Positive Reinforcement

There is nothing like hearing the words of a consumer..."this tastes great" or a store owner share his thoughts..."what a brilliant idea". While starting a company has had its hurdles, hearing praise from consumers, store chains and owners makes it all worthwhile!!!

This past week we exhibited at our first trade show. There we took more than twice the number of orders of our surrounding exhibitors and were thrilled by the reception of our products. This week we also held our first in-store sampling event. It went fantastically. Consumer after consumer, interested in how our whey protein-enhanced yogurt can help them achieve a lean body, pulled yogurt after yogurt off the shelf!

It's remembering these moments that keep me going during the challenging times of starting a new company!

WHEYnetka

We did it! To mark our official launch, we inundated the town of Winnetka, IL with whey protein, transforming it to WHEYnetka for the day! Winnetka , or WHEYnetka, is a neighboring town to our corporate headquarters located in Evanston, IL.

The WHEYnetka transformation began at the 4:00am hour in the train station to be ready for the first commuters at 5:00am. It was the coldest day of "summer" with temperatures in the forties! Still, the Better Whey of Life™ street team pleasantly greeted future customers with a "Better Whey to start their day". Customers received their Better Whey of Life™ yogurt complete with coupon for a future purchase and a US"WHEY" Today! Satisfied customers boarded the train energized and ready for their workday ahead!

By noon, and over 1000 customers later, we had accomplished what we had set out to do (and had already put in an eight hour workday)! We closed up shop only to head back to the office for another eight hour day!

It was a blast! Follow this link for a quick glimpse of the WHEYnetka transformation...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99MiX6m8RPQ

In the Dairy Case!

So sorry it has been so long since the last post.Things have been absolutely crazy busy this last month in preparation of our launch!The team and I have been on the road pre-selling the yogurts to local retailers to create the hometown, groundswell.

We have had great, early success. We secured quite a few retailers in the Chicagoland area, including:Potash Bros , Lincoln Park Market, The Market Place, Anton’s Fruit Ranch, Sunset Foods, Garden Fresh Market, Butera, and Valli Produce Markets. It is so wonderful that the stores in which we all frequent are accepting the products so quickly!

Last week we saw our first "production-ready" product come off the line! Though it didn’t go 100% smoothly, we know that the road to greatness is sometimes bumpy. In spite of a few roadblocks, our yogurt has begun arriving in stores. I’m excited to hear first reactions from all of you.To officially kick off the launch of the yogurts, we have planned WHEYnetka! Officially renaming Winnetka, IL to WHEYnetka, we will be taking over the town and passing out samples and coupons at the Metra station between 5-10am tomorrow (9/9/08).This is a shameless plug, but I would love to have all of you join us and try a free full-size sample of the yogurt if you are in the area.

One last note, we will be launching our new website this week as well. I’ll announce when it goes live, but it is amazing that everything is coming together.