Ali Khemi’s Post

Poppin’ into 2024 with #realness! 🍿🍾 Honouring the good and the bad behind EATABLE INC.’s 2023 highlights reel… ☀️TOP 3 HIGHLIGHTS: 1. Hiring some key team members I knew early on I wanted to invest in surrounding ourselves with the right expertise to fill our gaps. It paid off exponentially by allowing us to pursue big opportunities confidently, and expanded our networks through our team and mentors. 2. Securing over $350k in non-dilutive funding Through e-commerce funding, strategic debt and grants, we secured capital for hiring, facility improvements and to roll out improved packaging and products to set us up for retail success. Our team has demonstrated our “scrappiness” by getting lots done with relatively little while making micro pivots along the way. 3. Landing some AMAZING collaborations We’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with household names that transcend the snacking space. This year, we’ve innovated popcorn for Bacardi, Barefoot Wine and the OSCARS 🤩 with some exciting partnerships in the pipeline for next year. ⛈️TOP 3 LOWLIGHTS: 1. Walking away from a listing opportunity with a huge national retailer The path to profitability is filled with tough decisions and our choice was heartbreaking 💔 because we couldn’t make their desired pricing work with our margin goals. It ended up being a huge wake-up call that gave us valuable insights on how we should create future product lines for mass retail success! The silver lining? We dodged a bullet that could have killed our company if our only motivation was to get a big logo on an investor deck. 2. Having some team members move on (for various reasons both personally and professionally). I take every single one of these tough conversations to heart. I consider my team an extension of my family, but I also understand that #startuplife is not for everyone. I’m grateful to everyone who has been part of Team EATABLE’s journey and wholeheartedly support their next phase! 3. Feeling the impacts of the #hustle on my mental health and well-being Our digital and social circles are usually full of inspiration and motivation, but we all have those days where we fall into comparison, shiny object syndrome, and feel like inadequate versions of ourselves. There have been times I’ve let those bad days manifest themselves in unhealthy ways, impacting my ability to show up at work and at home for my family and 2 little ones. We’re proud to offer a Health Spending Account as one of EATABLE’s employee benefits to ensure we are able to help support our team’s wellness goals even as a small biz. One of my resolutions is to prioritize self care, get better at drawing boundaries, and move at a pace that feels SUSTAINABLE. After all, it’s about the journey and there’s no such thing as overnight success. Wishing you a healthy and happy 2024! Thanks for being on this wild ride with me. ❤️🍿🍾

Rocco's Tacos among Boca Raton's Top 4 Taco Tour Picks! Read the latest feature from NewsBreak

Another new place. Scotland ALREADY IS the playground for the very rich. There are SEVERAL new, incredible places and several more, in planning. Amazing, World Class places. With a potential audience of hundreds of millions, it's time for Scotland to chuck £millions at Tourism infrastructure and Training. Tourism is our future, we need to forget about making Ships and having here-today-gone-tomorrow, crap 'Contact Centres'. Tourism, Scotch Whisky Tourism. Time to make EVERY Tourist put 'Scotland' on their 'bucket-list' and want to come here, for our unrivalled increasingly sophisticated (and expensive) offer. Nobody stops going to nice places, because they are expensive. Have you looked at Norway? The Italian Riviera? Monaco? Dublin? Don't listen to the Right Wing, 'self preservation society', Tourism Cabal, moaning. We need to do it NOW and not moan and 'have meetings'. I've been at these 'meetings' and they 'move on', when anything that might touch a nerve or involve change is spoken about! We can't exploit local staff as easily now and we have to Train and Pay people properly. Scotland needs to wake up to this. It's actually what we SHOULD be speaking about, not attending Garden Parties, at Holyrood Palace, thinking it's great. Less Hats, more Houses for staff. #scotlandisnow #ScotchWhiskyTourism

Prep! It’s a word we use in hospitality to ensure we’re ready for service - our foundation to deliver an exceptional customer and team experience. I recall how this was described as ‘the hot dog vendor’ when I was a GM back in Edward’s (M&B) in 1997. In a nutshell the hot dog vendor needed to be fully prepared for the long night ahead - failure to be ‘prepped’ would mean a short shift leading to disappointment and low sales - heading home early. So how does ‘prep’ play out in our corporate world? Yes it’s vigorous diary planning etc, but how do we show up? For most of our team members we provide a uniform - but what about us. I chose my outfit the night before - depending on what I’m doing, who I’m seeing and the weather! My mind is in a better more creative place at 8pm than 5:30 am. For me this routine sets me up for success, drives positivity and impact on those I meet the next day. Yes - my wife struggles to understand how I can be bothered, but I have to be bothered as this is my ‘prep’! Food for thought… #prep #setforsuccess #positivity #dressforthestage

Exciting announcement!! I am so excited and delighted to share that at Engage & Prosper we can now bring our employee engagement expertise and passion for people experiences to your employee events. Pun intended, we have brought in to our stable of brands the beautifully converted vintage horse trailer mobile bar - The Big Fizz (or Hetty as she is fondly known to friends). Ask me about our innovative and creative event experiences so we can give your next event the wow factor tailored to you. If you're a company who thinks outside the box, you and your team literally can now! We design and craft all kinds of tailored event experiences, themed entirely around you; Culture change programmes - unite and connect teams Family fun days - Socialise and build connections, memories and experiences with teams, and their partners, and little loved ones, perhaps their pets too! Team building challenges - Build collaboration, brain boosters, relationships and belonging New product and service orientations and launches - Build knowledge, advocacy, bonds and relationships Thank you and appreciation roadshows - Show and shate the love. Gift goodies and swag to brag about Workshops and programme kick offs - Do it with style and novelty. Ditch the stale meeting rooms, get outdoors, cream tea, picnic in the park anyone? Client & staff collaborations and celebrations - Booze or boozeless, treats or sweets, product launches, tasters or tempters, whatever your industry, whatever you need to Engage & Prosper, get in touch. Let's build an event you, your colleagues and clients would die for. https://lnkd.in/eEPFJgkt

Pioneering within F&B can be challenging especially when you choose Stadia. But let’s turn the clock back twenty years ago when Stadia Catering generally in U.K was pretty Errmm basic (I am choosing my words carefully). So back in the day at City of Manchester Stadium at SportsCity, where I spent twenty amazing years as Consultant. Well we had a tough bold real scary commitment to driving great F&B and Culinary achievement, it was paramount, it was relentless. Each day felt like a relationship of salt or sugar. Funds were scarce so any change, improvement in F&B or betterment had to be delivered without ‘brass’. It felt like most days, most matches we tried, introduced, attempted, trialled and had ago at a multitude of new creative innovations. We set light to the industry where we saw and spied our competitors visiting very often (in disguise). But back to 2024 and I was wandering around a tiny sweetie shop recently which brought a smile to me. I remembered Manchesters ‘crazy gang’ of David, Neil, Lee, Keith, Robert, Simon and more, my role was simply the excuse. Well we designed our mobile sweetie trolley which would trundle around knocking on the door of sixty plus private boxes overlooking the pitch. Weighing scales, paper pages, jars, scoops and those quality old fashioned sweets, the lot and fans customers loved it. My point being it cost next to nothing, but the cost of not doing it was far more to us all due to the culture we had formed. In summary it cost nothing other than bl**dy desire. Mine will be sherbet lemons, torpedoes, pineapple chunks and gobstoppers please! www.johnbensonsmith.com #stadiumcatering #cateringconsultants #foodandbeverageindustry #footballbusiness

Day 15/30 of my series of retail, social media, business and much more! I think REFY is one of the coolest brands right now. Started when founder, Jess Hunt, had a famous five step eyebrow routine to get her signature fluffy brows (a huge trend), and her friend & makeup artist (Jenna Meek) noticed a product development opportunity for a functional product, they have since killed it with incredible social media campaigns and content, amazing activations (like the one below) and I believe they have disrupted the beauty market in a very impressive way. From my consumer/follower perspective, Jess owned the fluffy brow trend and I saw it as part of her personal brand even as the trend died down and so when I saw her launch their famous brow sculpt, it made so much sense. It’s one of my absolute favourite things to see in business when someone’s authenticity and unique personal brand allows them to create an opportunity and have it go beyond them - as REFY has done with its worldwide success. I think the brand really understands social media as they are consistently bringing out exciting campaigns, pop ups, and unique activations, which is important in the beauty industry where hype phases can die out quickly. And of course after the huge success of what I think is their hero product (the brow sculpt), they are expanding into other beauty product categories like lips and face, which is in line with their focus on functional, natural and clean makeup. If you haven’t already heard of them, they’re one to watch for sure. (Also last point because I could talk all day and I’m actually studying them for some coursework right now, but their retail partnerships are very interesting as 3 weeks into launching Sephora picked them up so they’ve been stocked in the US and UK since very early on. Very impressive and from my retail knowledge, a great move to bring that brand awareness and cement their presence as a great brand in the beauty space) Thanks for sharing Charlotte Geoghegan! #refybeauty #refy #socialmedia #brandexperience

Beyond innovation, collaboration and true team work, here are a few more examples of why going to work each day at TBHQ is such a great experience.