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Kyle Maggard, Founder & CEO of Over Easy.
Kyle started OverEasy in the fall of 2018, reflecting on his time as a former college athlete at Westpoint and as an Army Captain where living a healthy and active life wasn’t just his passion, but his job. As a busy father, husband, and entrepreneur, he came to recognize that staying fit and eating healthy were harder than they sounded in his busy lifestyle, and without a convenient and nutritious option to start his day, set out to create one for himself.
Over East started with a year of Kyle iterating and testing different recipes while still at Harvard Business School, until he found the right combination for the company's first product — a delicious, high protein, high fiber oat-based breakfast bar, believing that a good breakfast sets the tone for the rest of the day.
Since moving back to Cleveland, Kyle raised $5 million in funding for the business and has grown Over Easy’s distribution across national retailers like Wegmans, Giant Foods, and others including Whole Foods, who was Kyle’s first partner.
While aiming to cater to all consumers, Over Easy found an early niche among both college and professional athletes as collegiate athletic programs were among the brand’s first customers in January 2020 and the bars are now supplied to over 20 NFL locker rooms and a few dozen MLB, NBA, WNBA, and NHL locker rooms.
Kyle exudes passion for the business and for Cleveland — While Over Easy started with a breakfast bar, it is more than apparent after talking with Kyle, even only for a few minutes, that his ambitions to fix a broken food system, starting with breakfast, are far greater and his desire to help build up the Cleveland entrepreneurial community is inspiring. It was a ton of fun to learn from Kyle how he thinks about branding, leadership, quality, excellence, motivations, enjoying the process, his vision for the future, challenges faced along the way, and lots more!
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Past guests include Justin Bibb (Mayor of Cleveland), Pat Conway (Great Lakes Brewing), Steve Potash (OverDrive), Umberto P. Fedeli (The Fedeli Group), Lila Mills (Signal Cleveland), Stewart Kohl (The Riverside Company), Mitch Kroll (Findaway — Acquired by Spotify), and many more.
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Past guests include Justin Bibb (Mayor of Cleveland), Pat Conway (Great Lakes Brewing), Steve Potash (OverDrive), Umberto P. Fedeli (The Fedeli Group), Lila Mills (Signal Cleveland), Stewart Kohl (The Riverside Company), Mitch Kroll (Findaway — Acquired by Spotify), and many more.
Connect with Jeffrey Stern on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/
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Creators & Guests
What is Lay of The Land?
Telling the stories of entrepreneurship and builders in Cleveland and throughout Northeast Ohio. Every Thursday, Jeffrey Stern helps map the Cleveland/NEO business ecosystem by talking to founders, investors, and community builders to learn what makes Cleveland/NEO special.
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Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:00:00]:
And so I think just having that mentality that it is supposed to be hard. That is part of the ride that I'm on. Yes. Right? And I I like to use The metaphor of of a roller coaster where it would be really boring if it just went flat. But that's really the fallback for me.
Jeffrey Stern [00:00:20]:
Which is why it's important to, you know, enjoy
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:00:23]:
Yes. The journey. It is. It is.
Jeffrey Stern [00:00:25]:
Let's discover what people are building in the Greater Cleveland community. We are telling the stories of Northeast Ohio's entrepreneurs, builders, and those supporting them. Welcome to The Lay of the Land podcast Stern we are are exploring what people are building in Cleveland and throughout Northeast Ohio. I am your host, Jeffrey Stern, and today, I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with Kyle Maggard, the founder and CEO of Overeasy. Kyle started Overeasy in the fall of two 1018, reflecting on his time as a former college athlete at West Point and as an army captain, where living a healthy and active life was not just his passion, but his job. As a busy father, husband, and entrepreneur, though, he came to recognize that staying fit and eating healthy were harder than they sound, especially within his busy lifestyle. And without a convenient and nutritious option to start his day, set out to create one for himself. Overeasy started with a year of Kyle iterating and testing different recipes while still at Harvard Business School, until he found the right combination for the company's first product, a delicious high protein, high fiber, oat based breakfast bar, believing that a good breakfast sets the tone for the rest of the day.
Jeffrey Stern [00:01:43]:
Since moving back to Cleveland, Kyle has raised $5,000,000 in funding for the business Land has grown over Easy's distribution across national retailers like Wegmans, Giant Foods, and others including Whole Foods, who was Kyle's first partner. While aiming to cater to all consumers, Overeasy actually found an early niche among both college and professional athletes as collegiate athletic programs were among the brand's first customers back in January of 2020. And the bars are now supplied to over 20 NFL locker rooms Land a few dozen MLB, NBA, WNBA, and NHL locker rooms. Kyle exudes passion for the business and for Cleveland. While OverEasy is starting with a breakfast bar, it is more than apparent after talking with Kyle, even if only for a few minutes, that his ambitions to fix a broken food system starting with breakfast are far greater, and his desire to help build up the Cleveland entrepreneurial community is inspiring. It was a ton of fun to learn from Kyle how he thinks about branding, leadership, quality, and excellence, his own motivations, enjoying the process along the way, his vision for the future Land challenges he's faced along the way, and a whole lot more. So please enjoy my conversation with Kyle Maggard after a brief message from our sponsor. Lay of the The is brought to you by John Carroll University's Boulder College of Business, widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the region.
Jeffrey Stern [00:03:08]:
As we've heard time and time again from entrepreneurs here on Lay of the Land, many of whom are proud alumni of John Carroll University, success in this ever changing world of business requires a dynamic and innovative mindset, deep understanding of emerging technologies and systems, strong ethics, leadership prowess, acute business acumen, all qualities nurtured through the hybrid, and 1 year flexible, the Boulder College of Business provides flexible time lines Land various class structures for each MBA track, including online, in person, hybrid, and asynchronous, all to offer the most effective options for you, including the ability to participate in an elective international study tour of unparalleled opportunities to expand your global business knowledge by networking with local companies overseas and experiencing a new culture. The career impact of a BOLOR MBA is formative and will help prepare you for this future of business and get more out of your career. To learn more about John Carroll University's Bohler MBA programs, please go to business.jcu.edu. The Bowler College of Business is fully accredited by AACSB International, the highest accreditation a college of business can have. So I'm really excited for this one, and I I wanted to start with a fun topic off the bat because when you and I first met, originally introduced by Mitch Kroll, and I I wrote this down so I I got the number right. You shared his story back on episode 128, and we can put a pin in that and and come back to it because it's amazing story. But you had mentioned something that stuck with me that I think just stems from shared desire to help build up the community here. And it was around this idea that if there was any drawback to the, you know, renowned Cleveland Stern kindness, humility, modesty, it might be that it doesn't lend itself well to self promotion and, you know, amplifying the stories of people who are building great things here and celebrating that ambition behind it.
Jeffrey Stern [00:05:21]:
And I just appreciate that sentiment because in a lot of ways, I feel like that's what I've been trying to do with the Northeast. And and, simultaneously, it's become this, you know, beacon for, I think, people who are kindred spirits in that way and, you know, yourself, Mitch, but but really so many others who have kinda, I think, rallied around that idea that there is this opportunity to just amplify a lot of the work that that people are doing.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:05:46]:
Yeah. Well, I appreciate that you're doing that. I'll say that, you know, we're people from Cleveland, Clevelanders are are very proud to be from The city. Right? And the juxtaposition there is that people are proud to be from the city. People are proud of what the city is accomplishing and and and growing. We're often quiet about what we're doing to help it. Right? And so I think that's just the nature of entrepreneurship. Nature of building anything is that you have to be vocal.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:06:16]:
Right? And so we like to think it's a virtue. The the humility, I think, is just part of the the Midwest, But we certainly need to tell our story, and we have something great happening here. And so I'm really thankful, Jeffrey, that you're kinda leading the charge here and helping us tell our stories.
Jeffrey Stern [00:06:33]:
I appreciate The, and I appreciate, you know, you coming on to to share your story.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:06:37]:
Of course. Thank you for
Jeffrey Stern [00:06:38]:
having me. And it it comes full circle because it it stems from, I think, and, you know, you'll take us through it, but not to to lead the witness. But, you know, you interning with Mitch Kroll back in the day. And it brought it full circle for me because I think it just gets to the importance of storytelling kinda writ large, which is that it might be the impetus and inspiration for someone down the line, a boy or a girl, who is inclined maybe to want to build something. They have to see that it is possible, Land, specifically, that it's possible to do it here. Oh, absolutely.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:07:14]:
I think so I mean, I just look at the impact that something like Shark Tank has had Oh, yeah. Where you look at you see these companies, you see these people who have started from, you know, their idea from nothing. And now we're talking to Mark Cuban and pitching their idea on national TV. Like, that is exciting, and that is encouraging for everyone who watches The show. Right? Like, it's just inspirational. And knowing that it's happening in your hometown and that you can be part of it and that you can actually be an entrepreneur is really inspiring, really encouraging as well. And so, yes, I say, that experience, that that job with Mitch was at the time, it was a job for me. Right? Like, I didn't really fully grasp.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:08:02]:
I was only 18. Yeah. Yeah. Didn't fully grasp, and we can obviously get into the details of it, what they were building. I knew that they were building something exciting. I knew what the company was, obviously. But, you know, it takes 20 years later when you look back Land you're like, wow. That was something really impactful.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:08:16]:
Like, that was such a cool experience even though I was such a small part of it. And it took me becoming an entrepreneur to really appreciate, wow, those guys were building something special, and I had The small opportunity to be part of it.
Jeffrey Stern [00:08:29]:
Yeah. So we'll we'll get The. But maybe let's just start with you know, tell us a little bit about yourself and who you are and your upbringing and, you know, how you became to be interested in in trying to build something.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:08:41]:
Yes. So I grew up here in Cleveland. I grew up in Sagamore Hills. A defining part of my life was I played ice hockey. So I'd actually come through the city all the time and and play across town and travel a lot for ice hockey. And then I had the opportunity to I went to Gilmore Academy. They have 2 hockey rinks, obviously. Great school, but, you know, there's a big draw for me.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:09:06]:
It's, to continue to play at a high level. And I was fortunate enough to be recruited to West Point, so I went to West Point for my undergrad degree, like, all all West Point are served in in the army for 6 years afterwards, and then I left the military in 2018, started business school, and that's when I started over easy. Moved back here. I went to business school in Boston, and my wife and I, who I met in high school, and we're high school sweethearts, we moved back here in in 2020.
Jeffrey Stern [00:09:36]:
Amazing. Yeah. What have you taken with you from your military experience?
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:09:41]:
A lot, I'll say. Yeah. Right? So I'll say the single most impactful thing for me from my time in the military. Yeah. And everyone talks about the discipline, of course, like, you know, discipline, leadership, like having real world experience, being in uncertain, challenging situations. Certainly, that is not unique to my just my story, and that is something, of course, that has impacted me. The most important thing that I took from my time in the military was the privilege of wearing the American flag on my shoulder. And just this sense of service, sense that I was part of something larger than myself, and just the feeling that I could never do something where I didn't feel that way.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:10:26]:
Right? That that it was just waking up every day knowing that I am contributing, knowing that I am doing something in service to my country, that I'm working with amazing men and women from every background, every corner of America. And now as an entrepreneur, obviously, much different than, you know, the military, but still that desire The desire to be like, I have to contribute. I have to contribute. So that level of service, you know, that, the privilege of working alongside so many wonderful people that are contributing to the country and defending it and standing up and going to work every day just because they love their country and because they love their fellow American. Finding a way to do that after the military was, like, my single goal when I left the military and became an entrepreneur. And with, you
Jeffrey Stern [00:11:24]:
know, of the world being your oyster at that point in time, how did you focus and hone in on entrepreneurship as the thing that you felt compelled to do?
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:11:36]:
So I started well, I was an engineer in the army, and I was an engineer in school. I became an engineer because I love to solve problems. Engineer solve problems. Entreprenuership solve problems. And, you know, my thought was I had just been part of one of the largest organizations in the world, and I wanted to see what I could do on my own, right, to build something from nothing while solving a problem that our country faces. I wasn't quite sure what problem I wanted to solve when I left the military, but I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. Yep. I applied and was accepted to Harvard Business School, and so I knew that I would have 2 years of business school.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:12:15]:
I ended up dropping out after my 1st year to go all in on over easy, but, we Lay talk about that in a second. But I I kinda knew that I would have 2 years to figure out what problem that I wanted to solve. It just ended up happening a lot faster than I anticipated.
Jeffrey Stern [00:12:31]:
So That's good. I mean, that's a good thing, ultimately.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:12:33]:
It was. Yes. Yes. I like to think so.
Jeffrey Stern [00:12:35]:
If if the goal was to figure out what the problem to solve was. Right.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:12:39]:
Yeah. So that was my mentality. My mentality was like, okay. Entrepreneurs solve problems. I wanna solve problems that our country faces. Our country has a lot of them. I love this country. I wanna contribute to making it the shining city in the hill.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:12:52]:
And so that was the really the impetus for becoming an entrepreneur. And, of course, at that point, when I was, you know, getting more invested in the business world and understanding what role I wanted to play in the business world, I would look back on I would say Shark Tank was obviously, you know, exciting at the time of, like, wow. These people are really have a lot of courage to start something from nothing. They're betting on themselves, and they have a vision of the world that they wanna live in, and they're willing to do anything The everything they can and risk it all to make that a reality. I was like, I'd like to think of myself that way as well. So, I
Jeffrey Stern [00:13:27]:
mean, ultimately, you arrive at some semblance of the problem is a a broken food system of sorts. How did you navigate the whole maze of ideas? And Yeah. How did you approach what problems were interesting for you to even pursue in the 1st place?
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:13:41]:
Well, the challenge for me was a lot of problems are very interesting to me, but I also had to be realistic about which problem am I qualified to solve. And I'll say that was a big moment of insecurity for me at the time, where I was 30 when I left the military. Had a lot of life experience, not a lot of industry experience. Right? Had read a lot, but not done a lot in various industries, of course. So I would just go through problems that I thought were significant, that I was passionate about, that I was facing myself because I certainly wanted, you know, to be solving a problem for myself Land that I felt qualified in order to work on. And I had the opportunity to do a pre MBA internship at Goldman Sachs before starting business school. Yep. And I was in their investment banking division focused on consumer packaged goods, specifically food companies.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:14:40]:
So I don't know if I'm allowed to say what companies that I was The thought. It was 5 years ago. So, just, you know, quite a few large companies that everyone knows. And I was really interested in the health crisis America faces where despite any advancement in technology, medicine, any sense of progress as a country, America continues to get a little fatter and sicker every year. Yep. Right? And I take a lot of pride in being an American. I take a lot of you know, there's a level of ownership. Like, this is my country.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:15:15]:
I wanna serve it. I care about the people in this country, and I think that's a shame. And to me, it is, like, very obvious why that's the case. Like, we are what we eat. And I always wondered why you could go into a gas station and walk out without being able to find anything that was healthy. And I've always believed that those who have the privilege of feeding Americans have an a responsibility to give them healthy options. You know? And I grew up eating like everybody else, hot dogs, drinking Mountain Dew, and, you know, eating Ho Hos and Pop Tarts, all the junk food that is contributing to this problem. And so I was always interested in food.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:16:00]:
Food's always been a big part of my life. I love to cook too. But I started talking to people at the Harvard Business School Entreprenuership club about various ideas. Right? And so I started weighing different industries, different problems that I feel like I could apply myself towards. And this theme of food just kept reemerging, and I I started diving deeper into it. And I, you know, recognized, Lay, we have a we have a broken food system. Where can I start? Yep. And I started talking to some people about just a breakfast category, just, you know, creative brainstorming, right, around ideas with other people who wanted to start companies as well.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:16:41]:
And that it's really difficult to live a healthy life if you don't get off on a healthy foot every day. You know? It's hard to eat a doughnut in the morning and then say you're gonna eat salads the rest of the day, right, and be a healthy person. It just doesn't work out like that. That's not how momentum works. And that was a big principle from the military too. It's like, you wanna have
Jeffrey Stern [00:16:57]:
a healthy day, like, start your day on the
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:16:59]:
right foot. So I started talking specifically about about The breakfast category, exploring the breakfast category Land realized that that is the main offender in what I think is a broken food system. It is the only meal The day that's controlled by companies. There's no central lunch company, no central dinner company. But Kellogg's, Post, General Mills, and Quaker have owned breakfast for a 100 years. Yep. And so when you walk down any grocery store aisle or any breakfast aisle in any grocery store across America, you know, you're looking at pop tarts and toaster strudels and mini muffins and little Debbie donut bites. Right? And and cereal with toys in them to appeal The kids also with dehydrated marshmallows and dyes.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:17:42]:
Right? So it's like no wonder that America is getting fatter and sicker. And so what I wanted to give people is the chance to live a healthier life by starting their day on the right foot with something that is portable because breakfast is eaten on the go for most of of, something that is delicious because if it doesn't taste as good as a doughnut, people are still gonna be eating doughnuts. Right? And then, of course, it has to be healthy. Yep. And so of put all that together over the course of couple months and decided that I was gonna start this company to build the next Kellogg's. These companies are not gonna change from the inside. They need you know, there needs to be innovation from the outside, really pushing the needle. And that my 1st product was going to be a healthy, convenient, delicious breakfast bar, kind of like a bowl of oatmeal in a bar form.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:18:34]:
Oatmeal is a great way to start your day. You know, it's just sometimes a pain in the ass to make it a movie. So I wanted to just give people the ease, hence the name O'Reezy, of having a a bowl of oatmeal whenever they wanted it and wherever they needed it. So that's kind of the the long winded story of of how I got into the breakfast category and why we launched with the bar.
Jeffrey Stern [00:18:54]:
Yeah. Amazing. I'm curious from The. How do you create the bar? You know, what what is the actual set of things that you have to do at that point to find the, you know, set of ingredients to hit the set of criteria that that you just laid out Northeast is good enough.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:19:12]:
It was a grueling process. Right? I'll say that was like I mean, I've had some tough days in the army and tough days as an athlete, but I've never had a period of 15 months where I was just working so hard every single day to make these recipes. So what I did is I knew that I wanted to give some people something that was clean, simple. I wanted to give them the ease of having a healthy start, but I wanted the recipes to be based off something that someone could make themselves, right, that you would make in your own kitchen if you had the time. And so I went to Pinterest and food blogs for inspiration. I had some nutritionists who I was had hired as consultants, chefs, and food scientists to make sure that I had the right parameters Land that I had the boundaries of, you know, what would make a product, shelf stable with water activity and with traps to avoid. But The inspiration came from homemade recipes Internet The people were already feeding their own families. Right? Or they were making themselves before they would go work out in The morning or go on a run.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:20:27]:
And so my the whole idea was I'm gonna take this inspiration, and I'm gonna find a way to make it shelf stable, but I'm not gonna sacrifice any of the ingredients. Right? So that was really the big challenge. I would find recipes that I thought were inspiring and interesting. I would walk to the local Whole Foods. Yeah. I was living in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the time. I'd walk to the local Whole Foods. I'd get all the bulk ingredients, walk home, and I would cook.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:20:56]:
Right? And I did this every single day for about 12 months, and I was going to business school full time Yeah. The time as well. So what I would do is I would go to school at 7, come home at 3. My oldest son, who's now 5, was 5 months old when I started over easy. I don't recommend this too. Right? And I'd Stern hanging out with my wife, and we'd play with our son. And then he'd go to bed at 7 o'clock, and then I would start cooking. And every single day, I would cook at least once a week.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:21:31]:
I wouldn't stop cooking until it was time to get in the shower to get back to class at 7 AM the next day. Right? It was just a grueling process. West Point prepped me very well for those long nights, but it was a very tough, very tough process. And so all in all, I went through 254 different recipes. Wow. Thousands of iterations, which I still have tracked them all now. It just says memento. But, yeah, it was extremely difficult.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:21:59]:
And then I finally that is just to get to okay. Here, I have a starting point. I have something that I'm willing, you know, to go to a contract manufacturer with and, like, find a way how do I go from making 12 of these to 1200 to 12,000. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was a process. You know, throughout that year, I would send my friends some of the bars.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:22:20]:
I'd bring them into school, get feedback from people. My wife was my main taste tester. She was also about the murder maybe because we had we had peanuts. You know, we're in a small apartment in Cambridge, walk up apartment, and we got a new Lay. And there's just peanut butter all over the place. Like, it just looked like a kitchen. Right? Like a commercial kitchen. It was a disaster.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:22:43]:
Yeah. She was a really good sport, but that's that's kinda how it
Jeffrey Stern [00:22:46]:
created the rest
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:22:47]:
of the season.
Jeffrey Stern [00:22:47]:
Is it about the, you know, 200 The where you're like, okay. We got it. You know? This is it.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:22:57]:
I think one of my advisers is just like, hey. It's now remember. Right? Like, you have to start at some point. And, you know, I one of the things that I I pride myself on Land that is certainly a core value of Over Easy is this commitment to excellence. Right? That, like, you know what excellence is, and until you're there, you don't stop. But I think that's obviously something that was instilled in me from the time I was an athlete, certainly from my parents, and definitely in the military. But I always thought, hey. I can make this a little bit better.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:23:28]:
Early on, it's like the bar wouldn't even stick together. Right? So it was just just a disaster early on. But, you know, slowly, as I was getting closer to it, it's like, well, I can make it a little bit better. I can reduce sugar a little bit more. I can add a little bit more protein. Like, the taste has gotta pop a little bit. But finally, I just got to the point where I set a deadline that's, like, no matter what, I'm gonna give myself 2 more weeks. I have 2 more weeks to get these recipes going, and then I'm gonna go with it.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:23:54]:
I think that was a big learning point for me is there is a fine balance between a commitment to excellence early on and just starting. Because where we are now and the recipes we have now, like, we have certainly changed them for the better from where they were before. Entrepreneurs, myself included, are susceptible to paralysis by analysis, whereas, like, The, a little bit more, a little bit better. Yeah. Yep. Not ready yet. Not ready
Jeffrey Stern [00:24:22]:
yet. Resinience.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:24:22]:
Land finally, you just gotta, yeah, you just gotta jump. So So I would
Jeffrey Stern [00:24:26]:
imagine of, you know, all the suppliers you could possibly achieve to be your 1st The you know, if you were to make a list of The. Whole Foods is probably at the top of that list.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:24:37]:
Yes.
Jeffrey Stern [00:24:38]:
Tell us that story. How how does that actually happen?
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:24:40]:
So we launched into Whole Foods in January of 2021, but I sold my 1st bar in January of 2020. Right? So there's this whole year where I had this product for the 1st time in packaging, and I had spent so much time focusing on how do I make this bar that I hadn't, and I it's painful to say this out loud, hadn't done enough planning on what my go to market strategy was. Like, hey. How am I gonna sell these? Right? Right? I kinda had this foolish mentality of, you know, build it, and they will come. And so this is January of 2020. I don't know how to get into retailers yet. I'm still me by myself. I figured, hey.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:25:26]:
I need to hire somebody who knows what they're doing here. So I hired Lily, our chief of staff. She's still our chief of staff today. She worked at KIND bar for 4 years before joining me at Overeasy. And so she was able to, you know, bring some structure, add some industry knowledge to Overeasy and and just some connections too. Like, hey. Let's talk to this person. You know, they they helped us in sales there.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:25:50]:
But in the meantime, we focused on college athletic departments because in thinking about who eats bars, who's gonna eat this bar, and while we are trying to get into retailers, I I knew being a former college athlete, so is Lily, that college athletes eat a lot of snacks. They get most of them for free. Right? And so this could be a great channel for us to be focusing on. And so what I did is I called up every division The athletic department across the country, and I told them about these bars that I made. I told them about my story, and I just asked if I could send them samples. And a lot of them said yes. Yes. Send The samples.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:26:27]:
We always are looking for new products. So probably sent out 60 boxes to, you know, various programs across the country, and we started getting a lot of really good feedback. You know, the athletes love the bars. Yeah. The nutritionist loved what went into the bars and how clean label they were. So we're like, wow. We're really onto something here. And then COVID hit.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:26:50]:
And all these athletic departments, you know, started shutting down, but we were still able to get The few that had stayed open of the athletes had stayed there at school and were continuing to train. And so we started building up some momentum there. The collegiate athletic world evolved into the professional sports world. So we started getting the NFL locker rooms Land MLB locker rooms, NBA Land NHL locker rooms. Because nutritionists often work together or they work for, you know, the college and then the the professional team as well. And so we started really building momentum there, but we still did not have a plan for how we were gonna get into retail. And so I did what now I recommend every new entrepreneur does. It's find somebody who's done
Jeffrey Stern [00:27:34]:
it before.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:27:35]:
And so a friend of a friend, his father had worked for a a large, snack company and had experience running retail sales for, know, several different food companies for the past 30 years.
Jeffrey Stern [00:27:47]:
Yep.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:27:48]:
And so he came on as a consultant. And day 1, he set up our sales system and sales infrastructure to where we're able to work with a broker. We're able to send our product to Whole Foods for a review. And Whole Foods is such a great partner because they pride themselves on being on the forefront of innovation. Right? They understand that companies are small, and they're willing to take a chance. And that's why customers love them. Right? They they know that they're gonna be getting something that's new. Yep.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:28:19]:
Right? And the world of food and beverage is is moving towards cleaner ingredients, more wholesome, right, less processed. And Whole Foods is certainly on the forefront of that. And then, you know, obviously, with Whole Foods, it's a it's a halo. Whole Foods accepts you. Right? You start getting the attraction of of other retailers, and then it also becomes just a stamp of approval on the resume of the business that, okay, this is becoming a legit business or this has a chance because Whole Foods took them in. So we started in 2 regions of Whole Foods. There's 11. They're they've just changed it now.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:28:52]:
I think there's maybe 6 now, 6 or 7. But we started 2 regions of Whole Foods. At this point, I was still in Boston. I was just about to move back, when they gave us the acceptance, and so we started in the Northeast and the mid Atlantic regions
Jeffrey Stern [00:29:06]:
of Whole Foods. That's amazing. Yeah. Lay of the Land is brought to you by Impact Architects and by 90. As we share the stories of entrepreneurs building incredible organizations in Cleveland and throughout Northeast Ohio, Impact Architects has helped hundreds of those leaders, many of whom we have heard from as guests on this very podcast realize their own visions and build these great organizations. I believe in Impact Architects and the people behind it so much that I have actually joined them personally in their mission to help leaders gain focus, align together, and thrive by doing what they love. If you 2 are trying to build great, Impact Architects is offering to sit down with you for a free consultation or provide a free trial through 90, the software platform that helps teams build great companies. If you're interested in learning more about partnering with Impact Architects or by leveraging 90 to power your own business, please go to I a.layoftheland.fm.
Jeffrey Stern [00:30:01]:
The link will also be in our show notes. Land maybe to, you know, jump the gun a bit, but just you know, where where is Overeasy today? If you can
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:30:13]:
share any picture
Jeffrey Stern [00:30:14]:
of that.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:30:14]:
We're now national with Whole Foods. They have 531 Stern. We're every Whole Foods across the country. We're also in every Sprouts across the country. We're here at Heinen's. We're in Wegmans. We're in 3,000 doors total. And, hopefully, within the next month, I'll have some more updates to share The, we continue to expand our in across the country, places like Google, Meta, where employees are able to get our bars for free.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:30:53]:
Right? It is like a perfect snack to have when when you're having a cup of coffee or when you're at, you know, the 2 PM slump. And so the key to winning in the bar business is obviously not getting too far ahead of yourself Land that, you know, you're, overly distributed. But at some point, you have to be readily available for somebody when they're looking to buy a snack Yep. Or else they will buy the competition. And we're an impulse buy. Right? People are buying bars when they're already hungry. And so if we're not in the places in which, you know, they're interacting or they're shopping or, you know, they're grabbing gas or, you know, grabbing a cup of coffee, then we see those all as opportunities and gaps that we need to fill. Yeah.
Jeffrey Stern [00:31:38]:
I mean, I'd love to get your you know, pulling on that thread, just higher level of perspective on on brand and differentiation. You know, you have these Goliaths from, you know, Kellogg, and you have this whole proliferation on the other side of all the other health forward companies that are are trying to do very similar things to what you're trying to do. What what is brand to you, and and how have you thought about that part of it?
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:32:00]:
Yeah. This might be a little contrarian, but the normal answer the the go to answer lately has been you have to stand out with your brand, right, because it's such a crowded category. And while I think that is important, I think brand needs to be a reflection of the product. I think the product has to be excellent Land that the brand needs to accentuate the product. Land the reason I say this is, like, I had fallen into the trap, the mental trap of thinking that we can have this product, and we're just gonna we're gonna differentiate our brand. Yeah. Right? And that's gonna because it's such a crowded category, there's literally hundreds of options on any shelf. I used to go to Whole Foods before I launched a bar, and I'd stare at the whole of bars, and I'd just call it
Jeffrey Stern [00:32:45]:
this this wall.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:32:46]:
The wall of death. Right? Yeah. Because it's like, I can't believe I'm doing this.
Jeffrey Stern [00:32:50]:
Overwhelming as a consumer even. I can't even imagine The that from, building a company.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:32:55]:
Yes. Oh, it was tough. But my thought with brand is that I fell into the trap of focusing on brand too much early on and not focusing on the product and not having the brand be a reflection of the product. You know? My mentality was, okay. We're gonna have this great product that is essentially oatmeal in a bar, but we're gonna have this brand that just, like, totally stands out. And that's what's gonna, like, really differentiate us. That's why someone's gonna pick it up in the 1st place. And my mentality has shifted because, yes, it it was something that helped us stand out, but it wasn't furthering the reason that somebody was believing in Overeasy.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:33:33]:
Right? And so what we actually just you've seen, we've just gone through a rebrand. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's kinda like a snake shedding its skin, right, and and always changing. But for us, the reason that people love over easy is that we have pure and simple ingredients. Right? And that it is something that you can trust when you look at the ingredient list. You can trust that the product is well made. It's quality.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:33:57]:
That commitment to excellence is what I really wanted to show with The new branding. And, also, like, one of the things that is unique to Overeasy and that is unique to our product is that has universal appeal. So we have the most elite athletes in the world eating Overeasy. Right? Adam Thelen, wide receiver for the Carolina Panthers, obviously, former, Viking, is a major partner in Over Easy, a major investor in Over Easy. So we have some elite athletes continuing to love the product, and my 2 year old loves it as well. Right? And we get so much feedback from parents that it's a product that they of, but also their kid loves. And the best thing is when, you know, parents says, hey. My kid won't eat anything.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:34:43]:
And I know that struggle of of being a parent when your kid doesn't wanna eat anything, but they love your bars. And so that you know, what I wanted our branding to reflect is what the product is serving and what is unique about the product. So that's why we've shifted our branding away from, hey. We need to be loud. We need to pop off the shelf. Like, we just need to be almost, like, too cool. Right? And now, like, what we've done with brand is it needs to reflect the value that it's bringing to a consumer. It doesn't need to be the flashiest thing.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:35:13]:
It needs to be very clear. Of course, in food and beverage, packaging is very important, but it needs to reflect what's inside the package, not this cool factor that I wanna have that is not really tied to the product. So you can see the new packaging. It's it's wholesome. It's still bright and vibrant. It's supposed to, you know, help somebody start their day. Yep. But it's clear that this is made from pure and simple ingredients.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:35:36]:
You can see the product. You can see what's going into it. And so that's how our mentality has really shifted with brand. That's certainly been something that as we continue to grow, as we continue to expand distribution, brand is proliferating from not just our packaging, but everything that we're doing as a business. Right? The promises that that we're, we're giving to consumers and and how we're just building our business, the values that we have. Like, it is all part of brand, but for us early on, certainly, like, the packaging is the most direct reflection of our brand.
Jeffrey Stern [00:36:10]:
Yeah. So along this journey, along the way, at some point, you you moved to Cleveland. Yes. And you raised capital for the business. I did. You know, tell us about those parts of the journey.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:36:21]:
Well, I'll talk about the move to Cleveland. Yeah. So yeah, this is home for me. And I left Cleveland in 2006 after I graduated from high school. Lay junior hockey in North Dakota and then went to college, then then was in the military. And so I'd only come home for, like, holidays. Right? Yeah. And it was painful to come home for one day and have to leave again.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:36:46]:
You know? Because so many of my friends and family were still living here, and I felt like I was missing out. And the older I've gotten, the more everybody says this. Like, it life is just about people. And so, you know, my wife and I, we're fortunate. Obviously, it was challenging at times, especially for her to be moving across the country with the military Land then obviously with school and whatnot afterwards, where we always had this desire to move back home. Yep. And COVID for a lot of people I'm trying to say this the right way. COVID for a lot of people was The opening when everyone started working remote to go live where you wanted to live.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:37:30]:
And when I made the decision to leave business school and COVID hit, there wasn't really a need for us to stay in Boston anymore. And so that was our opportunity to move back home. Our our oldest son, when we moved, was a year old, and we knew we had another one coming. And we wanted to be back close to family. We wanted to be back home. We didn't wanna just be visitors in this place that was so central to our lives and that we took such pride in. Yeah. Right? We just wanna be here for holidays.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:38:00]:
We wanna be here all the time. Land, selfishly, although, you know, maybe that's too harsh of a word, I wanted to be part of what I think is happening here in Cleveland. I think everyone can see is this resurgence in Cleveland, right? And I'm a huge believer that Cleveland's future, our success here is gonna be directly tied to entrepreneurship. And I have this vision like you do, that Cleveland can be a hub of entrepreneurship and can be a leader for other cities that have a similar history to show them, Lay. What what can a city become when it invests a lot of time, effort in entrepreneurs. Not only entrepreneurs who are starting a business in Cleveland, but entrepreneurs who see Cleveland as a destination for a great place for them to grow their business or a business to relocate. And I've had that, you know, I've had that feeling for years. And I was like, well, here is my opportunity to go actually make it happen and be part of it.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:39:10]:
And so for me, yeah, that was really the the impetus behind moving back home. I am so happy that we did. So is my wife. And then as far as fundraising, I feel like I've always been fundraising. Right?
Jeffrey Stern [00:39:25]:
Like, I wish
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:39:26]:
I could tell you, like, hey. Here's I fundraise one time. But, no, it's been, like, an ongoing process.
Jeffrey Stern [00:39:32]:
Yep.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:39:32]:
I'll say COVID was certainly challenging when, like, trying to keep the business running and the opportunities that we had. You know, I talked about the sports teams, but just retailers even you know, Whole Foods gave us that shop, but there are a lot of retailers who were like, The just so are so focused on what can we keep in stock with our current suppliers. We're not really excited about entertaining new suppliers that are probably also gonna have supply chain challenges. Mhmm. So raising money during COVID was was paramount to our success in keeping the business moving. And, you know, I've done the typical starting with friends and family and and angel investors to raising money from family offices and now from, you know, some VCs as well. I'll say, Comeback Capital Land their network, Scott Shane, is a fantastic team and a fantastic resource for any entrepreneur, not just in Cleveland, but in the The, to have a conversation with, at least. And they put their money where their mouths are.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:40:36]:
Their whole team is focused on not just I I wouldn't say it's, hey. We have to help out the Midwest. That's not The? It's not a charity case at all.
Jeffrey Stern [00:40:46]:
Yeah.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:40:46]:
It's you have all these companies led by really smart people that have identified really compelling opportunities that are just not in the center of entrepreneurship. Right? They're not in Silicon Valley. They're not in New York. They're not in Boston. Land now, you know, Miami and Austin. But they're really investable companies, and they're exciting. And Scott has gone out of his way to be vocal about that gap, to lead investors in wanting to close that gap, and obviously in supporting companies like OVEZY in having the financial means that keep building the business. Right? And along the way so that's obviously really important, I think, that anybody who's building something in Cleveland should be reaching out to Comeback Capital.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:41:32]:
He's probably the most responsive person I've ever met in my life too, so we'll hear back. And then there's along the way, there have just been some quite a few other Stern, our 2 large family offices who have been instrumental in our success and, you know, are there for the ups, the downs, but believe in what we're building, see the path forward, are excited Land celebrate with us the big wins, and The, obviously, help us figure out a way out of the big challenges Land and the deep valleys. So I've been really, really fortunate to have such a extensive investor network Land especially as a new entrepreneur who Yeah. Of course, I'm of course, I'm doing everything I can to make this company a success. I'm going to make mistakes. Right? And I think that's the beauty of entrepreneurship is, like, you learn by doing. But especially as a first time founder, I'm gonna make those mistakes, and, you know, we have investors who understand that it's a journey.
Jeffrey Stern [00:42:36]:
Yeah. When you traverse that hypothetical path towards the future with, you know, your company, with investors, all the partners you have, if the goal is this, how do you become the next Kellogg's with that kind of brand and impact in redefining maybe what breakfast can look like? Looking forward, you know, from a point of of retrospect? What does Overeasy need to do to get The, and what are you most excited about?
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:43:05]:
Great question. So what do we have to do to get there? We have to first build a very successful bar business, and that is our core focus right now. So the vision certainly is building the next Kellogg's. Right? And I say the next Kellogg's, I obviously want to beat Kellogg's, but Right. I say the next Kellogg's because it's easy for everyone, you know, to understand. But I wanna build the breakfast company and the snack company in The 21st century. But we started with bars. There's an incredible opportunity.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:43:34]:
Bars, of course, is very proud. Of course, it's very saturated. It's because everyone eats bars. Right? So there's a huge opportunity to get in the pantries and be a staple for everyone across America. That is our core focus right now is building a successful bar business because when we do that, we're giving ourselves The privilege, the opportunity to expand beyond that. Companies now do that is becoming more of a talking point. The platform may be a little too early, and we've tried to do that ourselves. Mhmm.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:44:12]:
And you quickly find out that once you spread out resources that are limited, especially as a small company, like, nothing becomes a success. Right? Everything is we're operating at, like, 60%. You just run into more issues when you have 4 or 5 products or product lines and, you know, when you have 1. So our core focus now is, hey. We're gonna build a successful bar business that is independently distributed, and then we're going to capitalize on the distribution that we have through the bar business, manufacturing, the team that we've built, both internally and externally, to then go build out other products. So we've already started working on those products, I'll say. Some of them are are quite good. And I'm excited, and it takes a lot of restraint to not just wanna launch them right away.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:44:59]:
But focus is paramount, and that is something that, you know, we are committed to. It's like Stern focused on the bar business and then the opportunity to, you know, go from a bar business to a more snack breakfast snack business will come, but it has to go through being a bar biz a successful bar business to start. So The has been my mentality is, like, focus on what we have right now, and then we'll expand into to fulfilling the greater mission later on. And, you know, investors are aligned with that. Right? I think they have seen too many times other companies that have these great visions. Of course, most entrepreneurs almost all do, but it takes time. It's a vision, and it's a destination for a reason. You know? It's not something that is just, hey.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:45:46]:
We're gonna do it next month. Right. Right.
Jeffrey Stern [00:45:48]:
And when you think maybe more personally about the the journey that you're on, what does success mean? What is the impact that you would like to have?
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:45:58]:
Yeah. Stuff. So one of the things I have to do Yeah. Is remind myself to enjoy the journey and not just be focused on the destination. Right? It is so easy. I was talking to some other entrepreneurs yesterday that are just getting started a few years behind us, and, you know, it was so easy for me to tell them that. Make sure you enjoy the journey. Enjoy the journey.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:46:22]:
And it's hard for me to live it myself. Right? So when I think about like, I I certainly wanna enjoy this journey. I wanna grow as an entrepreneur. I wanna continue to develop as a leader. I want to, you know, realize The dream of having Overeasy be one of those companies that helps change the American diet. And, obviously, we're not gonna be making everything that people leave. Right? But I think, like, with anything else, you have especially in food and beverage, you have companies that have started to lead the way or have led the way in their specific product. I think of Chobani as a great example.
Jeffrey Stern [00:46:58]:
Yep.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:46:59]:
Right? Chobani, lower sugar yogurt. Well, now everybody's looking for a lower sugar everything. Right? Because they got it in their yogurt.
Jeffrey Stern [00:47:06]:
Yep.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:47:06]:
And so, like, for me, that is what helping to change the American diet means is we are focusing on our products. We're focusing on our eating occasion. And if we are able to, you know, get people off of some of those horrible of we're able to get people The stop eating Pop Tarts and start eating over EasyBars
Jeffrey Stern [00:47:28]:
Yep.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:47:28]:
Or stop eating, like, NutriGreens, I have 41 ingredients, just a criminal ingredient list. Land start eating over easy bars instead. Then this becomes, you know, a staple in their diet. Then what else are they gonna change in their diet? You know, momentum is such a big thing. So, you know, are they excited to give their kids even healthier food? Right? They're excited to exercise a little bit more because, you know, they've made that big shift in what they're eating. And so that is that is, like, been my mentality of, like, what is the impact Over Easy is gonna have as we are building the breakfast company of the 21st century? Me as an individual, when I think about what is impact, what do I wanna be in 5, 10 years, I obviously The to raise it to be a household name. Right? That's that is in pantries across America Land that it is a staple within the Cleveland business world and a an inspiration to other entrepreneurs. It's like, hey.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:48:24]:
I can build something like this. Right? And I certainly wanna help lead this community. I mean, we have so many like, Mitch, right, Scott. We have so many wonderful people that are helping to lead the Cleveland entrepreneurial scene. I wanna be one of them. And so for me, the reason I became an entrepreneur is to solve problems. This isn't the only problem that we face. And so I think one of the privileges that entrepreneurs who have built something successful The have or somebody who is like yourself who is so well connected with all these other entrepreneurs and obviously have built your own thing as well, you're able to have an impact across more companies than just your own.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:49:04]:
Right? And so that's something that I'm excited to do is, hey. How can I help a company that maybe I have no connection to besides the fact that, Lay? It's built here in Cleveland or in the Midwest? Like, how can I help them in a way in which so many people have helped me get to where I am right now? So that's kind of what I see as my path, certainly focusing on on making this company a success, and then expanding my reach and and helping to be real a real force like so many other people are Yeah. Making Cleveland a success.
Jeffrey Stern [00:49:36]:
Well, obviously, I I love that answer.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:49:38]:
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I I do have The vision for Cleveland that I have started to ideate on. Yeah. And I would love to see it become a reality. Might Lay take a few years, but, you know, one of the things that I think the city needs is an innovation hub, a physical place where it is nationally known as a destination for entrepreneurs. One of the challenges with Cleveland is that we are pretty spread out.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:50:14]:
You know? Yeah. If if anybody's listening that's not from Cleveland, and I know this is obviously every Cleveland knows this. The east and west side might as well be 2 different cities sometimes.
Jeffrey Stern [00:50:24]:
They're far away.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:50:25]:
Right? And you're either an east sider Northeast sider. And the challenge we have is that we don't have a bustling downtown area where everybody works. Right? The suburbs are very sprawling. People are working in you know, you have a a great city that we all love very deeply Land great suburbs and and great towns around, great metro area. But there's not a place where all entrepreneurs go to around the city, right, where, like, you know if there's something entrepreneurial is happening, it's happening at that place. And my thought with Cleveland is we have a lot of people that move here to be like I did, to be back, you know, closer to home, and The I know how wonderful Cleveland is because we grew up here in Cleveland and are obviously evangelists for this city. I would love for Cleveland to be a destination for people, you know, from all colleges across America who are looking to get involved in entrepreneurship but don't necessarily have the idea. I think we could build something that's really exciting, like a incubator
Jeffrey Stern [00:51:27]:
Yeah.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:51:28]:
Program for somebody who's graduating from, let's say, the University of Texas. And, you know, they wanna be in entrepreneurship. They don't know what company they wanna start, but they can learn about entrepreneurship through our program. Right? And I want us I want Cleveland to be a destination where someone from the Harvard Business School Entreprenuership club or the Harvard Business School incubator program is like, you know, I'm gonna move to Cleveland because they have this program that's offering mentorship, you know, that's offering space, like room and board. Right? Guidance is just the happening place. And I'm I'm such a big believer in placemaking and that the future of community, the future of connection is it it really resides in cities, in physical touch, physical connectedness. And so, you know, I have this dream of of helping to build an incubator here in Cleveland. I look at a place like the arcade.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:52:24]:
Oh my god. Yeah. Beautiful place. Right? Beautiful place. No one knows what to do with it. No one knows what to do with it. It's up for sale now, actually. And I think about what if that was I think what you know, WeWork obviously filed for bankruptcy recently.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:52:41]:
But one of the things WeWork did very well is they made beautiful places that people wanted to go to. And I think about we have several of those places here in Cleveland. They are hidden gems. They're hidden gems not you know, everyone in Cleveland knows about them, but I think what we have here is we have wonderful people. We have this hardworking spirit. Everybody who's from Cleveland or has a connection to it is excited about helping it it grow. I think what we need is we need to find a way to get people from Texas, people from Boston, people from San Francisco to move here and help build up this ecosystem. And to do so would require, like, a physical place.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:53:19]:
One one Lay, and I'll The I'll I'll get off this topic. I I love this topic, by the way. You were just in Paris. Yeah. Station f in Paris, the largest startup incubator in the world. They have a 1,000 startups in this old train station. Right? There's this huge project for the French government, huge project for the city of Paris. It is a an international destination for people who are looking to start their companies, Land it's backed by corporations that wanna have their own accelerator incubator.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:53:49]:
Right? So LVMH has a place in there. Microsoft has a place in there. Meta has a place in there. And so that's who's funding it. Right? But when you go and you join, whether you're joining as a founder or you're joining as somebody who's just like, I wanna The operations. I just wanna be part of The action. Yeah. You go there.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:54:14]:
You get classes specifically focused. You get matched to a series of companies. You can do interviews with a whole bunch of companies and find your fit, but you become part of the ecosystem, and it grows. Right? And so that's that's, like, my big vision. I I
Jeffrey Stern [00:54:29]:
love that video, man.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:54:30]:
Honestly, I wanna be The that's something that I wanna do in addition to Overeasy to help The city grow because I just think it would be such an awesome place if we had a destination where people from around the world are moving to Cleveland because they wanna be part of the action.
Jeffrey Stern [00:54:47]:
Oh, we can riff on that a whole a whole
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:54:49]:
lot more.
Jeffrey Stern [00:54:50]:
But needless to say, that all resonates quite a lot.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:54:54]:
I'm sure. Yeah. You're already working on it, man. Right? Alright. So, I mean, I think I think we've covered a lot of
Jeffrey Stern [00:54:59]:
ground here. But before we kinda bookend the conversation, I I wanted to ask just, you know, generally in in reflection on the whole journey thus far for for you. You've talked about this idea of the journey of entrepreneurship.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:55:12]:
Yeah.
Jeffrey Stern [00:55:13]:
You know, things that you feel are particularly salient about that journey for for yourself and how you have have grown as a as a leader.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:55:21]:
So I'll say, like, I I had I definitely had some tough days. You said it had some tough days in the military. Like, everybody, you know, tough days in life. This is by far the toughest experience of my life. Right? Because it's a everyday for 5 years now kind of experience. Attitude is everything. Attitude is everything. I have still, you know, ups and downs.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:55:47]:
And there's still days where, you know, I'm bummed out, still days where I see a challenge, and I don't exactly know how we're gonna get through it. But I always know that we're gonna get through it. Right? And one of the fallbacks for me is just this mentality that no matter what happens, I will find a way out. No matter what happens. Right? I will land on my feet. I'll find a way out. Like, we're gonna take our licks for sure, but we're always gonna be standing. And so, like, that is a big challenge for entrepreneurs because, like, the highs and lows are are are so so extreme.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:56:21]:
And for me, specifically, especially with the family too. Right? Where Yeah. You know, like, I'm I'm at work during the day, and, obviously, I'm a big believer in work life integration. So, you know, I'm a dad right now, and I'm an, an entrepreneur at home too. Right? They they mix for me. But I wanna come home with a smile on my face, right, even on the toughest days. And so I think just having that mentality that it is supposed to be hard. That is part of the ride that I'm on.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:56:50]:
Yes. Right? And I I like to use The metaphor of of a roller coaster where it would be really boring if it just went flat. It would not be a fun roller coaster. It's only exciting when you have peaks and valleys and loops, and you feel like you're gonna fly out of your seat, like and you're scared. Like, that is what makes it so exciting. And for me, like, keeping that mentality on tough days where it's like, well, it is supposed to be challenging. There's this quote that I really love. It's from Teddy Roosevelt.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:57:26]:
He said, never has a man who lived a life of ease left The name worth remembering. Right? And so when it's like, hey. What am I trying to do here? I'm trying to have an impact. I'm trying to have an impact greater than myself. So is the rest of our team, who's amazing. It's gonna be hard. It's supposed to be hard. And so just understanding that has been crucial for me.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:57:48]:
It is a lot easier to say it rather than actually live it sometimes, of course.
Jeffrey Stern [00:57:53]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:57:53]:
But that's really the fallback for me.
Jeffrey Stern [00:57:55]:
Which is why it's important to, you know, enjoy Yes.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:57:58]:
The journey. It is. It is. It's so important. And the thing that is obvious but isn't said enough, is that the number one determinant of whether a team or anybody is successful is the people that you surround yourself with. Yeah. There's another I'm a big fan of quotes. Right? Because I think the the greatest ones are timeless.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:58:21]:
There's a quote from admiral Hyman Richover, and I'm gonna paraphrase it because it's quite long. But his quote is the, you know, theories of management don't matter much. Strategy doesn't matter much. Advantage doesn't matter much. Great things are only done by having great people. That's all that matters. And I have learned that myself. I think it is something that is of course, people will say, yeah.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:58:46]:
That makes sense. But it's by actually having those great people around you and building a team full of great people and having great people that are Stern, that provides me so much confidence that, okay, we are gonna be successful. We are moving in the right direction. Right? And so my core focus with Overeasy is how do we just build a network, a community, a team full of the best people? Yep. And so that is something that is you know? I I'd say product is everything. You gotta focus on your product. But, there's 1 thing that trumps that, and that's team and culture. So that will not change.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:59:21]:
I'm sure that will not change for you know? Talk to me in 20 years. I'm gonna say the same thing.
Jeffrey Stern [00:59:26]:
Yeah. Amazing. No. The that also deeply resonates. Well, I'll leave a a little space before we we get to the traditional closing question. But for, you know, I guess, the unsaid thing, you know, if if there's anything particularly important in reflection on on your journey, on on building Overeasy The we haven't talked about The you would like to.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [00:59:47]:
I think one of the the biggest challenges of starting a company is not knowing where to start and not knowing what to do. Yeah. And I was very lucky in that I was at Harvard Business School when I started the company. But I I talked to a lot of people who have a great idea or would love to be an entrepreneur. And I think the advice that I would give people is just get started. And the way to get started is just have conversations with people. Just talk to somebody about an idea or a vision that you have for the world because that's really what our city, that's what our country depends on, people who have a better vision for how our world should look. Right? That's how we got to this point in the year 2023 because women and men, you know, along history said, hey.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [01:00:38]:
This should be done differently. We can do better. And so that is, like, you know, The probably the the scariest part about starting a business is not knowing where to Stern. And you are in the most uncertainty that you'll ever be in from day 1. Yep. But that's par for the course. That's part of the journey. And it will, like, surround yourself with great people to help clarify, you know, clear up a lot of that and and provide some guidance and some structure and just some advice.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [01:01:05]:
But we just need more people talking about a world that they wanna live in. Yep. Right? And whether it's, you know, you're starting a company or you just wanna be part of the community and be a voice in it, we just need more voices. Right? So that's the thing that I I like to say to people. It's like, be you know, the whole be the change you wanna see in the world is not cliche. It's actually like a directive. Yeah. Right? So, and it comes with, like, just taking the The step.
Jeffrey Stern [01:01:35]:
Yep. Well, thank you for for sharing that. Yeah. So I'll I'll we'll we'll close it out here with our traditional closing question, which is for a hidden gem in Cleveland.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [01:01:43]:
Okay. So this place that I've I've fallen in love with, which it might be a hidden gem because it's relatively new, is the slice shop on Prospect close to the the stadium to races. So Tito Francona is is part owner in it. It is delicious. Right? It is, like, such a cool place that is you know, we have a we have a lot of great restaurants in Cleveland. Yep. We all take pride in our food scene.
Jeffrey Stern [01:02:11]:
Absolutely.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [01:02:12]:
But this is, like, just adds to the urban character of of the city. So every time I go downtown,
Jeffrey Stern [01:02:19]:
it's like I gotta stop
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [01:02:20]:
at the slice shop. Right? They have, I think it's, like, keto's Slice, which uses hot honey. It's just all the rage these days. I'm I'm such a big fan. Obviously, I'm partial, which I don't think it's a hidden gem. But if people haven't been out to Chagrin Falls
Jeffrey Stern [01:02:35]:
Oh, yeah.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [01:02:36]:
Like, I'm so I'm very lucky to be from you know, living in Chagrin Falls now. It's just such a quaint, beautiful place, you know, that you can take your family, take your kids, but you can also go, like, have a night out and have a lot of fun. We're we're such a a large city that people may not have had the opportunity to go, and it's also, like, 30 minutes from downtown. So, yeah, those those are 2 places that really come to mind for me.
Jeffrey Stern [01:03:00]:
Yep. Oh, those are 2 great ones. Yeah. Well, amazing, Kyle. I just wanna, you know, thank you again for taking the time to come on and and and do the storytelling. You know?
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [01:03:10]:
Yeah. Of course. Thanks for having me, Jeffrey. I'm I'm excited to be part of this community for sure, and thank you again for being a leader in it.
Jeffrey Stern [01:03:18]:
Oh, I appreciate that. Thank you. If people had anything they wanted to follow-up with you about, what would be the best way for them to do so?
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [01:03:25]:
Sure. Shoot me an email. Right? My email is k as in Kyle, maggard@overeasyfoods.com. Yeah. I'd I'd love to love to chat with with anyone. Amazing. Cool.
Jeffrey Stern [01:03:39]:
Well, thank you again.
Kyle Maggard (Over Easy) [01:03:40]:
Yeah. Thank you.
Jeffrey Stern [01:03:42]:
That's all for this week. Thank you for listening. We'd love to hear your thoughts on today's show. So if you have any feedback, please send over an email to Jeffrey at lay of the land dot f m, or find us on Twitter at Lay of the land or at Sternjefe, j e f e. If you or someone you know would make a good guest for our show, please reach out as well and let us know. And if you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe and leave a review on iTunes or on your preferred podcast player. Your support goes a long way to help us spread the word and continue to bring the Cleveland founders and builders we love having on the show. We'll be back here next week at the same time to map more of the land.\