A Pacific Northwest camper, hiker, fisher, and ocean swimmer. That’s the growing-up bio of Aiyesha Christian. And being the super outdoors person, Aiyesha also was obviously a big consumer of trail mix to keep her nutrition gauge from going empty. But the trail mix she found was just too dull; either too much salt or too much sugar, always the same ingredients and definitely not enough flavor. Aiyesha loved her outdoor life and wanted all the diversity, flavors, freshness and spirit to be reflected in the food she put into her body, especially when she was on the outdoor trails – being a nomad of course. She had the food background to begin her venture, having worked in restaurants and having tended bars. She began the grand experiments in her kitchen and her friends and family ooed and ahhed over her creations. Some of them also steered her to the Oregon State University’s Food Innovation Center in Portland, Oregon and straight to the Director, our show host Sarah Masoni. Sarah was duly impressed with the great taste of the trail snacks and immediately encouraged Aiyesha to continue with the recipes and learn how to commercialize her products so that more people could share in her discovery and the Nomad company began to take shape. One of her first big wins was being part of the Food Innovation Center’s holiday markets, where she became introduced to Market of Choice, one of our show sponsors, and got signed on to be displayed on their shelves. Each flavor of Nomad mix has its own special story, Tide Pool to represent the coast, Forest for the woods and so forth. But Aiyesha has a guideline for each product and flavor. Each bag contains at least one type of seed, nut, fruit, and vegetable. It is gluten free, paleo, and almost vegan except for locally sourced honey as the only added sweetener. All the snacks are great to share with your pet, but Aiyesha is contemplating a pet line of snacks as well. So why this foyer into the saturated market of trail snacks, a market that is old, dominated by big food companies that bought up all the small ones years ago and have all the shelf space already taken? In one of her Masters of Business classes, Aiyesha was introduced to the book, Blue Ocean Strategies, that talked about finding new opportunities in old, stodgy markets. This gave her the insight to find her new opportunity and she is making the most of it. Her packaging is exquisite and truly reflects the mission of her company, and the website is impressive. Grocery store shopping is localized in the Pacific Northwest currently, but all products are available online. And in alignment with Aiyesha's love of the outdoors, Nomad gives a percentage of profits to partnered organizations that focus on the protection, rejuvenation, and integrity of our precious communities and environments. Website: www.nomadmix.com, questions: Info@nomadmix.com, IG: @nomadsnackmix. Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall Instagram - @masoniandmarshall.

#132 Happy Trails to You - Aiyesha Christian, Nomad Mix

Meaningful Marketplace Podcast