You’ve seen it on the shelves of just about every health market and now you get to meet the gal behind the ghee…
Raquel Tavares launched 4th & Heart ghee in 2015 and is on a mission to demystify ghee and educate the world on its versatility as it can be used for nearly every type of cooking! She was born in Brazil but now resides in the Pacific Palisades with her family and is a mother to two young boys. Raquel started the company with $80,000 of her personal savings, and did $2.2 million in revenue in 2016. She prides herself on the ability to tackle family, work, self and play- she wants to milk each minute of each day! Raquel is an inspiration to women all over the world and once you read on she’ll be one to you too…
What does “The Art of Being Female” mean to you?
The Art of Being Female is the delicate balance between exercising my masculine and feminine energy I put out into the universe, it’s the dance between taking care of myself and others, all while often having to accept I won’t always be understood.
As a working mother, and let me be clear, I know mothers who stay home are also working, but my work often takes me far from home, and I am therefore absent about a week a month. Now while the archetype of what it means to be female is changing, it’s hard to break free from our own internal dialogue of what it means to be a woman as it was told to us by our mothers, grandmothers, and elders. Therefore, I find that I dance between in and out of expectation living the path of asking for forgiveness, not permission, and the art is accepting yourself for who you are, regardless of what you hear out in the world and work towards empowering the strengths you are gifted all the while learning to surrender and accept. You can try to do it all but often you can’t, so I try to surrender, to ask for help. I know I won’t be helping anyone by burning the candle at both ends.
To put it simply: Putting myself first, being unapologetically me and while putting my best foot forward to love hard and support others on the journey.
Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you became interested in health?
My mother was born to foreign diplomats. My grandfather worked for foreign services, U.S.A.I.D, and my grandmother, holding a Master’s degree in French and Spanish, would travel with him to his different stations. Therefore, my mother and her siblings lived in foreign countries throughout their childhood. Therefore, they didn’t grow up eating North American foods, rather Latin American Foods like rice, beans, plantains and other foods found in the tropics.
By the time my mother was fifteen, she was in Brazil, where she later met my father and was married by seventeen. I came three years later and rumor has it, she was on a macrobiotic diet while pregnant with me. To be on a strict diet at 20, while pregnant, speaks volumes of who a person is, therefore, I believe my Mom was always ahead of her time, and in following her passion on diet later she became a R.D. (Registered Dietician).
While growing up was hard without sugar or soda in the house, it made me who I am and I’m happy to say avoiding the bad stuff comes pretty easy for me.
Now as a Woman, Mother, Entrepreneur, I need health to stay balanced and I am glad to know I found my bliss in my work in leading the charge on 4th & Heart’s line of products, which all center around healthier-for-you pantry staples!
What inspired you to start Fourth & Heart?
I’m a hybrid of a creative and business person and it’s always been evident. I’d fair best in a place where I could exercise all of my strengths, so I’ve spent my life searching for a career that I can find my bliss in, therefore, the desire to live and follow my bliss is what inspired me to start 4th & Heart. Furthermore, I enjoy inspiring through action and emulating and wanted 4th & Heart to be an inspiration in its brand voice from the beginning, encouraging others to also follow their bliss, because life is too short to do otherwise. Therefore, I first set out to buy an existing company which brought me into kitchens, as I was looking for something in food or yoga, which then led me to wanting to select a single ingredient and select a single origin product which was used daily, could be made in different flavors and put into different deliverables. After a series of signs, ghee became the first ingredient I selected. It also fulfilled all the requirements to living authentically because it was something I used and made daily for 15 years at the time, and was familiar with as my Mother later came to be an Ayurvedic Practitioner. (Ayurveda is a medicinal life-science in India which leverages herbs, ghee and body therapies to balance the gut and system to find optimal health) So when I thought Ghee, I knew it was the right choice. After all, who wouldn’t want shelf stable butter? I do!
Why ghee?
Ghee is the gift that keeps on giving. You can use it internally, topically, it’s a food, supplement, medicine and yet familiar as it’s just a shelf stable butter and everyone loves butter.
How did you become passionate about ghee?
I know, who is passionate about Butter? Ironically, many, but it made so much sense to me as I used it daily, and really felt the beginning of the “fat is back” movement beginning and knew my passion for ghee, combined with the wave of trends would most certainly fuel the momentum which my passion was already revving inside!
You started this company after already being a mother, how old were your kids when you began and how did you manage it all?
My youngest was almost 3 and my other was six months when I began the business plan/ideation process. They are now six and eight years old. The balance came easy with the passion. I’d often be working with Dhilan (the baby) in the sling breastfeeding, while typing the business plan and since I was home with them, at the time, I could work when they were napping during the day and being up at nights feeding also allowed me to squeeze it in here and there. As they grew up I had the support of their dad, and had some help at home, but ultimately after the product was launched the greater team began to grow and I am not shy about asking for help when I need it. Clearly, I had my breakdowns, and moments of helplessness, but after a good cry I just shook it off and got back up again. My mother always said about me, “once Raquel sets her mind to do something, she won’t stop until it’s done.” And, it’s proved true. I guess Mothers are always right?!
In 3½ years your company has gone from 350,000 to run rating at double digit seven figure run rate, what do you attribute to the success?
We were fortunate in when launching our company, shortly thereafter Paleo became a huge trend, then Whole 30, and now Keto, so I’d have to say it’s a combo of a great product which we put a ton of love into, and of which were “first of” products like the Vanilla Bean Ghee and the Himalayan Salted ghee. So not only was “fat back” but I feel like we made it fun, unique and stress free! At the end of the day, the result of any recipe is only as good as the ingredients you put in and we only source the best vanilla, garlic, butter, chocolate and have all unique recipes, curated by yours truly. I think you can’t source love and authenticity, but we’ve managed to and find it moves the needle!
How many employees and stores do you have as of today?
We actually only have 8 employees and about another 10 contractors working as an extended sales team. Our store count is around 8,000 at this point, depending on what product you’re looking for and almost 30% of our business is on Amazon.
What is the hardest part of managing a fast growing business?
The hardest part is not dropping the ball and keeping up with the unicorns I have hired to help me complete the task! I am a firm believer in surrounding yourself with people who you can learn from, whom challenge you and that’s what we’ve done at 4th & Heart.
How do you prevent burnout?
I burnout all the time. My mother is always saying, “Slow down. You’re doing too much.” So I actually just embrace burnout as part of my job and to curb the pain of burn out, I stay healthy, do a lot of yoga, swimming, running and some restorative things like cryotherapy and thermal sauna. But I also try to have some fun, and engage in things like writing poetry, listening to music and going into Spotify on the hunt for new sounds. But, ultimately, I think it may be unavoidable for now. I’ll take a few months off between 4th & Heart and my next gig.
What has been your biggest accomplishment?
Fundraising capital from reputable VC funds is huge because I’m not from a finance background, so I suppose raising my first million was huge. Funny to think how much more we’ve raised since then, but every time is like the first!
Biggest hurdle?
The biggest hurdles are balancing a personal life with work life and trying to get others to understand where you’re at. In setting off on any great task there are casualties and often you must prioritize work because it’s not just *work* when you are a founder/entrepreneur. It’s a third child. It’s eight people relying on you for their livelihood, so maintaining a healthy emotional disposition, all while juggling is a huge hurdle to overcome, but well worth it.
You’re constantly introducing new products. How do you come up with them?
Most of the products were listed on my original business plan I wrote in 2013, with exception to the chocolate spreads. It’s mostly just gut instinct and a vision I get about a certain ingredient. I grew up with a Registered Dietician so we made a lot of funky things growing up, so my mind works fast when it comes to food. I have one idea and then it proliferates into many versions of the same thing, then it’s about a process of selection. I currently have 3 pages of innovation ideas, but I am sure just 2-3 will ever see the light of day. Truth be told, I often wish I could launch 4-5 different companies at once as I’m inundated with ideas, but not to worry, I’m sticking with 4th & Heart for some time!
What is your favorite product and why?
It’s the Vanilla Bean Ghee because it was my baby which I took a while to come up with a) the idea; b) the recipe c) keep convincing my team to keep it on shelf and has now become a cult classic as many love it in their butter coffee as a dairy-free alternative creamer.
Where did you come up with your company name?
I came up with 4th & Heart with our branding agency through about 60-naming ideas we put together as a group. It resonated as it was the location of the Heart Chakra, which is green, and since it was also the Chakra for my birth sign, the stars just aligned.
What’s your secret to a productive day?
If I stick to my routine Coffee, Yoga, Cryo and a little meditation, I can run a productive day. But honestly if I don’t sweat before I sit, then it takes more coffee.
What has been the most exciting part of this journey?
It’s been meeting so many incredible people, traveling near and far to remote places, but the people I’d say are number one. From our team, to our investors, we have unicorns circling the den and I would love to spend a dinner with each and any one of them any day of the week.
Do you have any advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?
If it doesn’t make your heart go “kaboom, tungba, tickytok” don’t do it!
Follow them on Instagram: @fourthandheart
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