Who are you, and what do you do?
My name is Lyndsay Hupp and I am the owner and founder of Huppybar, a whole food energy bar company based in Flagstaff, AZ!
What has been one insight or lesson that has been most helpful in your career?
When I was in the early stages of Huppybar, multiple people said to me: if it was easy, everyone would do it. That set the precedent for how much I was going to have to put into the project.
What has been your favorite mistake? A mistake that in retrospect led to a great lesson and progress.
Maybe not a “mistake” as much as a mishap. When I first started making the bars for my river trips, I would bake them in the oven for a little bit. I thought it would help congeal the mix better. One day, just as I was going to put a tray in, the oven was broken. So I just rolled them out a bit firmer, cut them up and had them raw. Turned out they were even better that way! So from then on, I didn’t bake them, which saves an enormous amount of time and energy in the production process now.
Project forward ten years. How will your industry or field be fundamentally different then? What opportunities do you see?
Looking down ten years from now it’s almost impossible to predict the industry. The food industry is so finicky and people are always changing their minds on what the best new diet is. One thing I “hope” to see continue and enhanced, is the notion of whole food based, well-rounded, balanced diet with increasingly fewer processed and sugar-based products. In addition, I hope the notion that exercise and spending time in nature continue to “catch on” again. I believe the further we get from a connection with nature, the worse off we are mentally, physically, spiritually, and socially.
With that, Huppybar’s MO lines up with all of those progressions as a product and a philosophy.
What are some bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?
Ha, well recently I had a customer complain that they should be able to use multiple promo codes on their online orders. Which, from a business standpoint, is impossible; we would lose money for sure.
I’ve had folks suggest all kinds of flavors, sizes, dog treats, you name it. I definitely appreciate their insight and opinions and wish I had endless resources, time, and energy to make all their dreams come true.
In the last two years, what have you become better at saying no to?
In the last couple of years, I’ve had to learn to say no to people asking for donations more and more. I’d love to give everyone free Huppybars whenever they ask, but I just can’t. We have to draw the line. It’s hard but necessary.
What is the one book you recommend most often and why?
If people are living or spending time in the Southwest, I frequently suggest desert solitaire by Ed Abbey. It was one of the first books I read in my early days romping around Moab and the canyon lands world. I was fresh from Ohio and not even 20, his writing about connection to place and the environment in his raw “iconoclastic” tone struck so many chords and offered new perspectives to me that I can’t help but suggest it.
What advice would you give a smart and ambitious recent college graduate? What advice should they ignore?
Advice: No time like the present! Do you want to do things with your life? Start now. Ignore all the chatter about what you “should” and “should not” do in your life and when and how it happens (marriage, kids, etc). Make decisions that your gut and heart agree with.
What is your favorite quote, one you aim to live by?
“Don’t stop, never stop, live the Dream”. A quote a river/Grand Canyon buddy always says. It can be very driving and inspiring in a big picture sense and every day, “wake up and shred” kind of way (that’s another quote I hold dear, also from a river bud.)
Connect
People can reach me through the contact page on Huppybar.com. Feel free to reach out!