This is the full transcript for Episode #261 of the Wild Business Growth Podcast featuring Karim Khalil – Labneh Spreader, Founder of Yaza. You can listen to the interview and learn more here. Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.
Karim Khalil 0:00
Nothing is impossible
Max Branstetter 0:16
Hello Welcome back to the Wild Business Growth Podcast. This is your place to hear from a new entrepreneur every single Wednesday morning who’s turning Wild ideas into Wild growth. I’m your host, Max Branstetter, Founder and Podcast Producer of MaxPodcasting. And you can email me at Max@Max podcasting.com to save time with your high-quality podcast. This is Episode 261 and today’s guest is Karim Khalil. Karim is the Founder of Yaza or Yaza Foods, the delicious line of Labneh the Mediterranean style dip, which is delicious. There’s no other way to describe it. In this episode, we talk Karim’s journey from growing up with Labneh to seeing a white space opportunity in the US bringing it to the US his early experience getting it into doors or stores however you prefer to say that depending on how much of a CPG or you are, how him in the team are he in the team, I’m not sure the right one for that are growing the brand and growing the options and flavors they have, and how he achieves fantastic work life balance and his thoughts on entrepreneurship and community in the US. It is Karim. Enjoyyyyyyy the showwwwwww!
Aaaaaalrightyyyyy we are here with Karim Khalil, Founder of Yaza, one of my favorite new food dip spread brands however you want to say it Labneh shaking up the world and bringing it to the US cream so great to you know, we literally just met in person but now to speak remotely over the podcast interview as well. Thank you so much for joining How you doing today.
Karim Khalil 2:04
Great, Max, thank you for having me. I’m really excited to be here. Course
Max Branstetter 2:07
of course and really excited to be here as well. I can’t believe they let me on this podcast now. But really excited to dive into the the Yasa story really just awesome. Super tasty. My wife Dane and I have taste tested it and confirm how delicious it is. But before we get into that, so you have some experience with family business, can you shed some light on that chapter of your life.
Karim Khalil 2:32
My family is used to be big in Africa, based in Nigeria and hair extension. And my father founded at in the 80s hair extension company factory out of Nigeria. And he started literally with five employees out of his house. And him and my mom used to drive around the country. Hair products in the booth of their car, drive around from city to city tried to sell it. And they grew the company from five employees to 7000 employees. So I joined that company, my father was sick around 2011. And I joined the company, took it over, was able to grow the company and we sold it in 2014. Holy
Max Branstetter 3:10
cow. So there’s a lot to literally unpack there from the boot of the car. And but that’s an incredible and inspiring and heartwarming story. How did your family get into the hair extensions niche of Nigeria in the first place.
Karim Khalil 3:27
So my father used to be a judge. He was the youngest judge in history of Lebanon. And then the war broke out. The civil war broke out in Lebanon, he had to leave. He moved to London. And then from there, he moved to France and then eventually moved to Switzerland where he was he was a banker. And part of his work at the bank was traveling around Africa, beating his clients. And over there, he saw the opportunity. He decided to quit everything and start from scratch. He moved us I was born at the time. We moved there for a few years. And then he started the business. And then he had us moved to Paris and he would travel back and forth. Because he wanted a better life for us. So he was based in Nigeria, founded a company and then we were based in France, and he would go back and forth every couple of weeks. What
Max Branstetter 4:11
was it about hair extensions in particular that caught his attention.
Karim Khalil 4:15
So it was very new. They were the pioneers. At the time, hair extension business in Africa is became very big. And when he started the business in the 80s it was still a small business. You know, he was the first one to start it off. Over there. They still used to wear dreadlocks and not hair extension not weaves, not braids. So they started that him and his brother and other members of his family. Each one took a different country. And they grew that business from one country, you know, in Nigeria to around 20 countries across Africa. We had 7000 employees in Nigeria but we have 25,000 across the whole group. Holy cow.
Max Branstetter 4:53
So you see multiple countries 1000s and 1000s of employees I think for any entrepreneur, it’s exciting to think about and hopefully one day you can, you know, build out your team. For many that’s like, alright, just getting your first employer getting your first few employees, that which is a tongue twister, but 7000 employees, I mean, and more in different countries, what tips did you learn from your parents about scaling it building out your team, and it’s such a crazy scale like that.
Karim Khalil 5:24
I was running Nigeria, which had 7000 employees, I was very young, I was 21 years of age, I had so much responsibility. But that was the best school for me. That was the biggest challenge. We faced a lot of, you know, a lot of issues, a lot of competition. The business environment in Nigeria is not very easy to work in, is not you know, there’s a lot of corruption, a lot of tough competition. So it was it was very challenging. And my father wasn’t able to be next to me most of the time, because he had, you know, he had he was going through cancer. So it was great for me to build a team what I was able to do, when I moved there, we had 7000 employees, but we had one person in sales, no person, the marketing, literally no one in the office, it was everyone in the factory, we just used to produce and sell. When we sold the company, our sales and marketing team was over 200 people, what we were able to do is kind of create the brand. So we had a very strong brand, but we had to create the brand value. And that asset is what we were able to achieve. In the few years I was at the company.
Max Branstetter 6:27
How did you navigate? You know, like, that’s an incredibly emotional time with your father. And then there’s all this, you know, crazy, like big, explosive growth business that you’re managing as well as getting more into it. What How did you tackle just kind of like the day to day in that time,
Karim Khalil 6:46
the biggest challenge I would say, was kind of understanding the consumer, that’s the most important, that’s the biggest mistake a lot of entrepreneurs do. They don’t understand their consumers, they put themselves in the shoes of the consumer. And for the hair extension business, I had no option, I had to understand the consumer because it’s not a product I can consume, even if I wanted to. So that was the biggest challenge on day to day can’t understand the consumer see what they want, and how to build that brand, how to grow their brand and how to fix the problems with the consumer. That learning I was able to, to bring into USA
Max Branstetter 7:23
let’s get to Yeah, as a full context here, very early days of going to market and yes, and very early days of hitting the shelves. And so you know, we interview a wide range of entrepreneurs in the show, some have been around for, you know, decades and decades and some are just getting into stores. And so you’re more of the latter case, but I can again can tell from taste testing and your branding how how awesome of a brand and product it is so really, really promising start here. For anybody who’s not familiar. What is Labneh celebrity
Karim Khalil 7:54
by definition is a strain yogurt. But the way I would explain it to someone who doesn’t know what lemonade is, is kind of Greek yogurt and cream cheese had a baby. That’s what lemonade is. So loving is a savory Greek yogurt, it’s more strained, so it has more health benefits.
Max Branstetter 8:12
What’s the difference between some of these other dips and spreads out there and health benefit wise
Karim Khalil 8:17
so celebrity has less calories, you know, we have per serving which is around two tablespoons, where 30 calories versus a cream cheese would go between 80 and 110 calories. Protein wise we are three gram protein compared to a one or two gram protein. Fat wise we’re at one and a half grams versus a five 610 grams depending on what cream cheese you buy. The same time we do have probiotics similar to the Greek yogurt and because it’s savory, it’s not sweet. You don’t have to add any sugar to the lab name for it to taste good. So it’s very good for you. It’s what me as someone from Lebanon grew up eating every single day of my life.
Max Branstetter 8:58
Can you add some color to that so,
Karim Khalil 9:02
so lovely is the first thing you would find in anyone’s fridge. What doesn’t matter their social level. It’s like the basic thing you need to have in your fridge to have lemonade and bread pita bread. These are the two basics of any households. So we have it you know that’s our go to breakfast. It’s our go to dinner as well. But we also have it you know as a dip snacking or breakfast time for them. Or we have it we marinate are food with it. We marinate chicken with it. We put it as a side next to rice with vegetables. It is used it’s a very versatile product that is always on anyone’s table. When you show up to their house. It’s like having salt and pepper.
Max Branstetter 9:45
When did you start to think about introducing Labneh into the US as the as as the product you’re solely focused on?
Karim Khalil 9:53
I was living in Lebanon, and I always wanted to move to the US you know I always had this this big dream the American Dream mean, to get a better life, you know, I think the US is the best country in the world. It’s also the biggest economy. I wanted a better life for my children. I always wanted to go into foods, I was looking at different foods. And I was traveling a lot back and forth to to us. And I’ve kind of felt that opportunity. It was middle of the pandemic, there was a big explosion, my apartment got destroyed, we just, you know, took the plane and left, landed in Atlanta, with my family, and I started looking at a celebrity and kind of understanding that the market took my time because of COVID. And things were kind of hard to meet people and talk to people and understand how things work. February of last year, is where I decided I need to start with leveling.
Max Branstetter 10:41
Was this a you mentioned a big explosion? Was this that giant chemical explosion? That was like shook the world basically, exactly. Oh, my God, can you we don’t need to dive too much into that. But what was your reaction when you like? Did you hear it? Did you feel it? Like what was that? Like? Luckily,
Karim Khalil 10:57
I was I had traveled the day before. If I was home, I wouldn’t be here talking to you right now. Jesus, nothing was left from my apartment, completely destroyed. You know, I came back packed my stuff spent one night and Lebanon just left. I didn’t want to take any more risk for my family. It’s not worth it.
Max Branstetter 11:16
Oh, my God, I mean, talk about life changing. So then thankfully, you’re traveling thin. And it’s, it’s, it’s amazing to see already. And you know, just a few years here how you had the idea to move to the US. And now it’s you know, not only are you here, but you’re you’re launching a business and like getting into stores and contribute to the economy. And so it’s just inspiring story all around on the yahsat note. So how did you start to piece this brand together from an aesthetic standpoint? So
Karim Khalil 11:45
initially, what I wanted, I wanted to introduce laminate to the market. And lemony back in Lebanon is only playing, you will only find it plain in grocery stores, except if you go to like very high specialty stores where they kind of make their own plans to sell it sell it to you, but mostly, it’s plain. And I looked at the market here, let me wasn’t big enough, in my opinion, you know, it’s only currently sold in ethnic stores before he as I came on board. It is the few mainstream market but it’s directed for the ethnic consumer. And I kind of asked my question why I looked at the landscape of London here. And all the laminate that we found was not real acne, it’s at least it’s not the left knee, I grew up eating. So I decided I wanted to make the real lemonade. I didn’t do anything about food. You know, I am an entrepreneur, I have experience in production. I have experience in running a business, but I had no experience with food. So I kind of had to look for the best partner for that. And they found a gentleman called Ron and Marx, who used to run and own his own Greek yogurt company out of Atlanta. So he joined on board, April 2022. And he’s a dear expert. We had to smuggle in Lebanon from Lebanon. Every time you know, family member would show up or friend would come from Lebanon, we would smuggle that in the cooler, send it to labs kind of have him tasted kind of understand how to you know how it works, how to make it, we partnered up with a few food scientists back in Lebanon, because we wanted to get the real lab money to the market.
Max Branstetter 13:19
How much testing or rather, taste testing was there in those early days to make sure that you got these flavors, right. So it
Karim Khalil 13:27
took us over six months to make a kitchen sample. So the first six month we’re making kitchen sample. And then after that we had once we had our gold standard. We did a consumer research. So we had a few 100 people out of warehouse in Atlanta, that’s what they do for you know, getting qualitative feedback from people have them try our product versus the market. We’ve had over 90% prefer product. And I was still doing the kitchen gold standard. So we knew we realize at that point, we had something. Now the other challenge we had to do is take it from the kitchen to a factory. And that took quite some time to convince someone to listen to us. We were looking for a co Packer that would take the risk. It’s a startup company. It was a big challenge. I spent a month I had a list of a few 1000 co packers in the country. I would spend the whole day calling co Packer after co Packer. And finally someone in upstate New York finally answered the phone and gave us an appointment. We flew there in December of last year. We kind of explained to them. They didn’t know anything about labor. They tried explaining to them what lab there is and we didn’t even know how to make it in the factory. We had an idea but we never tried it. So we kind of did that from December to March and in March. We got closer to a prototype. And then we did it in their lab. The other challenge was to scale it up. And that’s something we had you know in June was our first production run. We did that I tried the product If I threw it away, it wasn’t up to standards to what I wanted to do. So we had orders in the market, we had to delay that. But that’s a hit we took, it’s better to have product to throw away at the warehouse level, rather than having it in the market and people not not getting 100%. So it’s not until beginning of August, that we were able to get the perfect product that matches the gold standard that we feel values, you know, gives the value of Yassa. You
Max Branstetter 15:28
didn’t know your full time job would be deciding when to throw away your own product, did you? How did you come up with the at the time of this recording? There’s three flavors that you’re rolling out with really, really good stuff and arrive a wide variety of flavors. But can you walk us through how you decided on this offering a three,
Karim Khalil 15:45
we wanted to do flavors, that’s something that no one had done. At least in the US, we wanted to create flavors for the market. Because we know that, you know, American consumer has less time he wants something on the go something easy, ready to go. So we created flavors for him. And the idea is not only three flavors, eventually we have more flavors coming out. But Zaatar and olive oil, which is currently our best seller is the most authentic way of eating lemony. An average person from Lebanon with ads, I turn olive oil to their lemony, maybe, you know few vegetables, tomatoes, cucumber, maybe some mint, and other rappers sandwich or dip it so that an olive oil being the most authentic way of eating it. That was a number one flavor, spicy chili being a more American way of eating it, that’s a flavor of the American consumer knows. But same time we’re using Aleppo spices from Syria from the region, which is kind of, you know, keeping it authentic, while satisfying the American palate. We did that we also had six flavors during our consumer research. And those are the top three that people liked. So we started with those flavors for them.
Max Branstetter 16:52
And the other one that we’ve been alluded to is the plane or the original Hoover Dam, and I loved all of them. They were all good. I think somehow you hit the nail on the head with the American consumer because we gravitated to the spicy chili. There’s just something about spicy chili that are a little bit of kick that brings it over the top but they were all good. And I think it’s a really great balance of three different ones to start with because they all have a little bit of a different flavor or flavor notes to it. So
Karim Khalil 17:20
we’ve let the consumer decide how they will eat it. We’ve seen a lot of creativity from consumers. People are marinating the spicy chili, they’re writing chicken and then grilling it on the barbecue. And they’re sending us pictures. You know people are loving that. We have people marinating does that are if you ask me my favorite is the plain because I’ve grown up eating the plain all my life and I know how to kind of deal with it and what to add to it. We typically add olive oil that’s a go to first thing you add to it and then you can add either data or tomatoes or different things. Some people add fruits to it. It depends what you like. So the plane gives more versatility for for consumer to add what they like. The flavors is more ready to go. You open the spicy tuna you get in Doritos chips or any other chips you just dip it in, or Stacy chips and you have it out of the tub. It’s so easy to get lunch. We have people in the office here. Different company, they have Yes, Fridays so every Friday, they buy yes I love it. And there’s three of them. One’s favorite is a spicy, the others is that are the third one is the plane. So it’s kind of a good balance.
Max Branstetter 18:22
And shout out Stacy Stacy Madison, Stacy’s pita chips, as you alluded to who’s who, as you know, has been on the podcast before. And when we first tried yezza, we use Stacy’s pita chips. And I think it’s like the perfect one to punch. You mentioned that one of the biggest challenges was going from kitchen to factory. But it doesn’t just stop there. Of course, you have to actually sell it into retailers. And this was really cool. This is how we actually connect in the first place. Shout out your PR team who somehow found me track me down, knew I was in Hoboken New. I had a podcast about entrepreneurs and said hey, Kareem is going to should shouldn’t say like that. But hey, Kareem is going to be at Kings the grocery store in Hoboken, which is actually the first store that has sold into for an in store demo, we’d love for you to come by. And that’s actually we came in met in person. So really, really cool there. But you know, you’re in many stores now, especially around the New York area, then you’re expanding beyond that as well. How have you started to, I mean, already get this early momentum with retailers in Gaza.
Karim Khalil 19:31
So before I jump into that, I want to shout out to Brooke, our PR person. She’s really amazing. I really liked her. That event where I met you and in Hoboken. It was a demo. And we wanted to give back like you said that kings food market with our first story sold. And I’m someone who believes in giving back to the community. So I was there. We’re giving T shirts, swag, some gift cards as well. It was kind of a fun event, but it was also good for us to have direct interaction with the consumer. Understanding their feedback, it’s always important to understand what they want, what they like, what’s their reaction. And I tried to be present in as many demos as possible. And we try to do as many demos as possible, because the biggest challenge we will face is people buying it off the shelf. Now that we have it on the shelf, as you said, taking it off the shelf. And we’ve seen that when people try it, they’re loving it. So as soon as people are trying it, the first thing I do is buy it, the hardest part is to get it in people’s mouth people to try it. So these demos are a great way to do that. Now, I believe in building a team, we have a really good sales team, really strong sales force that were able to get the product on the shelf, we have a really good marketing team, social media working with so many influencers, but also kind of passing on the message about lemonade. And we’ve had really, really good sales, you know, our products been flying off the shelf very quickly. Our biggest challenge now is your stores are running out very quickly, which is a good problem to have. And we’re really happy with how the consumers have reacted to our product launch. Hmm,
Max Branstetter 21:00
it’s a really interesting point you bring up about the demos are, of course, they’re a really effective tool for getting people to actually try the product. Because, I mean, how do we not met, I’m probably in that category weight. I think I’ve heard of laminate before, but I didn’t know too much about it. And if I just saw it on a shelf, I don’t know if I would go for it. But once I tasted it, I was like, oh my god, I like like Dana’s already already, like, Alright, we gotta get more max. So, but in addition to demos, what are some other ways that you’re starting to tackle this like huge roadblock of needing to educate consumers.
Karim Khalil 21:35
So we’re using social media, that’s a new way of reaching the consumer, everyone’s on social media these days, we’re working on that. We’re also build some recipes, we’re launching a recipe page, by the end of the month, where we’re showing the consumer how to use lemony if they decide to be creative, kind of, you know, some ideas on how to use lemonade. It’s going to be, you know, it’s going to be challenging, we understand that that’s part of it. And no one has been able to tackle that space yet. So we’re very excited to be there. We’ve grown really fast already. We’re already in 17 states in the month of being the market. We were at a trade show last week. And we had a lot of people walking to us be like we’ve seen you on social media. So that social media campaigns really doing doing good, and they’ve come try the product. It was like a demo, we’ve had around four or 5000 people in three days. It was crazy. The amount of people that were at the booth. They were people I loved it. We ran out of money on the last day, because people were just taking tubs away, they loved it. They loved it. We’re not in Philadelphia yet. So everyone living in Philly would just you know, take a tub and go away with it. So we’re really happy
Max Branstetter 22:41
about that. What’s your ideal type of store to be into
Karim Khalil 22:44
before going to serve we want to be in every American household table. That’s that’s the objective. It doesn’t matter what social level you are at. We want to be on your table we want you to eat lemony Sullivan is such a versatile product that not only you can use it as a dip, or spread or cook with it. You know, I make lemonade with pasta. We had someone sending us some of that the beet lemonade, pasta, like a Barbie team lemonade last week, you there’s so much you can do with lemonade. But at the same time, we also want to we also feel that they can eventually replace some of the cream cheese consumer, either either on the bagel, or on the sandwich. It could also replace sour cream because lemon is much healthier, much better. For our kids. We want to be in everyone, every American household
Max Branstetter 23:35
looking back already at you know, which really is just the start, you know, like first at bat first pitch of your journey. What has been the biggest driver in the the early success and early you know, distribution wins for Yassa. So
Karim Khalil 23:53
we’ve had the community so people that I either from Lebanon or people who know what it is. And we realized that that number of people is growing. That percentage is growing really fast. Because people are looking for Mediterranean diets for healthier diets, especially after COVID. After the pandemic, people care about what they eat. You know, our plain lemonade is made out of only two ingredients. It’s milk and salt. That’s it. There’s nothing else in it. It’s very clean. The American consumer is used to drinking milk and eating dairy products and sold this is nothing foreign to them. So we’ve seen that once they realize that our product has no kind of chemicals, or powders or thickeners or preservatives and it’s just very clean product. A lot of people picking up the product that’s for the plane. We’ve seen that on the Satara people call it some people call it the olive oil flavor because they’re familiar with olive oil. People are familiar with that are qualities that are flavor. spicy chili. We’ve seen that people like spicy, they’re loving it. That’s a go to this. We’ve had stores that only sell spicy chili. So it’s kind of there’s something for everyone out there. And we don’t have a norm are one obviously, the hours that our flavor, it’s our best seller. But it’s not too far the other two are kind of, you know, it’s like 4030 30. It’s not that far from each other.
Max Branstetter 25:12
If your mind would enjoy the flavors of podcasting tips, entrepreneurship tips, puns that make you shake your head and roll your eyes, then you will love what we’re whipping up with the Podcasting to the Max newsletter. You can sign up at MaxPodcasting.com/Newsletter. And that comes to you short and sweet or short, sweetly, every Thursday now for another edition of the worst segue you’ve ever heard. So let’s switch gears a little bit. Let’s go from dairy and salt to inspiration and creativity is to which was a terrible segue there. But I would love to hear more Karim about you on the personal side, and really how you’re how you’re operating at the time of this recording as an entrepreneur and as a business leader. So we’ve alluded to it. And I know from just what we talked about in person, too, that you know, you’re traveling around a lot, right now you’re going to different demos, you’re going to different trade shows meeting with different retailers. Go go go. And obviously it’s been a big driver, you and Tim doing that in order to you know, see this early momentum. How are you? I guess making some time for you know, family and personal life to make sure that you don’t burn out and you know, this early phase of Yaza. So
Karim Khalil 26:30
yeah, so for me, family is very important. I have two kids, two boys, one seven year old, and I have a almost two year old son. It’s very hard to balance, especially for a startup, especially at the beginning. You know, I work all day. Sometimes I work at night, I work every weekend. But I am 100% committed wherever I am. So if I’m home, I switch work week away, I spent I give 100% commitment to my family. When I’m at work, I switch everything away. I give 100%. And thanks to my wife, karma, who’s been very supportive and very helpful. She’s you know, she kind of took over part of the role at home. When I’m not there in my absence. You know, this Friday, I have a trip to have a work trip to DC. I’m taking my son with me. He’s gonna miss school. He’s coming with me. I kind of that’s how I want to kind of balance we won’t tell his teachers. Well, I did. I actually emailed the teachers, I told them, You know, I think that’s a good part of education. I used to travel to Nigeria, I visit my dad at work, and you learn a lot. That’s, you know, he’s my biggest inspiration. I learned so much from him, how he started from nothing and what he was able to achieve. So for me, I want my son, you know, he looks up to me. Every time he has a show and tell at school, he talks about Yassa, he brings in sales sheet and banners and products he wears he has a t shirt. So I think it’s important for him to kind of go we have a demo in DC, he’s going to be with me, we have a few other meetings set, he’s going to come he’s going to have his iPad on the side, but he’s going to kind of see his dad in action, which I think is very important for child. But it’s also good time for me and him to bond. Because we I haven’t had the chance that as few months to spend a lot of time with him.
Max Branstetter 28:05
There’s a couple of parts there that I want to dig into further. The first part is, you mentioned how when you’re at home, and you’re you know, quote, unquote, off the clock, you’re totally committed to family and you’re able to switch work off what I guess mechanisms or tactics do you use to make sure that you’re totally focused on family and not being pulled away to email every few seconds at home.
Karim Khalil 28:27
So I put my phone on silent, I put on the charger in the bedroom, and I put my phone away, obviously not in working hours. So there’s nothing usually urgent. And I kind of plan that when I know there’s nothing urgent. So if we don’t have a production going on, or if we don’t have any big event coming on, this is what I do. I also like to take my family out to restaurants, we love eating out. We love trying different cuisines. Also, at restaurants, we have a rule with the family, my wife and myself were phones away once for the kids. So the kids don’t have distractions, and they kind of have the conversation and talk about their days or talk about their week. But at the same time for us to kind of enjoy time together. I think that’s very important. People
Max Branstetter 29:06
talk about the glow you get when it’s like a great meal with family or the people you love or even a you know, an awesome dinner party with friends. When you keep that phone away and just focus on the conversation and spending time together. It’s one of the best feelings that you can have. It’s great that you keep that attention on that. The other element that would love to dive into more is about your father. And so you know, you’ve mentioned that, you know, he’s the biggest inspiration ever to you and just an incredible life and incredible entrepreneurial story in himself. We’ll start with entrepreneurship. Well, what was the best entrepreneurship lesson that he taught you?
Karim Khalil 29:45
He told me to follow my gut and follow my dreams. When he started his business. He had almost nothing. And you know, he started from from his trunk of his car. And he told me, you know, the most important thing for you is to Just believe in yourself, work hard, it will pay off. That’s a very big learning for everyone. Nothing is impossible. If you work for it, if you work hard for it, if you take risks, you can’t just sit there and hope and say, Oh, I wish this happened. I wish I did this, I wish I did that. Nothing’s going to happen for you. I had to leave a country where my apartment was destroyed. I was in my comfort zone and my family, my entourage, my community, I left to a new country where I knew almost nobody. I wanted to start a business where I knew almost nothing about it. It was COVID Everything was shut down. No one wanted to talk to anyone because you know, it’s COVID it’s hard to make new friends hard to meet people. And I was able to be where I am today, because of that inspiration because of that message. And I speak to my father every morning and every afternoon. So every morning when I wake up the first person I call his him every afternoon around 5pm. Because that’s, that’s when it’s bedtime. Back in Lebanon, I speak to him, kind of give him a bit of my day. He’s the motivation, he’s always behind me, he always pushes me and gives me all that motivation.
Max Branstetter 31:03
What about on the personal side? Or just like, you know, role model side? What is he shared with you that’s helped shape you just be the best human you can be. So
Karim Khalil 31:14
my father is you know, he’s used to be a judge. So it’s very fair. So he helped me he you know, kind of taught me that how to be fair with people how to be honest, how to be straightforward. And that’s something that’s very hard to find these days, find people that way. At the same time, he’s he’s the most generous and giving person so he’s kind of gave me that and in life, I believe that the more you give, the more you receive. And it’s always about you know, forget about thinking about receiving just your do your part give and good things will come to you.
Max Branstetter 31:43
And I also I love the way you hinted at before of you know your market research and creative research is actually eating and trying out different restaurants and finding inspiration from many different restaurants out there. What has been some of your favorite types of cuisines or style of restaurants that since that you frequent since coming to the US,
Karim Khalil 32:05
obviously, Lebanese restaurants I kind of when I traveled to every city I want to go and try their Lebanese restaurants and see what they have. But other than Lebanese you know I love Italian food. I’m a pasta freak. I love eating pasta. I love eating pizza.
Max Branstetter 32:18
I like that term pasta freak. That’s a new one and
Karim Khalil 32:21
I love making pasta at home and be creative with different recipes.
Max Branstetter 32:25
The you mentioned Lebanese restaurants there’s Have you ever been to Delray Beach Florida by any chance
Karim Khalil 32:30
I have. And I love I love the restaurant. I love the food. Yeah.
Max Branstetter 32:33
Amar I think it’s called I think it’s called Mr. Oh small world and they
Karim Khalil 32:37
met I met the owner. Nicola is very nice guy. You know, very knowledgeable. He knows he knows what he’s doing. I really like the concept. Oh, that’s
Max Branstetter 32:45
amazing. Shoutout Gary & Sheryl, my wife’s parents who live down there. We’ve been there and I think that was the first time I ever had Lebanese. Lebanese probably was there I was like I knew it sounded familiar but just an absolutely delicious restaurant. So I don’t know there’s there’s there’s got to be a future Yaza partnership brewing with some incredible Lebanese restaurants as well.
Karim Khalil 33:06
So we do have so we do have a few restaurants that have already been are starting to buy our lemonade for to replace their lemonade in their in their cuisines. And what we’ve realized a lot of restaurants make their own lemonade, because what’s in the market is not good enough for them. They don’t believe that that’s what they want to give their consumers I think their consumers deserves better. And when they’ve tried their lemonade, which is made similarly to how they do it in the kitchen, it saves them time and Labor’s were discussion with a few restaurants actually around the country to switch from making their own labneh to Yaza.
Max Branstetter 33:36
Saving labor with labneh. It’s got a ring to it, and alliterative ring to it. Speaking of unusual comments, because I can’t resist, let’s get to the unusual so this is doesn’t have to tie to your business at all. It’s just weird talents, quirks pet peeves, just learn a little bit more about your personality. So I call them weird talents. Some people call them party tricks. What’s what’s like a skill you have maybe a memory trick, something that you’re good at, but it doesn’t impact your business really, you know, I’m
Karim Khalil 34:07
very organized and too organized. I kind of sometimes you know, my wife where I have an Excel file. Myself I goes to next April, where I have my breakfast lunch dinner plan. I have every meeting plan on that Excel file. I like everything to be perfect and and sometimes it’s you know, it’s too much. I’m kind of that’s kind of freak i would say.
Max Branstetter 34:29
You mean literally every meal like every food that’s in every meal you have laid out in advance. Yes.
Karim Khalil 34:34
And then you know I would walk out to the grocery store. If the product is not perfectly organized. I cannot look at it, stare at it and not do any something about it. So every everywhere I go is kind of annoying. You know if I have this chairs wrong or there’s a shoe upside down, I have to turn it and put it flat. It’s kind of how I am and sometimes it’s not it’s too much.
Max Branstetter 34:55
I’m the same way about you know fixing something or like have a picture frame is slightly angled or something like that. So hey, if you need, you need to be out on the ground, you know, kings or any any of the stores that you’re in. And if I see the label turned sideways, I’ll make sure to fix it for you. How about pet peeves are things that you just find a little bit annoying. This could literally be about anything. But what’s something that kind of ticks you off a bit.
Karim Khalil 35:20
One time I was on the plane, and this lady’s shoe was upside down, she took off her shoes to can be comfortable, and it kind of went, because I couldn’t stare at it. I just couldn’t take it. I went and flip the shoe off. And she looked at me in the very, it was very, very awkward moment. It was very funny. She looked at me in a very like with an angry face thinking I was trying to steal her shoe or something.
Max Branstetter 35:41
Like, that’s awesome. I’ll remember to keep my shirt. No, I always get my shoes on actually, how about quirks with something a little quirky about your personality that maybe your your kids your wife’s team somebody calls you up for so I
Karim Khalil 35:56
can’t fall asleep. If the TV is not on, I always have to have something allowed either TV or the phone. And you know, I don’t I just don’t fall asleep. If nothing if I’m not watching anything or listening to anything. Another thing is, you know, sometimes in the winter, I have the heater on and I would have the easiest on all your loan doesn’t matter how hot or cold it is outside. I always eat cold air. And then in the winter, I have both turned on the same time.
Max Branstetter 36:23
Awesome. That’s a shout out. My dad’s good friend growing up the Bob Schnatter they call it who would always drive is convertible but keep the AC on while he drives convertible. So that two forms there. So kind of makes me think of that. But let’s wrap up with some Rapid-Fire Q&A. You’re ready for it? Yes. All right, let’s get wild. What is a tip you can share about learning multiple languages? Because you’ve told me before that you actually know three languages, or at least three languages, but English is your third language. Correct.
Karim Khalil 36:54
So English is my third language. The biggest tip I would give families out there is start young, you know, young kids have a response. So my little boy already speaks three languages at home, and then he’s learning Spanish at school. So he’s even better than me. And that’s the biggest tip just start young. The younger you start, the easier it is.
Max Branstetter 37:13
And what are those three languages that you speak?
Karim Khalil 37:15
I speak French. I was born in Geneva raised in Paris. So I speak French I speak also Arabic from being from Lebanon, my parents who speak to me Arabic, and English being my third language. I did study Spanish at school, but I wasn’t really good
Max Branstetter 37:28
at it. Mas o menos. Which of those three languages was the most difficult to learn Arabic.
Karim Khalil 37:35
Because, you know, I was I was born in Geneva, in the French side of Switzerland. I lived in Paris. So French obviously was so easy. We used to learn English at school. Arabic was only spoken at home with my parents. And we used to get a teacher coming in, you know, teaching us how to write and read and Arabic is really really difficult. The letters, you know, it’s from right to left. It’s not from left to right. It’s more complicated. It’s very, very tough to learn. But because I learned that earlier, that’s why this is my son. He started even before he started when he was three years old kind of learning Arabic. And he speaks better Arabic than even people in Lebanon.
Max Branstetter 38:13
It’s like Hebrew with the right to left as well. Yeah, it’s like it’s a game changer. When is it when you’re changing in the direction? How about you so you’ve lived multiple places in Europe, as well as the Middle East as well as Africa. So basically, you’ve been all around the men from from every angle. What is the most beautiful place that you’ve ever seen with your bare eyes?
Karim Khalil 38:35
Switzerland, the mountains in Switzerland so we spend a lot of time you know, we used to go with my parents they loved living in Geneva we had the opportunity to drive through a lot of places and the mountains of Switzerland you know, the the lake just below the mountain is beautiful. And for me that’s the most beautiful country in the world.
Max Branstetter 38:54
Yeah, it’s definitely on the bucket list. And I saw that you went to school in London as well. What’s your favorite memory from studying/living in London?
Karim Khalil 39:04
So I am a big soccer fan. I support the team out of London called Arsenal. Yeah, of course. I’m a season ticket holder I have two season tickets one for myself and one for my older boy can I try to go as much as I can. So I chose London because of Arsenal I went to college there because of my love to Arsenal so when biggest memories going to all the the games and we I used to travel a lot with the wave hands which is you know beautiful experience so from London you will travel on the plane with full of Arsenal fans singing all the time. You’re going to Rome playing against the team in Rome and then coming back like these are the best memories that
Max Branstetter 39:40
if Arsenal could be an all star team where it was you could clone one player and it’d be 11 of the same player any Arsenal player in history. Who would that player be that would give you the best chance.
Karim Khalil 39:50
Henry? Thierry Henry is my idol growing up my favorite player ever. In the number 14 is the best in my opinion the best striker that ever played in the Premier League. I love him I love you know even to now he’s he’s now a coach. I always follow him. I watch him. He’s on American TV on CBS paramount. Plus, he does a lot of the punditry for, for the Champions League. And I love you know, just watching him listening to him. And I had the chance to meet him a few times in London while going to games. And
Max Branstetter 40:18
then last one, what is your personal favorite way to consume yezza?
Karim Khalil 40:27
I love lovely. I eat, I eat the playing the spoon. It’s just, it’s just so peaceful to the plane itself on its own. I know we say you can’t, you have to add things to it. But I can eat it on his own. I’m just used to the flavor. I love it just out of the out of the tub. So I get a spoon, I eat out a tub. It’s very healthy, very good for me. And it has a lot of protein, which is something I’m trying to get into this new lifestyle of healthier, better for you Good for you. Good probiotics as well, for my gut health. I love that. So that’s, that’s my, my go to.
Max Branstetter 40:58
Just like your father says Follow your gut. So it’s all about the gut. come full circle here. Kareem, thank you so much. This has been an absolute blast. It was really cool. You know, in recent weeks meeting in person don’t usually get to do that before, you know, interviews and so many remote these days. So really, really cool. And just a blast learning the Yaza story from you today, where is the best place for people to try out Yassa you know,
Karim Khalil 41:22
depending on where you live, you can go on our website, there’s a store locator. We’re adding stores by the day. So we’re around 150 stores now. But we’re adding a store today. And we have we have a few retailers, big ones nationwide coming out soon. So keep an eye on that. Keep an eye on your on our website. We may not be in your area now. But you know, we will be soon. So make sure that you follow us for more information. Social media is also a good place or Instagram is USA dot foods, where we always update the news coming out new things, new products, new stores. So keep an eye on that as well.
Max Branstetter 41:54
Perfect. And the website you mentioned is YazaFoods.com. So exactly spelled as it sounds.. But last thing, final thoughts stages yours, it could be just kind of words to live by, or even a favorite. He has a recipe that people should consider whatever you want take us home here.
Karim Khalil 42:14
So I wanted to share a story actually, that something happened to me back in November 2019. I was visiting the US it was it was Thanksgiving. And it was my first time being in the US for Thanksgiving. I had read about it, seen it on different movies on TV, but I never experienced it. So I was here on a business trip on my own. I didn’t know many people. I was sitting in the hotel and the hotel staff because this is where I used to kind of you know, have my meals. They asked me what’s your plan for Thanksgiving, they said, I don’t know, I’m just gonna grab a bite, you know, somewhere in town. They looked at me sir laughing and they said, you know, restaurants are closed. And one, one of the co chairs of the hotel, invited me to his house for Thanksgiving. And initially, I was kind of, you know, shocked and surprised. You know, it’s something that someone I barely knew I had met a few times, I asked around, they told me you’re not going to find any restaurants open. I went to this person’s house. It was beautiful he had so he had his family there, his kids, but he also had his friends. And the whole thing is giving how it was you know, people from different cultural backgrounds, sharing food on the table inspired me a lot to come to the US and open a food business and bring food that is not common in the US bring it to the American table, as was kind of a big inspiration for me. It was a big driver. I also want to add when the when we moved here as a family, we didn’t know many people. I was surprised how the family values of us are so high. And how family is so important. How people come together and people accept each other. You know, there’s so much said about diversity and etc. But I’ve lived all around the world as you know, in the US is where I felt the most home where people from don’t know anything about me ask questions when I understand you more when understand your culture, and those kinds of things. So it’s kind of experiences or what pushed me to start this business.
Max Branstetter 44:14
Well said and a beautiful way to end. Thank you so much, Karim, for sharing your Yaza story, sharing all your insights and tips and lessons. And thank you listeners for tuning in to another episode. If you want to hear more Wild stories like this one, make sure to follow the Wild Business Growth Podcast on your favorite podcast app and tell a friend about the podcast. That is how we grow the show and that I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist. Sometimes I can get through a sentence without throwing a rhyme or like corny thing in there but sometimes not. You can also find us on Goodpods, where there are really, really good podcasts and podcasts recommendations and people and for any help with podcast production, you can learn more at MaxPodcasting.com and sign up for the Podcasting to the Max newsletter. That’s at MaxPodcasting.com/Newsletter. Until next time, let your business Run Wild…Bring on the Bongos!!
