In his current position as CEO of a company producing healthy snacks Rivalry and during his previous military profession, Peter Barrick had at all times been drawn to using his skills and talents to attain the greater good. After graduating from UC Davis, I had a calling to serve our country,” Barrick said Entrepreneur. “And so around 2005, I joined one of the toughest branches of the military, the Marine Corps.”
Barrick was chosen for the Navy and Marine Corps jet aviation program and flew combat missions in Afghanistan. He then became joint terminal attack controller, a complex and dangerous role that involved being on the ground with infantry and directing military aircraft supporting the mission from above. Barrick spent significant time with emergency response forces operating in North Africa, East Africa and the Middle East, and became a Navy flight instructor in the latter stages of his military profession. “It was very difficult and scary,” he says of his time teaching elite pilots. “Every other day you’re strapping on two rackets and instructing a new student – it’s very dangerous.”
After completing his military service, Barrick returned to the University of California, Davis to acquire an MBA. He then worked at Mars Global, Wells Fargo and for entrepreneur Jon Sebastiani, who founded Sonoma Brands Capital. When Barrick connected with Harold Schmitz and Ralph Jerome, former Mars executives, he felt a familiar desire to do something greater. He listened to their dreams of bringing inexpensive food to the grocery store, and it was the catalyst he needed to expand his business and “start something from scratch.”
Together with Schmitz, Jerome and Victor Friedberg, Miguel Reyna and Ilias Tagkopoulos, he co-founded the Rivalz snack. Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, these bite-sized snacks contain 8g of protein, 4g of fiber and 7 essential vitamins and minerals per serving – without any glutenwheat, nuts, dairy, soy or animal products. (Imagine a super-healthy bag of Combos.) “We do what General Mills and companies like it can’t do,” he says. “There is no junk in our snacks.”
Source: Rivalz
By the end of the 12 months, Rivalz might be available in nearly 2,000 stores, has struck a deal to be featured in Los Angeles Unified School District vending machines, and will see sales on Amazon increase 8.4 times year-over-year. “We will definitely fly,” says Barrick. Here are some lessons from Barrick’s profession and leadership style that entrepreneurs can apply when starting or growing their dream business.
Embracing your strengths
“Everyone needs to know who they are. You need to know your strengths and weaknesses. I do well when the environment is dangerous or chaotic. This is what I used to be created to do – provide clarity in a foggy situation. It gives me meaning in life, the most difficult things conceivable, and the uncertainty of whether I’ll succeed or fail is what brings satisfaction to my soul.
Drawing inspiration
“During my military service, I saw the worst of food insecurity, especially in East Africa. Children don’t know when they are going to get their next meal, but they still wish to play football on Friday. And the football is a tied plastic bag and the outline of the field is the rocks. That’s why I discovered my passion here. We have created the perfect snack that is unrivaled in terms of dietary value and provides protein without the need for refrigeration, which is one of the most significant aspects facing a substitute. -Saharan Africa or Southwest Asia and other regions.
Testing your idea
“When starting a business, entrepreneurs research emerging trends and then assess whether there are products available on the market that meet those trends. If the answer is no, you start a company. If the answer is yes, then don’t worry. We have identified two main trends. One is that consumers, especially the younger generation, are moving away from the three traditional meals and snacking more often. We also have the GLP-1 craze, which consumers are turning to, such as Ozempic, but they are losing both muscle mass and fat. That’s why we’re the snack of choice to help maintain muscle mass as we reverse the 50-year diabetes and obesity pandemic due to our low glycemia choose yes to two major trends.
Naming your business
“We thought about our ultimate goal, which is to end the 50-year pandemic of malnutrition, diabetes and obesity. The only way to achieve this is to meet the standards. That’s where the name Rivalz came from.”
Making decisions under stress
“In the Marine Corps and in the work I do, peace is the most significant thing. The worst thing you’ll be able to do is get indignant or panic when something goes incorrect. This doesn’t help anyone. In the Marine Corps, they train you to separate and learn to think in the face of chaos, to change into comfortable with the unknowns, and to make decisions with 70% of the information or less. This is one of the reasons for our nation’s success in battle. We train our soldiers to the lowest rank – resolve who the enemy is. They don’t have to attend for the chain of command to inform them what to do. I pass this on to business leadership. I created so-called decision boxes. I tell people this is your area of responsibility. I provide clearly defined roles and goals, and then give department heads the freedom to maneuver as they see fit to attain those goals. In this style of structure, everyone is useful.