In this episode of Local Marketing School, Emily Steele interviews Umaimah Sharwani, founder of Paro, a food brand specializing in South Asian flavors. Umaimah shares her journey of creating Paro out of homesickness for her mother's cooking and her experience scaling digitally native brands. We cover various aspects of building a food brand, including the importance of being retail-ready, community building through events and social media, and the challenges of entrepreneurship. We also touch on personal branding in CPG, the realities of running a startup, and the importance of having a strong support system! TUNE IN FOR TOPICS LIKE: 2:35 Umaimah’s career journey and startup experience at brands like Glossier, Jet.com, Fab.com and more 7:02 Going down the path of entrepreneurship and launching a CPG food brand, Paro 10:39 Navigating DTC, e-commerce 12:43 One thing you need to know if you’re launching DTC 14:16 Two things you need to do to get retail ready 16:42 How to know when you’re ready to launch in stores 18:16 Creating a strong brand story and conveying that to your audience 20:57 Ways to keep people engaged with your brand beyond initial touchpoints 23:49 How to ensure your brand exists beyond you 27:22 Advice for fellow entrepreneurs getting started Listen to this week’s Local Marketing School conversation! Other episodes you'll enjoy if you enjoyed Umaimah’s episode: #2: Local PR for CPG Brands & Beyond | Delaney Vetter, PR Strategist and Copywriter#7: From Local Markets to a National Spotlight | Steven Vigilante, OLIPOP Don't hesitate to reach out! We'd love to hear from you on Instagram and find out which episodes you're enjoying the most. Your feedback is so important to us! Please take a moment to rate the show and leave a review - it supports our ongoing Local Marketing School journey and helps us develop more content that addresses what you’re hoping to learn more about! Find Umaimah: LinkedIn Find Paro: Website | Instagram Connect with Host Emily: LinkedIn | Instagram Follow Local Marketing School on Social: Instagram | TikTok Follow Hummingbirds on Social: Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Ready to work with local influencers? Download our free guide! Curious what type of influencer you should be working with? Take our quiz! This podcast is produced by Hummingbirds. Learn more about Hummingbirds at hummingbirds.com.
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28 mins