When Brooke Rewa needs leadership inspiration, she turns to football.
âMy husband is a hardcore NFL fan, so I love watching the games with him because so many of the coaches are just such natural leaders. They get their team amped up and theyâre able to articulate things really clearly; and I love the rallying that happens, so I actually pull a lot from that,â she says with a smile. âAnd football is so cut and dry: you do your job, and you do it well or you donât have a place on the team. Thatâs itâbut if you do it well, youâre really rewarded with what you can accomplish together. So my team jokes because I do make a lot of comparisons to football.â
Rewa is the founder of Los Angeles-based non-dairy milk company GoodMylk, so football might not be the most obvious point of reference. But Rewaâs entire business is built on a foundation of doing things differently.
She created GoodMylk, like many entrepreneurs, out of a need in her own life. A long-time vegan, she was forced to confront eating habits that she had previously thought were serving her body in a positive way. âI thought because I was vegan it meant that I was healthy and that automatically all vegan foods I was choosing were healthy,â she says. âAnd I got really sick with major digestive issues, and spent a year trying to figure out what was going on.â Eventually she met a holistic nutritionist who instructed her to be wary of processed foods and start reading labels. The biggest shock? Her boxed almond milk.
âOne day I flipped over the box and looked at the ingredients and was like, âHoly shit. Itâs full of gums and binders and all these other ingredients,ââ she says over warm drinks at Flowerboy Project in Venice (one of the many cafes that now serves her product). âI looked up the nutritionals and was like, âOh, thereâs no protein in thisâthat doesnât make any sense because I know that almonds have a lot of protein. So thatâs weird. And itâs a liquid that can sit in my cupboard for a year or longer without being refrigerated.ââ
So Rewa started making her own almond milk, using only whole, real, organic ingredients. Soon realizing what a difference it made in her own life (both in terms of health and flavour), she decided to start selling her milk at her local farmerâs market. âI had no savings, I had no connections,â she admits. âI just started selling this product at the farmerâs market and people fell in love with it.â The reception was so strong that she figured people outside of her community would benefit from organic alternative milk, too, so she decided to make GoodMylk her full-time venture, soon garnering wholesale partnerships with brands like the ever-trendy Blue Bottle Coffee.
Aside from the fresh milk (almond, hemp, or oat-cashew), GoodMylk also offers frozen concentrates for those who go through less product (since, you know, there are no preservatives giving it an extended shelf life), as well as a newer powdered version for ultimate ease.
âI learned a ton on R&D [research and development] doing that,â says Rewa of GoodMylkâs powders. âI almost walked away five or six times because I thought it just wasnât going to happen, and then finally we got it to work.â The Almond Latte Creamer, for instanceâmade with Italian sprouted almonds, maple sugar, and Hiimalayan saltâimmediately adds flavour, frothiness, and creaminess to a morning cup of java.
The alternative milk industry was valued at approximately $11.9 billion USD in 2017, and that number is only growing. Rewa sees it all as a sign that the conversation around food and wellness is changing. âI think it all has to go togetherâyou have to look at what youâre putting into your body, what youâre putting on your body, what youâre exposing yourself to mentally, how youâre processing stress,â she says. âFor me itâs my vitruvi Balance Roll-On, a bit of meditating, and yoga. I think understanding what youâre putting into your body and having healthy eating habits should be the base of it all, and then you just build everything else out from there.â
Both in her personal life and in her company, Rewa emphasizes well being from all angles. Of course, that doesnât mean she doesnât get stressed or that she doesnât work hardâbecause she does, and she does. âIâm surprised at how little people talk about how difficult it is,â she says of running a business. âThereâs this conversation that happens all the time when I see even other founders where itâs like, âI see your product everywhere, you guys are killing it, your products are so great.â How do you reply to that? Because weâre working so hard to get our product everywhere, and there are a million other things behind that. Sometimes Iâm like, âI just checked my bank account, it doesnât feel like weâre doing that great!â You donât see the hundred things every day or how stressed I am or the stress of my team. So it always kind of surprises me the dissociation people have, even other founders, about the path that a brand or company is actually on and how hard it is and what it takes.â
Still, not everything is a struggle. âIâm surprised at how hard it is, and there are moments when Iâm surprised at how easy it is,â Rewa admits. âIâm surprised every time that our story and what weâre doing resonates with someone. Iâm surprised to the point of tears sometimes.â