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Thank you very much, Justine. It's been a couple of months in the work, and I'm very excited and grateful to be on your show, your podcast. We've had a couple of conversations before, and I'm a big fan of your podcast, so it's fun connecting and listening to other food entrepreneurs, see what they're up to, see which stages they're at. And I'm excited for our conversation.

Me too. It was great to meet you. I mean, when we met, we met literally at the Farmers Market when I caught you off guard. We did a little impromptu interview, so I brought that to our Instagram followers, so that they could get a little sneak peek at who you are, what your products are. But for those of us, or for those listeners that don't know who you are and what your product is, maybe you can just introduce yourself a little bit and tell them a little bit about what it's set. What is Sam's adventure snacks?

Sure. My name is Sam, and I started Sam's Adventure Snacks a year and a half ago. It was brought out by a desire to create fun, healthy adventure snacks and nut butters for the everyday adventure so they could power their days of adventure with healthy snacks. It's grown into me being in retail locations, having an online presence, selling it to Farmers Market, the time that we met. My favorite thing is going to the Farmers Market, connecting with customers, telling them my story, telling them the story about where different ingredients are from. And it's really changing my perspective on what a business and what an entrepreneur can be. And it's making me really believe that the grassroots cause, and not powerful causes, can be built at the grassroots level. And once you build the following, then the word spreads, and it spreads naturally and organically. And I'm really committed to community building and wanting to be the vehicle for me to become more of a part of my community.

Awesome. Well, thanks for sharing that. One of the things that I really loved when we started chatting was just hearing your story about how you got started. I mean, you got started so organically, because you were making a snack for yourself so that you can eat on your way to work or on your way back as you were being the true athlete, or that you were biking from work. Maybe you could share that story with our listeners.

I'll try to keep it short and the long version. So I was teaching English and Ibiza, Spain for a year, and I moved back. I was living on one side of the San Francisco Bay and commuting to the other side of the bay while driving. And after a few months, I found myself in this repeated bubble and I wanted to break free of the bubble. So I looked on Google Maps, charted out all the different ways that I could get to and from work from kayaking across the bay, biking, running, walking. I really began to love this idea that I could have this epic adventure in my daily life. I would wake up really early, excited about what I was going to see when I was going to find that the sunrise. And after work, I was really excited to get back on my bike at the end of the day, see what was out on the trail, interact with people in the community. And initially, it was a way to save a little bit of money on gas also. But I ended up having to eat so much more throughout the day, and ended up working the other way that I was spending more on food. And after having too many energy bars, I had a background in cooking and baking, not a professional background, it's in our family's interest. I began experimenting with different baked goods and different nut butters that I can make, and snack on in the morning during the trip, after the trip. And that was the conception of the idea. I thought that if they're going to be adventure snacks, I might as well put my name on the front and try to embody this idea that someone can really have an adventure and their daily life, whether it's walking their kids to school and going a different path, seeing a different home that looks really unique, or a different tree, a small little playground that they didn't know about, and kind of this zest for life is really what encouraged me and propelled me to want to grow this business I want to spread the word. When people are out on the streets, they really see what's out there that can become a part of their community.

And when did you realize though that this snack was not just a snack that you thought was fun, but a potential product that you could create, sell and make a business out of?

I think it was early on, I would tinker with the idea of trying to commercialize it, trying to get it into stores and Farmers Markets. And when I began tasting it, it went through many, many iterations. Whenever I would hit a stroke of luck, I would taste it and I want to share this, I'm going to try packaging it and experimenting with it, see what I can do with it.

Was it because you had that inner entrepreneurial spirit? Was it because you had a dream of making a product?

A mix of both. I have never created a product before. I had a couple of service based businesses, and I ran and servicing the residential markets. And I thought I haven't done a product, and I would love to give it a shot, I would love to learn how the food system works. My older brother works for a food company based in Santa Barbara, so I have been exposed more and more to food. And I thought I've got to give this a shot and see what I can make of it.

I know you had mentioned your brother works for a company that's very innovative and building a better for you food system, so I know you're in a space that's really about creating better for you foods. Was that your goal to create a new niche and new carve out a space for yourself in that area?

Yeah, hopefully. And whether it's possible or not, bridging the gap between a pure CPG snack and a baked good is my ultimate goal. Something that's good for a handful of months, but is really high on the taste scale, hopefully, from regeneratively. As I began sourcing different ingredients, I would buy 5, to 10, to 50 pounds of different nuts and flowers at a time, and I began tasting the significant difference between something that was grown commercially, something that was grown organically and something that was grown regeneratively organically. And taste has been my number one driver the entire time. And I thought, if something that's regeneratively grown is this much more tasty than something that's commercially grown, then I'm all for it. It's interesting, I think I learned more about agriculture when I was in sixth and seventh grade in history class when we learned about crop rotation, how different farms were structured. You went out of a plot, you would have four different quarters and crops would rotate. After that period of education, I didn't have much exposure to agriculture or food in high school and college. So it became this intriguing thing of thinking, how can I maximize the taste while doing something that is kind of inspiring to feel that Madrone tree that I buy, the [inaudible] family farm an hour west of Yosemite. As you drive through the Central Valley, most of the orchards are, their soil almost looks barren concrete, there's no life to it, there's not much of a color to it, it's a pale tan, gray. But then this orchard kind of at the end of the street just opens up and the temperature is cooler. There's a lot of wild grass and flowers that grow within the orchard, and then there's different livestock that roams the orchard. So it's really a symbiotic relationship between the animals, the plants, the coverings, and the trees, and it's much more natural relationship with food. And on top of it, the almonds use quite a bit less water than commercial longmans. The soil is much healthier, and the end product is significantly tastier.

I want to go back to a couple things. One, you talked about how expensive it was for you to create these bites when you were first doing it for yourself. How are you able to create these bites in a way that makes it accessible for everyone to buy them and for you to be able to sell them to the masses?

Yeah. That's something that the bites, they're called Sammies. The best way that I can describe it, it's a healthy doughnut hole filled with almond butter, peanut butter and jam that I make. And right now, it's primarily a good that I sell at the Farmers Market. But it's something that I would love to sell broader than that. So it's a long burn, and I realized that it's going to take a long term commitment to it. So there's different products that I'm rolling out to help fuel the growth and help me learn how different categories within retail space and online work. As the kind of this core product, the Sammies, hopefully circumvents all of the other products and kind of comes out as the front runner, and I can concentrate all of my energy on that. And if it takes six months or five years, I'm committed to it.

So the other thing that I just want to touch on, because many people are familiar, or not familiar, or just unsure of what it means when we talk about regenerative, and you were talking about the difference in the taste, and why you choose to work with regenerative products. I know you mentioned a few of the reasons why you're choosing regenerative, but if you could just talk a little bit more about that, and why it's so important to you. Not to the taste, but the impact it has on the climate, or to go even further, the impact on the world or on your products.

As we were talking about earlier, neither of us are farmers per se, but we both have learned through osmosis, what regenerative farming is, and the best way that I could describe evidence that there's a few different core pillars to regenerative farming. Meaning, crops are rotated on the soil. So the soil health is more healthy, introducing ground covering to reduce the amount of water that evaporates into the air, introducing livestock, sheep, chickens that graze on the grass and they help fertilize the soil. So it's longer lasting soil. So ultimately, it uses less water, the soil is healthier, and it means that the trees have a longer life and can have a healthier life.

How does that affect your ability to scale? Is it more expensive to go regenerative?

Definitely more expensive compared to other almonds, about two times more expensive. And that's something that I'm learning. I don't want to price out most potential customers, so I'm trying to not charge exorbitant amounts. And there's certainly a range. I think if I had to gauge where I am in the market, it's the middle of our market. So not the most expensive spreads or nut butters that you can buy, but in the middle range where it's more accessible to a wider range of people. And I'm hoping that that is where I can have a larger impact by not making it too expensive, but educating people on the benefits of regenerative, and for them to be able to taste the difference.

And how do you really communicate this to your customer, because it's not on your labeling, right?

No. But I have a small label, it's something that I'm talking with a couple of friends and advisers about, whether it's a sacrifice. Because right now, the label that I have makes it feel homegrown, authentic local, and people are able to connect with that. But it also has limitations in terms of the story that I can tell. Because when I'm not standing behind a booth at a Farmers Market and someone's picking it up from a retail location, then I'm not standing behind that chart, what is going to be standing behind that chart is the story that I tell on the label. So as I go on, I'm kind of realizing that it would go a long way to have more of a story on the label and on the packaging to show the story, and to make it relatable to other people.

Yeah. I got to imagine with the increased cost and the good quality that you have in there, and communicating that, and having people understand what you're putting in your product is really important so that they can understand what it is that they're buying, so they understand what it is they're buying at the market, why it tastes so good, and so that they can then be a third party pitch for you almost. Go out there and tell everybody else why this is so good, not just [inaudible] great, but it tastes great. And also, by the way, they use regenerative almonds and etc. So that this story can continue to live on.

Yeah, and I agree with you. I think some sort of definition that's relatable to people, instead of simply claiming that it's regeneratively grown, what is regenerative? And more importantly, why should someone care? Why should someone care? And I think some people are being pushed away from certain nuts because of the amount of water that they consume, it's frequently a question that people have at the Farmers Market. So do you know how much water these almonds consumed? You know how much water the nut consumes? What I realized is that it's not that they're not interested in buying, they want to see the dedication of a business owner to increase the quality of where they sourced from. And if someone is able to say that these almonds use quite a bit less water or grown regeneratively do less harm to the planet, then it's something that they can really get behind.

So how long ago did you start this business?

A year and a half.

A year and a half, so during COVID?

Yeah, during COVID. I had been tinkering with the idea for a year with another friend. Then at a certain point, I just realized I've got to start experimenting. We're living in different states, and I want to give this a shot. If that means going off on my own, so be it. It's been fun. It's great to interact with other food people. One of the great things about the Farmers Market is right at the end of the bell rings, the market closes and there's a mad dash to trade goods between one another so farmers who have a lot of produce are interested in selling or trading their goods for people with more of a longer lasting shelf life good. So it's fun to connect with the other vendors, understand where they're coming from. They're trying to raise the bar for what they can do with agriculture and their own farms. There's a commercial kitchen that I rent in Napa. I'll drive up there usually two times a week. I'm based in San Francisco, and I'll drive up two nights out of the weekend. This group of really committed food entrepreneurs who are trying to raise the standards, their own standards for baked goods, pastries, cheese, and it's fun being a part of this community. People are really supportive of one another and want to see one another succeed.

So when you started this a year and a half ago, did you initially join this kitchen in Napa, or was that later on?

It took about six months to get it going through the permitting, the legal system. And once I got it rolling, it was okay.

So it took you six months to get it going. Did you have a lot of challenges between COVID being a new business and a new idea?

Tons of challenges.

Could you give three challenges as a new business. And this was new to you, new to food and a new business owner.

Top three challenges, number one was the legal and the permitting process. In the beginning, I was committed to doing it the proper way. I hadn't fully appreciated how stringent the restrictions for food are, so it humbled me to stay on top of it. And there's city, county and state regulations that someone has to fall under. It made me more committed to getting on top of permanent quickly. I would say the second challenge is expressing the difference between this product and the next product on shelves. So the products that I have on the most shelf side are the different nut butters. Frequently, buyers at grocery stores will say, well, we already have five or six different almond butters, why do we need to carry another one? Or we have multiple peanut butters and we make our own, why do we need to carry yours? My go to response is, taste it.

Yeah. Taste is king, really.

Taste is absolutely king. Yes. If someone tries it, I hope that they get hooked on the markets. I'll give out free samples just for them and say, I hope this gets you hooked. And sometimes, it does. And then I would say my third biggest challenge was under appreciating the amount of persistence that across the board would be needed. It's a lot of initiative. And as a one man show, if I don't do something, no one else will. I have a long to-do list, and big aspirations, and big goals with the company. And it really starts with breaking it into smaller goals. So it's taking the initiative and being persistent with getting things done and getting things across the line. I realized the more positive energy I put into it, the more positive energy comes out, and trying to remove some of my emotion from the business. So if something bad happens, it's not so much that it's bad. Or if something good happens, it's not so much that it's good, it's just something that happens. And it's something that I need to approach and move fast.

So here we are, a year and a half later, you've got permits, you've got your licenses, you have your kitchen, you're making your butters, you're at the Farmers Market, you're in stores, you're being sold, you're running around, are you still kayaking and taking your nut butters to work now? Or you're not doing that anymore?

No, not anymore. It would be fun. I wouldn't mind, that would be fine. Maybe in a couple of years when I've got my feet on the ground.

Okay. What can we see for Sam's Adventure in the coming years? Are you going to expand?

My first goal is to develop a strong of a local presence, first in San Francisco, then the bay area, then northern California. And that is my current progression timeline. The other companies that I aspire to be are Belgium's Nuthouse, they have the best chocolate there.

I love Nuthouse.

The best chocolate.

They have a little store and department stores.

Yeah, in New York. They need to open a couple in San Francisco. But they just raised the bar for quality. So something like, humbly something in between Nuthouse, Nutella or Biscoff.

It has like their little store. I think they had one at the bottom of Eataly in New York too. You could go sit there, and I'm getting on a [inaudible] for when I was a little girl.

It sounds like in Belgium, you can go into the store and buy a single chocolate for 50 cents or $1 and get a full bag for the cost.

You can customize the Nutella things, you can have your name put on them now. Okay, so those are big goals. I'm going to be following you. Everyone's going to be following it. We're all gonna follow you on Instagram, because we're gonna watch to see when the store opens. When you're going to have in all the different continents.

Yeah. I kind of realized that whenever I would be traveling or doing any type of adventure or anything else before I started this, that I would be dreaming and daydreaming of, what kind of business could I start? What kind of story could I tell? I'm at the beginning of the moment, and I'm currently completely committed to it. I see a lot of potential in it, and I think it's going to be fully comfortable with the long slow burn of this to be developed into a powerhouse over multiple decades of work.

Oh, that sounds great. And we're going to be following you and watching you closely. I'm going to keep visiting you at the Farmers Market and looking forward to seeing you in the stores. So for all those people watching this podcast, or watching this videocast on YouTube, or listening to the podcast, where can they find you online?

My website is samsadventuresnacks.com. Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook is Sam's Adventure Snacks. And I'm in control of each of the web pages. I'm in control of the website and the social media. So if you send a message, I'll be the one responding, usually with a little bit too much enthusiasm.

And if you're in Marin area, you can find him at the Larkspur Landing Farmers Market, because that's where I met him. So Sam, thank you so much for joining us today. It was great to have you here. I love your nut butters. I'm very excited to come and get the one for Mini and Misty. I'm sorry I missed you that time, we have a little snafu here. But I want to thank our listeners for tuning in, and I want to thank Sam for joining us. We're here every Tuesday, and we'll see you here again soon. We want to catch up with you again in the coming months to see how things are progressing.

Sounds good, Justine. Thank you.

Thank you.