How I Built Resilience: Live with Christina Tosi and Gary Erickson & Kit Crawford

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: This episode spotlights how Milk Bar and Clif Bar are adapting to COVID-19 through employee care, operational pivots, and community support. Christina Tosi emphasizes empathy, mental health, and e-commerce as storefronts close, while Gary Erickson and Kit Crawford describe an essential-food model, rapid decision-making, and large-scale donations to healthcare workers.

Main Topics: Milk Bar’s pandemic pivot to e-commerce and production (Priority: 5/5): Christina Tosi explains how Milk Bar shifted from retail-heavy operations to a smaller set of open locations and online fulfillment, using kitchens in Williamsburg and Los Angeles to ship nationwide. Employee care, furloughs, and mental health (Priority: 5/5): Tosi discusses the emotional toll of furloughing half the team, prioritizing employee safety and financial needs, and protecting her own mental health through solitude and mourning time. Clif Bar as an essential business during lockdown (Priority: 4/5): Erickson and Crawford describe how their manufacturing plants stayed open while headquarters closed, allowing them to meet demand for shelf-stable food products and maintain operations. Leadership under uncertainty and rapid decision-making (Priority: 5/5): Both companies stress that leaders must ask unanswered questions, remain hyper-attentive, and act quickly as conditions change day by day. Community support and frontline donations (Priority: 4/5): Clif Bar details its donation of millions of bars to healthcare workers and food banks, framing support for frontline workers as part of its values-based business model. Resilience, creativity, and personal growth (Priority: 4/5): Tosi and the Clif Bar founders both reflect on using hardship to build resilience, stay open-minded, and rethink what success, work, and balance should look like after the crisis.

Key Arguments: Milk Bar’s survival depends on putting people first: employee safety and livelihood come before business metrics. E-commerce became a major opportunity for Milk Bar, especially for gifts and deliveries to healthcare workers and isolated consumers. The pandemic exposed how little control businesses have, making adaptability and humility more important than rigid plans. Christina Tosi sees mental health and alone time as essential for making hard leadership decisions. Clif Bar’s essential-food status gave it operational continuity, but it still required daily coordination and crisis management. A values-based business model only matters if it holds up in real crisis; Clif Bar says its five-bottom-lines approach is being tested now. Small businesses can still contribute during crises through encouragement, notes, or targeted support, even without large inventories to donate. Both segments frame resilience as an active practice: taking one step forward, making decisions quickly, and refusing to dwell on what cannot be controlled.

Data Points: Milk Bar locations: 18 total - Christina Tosi describes Milk Bar as a chain with 18 locations in the U.S. and Canada. Milk Bar locations still open: 5 of 18 - During the pandemic, only five Milk Bar locations remain open for pickup and delivery. Milk Bar teams furloughed: Half the team - Tosi says the company furloughed about half of its employees early in the crisis. Clif Bar bars donated first phase: 3.6 million bars - Erickson and Crawford say they distributed bars to food banks and frontline healthcare workers in early March. Clif Bar additional commitment: Another 3 million bars - The company launched a second round of donations through its 'Baked with Love and Sent with Gratitude' program. Clif Bar employees: 450 people - The founders note that roughly 450 people were no longer working together in the office once headquarters closed. Clif Bar all-company Zoom: 530 people - They mention hosting a large weekly company Zoom meeting with about 530 participants. Clif Bar bakery facilities: 2 bakeries - The company says its manufacturing continued through two bakeries, one in Indiana and one in Twin Falls. Daily baking club time: 2 p.m. Eastern - Tosi’s Instagram baking club is described as happening daily at 2 p.m. Eastern. Milk Bar founding year: 2008 - Tosi recalls opening Milk Bar during the recession in 2008.

Pivotal Quotes: "“The only way around this is through it, and we're going to get through it together.”" — Christina Tosi: Tosi describes the eerie atmosphere in New York City during the pandemic and frames collective endurance as the path forward. "“Adversity is a terrible thing to waste.”" — Frank Adera (quoted by Christina Tosi): Tosi cites her father-in-law’s saying as a guiding principle for learning from hardship. "“Don't be afraid to ask a question that has no answer.”" — Gary Erickson: Erickson offers leadership advice for operating amid uncertainty and rapidly changing conditions.

Implications: The episode suggests pandemic-era resilience comes from humane leadership, quick adaptation, and community-minded action. Businesses that survive may be those that prioritize people, accept uncertainty, and turn operational constraints into new channels and habits.