Persevering as an Entrepreneur with Kara Goldin of Hint

Kara Goldin is the Founder and CEO of Hint, which is best known for its award-winning, fruit-flavored water. Kara started the company to make water that tastes great without all the sugar and diet sweeteners. Their product is Non-GMO certified and vegan, with no MSG, nuts, soy, or gluten.

Kara Goldin has received numerous accolades, including being named one of InStyle’s Badass 50, Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs, Fortune’s Most Innovative Women in Food Drink, and EY Entrepreneur of the Year for Northern California. Previously, Kara was VP of Shopping Partnerships at America Online — more commonly known as AOL. She hosts a podcast, The Kara Goldin Show, and her first book, Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts and Doubters, was released in October 2020. In the short time since its publishing, it’s already become a Wall Street Journal and Amazon bestseller.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

Kara Goldin describes how her first job, at the age of 14, inspired her love of business
What her jobs at Time Magazine and CNN taught her about persistence and perseverance
Why curiosity is essential to surviving as an entrepreneur
The influence John McCain had on Kara’s philosophy, business, and life
Kara talks about the book she’s gifted the most, Wise Guy
An inside look at Kara’s book, Undaunted

In this episode…

Plenty of people say they want to start their own business, but what does it take to become a successful entrepreneur? Can you take the hits and keep going?

Kara Goldin compares starting a business to piecing together a 1,000 piece puzzle. People take away pieces, people give you new pieces that don’t fit, and of course, people always tell you to give up.

On this episode of the eCommerce Profits Podcast, Joshua Chin is joined by Kara Goldin, Founder and CEO of Hint Inc., to discuss the essential characteristics of an entrepreneur. Kara talks about the mentors who influenced her journey, what her experiences at Time Magazine and CNN taught her about persistence and perseverance, and what’s inside her new book, Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts and Doubters.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Sponsor for this episode

This episode is brought to you by Chronos Agency.

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Our team of passionate email marketing experts has helped hundreds of brands generate over $70 million in return from email alone, and our clients receive an average of 3500% ROI from our efforts.

Chronos Agency has worked with a variety of brands, including Truly Beauty, Alya Skin, and many more. Our mission is to help real businesses achieve real results.

If you want to take your revenue to the next level using email marketing, be sure to email our team at sales@chronos.agency or visit chronos.agency to learn more.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:04

Welcome to the eCommerce Profits Podcast where we feature top founders and experts in the eCommerce industry and take an in depth look at the struggles and successes in growing eCommerce brands profitably.

Joshua Chin 0:21

Josh Chin here I’m the host of the eCommerce Profits Podcast where we feature top experts and entrepreneurs in the eCommerce industry. And we go behind the scenes of the struggles and successes in growing a brand. Now this episode is brought to you by Chronos Agency if you run a direct to consumer eCommerce brand that is ready for next level scale and to double your customer lifetime value through lifecycle marketing. Chronos is your company. We’ve helped hundreds of brands scale profits with email, SMS and mobile push well getting getting an average of 30 500% ROI from our efforts. We’ve worked with brands like truly beauty Elia skin, Dr. Livengood and many more. Now the next step is to email us at sales at Chronos dot Agency or you can go to Chronos dot Agency to learn more. Today’s guest is someone really really special. Kara Goldin is the founder and CEO of Hint, Inc. Best known for its award winning Hint water. I actually have a ball of it right here, deleting unsweetened flavored water. She has received numerous accolades including being named Ei Entrepreneur of the Year 2017, Northern California, and one of in styles. 2019 dhatus 50. Previously, Kara was VP of shopping partnerships at America Online, more commonly known as AOL. She hosts the podcast the Kara Goldin show, the first book, Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts and Doubters, was released in October, just last year in 2020. and is now a Wall Street Journal. And Amazon bestseller. Kara lives in the Bay Area with her family. Kara, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Now, let’s, let’s dive straight into it. My, you know, my first I guess the first time we met, or rather I met you was when you were on stage back in Boston, a clay vo Boss, I believe 2019 Yeah, that’s right, headlined that event. It was an incredible. You talked about your story and how you came to be an entrepreneur. And I think you had you have a really unique path that you took that isn’t isn’t exactly conventional. And you’re definitely not conventional, nothing about you is conventional. So tell me a little bit about your first job as a buyer for toy store, written in the book. Well, how has that shaped you and who you are today as an entrepreneur?

Kara Goldin 3:04

Oh, thank you. It’s It’s so funny. I actually got my first job when I was 14 years old. I was the last five kids and my brothers and sisters. But you know, all older all had jobs and little jobs and income. And I wanted that. And so I walked into a local toy store. And, of course, a kid myself. And the the woman who owned the toy store said to me, would you ever want a job here? And I said, Sure, right. I’m 14 years old. And she said, Would you like to do the cash register? What 14 year old doesn’t want to do the cash register? Right? I’m thinking money. I mean, it’ll be a lot of fun. And so initially, I started just doing it on Sundays. And then that was an after school job, it was pretty great. What I didn’t know going into it was that I would learn so much around business. And I started to, for example, I would have people come in and I would recommend, they would say I have a nephew that is 14 years old, and I need to get him a gift. What should I get him? And so I would have two or three things on the top of my head on the tip of my tongue that I would say, okay, go get that go get Legos, right. And this is the Lego set that you should get them. And what I realized was that I was kind of saying the same thing over and over again, and it was pretty successful. So that part was great. But then my boss said to me, don’t push that product so much because the margins aren’t as high. And I thought, gosh, that, you know, I didn’t really I mean, I knew what margins were, but I didn’t really understand it. And so I said can you explain a little bit more to me and So she told me about the different margins in different categories. And so then obviously, I looked for other categories that had higher margins. I remember going home for dinner that day and saying to my parents, gosh, I learned so much about margins today. And they said margins. And I explained everything about these different categories. And you know, it’s so funny, because I think there’s a lot of stories and in just in that little story there, when, first of all, when you actually aren’t afraid to show what you don’t know, right, you kind of show your authentic shelf self, your vulnerability. I mean, that’s when you’ll be able to learn a lot more, right. Obviously, I knew what the term margin was, but just actually sharing with them that I didn’t really understand what the context was of margins and how it related. And, you know, that’s something that I think back on, even in running my own business today that obviously, there’s different ways to do business, there’s eCommerce and direct to consumer. There’s also, you know, dealing with retailers and different types of retailers, whether it’s specialty retail or Costco. I mean, very, very different margins. So it all went back to that little toy store story.

Joshua Chin 6:25

Yeah, you, you have, kind of as I sew, kind of throughout the book, and kind of your journey, a common theme has been persistence and perseverance. And that also landed you your job at Time Magazine. Interestingly, tell us about that story. And kind of how persistence remained a theme throughout.

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