Notes from Chris

Episode 767

Steve Friedman played lacrosse through college and transitioned into triathlons as he got older. Good health was a lifestyle habit he maintained into middle age. While he was always in great shape, Steve says he always carried a bit of excess weight here and there. Also, by the time he turned fifty, he was experiencing a few aches and pains.

He put this down to getting old and a lifetime of hard work, and who could blame him? He was raising a family as well as working a full-time job in sales for a steel company.

The company was owned by his wife’s family, but, even though he was friendly with the bosses, it left him with little time and energy.

Then, one day in 2012 he had a realization that totally blew him away. Which was a funny coincidence, considering it happened during a hurricane! A hurricane that left him without power for days. Luckily, he still had his iPad and was able to access the internet. While doing some research on nutrition he came across the Paleo diet, which was a hot new topic at the time.

Paleo is often referred to as the primal or caveman diet. Simply put, you can only eat food that cavemen had access to. That means meat, fish, vegetables are fair game; but grains, cereals, dairy, and processed foods are not.

There were hundreds of stories online of people who had taken up Paleo and were doing very well because of it. They had slimmed down, gained muscle mass as well as reduced inflammation and injury. Steve saw similarities to his own life in the stories. So, when the hurricane died down he committed to giving Paleo a try.

Within five weeks, he saw a noticeable change. He had trimmed down and developed washboard abs that would make any hunter-gatherer jealous. Best of all, he was feeling more energetic, and this enabled him to work out harder. Upstaging those a decade or more younger than him at the gym.

Within a few weeks, Steve’s wife and kids were also eating Paleo, becoming a 100% Paleo family. However, there were a few downsides to this awesome new diet. Namely, missing out on a lot of the snack foods they loved that weren’t Paleo friendly.

To rectify this, Steve became an amateur baker.

Through trial and error, Steve managed to recreate most of his favorite snacks in Paleo form. However, like hunting game on the African plains, one great catch eluded him. He missed eating a good old fashioned Bagel.

He began looking for a good Paleo-friendly bagel, but the available options weren’t very good. Soon, he decided he was done with foraging and decided to start experimenting.

So he began baking… and baking… and baking. He spent 18 months perfecting his bagel recipe. It was a totally Paleo Bagel, boiled and baked in the traditional way, that used only 5 ingredients.

Named The Pagel. It emerged from the cave, and saw light for the first time!

Since launch, around 70% of orders are made via his website. 37% of his customers keep coming back with repeat orders. So many of them have done so, that in April of 2018 Steve left his full-time job and went full time with The Pagel. Since then he’s added wholesale customers to become a low six-figure revenue company.

Like the hunter-gatherers of the Paleolithic era, Steve saw a great side hustle opportunity and went on the hunt to make it a reality… and successfully captured his prey—right before boiling and baking it in the factory, just like the cavemen did.

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• The Pagel: Learn more about Pagels and all things Paleo over on Steve's website!

SEE ALSO:

• Hungry, Hungry Hustlers Earn $25,000/Month Selling Paleo Bars: Frustrated by the lack of real food bars devoid of added sugar and weird ingredients they couldn’t pronounce, two hungry fitness enthusiasts create their own tasty paleo bars and hustle their way to multiple six-figures
• Private Chef Turns Performance Food Into $30,000/Month Hustle: A California professional uses her autoimmune disease to learn about healthy performance food, creating two businesses in the process
• Avocado Queen Earns $45,000 Selling Spreadable Granola: After sharing about her recovery from unhealthy eating, this health tech worker leverages an Instagram following and turns a kitchen experiment into a growing business

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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