In the second episode of the CNBC Changemakers & Power Players podcast, CNBC Senior Media and Tech reporter Julia Boorstin spoke with Bobbie CEO and Co-Founder Laura Modi about the infant formula roundtable, her nightly ritual, work/life balance, and challenging the status quo.
Listen to the full episode here. New episodes drop every Tuesday.
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MODI ON INFANT FORMULA ROUNDTABLE
JULIA BOORSTIN: Recently, there was a big New York Times article about how you were participating in a Health and Human Services meeting about formula with some of the big manufacturers of formula. And the article was not so much about you participating, but more about the backlash that that drew from some of your customers who didn’t like the policies of RFK Jr. around vaccines and the like. What exactly went on there?
LAURA MODI: So, let’s unpack that a little bit. Since day one, Bobbie has fought for anything surrounding the fight for our customers and our community. From paid leave to the black maternal mortality crisis to supporting even during the LA wildfires. So we don’t look at it as a factor of who’s in the administration as a point of, do we fight or not? Yes, it happens to be that the current administration in seat comes with some polarizing perspectives. And when I received the phone call to say you are being invited into a roundtable conversation around the future of your industry, and the rest of the CEOs of the infant formula space, who all happen to be men, will also be in that room, you better believe I took that invite. And I took that invite because if I didn’t, my voice and the voice of mothers and the voice of our community or the next generation, was going to be missing from that table. Now not everyone can see – and I think this is where some of the questionable backlash can come from – which is a lot of questions as to why did you enter the room? Why did you have that conversation? And I think during this journey, I’ve had to continue to sit up straighter, check in on the intention. And the overall intention is to improve the industry, regardless of who’s in seat.
MODI ON HER NIGHTLY RITUAL
LAURA MODI: I do this thing called my personal and professional check in every night. Every night before I go to sleep. It’s like a habit that I’ve built now from brushing my teeth to just getting ready for bed. And the personal and professional check in is I rate my day personally and professionally on a scale of one to five. And it is a small mental check in I have with myself to just remind myself that if I am feeling a certain way, it’s because, personally, today was a two, and here’s why. And that’s okay, tomorrow could be a five. Yeah, it’s a daily habit.
JULIA BOORSTIN: This is fascinating. I want to try doing this. Do you write it down? Do you share it with your husband? How does this work?
LAURA MODI: No. Sometimes I write it down, but no, I usually just do it as I lie in bed. And it’s become sort of the habit that if I start drifting off to sleep and I realize I haven’t done it, I find myself jolting awake again and just doing a quick, Wow. Today was a four professionally. Here’s the two reasons why. Personally, it was also a four, and here’s why. Great day. Sum it up, go to sleep, wake up again.
MODI ON BALANCING WORK AND LIFE
JULIA BOORSTIN: Four kids, crazy job. How do you make this all work?
LAURA MODI: A little bit of compartmentalizing on all of the craziness in life. I’m not going to Spiel off the most perfect schedule that says I wake at five, I exercise and then I drop all my kids off. That’s not true. Every day is different. I kick off my Mondays being able to go, Can I squeeze in a workout here or there? Maybe it’s just a power walk and I stick on my ankle weights. Maybe I’ll squeeze in a few of the calls that I didn’t do over the last week, here or there. Me, my husband, trade off a lot, and then behind the scenes of it all, I mean, there is that partnership sort of agreement that we have, which is we’re both building together and we’re supporting each other along this journey.
JULIA BOORSTIN: I’ve heard you keep meetings really short.
LAURA MODI: Yes. I love tight meetings.
JULIA BOORSTIN: You’re super efficient.
LAURA MODI: I love tight meetings. I like the clarity of, what are we trying to get out of this?
JULIA BOORSTIN: So how short?
LAURA MODI: 15 minutes, if it’s an inform, 30 minutes, if you need to get to a quick alignment. And then I also strongly believe on the other side, if you need deep engagement and conversation, then structure meetings so that you’re not 40 minutes in realizing this should have been blocked for half a day, and also during this half a day, we should have been very clear on what the outcomes are. No one’s leaving this room until we’re done.
MODI ON CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO
JULIA BOORSTIN: What did you learn from Airbnb, your experience at Airbnb that helped you take on this challenge?
LAURA MODI: Well, I’m not a scientist, so I went into this eyes wide open, going, I will need to bring on the team and the group of experts to be able to build a formulation, to navigate the regulations. But what I did take was just an ounce of that courage to disrupt something that was the status quo. And remember, Airbnb was going up against the hospitality industry. It was questioning how people should travel in ways that for decades, for a century, no one had done. So, I sort of felt, in many ways, what I had learned at Airbnb was challenge what has been because just because it’s there doesn’t mean it can’t change. It was a challenge that I felt probably more as a mother, deserved to see change. I mean, you look at on shelf granola bars have changed, bags of chips, sodas, but yet, a product as important as infant formula was still the same as what I had 40 years before that. That’s wild.