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We sold everything we'd acquired in eight years of marriage, and loaded up a U-Haul behind our SUV. My wife was seven months pregnant. We had a little money in the bank, but we didn't have jobs. We said, "Let's move to a new state and move into your parents' basement."
My brother-in-law showed up and said, "I'm going to dinner with friends. Do you want to come?" I sat down across the table from Art [Eggertsen, a natural foods chef who founded PROBAR] and I was fascinated by what he had to say about food and nutrition.
There was no company. There was one bar in atrocious packaging and maybe 12 accounts, $1,000 a month in revenue.
About two years into my relationship with PROBAR, I mentioned the idea of going out on the road and peddling the product to try and build the brand. CEO Jeff Coleman said absolutely, get out there and share the idea.
We would stop and put out lawn chairs and a table with cut-up samples and a couple of banners. If you have the opportunity to share your story, there's nothing stickier than a story that brings together someone's passions. My passion revolves around food, travel, doing something different, and my family.
On the road we always had a cache of product, and the kids were constantly digging into that. The biggest problem was we'd find banana chips, flax seeds, and pieces of PROBAR throughout the RV because the kids were living off them.
I met Leif [Steiner, of design firm Moxie Sozo], and by the next natural foods show, we relaunched our packaging and messaging. Within 60 to 90 days we had doubled our sales.
We call it the PROBAR boomerang affect. [People at trade shows] take a bite 20 steps later and they turn right back around and say, "Tell me about your bar. That's different."
People weren't used to seeing food in the form of a bar. They were used to seeing what I call space food—bars that were ground up and pureed and enhanced with chemically derived vitamins. Our bars were not designed by a guy in a lab coat. They were designed by a person who loved food.
You're able to see what you're consuming, whether it's an almond, a blueberry, a strawberry, cashews, pumpkin seed, papaya. That was really the premise of the product; delivering a real food choice to people who were not familiar with it. People want to see what they're eating. You don't get tired of real food.
We may not be proponents of eating energy bars all the time—it's nice to sell a few of them because that's what we do for a living—but we're proponents of always slowing down to enjoy life and enjoy food. We're a mission-driven company. —Olivia Dwyer
PROBAR products are organic and vegan. The Fruition line is also gluten-free. Learn more about PROBAR at theprobar.com.
