Women In Wellness: Gabriela Ramirez Ortiz of OCA On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

You will need to be resilient. Hearing “yes, you are approved,” or “no, maybe next year,” from retail buyers makes you realize how difficult it is to have a dream and actually pursue it.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Gabriela Ramirez Ortiz.

Ortiz serves as the Global CEO of OCA, a globally distributed plant-based energy drink powered by tapioca, an extract from cassava root native to Brazil. The groundbreaking beverage is part of the WeBelivMagnus venture between Beliv, Latin America’s fast-growing bec-tech company with 40 brands in 35 countries, and Magnus Media, the media venture of Grammy Award-winning artist and Latino icon, Marc Anthony. In her role, Gaby has led OCA through massive expansion, with the product now being distributed by grocery stores and online retailers throughout the world, including Kroger and Amazon.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

I had been working in the beverage industry for many years, starting with PepsiCo. It was the best way for me to start my professional career, because I was able to gain a lot of knowledge while there, but because it’s a big organization with so many different products, there are challenges to being nimble. Eventually, it got to a point where I wanted to be part of something from the ground up and be a category leader and gamechanger — so I moved to Beliv, where I have been for the past 11 years.

The company values creating, developing and distributing products that are better for you, was very appealing to me. Slowly, I started expanding the markets I was in charge of and growing the new ventures team, which led to me co-creating OCA, a plant-based energy drink powered by tapioca. I led functionality and consumer studies, marketing, branding and investing for the brand, and helped launch it at retail. I am also involved in every process on a ground level — this includes speaking to consumers directly, and using that data and that personal connection to inform current and future strategy for OCA.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

I have always been an entrepreneur and I have always loved to travel. On a trip to Mexico I found out about a donut company that everyone was talking about, but I couldn’t try them because the earliest delivery was one month after my initial order. When I came back, one of my best friends at work talked about the company, and how “easy” it would be to do a company like that one. She agreed with me, and we set off to do the same, but better. We created our company in 2 weeks (logo, slogan, business plan, recipes, packaging, go to market and marketing campaign). Everything seemed easy and it was flowing well; at the end of the day, we were two marketers who were used to doing this for a living. We decided to launch only on social media so we could control the sales and deliveries. We even ran some tests with family and friends and everyone loved it and encouraged us to launch — which we ended up doing in time for Valentine’s Day of that year.

After launching our paid media campaign, we didn’t check our progress since we didn’t think we’d do as well as we were actually doing. We had to upload a sold out post since the demand was so big that we couldn´t deliver. We had our friends and family helping us with the cooking, packing and delivering. It was crazy! Even though we were passionate about it, we realized we had no experience in the food industry so we closed the company a few months later. It was a very profitable business and we were doing well, but it wasn’t the right fit for us.

I learned that oftentimes, you only see successful businesses and it seems easy, but you don’t know all the work behind getting to that point. I also learned how adaptable, easy, fast and fun it is to do something without overthinking too much about it when you have the right partner to do it with. And last but not least, I wish I could have handled it a little more and sold the concept or the business to an investor within the food industry, or at least pitched the idea to the owners of that Mexico business, as it was the first food-pastry business to be sold only by Facebook at that time.

Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

A few years back, I launched a product for the kids’ segment that sought to improve what was out there in the market. It was especially dedicated to moms, so they could buy the best product available for their kids. These products had no strong value proposition, and had no differentiation attractive solid enough for moms to choose ours vs a leading brand, but the most important thing I learned is, I was not listening closely to what consumers and shoppers had to say about our product. It was exhausting trying to explain, justify and adapt, but most importantly not hitting our goals every month until the decision came to kill the innovation.

Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

With OCA, one of our main goals is to make people more mindful of what they’re putting into their bodies. So many people drink coffee or high-sugar energy drinks across the world — while feeling energized is important, products like that can be addictive and are filled with ingredients that are not good for your physical health. The goal of OCA was to find a way to keep consumers energized while providing them a product that is all natural, organic and plant-based. It was quite a challenge, but we did it and it’s been a successful story not only in retail but from a consumer’s perspective.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

1. Working towards a plant-based diet. I started with a ‘Plant-Based for Dummies’ book at the top of my journey, and ended up losing some weight with a combination of plant-based eating and exercising but most importantly I was feeling energized, I was sleeping better and actually feeling good about my day to day choices. I love my new lifestyle!
2. Expand your palettes to different tastes and flavors from other cultures. With OCA, we currently offer four different flavors inspired by fruits that are popular in Latin America, like prickly-pear lime, guava-passionfruit and mango.
3. Adapting quickly to your environment. When I moved to LA, I started from zero: I was away from my friends and family, and had to learn to live in a new environment by myself. I was fortunate enough to be able to create new friends and memories, and learn to call this place home.
4. You are never done learning. Overseeing a business demands learning and updating your knowledge, from sales and co-packing to freight and marketing. It’s scary, but at the same time, learning about things I don’t know energizes me to keep transforming myself and keep the learning mode always on.
5. By surrounding yourself with a multifunctional team, you will have the opportunity to impact and copy what other great leaders have done, and learn to be a better and more influential leader for your team. Teamwork makes the dream work.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

I would encourage everyone to pay attention to what you put into your body, whether that’s food and drink or alcohol consumption. Everything you consume to recharge yourself has the potential to either help or hinder your physical health down the line, and having an understanding of what you’re taking in each day can only help you on your road to a healthier lifestyle.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” in relation to OCA, and why?

1.You will need to be resilient. Hearing “yes, you are approved,” or “no, maybe next year,” from retail buyers makes you realize how difficult it is to have a dream and actually pursue it.

2. Choose your best team — as Kobe Bryant said in his Mamba Mentality “we don´t quit, we don’t run, we don’t cower, we endure and we conquer.”

3.You will need to be able to celebrate every little step forward. Trying to disrupt a highly competitive segment is very tough, so make sure you enjoy every small step.

4.You will need to adapt quickly. Having moved 3 times from different states, living in a hotel while finding a new home all while working… it’s easier when your passion and your dream is at the forefront.

5. Dream, but dream big — dreams come true, but especially for those who work hard enough to get them.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

It’s impossible to just choose one, because they’re all connected, and all lend to each other. There are studies that show that your mental health can be improved by eating and living well. Eating and living well will have a better impact on the environment around you, and vice versa.

What is the best way our readers can follow you online?

You can find OCA on Instagram at @drink_oca, or on our website, www.drinkoca.com. You can also follow along with me directly on my LinkedIn.