Brendan Brazier
Starting a business is never easy. There is the financing, marketing, legal fees, research and operations. Add to it the risk of breaking into a new sector and you've got yourself an ambitious leader. In the "Meet The Healthy Food Entrepreneurs" series, we will meet some of the pioneers in the industry to learn what got them where they are today.
Meet Brendan Brazier, professional triathlete, author and entrepreneur behind Vega, a line of plant-based whole food nutrition. Brendan began his career as a professional triathlete by making one crucial change to his program - diet. After trying various "diets" to boost performance, he found a plant-based diet worked best, allowing him to recover quicker and improve faster. The key ingredients were found in his blended drink which later became the foundation of the Vega product line. The Whole Food Optimizer is free of gluten, soy, dairy, wheat, corn, yeast and sugar appealing to those suffering from common allergies and/or those looking for a quick healthy meal solution. In addition, the raw nutrient packed meal replacement includes probiotics, digestive enzymes, antioxidants, super greens, fiber, essential fatty acids, 26g of plant-based protein and 100% daily recommended vitamins and minerals, providing one of the most nutritionally sound products on the market. In his first book, Thrive, Brendan shares his research and experience about plant-based nutrition for optimal performance in sports and life. Thrive helps readers lose weight, reduce stress and get healthy for good.
Tell us a bit about your background, how did you get involved in the healthy foods market?
BB: I first got into the sport of triathlon when I was 15. At the time, I started running to be a better hockey player. My skating wasn't very good. So I thought if I could be fitter, I could be a better hockey player. I found that I really enjoyed running and started taking running really seriously. I did too much too fast and got injured so I started riding a bike to allow my running injury to heal and discovered I really liked cycling. Then I thought if I could learn how to swim I could do a triathlon. I fell in love with triathlon and the lifestyle. If I could make a career out of this and turn professional that would be ideal. I started training really hard and realized I would need every advantage I could get to reach an elite level. So I got a hold of the top athletes training programs and compared them to the average athlete and what really surprised me was that they were basically the same. So there was another factor that made some athletes great and others average. My goal became to find out what that was, which was recovery or the rate at which your body can repair itself. I found that 80% of recovery could be attributed to nutrition. I knew I could train more and improve faster if I recovered quicker. And I could recover quicker if I ate high quality food.
How did you go from discovering this optimal way of eating to publishing your book?
BB: I stared my pro career in 1998 and found I was getting a lot of questions because I was eating a plant-based diet and improving quicker then other people. Then I was actually hit by a car in 2004 so I couldn't race that year. Instead, I thought it would be a good opportunity to address a lot of the questions I had received. I wrote and self published a short book called Thrive that addressed all the issues. The book didn't just appeal to vegans but also a broader audience because I focused on stress and stress reduction through better nutrition. Then I expanded the book, added a bunch of recipes and it grew to 300 pages with Penguin Books publishing it in Canada in 2007. It came out in the US a year later.
How did you come up with the concept for Vega?
BB: I had been making a blender drink since I was 15. I tried all different ways of eating that would boost my performance the best and the plant-based diet was just one on the list. At first it didn't work well at all - I was hungry and tired and not recovering well. I started looking at what I was lacking that wasn't making me feel well. I was lacking complete protein, b-12, iron, calcium and omega-3 fatty acids. I found plant-based sources for these, blended them into a drink that I had after workouts and it made me feel exceptionally well. So I was able to start my pro career earlier then the other athletes I was training with even though we were doing the same exact things. I attribute that to nutrition and nothing else. When I was writing my book I added maca and chlorella to my drink that I found worked really well for nourishing the adrenals and cleansing. I partnered with someone who had a maca and chlorella line and we got together to partner on the blended drink in 2005. A year later we came out in the US. We are now sold at Whole Foods and gaining momentum.
How did you go from food concept to the mass market? What were your first few steps?
BB: Charles, the person I partnered with, already had distribution for the macashore and chloressence, but the distributor was very reluctant with the blended drink. They thought it was too expensive and people wouldn't get it. They thought it wouldn't sell. But we eventually got them to distribute it with a money back guarantee. It sold incredibly well and took off. Advertising and PR got it going but it has to be a good product to be sustained. It did sustain itself. People would try it, feel good and then talk about it or people would come to them and say your skin looks clear, you lost weight, what are you doing, then they would talk about Vega. Word of mouth is a force you can't buy. Because it worked, it caused continued steady growth.
Who are your customers?
BB: Interestingly the people who are our biggest customers upwards of 80% are health conscious busy people. Not necessarily athletes or those with allergies. Its parents that want good, solid, healthy nutrition and don't have time. People who value health as a whole.
Have you converted other professional triathletes to a plant-based diet?
BB: I've been really pleased to see that they are eating lots of plant based meals and snacks and alot of them have given me great feedback. Most have not completely converted but they will eat two plant based meals a day which is a huge shift from a few years back. Its really good to see that this is happening. The overall animal protein consumption in elite athletes has been cut in half. And I think performance is reflecting that. It's a great evolution of sport.
If someone wanted to adapt a plant-based diet how would you suggest they start?
BB: Starting slow, and building into it is a good way to make it part of a lifestyle and a long-term change. You have to build up incrementally and have that adaptation period. Switching over from the standard american diet to a whole foods diet is going to cause a little stress. If you try to do too much too soon that can cause stress in the body and make things difficult. Start off with one meal a day and slowing ease into it. Your body starts to slowing crave the good healthy foods and lose the taste for the standard american diet foods. Thats when things get easy, when you develop a palate or taste for the healthy foods. And then you can eat whatever you want to eat and you never feel deprived. It may take several months or even a year based on what you've eaten over the years. Being patient and allowing that process to happen is the way to sustain it for the rest of your life. Its a lifestyle shift as opposed to a quick fix symptom fixing methodology.
What's been your biggest challenge in running your business?
BB: Sourcing really good unique functional ingredients can be difficult because its hard to get enough of these quality ingredients. A lot of people think competition is a challenge but I see it as a positive thing because its still such a small market, so any other company that preaches the same message of plant-based whole foods helps more people learn about it and will raise awareness for all of us. And through education and pushing the boundaries, I want people to come out with better products because that's the nature of competition and progress. We would then have to respond with something better so ofcourse the consumer wins because they are getting a better product and we win because we are progressing, so everyone benefits. I want people to continue to push the envelope and innovate and provide solutions for their health issues.
What are 3 tips for running a successful company?
BB: Not getting ahead of yourself. Knowing that it is a small industry and not thinking that we are big, being humbled by some of the mainstream companies. Keep on innovating - wondering what could be done or solutions to common problems providing people with good, easy, convenient options so people can take their health into their own hands. Education and allowing people to get what you are making available.
What's next?
BB: My new book, Thrive Fitness is already out in Canada but will be out in the US in January. We are introducing a new line of Vega products, Vega Sport, the first is already out in Canada- Vega Sport Performance Optimizer. Its what you have before or during a workout to help boost performance. It is made of all natural ingredients. Sprouted organic brown rice syrup and palm nectar are the carbohydrate sources providing a healthier version of Gatorade. That will be out in the US in September. Also Thrive in 30, which is a free online program for 4 weeks where you receive emails, info and videos based on my book in attempt to get the information out there in a different way. I realized that ironically the people who need the information the most are the least likely to read it so I thought it would be great if there was another way to get the information out there. Also, in September a course that is offered by e-cornell (owned by Cornell University) is going to have available a certification in plant-based nutrition online . T Colin Cambell, who wrote the China Study, is the one who developed the course and he's got a few people involved with experts in different areas. I give a lecture on sports nutrition and plant-based diet.
Special thanks to Brendan Brazier for the interview.
Meet the Healthy Food Entrepreneur Series:
Mary, from Mary's Gone Crackers
Peter Schatzberg from Freefoods NYC
Justin from Justin's Nut Butter
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