Wall Street Banker Places “Buy” Order on Organic Superfoods

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Hey, what's up everyone? It's Chris Guillebeau with Side Hustle School. Special announcement as we kick off today's episode. I'm happy to tell you that the official Side Hustle School Alexa flash briefing is now up in beta. If you have an Amazon Echo device, you can now hear a quick one minute highlight from one of our most popular episodes from the catalog, along with a quick tip or lesson.

And you can get that every single day. It is completely free, just like our regular episodes here on the podcast. So to add that to your flash briefing, just search for Side Hustle School in your Alexa app settings. And if you have not tried a flash briefing yet, if you're not sure how it works, I get it. It can be a little confusing.

Just come to sidehustleschool.com/alexa, A-L-E-X-A. And we put some info up there to show you exactly how it works. All right, on with the show. In today's story, a Wall Street banker places a buy order on organic super foods. I mentioned the other day that we have raised the bar for any story that has to do with Etsy, just because we've had so many and we want to make sure that we're always bringing you real value.

While the paleo-friendly snack category of Side Hustle School is starting to be like that. So you have to do something special to be featured. All paleo snack stories from here on up need to be next level or have some kind of major tip or lesson to be on the show. And again, the good news for listeners is that means we are leveling up. In fact, year number three, which is coming soon, just a little bit over 10 days, is all about leveling up.

So more to come about this. But first, a quick shout out to our sponsor. And I'll tell you about this Wall Street banker who places a buy order on organic super foods. [Music]

Cindy Poise was an investment banker in the energy sector on Wall Street. It was a demanding job consisting of 12 plus hour days.

Rarely having enough time to snag a meal outside the office, she ate lunch at her desk almost every day. But sometimes she'd also want a snack. And this proved difficult too because of her dietary restrictions. You see, Cindy adhered to a strict paleo diet. No dairy, no grains, nothing refined or processed.

The snacks at work just weren't an option and none of the nearby coffee shops and vending machines provided her with anything close. So she began experimenting with different combinations in her kitchen. Eventually she found one she liked. It was the perfect asset allocation of seeds, nuts, and spices. She named this creation Super Nola and began bringing it to work.

Like James Brown's song, "I Feel Good," her paleo-friendly snacks were a hit, which is fitting because that's exactly how her snacks made people feel. Good. Wasn't long before colleagues suggested she start selling Super Nola at farmer's markets. She could at least try it out, see what the response was, so she did. And her first sale was in the amount of $30.

She framed the $20 and $10 bills to celebrate and has kept them to this day. As she said, small beginnings can lead to bigger things. After those small wins at the farmer's market, Cindy moved back home to help care for her father. And while she was there, she decided to follow her passion with Super Nola. She put a plan in place, using the money saved from her job on Wall Street.

Living back at home allowed her to save even more money and reduced her expenses. Plus she had all of her friends and family serving as a support group. She already knew she had a great product. Wanting to kick things up a notch, Cindy began researching options to move her operation out of her kitchen and into a place with a larger production capacity. She said the research was exhausting, but worth it.

Her total startup costs were around $20,000. This included finding a nearby facility, shipping, receiving, and packaging, as well as testing ingredients and passing health inspections to make sure her facility was up to code. Selling at farmer's markets was one thing, but moving to a facility where it's manufactured at scale was entirely new to her. She took a few things into consideration when deciding how much to charge for back. She thought about the cost of goods, her target profit margin, and the suggested retail price.

After doing some math, she landed on $15 a back, which she quickly realized wouldn't generate much profit, but she also knew she couldn't sell it for much more. In what became a critical decision, she ended up reducing the size of the bag to a single-serve on-the-go size and lowered the price to $3. That switch was a big hit. It allowed her to sell the product in airports, gyms, and other on-the-go locations, which turned out to be critical. In terms of marketing, Cindy relied primarily on grassroots campaigns to raise awareness.

She attended every meetup, sampling event, expo, and conference she could find in order to get SuperNOLA in front of as many vendors as possible. She even reached out to food writers and enthusiasts to build relationships. When we asked her what didn't work, she said, "Everything except grassroots." She tried all sorts of things. She tackled the sports nutrition space. She marketed toward coaches, athletes, and sports teams.

With all these efforts, she found that bigger brands with bigger budgets, like Gatorade, were tough to compete against. So for now, she's sticking to the paleo space and that organic grassroots marketing. It's been just two years since she started, and SuperNOLA has come a long way. In year number one, she sold 4,000 units. This year to date, she sold over 300,000.

One of the many freedoms Cindy has found in this business is having more control over the taxes that are taken out of her paycheck. It's no surprise she loves deductions. After all, she did use to work on Wall Street, and she now hopes to expand the SuperNOLA brand across the country. That brand is in the throes of a bull market with no market crash in sight. All right, congratulations to Cindy.

I'm gonna be on the lookout for SuperNOLA. Maybe you'll wanna check it out too. Now, I often talk about the importance of knowing your ideal customer. So for a situation like this, anything that's targeting somebody with a specific diet, you can get really, really tight and specific on who that person is. And something I don't think we've talked about very much is asking yourself, as you kind of understand that imaginary customer, that ideal person out there, ask yourself, where is your ideal customer making purchasing decisions?

'Cause in the food business, you know, a lot of times people think about your ideal customer making decisions at the grocery store, for example. But there's all kinds of other places where people buy food. And so that's why I think in the key here with this story, one of the critical factors, as mentioned briefly, was the switch from the big bag pricing at $15 to the single serving sales at $3. 'Cause it's a totally different market of people who are buying stuff at the gym or on the go at the airport than it is for people who are going to the grocery store to buy it there. It doesn't mean in the longterm she can't target both of them.

In fact, maybe that's what she's hoping to do with her expansion round, being able to be on more store shelves, et cetera. But I do think it's a really significant switch to go from the big bag to the single serving. And it seems that's one of the things that has allowed her to be so successful. Along with, of course, having a legit high quality food product. So think about that, ask yourself, who is your ideal customer, and where does that person make their purchasing decisions?

It might lead you to make a different decision of your own, perhaps. Or it might just get you thinking, which is also good. The show notes for today's episode are at sidehustleschool.com/719. That is episode 719. As I said, go and check out the Amazon Alexa flash briefing.

Let me know what you think if you are an Echo device owner. I'll tell you more about that in the days to come, and as we get ready for year number three. Happy holidays, take care of yourself out there. Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.