You're walking into the building on your first day. The name on the outside — attached to every product, every invoice, every customer relationship — belongs to someone else. A founder. A family. A legacy that predates you by decades.

And they chose you.

Whether you're the next generation of a family business or an outsider brought in because the family recognized something they couldn't provide from the inside anymore; the moment you walk through that door, you become the custodian of something that matters deeply to people who were here long before you arrived.

You didn't just take a job. You took on a legacy.

And somewhere in that building, the elephant is already waiting.

I pulled off the highway in rural Quebec to take a mandatory company call. What I heard changed everything; and shaped how I think about brand, culture, and leadership to this day. New article up.

Poppi didn’t win because they “did marketing better.”
They won because they built a brand that knew exactly who it was, and let that truth drive every decision.

This isn’t a soda story.
It’s a leadership and culture case study on what happens when alignment creates speed.