{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"She Built A \u2018Nation\u2019 Of Millions In CPG\u2019s Toughest Category","description":"Nationwide Whole Foods distribution. A seven-figure DTC engine. A five-person team. In this episode, Ashley Nickelsen, the founder and CEO of nutrition bar and chocolate brand B.T.R. Nation, breaks down the systems behind her brand\u2019s growth, from using DTC zip-code data to unlock retail expansion, to building a creative-first Meta ads strategy that drives real revenue (not just impressions).  She shares why velocity is her North Star metric, how she thinks about omnichannel as a flywheel \u2013 not separate businesses \u2013 how she evaluates when syndicated data is worth the cost, and why she chose to self-warehouse to maintain margin and operational control.  Ashley also unpacks her approach to pricing across channels, portfolio expansion beyond a single hero SKU, and constant creative testing in one of grocery\u2019s most competitive categories.  Show notes: 0:20: Ashley Nickelsen, Founder & CEO, B.T.R. Nation \u2013 Ashley talks about her deep ties to New York City and a life largely spent on the road for work. She also shares her path into CPG from a master\u2019s in higher education and then into the supplement world and applied lessons from her experience to B.T.R., Ashley\u2019s discusses evolution as a spokesperson and her belief that brands need a consistent \u201cface,\u201d explains B.T.R.\u2019s origin story and how losing both parents to rare cancers before age 30 shaped her mission and her decision to avoid natural flavors. She describes how trust and community grew \u201corganically\u201d through direct customer engagement and helps generate retail discovery and online reorders across channels. She also details how B.T.R. approaches growth with constant iteration while keeping affordability and velocity in mind, and shares practical learnings on Meta advertising and how to pair digital attribution with retail data stories to win new accounts. Brands in this episode: B.T.R. Nation, Spindrift, Mid-Day Squares, Graza, Simple Mills, Siete, Perfect Bar, Lily\u2019s, Unreal, Heinz, Crumbl ","author_name":"Taste Radio","author_url":"http:\/\/tasteradio.com","html":"