Welcome to Hiring For Good, a podcast presented by Acumen Executive Search, exploring the transformative power of leadership—and what happens when the right person takes the job.
In this episode, co-hosts Suzanne Hanifin (President, Acumen Executive Search) and Tanis Morris sit down with Tom Burns, visionary entrepreneur, co-founder of Yogi Tea, and former CEO of Golden Temple. Tom shares his remarkable journey—from growing up in a multi-generational manufacturing family in the Pacific Northwest, to living in an ashram in Eugene, and ultimately building Yogi Tea into a global brand rooted in organic ingredients, Vedic tradition, and social responsibility.
Listeners will hear how Tom integrated meditation, Sikh philosophy, and conscious leadership into his approach to business, creating organizations that nourish both people and planet. He reflects on values-based hiring, building cohesive leadership teams, and why “work as worship” has been his lifelong philosophy. Today, as CEO of Plant Based Innovations, Tom continues to champion mission-driven growth while supporting communities through business.
This inspiring conversation highlights how purpose, vision, and values can shape not only successful companies but also meaningful lives.
Hiring For Good Website: https://www.hiringforgood.net/
Acumen Executive Search Website: https://www.acumenexecutivesearch.com/
Tanis Morris: Director of Business Development at Acumen Executive Search Email: ta***@***********************ch.com
Suzanne Hanifin: President at Acumen Executive Search Email: su*****@***********************ch.com
Hiring for Good is presented by Acumen Executive Search. Acumen Executive Search is the leading certified woman-owned Executive Search and advisory Firm on the West Coast.
Acumen sources, attracts, and qualifies world-class executive and management talent for organizations to support them in achieving their organizational goals. Due to their focus and local network, which is both broad and deep, we are able to leverage best practices across a broad range of industries. We employ an equity lens throughout the recruitment process.
Hiring for Good Transcript
0:00 Hello and welcome to Hiring for Good podcast. Today’s guest is Tom Burns, a
0:05 visionary entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of Yogi Tea and former CEO of
0:10 Golden Temple. Over the past several decades, Tom has built and led a range of successful values-driven businesses
0:17 in the natural foods and wellness industries. He helped grow Yogi Tea into an internationally recognized brand
0:23 rooted in Ayurvedic tradition, organic ingredients, and social responsibility.
0:28 As CEO of Golden Temple, he played a key role in transforming a spiritually inspired collective into a thriving
0:35 natural products company. Throughout his career, Tom has championed conscious leadership, purpose-driven hiring, and
0:41 building organizations that nourish both people and planet. And in addition to
0:47 all of that, he has many more stories to share with us, which I’m sure we’re going to get into. But Tom, thank you so
0:53 much for being here today on Happy to be here. Yeah. Yeah. Whenever I need a bio, I’ll
0:59 actually ask you to write it for me. I’ll send that one your way. No problem. Well, uh, Suzanne, um, I’m so sorry,
1:06 Suzanne. I didn’t say that. As usual, my my wonderful co-host Suzanne Hanifin
1:11 and I with Acumen Executive Search are having this conversation about leadership and lessons learned and um,
1:19 what what our audience can really uh, take away from some of your incredible experiences, Tom. So, we always begin by
1:26 asking our guests to just kind of fill in the blanks on that kind of brief
1:32 little uh snapshot I gave into your story. Your story is so interesting and
1:38 multifaceted that I I wonder how long, you know, so I would say let’s let’s
1:44 just go for it and and and we can play around with with the story. You
1:49 know, I’m I think your story is so interesting. I’m less concerned about getting to everything that but uh you
1:55 know where do you want to start? Uh sure maybe from the very beginning. So
2:00 you know I grew up in a manufacturing family. So my great-grandfather had a shipbuilding company uh with his
2:07 brothers in Seattle. Um, my grandfather had an anchor chain business. Uh, was
2:14 both in Bellingham and then he opened one with his partners in Portland in the early 1920s. Some people may or may not
2:22 know, I think Portland built 700 ships for World War II. So, every ship needs
2:28 anchor chain. Uh, but uh, it was going too slow. The old process for anchor
2:35 chain was so slow that they navy had to start cutting the lengths of anchor chain which of course they didn’t want
2:40 to do. But in 19 early 19 excuse me early 1940s my grandfather and his
2:46 partner invented a whole new process for anchor chain and had it patented in 1941 which changed the whole uh whole
2:54 situation so they could go back to putting the right length of anchor chains on there. So anyway, that’s what
3:00 I grew up in. So, I’m kind of like the fourth generation. And uh I had my
3:06 grandfather would speak to me about engineering concepts when I was six years old. And he’d go on and on and
3:12 then he’d look at me go savvy and I’d nod my head. Wow. And he’d go on and on and I he’d go
3:18 savvy and I’d nod my head. And he’d finish up and I went to my dad and I go, “What’s savvy mean?”
3:25 Jesus. But I knew to nod my head, right? And so and then um from the anchor chain we got
3:32 into conveyor chain which goes because uh the timber industry in the northwest and all the sawmills need conveyor chain
3:39 for the logs. So my father in the summer would take me around when I was four or five years old
3:44 in the sawmills. Right into the sawmills were the huge saws in the logs. I’m standing right there. Of course probably
3:51 before the days of OSHA I’m sure get in there. Yeah.
3:58 And then I was really kind of, you know, from my grandfather being, you know, groomed to be the person that came and
4:04 took over the family business, but my dad and uncle were not engineers. So I was to be the engineer. So I ended up
4:11 going to Oregon State because they had both metallurgical engineering and foundry technology. And uh but then
4:19 that’s kind of it was the end of the 60s, beginning of the 70s and the whole cultural change came on and I decided
4:26 that there was a different way to live and I was going to make my own decision. So ended up coming out of getting into yoga
4:33 and meditation and went to live in an ashram in Eugene and you know we go you
4:39 know we actually have to support ourselves but we wanted to do something that reflected you know our values at the
4:45 time. So he got into doing um into natural food and uh
4:51 one of our friends he had a insurance policy. He uh cashed for $2,000 and that
4:58 be was the beginning of uh developing a couple companies that became a couple
5:04 hundred million in revenue. Wow. And we never took any other investors, you know, and you could do it in that
5:10 day. It’s very difficult to do now. But we started out baking breads in the
5:15 back of the health food and pool store which is part of the Springfield creamery when it was in Springfield with the Keezy. So we grew up with all of
5:22 Wow. you know the old hippie history of Eugene and Springfield. That’s awesome.
5:28 Yeah. So So before you go on I have to ask what happened to your family business?
5:34 Did it survive? No, it didn’t. So that it was interesting because you know I would have graduated in 1973
5:43 and then the recession 73-74 they finally closed the business in 1975. So I’m kind
5:51 of going gee what would I have felt? Hey thanks Dad you know. Yeah exactly. Here I am do all this and now
5:59 um but I had already made that decision. So, you know, that was fine. And my dad
6:05 went on and my uncle to be manufacturers representatives and they did well, but you know, we always missed he loved
6:12 manufacturing. So, it’s kind of in our blood. Yeah. That’s what I’ve been doing ever since. And it’s funny how how these decisions
6:20 really do shape and change our tra trajectory if I can speak this morning.
6:26 And so looking back on formative experiences that shaped who you are
6:32 today kind of as you’re going through talk about some of those. You know, I
6:39 think my grandfather just, you know, sitting down when I was that young and he’d give me gifts for Christmas or
6:46 whatever, which were like mechanical things that could cut off your fingers and stuff and I’d have it for, you know,
6:52 half a day and then my parents would store it way up in the attic where I couldn’t even get at it because of that.
6:58 But, you know, that just um I was just inspired by that. You know, I love being
7:03 in manufacturing plants. I loved going with my dad to sawmills and just hanging out. Um so I think that just became part
7:12 of a really um something that just stuck with me all the way through. I mean
7:17 sure. Well, and I look at like like manufacturing and I’m sorry Tannis to to
7:22 jump in on this as kind of almost the exact opposite as
7:29 a yogi and being on, you know, like one is very structured and process and
7:37 right the other is more free and organic at least in my perspective. I guess
7:44 you know I would bring it up maybe later but it kind of fits in because through
7:50 you know we got into yoga and meditation that was kind of the beginning but our teacher
7:57 was also a Sikh and so he wore a turban and a long beard and no and so we just
8:03 started following that so he didn’t go like everybody should be Sikhs but it just started to happen
8:09 but you know uh Sikh’s tenantism believe in one god earned by the sweat of your brow
8:15 and share with others. So it just really became you know how can I serve and the
8:21 best way I could serve was actually building the business and doing that but
8:26 the meditative and yoga practice helped to you know keep you focused and um and
8:33 just kind of operating at your high level. So I kind of actually look at it the other way is that and the
8:40 Sikh‘s life was that of a householder not going away in a cave and sitting and meditating but being in the midst of
8:46 everything going on but still being calm and focused. Yeah. So that’s really how it came together
8:51 for me was it was a way Yeah. that
8:57 it meant a couple things because in high school I went to Jesuit high school here
9:02 and and um and we were starting growing our hair long after the Beatles and all
9:07 of that, but that’s not okay, you know. So, I remember being dragged down to the principal’s office and they’re cutting
9:13 my hair. Oh my gosh. And I go, there must be a religion where you don’t cut your hair. I knew nothing
9:20 about Sikhs then. I was like 14 years old, right? But it just kind of came to be.
9:26 So um I look at it from both sides that yeah it was a whole way of living and
9:33 developing yourself in a kind of the sense of reaching some sense of peace
9:39 and calm and as we used to call it nirvana or samati or all of that stuff
9:44 but at the same time there was you know the structured work but you know it’s like both sides.
9:51 Yeah it’s interesting. So, I will out myself on this podcast as um you know,
9:56 certainly not at that at that level, but I have uh practiced yoga for decades and
10:03 I’ve been an instructor for over 10 years and um I actually find yoga to be
10:12 quite quite structured. You know, I could see how how um I I could see how how it
10:19 could lend itself to operational success because it’s sort of like a foundational
10:27 um strength in your body and in your connection
10:32 to to your place in the world that I think that like fosters a certain
10:38 um physical confidence and and just strength kind of mental mental clarity.
10:45 if you’re doing it. I don’t pretend, you know, but um but I could see how it
10:51 would add a really interesting dimension to business leadership, which is what this podcast is about. So, um, you know,
11:00 I I feel I don’t want to skip too much because your story extends longer, but one of the questions that we always ask
11:07 our guests is how do you operationalize your personal values? And I mean, like
11:15 honestly, you already alluded to it a little bit, but here you have these really strong beliefs.
11:22 um how did you manage to integrate those into the the professional work that you
11:29 did or into the organizational you know the operational? I think kind of the thing that
11:35 I said even in you know in high school started thinking about there must be other ways
11:40 other paths to follow and uh and then getting to the yoga and
11:46 meditation and having a teacher but happened to be sick so we got into the Sikh side of it
11:52 and then as I said you know the really the operative of Sikhs is share with others but if you don’t have anything
11:59 what can you share right in a material way, right? So, um
12:06 businesses made sense. Also, you know, the yoga we practice was kundalini yoga which is very active and the Sikh path
12:14 is, you know, they’re called saint soldiers or saint warriors and that’s
12:19 their history. And so that that’s a very kind of out there situation, not sitting in a cave
12:27 way away from everything. But for me it was how do I contribute? How do I give?
12:32 How do I share? That that’s been the driving force whether it’s business or
12:37 creating some perpetual legacy and whatever. But you know it’s like if you
12:43 don’t have anything in your backpack, what are you going to share? Right? So it was and the same thing when we got to
12:49 conscious businesses. They talk about the three-legged stool economics,
12:55 social and and environmental. Mhm. But without the economics, then the
13:00 stool falls over. It needs that leg. So it’s like, you know, it’s it’s not bad, you know.
13:07 Sometimes it’s not like, oh, I have to separate myself from anything like business or anything that’s practical.
13:14 It’s like how you do it, you know, and so you can do it in a conscious way. And
13:19 well, how did you do it? Yeah. How did you how did you do it? just well we knew we had to develop businesses to support
13:26 support ourselves and then for me then it just kind of tapped into what I’d
13:31 been raised as and not even re understanding it at the time because I
13:36 kind of in college decided I’m doing something different but more what was more impactful is like
13:43 my grandfather and growing up in this business and then getting into the yoga and then understanding well here’s a
13:49 conscious way that I can actually do what I can do Well, yeah. And it’s the intentionality of it.
13:56 Yeah. No, it’s Yeah. focus. That’s what yoga is about is like projection.
14:01 So, you know, I want to be here. So, I have partners who are always going now, okay, we know.
14:07 But I’m going, yeah, look, you know, with the new business, if we do things right, you know, the next two or three
14:13 years, we’ll be we can be anywhere from 300 to 500 million a year, you know. So, they how do we get to this? But
14:20 it’s I think both are necessary. Yes, you have to have the practical steps, but without the vision out there,
14:26 what are you doing? So that’s what you know our teacher would say to me
14:31 or when I’m around people and he would say if you want anything to grow at the time you know I went by the name Carter
14:38 which was a sick name that the teacher gave me and so he said if you want something to grow give it to Carter if
14:44 you want something to shrink give it to city cut. Wow. But that’s just me you know I get into
14:50 it. I remember walking in cuz I was in with Cameron. I was in Salem and we had
14:55 the distribution business and the bakery was in Eugene and then we split this. I went back to Eugene
15:01 and so I was in and they were making these honey nut candy bars that were So the first day I’m going, okay, we made
15:07 this many cases. So tomorrow we’re going to make this many more or whatever. Yeah. But nobody told me that. That was just
15:14 somehow ingrained in me. And how do you make it bigger? So I that’s driving me all the time.
15:20 Yeah. And that doesn’t stop because it’s not like oh to here and then stop. It’s more
15:26 the process of maximizing and reaching your potential. So that’s
15:31 you know I know you’re talking about hiring for good. That’s where it you know gets me is
15:37 providing well you know for me u back in all the yoga stuff and all of that
15:44 numerology I don’t know if you’ve heard of numerology but if you look at my destiny is a seven.
15:50 Mhm. Which is platform of levitation which means in my mind my interpretation is my
15:56 job is to build something so that others have a platform of which they can grow
16:02 from. So when I think about hiring or whatever, for me it’s like finding people that are much smarter than I am
16:09 and giving them what they need so they can reach their potential. I love that. And and so from this from
16:16 yogi from the the Mhm. bakery, right? Distribution, yogi. I mean, yogi’s
16:25 global, right? Yeah. It’s it’s Yeah. So, we had two, we literally had
16:30 my friends in LA. Literally, it was in a garage. Oh, jeez. In LA, it was in one of these garages in
16:37 where the area where the LA ashram and all the people lived on Pruce Road. Um, and then we had already built a
16:44 manufacturing uh plant in the mid80s. We expanded and got into a decent plant and
16:52 and uh so we then brought Yogi Te to Eugene for all the production. and all
16:57 the manufacturing which is amazing. And then there was another group
17:03 in in uh Germany in Hamburg doing yogi tea there.
17:08 And they were had one little package of it cuz this started we had Golden Temple Conscious cookies these restaurants all
17:15 over. There was one in LA, one in in Cambridge and Boston and in different
17:20 places in Al or in Santa Fe. Uhhuh. And so, you know, our teacher had
17:26 given us this recipe called a yogi tea, which is like chai basically. So, that’s kind of the beginning of it
17:32 because they had it in the restaurants all the time. And then you went into any one of our, you know,
17:39 Sikh family, yoga family, they’re always making yogi tea on the stove. So, that’s really was the beginning of it. And then
17:46 we made it into a packaged product. And uh and then we started uh
17:52 Yogi Budgeon Sami said go to Europe and get this thing together cuz they were you know doing things but it
17:58 was in kind of you know again if he he knows if he wants it to grow just send him over there because he’s not going to
18:04 go oh that’s cool. No it’s not cool. It should be like this much not this much.
18:10 Yeah. So I love this. I love so your so your family background kind of shaped you to
18:16 be this and and kind of innately who you are this agent of growth right and like
18:22 a and a sounds like a very wise operational leader as well. So visionary
18:28 expansion, but you can also figure out ways to operationalize that vision. And then and then you end up, you know,
18:36 getting involved with um the yoga family and then taking just something people
18:43 wanted and extending the brand. But you like it’s kind of interesting that like a a kid that just wanted to have long
18:50 hair and be an engineering student in college like ended up making this global brand. Uh so you were just built that
18:58 way and then and then and I think I was part of the whole process because you know one of the
19:04 things later on when uh in we were centered in Eugene for the US side.
19:12 Yeah. And at the time uh it was like 2007 or eight and we were needing we
19:20 really needed to hire a trained marketing person and um and we had
19:26 several really good interviews but they didn’t want to live in Eugene. So I go we’re not losing the next person. So we
19:33 said if we hire him we told them we’ll open an office in Portland. Yeah. Which we did. And uh so my point is that
19:42 well so he was very well trained uh
19:48 went to oh let’s see it’s forget where he got his MBA but he was with you know
19:55 Johnson and Johnson so he was very well trained and whatever but so and very well experienced and broad experience
20:01 but he used to tell me he says the greatest asset you guys have
20:06 is your senior team because we’d been together for, you know, decades,
20:11 right? And but the bigger thing is that we had this common
20:17 commitment at the very high level. And so that that’s another thing that I would bring to to hiring is that I think
20:25 establishing the vision, but I think I was telling you yesterday we got to the place where okay,
20:32 Sikhs earn and they share. And so sharing is the main point. And so
20:41 we started building our plans, our annual plans on how much are we going to give back to the community and dollar
20:48 amounts. if we’re going to do that, how much revenue, how much profit, all of that. And then we take it all the way
20:53 down through the floor level people. So they all feel part of that, but they feel part of this bigger thing in the
21:00 community that are doing good things in the community. Yeah. And we used to measure, we had our human
21:06 resource department, we would measure morale in a in a you know,
21:12 not an exam, but a survey, right? Thank you. And uh twice a year. And when we
21:18 started doing planning based off of what are we going to give it increased morale
21:23 substantially. Oh absolutely. Yeah. 2008 when the financial crisis hit
21:30 but we were already and we had developed a serial product that we put into food for Lane County and the Oregon food
21:37 banks that went into school breakfast programs for kids to make sure that they had a decent breakfast every day. And uh
21:45 from there, I think it was yeah, going into 2009, we did a a program where um
21:52 we challenged people to to give to Food for Lane County. So, in the midst of the
21:58 financial crisis, we actually it increased not us, but part of it
22:03 increased donations by 25%. When you would think they’d probably go the other way, right?
22:08 Absolutely. Well, and and I think you said it beautifully. It’s about everybody coming together with again
22:15 this whole you’re it’s bigger than yourself. It’s about the community.
22:21 Yeah. It’s not me. I don’t want to make this sharing about me just doing this. I just happen to be part of this and you
22:27 end up you know sometimes you end up in the right place at the right time with the right people doing the right things.
22:33 But it’s also a testament to having a shared vision and a commitment to that
22:39 vision collectively. And I think you know some of that starts with a leader at the top that can get everybody kind
22:45 of on board whether that was you or your teacher who you know like everybody h
22:50 shares this vision and and through working together amazing things can be
22:56 accomplished. It’s kind of an unlikely success story, but it was incredibly successful. And then you’ve went on, I
23:03 mean, you didn’t have time to I know you’ve sat on multiple boards. You’ve started and, you know, invested in other
23:09 businesses, started other businesses, running, you know, CEO of another large
23:14 company. Now, um, you know, through all of those endeavors
23:20 and experiences where
23:27 you know, have have you retained kind of the essence of who you are throughout or
23:34 have have the experiences shaped continually reshaped and reformed who you are?
23:39 Yeah, I think so. I mean, I I recall um my mother like we would go up into uh
23:46 the San Juan Islands where my family had land and and and all the cousins would
23:51 be together and whatever. And uh but they had this huge, you know, area and
23:57 this huge grass and but they had this sit down lawn mower. So I would spend you know like all day long for a couple
24:04 days doing that while everybody’s down in the beach and my mother would laugh, oh you want to do is work. I go, yep.
24:10 Yeah. So through the yoga and meditation and then into you know into just from my
24:17 background plus into the Sikh side of it you know for me really work is worship
24:23 that’s how I worship is you know through work I love that and um
24:30 and it’s doing it together with others of like mind. So I think really maybe what I
24:37 learned out of it is and what underpins all of this is just values value based
24:43 and and how do you how do you paint that picture out there and it it just keeps getting bigger.
24:50 Yeah. So it it never there’s you know it’s it’s the journey right? You know it’s a cliche but it is the
24:56 journey. That’s what I want to keep going. That’s why I’m still here. Yeah. Doing this because, you know, I can laugh and say, you know,
25:03 like I said to the kids when we finished with Yogi T and they go, “Now what?” And
25:09 I go, “How about nothing?” And they go, “No, that’s not working for us.” And uh but I would have done it anyway. Yeah.
25:16 It wasn’t working for me either. No, I don’t think you’re the type of guy to just sit around. No. But you mentioned that that part of
25:23 Yogi’s success was that you had this longevity closeness with the leadership team,
25:29 right? Yes. But you still as you grew had to keep hiring
25:35 and bringing it together and you’re talking about our love language that it’s should be valuebased hiring, not
25:42 skill set base. But what what are some of the learnings from that of either
25:48 something that worked beautifully or failed? Well, you know, along the way. So, uh
25:54 the head of the asherman, Eugene, which was a great guy, but he was a PhD and uh and taught. But then we got into this
26:01 and we got into business. So, but he was always like, “Okay, here’s all these, you know, business gurus and all this
26:08 stuff and whatever.” So I got into um we had a subscription to the Harvard
26:14 Business Review and so I’d read these articles and and uh one I remember oh it’s years and
26:21 years ago but uh it was about hiring and they had done a study and they they came
26:28 up that the average employee in the US was 30% effective. They get blown out on
26:35 the weekend. Nothing happens on Monday. About halfway through Tuesday, everybody gets in gear and they go through halfway
26:41 Thursday and then they start thinking about the weekend. Right. So, the point was about hiring A
26:48 players. Mhm. And not B or C or hiring somebody you
26:53 know that you can bring them up to the A level. Yeah. So then I go back to I’ll tangent
26:59 on this is and then this came from our teacher uh used to be on the door to our
27:04 office in the yogi tea office in Portland but it’s on a tea tag was feel good be good do good
27:11 and the pathway is feel good. You want to be with people you want to be with. You want to be working in an environment
27:18 that you want to be with. uh you want to feel good about what you’re making, how you’re making it, and all of that,
27:25 which then we looked as the foundation, the platform to be the best that you can
27:31 be. We know that that’s, you know, for Marines or whatever it is, right? But but operating at your highest potential
27:38 and then that gives us the greatest amount of power to do good and do good is really the point. Mhm.
27:44 And so when we’re we’re hiring people, you know, we’d explain that, but we’re looking for somebody that’s inspired
27:52 by those values also understands what it is to work for an entrepreneurial company cuz change is
27:59 everything and being, you know, nimble and when things change, you change. So if you don’t like that, you
28:06 know, it’s okay. But we’ll bring people in if you know they kind of have to self-
28:12 select in a sense. But it’s no big deal. If you don’t, that’s fine. You know, we’ll just help
28:18 you find something else. But and and my philosophy was look, you know, I’m pretty consensus oriented and
28:25 you know, and you’ll talk about CEOs making all these decisions and whatever. And sometimes that has to happen. But my
28:32 real operative is we all want to be in the same boat. I I don’t want eight
28:37 people and they get outvoted six to two. Now we have two people in the boat that are either not rowing,
28:43 not rowing in the same direction or just sticking their ore in the water and slowing it down.
28:49 So we would work all the time to come together to where we can all agree and
28:55 we’re all in the same boat rowing at the same cadence in the same direction to get to our goals.
29:00 Wow. And that’s what really inspired me. And um yeah, it takes a little bit more
29:07 time, but it was more getting, you know, all the team really focused on the same
29:14 projected goal and how do we get there? Well, and you mentioned that yogi kind
29:19 of ran its course like, you know, for me, yeah, there’s a long story to
29:24 that. Yeah. And I won’t even get into that because you know things happen
29:31 and then you go and it’s like I tell my you know son who was uh
29:36 in our uh new investment which we invested in uh the middle of 2014 with
29:42 our partner JD who was from India um you know that and it we got uh VC
29:49 investments and you know I came from we did it all our own. I’m not really wanting to do this. I think the money I
29:56 put in, you know, I was supposed to put in this much money and I put in like, you know, and it just kept going and I
30:01 just kept I’m in. I’m all in which I took everything, sold it and put it in
30:07 here. So, I’m basically all in. But, uh, that door and then I finally was able to
30:14 separate out the manufacturing and private label business separate from the VC investors who owned the majority of
30:20 the company at this point. left a Jeet there to run our ownership there but then they dumped him
30:27 and but I said look you know it’s difficult but you know
30:32 it’s like you need well you know you can know I don’t want to say you have to
30:37 know this but when one door closes there’s another one that’s opening it’s just a matter of looking for that
30:44 you know so absolutely it’s so great I feel like you might be the first guest we’ve ever had where you
30:51 kind of preemptively answered our questions before we even asked them. I was like, “Wow, he’s already talked
30:57 about that.” So, I mean, I think the only things that I don’t know that you’ve said yet, um, for the, you know,
31:04 kind of the different touch points we really want to make sure that we cover over the course of these conversations
31:09 are, you know, if you were to look back and, you know, encounter maybe encounter
31:17 yourself as a young man of 20 or Jesuit or
31:23 and if you now were to meet that guy, What advice would you give him?
31:29 It’s interesting because what crosses my mind is probably nothing because I think
31:34 what happened was to happen for me. That’s how I look at it. And you know,
31:42 it was probably my junior year in college just was a tough time. something that I had just disappeared
31:48 and I won’t go into the details of that but there was a year where it was very tough
31:53 but it kind of ended up you know getting reconnected because I was on this kind of yoga meditative path and then thought
32:01 oh no I don’t need to do this anymore and something in the universe says oh yes
32:07 you do so if you don’t hear it well you know I’ll give you a big slap yeah
32:13 and you know if you uh Oh, now I read the e-ching a lot because
32:19 I and so it talks about there’s was thunder over thunder and it says yeah the universe will if you don’t get it
32:26 it’s going to keep you know accelerating it until you do and so I don’t know that I would change
32:32 anything you know because I I just look at the pathway was you know what did I
32:37 need as a being in order to
32:42 develop you know yourself to, you know, a potential that’s there, but that’s
32:48 still going on. So, it’s not like that’s over with. It’s never over with. Well, I love this answer, but then let
32:54 me change it. Let me change question. So, let me ask you then. What would you tell a just a random 20-year-old if they
33:02 came to you and said, “What advice would you give me?” It’s like, “Follow the the the direction of the universe. Trust
33:10 yourself.” You know, like what would your advice be to someone young? I think we were talking a bit yesterday and what
33:15 I would say what I’ve come to and when I had chance to speak in front of people I
33:20 would say I don’t care what you do and how you do it
33:26 but I think that you have to come up with a routine for yourself you figure it out that brings you to your zero
33:34 point every day that you’re not dragging in the past so you’re not dragging that into the future
33:42 And then then it just comes to you. Yeah. So I can’t you know just tell somebody oh you should do this.
33:49 Yeah. I’m not like that you know though I might you know intimate it to
33:55 my son you know and that yeah you know another door is opening. Yeah. You can worry about the
34:01 past which you can’t change. Uh or you can you know work on yourself
34:07 and project that it’ll just come. Mhm. And exactly what it is, who knows?
34:13 You know, so well, and before I ask this last question, um really I want to hear what
34:19 you’re doing today because you are a CEO of a new Well, I guess not that new.
34:26 It’s It’s been around for a little while. Well, well, we split it off from Delicious, which was the branded company
34:33 in the beginning of 2022. Oh, so it’s been about 3 years. Yeah. Um and uh we called it plant-based
34:41 innovations because we got uh when we first invested with delicious we were
34:46 making uh the Indian product mango lassi in in retail u and then which was a
34:54 dairy product and um then we started making almond milk yogurt and kind of
35:00 got into the whole plant-based trend which has kind of had some headwinds now
35:06 and for us We’re focused on manufacturing. So for us, it’s volume,
35:11 you know, and and we’re out of the brand side of it, you know, we’re the preferred supplier
35:16 for people’s own store brands. So I say now we just call it PBI because
35:23 plant-based is not only what we do. I said we could call it proteinbased innovation.
35:28 Yeah. But the innovation part is that we want to be kind of your turnkey.
35:34 uh we want to get in and help at all aspects in your business because the more we can help that helps you grow the
35:41 better it is for us and so yeah we’re into manufacturing now we want to play you know in the big
35:48 arena so having plants on the east coast the midwest and the west coast is an
35:53 important strategic part for us so we’re always looking for new plants now to
35:59 build new plants from the ground up that’s very expensive and you know big companies have that money but we just
36:06 look for opportunities where we can see that we can buy the plant for what we
36:11 can afford and then turn it into something over time that will provide the kind of foundation that we can go
36:18 after and serve the big store brands of the world. I love it. So our last question though I
36:25 always ask this is the podcast of hiring for good but what does hiring for good
36:31 mean to you? Well, I guess yeah, a few things. You know, hiring for good and
36:36 then means for like forever, right? So, you’re thinking about, you know, this person will be with us, you know, long
36:43 term. That’s kind of what I’ve always, you know, got into things like with the serial company and the tea
36:50 company. That was from 72 until 2012,
36:56 however many. What is that? 40 years, something like that. And I would have been with my family’s
37:01 business. So, it’s always been long-term. So, hiring for good, you know, not that we just need this person
37:06 for today or for 6 months or a year till we get this thing done, but it’s somebody we want to hang out with. We
37:12 want to develop ourselves with. And I see that part of hiring for good. Hiring
37:18 people that are committed and that are inspired by, you know, our ultimate goal is what we share with our communities.
37:25 And um it makes me think of we used to talk about from yoga the energy centers. And
37:32 so when a business starts it’s on the first energy center chakra. It’s but that’s survival. It’s just staying in
37:38 business. Whatever I have to do to stay in business. As it grows it moves up to the heart center. It’s what can I do for
37:44 my employees and for everybody else. Ultimately at the highest level the business exists to
37:51 serve society. Yeah. In a big way. And that’s, you know, where uh John Mackey used to come to our
37:58 yoga classes in in Austin. And so I I grew up with them and I was part of his
38:05 nonprofit flow which was all about conscious capitalism. That the philosophy and the mission was that you
38:11 can bring happiness, prosperity, security, all of the things to people
38:17 through conscious capitalism and doing it that way. So that’s kind of what’s
38:23 driven me and that’s what we would be looking for people that would want to aspire to those values and um and it
38:31 helps because when you have that big picture and you’re all connected at that level then everything else is you don’t
38:36 sweat the small you know it’s not yeah we can have an argument or whatever but it’s not we’re
38:42 not walking out the door. We used to have this saying is that, you know, when
38:48 you come in, yeah, park your at the door. You can pick it up on the way out,
38:53 but you know, inside we we play uh the game that we all
38:58 uh committed to by the rules that we set up. And uh and over time,
39:04 you know, it’s just for me, it’s just a lot of fun. And that’s with people is
39:09 the main thing is just the connection with people doing something that you think is serving other people and that
39:16 you enjoy doing together. The emphasis is together. Absolutely. And it’s not about one person, you know.
39:22 I just look at myself in the position that’s what I’m was given to do and like
39:28 then you should figure out your talents and give back, you know, and maximize
39:35 those. I love I love that. Thank you. You’re welcome. Thank you.
39:41 Yeah, truly such a such a wonderful conversation. I I I’m very excited to to
39:47 share your thoughts with our audience. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you. And talk about in inspiration. Yeah, that’s that’s what I
39:54 feel that it’s about being bigger than yourself and being very intentional
40:00 not just on where you’re going, but how that affects Yeah. No, one you know if I can just one
40:06 last thing is that I got involved in the chamber of commerce in Eugene and then I became the
40:12 chair in 2007 and with the way I looked at business in the world but this is not
40:18 kind of normal in the in a chamber of commerce kind of thing. But I go so they
40:24 always had in January they install the new chair they have the celebration of business and there’s about a thousand
40:29 people at dinner and you give your speech right and I go what am I going to say? Well, I’m just going to put it out
40:34 there as I see it. But we got a lot of positive response and uh I start we did
40:40 some long-term planning with a chamber that we hadn’t they hadn’t done for like 15 years. But I said I think our litmus
40:47 should be of saying if we’re of value is not that the business community values us, but the whole community of the city
40:56 values us as being a positive contributor to what matters to everybody.
41:01 Yeah. I love it. Thank you so much for your time and insights. Truly, truly
41:07 appreciate it. Appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks for joining us today at Hiring
41:13 for Good. If you were inspired by our conversation, don’t forget to like, follow, and subscribe wherever you get
41:18 your podcasts. And if you want to learn more about our executive search services, check us out
41:24 at www.hiringforgood.net or our company website, Acumen Executive
41:29 Search. Thanks so much. And don’t forget to join us next time for another in-depth conversation about transformational
41:36 leadership.