When BYU football receivers coach Ben Cahoon was not retained by head coach Kalani Sitake during the most recent offseason, he made a surprise decision to step away from football.
Over the last decade, Cahoon’s brother-in-law Casey Child, a former University of Utah baseball standout, has turned a protein bar recipe into a company with a following. Demand for Child’s bars has increased from 10,000 bars per month in 2012 to approximately 500,000 per month today.
So with an offer to join Good 2 Go (G2G) protein bars on the table, Cahoon hung up his whistle to take a sales position with Child’s Orem-based company. Cahoon, a former two-time Canadian Football League “Most Outstanding Canadian” award winner, has found “a different kind of thrill” as he tries to help the company grow. But the principles he's using are not much different than those from the gridiron.
“You have to formulate strategies, you have to have goals and then you have to be relentless, and those are things that can guarantee success in sports and they come to play every single day here,” Cahoon said. “It’s been amazingly enjoyable to me, surprisingly enjoyable.”
Recipe experimentation
While his brother-in-law was finishing up his successful career in the CFL, Child was experimenting in the kitchen.
Child is himself a former professional athlete, having been drafted in 1997 by the Anaheim Angels and playing two seasons in the minor leagues. His wife, Shannon, had started running marathons, and he was making an effort to be more conscious about what he put into his body. So he decided to try his hand at creating a protein bar that tasted good, utilizing his knowledge from athletics of how food helps the body run.
"Some of the early bars we made didn’t taste very good because we were putting green powders and all types of superfoods in them, just to get the mix as healthy as we could,” Child said.
Shannon Child, however, continually emphasized the importance of taste. Once Child discovered a bar that he and others thought was tasty enough, a friend suggested he turn the bars, which were originally just for his family, into a business.
Child believes that food, even a protein bar, is to be enjoyed. He uses multiple sweeteners to avoid a honey sweet taste. Coconut sugar crystals give the bars a caramel taste, and the recipe is rounded out with a touch of cinnamon and salt.
“We tried to make the product as healthy as we could and as tasty as we could," Child said. "And I think we’ve hit a very solid nutritional balance as well."
Although not officially employed until recently, Cahoon and his family have frequently served as taste-testers for G2G bars.
“I kind of experienced trial and error of different recipes,” said Cahoon, a father of four daughters. “And from a distance went through the process with him a little bit.”
His history with the product gives him confidence in selling the bars.
“I’ve eaten it for 10 years,” Cahoon said. “I’ve been in the back where they mix the ingredients. I know exactly what’s going into each bar and I have 100 percent confidence that Casey is putting only the best ingredients with no junk, no crap, no fillers, no preservatives at all.”
'A leap of faith'
For both Child and Cahoon, making G2G bars their career has required a leap of faith. Both are husbands and fathers with families. It was a decision that, for Child, meant putting it all on the line.
“You have four kids and a wife who depend on you and to go from making a salary and living comfortably to wanting to do something that really leaves a mark, you have to have faith in yourself," he said, acknowledging that he could have never achieved success without the support his wife. "You have to have faith in others. You have to have faith in the process."
For Cahoon, the decision to walk away from football required faith in Child, his product and reassurance from a God he believes guides decisions.
“It was a leap of faith to come join Casey, but I felt like it was a calculated risk,” Cahoon said. “I did turn down other coaching jobs. … I have a huge amount of faith and confidence in Casey, and it was an exciting risk, but it was not made without a lot of prayer and contemplation.”
The power of free samples
The company got its big break when a Costco store manager from the Murray wholesale warehouse packed G2G bars in his suitcase for a trip to Costco Corporate for meetings. He told Costco executives that he wanted to carry the bars in his store.
Still, it was not until two years later in October 2016 that Child was able to have a single roadshow display at the Murray location. Costco wanted the G2G booth to collect a certain dollar amount daily. G2G quadrupled the desired amount in its one-day roadshow, according to Child.
Today, G2G bars can be found in 20 Costco locations in the United States. The bars will soon be available in 10 Costco stores in Eastern Canada.
The demand has taken G2G from buying ingredients in five-gallon pails to buying them now in 3,000-pound totes. Still, G2G remains a small player in a U.S. market that Child says is estimated to be around $5 billion annually. It is a market dominated by companies like Kellogg's, which recently bought RXBar for $600 million; Quest Nutrition, which reportedly makes up a quarter of all nutrition bar sales; and General Mills.
"There are some good companies out there," Child said. "And everyone is a competitor if the consumer chooses a different food bar over ours, but the market is huge and people love variety so as long as we make the rotation in the consumer's food choice with our bars then we are going to remain a viable company."
Child believes his company is in a position to grow with the market, and he recognizes the importance of Costco in its journey.
"It’s just an easier process when you’ve got the production capabilities and you’ve got a track record and you’ve got a good history of just selling products, so Costco has been good to us for sure,” Child said.
1,000 'raving' customers
Another secret to the G2G’s success, Child believes, is found in something he recently heard about branding.
“They say you’ve got to find yourself 1,000 just raving lunatic fans that just love your product,” Child said. “I didn’t know that before a few months ago when I listened to that and I was like, ‘I think we have those. ... I think we have 1,000 of them.’”
And social media would suggest he’s right. From the Costco roadshow days, G2G customers who were accustomed to ordering their bars online drove to locations across Utah to stock up. Carlie Hood was one of them.
"Between my friend and I, we bought probably 20 boxes," Hood said. "I would have bought more but didn't have much freezer space at the time. It was awesome to have them at Costco and not have to order them online."
The bars have made inroads with athletes. Philadelphia Eagles’ nutritionist Michael Minnis confirmed that they had G2G bars delivered to the hotel the week leading up to the Super Bowl, while University of Utah director of sports nutrition Lauren Jones said G2G bars are also “a go-to snack” for the Utes.
“We like offering G2G bars to our student-athletes because it’s a great snack and recovery option (contains both protein and carbohydrates), contains ingredients that our student-athletes recognize and supports local business,” Jones said. “Some athletes can be picky eaters but most seem to enjoy G2G bars as a go-to snack and as part of their post-training recovery option.”
Child has learned that you can’t please everyone, but he does believe you can dance with the one who brought you. He is prepared to keep on dancing.
“You’ve got to find what you do well and stick to it. So we found a niche, and with those loyal fans it really helps,” Child said. “To have people like that who support you locally and really love the product and feel good about giving it to their kids and recommending it to friends and family, we couldn’t have done it without them. I love them.”