Death, Divorce, and Chocolate: Cocacao on the NexxtLevel Brands Podcast!

NexxtLevel Brands Podcast

Michele Davis is the President and CEO of Cocacao, a healthy and delicious chocolate company based in Beaverton, Oregon. After her 26-year marriage ended in divorce and she was left with no job, Michele left her comfort zone. She headed to Portland and helped co-found Cocacao with her new partner, Jeffrey Davis. She is also a mother of four, a stepmother, and a grandmother to 13.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

Michele Davis shares her death, divorce, and chocolate story

How Michele and her husband, Jeffrey Davis, started their chocolate company and their process for moving production from their home to a commercial kitchen

Cocacao's ingredients and the challenges of dealing with a refrigerated product

How Cocacao entered the retail market

Michele's first experience approaching a buyer and how she has been handling the shipping of samples

How Michele and her husband share their company's responsibilities

Cocacao's growth and Michele’s plans for keeping up with production to meet the increased demand

Michele talks about bootstrapping, the company's future capital injection plans, and their line of chocolate flavors

How Cocacao has handled tests and sampling during COVID-19

Michele shares her company's future growth plans and advice for fellow entrepreneurs

In this episode...

Did you know that educating your buyers and customers about the right way to handle your products can have a big impact on your sales? Leaving your consumers in the dark can lead to big losses if your product requires special care — and can even affect the growth of your company in the long term.

As an entrepreneur who produces and sells refrigerated products, Michele Davis learned that it is essential to explain your product’s best practices for displaying and selling your goods in retail stores. Why? Michele faced great challenges when buyers would delay in refrigerating her chocolate treats, leading to huge losses. So, how do you develop these strategies and communicate them to your buyers?

In this episode of the Nexxtlevel Brands Podcast, co-hosts Steve Cleere and Debra Armstrong are joined by Michele Davis, the Co-founder, President, and CEO of Cocacao, to talk about the story behind the founding of Cocacao and how they have grown to sell in different retail locations. Michele also talks about promoting growth by entering competitions, bootstrapping, and keeping up with increased demand. Stay tuned!

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Resources Mentioned in this episode

Kitchen2Shelf

NexxtLevel Marketing

Debra Armstrong on LinkedIn

2-Do Tuesdays by Kitchen2Shelf

Cocacao

Cocacao's Cayenne + Cinnamon Chocolate

Cocacao's Blueberry Chocolate

Cocacao's Mint Chocolate

Michele Davis on LinkedIn

Honey Mama's

Founders Live

TiE Oregon

Beaverton Startup Challenge

Oregon Angel Food

KeHE Food & Natural Products Trade Shows

KeHE elevate Program

Erewhon Market

Cool News: The NexxtLevel Brands Podcast has just been named as one of the Top 15 CPG-Themed Podcasts on the web!!! We're at Lucky #7 and you can get more information about Feedspot and how you can watch more of your favorite shows here: Top CPG Podcasts – Thanks to Feedspot, Rise25 and our Production Team!

Sponsor for this episode...

Our podcast today is sponsored by Kitchen2Shelf, the educational arm of NexxtLevel Brands. Kitchen-2-Shelf provides online and in-person courses and workshops for CPG entrepreneurs at any stage of growth.

Whether you're an early-stage startup, a local growing business, or if you want to just expand your distribution to a national level, Kitchen-2-Shelf can help you learn what you need to know to grow.

Visit their website to get access to some free tools that can help you understand where your business stands.

Contact them today to find out how they can help you grow your brand and expand your business to reach its full potential.