Taco Bell Tackles Sustainability ft. Missy Schaaphok (Taco Bell)

Our next guest, Missy Schaaphok, is a fellow hybrid leader at an iconic brand: Taco Bell. Her superpowers? Sustainability AND nutrition.

As someone who has always had a passion for food and nutrition and its impact on the environment, Missy gets to combine the best of both worlds as Director of Global Nutrition & Sustainability at Taco Bell. 

Her unique background over the past two decades has shaped her career skills in sustainability, nutrition science, product innovation, regulatory compliance, and affairs and reputation management. Missy has been recognized for her leadership  by American Food Hero, by EatingWell Magazine, and regularly serves as a speaker on expert panels and at key industry events. 

Missy is an expert in sustainable nutrition science and uniquely apply that knowledge to the food industry. In this episode, Missy helps us better understand the natural intersection between nutrition and sustainability, recognizing that her work impacts both personal and planetary wellness. Missy walks us through setting and cascading goals for sustainability and nutrition while maintaining the brand's unique execution based on its customer or stakeholder focus. Missy and host Lauren Scott also dive into her concept of “stealth health” and how this gradual approach could also be applied to sustainability initiatives. We look at Taco Bell’s programs around recyclable, compostable, or reusable packaging, waste management, energy efficiency at the building or restaurant level, stakeholder education, and an incredible partnership underway in regenerative agriculture.

Transcript

I am always fascinated by executives who have hybrid roles, especially when one of their responsibilities includes sustainability. At first glance, our hybrid titles can be a bit confusing, but once you dig in, we often see the deep value. For example, in my professional work (which is independent of this podcast) I straddle the line between sustainability and marketing. While it might seem unusual at first, it starts to make a lot more sense when you dig into the importance of the words we use from both an awareness and regulatory standpoint.

Our next guest, Missy Schaaphok, is a fellow hybrid leader at an iconic brand: Taco Bell. Her superpowers? Sustainability AND nutrition.

As someone who has always had a passion for food and nutrition and its impact on the environment, Missy gets to combine the best of both worlds as Director of Global Nutrition & Sustainability at Taco Bell. 

Her unique background over the past two decades has shaped her career skills in sustainability, nutrition science, product innovation, regulatory compliance, and affairs and reputation management. Missy has been recognized for her leadership  by American Food Hero, by EatingWell Magazine, and regularly serves as a speaker on expert panels and at key industry events. 

Missy is an expert in sustainable nutrition science and uniquely apply that knowledge to the food industry. In this episode, Missy helps us better understand the natural intersection between nutrition and sustainability, recognizing that her work impacts both personal and planetary wellness. Missy walks us through setting and cascading goals for sustainability and nutrition while maintaining the brand's unique execution based on its customer or stakeholder focus. Missy and I also dive into her concept of “stealth health” and how this gradual approach could also be applied to sustainability initiatives. We look at Taco Bell’s programs around recyclable, compostable, or reusable packaging, waste management, energy efficiency at the building or restaurant level, stakeholder education, and an incredible partnership underway in regenerative agriculture.

Missy really is a lighthouse leader shining a light on how we can do business better. With that, please help me welcome Missy to the show!

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[Host: Lauren Scott] Well, I'm so excited for today's episode, in part because, as someone who has what I call a hybrid title—so half of my work is in marketing and half of my work is in sustainability—I always get excited when I meet other professionals who have that kind of hybrid approach and role within their jobs. Today is one of those situations where we have somebody who has a hybrid role overseeing both nutrition and sustainability at Taco Bell. So today, we have Missy joining us. Welcome, Missy.

[Guest: Missy Schaaphok] Thank you. Glad to be here.

So, as somebody who has one of those joint roles, how do you balance that in your day-to-day, and how did you come into one of those hybrid roles, much like myself, within your role at Taco Bell?

Well, so I've been at Taco Bell for twelve and a half years now. I originally started in product development and over time took on the role of nutrition and then sustainability. It was an evolution based on brand and business needs. But when you really think about it, the intersection between nutrition and sustainability is there; it exists, right? Because we grow food to eat for nourishment and enjoyment, and growing food uses Earth’s resources, right? So, however we grow that food impacts communities and the planet. The two are very connected. So, when I was given the opportunity to lead sustainability, it just made sense. Now, of course, I don't have a background by trade; I'm a dietitian-scientist by trade, but the intersection is there and it just makes sense. I was open to the opportunity and the challenge, and so since then, it's been probably seven years since I've taken on the role of sustainability, and it's been pretty great.

I definitely agree with you: there's that natural link, I think, between personal wellness and then broader ecosystem wellness. So, I definitely see those two tying in together. When it comes to those goals, whether it's sustainability or nutrition, Taco Bell is part of a broader group with the Yum! group. Do those goals typically come from the larger parent organization and trickle through the different brands, or do you see more grassroots creation of those goals that all fit into a bigger piece of the pie?

Yeah, it's a little bit of both, but I would say Yum! as a parent company, they are the publicly traded company, so they are responsible for reporting and progress. As such, Yum! center really manages the strategy, the frameworking, on behalf of all the brands. Just to be clear, there are four brands: there's Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Habit Burger. Habit Burger joined our organization in early 2020.

Basically all of the reporting goes into Yum!; they aggregate the data for all of us. But when it comes to executing, the brands are really the ones who have to execute the work. Again, a strategy in a way that's brand-specific, so they have options for making brand-specific goals. So, Taco Bell, we've done that ourselves where we do what Yum! sets, but then there may be brand-specific things that we want to go and do ourselves because either it's customer-centric focus or it's centric focus that we just feel is important for us to work on. At the end of the day, you know, my role is probably unique within Taco Bell even amongst the brands, and then we have other roles that are also very unique and different. So, structurally, we set up slightly differently across the brands as well, but we're all executing against that strategy.

That absolutely makes sense. I know part of your concept that you bring—and I heard you say in other interviews—is that you have this concept of stealth health, which, if my husband is listening to this, will probably say, “Well, that's what I do for all of my meals,” trying to sneak in vegetables wherever I can. What does the stealth health angle look like in your work?

Yeah, and I love that term because it is stealth health; it’s stuff that you don't typically shout at the rooftops. You're not like, “Hey, guess what? I took sodium out of your food!” People don't want to hear that because apparently, they think, “Oh, it's not going to taste as good, it's going to be bland.” But in essence, the work that we put behind removing sodium is so technical and very lengthy to the fact that we want the food to taste just as good. So, we do a lot of internal and external testing to make sure that when we reduce sodium in our food, you can't tell the difference. We do all the hard work stealthily behind the scenes so that you don't notice. And then we do it slowly over time so palates adjust. I mean, we see that with just sugar reduction, sodium reduction. When you make a dramatic change very quickly, people will notice, but when you do small incremental changes over time, your palates adjust. So, that's why it's more stealthily done. 

Other things that I would put in that category would be clean label. So, clean label is an effort we've already accomplished in the rest of Canada and we’re working on globally as well, across all brands, but we've removed artificial colors and flavors, added trans fat, partially hydrogenated oils. At Taco Bell, we've also removed high fructose corn syrup. So, those are the efforts that we've done also stealthily, and that we just continue to maintain efforts.

I feel it's almost like the approach you want to take for sustainability as well, right? Sometimes those overnight changes can feel really overwhelming, even internally with associates, whereas if you do something gradually, it can be more of that natural transition. I know one of the initiatives that you're focused on is that of packaging. Could you walk us through what that journey has looked like over the years and where you are today in 2024 in terms of maybe your stealth packaging updates?

Yeah, packaging is an interesting one too, and I will say, again, that's something I had to learn on the job. Growing up and just being a food scientist, I have a ton of pictures of food on my phone, and you would not believe how excited I get over a trash can or packaging, how many pictures I have on my phone, which is pretty funny. The journey of packaging for Taco Bell, back in 2020, we announced very specific things that we were seeking out to accomplish. KFC did as well. Then we realized, you know, as a big global brand across Yum! Brands, it's probably better that we all start working on the same things, the same efforts, and so all of the brands work together to essentially consolidate our packaging goals collectively. 

So now there's a robust packaging policy available online for those who want to dig into the details, but essentially what we're doing is we're shifting our consumer-facing packaging to be recyclable, compostable, or reusable. We're getting rid of those intentionally added chemicals of concern like PFAS and phthalates, right? And then we're supporting recovery and recycling systems, whether that's in-restaurant or otherwise, and a whole lot of other things. But in essence, we're focusing on the consumer-facing packaging, right? So, your burrito wrap, what you receive as a customer, that's packaging. For us, we've already made efforts, and without having to shout it from the rooftops, people will notice the difference. We had the white non-recyclable wrap before, and now we have this Kraft brown recyclable paper. So, that's a pretty noticeable difference. We didn't have to say anything really, you could just tell by looking at Taco Bell without it. And then we updated the branding on it as well just to get a new look and feel. 

We still have a lot more work to do. We were able to improve about half of our packaging suite, and we have the rest that we have yet to solve. So, I have a couple of packaging engineers on my team, and we're working really hard to find out what those solutions will be. It's not an easy place to operate in when you're a national brand and you're up against local and state laws that are all competing against each other, and then additionally, you're up against local and state infrastructure, right? What will they accept, what can they accept, and what can they process? So, it's an interesting space. I actually really love it, but we all have goals that are being realized at the end of next year.

It's exciting and definitely very complex as well. I know packaging is part of waste management, so you may have touched on that as well, but I'm sure there are other areas that you have to think of with your team. Waste management is not just at the restaurants, too. I'm sure you also have to think end of life of your products ending up in people's homes if they do takeout. So, what are other waste management considerations that you have to think about?

Yeah, you said it beautifully because the packaging is a critical component to waste management because how we design our packaging should fit into a recovery stream. But then, like I mentioned, we're up against local and state infrastructure, so we're looking at widely recyclable, right? What is considered widely recyclable? It has to be at 60% or more that could be recovered at a material recycling facility. But then you think about our business, our fast-food business; we're predominantly drive-thru and takeaway, so people aren't really dining in as much as they used to, especially after COVID. So, they're taking their food home or they're taking food elsewhere. 

So now, you're up against community infrastructure. So, will our consumers have access to home recycling? But again, if we're designing our packaging to be recyclable or compostable and it's widely recyclable, you know, that piece will be there. So, for us, we've done a few things with waste management, right? All of our company restaurants, we have almost 8,000 restaurants in the US, and of that, we have roughly 500 that are company-owned. So, all of our company restaurants have what we call front-of-house or in the dining area, the dining room, waste diversion. And it's—you have trash, mixed recycling, composting, so that customers have an opportunity to have access to recycling in our restaurants. So, that's one way that we're doing our part to give them access.

We're also partnering with some of our franchisees in different states to pilot waste diversion efforts, whether that's back-of-house with team members because that's where the majority of waste is generated in our restaurants, and then also front-of-house. What we're realizing is that education is critical to the success of proper waste management and diversion, right? Because people are so used to just throwing things away; they're just used to putting it all in the trash, right? When you look at your communities, you don't always see three streams; you just see one stream. So, there's an educational effort that has to take place across the industry to help inform people, customers across the board, that you have to do something, and it needs to be different. So, we're looking at things like calls to action. We haven't quite got there yet; we're trying to find the right message, but I'm seeing other retailers doing this too, where it's like “recycle me”, “compost, me”. It's like do something, you know? So, we're looking at ways to grab people's attention to let them know that, hey, you need to do something different. I look and feel different, and also, you need to put me in a different bin.

That education is absolutely key. I completely agree. Maybe even in terms of internal education, I would love to pick your brain because you were saying twelve years ago you started with Taco Bell as a product manager. So, we have a lot of sustainability folks who are listening who are trying to push sustainability through their respective organizations. How would you recommend that those sustainability leads work with their product management teams to get them on board as part of that journey? I might selfishly be asking this question as well, but how have you seen that work, especially with that product lens? I would love to know your perspective.

I mean, honestly, it has to start at the top. It's really, really challenging for one person, for one department, to push sustainability and embed it across your organization. So, sustainability has to be a key business priority and strategic focus, and then it has to be embedded into the organization in a way that makes sense. So, for us, it's how we source our ingredients, how we produce our food, it's what we put in it, it's the materials we use with the packaging we source, and it's also how we design our restaurant. So, I mean, there's a big people component to that as well, which is not my key area of focus, but you know, because our focus areas are food, planet, and people. But the strategy has to be set, and it needs to be embedded across the organization, and it can't just be one person because this category, it's a lot of work. In order for you as an individual to be successful, you need the support of the organization to do it. Just starting with compliance, honestly, is a massive undertaking. The world of regulations and legislation is just massively growing at an unprecedented level. So, if you just start with compliance, we have—we're a business organization, we have to comply with the law. That's a lot of work in itself. So, that's a great place to start if it's not coming from the top. Ultimately, the top will realize, oh, this is important work, we have to do this, and there's a lot of people that I need to get the work done. Then they'll start to see the benefit, the consumer benefit. Consumers are also, depending on the brand, kind of expecting you to be working on it. They either think you're already doing it, or they're expecting you to do it.

Another stakeholder in all of that is definitely our suppliers, and I'm sure Taco Bell has a very important and large value chain. How do you get your suppliers on board? Is that an education piece or is it a compliance piece? It's definitely more and more important. I think we're seeing how we're all connected, even if you just purely think of emissions. We now know through scope one, two, and three how interconnected we are. What has that journey looked like for you in getting your suppliers on board as well?

We have great partnerships with our suppliers. So, whenever we come to them with a hard ask, which I've been coming to them with for over twelve years, whether it's nutrition or now sustainability-related, I think we've set the precedence that we like to go big and bold, and we like to be first when it comes to Taco Bell. So, I think they expect us to challenge them and push them in a way that is uncomfortable. So, we come to them with sustainability initiatives they want to partner with, you know. Well, we have great initiatives that we work on with them where they're willing to put forth money and funding, co-funding research or pilot efforts to work and expand and enhance sustainability. You know, and then also, internally, we build policy that supports our sustainability efforts. But we bring them along on the journey and we have high-touch engagements with them. So, they're not just... we're not just telling them what to do; they feel like they're a part of the journey. And I think that's super important, to have great relationships, being super transparent, bringing them along, not just this one thing, but how does that fit across the organizational strategy? Where does this fit in? How do they fit in? How can they help support us along the way? But quite frankly, they all have to work on it too. So, it's not like it's just us pushing this agenda. You know, they all have to set... not all of them, but you know, a lot of people, our suppliers, are setting science-based target goals and they're all... they're reporting for ESG as well. So, they're not alone and they're not exempt from this effort. So, it's a little bit of we're all doing it together and it's a concerted effort.

I think it's a great inclusive approach, and you're absolutely right that the more we can do it and kind of guide each other along the way, I think that's fantastic. And Taco Bell had a really important announcement last year linked to regenerative, conservation angle and a program being put in place. Can you speak to that announcement from last year?

Yeah, and honestly, that's a great example of partnership with one of our suppliers because we teamed up with one of our key beef suppliers, Cargill, and NFWF—my new favorite acronym—the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. And what we're doing is we're putting together funding over four years to boost sustainable farming practices, to support regenerative ranching practices across... we're targeting a region in the western states and the Rocky Mountains. But this effort really is to improve land and water quality, increasing biodiversity, cutting carbon emissions, all while also helping ranchers and preserving the grassland. So, this one in particular, I'm super excited about. One, it's very Taco Bell; we've never done something like this. Two, I actually get to go out there to Colorado next week to see how some of the pilots are going, and we're starting to gather and collect data. So, it's pretty early on, we don't have a lot to report or share yet, but the pilots are in place, taking action. We're going to go out next week to see how it's going.

I think it's such a great example too of doing things better. Sometimes we feel like things have to completely be flipped on their heads, but there's also such a great opportunity to do these pilot projects to improve together. That's phenomenal. And then, within my own space, so I've been working in the building sector for the past decade or so, and so I nerd out on anything buildings related. I did have one question for you with regards to the actual built infrastructure of Taco Bell, because you're also overseeing all the restaurants. How have you woven sustainability into those individual buildings? And I'm sure that's extra complex in that there are some that are franchises, and then others that are corporately owned. What does that look like?

Yeah, so I mentioned the roughly 8,000 restaurants. So, we are 98% franchised. So we're predominantly franchised. And the restaurant side of the sustainability work is predominantly led by our architecture and design team, and then some of it is also managed by our operations team and facilities. So, they work with YUM! to really set what we call Green Building standards. And those standards are set so how we design and build our restaurants meet those specific standards. And then we have some franchisees who are, where they can, adding solar to their restaurants to offset energy usage. I'm sure you know, like it's a little complicated of whether they own the restaurant or lease the restaurant, and who gets the savings, so there's some... yeah. And then charging stations at the restaurants as a way to, you know, offer that service to customers. And then we have some of our other ops departments who are working on energy management systems in the restaurant to offset energy. So, there's a lot of collective work that's taking place that we're just trying to figure out what can be piloted, scaled, cross them, find out what was successful, you know, is this worth the r... take it across. 

But I think there's an opportunity to re-look at how we build restaurants from the ground up. So, as we build new restaurants, that's where they're looking at different opportunities of being more sustainable. So, what my team has worked on specifically is we focused on our corporate office. And last year, our corporate office, we got Green Business Network certified in the state of California. So, essentially what that means is that the Green Business Network certification recognizes businesses that meet high standards of social and environmental responsibility and transparency, sustainability practices. So, for us, we did things like in our dining center, we're now plastic-free, and we're piloting reusable cups across the corporate office. And then there's other things that you don't really maybe take notice of that are less visible, but we have low-flow faucets, we have LED lights everywhere, we have green cleaning supplies, and we're using recycled content printing paper. What we've also done is we formed what we're calling... so, instead of being a green team, right, sustainability green, and Taco Bell is known for being purple. So, we formed a purple team because we want to, we like to be different and celebrate being different. So, we have an internal Purple Planet team that has a group of people from every department, and they are our internal sustainability champions. And what they do is they set different activities, topics, and things to then act as and build sustainability stewards across the organization, recognize people for doing sustainable practices, recycling, and things like that. So, it's pretty exciting to see how many people are interested, the ideas they come up with. You know, stuff like this year we had a theme of water usage. Water is very important across the board, but especially in California. Yeah, and so we visited a water treatment plant, and we focused on just recycling water, kind of like your water usage. So, we pick different themes and then focus around that and celebrate that month.

I love two of the things you just mentioned: the Purple Planet (the marketing hat in me loves the angle) and also the cross-functional aspect in getting just different groups thinking about sustainability across the organization and fresh ideas too for overall where you can go as an organization. It sounds like you have so many projects in the works. Is there maybe one project in particular that you're super excited about right now?

Oh man, well, there's a few, but I would say, you know, kind of to build upon the connection on how you and I got connected was through TerraCycle. So, TerraCycle is our recycling program that we have with Taco Bell, and we started it back in 2021 and originally launched it as our Taco Bell Sauce Packet Recycling Program because those flexible foil sauce packets across the board are not recyclable. They're multi-layer foil and plastic, so it makes them very hard to separate. They're also very small, so they're hard to capture in a materials recovery facility. So, we partnered with TerraCycle to create a unique recycling program, and it's been very successful. So, as such, we've expanded it over the years. We've accepted any brand of sauce packets to give that access, and now this year, we've expanded it even further. So, now we're accepting more materials, and it's kind of the collection of all sauce containers. So, sauce packets, but then also sauce containers like soufflé cups, the small plastic portion cups, also those full back-of-the-house deli cups that you have for like ranch or barbecue sauce, and then also coffee creamer pills. Because if you think about the materials, they are small, then you have a mixture of flexible plastic, foil, but then also rigid plastic, and these are items that are typically either not recyclable or hard to recycle. So, again, we're further expanding this opportunity for access to the whole United States. Anyone can participate. It's a mailing program, so all you have to do is collect all these items I just mentioned, and when you get a good pile of them, you put them into a box, register on our website, print off a prepaid shipping label, all free, and you mail it in. We'll process it.

It makes so much sense too, and the fact that it's prepaid shipping because sometimes it feels like, oh, it's an additional obstacle, but having that already set up is definitely just making it that much easier for people to do from home.

Yeah, and the other cool thing about it is there's a very engaging component to it. So, we're giving not only everyone in the U.S., but specifically our consumers, this opportunity to engage and feel like they're a part of the solution. And so, we're also tying them to our loyalty program. We're giving them points, and so, when they participate in the program—people love points and love free food—it also makes them feel good. They feel like, "Oh, before I was just throwing this away, and now I have an opportunity to give these sauce containers a second life, and I can do it through this program." So, that's the other cool thing I like because you can tie it to something else, and there's some incentive there. People like incentives, you know? They love their free food, so that seems to be going really well.

In terms of sustainability, I think sometimes what makes it a really unique space to work in is that, yes, we're always competitive with other big players out there, but at the same time, a lot of us recognize that to truly make a change within our respective industries, we do have to come together with some of our, what would classically be, competitors to really move the needle. Have you seen that taking place within your industry, within Taco Bell, whether it's direct competitors or maybe more peripheral, to have that collaboration to truly move the needle for the space?

Yeah, this is one of those areas where collaboration is key to really drive things forward because, I mean, just the complicated nature of what we're all up against is better if we're all moving in the same direction. So, I mean, part of the benefit is that we have four brands that we can collaborate with, and we do that very, very well. But then, that's not enough, really. We have to collaborate outside of that as well. So, we work with industry trade associations like the NRA (National Restaurant Association) and SPC (Sustainable Packaging Coalition), and they all have various working groups that we're part of and very engaged in. That's where you really get the industry and multiple brands working collectively on things together.

We're also part of the NextGen Consortium. That's a consortium that McDonald's and Starbucks founded back in 2017, and we've been a part of them ever since. They continue to evolve every year, and they're a massive partner for us. We're also involved with universities doing studies, so it's pretty comprehensive across the board on how collaborative we are in this space.

I love that multipronged approach too, and I completely think that universities are an untapped resource that a lot of us haven't been using, but we have these brilliant minds trying to find the solutions. That's excellent. 

I am also curious—you mentioned you started in the nutrition space, and then over the years with your time at Taco Bell, you've incorporated sustainability. Was there a moment in time where you knew that you wanted sustainability to be part of your professional journey?

Yeah, it's interesting you ask that because it never really dawned on me that that would be something I would do. When I started at Taco Bell, I started in product development, and then I asked to be in nutrition. That was an opportunity. Coming as a dietitian and scientist, I said, "You know, I would really like to lead and have the opportunity to lead nutrition." So, that was an explicit opportunity I sought out. But then with sustainability, it kind of just came to me. It was really from YUM! Brands. At that point, we were always just reporting on behalf of the brands, but then they realized we have to do more and we really need the brands to take ownership and have a role in this. My boss sat me down and said, "Hey, so you're going to lead nutrition and sustainability now." I said, "Okay." You know, I'm always a good soldier and ready to learn a new field and figure this out for Taco Bell.

That was kind of my approach. Nutrition, yes, I'm a dietitian, but I didn't really know what nutrition in food service was, and I was very transparent about that when I positioned myself. With sustainability, I was ready to take on the challenge. So, it wasn't that I really thought, "Oh, I want to do this," but when it came to me, I thought, "Yeah, I'm ready for this. I'm ready for a new challenge and to see where this will take me and the organization."

Well, amongst that interesting rich past, you also did something that I had to ask you about. Full disclosure to listeners: I was doing research, and it's not totally linked to sustainability, but I'm just super curious. You wrote a cookbook during your time working with the Red Cross. First, can you speak about that a little bit? Because that must have been a whole endeavor. And then, would you ever consider doing a second cookbook?

Oh yeah, you're bringing the past way back when I was working for the American Red Cross WIC program. WIC stands for Women, Infants, and Children, and it's a nonprofit government-funded nationwide program that provides nutrition education, counseling, and food vouchers to low-income families with children. My job was pretty cool, and I got to teach cooking classes to the program participants. I worked there for two and a half years, and during those two and a half years, I spent developing recipes and teaching those recipes to the families. I taught adult cooking classes and also kids' cooking classes. They gave me really good feedback. I taught the same recipe multiple times a day over the course of a month, so I got a lot of engagement with people and really understood what worked and what didn't.

After two years, I had this big repository of recipes, and my marketing partner said, "Do you want to turn this into a cookbook?" I said, "Yeah, that would be awesome. I'd love to do that." So, yeah, we embarked on taking all those recipes and actually turning them into a cookbook. It was super interesting because I learned a lot about standardization. The way I wrote the recipes originally was a little messy. I learned after we got into it that we needed to standardize the recipes, the terminology, and the order of processes. Being super explicit about how you tell people what to do and the steps to do it in was crucial. Then we translated that into Spanish, which was new for me because I took French. But we had a big Spanish-speaking population, so we wanted to make sure to cover both.

Then there's the food photography. I got to be involved in that as well. We had food stylists, but I really wanted to learn and be a part of that. It was super interesting to see the lighting and the angles and the different tricks and tips on how you position food to showcase it beautifully in photographs. I loved that period of my life and going through that exercise. Of course, afterwards, I thought, "I'm going to write another one," and however many years later, I still haven't. But to your question, I still have a desire and an idea that I would love to focus on, but it's not my day job. That was my day job—I literally spent most of my waking hours just testing and developing recipes and getting live feedback every single month. I don't have that audience anymore.

I guess you could say you still do, but to a different kind of audience.

Yeah, you could say I still have millions of audience members, but in a very different context. So, you know, the desire is still there, but it's a lot of work. So, I haven't quite done it yet. It's on my to-do list, so maybe one day.

We'll consider it on your vision board until then. If our listeners want to learn a little bit more about you and your work at Taco Bell, where would you recommend they go and check out?

Oh, that's a great question. I mean, I've done various podcasts over the years, so I think there aren't a lot of people with the last name that I have — Schaaphok. So, if you just type in Missy Schaaphok, you might find a few podcasts that I've done that get into the details of my history at Taco Bell. I have a LinkedIn account that has some information as well. We're in the process of updating our Taco Bell website, so right now it has some information there, too. That's a great place to go as well. Other than that, I think that's pretty much it in terms of where you can go to find more.

Wonderful. I just appreciate so much you sharing your insights. I do think, as we said at the very start, there's such a direct link between personal wellness and ecosystem wellness, so I love your hybrid approach. Thank you for joining us. We do like to end every episode with the same question, which is: What do you think it will take for businesses and leaders to be resilient going forward?

Great question. You know, I would say it's really the fundamental work that keeps the business going that cannot be forgotten while trying to stand out and be different, right? Regulations and laws will always exist, and they're expanding at unprecedented levels. It's important work and a lot of work, but you have to focus because you can't do it all. Focus on what truly makes a difference and on what can be measured and reported because what gets measured gets managed. As long as you can track what you're doing, that's important. Be authentic in your storytelling because people really appreciate that.

I think that's wonderful. Well, thank you so much, Missy, for joining us. I really appreciate it. This has been such a fascinating and, I think, appetizing conversation. I haven't had lunch yet—I'm on the East Coast, so this is lunchtime, and I'm definitely going to go eat after this conversation. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you so much for having me. It's great to be here.