ROCHELLE AND LANA ODUBELA

Interview by Lola Sherwin

Rochelle and Lana are the brains behind LanaRoc Solutions Ltd., which helps businesses become leaders in their markets, and Little Hearts Muesli, a snacking brand which wants to make snacking healthier and easier for everyone. We spoke to them about maintaining a work-life balance, the inspiration behind Little Hearts Muesli, and their goals for the future.

What makes Little Hearts Muesli different from its competitors?

Little Hearts Muesli is the healthier and easier way to snack. It’s great tasting, heart-shaped bite-size clusters and is perfect for a tasty snack. Everyone can enjoy Little Hearts Muesli bites straight from the pack, as a healthy any time of the day! It is also perfect with milk for breakfast as the Little Hearts keep their shape, meaning no more soggy breakfast cereal in the morning!

We only use the best ingredients in our snack-food including oat beta-glucans. Oat beta-glucan has been shown to reduce blood cholesterol; heart and circulatory diseases cause 26 per cent of all deaths worldwide – that's over 18 million deaths each year (source: WHO 2020). The beneficial effect is obtained with a daily intake of 3g of beta-glucans from oats, which Little Hearts help to prove you with.

Fancy a snack or a tasty breakfast? Well, Little Hearts is an innovative cereal as well as a snack made with plant-based protein. This makes it not only vegetarian, but also vegan friendly.

Little Hearts Muesli also contains manganese and natural fruits that are not only good for you but are also packed full of flavour and high in fibre too. It is a non-GMO cereal snack with no artificial flavours or colours. Little Hearts is made from real fruit pieces such as apple and chia, papaya, cranberries for the fruity flavours, and cocoa mass for the chocolate flavours which include chocolate, coconut and chocolate, and banana and chocolate.

As Little Hearts is a multi-usage product that appeals to both adults and children, this makes it great for our stockists as it has many opportunities to sell to mass consumers.

How does healthier snacking help to enhance productivity and increase happiness and wellbeing?

Now more than ever, people are focusing more on healthier snacking, as it's been proven to enhance

"It's also proven that healthier snacking makes people happy, especially at work."

"Our daughter doesn't really have a preference, in her words "I love all the flavours of Little Hearts!"

productivity and happiness. It is a well-known fact that healthy eating, especially from oats, is one of the best ways in ensuring energy levels are high. This brings out the best in you, thereby enhancing one's productivity. We all need good food to fuel performance, which in turn provides the glucose which the brain requires to stay alert.

Healthier snacking helps to maintain high energy which will reduce the risk of having a depleted nutrient base, which leads to reduced energy levels.

It's also proven that healthier snacking makes people happy, especially at work; when employers provide quality healthier snacks such as Little Hearts Muesli for their employees, employees are happier, and will flaunt their workplace to their friends! This will boost the mood of employees thereby making the workplace an enjoyable place to work and fostering good relationships between employees. They also work harder and give the employer their best. Thus, healthier snacking helps to create a better work culture, as it will boost engagement amongst the employees.

Having Little Hearts Muesli at every workplace is essential as employees quickly dash into the kitchen and have it as a breakfast cereal in the morning or as a snack at their desk. By stocking Little Hearts Muesli at your workplace, you are showing your employees you have not only their welfare at heart but also that you care about and appreciate their overall well-being.

What was the inspiration behind setting up Little Hearts Muesli?

Little Hearts Muesli came to be as we realised that there's a big problem in our society based around what we eat. As mentioned, the prevalence of heart-related diseases worldwide is alarming. The majority of these issues are directly related to unhealthy snacking habits. Currently, the prevalence of high cholesterol is on the increase and also, we are all

looking for a multi-usage portable healthier food and do you know what? Little Hearts Muesli ticks all of these boxes.

It contains beta-glucans known to reduce cholesterol; 3g of beta-glucans per day is all we need to regulate cholesterol in an average human body, and some flavours of our Little Hearts Muesli have got 3.2g of beta-glucans. It is also a multi-usage snack food as it can be consumed as a breakfast cereal as well as a snack, or as a topping with custard or pudding. Children love it in their lunch pack, and it is also great as a quick portable snack for professionals and the working class.

Mothers find it easier to give their children Little Hearts Muesli while they get them ready for school as a wholesome breakfast cereal as well as a lunch box snack, meaning not only does it taste great, but it’s also making morning routines that little bit easier! Our goal for Little Hearts Muesli by the end of 2022 is to be able to reach as many homes, schools, workplaces, cafes, and supermarkets worldwide as possible, thereby creating a healthier snack society overall. We will achieve these goals by partnering with distributors and wholesalers that have an existing relationship with retailers across the globe, thus allowing us to distribute our product more widely.

How does LanaRoc Solutions Ltd heIp businesses to become leaders in their market?

We help health and wellness professionals to generate more income and impact by automating their marketing to attract clients online. Our five-step process allows them to serve more and have a greater impact with a marketing system that works while they sleep.

First, we help you adopt the mindset of a successful coaching business through the M.M.S Method, then we build the foundations to attract your ideal clients consistently online without wasting countless hours on social media. Finally, we help them create an automated sales process that attracts their ideal clients.

When working with the skilled marketing team at LanaRoc, with over 25 years combined experience in Facebook advertising, copywriting, conversion and sales, our values are to always give our clients our best, empower others, over-deliver, be resourceful, decisive and do what it takes!

If it ain't working, we help them fix the problem!

How do you manage working on both LanaRoc Solutions Ltd. and Little Hearts Muesli? Is it hard to maintain a work/life balance?

It requires time management and discipline to make both LanaRoc Solutions Ltd and Little Hearts Muesli a success. It is challenging at times to maintain a work/life balance, so we have to discipline ourselves to not talk about work after 9pm (even though that time is late!). We love our work, so it is difficult not to discuss our day with each other!

With the capable hands of Rochelle Odubela as Co-founder and Director of LanaRoc Solutions managing a global team, we have the right people in place

“Little Hearts Muesli is the healthier and easier way to snack.”

What's your favourite Little Hearts Muesli flavour, and why?

We all have different flavours we like; it depends! Rochelle’s favourite is coconut and chocolate because I love coconut and it’s the perfect balance. Lana is in love with two flavours, papaya as well as cranberries. Our son craves between the chocolate as well the banana with chocolate and the coconut with chocolate. But our daughter loves all the flavours. She doesn't really have a preference, in her words "I love all the flavours of Little Hearts!”.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced in your careers, and how did you overcome it?

The biggest challenge so far has been investing in both Little Hearts Muesli and LanaRoc Solutions at the same time!

Another major challenge is dealing with government legislation on snack food for different countries. Overcoming this is the reason we partner with local distribution companies in every region who already understand the law relating to food importation within their region, as this makes the process considerably easier.

Brexit combined with the current pandemic was also a major setback, of which we are already scaling the hurdles of these challenges – we will overcome them!