Environmental Marketer Creates Eco-Friendly “Energy Bites”

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

[Music]

How many energy bars and energy supplements can there be? I haven't seen them everywhere these days. They're like life coaches or customized journals, one on every corner of the side of the world. But that's because a lot of people are buying them. At your average grocery store these days, like I said, you can find dozens of options.

I actually just did a couple of searches of trying to figure out how many currently exist, like how many energy bar companies are there in America these days. I didn't find a specific concrete up-to-date answer, but it was obvious that there are hundreds of them. All right, so the fact that all these options exist suggests that it's certainly working out for a lot of the brands, but still there's also a lot of saturation. So if you wanna have your own energy bar supplement, how can you stand out? Well, the guy in this story, which first of all, I should say, welcome to Side Hustle School.

Hey everybody, this is Chris Guillebeau, your host. And in today's story, a former EPA employee invents what he calls energy bites. And he grows this from a farmer's market operation into a wholesale distribution across nine states, bringing in a quarter of a million dollars this year. He does it by making his product more like tubs of cookie dough. But before you start thinking about eating cookies for energy, this cookie dough is clean, with no artificial sweeteners, added sugar, or any of the other ridiculous ingredients that are found in a lot of these energy bars.

Also, here's a quote I like so much, I included it in the story, but I wanted to mention it here at the top as well. This guy says, "Our society tries to define us "by what we do for work. "But when you decide to take control of the narrative "and refuse to be put neatly into one bucket, "your entire life changes." Man, I love that. It's like the Cytosil mission statement. I should put that on the website somewhere.

Anyway, this story is called Environmental Marketer Turns Cookie Dough Into Energy Bites. Stay tuned. Here's a quick message from our sponsor. [Music]

Tom Miner is the founder of Unwrapped, a doughy, eco-conscious energy bar taking the Midwest by storm. What began as a home-based kitchen operation has transformed into a commercial enterprise with wholesale distribution across nine states.

And it all started back in 2015. Before he transitioned to a job at Crocs, the much-loved, much-hated footwear company, Tom worked as an environmental marketer for the EPA in Washington, D.C. During that time, he picked up a fierce four energy bars a day nutrition habit. He was eating so many bars that his office wastebasket was littered with wrappers. Hmm, he thought, I'm probably undoing all the good I'm doing at work.

He started researching the recyclability of the packaging and learned that the wrappers have to be thrown into the trash due to the material. He was also devastated to learn that those bars he'd been eating were not just served in unsustainable packaging, they were also chock full of added sugars and artificial sweeteners. Tom was crushed and he set out to make a better, healthier and environmentally friendly alternative, just for him at first. He bought simple ingredients like fruit, seeds and nuts and pureed all of it together in a food processor. But interestingly, he rarely formed bars out of the creation.

It was doughy like cookie dough, but he liked it like that. So he started searching online for similar products. He found edible cookie dough served in recyclable tubs and a few kinds of bars that didn't have added sugars, but nothing that encompassed both options. After further research, Tom learned that there was an extremely high proportion of food startups based in Denver. He also found a plethora of commissary kitchens and world-class farmer's markets.

He knew it seemed crazy, but the idea of moving to Colorado with plans to create a lean, clean and green energy bar, well, it energized him. For the first time, he was gonna do what he wanted and not what others thought he should do. Here's how he put it in his own words. Here's that quote again that I love. "Our society tries to define us by what we do for work, "but when you decide to take control of the narrative "and refuse to be put neatly into one bucket, "your entire life changes." So after discovering his employer had smaller offices in both Boulder and downtown Denver, it felt like fate.

Liberated by his newfound eco-conscious endeavor, Tom made the leap and left Washington DC. Next stop, Colorado. At first, the idea of starting a food business felt daunting. So rather than focus on what he didn't have, he decided to focus on what he did, and that was time, passion and curiosity. Tom got to work with the help of his roommate at the time, and now current business partner, Reed McIntyre.

They spent the next four months working on recipe development for what Tom would call unwrapped. And during the summer of 2016, they took their creation to a local farmer's market. At the time, their packaging consisted of cheap, deli containers with Microsoft Word labels taped to the sides. Nothing glorious, nothing glamorous, but they were able to collect a colossal amount of customer feedback. After a successful summer at the farmer's market, they decided to try their hands at a wholesale operation.

They developed official packaging, made better labels, and got their wholesale license. Unwrapped debuted on the shelves of a handful of local independently owned grocery stores in April 2017. It was the first nutrition bar to be sold in recyclable tubs. The dough-filled tubs sell for $9.99 and make about seven baked bars. Or check this out, you can eat it right out of a tub with a spoon.

Last June, they expanded their circle outside of Denver and connected with the employee-owned grocery chain Hy-Vee. Unwrapped found its way into their Ankeny location, a northern suburb of Des Moines, Iowa. And it quickly gained popularity. By the end of August, Unwrapped was in 10 Hy-Vee stores. Before much longer, they were in 175 stores spread across nine states.

Tom says he leveraged his skills from his jobs with the EPA and Croc shoes while building Unwrapped. When working for the government, he spent his days immersed in mind-boggling numbers of how much companies can do to save energy and protect the environment. That kind of data is top of mind and influences every decision he makes. And then while working at Crocs, Tom discovered that they have some of the most passionate fans in the world. Accordingly, the brand has a fan-first marketing strategy.

They did promotions like create a record-breaking performance on Snapchat, where 4 million people use the Croc Snapchat lens in its first 10 days. Strategies and tactics like those are what Tom hopes to use with Unwrapped. And so far, it's working well. Annual revenue this year will hit a quarter of a million dollars. This is all from initial startup costs of just under $1,000.

That's right, quarter of a million dollars revenue, just under $1,000 in startup costs. Tom has now left his day job transitioning full-time with the side hustle-turn business. The Unwrapped team is now pursuing national distribution. Because one job is not enough, Tom has also started consulting for nonprofits. He's got plans to launch his own agency sometime next year.

To fuel all of these activities, he still eats a lot of energy snacks throughout the day. But now they're much more natural with sustainable packaging, and he gets them much closer to the source. [Music]

Well, I'm gonna go check these out for myself. They sound pretty awesome. You can actually order them online at eatunwrapped.com.

That's where I might get them. But if you're in the Midwest and you're a Hy-Vee grocery store, go and check it out there. Or perhaps if you're in Colorado. And speaking of Colorado, I am in Denver today. If you happen to be listening in real time, I will be live at Tattered Books tonight.

If you happen to be listening later, well, I'll be somewhere else. I think I'm on to Seattle tomorrow, New York City, Boston, San Francisco, Portland next week. I'm having a lot of fun meeting readers and listeners. If you happen to come to one of the events, be sure to come up and say hi. I would love to know more about what you're working on and how side hustle school can help you.

Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/887. Congrats again to Tom. Thank you for letting us share your story with our community. And community, thank you for listening.

You are awesome. Much more is coming up. Be sure you're subscribed and tell your friends. My name is Chris Guillebeau, and you are listening to Side Hustle School. [Music]

From the Onward Project.