fusion, a few years back in 2016, we have this value that we have in our family where we buy for our child only one phone, any other phone, any upgrade they buy for themselves. So about 2016, one of our children lost their phone and they were very devastated because they knew about this. And so we told them, why don't you start a business, something that can help you buy a new phone? So she thought about it and said, I will do popcorn. So she would make popcorn, sell it in school, come the next day with orders. And within the time, she was able to buy her new phone. At that time, we were doing two flavors. So that was very inspiring for us and also for her to understand that even just as a teenager, she could replace that asset. So fast forward a few years, popcorn is something we talk about in my wealth coach business. Because when we take you through the class, we talk about how do you create passive income? How do you create a viable business? So we have always used it as an example. And for us, we have validated this idea over time because we worked with someone who's already in this business. So over the years, we had the numbers, we kept updating it, but never really got to do it. Then last year, we said, hey, we've talked about this. We know how to create the product. Why don't we just start it? And that is how proficient was born in December last year. And we started our first shop at Surrey to your city. All right. Because I was trying to actually even follow you on social media, you guys have, you're trying to establish your base on social media. And I'd like you to actually tell us, why is it important for a business to have a presence online, especially in a world where everybody's on the smartphone. People are traversing through the world of social media as well. Why is it that key and major to have your business online? Well, it's really important to go online because that is where your customers are. Previous years, you know, if you look way back to how communication happened, you'd get maybe an invoice or even a brochure on mail, you know, snail mail. And then we moved and we got to email. But then people really don't use their email for that kind of interaction. We have, again, moved. And these are called disruptions. So if a business does not adapt and does not move with the disruption, then you find that your customers are in a different location from where you are. So for us, being on social is really important because we get to interact. Customers send us photos of the product they've taken and we put it on social. And we get also to know who our repeat customers are. We tell them about our launches. Anything new that we are launching, they are able to know from social media. So it's a nice space to be because that's our community. Right. I'm also interested to know that how, what exactly pushed you to just focus on popcorn only? Because I know even as a businessman or as a businesswoman, you might want to diversify at some point. You're like, I want to be a master or a jack of all trades. So I'm not just gonna do popcorn only. At least let me do crisps or let me do chapati as well as mandaze. Why popcorn only? Okay, that's an interesting question. So coming from someone who has played corporate musical chairs, I've sat in different roles in the organizations I've worked with, both internationally and locally. And so by internationally, I mean the organizations I worked for had international presence. So I've garnered a lot of experience and through this I have learned that it's really important to take a deep dive and focus. And the example I like using is the rays of the sun. If you go outside now, if the weather is good, you can get a nice sunbask. However, if someone takes a lens and takes the same rays and shines them on a piece of paper, it'll catch fire. So focus is really important. It gets you fired up and it allows you to really go into a space that you want to specialize and become known for something. So I'm known as a world coach and now because I love popcorn so much, I'm also known as Kuhe the person who owns Popfishing. All right, interesting. Because I'm trying to look at it from a point of like, you're teaching people how to be wealthy but here you're also trying to navigate the world of business. Now about clientele, who are mainly the people that buy your products? Because I believe in every business, there's always that niche. And then you also tell us how you exactly identify the niche that this is what you need to bring to the market and how is it satisfying me at the same time is satisfying the niche in the market? Okay, so our biggest clientele are families and also teenagers, young people and people who love popcorn. So you find that we have clients from really young people to really the elderly. And the reason for that is popcorn is a very versatile grain. It's something that's a whole meal and so you can eat it at any time. We have repeat customers, people who keep coming back to us. We have also customers who buy in bulk because they have birthdays or locations or they love the different flavors that we have. Now what helped us identify that is when we approached Sarit, they were very gracious to us and they said, if you have this kind of product, why don't you try to be in this space in the mall? And that was a perfect space for us because we get to interact with different people. We have international clients. When we look at our incoming, we have a lot of nationalities really who buy from us and that just goes to show that with a small product, you can serve a wide range of people. Right. Yeah. And allow the father that you're so enthusiastic about trying to create some sort of relationship with your client. Then on that note, talk about how important it is to have a customer care client relationship. Is it that important and is it necessary to have for longevity and posterity of a business? Yes, I believe it is. Now customer care is at the core of any business because if your customer is happy with the service that you provide, then they will be able to come back and refer you to other people and that grows your network organically even without advertising. Now one of the biggest things that is a core value for us at Popfusion is taking care of our staff because they are the ones who have the one-on-one contact with our customers. So we've had the privilege of hiring very talented and bright people, young people, so also job creation but just allowing them to give us feedback. This is what the customers say. This is the popular flavor. This is what people think you should add to the menu. So we take that feedback, take it back to R&D and see how best we can continue to improve the product and continue to satisfy our customer because without them we are not in business. Yeah. Interesting, good one. What about staying afloat in terms of hard times because I know there's always good and bad days in business as well as any other job. How do you manage hard times? So for us at Popfusion, we try to keep our overheads low meaning that what we commit to our staff and all our business partners is something that we can stick to. So we don't really go overboard in terms of our expenses. And then when the hard times come, you really have to really just, how do I call it, tighten the belt as we call it, cook-as-am-shipy. So you really focus on the essentials. This is what we need to do for the business to run and then these are the frills. These are things that we can do later when the business is quite profitable. And in our business, it's actually seasonal because based on the location that we are and we are coming soon in another location, you find that the numbers of people visiting them all sometimes fluctuates. And so we just make sure our staff are friendly. We are providing the best service so that because it's an all weather product, you can take it when it's cold or hot. So we have that advantage of being able to sell at any time. But when the numbers are low, we focus on what is essential. All right. Because at the same time that those times you have, like for example, you've already cooked, I don't know if you cook them or there's a way you use a machine. Because I believe it's cooked food anyways. You have like huge stock and then the clients, that time they're not there. And then you have less stock and then clients are there. Okay. All right. So what happens with the pop fusion is actually our tagline is fresh extraordinary pop because we pop it fresh for you. So anytime you get a box of pop fusion, it has been popped fresh. Now what that means is that we only use ingredients. We have a just in time system. We only use ingredients as we need them and then we do production for the addition ingredients that we have for the different flavors. We have an idea of what the market needs. If products expire, we throw them out because our promise to the customer is we want it to be fresh and extraordinary all the time. Right. And how do you handle competition now? Because I know you're best at one of the, some of the, I'll call them elite, elite spaces in Nairobi where I believe, like you can't get a mamboga who has a product like yours at Sarit or even at Village Market. Like it's mainly, it's cut for people for certain cadre. So it's very specific. Now how do you handle staying afloat in terms of competitors? Of course every business has a competition. And somebody said it's good to be in competition because it keeps you in check. How do you manage it? So we actually love competition because it validates your idea. If many people are in a space, it means there's something in that space. And so one of the things we do is keeping our prices really low because this is value added popcorn. In addition to the classic salted popcorn, we have different flavors. And so we keep our costs low. The other thing is to make sure we continue to innovate. And our biggest thing, because we care for our customer, we don't use say things like food color. We actually use natural ingredients. We use olive oil in the machines. And we believe that when the customers know that we care that much about them, they will keep coming back. And that's for competition. It is good because it only increases the space. And as we grow, then we get into those other spaces. All right, good one. And for this kind of business, would you call yourself like a manufacturer, like you create from scratch? And if yes, where do you source for your material and then finally come up with this product? Like just take us through that journey of the final product that we have. Okay, so we come up with a packaging design and that is done separately. And we make sure our packaging is always clean and ready for the customer. Then for the ingredients, of course, there is the corn. And so we buy high quality corn. Or you buy them. Like you don't source from a shamba somewhere. No, so you'd call us processors pretty much because we take something that has been grown and then we take it through the machine, the popping process. And then now we value add using the unique pop fusion mixes. So one of our mixes are popular and it's called cookies and cream. And so we take the popped popcorn and then mix it together with our unique mix and then we serve it to the customer depending on what it is they wanted. So in a way we have different suppliers because of the different products that we use. And together with the nutritionist and then the chef that we use because this product has to go through R&D. Is it good? Is it tasting well? Is it healthy? And so before we put it out in the market, all that has to be done. So we have different suppliers and we have our restock levels where we procure as and when needed. Certified by Cubs? Yes. Okay, cool. Now talk about how marketing is so essential, especially in a day where people are busy with their lifestyles. How do you reach to those clients that maybe are not aware of your business in terms of product awareness, which I know is very key in marketing. Okay, so in terms of product awareness, as you rightly said before, we largely depend on social media in terms of getting one doubt that this is what we are doing, this is where we are at and these are the promotions we are running at the moment. And then we also have the people who come to the store. We are also signing up with them all where we are at with their loyalty card. So a lot of clients would want to use their points in our store. So that's another way that we are doing it. And then individually as business owners, we are also reaching out to our networks and telling them, hey, we are sorry, a box of pop costs this much, come and grab pop as you do your shopping or you do whatever it is you're doing in the mall. Distribution, which is, I believe, is among the four Ds of marketing. How do you distribute your products to various outlets for sale? All right, so primarily we are at the store, although we are getting into partnerships with the food distributors, we know them in our city, so that we can be able to get you your pop at the comfort of your home. So if you're watching a football match or you have a birthday party, you can simply order and that is coming soon. Right, okay. Now talk about a little bit background of it. You had mentioned it earlier on. In terms of giving people opportunities, how many people do you have on board and what was the criteria that you used to select? That maybe they had a history in being, let's say, and what is the course about cooking? And maybe they were chefs somewhere, I mean they were experts in food or something, like what was the criteria of selecting the people you're working with on board? And also have you made any profit so far? And if you've made, if yes, how did you manage it? How did you feel? How was everything during that time? Okay, great. So we have a team of five people who are permanent and then we have temporary two people and this come in when we are doing events or we are going out there for extra activities. We believe in hiring people who are enthusiastic, authentic, and we have one of them in studio today who has brought some samples. And- Is that true? Is that true? Yeah, that's of the house, Karibunisana. So we like people who, as themselves, as individuals, are very enthusiastic, very honest, they have a good work ethic and are willing to learn because this is a business that you can teach anyone. However, the willingness to learn has to be there. And then now we take that raw talent and we take them through training, customer service, how do you increase your sales numbers, how do you manage your targets, how do you manage yourself when there's a low, you know, a low season and how do you manage it when it's a high season? So we also, yes, we also have the incentives that we give them just to encourage them and so far we have a great team. In total, how many? We have five permanent and two who move around. All right, fantastic. Now, I've seen a lot of popcorn businesses out there and a few of them that make it to the level of viewers are actually, they are harmful. Talk about how yours is so unique and different from the rest because you can possibly take a Bandaske and see somebody selling popcorn and you're like, okay, this is just popcorn. How different is it from the normal popcorn out there? Okay, I think one of the things is that we make our popcorn with a lot of love and care. And so other than it being classic pop, we have what we call the pop-fusion mixes. So I can take you through the mixes right now. It's like a cocktail. Yes, yes. So we have the cookies and cream. We have our sweet vegan flavor. We have butter pop, as the name suggests, it has butter. And then we also have what we call candy pop. This is for the kids. It has a lot of candy, M&Ms in there. And then we have classic pop. And then I think I have mentioned sweet vegan. And this takes care of the vegan. Sweet vegan means that it's mainly vegetable, veg. Let me not put it that way, but the ingredients are... Are more like plant from plants. Plants, yeah. So we take care of that community of people who can't really go outside that restriction. And so what that means for us is we have to prepare the mixes and then we have to make sure that they are stocked in the shop and in the new shop that's coming up in April. And then anytime we have an expo, we also ensure that these products are there. The other thing that makes us unique is the fact that it's fresh popcorn. So you know you can pop corn, leave it in the machine and wait for the customer. For us, we pop just enough to make sure that you're having a fresh serving of popcorn. And as you wait for your popcorn to be made in two minutes, it's a nice experience just to see the mixes, how it's done, how it's packaged. But you also have a machine. You have the machine that does even the packaging as well. Amma, you do like packaging from a different location. No, we do packaging right at the store. So as you wait for your pop within two minutes, it's prepared and then served to you. Right, interesting. Yeah, we find our customers love the experience of just watching how everything is done. Right. What do your customers tell you mostly? Because I think it's last week when I had a friend of mine and we actually tried to check through your socials and he was telling me that his girlfriend went to a certain mall somewhere and he pulled up with this and I was like, wow, then it's nice to have that guest because I personally live and know that this was your product. Because I've always seen it with celebrities and whatnot. So I was really amazed. Now, how do you actually deal with feedback, especially people that write emails? Because it's social media. Yes. And then maybe somebody's disgusted, disgruntled, let me use the word disgruntled, they're not happy. And that day they're giving you their mind. How do you deal with people that give different types of feedback, especially after they've consumed your product? Okay, that's a good question. So we have our marketing manager who handles our email and social. Immediately a complaint comes through, I get to know. If it comes through the shop, I get to know. We have had very little complaint and one particular one that we had took us back to R&D, we redid the product and sent it back to the shop and compensated this client. So we are very big on making sure our customer is happy and really listening because we live in a day and age where if you don't listen to your customer, they walk away. So we make it a priority, myself included, to make sure that if a complaint comes in, we handle it with a strict test of confidence and make sure that we understand what is this customer saying and then we deal with it accordingly. Fantastic. Branding, very important in marketing as well. Like the personality of your product speaks for itself. Like the first impression, they say there's no room to make another second impression. The first impression usually sticks forever. You can't change that. Now talk about how important it is to have an amazing and a seamless fluid personality for your product, especially when it comes to this first line. I was trying to compare you as with KFC and the rest of the brands that have a very good, captivating, let me say, striking personality. Once you land your eyes on the packaging, you're like, I want this. Talk about how important it is to have that. Okay, great. So I hope we rank very well according to your own personal review. But branding is really important for a company because that is what speaks for you when you're not there as an individual to speak for yourself. And one of the things we wanted Popfusion to have is a great logo and a great packaging and also a great stall when you visit us at Sarityo City. And so we had to go out there and look for top designers, people who understand what we want and can articulate and put it on paper. So we had Black Co-creations do the packaging design for us. And then we looked again for the top packaging companies in the country and we found someone who can produce what we want, someone who can meet our order levels. And so this is a packaging that we came up with. Now, this is the physical one. So digital assets as well, in terms of branding, we looked for top talent and then this person is working to make sure that we have a good image on social media and not just good, but authentic. Something that really represents our love for Popcon and our love for our clients. All right. Now, I'd also like you to talk about like, when it comes to your other job, you mentioned you're a world coach. How do you integrate and manage between how owning this business and at the same time being there and doing your coaching lessons? Because I believe there must be a balance. And they say women in business is that hashtag of women in business. As a woman in business, how do you manage juggling between being the two careers? Okay. So that has been that stretched me because when we started this, our startup is like a baby almost. A lot of work has to be done, hand holding and making sure things are going well, processes are put in place. So one of the first things I did is to create time within my day and dedicate it to Popfusion. And so this could mean talking to my marketing people, talking to the people at the store, talking to suppliers, just understanding the best way that we can push this product forward. And so balance for me looks like showing up for my responsibilities. First as a mom, then as a coach, then as a business owner at Popfusion. And that means that my day has certain, there are certain blocks of time, I believe in time blocking. So if I am doing email between 11 and 12, that's what I'm doing. Then I move to another task. And then of course creating appointments and having my team help me to really just make sure that I'm on track with the things I need to do. And delegation is a big thing because no one can do it alone really. If you want to grow, you need people to go alongside you. That's it. Before you tell us what are some of the principles you go by and if you've made any profit so far, you have something for us here on the table. And I think I'm loving it. Now, what is this way? Does it have like a specific taste? Or let's say the colors, because I can see it's, this is like orange and yellow, maybe a color blinds you. You'll tell me. Okay, so we have, what we have on the table today and some other boxes we brought is called Candy Pop. So candy, Candy Pop. Candy Pop. That means it has some taste with sugar. Sugar related. Yes, absolutely. So we pop the corn and then we salt it for those clients who prefer their Candy Pop with a bit of salt and then we put in the Pop Fusion mix and then we add in some candy. This Pop Fusion, that's where I'm stuck. Because we're in the Pop itself. Anyway, it's Popcorn Pops but I'm trying to relate it. Like Pop Fusion, is it like a mixture of ingredients and what not? Yeah, absolutely. It's a mixture of ingredients and then we add it to the Popped Popcorn in a container and then we mix it up and then put some of it for the clients. All right. This one is mainly for kids now. Because candy is... Yeah, candy. I'd say kids and the young at heart because we have adults who absolutely love this product. All right. Now, I don't want to be a big girl so I'm going to pay for your son. Now talk to us about some of the, if you've made profit so far, how much was it? I don't know if you're free to tell us but I know if you've made profit I know it's a huge amount of money as well. Have you made any so far? Yes, so we have made profit but our principle right now is to plow everything back into the business because we want this business to grow and so we plow everything back into investing in our staff, investing in expanding the stores and also investing in our equipment and making sure that we are ready for the next big thing. So if you have a big event, we are ready for you. If there is a new mall that meets our criteria in terms of numbers, we are ready to do business. Before you talk about the principles you go by, I've remembered something. What are some of the market trends in your business that you feel like after some time you have to adapt to them even in terms of your product and your consumers? Are there any so far that you've noted that are giving you a run for your money? Yes, we have noted some trends. Of course, when people see a good product they try and go and try and make it and so for us our commitment to our customer is quality and making sure that we continue to give them fresh, extraordinary pop at a good price. The other trends we have noticed is that when the school term is off children at home our numbers really go high. We've also noticed that weekends are a good time for us to be both in the store and also in exhibitions or different places where people are interacting. So we are still looking at the numbers and still working them out but the important thing for us is not only to hit a financial goal but also to hit a spot in the hearts of our customers that this is a product that I want to go back for and I think the biggest trend I would point out is the repeat customers. We have customers who come back. Also just like you, I meet people with a box and ask them can I take a photo with you because for me that is brand validation when I see it out there with different people. Okay. Yeah, so before you leave them all of course grab a box of popcorn and get to it. Yeah. Now you had touched a little bit on your wealth coach. Who is a wealth coach exactly? All right. So a wealth coach is someone who helps you create a lifestyle and create lifestyle freedom and give you the kind of vision that you have for your future. So wealth can be defined only as money but that is not true. Wealth is also about your wellbeing as an individual and also your physical wellbeing. However, I focus more on your emotional wellbeing and your financial wellbeing. All right, we're going to take a break and then when we come back you tell us more about that and then some of the principles you go by. Okay. You're also a CEO and founder. Yes. So you tell us more about that. So we're going to take a very short break on that hashtag why in the morning at 2254 channel at Brian Sec 101 and I think you said yours, your personal handle was that? Liz Coohey Ann. Liz Coohey Ann, so check out. So we're going to take a break and then we come back, stay right there. Why 254, imagine.