Why Your Brands Needs to Build Out Loud with Jake Karls

Jake Karls, Co-Founder & Rainmaker at Mid-Day Squares, joins Jeff Abracen for a fast, fun, and deep conversation on building brands by building out loud. Jake breaks down the origin story behind Mid-Day Squares' “act like a boy band” strategy, why story > features, and how humanization is an unfair advantage in a world obsessed with scale.They also unpack the behind-the-scenes reality of growth: therapy as a non-negotiable founder practice, the emotional swing from “nothing to lose” to “everything to lose,” and how a cocoa price crisis pushed MDS to innovate into a new category with their No Bread PB&J - complete with character-driven storytelling (hello, Trudy & Chip).In this episode, you’ll hear:Why “building out loud” expands your luck + opportunity surface areaHow Mid-Day Squares modeled their brand like the Backstreet Boys / Spice GirlsWhy the best brands sell feelings, not featuresThe real role of attention: getting trial in a 30-40k item grocery storeHow “serendipity” becomes a growth strategy (show up and good things happen)Therapy as a business system for alignment, trust, and conflict preventionThe cocoa crisis, the margins reality, and the innovation leap to No Bread PB&JCreating characters to scale storytelling beyond foundersJake on fear, pressure, loneliness, and shifting back to “play to win”Plus, a live taste test!00:00 The boy band brand model 00:24 Intro 00:41 Montreal energy and Jake’s travel rhythm 02:37 First advice to founders build out loud 04:13 Showing up and serendipity 06:07 Finding Mid-Day Squares DNA and the deal that changed everything 09:27 Story over product features 11:45 Cocoa crisis and category expansion 13:05 Humanization is the advantage 14:25 Innovation as the escape hatch 15:25 The No Bread PBJ origin 18:09 Packaging storytelling and characters 22:11 Product must hit and story gets trial 25:10 Founder lanes and trust 28:37 Therapy communication and avoiding founder conflict 30:04 Fear pressure and playing not to lose 33:06 Stage mode elevated Jake 34:28 The down days and recovery 37:52 What would make younger Jake proud 39:10 Life after Midday inspiring entrepreneurship 42:13 Serendipity story fraternity to investor 43:35 Live taste test outroConnect with Jeff Abracen on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffabracen/]If you are or know a disruptive influencer who would make a great guest, we'd love to hear from you. Every Like, Share, Subscription and Review means a lot.Cover art by Daniel DevoyMusic by Stephen Voyce©2024 The Disruptive Influence Podcast - Jeff Abracen