Clara Paye, the founder of UNiTE Food, wanted to capture the hearts of families with healthy food selections made in kitchens across the globe. To other entrepreneurs wanting to enter the market, specifically on the nutrition kind, it would seem too risky. Clara launched her protein bar brand UNiTE with gusto. Her products like the churros, Mexican hot chocolates, and PB&Js are foods that bring memories and nutrition at the same time. All the products are also gluten-free and made using plant-based protein. In this episode, host Elliot Begoun interviews Clara about her entrepreneurial journey, from working in the service industry as a head of a plumbing company to becoming the owner of a food product company. Join in to know more about Clara and her story on this episode of TIG Talks.

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Bringing Healthy Food, Diversity And Nostalgia With Clara Paye Of UNiTE Food

I’m joined by Clara. I can’t wait to have this conversation. I’m going to let her do her introduction and talk about her brand and so forth. One of the joys of this business for me is waking up every day and getting to surround myself with people who I find inspiring, cool and badass. Clara represents all of those. She not only is a dynamic founder and somebody who’s building a successful brand, but she’s also generous in giving and is a constant participant in our workshops. She offers her input, suggestions and feedback to her fellow founders, which is what makes this community and this space special.  

I know this conversation is going to be great. We’re going to talk about not only her brand and the business but also her perspective on being a female founder, a founder of color, her background, and all of those kinds of things. Clara, thanks for doing this with me. I’m going to let you introduce yourself and UNiTE Food, and then we’ll jump in.

That was kind of you to say it. I feel the same way about you. I know that a lot of the tardigrades do too. I’m Clara Paye. It’s a pleasure to be here with all of you. I am the Founder of UNiTE Food, which is a globally inspired protein bar. Our mission is to bring diversity into wellness. We do that through flavors that are international, inspirational and all-natural, and they taste great. We’ve been voted the best-tasting bar a few different times. Being a founder in the food space is completely new to me. Prior to 2020, I worked in the plumbing manufacturing industry. People call it a midlife crisis. It’s not a midlife crisis for me. It was a midlife awakening where I wanted to do more and do something meaningful and impactful in my career. I found myself at the home of UNiTE, which has been the greatest pleasure I’ve had in my career so far.

I’m going to call you out on a couple of things because you’re far too young to be in a midlife crisis state or a midlife awakening state. I will maybe call it quarter life. Secondly, there’s a bit of irony where you go from the plumbing business to the CPG business because both of them can be shitty at times. Let’s start with the why. Why did you do this? Why UNiTE? Why a bar? All of those whys.

My story is a lot like a lot of people who have inspiration for a product. It came out of personal use and personal dissatisfaction. In my plumbing executive role, I was busy. I traveled all over the world and the country, visiting customers and building that business. I relied on protein bars a lot to get me through when I was hungry and didn’t have time to stop and eat. It was more time than I cared to think about. I always had them on my desk or on me, but I never loved them or cared for them. I saw them as fuel. I didn’t see them as something I could enjoy. I saw them as a function and I could eat them fast, chug a bunch of water, and move on with my day. That could have been a pill and I would have done the same thing.

That was how I saw them. I was always frustrated and sitting in the aisle thinking, “All these protein bars are all the same.” It didn’t matter which brand I chose. They were all in the same lane of flavors, either vanilla or chocolate or peanut butter chocolate. There were lots of iterations in ingredients and formulation but not in flavor.

To understand how everything collided for me, you have to go back a few years. I’m an immigrant. I moved here from Sudan in Africa when I was five years old with my family, seeking the American dream. Being an immigrant, you have a lot of cultural food. Living in Los Angeles, I had a lot of cultural friends that were from other places. It was this great melting pot. I had friends from all over the world.

I realized that there was this big disconnect in wellness between flavor and function. If you wanted to eat a health bar, something quick and on the go, and it wasn’t in a flavor that you related to or that you found interesting that you wanted to eat, it’s going to be difficult for you to participate in that wellness journey. That’s how it started. That’s a long-winded answer but that was the inspiration. I thought to myself, “Where’s the churro? Where’s the Mexican hot chocolate? Why has anybody not done any other options?

How did you come up with those flavors? PB & J, I love that one. All of them are comfort foods, treats, and so forth. You’re delivering the nutrition, the function and the benefit, but you’re also delivering comfort and familiarity. What inspired those flavors in particular?

I thought about home and what made me think of home and comfort. It was like nostalgia. It’s exactly what you said. I wanted them to be nostalgic childhood flavors, things that you ate as a child and that were super interesting. It’s so funny. I live in Orange County. I have young kids. We were at Disneyland frequently. The churro cart line was always long. It’s almost like a kiss of fate. I was sitting there contemplating. I’m like, “A churro flavor would be great.”

I was sitting there looking at this cart and watching the people and observing. The manager walked over to me and gave me two free churros. He said, “Here you go. We can’t sell these because they’re broken. There’s nothing wrong with them, but I saw that you have two little girls. I was looking for a mom with two girls or two kids. Would you like them?”

I felt like that was my universe sign, like, “Churro would be a great flavor. You’re on the right path.” I started visiting ethnic grocery stores and ethnic ice cream stores even in my immediate neighborhood and saw what were the flavors that people liked. Hearkening back to my childhood in general, a PB & J is synonymous to me with childhood. Having a PB & J sandwich or PB & J on a cracker was a big part of growing up.

It’s such a cool thing. It’s nostalgic, familiar and comfortable. Let’s talk about the mission behind it and the way you positioned it, and even the choicefullness of the brand name.

The brand name was the hardest part because there were so many different ideas. I couldn’t combine them all. I was like, “What am I trying to do? What is the mission of this brand?” That’s how it originated. I said, “It’s to unite people. It’s to bring cultures together.” Food can be this interesting instrument of inclusion. If you can participate in a different culture by trying the flavor of the food, it’s a safe way to experience a culture without getting on a plane, without going anywhere, without even having to know somebody from that culture. I thought, “I want to unite.” I check the trademark database and it was available. I registered it and it was a done deal.

I remember when the trademark examiner called me, which they never usually call, they send a letter. For some reason, this man called me. We have this long discussion about the brand and the mission. It’s to allow more people to participate in wellness. I see myself building this bigger wellness table when everybody has a seat from every culture. I’m trying to develop bars that represent all people and where everyone can feel seen. It’s almost like if you have ever been to a potluck or somebody’s home who’s an immigrant or from somewhere else. They offer you their family recipe or their family food. It’s a great honor to be able to participate in that dish or in that meal. It makes you feel connected.

There’s always this anxiety on the immigrant side of like, “Are they going to like it? It’s weird. I’m not sure.” When you do, it creates this union and unity to say, “I participated in your culture. I tried it.” There’s also the fun. A lot of the protein bars out there are boring. They’re redundant. If there’s a different flavor that you haven’t tried to spice up your health and your choices, that is also a part of our mission.

When you started this, obviously, we were in tough times. Now so more than ever, it’s the most divisive we’ve been in. You find yourself with this platform and trying to promote inclusion, trying to unite. Do you feel a sense of responsibility because of how that’s developing? Has it been at all scary at times to weigh into this societal conversation? There are a lot of people who are uncomfortable having these conversations and there is still a lot of ignorance and animus.

It goes back to our core values. On our website, if you look at our story, every letter stands for something. The U is Understanding. A big core value of our brand is to first seek to understand. Seek to find the common ground. We can make the other less scary, more like us, and see more of what we have in common versus what we have that divides us. There’s no doubt to me that there’s evil in the world. That evil is trying to divide people and pit mother against father, brother against brother, neighbors against each other, and friends.

We’ve seen the polarization happening where people are unfriending people because of their views. Let’s first go back to how we can understand each other better and how we can have a conversation that’s productive. That’s my hope. I don’t think any one brand can fix anything, but if there are more people who are seeking to understand versus casting judgment, that’s a great first step.

First of all, that’s beautifully said. I couldn’t agree more. So much of what we face right now in society comes from two particular things. One, unfortunately, is ignorance or the unwillingness to recognize that there are things that we don’t know. The other is we have our beliefs, but we tether them so close to ourselves that when our beliefs are challenged, we view it as an attack. We view it as a push against ourselves.

My kids are grown, but we’ve had lots of conversations around this. What my wife and I always tried to impress upon our children is that it’s great to have a strong opinion. Everybody should have a strong opinion and that’s fine, but hold it lightly so that there’s room. When you get new information or a new conversation comes in, you’re comfortable enough and okay with letting it go and forming a new opinion because they are evolving. I think back to the things that I thought were absolute in my 20s, 30s and 40s, and they’re laughable now because they’ve been informed by new experiences and new conversations and so forth.

We have to be careful of the division and not take things too personally. There used to be a time when you could have a disagreement and a healthy debate, and you still could love the other person. You could still separate a political view or religious view or whatever from the person and find that common ground, but it is ignorance. A lot of times, in the minority space, there’s a lot of prejudice that people are still fighting against. For me, it’s an important part of why I started this business. The plumbing business is successful and it was my family business. We had a great exit and all those things. People were like, “Why are you doing this? Why are you starting this business in this space that you don’t know anything about?”

I said, “If not me, then who?” If I don’t become a change agent and show that diverse-owned businesses or women-owned businesses can be successful in the most competitive space or one of the most competitive industries, then who’s going to do it? I have business knowledge already. I have the financial ability to do it. I want to be able to become this case study for how success can look different and can be different. That will encourage and bring alongside all the others that have similar hope and dream.

What you defined is what is so cool about entrepreneurs. I say this all the time and people tell me, “Entrepreneurs are willing to take risks. They’re crazy,” but that’s not what I see. What I see is most entrepreneurs run the same gamut of risk tolerance that the average populace does. The difference is that the average person sees the risk in action and the entrepreneur sees the risk in inaction. You sat there and said exactly that, “If not me, then who? If I don’t take this action or if I don’t do that.” I’m sure that to you, that seems such a normal thing.

That’s how everyone thinks, but it’s unique. There are a few people who think that way. Many people will think about the opportunity or getting needs met or the problem, but few think started having that. I always think of the drums in the movie Jumanji. All of a sudden, it starts pounding away. You keep hearing these drums saying, “You have to do this.” It doesn’t matter if everybody else says you’re f-ing crazy, “Why are you doing this? You had a good exit. You should be toes in the sand, sipping MaiTai, doing whatever.” “It’s because I don’t have a choice. I have to do this.”

I remember having a real thought even before we had the exit. This idea had been percolating. I thought to myself, “If I get to 80 years old and I don’t have the energy or the ability to do this anymore, am I going to look back at this period of my life and think, ‘Why didn’t I even try?’” What was so scary about trying? It was a crystal real thought to me. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t do it.

What do you think your girls are learning from this? What are they taking away?

My daughter when she was five looked at me one day. We were driving and she goes, “Mommy, who’s going to be the head of UNiTE when I work with you and all these things happen later in life?” She saw me in my family business with my dad. She was like, “Who’s going to be the owner of UNiTE? Who’s going to run UNiTE?” I said, “Mommy will run it until you’re old enough and then mommy will train you. If you want to do it or if you can do something else, then you can be in charge of UNiTE.” She said, “Mom, that’s not good enough. I don’t think that’s fair.”

I said, “What’s fair. Who do you think should run UNiTE?” She looked at me, she’s five years old, and she said, “The person who makes the best decisions.” I said, “You’re right. The person who makes the best decisions.” They’re getting this front row seat where they saw mommy formulating in the kitchen. They were my taste testers. They’ve been on the journey with me. My kids don’t pander and they don’t lie. They’ll tell you and you can’t force them to eat anything even if you want to. If they don’t like it, they won’t eat it.

They have no filter. They’re not going to say, “Mom, this is the best thing,” just because you’re the mom. In fact, it’s the opposite. They’re more likely to say, “No way.”

Because of that, our bars are well favored by children. I did not formulate these for kids, but they’re natural, nostalgic and childhood. My kids love them. It went hand in hand. They’re also thinking, “You have an idea for a product. You make it. It gets on the shelf,” but there are a million other steps in between. They’re having their own entrepreneurial ideas, especially my younger one. She’s like, “Mommy, we should invent a suitcase that does this when we’re traveling.” That engine is going.

Is that what you hope it would be, that their takeaway is they’re empowered to do anything, to see things that are missing, and opportunities that they can salvage for themselves versus hope that somebody else does it? If you could script it for them, which all parents would love to be able to do but none of us is able to, do you want them to be future entrepreneurs?

I want them to know that whatever path they choose for themselves, never let fear be the reason they don’t do something, fear in their own ability or a fear of the outside world a bit. Live out life. I came up against a lot of resistance when I wanted to start this business from my own family. They’re like, “These bars, nobody’s going to buy these.” Even commands and all these things. The greatest gift that I got growing up hands down was that I had an entrepreneur for a dad. When you see entrepreneurship modeled for you, you see how hard it is, and it’s also demystified. It’s not this nebulous thing where you don’t know how it works.

I was in his office from the age of five, doing mailers, working, answering phones and filing. I do it every summer my whole life. I got to see behind the scenes of a business. The distribution business is an interesting one because there’s a product and there are customers and it goes somewhere. I got to learn by watching and participating in that. For my own kids, I want them to know that they are valuable and that their thoughts are valuable no matter what other people think. If they have a vision for something, I want to be sure that they know how to execute that, because execution is a big part of it too. It’s not just the idea.

It’s such an amazing gift. One of the things you mentioned is fear. That is such a limiter for all of us. I know that personally. I grew up, went to undergrad, went to grad. I did what I was socialized to be the right thing. I got into the corporate universe and started climbing the ladder. There’s always somewhat of a pariah because I like to break things and change things. In the corporate world, that’s not what they want. The real reason I kept doing that was because I was afraid to do something else. It was fear. When you’re also in that environment, what you tend to do is run and hide from exposure and vulnerability.

What I’ve learned in the decade that I’ve been unshackled from that is growth, learning and excitement. The joy comes from leaning into the terrifying. It can come from being able to acknowledge that this may come out differently than I hoped. There’s risk involved here. That is a real gift to your kids. It’s funny, I look at the difference between my kids now. My oldest spent most of her formative years with me in the corporate world and my youngest spent 50/50. Their perspectives are very different.

That corporate ladder thing increases the opportunity costs of becoming an entrepreneur. The more you’re up the ladder, the more your income is, and the harder it is to go back to zero, and be dependent on yourself. There are huge opportunity costs, especially if you’ve started a family or got married or have financial pressures. The lie that a lot of people tell themselves if they are on that ladder or they’re stuck or whatever is that they’re too old and that the chance has passed them. I was 42 years old when I launched UNiTE.

It wasn’t like I did it in my twenties. I had a corporate career. Everything that I’ve done has fit into a puzzle to help me now. I would love to tell anybody that wants to do something or has an idea that is nagging them or that Jumanji drum that you described, is to start and take the first step. Do little steps and see where you get.

Two interesting comments on that. One is when I started this, we had one kid in high school and two in college. I was heading to the office one day, syncing up my tie. My wife looked at me and said, “By the way, if you think you’re faking it, you’re wrong. You’re fricking miserable. Go do something else.” My narrative was, “We can’t do that. I’m the primary income earner for our family. We’ve got all these expenses.” She challenged me, “That’s bologna.” When I started it, I was literally terrified for all those reasons. My wife went about her day like nothing changed. I kept saying, “Please, have a little doubt so that I’m not the only one.” She refused and said, “No, come confident.”

What I learned was that all of this narrative that we tell ourselves about working for somebody else like security is false. The real security comes from recognizing, even if you have a failure or two, that you know how to build a business. You know how to create an opportunity for yourself that isn’t dependent on others. It’s not for everybody. Don’t get me wrong. If it is something that is there and you want to do it and you feel called to do it, don’t let fear and that narrative around security keep you from doing it. Don’t let age stop you from doing it either.

You arrive at entrepreneurship when you’re ready to. Some people start that way and others come later, but that’s the other question I get asked all the time, “Now that you know what you do, do you regret that you spent 25 years corporately?” The answer is no because those 25 years are when I amassed the wisdom and the information that I needed to be effective in what I do now. I don’t think I would have been as ready if I started earlier. If you have those Jumanji drums and those things are going on in your brain with relative consistency, then listen to them and don’t be afraid.

The part that I pick up on what you shared is your wife’s role too in having that support system. Entrepreneurship is very lonely and hard. In those first few days or months, it’s like, “Am I going crazy? I’m used to being surrounded by people and having teams of people to do things.” Now it’s all on you. That support that your wife and that backbone of “I believe in you” is so invaluable. I’ve read a lot of business biographies. There’s always that person who’s the hype man behind the person that’s like, “Yes, I believe in you.”

Even if you don’t have that in a significant other and they’re dragging you down, you have to build a community of that. That’s what I plug for the Tardigrades. If you are going to take the journey, it’s important to surround yourself with people who will not be fake cheerleaders, but who can also mirror and tell you the truth when you need to hear it. There’s somebody in your corner that says, “I believe in you,” because self-doubt is a constant companion. It’s always riding shotgun, but we don’t want to shoot that guy in the back.

I couldn’t agree more. First of all, it’s a blessing to have your life partner be your champion. That’s a great thing. Even if you don’t have that good fortune, make sure you have people around you who do believe in you but will also tell you what you need to hear, not necessarily what you want to hear. The one reframe that I’ve learned along the way is to always ask yourself, “What’s the worst that can happen?” That’s the conversation that I had a lot with Julia at the time. She kept saying, “What’s the worst that can happen?” “We could be broke.” Her comment was, “When we first met, we were. We were fine. We were happy. We would figure it out. All these things that we have, they’re nice, but we were happy when we didn’t have them. We’re happy now that we have them.”

It’s that breath of recognition. As we work to build this Tardigrade community with TIG, it was a recognition. It came from a mastermind retreat that I was on where we were supposed to come and present to our fellow attendees what we felt was our highest value activity. I forgot what I did, but I came and felt pretty self-assured that it was right. They all looked at me and said, “You’re full of shit.” No, it’s not. The highest value activity that you offer your entrepreneurs is community. The more you can work to build that and foster that, the better.

You’re right, being an entrepreneur is lonely. It can be isolating even if you have a team around you. You have to show up for your team with that confidence and that self-belief. If you show up with the doubt and the fear that also exists in every founder and make that visible, then the people who are looking towards you on your team will have that start to internalize, so you don’t. You keep that stuff bottled up. That’s hard and brutal.

In and of itself, you know you’re surrounded by other people who are struggling with the same thing and are supportive. That also makes our industry somewhat special because there aren’t competitors. Nobody thinks of themselves. In essence, if you’re a food or a beverage product, you’re competing for the same share of the stomach. If you’re a personal care product, you’re competing for the same share of skin. Whatever it is, it’s a zero-sum reality, but that’s not how this industry looks. The industry looks at each other like, “Consumers will choose what works for them. Let’s have us all succeed.”

What you’ve said about what’s the worst that can happen, I slipped that and I’m like, “What’s the best that can happen.” Not just focusing on all the catastrophes that can happen. What’s the best case that can happen? What if it’s an amazing success? I think that to myself sometimes when I’m low. This is normal. Everybody has these thoughts like, “What am I doing? Should I stop? Should I quit?” I think to myself of this imaginary person or people in my future, whether the future employees or future charities that I’ll help or anything like that. Somebody in my future is depending on me to stick it out right now. Somebody in my future is relying on me to go through these tough feelings that feel scary and weird, to get to this other side of the future.

I try to always have an abundance mindset, which I’m endlessly optimistic, which is such an entrepreneurial thing. I’m probably 99% telling optimism. I have this firm foundation and belief that things will work out. Even if they don’t work out the way I want them to, I firmly believe they worked out the way they were supposed to. It’s carrying me in a direction that’s even better for me.

That pathological optimism is what Gary Hertzberg espouses. I find founders usually are on one end of the spectrum or another, usually not in the middle. Either they’re wildly optimistic or they have a complete scarcity mindset. They use that scarcity mindset as a motivator, and the abundance mindset as a tool for perseverance. It’s interesting to me to see that dichotomy. It’s true. I’m an optimist in general, but I am somebody who has a scarcity mindset. I’m always up that it could all be gone tomorrow. That’s okay. You have to channel whatever inner intrinsic motivation that you have. That optimism will serve you well. To call you out on that, it does. When we’re in workshops, you’re always the one with the smile even when there are other people who are struggling with that. That’s how you’re wired. That’s good.

I try to balance that in finance. My CFO looks for the worst-case scenario. It’s great that she never discourages me. We’re this perfect team because we can look at all the scenarios together.

Everybody needs a contrarian around them. That’s an important partner to any entrepreneur. If you tend to be a negative Nelly, then you need the optimist around you. If you tend to be the pathological optimist, then you need that negative Nelly. You need that contrarian because those are the people that will catch you. Those are the people that will make sure that you don’t get tricked by your blind spots. Some people hate that. Some people don’t want somebody around them who’s always telling them the opposite of what they hope they will. They want somebody who’s going to champion them. We’ve seen plenty of those kinds of people like our former president. No one is willing to speak the truth to power. He’s going to say, “Yes.” You need that contrarian.

I want to shift a little bit and talk about some things that you’re doing that are interesting and different. You’re building this brand. You’re trying to unite and also bring nutrition to consumers who maybe haven’t had access to it before. Interestingly enough, most people in the natural product space start building their businesses through the typical natural product retailers, Whole Foods and so forth. You’ve not chosen that route. You’re building your brand in different outlines. Was that intentional? Was that a combination of intention and serendipity?

It was charted for me before I started. In 2005, I graduated from an MBA program at Cal State Fullerton. In that program, I met my husband. The whole consumer market and the project that we worked on was the consumer marketing strategy for Walmart. We work together on developing the consumer marketing strategy for Walmart. Fast forward to 2021, my first customer in this business is Walmart. That was charted long before I even started. Walmart and a mass consumer are an important distribution model for me because I want to reach the most amount of people. I want to have the people that are on the margins feel the most included. We started in mass. We started in this big way. I didn’t know any better because I’m not from the food industry. I didn’t know that it’s hard to get on Walmart shelves compared to other shelves.

It was the opportunity that presented itself. They have been an awesome partner for UNiTE. Now we are finding ourselves with that interest from the natural channel. We’re doing well at Sprouts. Our bars are flying off the shelves there. We’re going to get to build our business in Naturals as well. We want to democratize this. I know that that’s an overused word, but we want to allow a lot of people to experience our bars. Different points of distribution help us accomplish that. We’ve flipped the model on its head. I don’t know how that happened, other than it was a divine plan.

Let’s talk about Walmart. You found them to be a good retailer, good customer, and easy to work with. Did that surprise you?

No. In my previous life, in the plumbing industry, I dealt a lot with big box retailers like Home Depot and Lowe’s. I knew what was important to a big box and to that mass merchant, who can only have a few lines on their shelf. What is important is that you can stay on the shelf. Your orders are on time and in full, and you have a great product that drives people. What was good about our products is that it’s not a me-too. We’re the first to do this. It wasn’t like me-too and we were just copying whatever was already on the shelf and putting a different label on it. It was bringing a new customer into the set and into the space. Walmart has its own diversity and inclusion metrics. We help them accomplish their goals by being women-owned and minority certified and all those things. It’s a synergistic relationship.

What a lot of people don’t understand is that it’s fairly easy to transact business with Walmart.

You have to have the ability to make enough product to stay on shelf. That’s where people get into trouble. If they don’t have the cashflow or they don’t have the know-how of getting their shipments to Walmart on time and in full, then it’s going to be a disaster. If you can invest in your inventory and distribution, then it’s “easy.” They’re a great partner. They pay on time and it’s a direct business. That’s wonderful.

Part of the benefit of that is that it’s much more democratized about who shops in a Walmart. It crosses a much broader socioeconomic demographic constituency. What’s your vision as you continue to grow UNiTE? Do you see yourself broadening that more so? Tell the audience a little bit about what you envision for the brand as it expands.

First of all, we want to crowdsource our flavors. If anybody has a flavor that they would like to suggest, please email me Hello@UniteFood.com. For me, I want the bar to meet the potential customers where they’re at when they feel like they need a helpful snack and they can’t get to Natural Whole Foods. I don’t advise people to eat protein bars in lieu of fresh food. They have a time and a place and a use case for them. If you’re in a rush, you need to get to your meeting and get your kids to a soccer game, whatever the case. We want to diversify our points of distribution so that we’re in convenient stores, university campuses, and lots of different points of distribution. The mass customer and the actual customer will always be important to us. Those are the two channels that we feel will carry the brand.

I’m going to switch gears again. I’m going to go back to our more personal side of the conversation. A question that I do want to ask is you’ve mentioned from the time you were five years old, you were in lockstep with your dad, learning at his side. If you could pick a couple of lessons that you learned from him, what would those be?

You have to take risks. I remember clearly, my dad taking a few big bets on his business. That’s what allowed him to get to the next level, whether that was acquiring a manufacturing facility or diversifying the type of customer that we were going after. A part of the business is risk-taking. The other important lesson that I’ve learned is you have to be comfortable with problems. The definition of business is solving problems. If you think that your business is never going to have problems, or you’re never going to have issues, then you probably shouldn’t be in business. It’s the solving of the problems and the fires that come up that make it a business. It’s normal and it’s normalized.

You’re going to have issues, whether they’re legal issues or product issues or manufacturing issues, that’s a normal part of the business. Obviously, you want to mitigate that. You want to have good planning and strong people. You want to do your due diligence. I’m probably more safety conscious than a normal entrepreneur, less risk averse with those things. I’ve seen what can happen and potential issues. That way, it prepared me, but it boils down to you got to take risks. You never get to new levels without a risk. It’s the same reason you start a business. You took that risk. The second one is to be comfortable with problems and your ability to solve them. It is what will set you apart.

As you look now toward your role as an entrepreneur, what have you learned from the direct experience? Is there anything that surprised you that maybe you recognize, “Holy shit, I’m good at this. I didn’t expect that,” or “This is a lot harder than I anticipated?”

I was talking to a finance-type person. They were like, “You could sell this business in a couple of years. You’re probably good at the startup part, starting a business.” I looked at him and I was like, “That’s peculiar that he would say that.” I’m good at the operation of the business. Where I’ve had the most success is organizing people and processes, getting people engaged, happy and fired up to work on a project. That’s what brings me joy.

What surprised me about entrepreneurship is it’s so much harder to start from zero. It is hard to think through every single type of decision that has to be made. You get this decision fatigue that’s totally different from strategic decision fatigue. It’s like, “What’s our PO going to look like? What information goes on this?” These millions of tiny things stacked up. I’m an “I can do it” type of person. I’m self-sufficient and try to figure it out on my own most of the time, which doesn’t need to be the case. You can have people to help you.

Let me ask a question that I love to ask everybody. If you could go back to a moment in time, whether it was early in your career in a family business or you just started UNiTe, knowing what you know now and give yourself some important advice or suggestion or do this or don’t do this, what comes to mind?

It goes back to that conversation we were having about self-doubt like, “Can I do it? Am I too old? Is it too late?” I would tell that girl, “Don’t worry, it’s all going to work out.” My work ethic is to work hard and the rewards will come. That worked out for me. “You’re exactly where you’re meant to be. Keep learning, doing and going through the hard times and the good times because they’re going to prepare you for what’s next.” I live in a spirit of surrender. Whatever is supposed to happen is going to happen. I’m going to work my hardest through the obstacles.

Were you always like that? Were you always somebody who lived in that spirit of surrender and could accept things?

It’s in me because of my childhood. From kindergarten to eighth grade, I went to seven different schools. Every year, my parents moved my school, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade, twice in fourth grade, fifth grade, and sixth grade. The first time I went to school for three years was in middle school. I think about that now and how hard it is when my kids would suffer any adversity. Every year, I was having to make new friends, figure out new systems, and have new teachers. If it wasn’t in my personality to be friendly, it for sure had to be by the age of school. It was my upbringing. It made me live in this, “What’s next? More change,” and be comfortable with whatever was next.

That’s such a difficult mindset to have. The vast majority of people, myself included, there are moments when I have that clarity when I can give in and surrender and allow it. Oftentimes, I can accept that and rationalize it but I still, and most people do still try to seek control. They believe foolishly that they can control things, when in fact we can’t.

That has got to be a powerful tool for you. It’s got to be something that you allow because that does open the door much wider when you can allow things to unfold as they’re meant to unfold or as they will unfold. Not necessarily use the word surrender, surrender is a good word, but it’s not so much that you have no influence or no ability to move things in the direction you want. You can’t control everything. Knowing that makes you grasp a lot less of that control.

I do everything that is within my control like if I hire the right people to help me, if I plan, and all those things. At some point, I’ve done everything that I can do. It’s this vision. I always believe in a bigger vision, having a strong vision for your life, a strong vision for what it is that you want, and manifesting your destiny as it’s supposed to be. I’ve believed in vision boards for fifteen years. I’ve trained all my friends on them.

It’s having a vision that’s bigger than just your here and now. That’s in the future of what you want. Whatever I’m feeling in the here and now, I also have this firm belief that feelings are liars. How I feel today isn’t going to be how I feel in ten years about the situation. I never allow my feelings to dictate my actions. I try to objectify how I’m feeling versus what I should do. I know that’s a mouthful.

I find that fascinating. That’s a tremendous trait. Honestly, I don’t know that many people are able to delineate that difference. What I observed, and I get the benefit of being that watcher, is that entrepreneurs are all wired differently. There is not one manifestation of skills or mindset or any of those things that embody the ideal or perfect entrepreneur. What I recognize is that the entrepreneurs who are successful have enough introspection and understanding of themselves, and enough awareness to lean into the things that serve them well. Everybody has different skills that serve them well, but it’s utilizing those skills and empowering them. That’s exactly what you’re talking about.

There are other folks that we all know that are wired differently than you but are successful. It’s not because they’re not saddled in the absence of the things that you’ve discussed. They’re just benefiting from others. That’s the message. That’s how you’re wired. You’re wired with this optimism and this ability to bifurcate feelings from lived experience and doing all of those kinds of things. You’re able to use your experience growing up and all of those flexibilities. Others have other traits. The key is finding how to manifest it. Give me your thoughts on that. Am I full of crap?

You’re 100% right. It also is a part of what I’ve already experienced in the business. I’ve been in dark and tough times in my family business. I’ve handled class action lawsuits and Department of Energy probes. We had to sadly do a layoff for the first time in the history of the company. I had to tell people, “It’s not your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong, but we have to lay you off.” I’ve been through dark times. I know that they pass. I know that this too passes. Even if something is scary and dark and has the propensity to scare me, I do things to prepare myself for that.

For example, when I got into food, I was like, “This is such a high liability business,” because I’m thinking through the plumbing lens of water failures and that type of liability. I’m like, “This is a human risk.” Our command is the highest SQF level rating. There are all these checks and balances and all of these things. That gives me peace of mind that we’ve done the most that we can do from a food safety perspective. You mitigate the fears. It’s lived experience that makes everybody the way that they are. You’re right. Everybody has a unique skillset and unique vision. When you’re in the state of flow, not fighting against yourself and who you are intrinsically, and using it to your superpower, I think great things happen. Everybody is blessed with different skillsets. Thank God, we’re not all the same. It would be so boring.

Also, things wouldn’t get done. Let me ask you a question. You said early on in this conversation that when you first started UNiTE and voiced that you were going to do this, family members, the ones that were involved in the family business were like, “Why are you doing this? You shouldn’t be doing this.” Now, what are they saying?

It’s funny because everything that I set out to do, I’ve done, like bringing the product to life, getting it on shelves, and all these things. They’re standing around a little bit stunned. A lot of business people that were around me, other entrepreneurs or other operators are like, “You’ve come far so fast.” I know that our success is not a normal trajectory. I’m under no illusion that this is how it happens for everybody. It’s that preparation and ability to use my instincts to make the right decisions for what felt right for my brand. I allowed my instincts to take over. Even in packaging and things like that, that’s what made it good. They’re all supportive and happy. I also had to find that self-support in myself. You have to believe in yourself the most.

That is the obvious. The most important person to have faith in you is you, no matter what. What you’re choosing to do and what all of the entrepreneurs here have chosen to do fly in the face of logic and the normal comment. You’re always going to be surrounded by people who will tell you more than likely that what you’re doing is crazy or nuts, or question why, or do all of that stuff. You’ll show up to a buyer meeting, investor meeting, and so forth. You’ll hear, “No, not now.” If you don’t have that deep belief in yourself and your vision, it’s easy to get lost.

Not that I want to make it my story, but to give you another personal example, when I first started this business, I was on the phone with our wealth manager. I was going through things. The comment that I made is, “I’m going to give this my best effort. I’m going to give it six months or so. If I can’t make it work, I’ll go get a job.” About an hour later, my cellphone rings and it’s the chairman of that company.

I’ve only spoken to him once in my whole life. He said, “I heard from Jerry. He told me about your conversation. I couldn’t help but call you. If you for a moment give yourself that out, if you tell yourself that if it doesn’t work in six months is an out, I’m telling you right now, you’re going to fail. What you need to tell yourself is, ‘I’m going to do this.’ No out. Nothing. You’re going to do it.” He was right. I’m grateful he made that call because that’s the mindset. You have to believe.

You talked about the personality traits of an entrepreneur and how they’re not the same, but there is one that I’ve noticed that a lot of successful entrepreneurs have, which I don’t want to seek to emulate, but it’s narcissism. I’ve seen lots of successful entrepreneurs that are raging narcissists. What does a narcissist have? They believe in themselves. They have this superhuman ability. They think that they’re superhuman and that there’s a superpower. A big part of their successes is that belief in yourself. If you can believe in yourself without becoming a narcissist, and you do that by having contrarians around you and people that you can listen to like, “That’s an interesting comment.”

I’ll challenge that. The one thing I’ve found is that narcissism is a symptom. It’s a symptom of insecurity. A lot of times, the most outwardly narcissistic people are people who use that as a way to mask, whether consciously or unconsciously, deep-seated insecurity. Part of that is the old adage of faking it until you make it.

There are many of us in this entrepreneurial realm who admittedly deal with imposter syndrome, “How can I be here?” We have to self-talk ourselves out of it. We have to say, “I do believe I have to be here. I am great.” Sometimes that does become a narcissistic trait, but not always. We’re on time. I want to give you an opportunity to give the audience a takeaway or something that you want them to know about you, the brand, the entrepreneurial journey, whatever.

I would say it’s about them. If you were out here and you’re thinking about entrepreneurship and you’re interested in it, believe in yourself and believe that you have everything in you already to succeed. I created UNiTE from a dream and a vision that I had. It’s taking the first step that’s the scariest, but the next step will appear. Enjoy the journey. Take every day as a learning opportunity. Hopefully, success comes. Not that I would call us a success yet, but we’re on our way.

I would call you and UNiTE a success. I mean this sincerely. I will take this to all the founders I work with every day. You guys are so inspiring to me. It’s such a cool thing. I’m at this stage of my career. I’ve been doing this for over 30 years. I still get to wake up every day and be a student. That’s the best. Thanks for joining. This was awesome. I didn’t pay anything less. I appreciate you taking the time to have the conversation with me. I appreciate everybody taking the time to learn together. We’ll see you all next time.

Important Links

• UNiTE Food

• Hello@UniteFood.com

About Clara Paye

As the CEO and founder of UNiTE my mission is to build a bigger, more inclusive wellness table —one where everyone is invited to have a seat.

I’m a first-generation immigrant and a second-generation entrepreneur. I grew up in my family business, EZ-FLO a worldwide distributor of plumbing products. Over 17 years I worked in Marketing, Operations, and Risk Management and eventually became EZ-FLO’s Managing Director and grew the business alongside a very talented team.

After a 17 year run at EZ-FLO, I founded UNiTE when I noticed that there weren’t wellness options that served me or people who craved more flavor in their bars.

On a mission to prove diversity is delicious, UNiTE launched in March of 2020 with a line of protein bars in culturally diverse flavors. Since then the Brand has been quickly growing and UNiTE is sold in major retailers nationwide and online.

I’m also a founding member of (included), a group that serves BIPOC CEOs and Founders in CPG and am a proud member of Young Presidents Organization and the Network of Executive Women.

In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my two daughters, playing competitive tennis and dreaming up new protein bars flavors.

I’m hoping to bring the world a little bit closer as the founder and CEO of UNiTE Food and would love to connect with you on my journey.

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