Mitali Deypurkaystha is a former ghostwriter turned book consultant and publisher who is on a mission to turn vegan experts, business owners and C-suite executives into authors. Her new book The Freedom Master Plan: Put Your Mission, Movement and Message on the Map is a practical guide on how to free yourself from ‘selling’, and chasing clients or investors by writing a high-value business book and – importantly – how to leverage it. The book – which is an Amazon bestseller in several categories...
Jun 02, 2022•50 min
In this episode, I interview Jecks Stone , interior designer and founder of Persona Abode in the UK. Her background in recycling management and historic building conservation were the foundation of marrying interiors with environmental impact. After wrestling with balancing her morals with the perceived frivolity of the interior design industry, Jecks became one of the first UK designers to be vegandesign.org certified. Through Persona Abode, her vegan lifestyle and interest in mental health she...
Nov 25, 2021•56 min
In this episode I interview Lena Ludwig , founder and principal of Vital Gains mergers and acquisitions consultancy in Washington D.C. A vegan of 26 years, Lena started working in mergers and acquisitions and finance over 20 years ago, and she’s helped hundreds of businesses with successful acquisitions, joint ventures, and strategic growth planning. For the past 10 years, she’s been a financial and administrative executive in the plant-based foods and animal rights movements. Vital Gains is a w...
Nov 11, 2021•45 min
In this episode I interview Natasha and Ed Tatton , co-founders of BReD , a vegan, organic, sourdough bakery in the ski resort town of Whistler in Canada. Both originally from the UK, Natasha is a former English teacher, and Ed is a professional fine-dining chef. The couple moved to Canada, became vegan and passionate environmentalists and opened BReD three years ago. Earlier this year, the husband and wife team recently won the Best Youth Entrepreneur Award at the Small Business British Colombi...
Oct 28, 2021•51 min
In this episode I interview James McInnes , co-founder of Odd Burger vegan fast food chain in Ontario, Canada James, who was a software executive, was diagnosed with high blood pressure in 2014 and changed his lifestyle for the better by going vegan. He and his wife Lia began developing their own plant-based meats and soon were selling vegan meal kits featuring local ingredients. But they couldn’t shake the idea that what the world needed was vegan fast food, at a price that could compete with a...
Oct 15, 2021•53 min
In this episode I interview Tyler Mayoras , CEO and co-founder of Cool Beans , a plant-based food company in Chicago whose first products are globally-inspired, healthy frozen wraps. After nearly two decades investing in agriculture and food brands, Tyler had seen the dark underside of the American food industry first hand. After learning about the negative impact of animal agriculture on the environment, he began a journey into plant-based eating. Tyler co-founded Cool Beans in 2018 with a few ...
Sep 30, 2021•42 min
In this episode I interview Bailey Ruskus (aka Chef Bai ). Classically trained at Le Cordon Bleu in San Francisco, Bailey has been in business for herself for 10 years, but three years ago made the switch to become a completely vegan business. Host of the Plant Remedy podcast, she’s been a long-time warrior of endometriosis and has discovered her own tools to heal her body through food and health. Now based in San Diego, she cooks for top executives, professional athletes, and others, hosts virt...
Sep 16, 2021•44 min
In this episode I interview Mitchell Scott , co-founder and CEO of The Very Good Butchers , a Canadian plant-based meat company. After selling out the farmers’ markets on Denman Island, British Columbia, Mitchell and his co-founder and fellow ‘bean butcher’ James Davison knew they were onto something. They brought their beans to Victoria and opened the Canadian West Coast’s first plant-based butchery. The pair are currently opening a new facility that will be able to produce up to $100 million m...
Sep 03, 2021•39 min
In this episode I interview Professor Johanna Sophia , founder of Johanna’s Raw Foods in upstate New York. After a music, film, and writing career that saw her travel the globe, Johanna – who was raised in Germany – settled down in the US and raised her children. When her kids were barely in their teens and she was almost 50, Johanna found herself lying on the floor, paralyzed for what seemed an eternity experiencing a stroke. She made the decision to change her life but the lack of available pr...
Aug 05, 2021•43 min
In this episode, I interview Vikas Garg , the founder and CEO of abillion , a sustainability platform for plant-based dishes and cruelty-free products. Four years ago, Vikas left his high-flying career at one of the world’s largest hedge funds after he found a new mission — to help and inspire a billion people to go vegan in the next 10 years. Based in Singapore, Vikas is dedicated to grassroots education and conservation initiatives around the world. Abillion currently has more than 300,000 act...
Jul 22, 2021•51 min
In this episode I interview Jenny Goldfarb, founder of vegan meat company Mrs Goldfarb’s Unreal Deli in Los Angeles. After becoming vegan, Jenny craved the familiar flavors of her family's New York Jewish delis from her youth. The former tech entrepreneur began experimenting in her tiny kitchen, trying out the recipes on vegan and meat-eating family and friends. Encouragement from them quickly led to Jenny shopping around her first plant-based meat products and getting placed in all the major Lo...
Jul 08, 2021•45 min
This episode is a recording of a live virtual event I hosted recently: Power Chat with Anne McKevitt. From property developer and interior designer (with a homewares product line of 1600 sku’s) to prime time TV star (dubbed ‘Britain’s Martha Stewart’ by the media) and bestselling author of millions of books, Anne McKevitt’s skills and expertise in brand-building are sought after by the world’s leading entrepreneurial companies and A-list celebrities. Her client list includes Beyonce and Jay Z, G...
Jun 30, 2021•1 hr 38 min
In this episode I interview Rebecca Ettridge, the owner of Wombat Café & Store, the Mornington Peninsula’s first 100% vegan café in Victoria, Australia, founded in 2016. Wombat regularly raises and donates substantial amounts of money to Australian animal sanctuaries along with ongoing monthly payments to #paytherent, a grassroots Indigenous organization. The café, which has expanded to a team of 16 employees, also funds the running costs of its own farm sanctuary, Plumfield Farm, which curr...
Jun 25, 2021•38 min
In this episode I interview Izzy Shu, one of four co-founders of JOI (Just One Ingredient), a plant-based milk company with a difference. When Izzy and her fellow co-founders met in grad school, they quickly realized their shared passion for healthier lifestyles and a quest to make the world more sustainable, and created a thesis project: An innovative solution to make plant-based milks cleaner, more accessible and more eco-friendly. In 2016, JOI was created. The company offers concentrates made...
Jun 11, 2021•34 min
In this episode I interview Jena Bautmans, the founder of Jenah St., a vegan handbag and accessories brand in Germany. Before founding Jenah St. in 2019, Jena was the co-founder of Buckle & Seam, a men’s accessories company that uses animal leather. While working in Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Pakistan, she experienced an awakening of how the land and people are impacted by heavy industries like fashion, which changed the way she looks at the world. She decided to make a difference as a result ...
May 27, 2021•40 min
In this episode, I interview beauty industry veteran Tev Finger. He started in the industry in 1990. Since 2006, Tev has helped to create, launch and grow beauty brands across the globe through his company Luxury Brand Partners (LBP). He does this by partnering with key talent while focusing on unique distribution models and collaborating on product innovation, while staying on top of the latest consumer trends. Based in Miami Florida, LBP products are currently sold in 23 countries across North...
May 13, 2021•56 min
In this episode, I interview Bonnie Brown and Paul Turcotte, co-founders of Passion Placement, a new employment platform focused on connecting people with mission-driven organizations doing work that matters to them. Bonnie is a CPA, senior level executive and entrepreneur with over 25 years hands-on experience in finance, management, information systems and business leadership. Paul is an entrepreneur and business executive who built, owned, operated, for 20 years, and sold a successful, high-v...
Apr 29, 2021•36 min
In this episode I interview Kati Ohens, co-founder of vegan deli meats company Plantcraft in New Zealand. After a 20-year marketing, advertising, and software executive career, Kati exited her agency to start working in the mission-based space. While working as a vegan transition coach, she noticed the gap in the alternative meat market, and the need for deli slices. Kati met commercial banking executive Csaba Hetenyi, a fellow Hungarian, during a work project as they were looking at commerciali...
Apr 15, 2021•47 min
In this episode, I interview Stephanie Miklosvary, founder of Lucky Chick, a vegan cosmetics brand in New York. Stephanie founded and created the company in 2000 as she was putting her art degree to work as a shoe designer in New York City. Nicknamed “Lucky Chick” by a friend for living in her LC (Lobby C) apartment, she decided to create a persona around her new name. Inspired by art and self-expression, Lucky Chick Cosmetics makes a vibrant range of color-intensive glosses, lipsticks, shimmers...
Apr 01, 2021•48 min
In this episode I reveal a couple of situations I experienced recently when publicists pitched me their guests to be on this show, that I want you to avoid. Making journalists’ jobs easy is super important when you’re doing your own PR (or pitching a guest on their behalf). I include podcasters and bloggers in the journalist category too. I receive heaps of pitches from both PR agencies and vegan business owners and to be honest, most of them fall flat, because the person pitching hasn’t done th...
Mar 18, 2021•30 min
In this episode I interview Che Green, co-founder of Moonshot Collaborative, a new consumer research firm offering affordable solutions for vegan and plant-based brands. Based in Washington State, Che is a 25-year market research veteran focused on sustainable and ethical consumerism, including plant-based foods. He has led research efforts for groups ranging from Fortune 50 companies to international nonprofits. Che co-founded Faunalytics more than 20 years ago, which provides data for animal a...
Mar 04, 2021•40 min
In this episode I interview Sara Polon, co-founder of Soupergirl, a plant-based soup brand in Washington DC. Sara is a former standup comedian who founded Soupergirl in 2008 with her mother, Marilyn, aka Soupermom. Sara Polon (right) with her mother Marilyn. The pair have been featured regularly on national television, including Shark Tank and NBC’s Today Show. Last year Soupergirl received a $2 million dollar investment from Arborview Capital and Seth Goldman, Board Member of Beyond Meat. More ...
Feb 18, 2021•42 min
In this episode I interview Stephanie Downs, the co-founder of the Material Innovation Initiative, a non-profit focused on accelerating the availability of sustainable and cruelty-free alternatives to leather, wool, fur, down, silk, and exotic skins. Stephanie is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years’ experience founding businesses and consulting on corporate social responsibility in vegan materials. She started her first company in 1999, an internet marketing firm which she sold in 2014. In ...
Feb 04, 2021•39 min
In this episode I give you my top 5 trends and predictions in the vegan and plant-based business space for 2021. They are: 1. Continued growth of the plant-based meat sector, with more IPOs, and a newcomer that’s aiming to replace KFC 2. Creation of products using new biotechnology such as fermentation processes to create exact replicas of animal-based dairy and other items 3. Developments in the animal-free & sustainable materials space, including the launch of an organization dedicated to ...
Jan 06, 2021•22 min
In this episode I interview Doron Petersan, owner of Sticky Fingers and Fare Well vegan eateries in Washington, D.C. Doron opened Sticky Fingers Sweets & Eats in 1999, drawing on her degree in dietetics from the University of Maryland and years of experience working in restaurants. In 2010 she grew Sticky Fingers to include wholesale distribution at grocers in Washington D.C., Virginia, and Maryland. She also opened an online Sticky Fingers store that ships sweets and merchandise nationwide ...
Dec 23, 2020•38 min
In this episode, I interview food safety consultant Heather Landex who’s originally from the UK and currently based in Denmark. Heather began working in the food service industry in 2000 and has worked in eight countries, in over 1000 food service businesses. Since training as an Environmental Health Practitioner she’s specialized in food safety, working with large food safety and safety compliance companies, The Olympic Games, and some of the largest chain restaurant brands and Michelin star re...
Nov 27, 2020•37 min
In this episode I interview Toni Okamoto, the founder of Plant-Based on a Budget, the popular website and meal plan that shows you how to save dough by eating veggies. California-based Toni is also the author of Plant-Based on a Budget and The Super Easy Vegan Slow Cooker Cookbook, as well as the co-host of the Plant-Powered People Podcast. Photo: Lauren Alisse Photography. Her work has been featured in the popular documentary What the Health, and she's a regular presence on local and national m...
Oct 23, 2020•54 min
This episode features a panel discussion I hosted a couple of months ago for the VegFestUK Summerfest Online event for the Trade Day’s manufacturers and suppliers section. It features several renowned entrepreneurs in the food, fashion and beauty sectors. Among the topics they discuss include: • How lockdown impacted them • What they had to do to survive • What’s selling and why • The impact of lockdown on the development of new products • How the COVID-19 situation impacted their relationships ...
Oct 15, 2020•1 hr 25 min
In this episode I interview Carissa Kranz, a former professional ballet dancer-turned Super Lawyer who is the founding attorney and CEO of BeVeg International, a vegan certification firm managed by the Law Offices of Carissa Kranz, an American law firm with offices in Florida, New York, Washington D.C, Georgia, and California. Carissa, who has been vegan since birth, is a regular legal expert for major media networks including Fox, CNN, NBC and CBS and is currently an anchor with vegan and anima...
Oct 02, 2020•50 min
In this episode I interview Jane Velez-Mitchell of JaneUnchained animal advocacy and vegan media outlet. Jane is a renowned Emmy-award-winning TV journalist and New York Times bestselling author. Her decades-long career as a reporter for mainstream TV includes a six-year stint hosting her own show on CNN Headline News, where she ran a weekly segment on animal issues. Since 2014, Jane has headed up her own media site JaneUnchained.com. In February this year Jane launched New Day New Chef, a plant...
Sep 18, 2020•41 min
