Grace sits down with Mackie Diedrichson, branding and operations manager at LC Marketing Corp, along with Rick and Beth, founders of Great Plate, to unravel the secrets behind their meteoric Walmart success and the art of bold business pivots.

Mackie shares how a surprise buyer meeting flipped their business plan upside down—turning a reusable party plate into a viral, eco-friendly disposable that hit Walmart shelves in a million-unit order.

The episode dives into sustainable innovation, the importance of staying agile, and the energizing reality of getting “bootstrappy” in a rapidly changing market.

Mackie’s first-hand retail expertise and the relentless spirit of the Great Plate founders will inspire anyone who dreams of seeing their product in major retailers, or is facing a make-or-break business crossroads.

Episode Highlights:

10:20 - I can only imagine what the inside of his brain is like trying to configure all of these various components. But I think that is entrepreneurship in and of itself—going into a meeting with a product you’re looking to sell and coming out with a completely different product that doesn’t exist with an ask. And coming from the retail side, that’s all you can ever ask for is to be a buyer’s answer.

14:49 - When one of the comments that was just made when we were at Costco, one of the new design iterations, the buyer looked at us and said, now you're sure that this doesn't exist out there? I said, no, it's brand new. Something that's out there.

38:14 - It's being open-minded, open to changes, open to the uses of it. And as Rick and Mackie were open to that meeting, so saying open to making it a disposable product. And now that we have it, we look at all of those positive things that occurred by being open-minded.

39:16 - Don't underestimate any of the type of things where you have.It's a word. You can do it, you can do it, you can do it.

Connect with Grace Bruins

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Rick Kellow and Beth Kuehl

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Mackie Dideriksen

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