Meet Kristyn Carriere

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kristyn Carriere. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kristyn, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

Resilience is a built trait that comes from discipline, hope and gratefulness. I come from a background of relative privilege – being born a white, Canadian, female; however, I have still faced my line of personal challenges in life. I can honestly say that partaking in competitive sports as a child and youth, set me up for success later in life. Competitive figure skating taught me discipline. It allowed me to feel inspired and feel hope so I could create and chase my dreams. I was taught to put the work in to try and achieve those dreams, and this mechanism is something I continue to carry with me.

I’ve moved to new countries, been divorced, lost a partner in a tragic accident, started a business, and born a child with Down Syndrome – all hurdles in their own rite – and yet, having a pity party and not finding the silver lining or new opportunity has just never been in my repertoire. Instead, I look to what was and try to understand what life lesson I am meant to be learning. I take that forward and move onwards. I’m always scanning for an experience that will challenge me to grow, because there is such a wonderful feeling when you hit those milestones of progress that far outway the hurt you might feel when obstacles come your way.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am a chocolate scientist and entrepreneur. What a title! I’m technically a food scientist who has had the majority of her career in the global chocolate industry, creating recipes and products for some of the worlds best loved brands. I took my learning from these industry leaders, and created my own company, 7 Summits Snacks, when life opened a door for me after the tragic loss of my partner on his descent from summiting Mount Everest. I was gifted an epiphany about the product details and brand name, after my sister planted the seed of the idea in my head a few months earlier. We wanted to change the game of sports nutrition, creating actually delicious chocolate energy bars that you would look forward to eating on your next adventure. You see, we are both endurance “athletes” doing triathlons and marathons, as we just could NOT find products that sat well with us while we were training and competing in our events.

Our brand, 7 Summits Snacks is designed to inspire folks to be active and outdoors, and ‘fuel their next adventure’ with our ethically sourced, natural chocolate energy bars. I lead the way with 7 Summits Snacks seeking out sales partnerships and creating the recipes based on my knowledge or nutrition, food science, and endurance sports. We are here to change the game of sports nutrition – just life Clif did to Power Bar all those years ago, 7 Summits Snacks is embarking on the expedition of making actually delicious sports nutrition. We are currently preparing for our US launch, as we are growing in awareness in Canada and truly believe that the US market will be a smart step in becoming a leader in the sports nutrition and energy bar markets.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Resilience
Blind-faith
Area-expertise
These are qualities that have helped me to develop my business. Resilience is SOOO important and seemingly underdeveloped in up-and-coming generations. You have to hear and feel the hard knocks, and moreso, get past them if you want to grow as a person, and grow your business. There are nos. There are challenges. Feeling defeated will stifle your progress, if progress and growth is what you are looking for in your life.

Blind faith is required to be an entrepreneur – there are so many unknowns and uncontrollables that will come your way… you need to either have complete blind faith that your idea is going to be the best or deep knowledge that what you’re on to is a smart way to direct your efforts.

Area expertise – as an entrepreneur, it is so important to have at least one area of expertise in building a business. For me, that was making truly delicious products, which means that I don’t need to compromise on taste, nor do I need to rely on a 3rd party telling me how and what is possible in creating a truly delicious product. If you’re not a product person, but you’re strong in marketing or business development or sales, these are also extremely essential skill sets that will help you to grow a business.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

We are looking for support and collaboration in the realms of PR and marketing. As I mentioned before, marketing skills are essential for growing your business, and this is an area of which I am learning on the fly and is not a natural strength. As a small, but growing business, we are looking for that communication tipping point that will really grab the attention of our buyers and consumers. Our brand has a powerful story. Our products are delicious and effective. Someone who can help us to tell our brand and product stories in effective ways would be an asset to our team – of course, in the realm of a small, budding business budget -ha! We are looking for people with connections, who can tell a compelling story, and who are understanding of where we are in our business journey. They can connect with us on LinkedIn or via email to chat and see how we can work together.

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