I grew up in the small town of Baker, MT (population < 2,000) as my parents came over as refugees from Cambodia in 1980. Looking back at my childhood and circumstances, some presume that an environment like this might lack significant opportunities because there aren’t high profile activities and there are limited programs and resources. However, what this type of environment arguably lacks in activities is made up for with character building experiences in response to growing up in a town defined by a solitary blinking red stop light. Ultimately, I had the privilege of being exposed to sports and this led to a collegiate track scholarship which brought me to attend Montana State University in Bozeman. As a first generation college student, my ambitions and notion of “success” were quite conventional i.e. Go to school, get a good job, make good money, buy a house, have a family. So, of course I was going to major in Pre-med and be a doctor and make all of these dreams come true. And naturally, this lasted as far as my freshman year when I got my first B+ of my life in an Honors Chemistry class and realized I had no passion for what medicine actually entails. Fast forward, I pivoted 2 weeks into my Sophomore year and switched to another stereotypical Major: Accounting. I transitioned my energy towards this major until international travel became an opportunity through a summer internship in Japan and studying abroad in Ireland. These things set me back academically based on the timing of required courses, so I pivoted once again to a major that I could still have enough credits to graduate in 4 years. Ultimately, I ended up with a BS in Business Management with a Minor in Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Pursuing this path of business is ultimately where I met my husband, Jonathan, who graduated with the same degrees as me.

However, as evidenced by the switching of majors, I was still uncertain of what I wanted to do in “the real world”. But academic success led to an opportunity for a high potential rotation program with The Boeing Company in Southern California. This was my start to the ladder climb of Corporate America. From here, I ended up with a lot of diverse business experience and settled mostly into a Financial Analyst role. I ended up transferring to Colorado as Jonathan became a Firefighter post-graduation and returned to his home state. Based on big city logistics, I then made the move after 4.5 years to work for the joint venture that was MillerCoors at their Golden, CO location. While I started off as a Financial Analyst, I soon moved over to Supply Chain Analytics where I solidified my love for spreadsheets, Excel and data. Within a few years, we had two children, and by societal standards, this should have felt good.

Go to school – Check

Get a good job – Check

Make good money – Check

Buy a house – Check

Have a family – Check

All boxes were checked, but the 24hr shifts on the Fire Department were taking a toll on Jonathan as he would come home to a handoff of a toddler and an infant as I went into the office for my Corporate duties. Suffice it to say, this is the part in our lives where we discovered what is meant when they say money can’t buy happiness. We were a double income family, but utterly exhausted and needed a change, and Bozeman never stopped calling to us. In March of 2016, we decided to make a 5 year plan to move back to MT, and I would start looking for jobs since my skillset was more transferrable. I pitched a remote work program at MillerCoors (remember, this was 2016, before remote working was really a thing) but met resistance and hesitation. So, I reached out to some old college professors who put me in touch and within 6 months, I had a job offer to move to Bozeman…but with a Bozeman salary instead of a Denver salary. Knowing that we would be going down to one income, I ultimately told MillerCoors I needed to go and my manager at the time shockingly said “I don’t want to lose you, so we’re gonna do this and ask for forgiveness later”. This was a huge risk based on not having official approval but we took the chance and moved to Bozeman in September of 2016, and I became one of few remote workers for a Fortune500 Company.

MillerCoors transitioned to MolsonCoors with time, and this always brings organizational change with reductions in force, etc. Based on the circumstances since Day 1 of my remote work, we had always known there was potential for my job to go away and the rumblings created a bit of anxiety. However, overall, life was seemingly pretty good. In September 2019, my husband and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary with a road trip to Canada, visiting an old MolsonCoors colleague turned friend who had moved to Whitefish, MT. Upon our return from this trip, we weren’t quite prepared for what happened next in October 2019. Changes at the leadership level suddenly decided that they were going to consolidate locations and do away with the Golden, CO location for corporate support roles. To stay with the company meant relocation to Milwaukee, WI or a severance package. As Bozeman had become home, we ended up choosing the latter, and my time with MolsonCoors would definitively end June 2020 to allow time for transitions. In the meantime, I pursued local opportunities for supply chain/analyst positions. To say it was terrifying is an understatement, but local opportunities for a job seemed promising as we approached Spring 2020. However, as life would have it, we, like the rest of the world, were not immune from COVID-19. Lockdown orders came days before I was scheduled to meet with the hiring manager for a local company. Looking back, there is a comedic irony of having lost my job due to the unwillingness to support remote positions just before the world shut down and remote work became mandated for almost the entire world due to the pandemic.

What comes next and how it came to be is still ineffable. As of June 30, 2020, I would officially be unemployed. However, the decision had been made and we were staring down the barrel of trying to find work in a COVID world with a quickly approaching critical date. It was during our road trip and visit with my friend in Sept 2019 in Whitefish that we had had our first Mountain Berry Bowl (an açaí smoothie bowl). I remember it being surpisingly good and literally said to my husband randomly in passing at the end of May 2020 “Do you think they franchise?”. From there, we filled out an online form and reached out to Jared & Lindley Lynch, the owners of the original Mountain Berry Bowls who live in Whitefish, MT. They started the business in 2015 and were in the early stages of expanding and franchising their brand. They even had intentions of expanding to Bozeman, but their original plans were thwarted due to COVID.  If you believe in fate, luck, or anything along those lines, something greater was definitely at play. Within just 30 days of our initial inquiry, we worked with them and ended up signing paperwork and opening/operating a Mountain Berry Bowls Food Truck in Bozeman, MT on June 30, 2020.

It is impossible to adequately describe the level of risk, trust and pure insanity of this life decision within the timeframe that it happened. After over 13 years of always taking the conservative route with a “good and secure” job, we literally took a leap of faith and jumped into a food truck. I logged off of my Corporate computer for the final time on the morning of June 30, 2020 and then started serving açaí bowls that evening! Even more so, based on the nature of the product and our operation, this is a seasonal business that only operates during the summer so the timing was impeccable. As of today, we have successfully operated as an independently owned franchise for 4 years and just this last year, we were also able to expand our business to have 2 units serving the Bozeman area. And in business, growth is good, but it always comes with growing pains as well!

But amidst those pains, it’s the personal growth that we have found to be our greatest success. One of the scariest things of leaving Corporate America was always because of the so called golden handcuffs, and leaving the notion that success and happiness tend to be defined by our society based on the amount of money you make and job title you have. However, at the risk of sounding cliche, this has been one of the best changes that has happened in our lives. Through berry bowls, we have connected with members of our community which was something that greatly lacked when I worked remotely. I am most reminded of a quote from Dolly Parton – Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life. Berry bowls has provided better balance for our family, and a new definition of success and happiness. We have found new life, in different and unconventional ways, and perhaps most shockingly of all, turns out I’ve actually come to use the degree that I got in college.

Alongside my husband, Jonathan, and our two children, Jaxon and Zoe, we are proud to call Bozeman, MT home. After graduating with degrees in business from Montana State University, our careers took us out of state for a few years. Jonathan became a lieutenant with the Aurora Fire Department in Colorado and I followed a path in Corporate America. But sometimes life and happiness demand bold action.

We returned to Bozeman in 2016 knowing that this was the best place for us to raise our family. Jonathan became an independent contractor with a small woodworking and handyman business and I continued on the path of Supply Chain analytics working remotely from home. However, over time in these roles, we knew we wanted to find a way to be more connected with our community. As life would have it, there came a need to pivot as my remote work situation would come to an end. Long story short, we took a giant leap and jumped into a Food Truck!

In the summer of 2020, we opened in Bozeman as a family-owned and independently operated seasonal business serving loaded açaí (pronounced ah-sigh-ee) bowls out of a food truck! Better known as a Mountain Berry Bowl, we were one of the beginning franchisee locations for this growing brand.

Our berry bowls are made with all-natural, unsweetened ingredients in a freshly blended açaí base. Then, the bowl is custom made to order with our signature granola and layered with delicious fresh fruit and superfood toppings, all within seconds before reaching the hands of our customers. All of our products are 100% gluten-free and dairy free, and we can also be vegan friendly. But more importantly, we aim to deliver a great customer experience by fueling people up for whatever adventure is on the docket while in beautiful Bozeman. We offer a fast, healthy food option that is perfect for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack or just a cool treat for any occasion!

It has been an incredible opportunity for us to work together, doing something that we believe in and can feel good about. Clean food and connecting with people is so important to us, and being a small business in our community has allowed us to connect these dots. We work incredibly hard to uphold the highest standards of service and quality in excruciating detail. We care about doing things right, which is why we invested and worked to convert our units in Bozeman to run completely off of solar and electric on a daily basis! This is a feature that is very unique to our Bozeman location and sets us apart as we try to lead by example. While finding an açaí smoothie bowl at any Mountain Berry Bowl should be the same no matter where you are, we name our bowls locally as it provides more meaning and connection as well. Our most popular bowl “The Hyalite”, is named after the local Hyalite Reservoir south of town, and is a great encompassment of what we stand for, as we strive to be The Hyalite (highlight) of your day! Most of all, we are so thankful for the great support we’ve found in this community and feel privileged to see and serve wonderful friends and fans of MBB!

When you work for someone else, it is easy to criticize and find judgement and dissatisfaction when you see or experience something you don’t like. However, as owners of our business, there will never be anyone else who cares more about your customers and their experience than you. There is no easy replacement for establishing the culture and setting team expectations and the best way to do this is in person! While we cannot be at our place of work all days and all times, being there A LOT means A LOT. I think it’s really important to not let yourself get so caught up in the behind the scenes and management tasks that it disconnects you from “the work” and you lose sight of what is happening on a daily basis.

The nature of our food truck business requires seasonal, and often young and untrained employees. A challenging side effect of this is that as we get better and have more experience, the performance gap widens. So while patience and training are critical, we have found it imperative to also set clear expectations and high standards as early as the interview process. It always seems simple, but having written, objective performance evaluations and using them is critical when managing your team. It does no good to have a piece of paper with performance standards that you never fill out. Though it is hard, time consuming and sometimes uncomfortable, it is also the best way to support employment actions required later on. Also, spend the time upfront during the hiring process and don’t let this become something that runs on canned autopilot forms. Learn not only from the good employees but also the ones who don’t work out, and constantly evolve your interview process and questions to try and gauge the right fit from very early on so you hopefully don’t have to deal with issues later. Managing becomes less of a burden when you build a true team culture.

We have operated our business for 4 seasons, and 3 out of those 4 seasons we have unfortunately had to make staffing cuts.  What we’ve learned early on is that if you choose to overlook someone who doesn’t quite fit, you run the risk of losing much more. We have earned the respect and trust of our employees and they have returned for more than one season because they become part of a team, part of our family, and not just a job. We believe this piece is critical in maintaining high morale. When your employees know that you are willing to do the hard and uncomfortable thing and that you are serious about the expectations, it keeps the bar high and gives them a sense of pride and goals to work towards.

Lastly, it’s very cliche, but recognize people when they do a good job and show your appreciation in their language. Admittedly, we don’t treat all of employees “equally”, because each one is unique with different skillsets/strengths/weaknesses and motivated by different things. However, we always strive to treat each one fairly, recognizing them in the ways that mean the most to them.