"An Entrepreneur's Journey from Fashion to Wellness with Community Engagement": "Well, started in fashion and I had built a company called Lively in that space. And I start there because the whole idea for that company was, what if I looked at a category that was multi billion dollar in the United States, but felt a little not what I want as a consumer or what I see on social? Enter lively. Everything was crowdsourced community based, and it was a serendipitous hard journey, but ended up working quite well in the end. After that company was acquired, I was like, what's next? And wellness was my greatest passion. However, when I would survey my communities on a Google duck survey on my phone, everyone was like, great, Michelle."

"The Birth of Gorgy, a Wellness Revolution: We don't want candy or food. We want to drink. And I'm like, what? Anyway, I find myself in Florida, and everyone is drinking energy drinks, and I'm like, who drinks energy drinks? They're so bad for you. TikTok said there were some that were good for you, so I went to Whole Foods to buy one. Turns out there weren't any that were Whole Foods verified. And that's where, you know, the idea for gorgy really solidified. Like, what if we made an energy meets wellness drink and we posted that on TikTok? I was so fortunate that Jason Cohen, a CPG mastermind, was by my side and really helped me figure out the whole idea, the steps to take and so forth. And what was an idea on Labor Day? Basically, like a glass jar that I'm passing out to everyone that would stop and try it on the beach became a full fledged idea by Expo east at the end of the fall and launched in Whole Foods by January 11 of 2023."

"Using Social Media for Product Development and Feedback: And then Gorgy and I would pass it out on the beach, anyone that came to my house on fields, et cetera. This is a way to demonstrate, like, taste. Like, do they like this better than the others and why? So first we went for just, like, straight taste because we knew we wanted to create something without erythritol and sucralose. Fast forward, we start posting the can and the brand on social media, and they start helping us figure out what are the flavors. I thought Dragonfruit was going to be, it turns out, watermelon and peach, like, clear winners of the race. But that wasn't enough. Then it became about the benefits, and this is where it got really interesting. So, like, while I'm doing the glass can in a jar, everyone try my drink."

"The Power of Discreet Product Testing: 'Anyway, the point is, is, like, I'm not making the decisions necessarily. I'm using statistical data and interactions with humans to get to the answer. The most interesting piece of this is, in December, we unveiled our can at Art Basel in Miami, but hundreds of cans on a bar that we basically took over. We went there, and they were like, you know, Michelle, I know you guys, like, did ask for this space, but people are really liking it. Stay here and, you know, take the space for two days. In those two days, people kept grabbing our can and drinking it, and we would leave and come back and be able to ask these people, like, what did they think? And they didn't know we were behind the brand. Like, oh, it's this new energy drink. It's better for you.'"

"Creating a Brand Community Through Engagement: It wasn't about us selling the liquid to them. It was about the atmosphere the brand could create. And what was the takeaway? The takeaway was them posting and being so proud that they're part of something that actually didn't exist before. To like them coming up with names on a postcard for future flavors. Following and joining our Geneva community online. This just kept repeating and building and building. And so by the time we actually launched in January, we had thousands of people giving us advice and guidance. Now, picture a restaurant where there's gorgy postcards around the table, gorgy girls of Philly, stickers on their hands, and this drink they've never had."

"The Art of Balancing Risks in Beverage Industry: I answer it that way because I went in with a very utopian, serendipitous mindset, and it came to fruition. And I think, you know, you have to assess your risk and your greatest downside. We have a shelf stable product that can last, you know, basically a year. And so we went a little bit more long upfront, and knowing that we had the next six, you know, months to really learn and move through it. Now, we definitely paid more because we didn't produce millions of cans. That's an opportunity cost in production, but it's one that I was willing to take at the point because I had focus groups so much of the brand up until that point. Picture consumers lined up all around Tribeca, and then a full wall of gorgy and a cooler."

"Securing Business Partnerships": "They had, we connected with them on social. You know, we got an inbound on social and then an email, and at first I was like, yeah, right, someone's messing with us. But it was actually them. And we sent them samples, and very quickly they were like, we're interested in all six skus now. With air one, you have to really make sure you have all of your certifications and you're really verified on what they require from a nutrition and, you know, health perspective. We also had to be set up with Keige and, luckily again, we had all of these amazing people supporting us and guiding us that we were. So at that point, we had just gotten cleared for all of these different things."

"Fusing Fashion and Beverages: So it started when we started doing our first photo shoot, I saw those images and I was like, oh, my gosh. Because I was like, we have to shoot, like, a magazine. Like an elevated environment, you know, rented a car, as you'll see here, and, like, made a moment, right? But when I saw it, I was like, well, now everybody needs it in their hands. And so it wasn't like, oh, strategically, we're going to launch a magazine. I'm like, how do we tell this story that we came from fashion to beverage? I was like, well, make it fashion, right? And the other piece of it was, this brand is dual gender. It is led by women. Yes, and it is with women in mind, for sure. But if you think about fashion brands, let's talk about Lululemon."

"Modern Daily Cycle and Gorgy: They're going from waking up to working out to work to after work, school, you know, events, dates, et cetera. So we like to say breakfast with Gorgy, lunch with Gorgy, dance parties with Gorgy. Some people are anywhere from, like, 25 to 55, living in the city, picking up a gorgy at Whole Foods, in the cooler, on their way to their investment bank, their law firm, et cetera. I've watched it happen because I definitely sit there and creep on people as they're making purchases. The second demographic is moms and people that are going from pickup to drop off. Around two or 03:00 p.m. they're like, oh, my gosh, I have the second half of my day, they're drinking a gorgy on their way. It's people that have a multifaceted life witnessing the convenience and utility of Gorgy in their daily routines."

"The Power of Word-of-Mouth Marketing: 'You know, we're, you know, super fortunate and proud that, you know, we've had people reach out to us since launch, like we were at Wimbledon because we had a tennis player that was interested in us and celebrities, you know, across different spaces. However, with brand stickiness, it feels best when they just start out, like, truly loving the brand. And that's what happened with this creator. We're like, literally who sent it to her? And our whole team was like, not me. And then when we finally got in touch with her after she had posted a couple times, we're like, how did you find out? She's like, oh, my friend gave me one, and I, like, quickly swapped out my whole fridge. It's amazing. Then we organically had conversations that came together like that. That's when you say, yes.'"