Live from Alaska with Elevated Oats

Curt Anderson 0:00
Alright, so, Army talk about how you got started. Let’s go there. Yeah,

Megan Militello 0:04
army. So joining out of high school, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. It was a very, I mean, it’s like a short thing, right? They guarantee you what job you’re going to have they tell you, you’re going to have all your college paid for. It’s a way to get out of the place that you’re in. Yep. So I left I was 17. I joined actually, I was like, a debt, which is a delayed Entry Program, like nine months. I was like, my whole senior year already had this plan. Yeah, going into the army.

Curt Anderson 0:35
And I love on your website, you’ve got you went from prom dresses right into the army. So I love that’s a great transition. So well share that experience. What was it like, you know, far exceed your expectations, friends, relationships, mentors. So what was it like being in the Army?

Megan Militello 0:50
Yeah, the army was, like, nothing I knew, right? You had this community that I hadn’t had before. In my past. You’re relying on each other like, right, you’re like at war, you’re in the desert, you’re stuck with these people that you don’t really know you recreate these bonds with? And then you’re doing very stressful things on top of that, like not even in a stressful place, like stressful things like doing air traffic control. We were we were at a facility in Iraq, this the equivalent to Phoenix airport. So we were moving. It was happening. Yeah.

Curt Anderson 1:25
Like this was high stress. Yeah, it was a lot, right.

Megan Militello 1:29
It was a lot of fun. It hands down moments, right. There are always like, the dark sides of the military. Right. But, you know, I try to take all the positives that came from that.

Curt Anderson 1:40
Right. Awesome. So let’s, let’s go a little bit further. So I know you, you know, eventually met your business partner, but just you know, share is like 1718 year old, you know, impressionable, young, you know, you’re a war hero. You go to Iraq, and like, what were some talks about, like some mentors or like maybe your superiors? Yeah. Well, it’s interesting,

Megan Militello 2:01
because I was I turned like, 19 and are so super young. Yeah, me and Lacey met, we were there. Our unit was there already. Before I got there. I was a lake Deployer. So being 18 years old, going to a place where all of these people already have this tight connection. You know, it’s scary. It’s scary to do that. I had a lot of people that were higher ranking that believed in me, right. I mean, we always had people that believe in us, we believe in ourselves. We’re worst critic. But yeah, I had, I had a few people that really put me into these positions and allowed me to, I don’t want to say like, have this power, but have the responsibility. Yeah, right. Controlling all these aircraft, and it was a lot. And not only that, but we had to train each other. So we were training other soldiers to be able to do this job and make sure that they could do it safe. Yeah. So it’s just a constant learning. Yeah.

Curt Anderson 3:05
Great, great experience. And again, thank you for your service. Thank you for serving our country. Thank you for being a war hero. what a what a privilege it is to be here. So again, if you’re just joining us, we’re here with Megan and Lacey is out there. Her partner, Lacey couldn’t be with us. She’s down in Washington. We’re actually in Anchorage, Anchorage, Alaska. I just got a wonderful tour of elevated oats here. It’s in Anchorage. And it’s just a phenomenal wood an inspiration. So before we get into your entrepreneurial journey that’s you know, big shout out and love to Lacey out there. So Lacey, thank you for man, we miss you wish that you were here. But let’s, so you transition out of the army and your air traffic controller, and again, like, you know, high stress, you know, talk a little bit about that experience as the air traffic controller. And then I want to slide into like, your, you know, that aha moment of like, I want to be an entrepreneur, but just hear about when you got out of the army. And what did that look like?

Megan Militello 4:00
So when I got out, Lacey and I weren’t really talking, not that we weren’t friends. Yeah, just went different directions.

Curt Anderson 4:05
Yeah, she had

Megan Militello 4:06
different ways. Right. So I think the dream as an air traffic controller is to do it as civilian because it is a lucrative job and is in front of career. Yeah. So I got out during a hiring freeze, which was not the best plan. Yeah. Would you resist? This was 2012

Curt Anderson 4:28
Okay. 10 years ago,

Megan Militello 4:31
went to school full time. So I got my bachelor’s and then I started working on my Master’s I got a job finally working at the DOD and Hawaii. I had already worked at that tower. So it was it was pretty easy to just kind of go back into the flow. Yeah. I was there for a year and some change and I applied for the FAA and I got picked up nice. So went to the FAA and San Jose California, not San Jose airport. It was read Hillview airport which is smaller off to the side. They We deal with all general aviation aircraft. So a lot of foreign training people to parallel runways it was only 3000 feet. So you were just moving kites. It was a lot of fun. Yeah. Big rushes on the weekends. Big right? Yeah. But that was good. It was, it was a good job. But I was kind of my values. Were really into starting a family having a relationship, and also wanting to grow professionally, too. But not seeing those two go together, right. So I met my second husband, okay, he moved to the Big Island, I got a job back on a wall who lived apart for a year doing it. And I was like, Well, what am I doing here? I’m going to try to do something entrepreneurial. Yeah, get out of just working for the government and go roll in my own way. I took a job that was less money. So working for the government on the Big Island, and then started an Airbnb with my ex husband. We had that for two years, I started selling salads on the side, and I was certified as a personal trainer. So I started kind of shifting into this. How can I

Curt Anderson 6:10
say you’re hustling? Health? Yeah, yeah, hustling and health. Okay.

Megan Militello 6:13
young and healthy. How can I help people improve their health on the other side? How can I get out of this thing that I don’t really like? That doesn’t feel like it’s growing? Yeah. But find something that I’m passionate about. Yeah. And as things were going on, my husband had a psychotic break, which had no clue life, just like the rug was swept from underneath me. Yeah, I moved to Alaska into my dad’s basement. I had no plan. And now I was already trying to transition out of working for the government and this aviation job. Yeah. I was making oats like as a snack to go with the salads. You’re seeing Alaska now. But produce here is not abundance. Okay. Especially like in the winter. Sure. Right. You’re working with glass? Yeah. Okay. So it didn’t, it wasn’t quite fitting in the oats. It was. Now the interesting thing is I’m like, I can have a cafe and I can serve people. And this was my thought then. So now my thoughts have totally changed. I’m like, I can serve people, but I like to eat with them. Yeah. And how can I reach more people like with this message, like it’s something better? And that was manufacturing? Like, I know that I can make a lot of this granola at once have a solid operation, and then push it out to more people affect more people. Right. So that really was the driver behind being a manufacturer. Right? Yeah. And then it just kind of didn’t stop once. It was like, okay, elevated oats is a thing. I reconnected with Lacey. She made a logo, then she started making stickers. And it just turned into us. lifting each

Curt Anderson 7:47
other right rekindling a bond from you know, from Yeah, lien

Megan Militello 7:51
from a lot of like past stuff. And then helping people also,

Curt Anderson 7:57
yeah, Guy absolutely love it. And so the thing is, so I know you put out a post, you know, so you’re describing, you know, if you go to their website, elevated oats.com. And you check out all this amazing product that they have right here. And it’s great, great. You have a great story on your website. And just, you know, I know for other marketers out there always talk about, like, you know, having that story, and you talked about, you know, like, you know, being at your dad’s coming back to Alaska, and you put out a post on Facebook and Lacey, you know, sees that post, it was that you know that that rekindling connection between the two of you. And so let’s let’s talk about like, you know, was there an aha moment was like, a gradual like, hey, what do you think? Or like, how did you take that plunge into entrepreneurship and like, become a manufacturer?

Megan Militello 8:40
Well, so it was an idea. We’re here in Alaska. And have you heard of cottage food laws? Okay, so cottage food laws you can do with low risk food items, okay. And make them at home. Okay, so you’re no sure. Okay. Yeah. Then you’re selling them just directly to the consumer. So you and your manufacturer, but you still, you can’t just go and put it on the shelf at a store? Yeah. The limit in Alaska is $10,000 Gross annually.

Curt Anderson 9:11
Okay. So it’s a hobby. It’s a Friday. Right? Exactly. trade shows and that type of thing. Right. He

Megan Militello 9:15
got the business license, August 2, yeah. Sold. My new I moved to Alaska on July 19. Okay, got the business license on August 2. sold our first bag of granola on October 26. Right. Within the first year. I was like, well, we’re gonna sell over $10,000 next year. We’re not going to try why wouldn’t we want to? Sure, sure. I’m happy to find this location, which was Pizza Hut, right and cleaned it up spent a few months like really getting it. I mean, there used to be a wall where we’re sitting. Yeah, getting it up to where we need it to be for permitting. And by April we were with DC approved wholesale manufacturers and getting it out there so I don’t think we Ever thought like, it was definitely not a thought it was just like, oh yeah, this will be the next thing, right? Oh, this is the next thing. This isn’t and it’s really gotten solid over the years right now we know who we’re talking to now our packaging is a lot more clear and what it says, our messaging just in online marketing too, right? We’ve learned a

Curt Anderson 10:23
lot. You’ve learned a ton. So let’s dig into that. We’ve got the products right here in front of us, you want to talk about like, I believe you’re a big Banana Fan. Did I see that? Like, is that how the brainchild came up with a first product? Right? Banana was was the culprit, right?

Megan Militello 10:36
Banana Nut Bread has bananas as a second ingredient. And this one, banana was the only healthy thing that I can make with the bananas. Yeah, I was making like cakes and pies. And I was like, This is not what I’m trying to do. And people loved it. People. I mean, it tastes like banana bread. Except it’s gluten free. Right? You feel better about it? Because it’s full of and like nuts and nutrient dense things. And um, yeah, we started there. But I was like, I think if we could do this with bananas, we have to be able to do this with other things. Sure. Right. So beads. We put beets in our cranberry cashew chew and it ends up having this beautiful pink granola. We use carrots in our toasted orange jam or Reto. And then what I learned about Alaska, is that because the sun is out in the summer, like right, we have right land, right? The vegetables never tap into their reserves. Right. So since they’re always like sucking up all of this energy, they’re actually 20% sweeter. Oh, really. So we take Alaskan fruits malts, and I wish we could get Alaska bananas. But that’s not a thing. Yeah, right. Take Alaskan vegetables like beets and carrots and put those in here to add that natural sweetness to our granola and not add like more sugar on top of it. Right?

Curt Anderson 11:50
Yeah. Right. So talk about like, you know, I know you have a bunch of like raving fans or customers, you know, you’re popular here in different stores throughout Alaska, you know, we need to get them down to the lower 48. So definitely, you want to check out elevated oats, you know, talk about like, you know, the feedback. And just like, I know, you guys take a lot of pride, you know, the fans that you have, and the positive testimonials that you hear back from customers just share a little bit like what are some of the positive things that you hear from people that are just raving about elevated? Oh, oh, man,

Megan Militello 12:18
I think the user generated content, the reviews it always Yeah, it always surprised me blows me away, I’m always shocked. It’s special, it’s special to know that you’re creating something that people are consuming, right? Because we we make 35,000 choices a day like you are choosing everything that you want to do, right. And if you’re choosing to eat our food, and then you’re choosing to tell us about it that is like, right. And not only that, but people with celiac, like we didn’t realize how important gluten free was for people. Celiac disease may only affect like a small percentage, right? But 25% of Americans follow a gluten free diet just because of sensitivities and things like that. So we use all gluten free everything that’s huge for us. And I think we’ve gotten that response, and it’s only made us value that even more right?

Curt Anderson 13:18
So let’s go here and I know you’re super busy man, I’ve had an amazing tour we’ve been geeking out for you know, talking about business and stuff. So let’s let’s let’s not that I want to talk for hours. But let’s, let’s talk about the last guy up. So I know like you know, for an entrepreneur, it’s boy it takes a village right takes a village to raise a business. And you know, I know you’ve shared you have a lot of friends mentors dad, you know, there’s a lot of people you know, we talked about from the army to like, you know, now with your business talk, you know, like so Dr. Alyssa Rodriguez, we want to give a shout out Sammy Joe Lewis, you know, so working with the MEPs Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which has the just describe I know like we were talking about like, Phil, you know, your your processing. We’ve worked with Lacey on some in Wesleyan, our friend rustling Greer has worked with, with Lacey on some marketing strategies just share a little bit about like what the Alaskan VP has done for elevated oats. Yeah,

Megan Militello 14:08
I actually didn’t know anything about MVP. I have had found out about AI when I came here and met someone in the ecosystem. And they were like, oh, yeah, this thing. And actually, when I moved here, this was three years ago and some change. I don’t think the MVP actually was a thing here. I think the program had kind of dissipated. And so when Alyssa came in with Sammy Jo, and it was like, Yeah, I’ve been looking for it. Yeah. And then it was finally a thing. And I’m like, oh, yeah, definitely want to connect. Yeah, they connected us with so many people. And then yeah, the training that we’ve had, and it’s not just like me and Lacey that have had training road Cory has gone through things. I had previous employees that went through other training for us. So yeah, it’s been It’s been huge courageous to this class on like the three S’s with Phil from lean Alaska. So we went to his quarry went to his webinar. All right, we had Corey come back and teach us right. Anything right that he learned,

Curt Anderson 15:04
right? Isn’t that phenomenal? And it’s just, it’s just great for Maine, you know, for entrepreneurs, you know, it can get pretty lonely out there at times, right? It’s a little stressful. And just knowing that there’s, you know, just those resources, those trusted resources that come in and and just, you know, dedicated, you know, objectively on your success.

Megan Militello 15:23
And manufacturing is its own thing, too, right. Like that’s its own special thing. Its own business, whole plan model, you got lean, like, there’s so much to it,

Curt Anderson 15:32
right? Yeah. And again, I know you’re busy. Let’s talk about the website real quick. So like, you know, you sell your product online. So let’s talk you know, I’m the E commerce guy. And I know you guys were talking, you know, we’re talking to Lacey on the phone. We’re going through like a whole load strategy session. We’re geeking out on a bunch of different things. Talk about like, what’s been working well, or like E commerce for you guys. I know that you’re experiencing some really healthy positive growth there. What do you’re excited about the future here at elevated oats? What do you see for the future of E commerce for you?

Megan Militello 16:03
So what we’ve started doing this last year is a limited edition flavor. So nice, like our four flagship flavors that we do wholesale, we get those now in over 100 locations throughout Alaska, right. But our limited edition flavors are special.

Curt Anderson 16:20
Nice. So this

Megan Militello 16:22
for the first actually, yep, crazy. We’re releasing a basic batch, which is a pumpkin spice type of flavor, nice pumpkins as the second ingredient, right? We use locally sourced ingredients. So we got the spice from Sumit spice and tea company. It’s very nice, because it’s a way for us to like, be creative still. We have these four things that works so well. And now that we’re, like, deeper in the business, we’re like, okay, we’re just passing these other things. So the fourth thing, this is like, okay, let’s make something fun. What is going to be our next one, we get to have it’s special between our team you know, it’d be like okay, well how are we going to create this next thing so you get the input from everybody, but we don’t do these wholesale so are ours Limited Edition flavors, we only do retail price for our customers to try out first so that we can get the feedback right know whether or not even bring it on labor.

Curt Anderson 17:23
brilliant, absolutely brilliant isn’t like you know, let’s just show so you know, man just for the holiday season what a great product here a very you know, seasonal again, opportunity to for you guys be creative. And you know, take as you said to flagship brands do something new and fun. Now the branding Yeah, I’d say the packaging is just it’s phenomenal. You guys do a great job on your website. We’ve got you know, we always talk about like that buyer persona. You know, we see your buyer personas like running up the hill, you know, like that you’re targeting like, you know, busy Healthy Moms, fitness, you know, that type of thing. hikers, bikers, mountain bikers, you know, talk a little bit about, you know, branding and packaging for, you know, say there’s a new entrepreneur, new manufacturer out there. How, you know, talk a little bit about your branding strategy.

Megan Militello 18:08
That’s definitely all lazy. That’s all. That’s all lazy. We love you lazy Brander. I will tell you, she’s told me several things, but you want the name to be on every side of the package, right? So are staying the same? We go into so we have these small snack packs. Let me grab one. Sure. We kind of think of it like well, if you’re a consumer, where are you looking? We have these clever ideas right? But we’re still learning so it’s like okay, we have the small snack pack. We want to put our women veteran on on it. We put it on the bottom, which was great. Not on the big ones. The big ones. It’s on your back.

Curt Anderson 18:41
Please do we have a little message here in the bottom? We do yeah Made

Megan Militello 18:45
with love This sincere but savage kindness and this little easter egg.

Curt Anderson 18:48
Nice.

Megan Militello 18:50
Love this. I don’t know how many people actually look at the bottom right. So that’s kind of like change things. We’ve changed packaging three times in the last year, which is sounds crazy, but it’s because we’ve learned gotten a lot more solid on customers. So our very first ones were we were okay, doing everything in bags ourself. You know, we still had this white. Yeah, nice. Look at our second one that we did. We went a little darker and we’re like, we’re snack right and thinking like pistachio we have like these beautiful black bags. Right? black bags were cool. Everybody thought it was a national brand. Didn’t have like the homey feel to it just didn’t talk to our person or Julie. Yeah, right. Yeah. Lacey was like, Oh, I’m gonna do something totally different. And I mean, the color like that’s our thing. Like our thing is color. Not only are our packaging colorful, like our granolas colorful, and then you have this person that’s outdoors. You have a mountain right? There’s so much just to see To our person

Curt Anderson 20:00
right? Made with love the sincere but savage kind. I’ve just dropped the mic on that that is just absolutely awesome. Okay, so tons of cover tons. You know, you have a really exciting program event that you have coming up that you wanted to talk about. Oh,

Megan Militello 20:16
yeah, we’re doing a fundraiser for the month of November. It’s called November Well, I’m calling it a November giving away nice. We have a several businesses that are donating and we’re curating this box to be like for health and wellness like mind, body and soul. Right? So we have someone that’s donating a year long or something a year, I think a lifetime app membership for like binaural beats and supplemental messages for meditating things like that right for yourself. We have anchorage yoga, they’re donating a virtual class package. So no matter where you’re at, you can like do this yoga with us. Yeah, we have all of our limited edition flavors from the last year. So we’re gonna throw in there. So if you missed on lemon, Berry muffin or pineapple, habanero, or rhubarb crisp, all of these are going to be in there. And then we got a lot of companies that are military affiliated, so either wives or veterans, couple prints from here in Alaska, everybody’s here in Alaska, which is really, really great. But it’s going to be $1 raffle tickets on our website for the Xbox 100% of the proceeds are going to be going to Mount Sinai, which is in New York, and they study alternative therapies for PTSD and trauma for that. Okay, great.

Curt Anderson 21:32
Awesome. Well, very admirable, super exciting as we wind down. Last thoughts, what’s the future for what’s the future here for elevated notes?

Megan Militello 21:41
Oh, man. We just talked for two hours about pivoting. Future for elevated notes. We are going to we’re going to move the needle right move the needle, we’re going to retail we’re going to have something new in this space. Yeah. And we’re going to create a lot more new flavors right

Curt Anderson 22:02
and so a lot more folks can get access to this so again, you want to check out elevated Overstock com. You guys sell direct right under website nationwide,

Megan Militello 22:09
right? We do free shipping over $75

Curt Anderson 22:12
Right ship to the lower 48. So alright, my last question for you again our you know, our admiration our thanks to you for veteran war hero, so on and so forth. One question that I always love you know, so Damon, if you’re out there, dude, I miss you. But we’re going to we’re going to do a LinkedIn live on Friday up here in Alaska. But you know, inspiration, okay, we love you. And I love talking about inspiration, Lacey, we’re talking about inspiration. So I love asking this question who today? Who who I know your dad’s a big influence on you talked about, like, you know, early in a service today, who’s your inspiration that gets you up and fires you up with your for your business on a regular basis? Who’s your inspiration?

Megan Militello 22:53
Oh, man, I think I first thought is, is the community. Like the people that we get to provide it to? Because I wouldn’t be a thing without them. Right? So people that believe in us, it’s the people that try it and eat it and buy it like that’s it your changes are life

Curt Anderson 23:13
changing, you know, and you think about, I know, follow you guys on Facebook and social you guys do hikes every so often right? And every month you bring the community together, and it’s just so inspiring, and you just see everybody going out. And so the nice thing is what you guys would what I love what you do is you you’re you’re connecting with your with your folks on a face to face basis, you’re getting out in the community, you know, Lacey’s down the lower 48 She’s drumming you know, she’s pounding the pavement doing her thing of, you know, connecting with folks. And so new brand my last question brand new entrepreneur out there you 10 years ago, there’s a there’s a there’s a Megan 10 years ago, what advice do you have for that that entrepreneur that wants to dip their toe into manufacturing or they see a dream they they look at you and see you as an inspiration, man, I want to do something like this. What advice would you tell yourself or tell that new entrepreneur? We’re going back 10 years ago, what would you share these things,

Megan Militello 24:09
it’s a marathon.

Curt Anderson 24:10
It’s a marathon. It’s not a sprint,

Megan Militello 24:13
not a sprint, it’s a marathon. It’s about the journey. It’s about the journey, not the destination, it’s about the journey drops. And, you know, we are we are so powerful and I think that when we started this we were in such a different place and we’re in such a we’ve just really elevated our lives like to be in this place now and the things that we have are so much harder to do but you train yourself to be so much more capable. Yeah, you know, it’s just a constant practice, constant practice. Don’t

Curt Anderson 24:48
give up don’t give up and you’ve been like this this wonderful facility. You know, thank you for the tour. We you know, you have automation, you’ve got great machinery, equipment, and just you know what you just think of you’ve grown As an entrepreneur, you know, even just in the past year, right, like we’re constantly constantly growing, learning and going and so on and so forth. So, guys, we’ll wrap up Meghan’s busy. We need to get her on with her day. And so I know what time and East Coast time you know what time it is. I’m gonna go down here and probably like an hour. That’s right. So, hey, thank you for anybody out there. We appreciate you. We appreciate Megan let’s give a big round of applause for Megan just out here crushing it, Lacey. We send our love to you, my friend. We’re gonna get you live next time. So we might be doing a LinkedIn live together with Daymond on Friday. And so boy, if you didn’t get enough of Megan, today we’re going to do we’re going to be at the Alaska MEP on Friday doing some more so guys go out there and boy What an honor privilege you know, salute your salute your veterans, our war heroes like Megan, Sue and thank the manufacturer, go out there and thank the manufacturer. And just boy if you have an entrepreneurial dream, surround yourself with either man, you know, MEPs are the Small Business Development Centers SBDCs there’s tons of resources to help you on your entrepreneurial journey. Go out and get some elevated oats especially these unique brands for the month so hey, well wish you guys a happy Wednesday go out and you know what, just be someone’s inspiration. That’s what we’d like to say. So parting words for everybody?

Megan Militello 26:15
Just yeah, live in elevated life. Right. Do granola that does life do?

Curt Anderson 26:21
I can talk. So alright, we’re gonna go have some more fun. We’ll see you guys soon. Thanks.