Eat Clean, Keep It Simple, Get Results

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with JJ Peterson, owner of Clean Simple Eats, located in South Jordan, UT, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Clean Simple Eats is all about elevating lives through food and fitness. Frustrated by bland and boring diets, we started experimenting with recipes, substituting more healthful ingredients, and before we knew it, Clean Simple Eats was born! But we didn't stop there; we created seasonal 7-week macro-balanced Meal Plans filled with hundreds of delicious, family-friendly recipes with just the right amount of protein, fat, and carbs to keep your body fueled and satisfied. We offer seasonal meal plans, grocery lists, food prep guides, and recipes to our community as we take on four annual "CSE Challenges" together. For seven weeks, we all eat the same food, participate in weekly challenges on social media and push each other to be better through our weekly fitness challenges. Our community members (just like us!) are busy Mom's, Dad's, parents, families, school-goers, teachers, athletes, working professionals, and anyone and everyone that is looking to elevate their lifestyle but aren't exactly sure how to do just that. We've taken all of the guesswork out of it for you!

Tell us about yourself

What started out as a side hustle and passion project quickly became so much more than we could have ever imagined! The credit needs to go to my wife, Erika. She is the founder, creative genius, culinary wizard, and absolute driver of this business. Together, along with our incredible team at CSE, we make running Clean Simple Eats and raising our four amazing kiddos work. Erika earned her certificate in nutrition and wellness coaching and is an avid fitness junkie, recipe creator, food photographer, and healthy living advocate. JJ has a Bachelor of Science degree in exercise and sports science and is a certified personal trainer. He also has extensive training in cellular biology, which has aided in the production of their own "Clean Simple Eats" line of supplements. Our passions for food and fitness are perfectly aligned, and we love the opportunity we have of working together! We wouldn't have it any other way.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Erika and I both started our side hustles together. She was writing meal plans for a handful of clients, and I was doing personal training for a small group out of our garage gym. The ultimate mission of Clean Simple Eats is, and always has been, to impact as many lives for good as possible. We knew early on that if we were going to impact lives... it couldn't all be done in person. So, we took the business online. We leveraged social media outlets like Instagram and Facebook to expand our reach and grow our community. We have now impacted hundreds of thousands of lives through our social media reach, Erika's recipes, any one of the 150+ products we've developed, and, of course, our CSE Challenges. We are now in the middle of our 27th challenge! We are beyond grateful for the stories of triumph and change we have heard over the past six years. The CSE Community is everything to us!

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

The hardest thing about being a business owner is the fact that you are your own worst critic. You also care more about the business than anyone else. That's a tough one to translate or try and put into words. When your business is also your passion in life... you feel that on the deepest levels. You want everything to run perfectly so that the community that you love so much has the most positive experience with the brand. The truth is, not everything runs perfectly. Ever. There are constant bumps in the road and dumpster fires to put out. But you keep coming back to it every day because you love the brand, the people, and the hustle. I would even say that the biggest rewards in business come after some of the biggest failures.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

After spending more than a decade side hustling and eventually running a successful business, I would offer the following three tips if you're looking to start, run and grow a business.

Follow your passions. What do you think about all day long? Where do your convictions lie? What could you "sell" or talk about to others without hesitation? Your success just might be in line with where your passions are.
Fill a need. Clean Simple Eats wasn't even close to the first company out there to talk about clean eating, macros, or protein powder. But we are pretty dang good about making it look good! Clean eating has always had a bad rap. It's bland; it's boring, it's not sustainable, my family won't eat the food, etc. Erika found a hole in the healthy living space. Through her unreal recipes and amazing food photography skills (she literally takes every picture of her food in our books!), Erika has flipped the clean eating scene on its head. She's made healthy food... sexy...popular.
Lean into your customer. We have our CSE Community members to thank for a lot of the products and product lines that we now sell. If you listen, your customers will help you guide the ship. Listen to what they want, their frustrations, and their victories. Listen to the chatter on social media, DM's, and in support emails. Lean into what they are telling you. This data is invaluable to your business. The more you know about your customer, the more likely they will feel that from you and, in turn, will go and tell their friends.

Running Clean Simple Eats side-by-side with my wife has been a great adventure, but the very best part is watching others take control of their narrative, reach goals, find inner confidence and transform their lives. That is the reason why we do what we do!

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://cleansimpleeats.com/

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/cleansimpleeats/
https://www.instagram.com/cleansimplefit

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.