S2/Ep 9: Stop Letting Your Ego Design Your Packaging: The Brutal Truth About CPG Community with Cheryl
In this episode of Resilient as F*k!, Vivian Perez sits down with Cheryl, the founder of Canadian Women in Food (C-WIF), to uncover the brutal reality of launching a CPG brand and why your ego might be your biggest roadblock.
What started over a decade ago as a group of friends venting over wine has evolved into a powerhouse network of over 250 female founders across Canada. Cheryl breaks down why lived experience beats AI advice, how to navigate the Canadian retail landscape, and why finding your tribe is the ultimate survival tool for food entrepreneurs.
Available on Spotify and Apple Podcast
Key Takeaways:
Stop Designing for Your Ego: Before you spend six months perfecting your packaging and putting your face on a label, test the market. You need to face the brutal reality that your "baby" might be ugly to the consumer. Check your ego at the door, get out of your own way, and listen to real feedback.
ChatGPT Cannot Replace Lived Experience: AI is a fantastic operational tool, but it cannot replace the peer-to-peer mentorship of founders who are currently navigating the chaotic CPG landscape. You need a community that has actually walked the path and can tell you if you are hallucinating or heading in the right direction.
The Introvert's Advantage: You don't have to be the loudest, most extroverted person in the room to succeed in business. When introverts speak, people listen—but you still cannot hide from your customers. You must find authentic ways to show up, connect, and sell.
Authenticity > Aesthetics: Real business connections happen when you show up exactly as you are. Leave the corporate fakery and Instagram-perfect glam behind. People connect with real, unfiltered founders who are transparent about their struggles.
Memorable Moments:
The "Voluntold" Founding: How a casual dinner with industry friends complaining about the lack of support for female founders led to Cheryl being nominated—or rather, "voluntold"—to lead the organization.
The $50,000 Holy Sh*t Moment: How C-WIF turned a $5,000 city grant into a massive $50,000 corporate order from Intuit QuickBooks for their "Gifts of Goodness" boxes, injecting life-saving cash directly into their members' businesses during the pandemic.
Lashana’s Breakthrough: The story of a C-WIF member (founder of Moss) who wasted six months and thousands of dollars trying to make her brand look "perfect," before realizing the real power was in connecting with a community that put her in front of the right buyers.
Final Thought: Building a CPG brand is not about having the prettiest packaging or the most polished social media presence. It is about checking your ego, asking for help, and building genuine relationships. Whether you are navigating supply chain issues, struggling to get into retail, or dealing with recent "tariff trauma," having a resilient community behind you is the difference between failing quietly and scaling successfully.