On the benefits of doing the impossible

Why doing the impossible is easier than you may think

It can’t be done.

Good morning, friends. Thank you for opening and reading this. Today I wanted to share some thoughts on the benefits of doing the impossible. If you have any thoughts or feedback to share, just send them to andreas@borealbrewing.ca. I read, and try to reply, to every single one.

As Nelson Mandela (allegedly) said: “It always seems impossible until it’s done”.

During the last three years, I’ve lost count of how many times we were told that we could not do the things we wanted to do when starting Boreal Botanicals.

• You can’t launch a new product in the middle of a pandemic

• You can’t brew a drink from adaptogenic mushrooms

• You won’t find production facilities to make this. Nobody will take this on

• You can’t get this shelf-stable (meaning it doesn’t need to be refrigerated) without additives and preservatives

• It needs sugar. You can’t make this without sugar. The people want sweet. (We heard this one sooo many times)

• You won’t be able to find a distributor/retailer for this

• You can’t bet on a traditional retail strategy, you will need to go DTC (direct to consumer, meaning selling from a web store)

If we would have listened to any of the above, we would not have a company producing the word’s first ready to drink botanical tonic from medicinal mushrooms that’s both alcohol and sugar-free - we’re really quite proud of that - and you wouldn’t be reading this letter.

On the benefits of sharing everything

The very first thing we did was what so many entrepreneurs are scared of doing - we talked about our idea with as many people as possible, people with knowledge of the drinks market, people with knowledge of distribution, people who had marketed champagne or grown mushrooms, and people who had pioneered alcohol-free brands.

Why? Because ideas have no value, value only gets created by doing stuff. That’s why you frequently hear “oh, I had that idea years ago” when something new and amazing hits the market. Ideas only blossom once you do something about them.

Dealing with skepticism

Sure, there was lots of skepticism from some, (see the list of things that can’t be done above) but even those who thought it was too hard/impossible to bring to market, made introductions and suggestions. Look for pearls of wisdom, especially in negative feedback.

Your friends will try and protect you, those who don’t have a personal relationship with you will be far more honest.

Find your people

Little by little, as we talked to more and more people, an inner circle developed. At the beginning of this journey, before the Boreal brand even existed, my friend Mike, who was already a successful food entrepreneur, decided to throw his hat in as a co-founder, taking over formulation, production and manufacturing, skills I know nothing about. Having our two skillsets come together was the catalyst that made everything happen, that turned “you can’t” into “we will”.

And then, things (very slowly) started to change.

The first tentative offers of “hey, this sounds super interesting how can we get involved” came in. Distributors in Canada and the US, even as far away as Australia, started to be interested. People with brewing experience offered to collaborate.

This happened for three reasons:

• We had talked to anybody who’d listen to us. Value is easiest created when sharing ideas and 99% of people will be helpful, even if they’re skeptical.

• We had put our professional reputations behind the project - we made it clear to people that we were serious about this and that we had the skills to pull this off.

• We faked it until we made it. The very first thing we did, before we had a product formulated, was to develop the Boreal Botanical brand. That brand then got translated into a beautiful website and gorgeous packaging. Being able to share these assets with people helped to make the story real. The fact that we had no product in cans (yet) became secondary.

We even had some early investment offers, but both Mike and I think it is a mistake to take on other people’s money too soon, so we politely declined these. Build traction and create value first and use your own resources to do this. Nothing focuses the mind quite as well as spending your own cash to chase your dream.

But what if somebody steals my idea?

Most people with an idea are reluctant to talk about it because they are worried somebody may steal it. Let’s address this one: people have ideas all the time. In the shower, at 3:00 am, while they are driving to work. Some of them might well be life-changing if executed. But 99.9% of these ideas will fade away and nothing will be done about them.

The simple reasons? Ideas are easy, execution is hard. And most people have neither the energy nor the time or other resources to do hard things. So don’t worry about sharing. Instead, be prepared to do the difficult things. Most people won’t.

The inevitable sidelining - listening to “you can’t”

Early on, we did make the mistake of listening to people who said: “you can’t” because we subjugated our vision to their expertise. It lost us a good six months of development time and only stopping everything and returning to the original vision saved the product.

Working with “experts” and sacrificing vision

We had made the mistake of working with (no doubt well-meaning) experts and food scientists who create traditional soft drinks for a living. Why? Because everybody told us that this is how things are done and that we needed their expertise.

Problems started to happen almost immediately when they started developing a drink where the core ingredients - adaptogenic mushrooms - were hidden behind syrups, flavourings and preservatives and even then they only appeared as heavily processed extracts. Sample after sample was developed and each iteration (eating up time and resources) left Mike and myself more confused and frustrated. This was nothing like the drink we had dreamt up.

Pulling it back from the brink

Was this really the best that we could hope for? Was it true that our vision could simply not be achieved? After yet another frustrating meeting, we decided to cut ties and Mike started formulating in his own kitchen, using true, clean and plant-based ingredients only, adding no sugar or artificial sweeteners and focusing on our core ingredient - adaptogenic mushrooms.

It took a while, but by Christmas 2019 we had a test batch available we shared with family and friends. And guess what, people loved it. We were back on track.

Lessons learned

• If everybody tells you that something can’t be done, go and do it anyway.

• Stick by your vision - don’t allow people to dilute it. If need be, go back to square one.

• Build a team that can make it happen. Own your knowledge whenever possible.

• Talk to as many people as possible. Don’t work in isolation.

Where are we now

Allow me to revisit some of the “you can’t” statements we were given at the beginning of this journey:

• You can’t launch a product in the middle of a pandemic. We are in the middle of doing just that, with help and support from a multitude of partners.

• You can’t brew a drink from adaptogenic mushrooms. Not only can we do this, they also taste fantastic.

• You won’t find production facilities to make this. Nobody will take this on. We have amazing, dedicated and supportive production facilities.

• You can’t get this shelf-stable (meaning it doesn’t need to be refrigerated) without additives and preservatives. Our drinks are shellf stable and don’t need to be kept in the fridge - all without any preservatives.

• It needs sugar. You can’t make this without sugar. No sugar, no sweeteners, amazing flavours.

• You won’t be able to find a distributor/retailer for this. We had distributers pitch us and retailers contacting us how they could get a hold of our products before we had even launched.

• You can’t bet on a traditional retail strategy, you will need to go DTC (direct to consumer, meaning selling from a web store). We see huge value in working with well known retailers and are concentrating on building our relationships there.

Before I go: here’s a book worth reading

The untethered soul is a #1 New York Times Best Seller that talks about freeing yourself from limitations and doing the seemingly impossible. It’s worth reading on a number of levels.

Comments or questions? Let me know. Have a great weekend, stay say and if you’re in the US, make sure to vote, despite the hurdles you may face in doing so.