What's up, DTC Pod? Today we're joined by Carter Jensen, who is the global lead for D to C at General Mills. So, Carter, I'll let you kick us off. Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, General Mills and your role with the company?

Yeah, thanks, Blake, for having me. It's great to be here. And it's going to be hopefully a ton of fun to talk a little bit about what we're up to here at General Mills. So, as many know, General Mills is a manufacturer of some of the world's biggest food brands. Think Cheerios. Honey Nut Cheerios, but also think Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Reese's Puffs. Think Pillsbury.

Think Betty Crocker. Think Nature Valley. Think yoplay. I could go on and on over 100 brands globally, and it's just amazing to be a part of that family over the last two years. I joined in June of 2020 in the midst of my basement as the food industry was going through an incredible shift, thanks to the pandemic. Like I said, I've been there for a little over two years, and my team, we're a lean, mean team of five of us. We sit globally, we oversee new and emerging channels in commerce, aka direct to consumer. D to C is a core focus of ours.

It wasn't when we joined. We built it kind of from the ground up. And today we launch over 35 sites, or 35 D to C experiences each and every year across the globe. So an incredible opportunity. I feel very lucky to be there, and I think we're doing something a little different. So excited to talk a little bit more about it today. Yeah.

And we were really excited to have you on because I think you guys bring such a different perspective, right? Like, you guys have all the scale, you're as big as it gets in terms of a holding company that owns all these brands, but you guys are launching these products, D to C, you have learnings across these brands. So I'm really excited to just be able to get that sort of perspective on how you guys evaluate markets, what you're seeing across your different brands, and just the whole story of what it really takes to become one of these household name brand. Because I think in DTC, we're always talking about, oh, we're competing with the big guys who have all the shelf space. Well, that's you excited to really excited to be able to jump into this. But before we get there, why don't you walk us through? What's your background? How did you find your way into this role? Where are you from? What's your training? Where have you worked? How do you find yourself running D to C for all these brands?

Totally. Yeah. So, compared to my coworkers, I have a little bit of a different background. Being a part of a big CPG company, you have a lot of people there, 20 plus years, which bring incredible amount of wisdom to the table. But I came from the agency world, I was in advertising, in and out. I came from a couple of tech startups, ran a couple of D to C brands and ultimately ended up at General Mills, like I said, in June of 2020, taking on this really unique role. And I think when I look back at those ten years, whether it was the agency, if anyone's worked in the agency world or tell the founders who are listening, it's like boot camp, right? Like, you are dealing with something different every day. You have this really interesting, whether it was good or bad, rounded experience from kind of trial by fire.

And it's been a ton of fun, sometimes, frustrating, as you can imagine, bringing that into a big corporate kind of enterprise. But I think it's done an incredible wonder for the work that we've been able to do, simply because we can bring that experience. We haven't specifically focused in brand building or supply chain or technology. Let's say we kind of have that full 360 experience. So that's how I landed at General Mills and like I said, been over there a little over two and a half years, which seems like forever from someone who came from the agency and startup world. But at GMI, it's a pretty short tenure, so we're just getting started.