Back Label Branding Sydney Munteanu

Katina Mountanos is the Founder & CEO of Kosterina, a modern wellness company centered around early harvest, extra virgin olive oil with high polyphenol content from her native home in Southern Greece. She saw a huge gap in the American market for authentic, high-quality extra virgin olive oil, and recognized that most mass-produced olive oils here are late harvest and poor quality, which negates most of the health benefits. Prior to starting Kosterina, Katina led Walmart’s Brand Incubation team, which focused on incubating and operating brands in the fashion, beauty and home categories. This role furthered her skills in brand development and marketing, and in 2016, she left her corporate career behind and set out to create a premium Greek olive oil for the American market. Her mission is to educate American consumers on the benefits of premium olive oil, and introduce the market to a better-for-you option.

In this episode we chat about leaving a career in corporate America, key indicators your product/brand might have legs, getting discovered by Whole Foods on Instagram, how to tell if your olive oil is actually extra-virgin, and why PR and partnerships can be hugely beneficial in building a wellness brand. 

To learn more about Kosternia and shop the products visit kosterina.com and follow them on Instagram @kosterina



Follow me on Instagram @backlabelbranding or to learn more about my work visit backlabelbranding.com

Brianne Nemiroff started her career in entertainment journalism in 2012, reviewing concerts and interviewing artists all over the U.S. In 2013, she started contributing to VIVA GLAM Magazine, a vegan lifestyle publication in Los Angeles, where she climbed the ladder to Managing Editor over the next 5 years. During her time at VIVA GLAM, she wrote articles for every category on the site earning her experience in beauty, fashion, food, entertainment, and travel, which led to her starting her own vegan travel column, "Visiting as a Vegan" in 2016. 

In 2017, Brianne and her husband Benjamin left Los Angeles to add to her travel column and start building their own vegan travel website. Over the next two years, they drove to 60-plus destinations all over the U.S. and Canada to learn about the growing vegan restaurant scene and visited over 200 restaurants. 

Brianne is currently living and eating her way around Vancouver, British Columbia, managing her website It's Bree and Ben, and working as a Product Sourcing Specialist for a vegan beauty box, Kinder Beauty.

In this episode we chat about how, as a writer, Briann decides which products and restaurants to cover, how she has been growing her new vegan travel blog, plus vegan food branding trends & tips!

Check out itsbreeandben.com for Brianne's ethical travel and vegan restaurant guides and follow her on Instagram @itsbreeandben



Follow me on Instagram @backlabelbranding or to work with me visit backlabelbranding.com

Grace Ventura was born with a passion for wellness, a desire to help others heal and live healthy lives, and has decades of experience as a licensed massage therapist, yoga instructor, and wellness coach (and is a mom of six!). Grace launched her broth brand, Beyond Broth (now re-branded as Grace's Goodness Organics) after being under the weather and craving a simple and nourishing vegetable broth that she didn't have to cook.

In this episode we chat about practicing wellness and putting health first, creating alignment with your brand, managing your energy, Grace's quarterly business check-in practice, and much more. 

Follow Grace's Goodness Organics on Instagram at @graces_goodness_organics.

Learn more and join the Grace's Goodness Organics 21-day Spring Reboot visit gracesgoodness.com/pages/spring-reboot 



Follow me on Instagram @backlabelbranding or to work with me visit backlabelbranding.com

Welcome back to the Back Label Branding podcast! In the first *official* episode of Season 2 I'm interviewing Renee Dunn, founder of Amazi Foods. Renee started her company after leaving her job and boarding a plane to Uganda. After working on her thesis in this African country, she realized she wanted to connect the abundant resources of the region to the global market. Amazi was founded in 2016, but 2020 was a huge year of growth for the brand. Launching in Sprouts, their first national account, created headway for many changes in marketing, distribution, production, and more. In the past year, Renee's company has sourced from close to 300 farmers in Uganda, 55% of which were women, paid farmers upwards of 68% above market price, and created over 30 jobs for local youth. Amazi continues to work towards the belief of "snacking on purpose" and goes beyond just sustainable supply chains. Their mission is to close the gap between source and consumer, between consumer and source.

To learn more about Amazi Foods visit amazifoods.com or follow the brand on Instagram @amazifoods.



Interested in learning more about brand building and organic marketing?
Follow me on Instagram @backlabelbranding or sign up for my monthly marketing newsletter here.
To work with me as a copywriter or marketing strategist, head to backlabelbranding.com

After season 1, I've decided to do it again. But before we dive into the next round of amazing female founders, I wanted to share some things that I learned while making my first podcast in the hopes that it will be inspiring for those of you who are also considering starting your own. I've immensely enjoyed the platform for storytelling, but there are definitely some tips for editing, producing, and launching that you will need to know!

Listen to my solo mini-episode to learn about a few things that might help you too. 💫

Interested in learning more about brand building and organic marketing?
Follow me on Instagram @backlabelbranding or sign up for my monthly marketing newsletter here.


To work with me as a copywriter or marketing strategist, head to backlabelbranding.com.

World Spice Merchants has been a hub of flavor exploration since 1995 (!). In this episode, I’m speaking with Amanda Bevill, who took over the business and brand 15 years ago accredits turning left instead of right one day for how she got into the spice business. An herbalist by training, Amanda literally walked into the World Spice Merchants store by accident. Within a week, Amanda was working at the shop. And within the year, she was signing papers to take over the business. While Amanda moved back to Montana a few years ago, she still maintains the original Seattle location today!

In this episode, we chat about how Amanda learned to cook (at the spice shop), why black pepper will and forever be their best-selling spice, the importance of sticking to - and staying true to - the core of what you do, why she moved the business’ operations from Seattle to Montana, and how they’ve built their digital content to really focus on their core set of customers.

To learn more about Wold Spice Merchants head to worldspice.com
For recipes and inspiration on cooking with spices follow them on Instagram @world.spice
And to check out the spice kits we discuss in the episode (Ramen and Amaretto - yum!), shop their Signature Sets here.