Somia Farid Silber Transcript
Clint Betts
Somia, thank you so much for coming to the show. It means a lot to have you here. Your journey started in your family's store at just six years old; is that correct?
Somia Farid Silber
That's correct.
Clint Betts
How did those early experiences shape your perspective on running a business and where you are today?
Somia Farid Silber
I feel like growing up in a small business taught me so much. I remember I was in the store every day after school, on the weekends. I started dipping strawberries and wrapping arrangements when I was eight or nine years old, entirely by choice. I wanted to do it. Had a lot of fun doing it, learned a lot about customer service and making sure that the experience we're providing to our guests on the phone and in person is always the best, and it really helped me understand what our franchisees go through on a day-to-day basis. So it's really nice when I have the opportunity to speak with them and work with them on their business because I understand what the store experience and the retail experience are like. But I'm very fortunate and blessed to have had that opportunity to be in a retail environment from a very young age, and I give it a lot of credit for my leadership style and my knowledge today.
Clint Betts
That is incredible. So, give us a sense of what it's like to run a family business. What has this been like?
Somia Farid Silber
It's been great. My dad, he's our founder. He was CEO until October of 2024 and handed over the reins to me officially. It's been a great journey for us. We work very well together. We balance each other out. He's a big personality. He's very extroverted. I'm a little more introverted and very methodical in my thinking to his entrepreneurial. It's a nice balance to his entrepreneurial spirit. But it's been really great. We have a really fantastic team here at Edible, and I think the best part of it for me is I have the opportunity to run something that is greater than just the fruit arrangements business, and the Edible Arrangements business is what got us to where we are today over the last 25 years, but it's really the growth opportunity in all of the new business units that we're launching that are very exciting for me, and I'm really eager to get to put my stamp on everything, from the Roti Mediterranean concept that we just acquired with 17 restaurant locations to the Edibles.com business and some of our enterprise business units as well.
Clint Betts
That's remarkable. So, give us a sense of the launch of Edibles.com.
Somia Farid Silber
We're very excited about it. We launched just a couple of months ago in the Texas market, and it's one of those where, for many years, people have joked or they'll walk... I've seen it when someone walks into our store and says, do you sell edibles? So we've been called Edible and Edible Arrangements for so long. We always hear the sentiment out there that one day, they'll get into this business. So even though it's us doing it, we are keeping it as a separate business unit. We've had the Edibles.com domain for over a year now and wanted to do something really important and special with it. So, I hired Thomas Winstanley, he's our EVP GM of the Edibles.com business unit, and I told him, "Hey, look, I want to create a best-in-class wellness marketplace that has really amazing hemp products and allows people to explore the category and the offering and make it all outcome-based, right? So if they want to relax or sleep better or get energy."
So he came in, it's been 10 months. He helped identify the brands and the products that we brought on, and we're really excited about launching in Texas. And then, we'll be launching in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas within the next couple of months as well, with same-day delivery along with nationwide shipping with our chews category. So, for us, it was an opportunity as a trusted brand with a really strong infrastructure when it comes to the retail footprint plus the e-commerce capabilities to take all of that and create a new brand and a new offering and bring it to consumers across the country.
Clint Betts
What all goes into the sourcing and finding the right farmers and all that stuff? Give us a sense of what would even go into something like this.
Somia Farid Silber
So, for us, we're really more focused on the end product. So we are working with brands like Can and Wana and Heirloom, pretty well-known brands in the cannabis industry, to identify the right chews and beverages and bring them on our platform. So, we're not involved in the sourcing down to the grower level. We're going out there looking for high-quality, trusted brands and products to feature on our platform and tell consumers more about.
Clint Betts
That makes sense. So how are you thinking about things like AI, integrating that in your company, and how is that going to change your industry or not change it at all? It seems like it might, given that you're really a distribution and branding and all of that type of stuff; I just wonder how you're thinking about it.
Somia Farid Silber
It's a great question. We actually hired a head of analytics last year. He's a genius, already came in, and has helped us a ton with figuring out how to use AI and machine learning across the business. I think the most important thing for us is that we want to start small. So it's using it, figuring out use cases that are easy for us to get into it that help us create efficiencies or create nice user experiences, and then work our way up from there. So the first thing we did was on the Edible Arrangements side on Edible.com, we launched an AI card message writer. So you can go on the website, and if you're placing an order, it will generate a card message for you. I can't tell you how many times during the holidays I've worked in a store and a customer has called two or three times to change the card message, especially on Valentine's Day.
They'll write a message, and then they'll call and say, "I think it was too forward. Can I change it?" And then we have to reprint the ticket, and then they'll call back and say, "Hey, I want to make another change to it." So it's a nice, cute little thing that we did, and we see a lot of customers taking advantage of it as well. So it's starting there, but then also getting into cognitive search capabilities, really figuring out how do we predict what the customer might be looking for based on their browsing habits? We're looking at creating personalized e-commerce experiences. So, the homepage or an email that you might see might be different from the email and homepage that I see. So it's a little bit of everything right now. We're also looking at ways to introduce it at the retail level to help our franchisees be more efficient, whether it's with production or product quality, so a little bit all across the business, and just really excited about the opportunity that it creates for us, not just from a revenue standpoint, but also operational efficiencies.
Clint Betts
That's incredible. What does a typical day look like for you?
Somia Farid Silber
Very back-to-back. I have a two-and-a-half-year-old, so my mornings and my evenings are sacred, and I love that I have a team that understands that because I spend most of my weekdays here. So my mornings are hectic with my toddler, and then I come in usually from 9:30 to 4:30. A lot of back-to-backs, whether it's one-on-one or sales meetings. We have so many different business units here, so we're getting to a place where we'll dedicate a day to a specific business unit and work on that. But a lot of ideating, a lot of strategic planning, but then at the same time, there's real-time conversations happening on everything from the impact that tariffs might have on our business to what's the promotional plan for Father's Day, which is coming up in a few weeks. So, it requires me to wear both hats. I have to be able to put on the strategy hat when needed, but then also the tactical hat as well. And that's something that I am fortunate enough to have with the rest of my leadership team, too.
Clint Betts
How do you focus on your own mental health, your own health and well-being? What strategies do you have for other CEOs in that regard?
Somia Farid Silber
Great question. I'm always learning because I feel like it's one of those things that I'm not as good at as I would like to be. I think for me like I mentioned earlier, my mornings and my evenings with my family are sacred to me. I disconnect. My daughter's at a point now where she'll notice if I'm on my phone, so the phones go away. They're not at the dinner table. I don't have my phone when we're doing our bedtime routine. So just that disconnecting from the phone helps so much because it allows me to be present and in the moment with her. And I've started to practice that a little more on the weekends as well.
And then try to make time to work out and do self-care things that are for me, even if it's as simple as, hey, I'm going to sneak out during lunch and get my nails done. Little things like that. And then also trying to practice more meditation and mindfulness. I've recently started doing a five-minute gratitude journal in the mornings and evenings, which I found to be very helpful, and I think a little bit more about the big picture. So even though it may feel like you're in a rut and you're just going in a routine, it always makes me think about what brought me joy that day, which I found super helpful for my mental health and well-being.
Clint Betts
How have the tariffs affected your company?
Somia Farid Silber
We were fortunate that we hadn't seen a major impact just yet, so we're in a good place right now, but we partner with manufacturers and suppliers all over the globe, whether it's the chocolate that's on our dipped strawberries or the containers that the arrangements get built in. So, we've been working with our different partners to figure out strategies to minimize the impact. So we're in a really good place today, but it is something that we're constantly looking at and seeing how this affects our business. How does it affect our franchisees? And then, most importantly, how is this affecting the end consumer and the people who are buying our products?
Luckily, it hasn't been anything too extreme just yet, but it is something that we've already started to do, just the sentiment out there with consumers. And when your discretionary income starts to shrink, gifting is one of the things that goes away first. We've shifted very heavily into value messaging and highlighting our gifts under the 50 category. You can go on our website and order a box of dipped fruit to get delivered to your house today for under $50. So, we want to make sure that we continue to highlight those offerings so that there are approachable price points and something available for everyone, no matter where they fall.
Clint Betts
What have you learned about leadership from your dad or others that have prepared you for your role and what you're doing now?
Somia Farid Silber
First and foremost, listening is just being a very active listener. I'll tell you, I think I've learned this from my daughter. Just being present with her and listening to her has taught me to slow down and actually digest everything. So I think listening is just a very important skill to have. I think the other big one, and I've learned this from my dad, and then also I went to Babson College in Massachusetts, super entrepreneurial. They're all about entrepreneurial leadership, always being solution-oriented and solution-minded.
I've been in meetings with my dad where he'll say, "Just skip to the last slide that has the recommendation on it. We don't need to go through the whole deck on the why. Let's start with what the solution is and then work our way back." And that's something that I do a lot with my team now as well. We found it really helpful, and what we've realized is sometimes there's a lot of stuff that we might be preparing for that we don't necessarily need to, and we can jump to the action very quickly. So, I'd say that a solution-oriented mindset is super important, and active listening is very important. Those are probably the top two.
Clint Betts
Give me a sense of, you have brick and mortar, and you have an e-commerce, and where do you think all of this is going? For years, maybe decades at this point, people have been saying, "Oh, brick and mortar is going to go away. It's all going to be online." Obviously, that's not true. It hasn't panned out. What do you think about the different ways and different strategies of running those two, like an actual physical location and an entirely online one?
Somia Farid Silber
That's a great question. We really look at them as two separate business units, even though they're very interconnected. I'd say the most important thing to realize and understand is it is not the same customer, especially for a business like ours. The customer that is shopping online is me sending an edible arrangement to my sister in California for her birthday versus someone who's shopping local, and in their neighborhood, they're stopping in for a treat. They're stopping in to grab a housewarming gift on their way to a party. They're stopping in for an after-school snack with their kids. So, when you realize that the customers are different, it's easy to tailor the messaging accordingly. And I don't think retail is going anywhere. We've seen people shift a hundred percent into e-commerce and online shopping during the pandemic. Now, you're seeing that wave coming back to retail, but it's coming back in a way where brands are required to have personalized experiences and a reason for someone to walk into your store.
So, we are going through a major revamp on the retail side and introducing Edible Next Gen. It's more of a destination. It's a really cool store where you can come in, and you can grab a coffee, grab a smoothie, build your own dipped fruit box, build your own arrangement, and get a quick gift. It's a really nice retail experience that's super inviting, and it allows the customer to shop how they want to. So we've taken that learning of, hey, if we want people to come into our retail stores, there has to be something compelling here that they're drawn to. So really excited about that. We just opened our first Next Gen store in Connecticut and have another one opening in Atlanta later this year.
Clint Betts
Oh, I see. That's cool. What has the response been from your long-term customers now that you're entering the cannabis industry? Has everybody been supportive... I know that can be controversial, maybe not as much, actually, now. But what's the response been?
Somia Farid Silber
Yeah, I actually don't think it's been controversial for us at all. One important thing to note is this is a separate business unit that sits outside of Edible Arrangements. And then two, we were actually surprised by how positive the response and the sentiment was. I was expecting a little bit of pushback or negativity, but I feel like we, as a consumer base, are past that. I think people are looking for safe and trusted products, and they want to learn more, and this is just encouraging that. So we're really fortunate that we have the platform to do that, and for us, it's so much more than just creating an e-commerce marketplace and platform. It's also focusing on content and education. What are these products? What are the differences between the different blends? What kind of dosage is right for you? So, we're really excited to build out the content portion of this as well.
Clint Betts
That's great. Finally, we end every interview with the same question, and that is, at CEO.com, we believe the chances one gives are just as important as the chances one takes. When you hear that, who gave you a chance to get you to where you are today?
Somia Farid Silber
Oh, that's a great question. I'd say, well, look, if you think about it, one is my family. I'd say that's probably the biggest one. You don't see a lot of generational transitions in family businesses. So I think my dad and my family as a whole have entrusted me with this, and I'm really excited to lean into it and build a brand that my dad grew to the next level and to grow it to the next level. I recently did another podcast, and I was talking about if fifteen-year-old Somia where she is today, she'd be mind blown. And just, it's true. So, really, a lot of credit to my family and my support system for giving me the chance to really shine and supporting me both personally and professionally.
Clint Betts
I love it. Somia, thank you so much for coming on. Seriously, congratulations. What an incredible business. Congratulations on the launch of Edibles.com and everything you're doing. We'll have you back on as things continue to grow and develop, and really, what an honor to have you.
Somia Farid Silber
Thanks so much for having me, Clint. Really nice to meet you.
Clint Betts
Likewise. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.
Edited for readability.