Rachel Mansfield is one of those people where listing her titles doesn't even do her justice — OG food blogger, recipe developer, cookbook author, CPG investor, and now founder of cadootz!, the kids' snack brand that's checking every box health-conscious parents have been begging for. Oh, and she's doing most of it alongside her husband Jordan, while raising three boys and renovating a 90-year-old home. Casual.
In this episode, Rachel gets real with host Sarah Perkins about the winding, messy, beautiful road that got her here — from baking box-mix birthday cakes in high school, to getting fired (her word, not ours) from a PR job at 25 with 10K Instagram followers and a big dream, to building a brand that now reaches millions of people who just want to eat well without it feeling like a chore.
We talked about it all: the moment Jordan convinced her to start a recipe blog instead of selling overnight oats on the streets of Manhattan (truly iconic), what she's learned as an investor in 25+ CPG brands through grt sht Ventures, and why she is not launching new cadootz! flavors quite yet—even though everyone keeps asking.
Rachel also gets candid about navigating fertility challenges in public, the pressure of running a platform where it always looks like you have it together (she does not, and she'd like you to know that), and why she thinks "balance" is kind of a myth—but also why that's okay.
This one is for the founders, the creators, the parents trying to figure out how to feed their families something better, and honestly anyone who's ever been told no and had to figure out what comes next.
In this episode, we cover:
- How getting fired was the best thing that ever happened to Rachel's career
- Building a food and lifestyle brand from scratch in the early days of Instagram + influencers
- What she learned about brand partnerships — then vs. now
- Launching cadootz! and her cookbook More, Please! in the same week (accidentally)
- Working with your spouse: the real talk on what it's like and how they make it work
- Investing in 25+ CPG companies through grt sht Ventures and what she's seen go wrong
- Why she's going slow and steady with cadootz!'s retail strategy
- On sharing the hard stuff online: fertility, overwhelm, and keeping it real
- What fills her cup: heated sculpt classes and a really good Sancerre
- Her closing advice for anyone thinking about putting themselves out there
Connect with Rachel:
- Instagram: @rachlmansfield (no "e" in Rachl!)
- Website: rachlmansfield.com
- Substack: @rachlmansfield
- cadootz!: @cadootzsnacks | cadootz.com
- Pre-order More, Please! at rachlmansfield.com
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