PIC Conversations
A Podcast by Proud Impact Collective
NEW EPISODES EVERY TUESDAY
Real Talk From the Team Moving 70,000+ Doors
PIC Conversations goes behind the shelf, the buyer meeting, and the TikTok Shop dashboard. You get honest talk from operators, founders, and buyers about what's working in CPG right now, and what's quietly holding brands back. Most CPG advice is recycled, sanitized, or selling you something. PIC Conversations is none of those.
Each episode, the Proud Impact team sits down with the people doing the work. That means founders who've scaled, buyers who say yes (and no), and experts building what comes next. We cover retail, foodservice, ecommerce, social commerce, and AI, with no fluff and no gatekeeping. You get the playbook as it really runs.
“Apple Cider Vinegar Saved His Life”: The Story Behind Life Cider
The Life Cider team joins Proud Impact Conversations to break down how a personal health scare turned into a functional beverage brand. We get into the founding story, the science behind apple cider vinegar, and the big retail wins that are bringing Life Cider to more shelves across the country.
How to Build an Affiliate Army: The TikTok Shop Playbook for CPG Brands
The way CPG brands grow has completely changed, and the creator economy is leading the shift. In this episode of PIC Conversations, Co-Founder & CEO Dallas Crum, VP of Ecommerce Alex Jangard, and VP of Marketing & Creative Haylee Piehl break down how brands are moving past the old influencer playbook and building affiliate armies of hundreds to thousands of creators on TikTok Shop. They get into how to actually manage affiliate marketing at that scale, why views and followers matter less than real sales, how to turn content into a true sales engine, and how momentum built through social commerce can carry over into retail.
The Scaling Mistakes Killing CPG Brands
In this episode of PIC Conversations, host Cole Pennington is joined by team members Michael Odell (VP, Client Services) and Demi Noyen (Natural Channel Manager) from Proud Impact Collective. The discussion centers around strategies for emerging consumer packaged goods (CPG) and beverage brands aiming to scale up revenue, navigate retail channels, optimize distribution methods, and work effectively with broker partners.
Getting on Shelf Isn't the Win. Here's What Actually Matters.
Dallas Crum sits down with Cole Pennington, President of Proud Impact Collective, and Matthew Collar, VP of Large Format and a former Albertsons buyer, to break down how buyers really think. They cover the protein and GLP-1 boom, knowing where you live on shelf, why trade spend isn't optional, and whether celebrity brands still work.
Why Most CPG Brands Fail Before They Scale
Dallas Crum, Co-Founder and CEO of Proud Impact Collective, has spent 14 years building ventures across philanthropy, telehealth and e-commerce. He shares the foundations of a CPG brand worth exiting, how to get investors and teams moving together, and the financial realities founders can’t afford to ignore…
Ex-Albertsons Buyer: 3 Rules Every CPG Brand Must Know
Matthew Collar spent 22 years across Fred Meyer and Albertsons, rising from pushing carts to national category manager for chilled beverage, where he reviewed more than 250 brand pitches a year. Now Vice President of Large Format at Proud Impact Collective, Matt shares what retail buyers want…
The Dirty Secret CPG Brokers Don't Want You To Know
Cole Pennington co-founded Proud Source Water in 2016, taking it from deliveries out of a rental truck in Boise to national distribution through Sprouts, Trader Joe’s and a PepsiCo partnership before its acquisition by Source Global. Now Co-Founder and President of Proud Impact Collective…
What We Talk About
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Winning the Shelf
Getting on shelf, staying on shelf, and what it really takes to earn your spot in retail.
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The Channel Nobody's Watching
Why foodservice is the most overlooked growth lever in CPG, and how to make it one of your strongest.
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Where Content Becomes Cash
TikTok Shop, Amazon, creators, and turning scroll-stopping content into real sell-through.
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The Invisible Shelf
How AI is changing the way shoppers find products, and how brands stay visible when the answer comes from a chatbot, not a search bar.
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Built, Broken, and Rebuilt
Founder stories from the ones who've been there: the wins, the near-misses, and the decisions that changed everything.
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Across the Buyer's Desk
What buyers are actually looking for, what gets a yes, and what quietly kills a pitch before it starts.
Meet the Hosts
The people behind the mic are the same people in the buyer meetings, building the campaigns, and running the numbers.
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Dallas Crum
PIC Co-Founder & CEO
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Cole Pennington
PIC Co-Founder & President