TASTE PROFIT MARKETING - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Marketing Specialist
- Design Specialist
Ada Broussard is a farm marketing specialist with a diverse skill set. Ada grew up in South Louisiana, went to college in Austin, Texas, and completed a graduate program in Jerusalem. Ada's love and fascination with each region's distinct foodways lead her to a career in agriculture because you can't have great food without great farmers.
Ada has spent over 7 years of her career managing the marketing and growth strategies for one of the largest CSA farms in the country where she nurtured a wide range of skills including copywriting, content creation, email marketing, design, illustration, art direction, social media management, and customer-facing communication strategies. Ada loves to think of creative and innovative marketing solutions for small and medium-sized businesses that fit their budget, align with their brand, and generate sales. Her marketing ethos centers on authentic storytelling.
In addition to marketing, Ada has experience farming (like, in the dirt), managing CSA programs, and managing distribution logistics. She co-found Club Home Made, a meal prep service designed to connect Central Texas consumers with local food producers and empower them to cook simple, seasonal food. Ada is based in the Texas "Hill Country" where she lives with her partner, their dogs, about 90 goats, and a small herd of cattle. Ada enjoys cooking, hiking, and crafting in her spare time.
Job Titles:
- Internal Marketing Manager
Amira is a marketing professional with a background in journalism, food writing and content strategy. In her career, she's held hundreds of conversations with farmers to gain a clear picture of the industry landscape and the unique challenges it faces. During her seven years in restaurant marketing, Amira nurtured relationships with area farms that deepened her understanding of local food systems and sustainable practices. She enjoys working with brands who care about quality in all aspects of the business and have a mission that aligns with her own-to create meaningful connections and enrich people's lives.
Job Titles:
- Business Development Manager
David is a passionate advocate for sustainable agriculture with a diverse background in marketing, sales, and practical farming. His journey began at the University of Southern California, where he studied Creative Writing and Film Studies and developed a love for photography and organic agriculture. Through his experiences working on WWOOF farms, David deepened his commitment to bridging the gap between commerce and sustainability. With prior roles at Moon Valley Organics, Viva Farms, and Wright Bros Farm, he gained hands-on experience in media coordination, sales, CSA management, communications, and farming. Now as the Client Specialist Relations Manager at KTC, David leverages his extensive knowledge and understanding of farmers' needs to provide solutions and strengthen the resilience of farm and food businesses. Outside of work, he enjoys tending to his own garden, cooking with homegrown produce, and collecting rare bottles of mezcal.
Job Titles:
- PR Consultant and Media Relations Specialist
Eva is an expert at pitching food brands to a wide range of media outlets. She has a track record of media placements in nationally-circulated magazines and newspapers, well-trafficked blogs, websites and highly-rated radio and television programs. She was responsible for media placements of The Mill Fudge Factory on MSN.com and the Boston Globe, among dozens of others.
Boasting strong relationships with print, broadcast and online journalists across the United States and Canada, she has the resources, experience and expertise to obtain maximum press exposure for our clients and their specialty food brands.
Eva prides herself on only taking on projects where she feels a connection with the brand and loves what they do. She is choosey about the clients she takes on and has to sincerely think your product is really innovative, exceptional…or delicious.
As part of her work, Eva contacts journalists, editors, writers, bloggers, and TV/radio hosts and producers and tells them all about your brand. Throughout the whole PR process, she keeps in close contact with you, the client, keeping you posted on progress and sharing monthly media reports itemizing all the press coverage you have received.
Job Titles:
- Director of Service Delivery
A native of North Carolina Helen grew up surrounded by the sites and smells of the eastern region's tobacco belt and hog farms. She transplanted to Pennsylvania for her graduate studies at Pennsylvania State University where she earned an MS in Bio Behavioral Health, an interdisciplinary program that heavily emphasizes the holistic analysis of complex issues. Along the way she cultivated her own interests in sustainable farming methods, trying them out on her own homestead and diligently tracking her own progress, profitability and failures.
Helen gradually moved away from academia and into a more practical application of her skills. From being a general laborer on a number of farms to serving as the Educational Programs Coordinator for the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA), to most recently acting as the Operations Manager of a small scale multi-species abattoir, she has had her hands in multiple facets of the agricultural community. She understands wholeheartedly the complex nature of ag-based business and the fears that come along with working in an industry where so many uncontrollable variables factor into success or failure. With a passion for organization and a drive for evidence-based decision making Helen joined the KTC team at the beginning of 2019 as a part-time Staff Consultant and she continues to keep her boots on the ground working on a diversified livestock farm. In her downtime she is still meticulously tracking and analyzing the progress of her own homestead tucked away in the Penns Valley area of Pennsylvania.
From her great grandfather's Boston-based wholesale tomato business to her cousin's organic fruit farm in New Hampshire, food and an entrepreneurial spirit have run deep in Joanna's family. With a passion for supporting small businesses and a background in marketing, Joanna supports entrepreneurs with the tools they need to grow their online presence using social media.
Joanna has worked on marketing teams of all sizes including Fortune 500 and start-up companies. From working on consumer-facing retail and food brands to wholesale food manufacturers, Joanna's versatile experience provides a wide range of marketing skills that plays a significant role in creating social media strategies for clients. Joanna takes a wholesome approach by understanding the business, its goals and its audience to craft a strategy and management plan that's sustainable and always improving by centralizing analytics.
Knowing that strong marketing can make any brand successful, Joanna makes it her mission to provide those resources to smaller, socially-driven businesses.
Julia is passionate about nourishing food, soil health, organization, and analytics. She was raised in rural Western Uganda where her neighbors taught her to value farming and community living. After attending Duke University for her undergraduate degree in Cultural and Environmental Studies, she worked for the Farm at New Garden Park in Greensboro, NC, eventually becoming its farm manager. There she learned many skills from managing employees and volunteers to double-digging beds and organic pest control.
Julia wanted to enable the sustainable food movement to grow and enable her fellow farmers to succeed financially, so she chose to pursue her MBA at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and is expected to graduate in May of 2023.
In her free time, she loves to bake scones and granola, go on hikes/bike rides in the mountains, plant what she can at her house, and read novels. She is usually accompanied everywhere by her faithful dog, Basil.
Job Titles:
- Hyper Targeting and Data Specialist
Ken Sheehan is a data modeler and analyst with a background in ecosystem science, which he did for his Masters, PhD, and post-doctoral work. He's harnessed the statistics and big picture view learned examining and predicting broad scale dynamic environmental processes and now uses them to solve marketing and advertising problems in food related industries and beyond. Ken's specialty is geospatial statistics and analysis of business data, which for Taste Profit clients means that decisions on where to locate a new store, expand outreach, or how to target clients more efficiently without increasing budget, are challenges for which he enjoys finding the solutions.
On the not so technical side, Ken is a passionate gardener, foodie, and coffee aficionado who often roasts his own, which he enjoys either before or after an adventure with his border collie rescue and constant companion.
Job Titles:
- Marketing Planning and Communications Director
Kristel Keys Running, M.A. is passionate about sustainable agriculture and food. Her passion for food and farming began on the rolling hills in southwest Wisconsin, where she grew up on a small farm surrounded by fields and trees as far as the eye could see. She thinks farming is the most important job and loves working for the greater good of the land. She has experienced the joy that life on a farm brings and also understands the challenges farmers face.
Throughout her career, Kristel has worked with organizations across a wide range of industries, including farming and consumer package goods. She developed strategic marketing plans, engaging and innovative content, and successful digital marketing campaigns that saw an increase in customer engagement and lead generation, and ultimately increased sales. In addition to growing up on a farm and coming from a farming family, she worked directly with farmers at Organic Valley. She developed campaigns to recruit new farmers to join the co-op, managed the farmer-facing website and oversaw all content creation from newsletters to email campaigns that went out to farmers.
Kristel is a creative and strategic thinker with more than 20 years of marketing communications experience. Her ability to cultivate client relationships while running multiple campaigns shines through with satisfied clients and high performing metrics. She is excited to use her expertise to help grow your company through strategic marketing and innovation. Kristel has a MA in Business Communications and a BS in Communications Technology Management. Her goal is simple - to empower farms and organizations to differentiate themselves and drive measurable results through innovative messaging, images, and advertising. In her free time, Kristel enjoys hiking, traveling, spending time with her family, and volunteering.
Lee has a passion for entrepreneurship and helping grow small businesses. He has a diverse background ranging from commercial photography, social media marketing, web design to his specialty, search engine optimization (SEO). He has a proven track record of taking websites from zero organic search traffic to having a consistent month over month growth.
Growing your specialty food business is a marathon and not a sprint, and we will build you a solid SEO foundation that you can continue to build and grow upon sustainably.
Lee regularly gives talks and presentations to the local business communities, is an instructor for DMC Seacoast and taught Marketing classes at Keene State College. In his free time, Lee loves to travel, go on adventures, explore the world for all of its sights, sounds, and tastes!
Job Titles:
- Director of Client Relations
Director of Client Relations Leland Michaels Growing up in farm country in southern Michigan, Lee's passion for food came from a young age. Lee has been gardening his entire life and worked in the fields, greenhouses and farm stands of the local food scene throughout his youth. The family Christmas tree farm taught Lee and his sister the family entrepreneurial spirit as well as help pay for college. After graduating from Michigan State, Lee headed toward a career in the marketing and advertising industry. After relocating to Traverse City, he reconnected with his love of food and began working at Cherry Capital Foods. What started with the sales team lead to purchasing responsibilities and eventually Lee became the VP of Operations. The experiences and challenges of operating a food hub and distribution company have taught Lee the value of our foods' journey from farm to mouth, some of them very simple and many very complex. Taking a small company like CCF to the next tier requires a strong strategic plan, metrics and goals. He is excited to bring his knowledge and perspective of the food industry to the KTC team and clients. When not working on food systems, Lee can be found in the kitchen, garden or workshop, crafting something with his hands. He is the father of two beautiful children, a die-hard Spartan and a lover of all four seasons.
Meagan is passionate about helping farmers and specialty food businesses be set up for success. She grew up in the country in North Louisiana, surrounded by farmers, and is no stranger to the hard work and dedication it takes. She graduated from Louisiana State University with a BS in Communication Studies. After graduating college, she moved to Austin, TX where she was inspired by the local food scene that flourished. She spent a year teaching English abroad in Chiang Mai, where her love for local and sustainable food production deepened and led her back to North Louisiana. Here, she has spent the last four years working for a regenerative farm, helping farmers and families build a strong local food system. She has a good marketing sense and plenty of experience building direct to consumer websites, creating content, tracking progress through analytics, and doing the research necessary to develop a strong marketing plan. Her intention is to help lay the ground work necessary to help farmers succeed and focus on what they love…farming!
Mimi is a graphic designer with 20+ years of experience translating strategies into effective branding. She works with new-often local-businesses to build brands and refreshes existing brands to help them grow. She loves the opportunity to bring the brand off the page-printed or digital-finding new ways to reach an audience while maintaining consistency across everything about the brand experience. Her approach is creative and collaborative, focused on problem-solving.
In addition to design and layout, Mimi is accomplished in photo direction. Projects include logo designs, infographics, digital ads, catalogs, menus, packaging, and greeting card design.
Mimi has a degree in Art History from Franklin and Marshall College in addition to a design degree. While she spends most of her creative time behind her computer, she has 17,976 photos on her iPhone and an enviable collection of colored pencils.
Job Titles:
- Marketing Manager
- Farm Marketing Specialist
Samantha is the Marketing Manager for her family's farm business in southern Indiana. She specializes in online and email marketing of meat, eggs, and dairy products. Growing up on her family's farm instilled a passion for local food, small business, and farm-to-consumer marketing. She loves building relationships between local food businesses and their customers.
Samantha earned a bachelor's degree in economics and finance from Brescia University in Owensboro, KY and has spent the last four years as a work-from-home mom to her two young daughters. Her focus is to help farms and local businesses create a convenient and enjoyable buying experience for their customers.
Ted LeBow is a serial entrepreneur. His first business venture (in 1980) was a farm in Idaho where he bought his first tractor, signed his first loan with the Production Credit Association, and started waking up in the middle of the night worrying about the rain ruining his hay crop.
He graduated in 1989 from Cornell University School of Agriculture with a Business Management Degree. He's run eleven small businesses, seven of which he owned all or part of. Since 2008, he's grown two small business management consulting firms. As of 2021 Kitchen Table Consultants have served over 500 small businesses.
Ted's passion is financial sustainability and coaching entrepreneurs to achieve their dreams in a sustainable manner. He is driven to help entrepreneurs to understand HOW they make a profit, not how much profit they make. He has worked with hundreds of small business owners, all over the country, creating and helping them execute their financial goals and align their leadership teams with the culture of the organization. He regularly presents seminars around cash flow, profitability, and how to know if you're profitable. His greatest measure of success is helping others (both entrepreneurs and managers) achieve more than they thought they could; all the while getting them to do it on their own.
He is committed to the entire community in and around food and farming. He has taken leadership roles on multiple sustainable agriculture-related non-profit boards, including an 8-month term (2016) as interim executive director for the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, where he successfully restructured staff and finances to enable a new ED to hit the ground running.
His financial commitment to both his clients and his community is more than just words; he has personally assisted in raising over $60 Million in debt, equity, and donations for the organizations he works with.
He has lived in Bala Cynwyd, just west of Philadelphia, since 1997. In his spare time, he shares a fleet of 1950s-era tractors and equipment with Philadelphia urban farms, cuts, and mills his own lumber for live-edge furniture, has started to build bamboo fly rods, fly fishes, and participates along with his wife (as much as possible) in the lives of his three daughters (22, 26, 28), all of whom now are in the New England area.
Zoe Schaeffer creates brands that stand out and connect with consumer values, driving sales and customer loyalty for the long haul. A graduate of Columbia University, she began her career as a food magazine writer and editor. She has since served clients as a web designer, graphic designer, photographer, email marketer, social media manager, PR agent, and more. Her direct experience in nearly every facet of digital marketing gives her a holistic view of brand strategy, helping clients hit goals without wasted time and energy.
Before joining Taste Profit, Zoe worked as a communications specialist at Rodale Institute and Regenerative Organic Certified. She has spent several seasons on flower, vegetable, and pastured livestock operations and once spent a year traveling the country solo, living and volunteering on farms. She now lives in southeastern Pennsylvania with her husband, two young kids, and a small flock of backyard birds. She loves art, manual labor, and good food.