[00:00:00] Elizabeth: Hi everyone. I'm Elizabeth Stein,
founder and CEO of Purely Elizabeth, and this is Live Purely with Elizabeth,
featuring candid conversations about how to thrive on your wellness journey.
This week's guest is Jordan Nathan, founder and CEO of Caraway, the disruptive,
non-toxic, and thoughtfully designed home brand.

[00:00:25] Known for its
colorful ceramic cookware. I have been a huge fan of this brand and use their
products in my kitchen all the time, so was super excited to learn all about
Jordan's story. So in this episode we talk about Jordan's personal experience
with Teflon toxicity, along with. The lack of design and material transparency
in the kitchenware space that led to the inspiration behind his brand and
mission.

[00:00:55] Jordan also shares
the health risks associated with Teflon and why we really need to be using
non-toxic cookware, along with the other toxic chemicals in our homes. He talks
about the challenges and benefits of leading a fully remote team. Along with some
of his daily wellness routine and productivity acts that make him feel his
best.

[00:01:17] Keep listening to
learn all about Jordan and Caraway.

[00:01:27] Jordan, welcome to
the podcast. It is such a pleasure to have you on today and looking forward to
hearing all about your story.

[00:01:35] Jordan: Thanks so much for having me. Excited
to chat today.

[00:01:38] Elizabeth: So would love to start with your
background and what you were doing before launching Caraway.

[00:01:46] Jordan: Yeah, so prior to Caraway, I worked at
a consumer Amazon conglomerate called the Tarion, which is now a public
company. they owned four or five different brands. And I started there back in,
I wanna say 2016 leading their kitchen brand. Really got my first foray into
the kitchen world in my prior role. Spent a lot of time doing product
development.

[00:02:09] Elizabeth: And how did you, what even brought
you there to begin with? Were you always interested in kitchen?

[00:02:14] Jordan: So interestingly, I was put right into
it, at the prior company. But, prior to that I actually started an e-commerce
marketplace out of college for my first first career experience and worked on
that for about 12 months. It was a marketplace focused on selling more kinda
like fashion and home products

[00:02:32] in kind of the boom
of the e-comm era and, really fell in love with retail and e-commerce and, that
unfortunately didn't work out.

[00:02:40] But part of my
journey was wanting to... having been on the marketplace side of things,
wanting to move more into the brand side. And so found this amazing opportunity
at Tarion.

[00:02:49] Got to lead and run
a brand for a number of years, launched over 200 different kitchen products.
And while I wasn't a major cook at the time, or had a lot of knowledge on the
kitchenware space, ended up falling in love with it. Loved the breadth of products
that there are in the kitchen, the lack of design, the lack of material
transparency, and so had a, an amazing experience there and got to learn
everything from product development to marketing to logistics and supply chain.
Owning a p and L statement and so was really a great, step into the consumer
world.

[00:03:24] Elizabeth: Do you remember at what point
during that experience, maybe when you were seeing that things weren't best
designed, weren't most attractive, weren't best materials, thinking I could do
this in a better way?

[00:03:37] Jordan: Yeah interestingly the brand that we
were selling on Amazon, it was a lower price brand. So I think our average
price point across all of our products was maybe 15 or $20. And back in 2016,
when we started selling, I think one of the things that was obvious, at least
on Amazon, was most of the products were black, white, or stainless steel.

[00:03:58] And, as someone who
really appreciates design and the things that, you know choose in, in, in my
home, in my life there wasn't really what I felt was a design choice for me and
with that brand where we really lean into was color and bringing that to market
and really standing out, , from a design perspective.

[00:04:18] And felt like that
was an opportunity back then. It still is today with what we're doing at
Caraway. , but yeah, it was a really ex exciting space to grow into.

[00:04:26] Elizabeth: And so at that point, what made you
decide to say, Hey, I could bring color and great design to this 200 product
brand on Amazon, or I could start to pivot and go off on my own journey?

[00:04:40] I.

[00:04:42] Jordan: Yeah, so after a couple years started
to get the itch to start something again on my own. And, fortunately had an
amazing experience of learning the kitchen business, meeting all the right
suppliers. I really understood the marketing tactics and. One of the challenges
of Amazon and building a brand on Amazon is, a lot of times if you're not a
known brand, you're competing on price.

[00:05:06] And as I was doing a
lot of my product development, I really wanted to create things that were high
quality that lasted longer. I spent quite a bit of time at factories and saw
some, poor manufacturing processes and I felt inspired wanting to create something
that was more premium, higher design, more healthy for the customer.

[00:05:27] I actually had a
product experience where. I overheated a Teflon pan at my prior role while
doing a product test. And I actually got sick from the Teflon fumes

[00:05:36] Elizabeth: Oh, wow.

[00:05:37] Jordan: And couldn't really wrap my head
around the fact that cookware was made with such toxic materials. And felt like
there was a great opportunity and story there to lean into.

[00:05:45] And, felt like I had
learned what I needed to launch something on my own. I didn't fully know what I
was getting into, but, it was a really exciting, step for me in my career.

[00:05:55] Elizabeth: Yeah, absolutely. You've obviously
gone on to create this amazing, beautiful brand that is, so design centric, so
stunning.

[00:06:04] As you started to
pivot and go out on your own, you just made that comment of you don't really
know what you were getting yourself into. What was that first thing that you
felt like. I don't know what the heck I just got myself into. What were some of
those challenges along the way?

[00:06:17] At the beginning,

[00:06:18] Jordan: I would say fundraising. With any
consumer business you need capital for inventory. And I was a team of one to
start and my first step was I built a fundraising deck and started to really,
hit the pavement in New York City, talking to a lot of venture capitalist funds
and angel investors.

[00:06:36] And that process
took about 10 months. But that was a big challenge. I didn't know anything
about fundraising. I didn't know what investors were looking for, how to pitch.
And so that was, a big challenge. We ended up getting the raise done within the
first 10 months which is a long time.

[00:06:50] But, um, it was
quite the challenge and journey.

[00:06:53] Elizabeth: Yeah. Do you have any tips to share
from that process? Like you didn't know anything, so how did you go about
really honing in on the right. Messaging and all of the factors that go into
understanding such a complicated process because it does seem extremely
daunting from the outside for someone who's never been through it, like where
do you begin and what tips can you share?

[00:07:17] Jordan: Yeah I think I. With any business,
you're selling the dream at first and the product or the vision, which is
exciting. But I think what most entrepreneurs get wrong and what I didn't
include in early pitches was folks are investing. Yes. 'cause they think your
product or business is cool, but also to make a return and make money on their
investment.

[00:07:35] And I think having
gone through the process multiple times, really working in how that investor's
gonna get their money back and some is really critical. at the time when I
brought the business to market, I had no product. I had no branding. I didn't
have the capital to invest in those.

[00:07:53] But I think like the
farther you can get the business, the easier it is to raise, and then I think
selling the long-term vision is important. I remember my early deck was just
focused on cookware, but in my mind we were building a big kitchen brand. And,
I don't think that long-term strategy really came through.

[00:08:10] And so a lot of
folks early on were like, okay cool, you're selling cookware. There's lots of
cookware out there. It's a big market, but not that huge. I don't know how big
this thing can really get, I'm gonna put my money into something else aside
from caraway. And I think a big learning was really, clearly explaining the
long-term, vision and strategy for the company.

[00:08:30] Elizabeth: And did you have anybody helping
you through that process or are you really doing that on your own?

[00:08:37] Jordan: I had a number of advisors. I was
probably meeting with eight to 10 investors a day for almost 10 months. Wow.
Got lots of good feedback through that process. Met a lot of, really smart
individuals.

[00:08:48] And I don't think we
made our first hire until maybe six months out from launch. So it was a lonely
journey to start, but, I had a lot of great people supporting me along the way,
and was fortunate to bring on a few advisors early on who really helped me get
through a lot of those early stages.

[00:09:04] Elizabeth: Yeah, I think that is such a
critical part to the business, especially being a solo founder where you don't
have somebody to necessarily talk through all those things, but having. All
sorts of advisors throughout that beginning journey. I actually just got back
from having coffee with Justin from Justin's nut butter and

[00:09:24] Jordan: Oh awesome.

[00:09:25] Elizabeth: He was probably day one of my
journey. I had met him and certainly shared stories and so it's all those
people along the way who can be helpful and I think in a lot of instances
people really want to be helpful and that's what I've certainly found in this
industry and hopefully that's.

[00:09:42] What you experienced
as well throughout your journey as two.

[00:09:46] Jordan: Absolutely.

[00:09:47] Elizabeth: So you mentioned that you had this
moment where you had a Teflon I was gonna say attack, but a te, a Teflon toxic
situation. I'd love to go into a little bit about what happened, why Teflon is
so bad, and really then what made you wanna focus on utilizing better for you
non-toxic.

[00:10:09] Ingredients or
materials?

[00:10:12] Jordan: Yeah. At my prior company we were
looking at launching a new cookware line and I ended up sourcing a product from
Asia. I brought it one home one night to cook at home with, and I turned on the
flame. I think my dad called and I forgot. I left the pan on the burner and I
went to the living room for 45 minutes.

[00:10:29] And after a while
the apartment started smelling of fumes. The pan turned black and, I started to
feel lightheaded. So did my wife. we ended up calling Poison Control and they
let us know we were likely exposed to Teflon poisoning, which is basically flu-like
symptoms associated with Teflon.

[00:10:47] and went down a
whole rabbit hole after that. Reading about Teflon, the dangers of it, where it
originated from.

[00:10:55] Elizabeth: Tell us all the things. Where did
it originate from?

[00:10:57] Jordan: Yeah, so it was a material brought to
market way back when, I think in the 1920s or thirties. And it was built for
spaceships actually, because it's a really impenetrable material that, is
liquid resistant.

[00:11:09] And , it was a
product that kind of started, during that time and has slowly made its way into
consumer products, raincoats, a lot of actually like food storage. Boxes that
need to withstand moisture all have Teflon in them. , and what's been in market
has changed over time in terms of the formulas and, chemicals that are in
Teflon components.

[00:11:30] And doing more
research found that the majority of the non-stick market today is still made
with Teflon and really couldn't. Wrap my head around the fact that we were,
cooking off of something potentially so toxic that was leaching into your food,
it actually takes only two and a half minutes on a burner for the Teflon to
start breaking down and releasing into your

[00:11:51] Elizabeth: wow

[00:11:51] Jordan: food that you're cooking.

[00:11:52] And it felt like if
I were to launch a brand, it made sense just I think ethically to put the best
products out in the world that are safe for you and the planet. And we ended up
selecting ceramic non-stick, which is what we use today , but wanted to make
sure there was an alternative out there for consumers because a lot of the
consumer base, I think today is a little more educated on forever chemicals
than they were five years ago.

[00:12:14] But it was just
starting to make its way into the into the news and people, being educated on
it. And we wanted to take a, the lead and the stance in the market on,
non-toxic coatings. Is

[00:12:27] Elizabeth: there a way to know if you are
like, let's say, as you said, we are more educated, so some of us are, do have,
careway and such, but you might have some hidden pans in the back of your
pantry that you never use and you might forget about.

[00:12:41] Is there a way to
see whether there's te, whether it's made from Teflon.

[00:12:46] Jordan: There's no way to perfectly see. I
think the best thing to do and I would recommend is going direct to the
manufacturer and asking for testing reports to see if they have Teflon. and
there's multiple different types of cookware in the market.

[00:12:59] There's stainless
steel, which just naturally is a raw material and won't have it in it. So
that's a safe material. Cast iron also safe material, whether it's has enamel
coating or uncoated. And typically when you see a black coating, that's what
Teflon is.

[00:13:17] Elizabeth: So as you thought about the
material you were gonna use, how did you go about that process and walk us
through a little bit of what that development looked like.

[00:13:28] Jordan: Yeah, so a lot of the early days we
spent speaking with factories and seeing what was out there. And there wasn't
really anything novel in the market. The three that we were really looking into
was stainless steel, cast, iron and ceramic. and one of the ethos of the brand
early on that we developed was we thought making products that were easy to use
and easy to cook with was really important.

[00:13:52] We wanted something
that looked great, was safe to use, but also not daunting and. One of the
things that we found in the early days was a lot of consumers who own stainless
steel or cast iron or looking to purchase 'em, find them to be really daunting products
to use. They require more heat control, a little more expertise, and we've
built caraway for the everyday consumer.

[00:14:16] With that we felt
like ceramic was the best option. And really interestingly, ceramic had been in
the market for about 10 years. But the brands who were selling it didn't really
talk about the non-toxic properties. It just sat on a retail shelf. No one told
the story.

[00:14:30] The brands that sold
it lean more into the eco-friendly aspects. It produces less CO2 in production.
and so we saw this big white space of being the first brand to. Effectively
educate consumers on what ceramic is, why does it exist, why is it a good alternative?
and being a direct to consumer brand selling through our website to start, it
was a great opportunity to build the brand and the website around the
education, of the material which you can't do in a retail store.

[00:15:00] Elizabeth: Is there anything that we'd be
surprised to know about ceramic?

[00:15:08] Jordan: I dunno if it's necessarily surprise,
but it does require a little bit more maintenance and care than, let's say
Teflon. But it is a great material. It's a lot harder to manufacture. And it's
actually used in a lot of different other applications. It's used in hair
straighteners, it's used in car motors.

[00:15:25] So it's a widely
used coating that, across a lot of different industries.

[00:15:29] Elizabeth: Can you put it in the dishwasher?

[00:15:32] Jordan: You technically can, but we always
recommend hand washing. Yes. Your knives kitchen. Once in a while. A while.

[00:15:38] Elizabeth: I have to admit I put mine in my
dishwasher. Yeah.

[00:15:40] Jordan: But a, anything that's nice in the
kitchen, we always say avoid the dishwasher.

[00:15:44] Elizabeth: Okay. So as you think about, where
this non-toxic cookware has evolved over the last five years, but certainly
there's been so much more conversation, but yet I still think. It's still very
in its infancy where the conversation around toxins in general is just becoming
so much more in the forefront.

[00:16:04] But where do you
think we're heading?

[00:16:07] Jordan: There's been a lot of progress over
the last number of years. I feel like. Forever Chemicals is really making its
way into the news. Folks are seeing, laws starting to come into effect across a
lot of states, and products. Interestingly, about five states just announced
that they're banning the use of, or banning the sale of forever chemicals and
certain consumer goods that are going into effect over the next three to five
years.

[00:16:33] Elizabeth: Do you know what states those are?

[00:16:35] Jordan: I forget the five off the top of my
head. Yeah. I actually think one is Connecticut where I live , but we're
starting to see progress, which is really exciting. The EU just, also banned
Teflon in a major way across consumer categories and are transitioning it out.

[00:16:49] I know when I was
living in New York City. I believe they banned using Teflon and takeout
containers, which was, it was being used in. I look at it very similar to BPA,
15, 20 years ago. And, there's a big wave of the material being taken outta
plastic and it's really exciting.

[00:17:05] We're seeing a lot
of brands across a variety of verticals talking about it really pushing
alternatives and. I think there's great momentum behind it.

[00:17:16] Elizabeth: Where do you see Careway going?
What's your expansion look like? As you started, certainly with cookware and
have moved into bakeware, et cetera, what's your long-term vision that you were
pitching back to the investors early on?

[00:17:31] Jordan: Yeah, so our goal is to build a full
kitchen brand and possibly expand to the home, which is why we are caraway
home. we see a big opportunity in this space to. Create a unique design
aesthetic that's shared across products. If you look at your kitchen today,
there's a lot of independently beautiful products, but when you scan the
kitchen and you might have like your KitchenAid stand mixer and a Breville
coffee maker and your wolf stove, they aren't really aesthetics that make sense
together.

[00:17:58] And as we expand, we
want to. Provide people with the opportunity to not just buy into a specific
aesthetic, but also a non-toxic home. And so as we expand we are going very
wide across product categories. everything we do lean into the same three principles.
We discussed design, easy to use, and non-toxic.

[00:18:17] And that word
non-toxic is starting to expand. So for example, we've launched cutting boards
recently and the whole goal of our wood cutting boards is to help remove
plastic boards from your home and microplastics leaching. And the story behind
nine non-toxic is starting to evolve to other materials and product lines.

[00:18:36] Elizabeth: I love that. And I think, you're so
right. If you think about everyone's kitchen, you've got like such a menagerie
of looks. They're old, they're new, they're. I could use a little cohesion
together. What are some of the worst offenders in our kitchen or our home for
that matter?

[00:18:52] Jordan: Yeah. I mean it's really everything,
know.

[00:18:55] Coffee

[00:18:55] Elizabeth: It's everything. But someone's
gonna say okay, I got, yeah, I, the new pans, like what else do I break down
and change?

[00:19:02] Jordan: Coffee makers are actually not great.
Most of them are made with a plastic reservoir and with heat and water that
plastic's leaching into your water, air fryers typically have Teflon trays,
which are heating up and seeping into your food.

[00:19:16] A lot of appliances
there's been a big push around water filtration recently that's been
circulating. Definitely recommend check checking kind of local reports on your
tap water. a lot of toxins don't even get filtered out by a lot of the common
products on the market today, and things like Teflon or forever chemicals and
other toxic materials make their way through.

[00:19:37] So the, those are a
couple to name and I'd say if you look across any area of your home or life
there, there's just toxins everywhere and it's hard to fully get rid of it, but
I think from a consumer standpoint, and you. I think you gotta pick the areas
that, that you really care about in your lifestyle to look to upgrade and I
think for folks really looking to live a healthy lifestyle, the kitchen's the
best place to start.

[00:20:02] Elizabeth: Yeah. The kitchen and what you're
eating. I'm definitely voting for you guys to make a non-toxic air fryer
because I did get rid of mine with the Teflon and I have not been able to find
a solution

[00:20:14] Jordan: maybe one day

[00:20:15] Elizabeth: you've got my vote for that. So as
the company has evolved over the last couple years, you said at the beginning
that you guys are fully remote.

[00:20:25] I'd love to learn
just a little bit more about your experience leading the company and some of
the lessons that you've learned and really building this successful brand, and
especially one that is remote, which is not easy. It's not easy building a brand
period, but that also adds a different layer I think.

[00:20:46] Jordan: Yeah, so our team's, 70 people today
and fully remote. We did have an office at one point pr I think in our first
few months. we launched November, 2019 prior to Covid and Oh, perfect

[00:20:56] Elizabeth: timing. We,

[00:20:57] Jordan: we had a, yeah, we had a little office
with four desks and had a shut down in March of 2020.

[00:21:04] And that was great
to building remote culture. We didn't really have a full office culture. Yeah.
So got to build the brand remotely and I think it's been a huge benefit for our
employees. We have folks who, travel to Europe or go live in Mexico or wherever
for, a couple months.

[00:21:20] Individuals get to
work on their own time zones. I think there's access to better talent and.
Flexibility. So we really love that aspect. but it also comes with its
challenges. So I think naturally, communication across the company is harder,
especially with 70 people as we've grown. So making sure that each department
sharing relevant information across the company and everyone knows where to
access it.

[00:21:42] You can't just walk
over to someone's desk to ask a question. making sure that, we're encouraging
people taking time off or getting outside of the home, so we give like a
coworking stipend to all of our employees. We have a wellness benefit. And
sometimes it's really challenging to be working in the same space, in, in your
home where you're living every day.

[00:22:02] Yeah, definitely
comes with its challenges and I think one thing we've really leaned into is.
Just clear vision and expectations about what we're building and we have a
really robust kind of OKR or goal structure at the company. And I think
remotely especially we'd really struggle if we didn't have that in place.

[00:22:20] And so we put a lot
of time and effort to making sure that everyone knows what their core
responsibility is and what their goals are. And, I think it requires a little
bit less touch bases once that's in place when you're in a remote environment.

[00:22:33] Elizabeth: Yeah, absolutely. so 70 people from
November 19 launching, that's a pretty fast move and growth.

[00:22:45] How has that been
for you? Has that been, what challenges have you faced along the way?

[00:22:52] Jordan: It's been a, it's been a fun journey.
The team's grown fast. we were only, I think 50 last year, so we've added quite
a few people this year. I think we're hiring another 10 more through the end of
the year.

[00:23:04] And, we're lucky to
have a incredible team with amazing leadership. And I think in my seat when we
were four people, I was doing probably everything at that point. And I think to
any entrepreneur out there, I think it's. Really critical to learn each area of
the business early on so that when you do hire someone to take it over, you
intimately know that area of the business.

[00:23:26] And I think in my
role, my, my job's changing every day or every week and what my priority and
focus is. But yeah I think hiring great people is important. I think setting
clear, expectations or goals or objectives to make sure that they're all,
marching towards the right, north Star, as we call it, internally.

[00:23:44] And, I think once
you get to 70 people, it's you wanna be in the weeds, but you also need to
empower the team. And something I'm always battling every day. I'm an operator.
I like to be the one executing. And, we have an incredible team across the
board who. Is really passionate about what we're building.

[00:24:01] And I think figuring
out how to scale yourself to make sure that, you're not getting in the team's
way and, but also, providing clear expectations and goals of, where you want
them to bring the company.

[00:24:12] Elizabeth: Yeah, that's definitely, I think
one of the hardest parts from going to doing everything, being every role.

[00:24:19] And you certainly
hire the people to do that. And you hire people who, in a lot of cases, are
smarter than you in whatever those areas are, so they can take on those
responsibilities. But it is still a strange feeling of. Not getting into the
weeds of certain things where you once did or you really enjoy.

[00:24:38] So what are you
enjoying the most in the business today? What role that you have today do you
really feel excites you?

[00:24:50] Jordan: My, my background's more product
development, so I love working on the product side of things. We at the very
core define ourselves as a product company, and we've got a, I think a five
year product roadmap built out that we're working on.

[00:25:02] Speaker 3: How fun.

[00:25:03] Jordan: So I love working on products and then
we're run an interesting moment in the business where we now have a variety of
categories and we're a lot more than just a cookware brand, one of the
exercises we're going through right now is, who is caraway over the next five
years?

[00:25:18] What do we stand
for? How do we evolve the brand? If you chat with a lot of customers there are
many folks who still don't know. We sell bakeware, food storage, and some of
these other product categories. So having a lot of fun, working through the
brand evolution right now and what that's gonna look like moving forward.

[00:25:36] Elizabeth: So one piece of the brand
evolution, certainly how the D two C landscape has evolved from 2019, how has
that really shifted in the business and where do you see that going for your
brand?

[00:25:51] Jordan: So we are still primarily direct to
consumer. We do have a big Amazon business and retail business as well.

[00:25:57] And before even
launch we...

[00:25:58] Elizabeth: But amazon very well, so that's

[00:26:00] Jordan: Yeah, exactly. And we launched the
brand. We intended to be multi-channel. It's important from a diversification
standpoint, but we're also in a category where registry plays a huge role and
people aren't gonna our site to register.

[00:26:13] They're going to
Crate and Barrel and Amazon and Target and Zola. So we're continuing to expand
distribution. We actually have a big B2B side of the business as well where
interior designers like to buy from us or.

[00:26:26] Elizabeth: Oh, that's very cool.

[00:26:27] Jordan: Large, high-end real estate projects
and excitingly we're only US based for the most part today.

[00:26:33] So as we expand,
international is a big opportunity, not something we're focused on today. But
our goal is to really build our distribution platform over the next few years
and, make sure we have a good infrastructure for launching more products.

[00:26:49] Elizabeth: I'm curious to hear your
day-to-day, what that looks like.

[00:26:53] We talked early that
you have a five month old, so that's a lot to be juggling in addition to this
company. Walk us through a day in the life. Do you have any morning routines,
night routines? How do you show up as the best version of yourself?

[00:27:09] Jordan: Yeah. I think having a routine is
important, so that, that's number one.

[00:27:13] And I try to stick
to that each day. So I'm probably up at 6, 6 30 seven on a good day. , I head
to the gym for about an hour. Come back, spend a little time with the baby. I'm
probably sitting down by eight 30 or nine and then. I've instituted a hard stop
at five o'clock each day, and I get to spend time with my family from five to
seven, eat dinner, do nighttime with the baby.

[00:27:40] We also have a
1-year-old puppy as well, so

[00:27:43] Speaker 3: Oh, nice puppy. Take her for a
walk.

[00:27:45] Jordan: And then a yellow lab. Cute. And then,
yeah I'm normally back to work from seven to 10 at night, but yeah, I think
carving out time for family and fitness has been really important and I. making
sure each weekend I get to take at least one, one full day off.

[00:27:59] Normally working
Sundays, but treat Saturday as the time to decompress, put away the phone
computer. It's hard to always do that, but I think, important to, to rest the
mind.

[00:28:10] Elizabeth: Do you have a, any favorite
productivity hacks or ways that you really stay organized, focused, and just
efficient in your time?

[00:28:21] Jordan: Still working on it, but, I'm always
on do not disturb mode, which I find to be helpful. I know my times during the
day where I'm least efficient, so from two to three o'clock after lunch, my
mind just goes numb and sometimes I'll go for a 30 minute lap and take a walk
and I've been doing no meeting Mondays, which has been really helpful.

[00:28:40] So it lessens the
burden on having to get my work done during the weekend and I can come into the
week. Not feel super stressed on Monday and tackle, tackle my week, get it
scheduled. So that's been really successful for me so far.

[00:28:54] Elizabeth: I love that we do that as a
company, but I am probably like the worst offender at still having whatever
meetings I somehow have on a Monday.

[00:29:01] So I gotta get
better at taking that advice.

[00:29:04] Jordan: Yeah. I haven't always honored it. I
do book over it, but I'm trying to put some boundaries on it, and Monday's
always a great day. I used to do no meetings on Wednesdays and I couldn't keep
to it. And, everyone's coming in, getting prepped for the week.

[00:29:17] Yeah. And so I've
shifted it and it's been great so far.

[00:29:20] Elizabeth: Any other boundaries that you have
that have worked?

[00:29:24] Jordan: I think one change I've made that's
been helpful is I now have separate email inboxes for different areas. I
actually have a product development specific inbox to separate those from my
CEO tasks and responsibilities.

[00:29:38] I have one other one
as well for stuff that I review, that the team sends me. So just
compartmentalizing parts of my job and to different inboxes has been a big
help.

[00:29:48] Elizabeth: I like that one. All right, we're
gonna move to some rapid fire q and a

[00:29:58] three things that
you are currently loving. It could be a product, podcast, TV show, anything.

[00:30:07] Jordan: Sure. products, with the baby. Love
Evry is an incredible brand, huge fan of them, amazing products, super
educational, both to the parents and the child. So that's been great. TV show
big fan of The Bear, so watching the new season.

[00:30:23] And then podcasts.
How I built this is one of my favorites. , always listening to new episodes
there.

[00:30:30] Elizabeth: Love it. Who's been your biggest
inspiration in your entrepreneurial journey? I.

[00:30:41] Jordan: Pro, probably a boring answer, but I'd
say like Steve Jobs or James Dyson. I think what I love about those two
companies is and brands is the focus on product innovation, and the DNA that,
that was built throughout those companies and brands. And so we always call
caraway like the apple of the kitchen.

[00:31:00] And while we're not
a high tech company. we do embody a lot of the same design principles that
those two companies lean into. And I look at those two as obviously some of the
best, but also, um, really influential in what we're doing here at Caraway.

[00:31:16] Elizabeth: A favorite dish to cook with the
caraway cookware, and maybe what also your favorite CareAway cookware.

[00:31:25] Jordan: My favorite piece is our new Rondo,
which is kinda a high wall, saute pan with two handles. It's super versatile,
so I've been cooking everything in that one. My favorite dish is probably, I
make a mean chicken marsala, Probably my favorite one.

[00:31:39] Elizabeth: Any secret to your chicken marsala?

[00:31:43] Jordan: Lot of onions.

[00:31:46] Elizabeth: A favorite book for growth.

[00:31:50] Jordan: The Lean Startup a, a classic one. , I
do a Ride of a Lifetime about Walt Disney, which is, a great one to read.

[00:31:57] Elizabeth: I love that one too. Favorite
business moment?

[00:32:02] Jordan: Favorite business moment? Probably a
boring answer, but our launch day was super exciting.

[00:32:07] Every sale that came
in, we were jumping up with excitement and high fiving as a team and, it was
about 18 months of hard work to get it live. We had a few near death
experiences shortly before launch. Getting out to market was really fun and
exciting and , hard to replicate that experience.

[00:32:26] Elizabeth: What was your expectation for that
launch day and did it meet your expectations?

[00:32:31] Jordan: I think we sold like 30 cookware sets,
which was probably And were they all your

[00:32:35] Elizabeth: family? I'm just kidding.

[00:32:37] Jordan: I think my mom bought, like the night
before, so she got the first sale. I don't know if we had, we, I don't know if
we had certain goals and expectations, but just every sale that came in was
exciting.

[00:32:47] And, we are a $400
product, no name brand. And the fact that. We have people taking the leap on
the first day, we didn't even have inventory in stock. That, that was really
fun to watch.

[00:32:58] Elizabeth: Absolutely. And lastly, what is
your number one non-negotiable to thrive on your wellness journey?

[00:33:07] Jordan: Sleep. I think getting eight to 10
hours a night is a must have.

[00:33:11] And I know for me .
I cannot operate or think without a good night of sleep. Hard with the five
month old. But yeah.

[00:33:17] Elizabeth: Any tips that you have for getting
good sleep?

[00:33:20] Jordan: I get in bed at around 9, 9 30 at this
point, if I'm not working late, usually watch something in bed or read to
decompress.

[00:33:28] And don't look at
your email inbox Slack, anything. Otherwise you'll be up all night thinking
about what just came in. And I think the same thing too, when I wake up and go
to the gym I might be listening to a bi business podcast or something along
those lines. I try to avoid emails and slacks before I'm sitting down.

[00:33:48] Elizabeth: Love it. Jordan, in closing, what's
next and where can everybody find you?

[00:33:55] Jordan: You can check us out@carawayhome.com
and keep an eye out. We've got some fun launches coming in August and September
of this year. I. to expand the brand. So excited for those.

[00:34:05] Elizabeth: Amazing. Thank you so much for
being here.

[00:34:08] Jordan: Thank you.

[00:34:11] Elizabeth: Thanks so much for joining me on
Live Purely with Elizabeth. I hope you feel inspired to thrive on your wellness
journey. If you enjoy today's episode, don't forget to rate, subscribe, and
review. You can follow us on Instagram at purely Elizabeth to catch up on all
the latest. See you next Wednesday on the podcast.