Soda-licious! Nike Manager Creates Fruit-Infused Balsamic Beverages

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

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If you have been to the grocery store recently, you may have noticed that the market of non-alcoholic beverages has exploded. I was at a Whole Foods the other day and saw all kinds of drinks I'd never heard of. There was something like two dozen different flavors of kombucha to a whole section of different cold brew coffees, like not just a few, but like an entire section with different brands and all kinds of different milks and sweeteners. It really is a whole new world. And by the way, welcome to Side Hustle School.

My name is Chris Guillebeau. It's my honor and privilege to bring you these stories, a different story every day of somebody who has a day job and starts a small business or an income generating project on the side. Now, speaking of all these different non-alcoholic beverages, today's featured story wanted to make his own. This guy is an innovation director at Nike and he borrowed from his wife's background in the food and beverage industry to create his own brand of balsamic vinegar based beverages. Did you ever think balsamic vinegar would make for a good soda?

Well, this guy's got multiple flavors of them now and they are soda-licious. That's right. In just a year, he's been through 15,000 bottles. Over the past few months alone, he's done $25,000 in sales. So I'll tell you all about how this came to be along with a couple of tips for producing a food or beverage product.

That industry comes with some unique challenges, but there is a pathway to success, as you will hear. So allow me to say a quick thank you to our sponsor. They allow the show to be completely free to you. And then I'll tell you all about these fruit-infused balsamic beverages. [Music]

Aaron Wiest is the director of innovation engineering at Nike.

He leads a team of makers, designers, and electromechanical engineers in their footwear innovation department. He's worked in consumer product development for 17 years and loves his career. On a personal note that relates to our story, for a number of years, Aaron struggled with alcohol addiction. In 2015, he went into a treatment facility to attack the problem head on. When he came out clean and sober, Aaron was hit with the perfect storm, high energy, an entrepreneurial itch, and an insatiable appetite to be a better person and give back.

This trifecta left him with the question of, but how? Aaron noticed that when he attended events featuring plush cocktail selections, craft beers, and fine wines, he felt left out. He no longer drank alcohol, but he didn't care for sugary caffeinated sodas, especially late at night. He was missing a beverage with bold flavor, and so far, the non-alcoholic drinks available to him weren't cutting it. The lack of something interesting to drink at these festivities sparked an idea.

If he was having this problem, he probably wasn't alone. He went looking for something that complemented his new, healthier lifestyle, combining his desire to do something with his thirst with his goal of being a better person. So he began experimenting with flavored vinegars he used around the house for cooking. After some tinkering, he found the perfect combination of fruit-flavored white balsamic vinegar, coconut water, and carbonated water. And voila, he had the first flavor of what he called shrub natural balsamic soda.

Other flavors followed, orange and vanilla, lemongrass and mint, and coconut. This thirst pioneer was onto something soda-lightful. Still there? Great. If you're expecting this to be an overnight success story or a $100 startup, it's definitely not.

The food and beverage industry takes time and at least some amount of money. Fortunately, Aaron got some good advice at home from his wife who works in the industry. And to fund the project, he raised $16,000 in a crowdfunding campaign with PiShell. I'll say more about that in a moment. And after the campaign, he still had to put in about $20,000 of his own money to get going.

So again, it's not cheap, but it's doable. He wasn't cashing out his entire savings. He also decided to go big with his first production line and make 750 cases of product. The rental facility he would use was a fixed cost, whether he did one case or a thousand cases, and his cost per bottle would be much higher if he started with a smaller batch. Sales began as a trickle in the hundreds of dollars one year ago and have slowly increased since then.

These sales were primarily from farmers markets, earning between 250 and $500 a week during the season. But in the past seven months, revenue has greatly increased. Since March 2018, his sales have totaled $25,000 and the project is now profitable. He attributes this growth to a couple factors. First, he signed on with a company called Azure Standard, which delivers quality bulk and natural foods across the country.

That gave him some nationwide distribution. Then he was able to get into some smaller local grocery store chains, including New Seasons Market, which has about 20 stores, mostly in Oregon and Washington. Aaron wants to make sure he supports those local stores as much as possible. His strategy is to grow more locally so he can better ensure sustainable growth. He says that because it's a side hustle, his time is precious.

He doesn't want to outgrow his ability to support the retailers. Altogether, in one year's time, Aaron has gone through 15,000 bottles of soda since his initial product launch. And if all goes as planned, he'll have doubled that number by the end of the year. [Music]

Awesome, congratulations to Aaron. I had the chance to meet him at a side hustle book event during the side hustle book launch, in fact, in Portland, Oregon at Powell's.

And he brought me an early sample of his balsamic soda. Now that I think about that, it was about a year ago when he was just getting started. So I think he has tweaked the recipe, added more flavors, done a whole bunch of other stuff since then. If you are in my hometown of Portland or elsewhere in Oregon or Washington where there is a new seasons, maybe pop in and check this out. Or also you can look at Green Zebra Grocery.

Now, a couple quick comments. Pie Shell is a crowdfunding platform specifically for food and beverage. We first looked at them in episode 241, 241, where a rider turns leftover cherries into a $5,000 a month income. If your project is specifically related to food and beverage, then Pie Shell might be a better fit for you than Indiegogo or Kickstarter. And also, I wanted to pass along some advice from Aaron.

He actually sent in a number of comments to us. We'll include them in the show notes page. But one thing I wanted to mention in the episode, he said, if you wanna do something like this, take advantage of food innovation centers in your area. So once again, that's called food innovation centers. He says they are gold mines filled with knowledgeable people.

It's an industry that can help you get your project off the ground. And in his case, he worked with one at Oregon State University. But if you're in a different area, perhaps there's something like that available near you. Again, a food innovation center, lots of free resources and ways to connect with vendors, all the kinds of things that you need when you start a project like this. All right, listeners, thank you for joining me today.

I hope you enjoy this one. As always, remember, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. I always love hearing about our listeners who are taking action. Are you doing something for yourself? Are you making progress on your goals?

Even if you had a false start, even if something didn't work, are you regrouping and planning on what to do next? That's kind of the story of my life. That's what I do every week. I regroup and figure out, okay, what am I gonna do differently next week? If you wanna check out the show notes for today's episode, just come to www.sidehustleschool.com/650.

How about that, episode 650, 650. We're gonna keep cruising along. I've got lots of great stuff coming up, so be sure you're subscribed. Tell your friends, it's free for them, too. I will now sign off, but I'll be back again tomorrow with another episode.

Once again, my name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.