Jason Brown of Persona Nutrition: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Began Leading My Company

That distraction of the small stuff can become the 80–20 and you can lose the opportunity being focused on the small picture vs, the large one.

As part of our series called "5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Began Leading My Company" I had the pleasure of interviewing Jason Brown.

Jason Brown has more than 40 years of executive experience as a retailer, entrepreneur, global business development advisor, and partner to many successful health, wellness and textile retail ventures. Cleverly turning figments of his imagination into viable businesses, Jason has founded nine different companies, many based in Seattle and the surrounding area, including Organic To Go, which was the nation's first fast casual café to be certified organic by the USDA. Brown has built more than 50 brick and mortar retail locations and three e-commerce companies in five different countries. His innovative thinking and implementations have earned him a reputation for being an inspirational leader. In 2008, he was named a finalist for the Entrepreneur of the Year award by Ernst & Young.

Today, Jason is the co-founder and CEO of Persona, a direct-to-consumer personalized nutrition company, which is now a proud part of the Nestlé Health Science (NHSc) family. Responsible for overseeing all aspects of business operations including development, innovation and Persona's relationship with Vitamin Angels, Brown is an inspirational leader with a never-ending passion for doing the right thing.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to "get to know you" a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your 'backstory' and how you got started?

My career started when I was 19 years old when I bought 1,000 units of a hooded-shirt I loved. What cost me $2.50 each, I sold for $12.50 each, and sold out within 5 days. Just like that, I launched my first company and my passion for entrepreneurship began.

What was the "Aha Moment" that led to the idea for your current company? Can you share that story with us?

During that time, my personal life and responsibilities quickly changed. My girlfriend passed away and I adopted her two children at 20 years old. This was a big risk, becoming the boys' father, while focusing on entrepreneurship, and this the the moment when an unforeseen tragedy disrupted my life. As a result, I wanted to disrupt people's lives in a positive way. So, I decided to focus efforts on the health and wellness sectors. I first opened a chain of fast casual organic food stores, then a natural drugstore and now my business sits in the dietary supplement sector.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

Don't always "chase the shiny new object." In our case it came when we were building our personalized vitamin assessment technology. One of our co-founders and our CTO — Prem Thudia — lives and works in India. He had his own tech team, and they were using the Cold Fusion technology platform. Everyone was telling us it wouldn't work for what we wanted to accomplish, and to go in another direction. In this case, to chase that shiny new tech platform. It was a disaster! We wasted significant resources — both time and money — on something that wouldn't work immediately, and that we didn't have faith would support our growth and expansion in the future. Prem and I made the decision to go back to basics and develop the algorithm in the technology we knew best — even if it didn't have all of the bells and whistles, we needed out of the gate.

So, how are things going today? How did your grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

While there have been bumps in the road, Persona has been able to grow and attract investors and was acquired in 2019 by Nestlé Health Science (NHSc) in 2019, due to our growing consumers base, connection to healthcare practitioners, and technology offerings, such as our DNI tracker.

I would also add, with more people paying attention to their health and wellness over the last year, Persona has been able to come out better positioned due to a change in our health and wellness behavior and needs. People are thinking of and putting their health first, and Persona is a partner in their health and wellness journey.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

A unique differentiator of Persona's personalized nutrition program, compared to competitors, is its on-staff nutritionist support team. Nearly 20 nutritionists, registered dietitians and pharmacists provide nutrition counseling to customers every day, and for free. Customers can call, text, web chat, email or schedule a "nutritionists by appointment" meeting to discuss health goals, especially as their lives change due to aging, pregnancy, etc.

Aside from nutritional counseling, our team collaborates with Persona's Medical Advisory Board to stay updated on the latest scientific findings to ensure customers are getting effective supplements that support their needs. They also review every recommendation prior to shipping, which is an important step as Persona is able to cross-reference more than 3,000 prescription medications to help customers avoid risky drug-nutrient (medication/vitamin) side effects. And lastly, as if this isn't enough, the team is using their knowledge, and combining it with our smart science technology, which uses a powerful algorithm to analyze customer inputs, and a growing body of medical research, over 10,000 peer-reviewed studies to help identify new supplement needs for our brand to stay competitive.

This was an important team to develop and continue to build as it not only helps provide answers and counsel to our customers and potential customers, but it keeps the company informed on the latest health trends and data needed for growth.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or 'takeaways' you learned from that?

The mail man used to bring me checks as we were big in mail order in 1981. One day I was anxious to get the checks so I went out and looked for him. Found him but forgot to put my car into park so I proceed to ram his jeep. Learned patience is a virtue.

Often leaders are asked to share the best advice they received. But let's reverse the question. Can you share a story about advice you've received that you now wish you never followed?

Have a clear agenda for any meeting of importance. Also give people the right to show their presentation BEFORE a meeting so that the folks in the meeting can participate vs. the surprise and delight strategy some marketers live with.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

1. Empower your team. Effective leaders empower their teams in order to do great work. I have seen this first hand. When I cheer my team on and encourage them to do great things, great things will come.
2. Ask for help. It's always ok to ask for help from people who have different talents from yourself. Don't be afraid to bring someone into the fold who you may not otherwise think is a fit for the organization. It's ok to rattle some cages sometimes to get people to work outside of their comfort zones.
3. Continue to learn and refine your professional developments. From bringing in outside counsel to hiring a psychologist to work with individuals and small groups, we have found that this helps with professional development and in turn helps our performance.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not "burn out"?

Practice what you preach. If you're in health and wellness industry, make sure you're taking care of yourself!

First, get plenty of sleep. This will help you recharge your batteries every day, not just when you're on vacation. Don't forget to exercise regularly. Just 30–40 minutes a day can help a lot — from getting the heart rate up to helping reduce stress levels. And, if you are in a time crunch and when appropriate, take a conference call on foot, and outside (fresh air and sun is always good). There's no excuse! And lastly, manage your stress levels so you can perform with a clear head and conscious. Couple this with exercise and you're guaranteed to put your health first.

What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?

Don't always chase the shiny object, I learned this the hard way when we first launched our personalized vitamin company and wanted to try new web technology; we spent a lot of precious hours and funds to end up bringing everything back in house and on the platform we still use today!

In your experience, which aspect of running a company tends to be most underestimated? Can you explain or give an example?

The people are sometimes the most underestimated, but it's not intentional, and instead taken for granted. It's important to focus on people and profit at the same time. Without the people (team) supporting you and championing the company, you won't have the profit. This is why I try to make it loud and clear how much I value each individual that works at Persona, whether they work in the warehouse packing boxes or is part of our corporate team. Everyone brings a valuable skill and need in order for us to thrive.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your "5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Began Leading My Company"? Please share a story or an example for each.

That distraction of the small stuff can become the 80–20 and you can lose the opportunity being focused on the small picture vs, the large one.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I founded the company on the spirit of bettering the lives of people through health and wellness and these ideals are embodied in everything I do. Prior to the launch of Persona, I made the conscious decision that the company would do good for society, and that's just what we are doing and encourage others to do, too.

How can our readers further follow you online?

LinkedIn: Jason Brown

Instagram: @personanutrition

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!