Sweet Takes

Healthy eating shouldn’t feel like a punishment. So why does it so often feel like one?

Dan Posner hits the road with Jason and Meradith Christensen, co-founders of Blue Unicorn, to talk about building a protein bar that doesn’t taste like a protein bar. It has 7g of fiber, 3g of sugar, and 100% real chocolate. Jason, who built and sold NorthStar and now teaches entrepreneurship at BYU, and Meradith, a self-described foodie, explain why they believe the choice between healthy and delicious is a false one.

Jason and Meradith walk through how the bar came to be. It started with a pantry drawer they called the “protein bar graveyard,” where half-eaten bars went to die. Then Jason brought home samples from Luke Tolley, a chemist and real-life Willy Wonka, and their kids started asking for them every day. They also share how Jason’s health journey at 25 shaped their mission of bringing joy to healthy living, and why deprivation never lasts.

Along the way, they get into the fun stuff: how an alpaca with a unicorn horn became their mascot (their daughter raises alpacas, and they show up in local parades), why real chocolate matters more than a “chocolate coating,” and the morning habit of reading customer reviews, including one about how the bar fits into her health journey. They also open up about what it’s like to build a company with your spouse after 20 years of marriage, and why there’s no such thing as a finish line in entrepreneurship.

Then Jason and Meradith lay out their litmus test for everything they make: the “unicorn zone.” Would you love it even if you didn’t know it was healthy?

🍫 Grab a protein bar and tune in!

 🎧 New episodes of Sweet Takes drop every other Thursday. Follow, review, and share to join the conversation.

Your customers are talking. Is anyone on your team listening?

Coby hits the road with McCain Kennedy, founder and president of Set Fire Creative and Utah Business Magazine’s 2023 Sales and Marketer of the Year, to unpack why most brands are getting social media backwards. Posting consistently isn’t the hard part. Showing up for the conversation afterward is.

McCain walks through what happened when he stepped into an e-commerce brand that was spending $10,000 a day on Meta ads and shrugging off organic social as “just an aesthetic thing.” Six months and one proper tracking set up later, organic was pulling in $10,000 a month on its own. He explains why paid and organic work as a one-two punch, why a dead Instagram page can quietly kill an ad’s conversion, and why the customer service team and the social team shouldn’t be sitting in different rooms.

Along the way, the two of them get into the messier stuff: how TikTok has become a search engine for anyone under 25, why Facebook still converts even when clients swear their audience isn’t there, what Coby’s teenagers can sniff out that most adults can’t, and the LinkedIn commenter who accused McCain of using AI because of an em dash in a six-year-old post.

Then McCain lays out his sweet take: three rules for any business on social media, and why the entire thing comes down to treating it like a conversation you’d be willing to have out loud, in a crowded theater.

And of course, no Sweet Takes episode is complete without a special stop! This week it’s FiiZ for a King of the Jungle, a Shark Attack, and a bag of pretzel bites.

🥤Grab a drink and tune in!

🎧 New episodes of Sweet Takes drop every other Thursday. Follow, rate, and share to join the conversation.

Traditional education isn’t broken. It’s just punishing the wrong things.

On the road to Sinners and Saints Coffee, Coby and Tanner Bowman of Optio talk about tearing down classroom rules, replacing letter grades with experience points, and why the most powerful thing you can give a student is autonomy.

Tanner shares what it took to walk away from ten years as a high school computer science teacher, how making attendance completely optional actually made kids want to show up, and why true learning happens when you stop penalizing failure. He opens up about doing his doctorate research on intrinsic motivation, how a student is currently earning math credit by analyzing the physics in Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn, and how Optio is helping homeschool families and micro-schools issue accredited high school diplomas.

Plus, Tanner shares his sweet take on why letter grades create a toxic feedback loop for both teachers and students, why we need to build creators instead of consumers, and how thinking like a gardener (rather than a boss) could reshape how we approach education reform.

And of course, no Sweet Takes episode is complete without a special stop! This week at Sinners and Saints coffee truck for a cold iced latte and a look at what happens when you treat the learning process as the actual goal.

☕ Grab a drink and tune in!

🎧 New episodes of Sweet Takes drop every other Thursday. Follow, rate, and share to join the conversation.

Print isn't dead. Most people are just wasting it.

On the road to The Milkshake Factory, Coby sits down with Andy Selcho of Nuance Ink to talk about walking away from a 30-year franchise, finding your own story, and why the most overlooked thing in marketing might be the one you can actually hold.

Andy shares what it took to leave the brand his dad signed on with three decades ago, how he kept his building, his equipment, and his team on the way out, and why authenticity was worth rocking a boat that didn't need rocking. He opens up about the exercises that helped him figure out what he genuinely loves about print, what his dad thinks of the whole gutsy move, and how a family business ended up right back where it started: with someone deciding to control his own destiny.

Plus, Andy shares his sweet take on attention, and why catching it is the easy part. Everybody's clamoring for eyeballs. Keeping them takes intention, and Andy walks through the nuance process that turned an ordinary trifold into a wedding cake brochure brides actually keep in their bag.

And of course, no Sweet Takes episode is complete without a stop at The Milkshake Factory in Pleasant Grove for a mint chocolate chip, a brownie fudge situation, and a Bananas Foster that got away.

🥤 Grab a drink and tune in!

🎧 New episodes of Sweet Takes drop every other Thursday. Follow, rate, and share to join the conversation.

The best creative work has never been about the tools.

On the road to Protein Foundry in Daybreak, Coby sits down with Ash of Weapon to talk about what makes creative endure, why every brand needs a great story, and what it actually means to be original in the age of AI.

Ash opens with a story he's never met anyone else who can match. He wanted kids, so he made it happen: embryos, a surrogate, two exits down the freeway, and now twins, three nannies, and a branding agency to run. His big lesson so far? Grace. For parents, for kids, for employees, for everyone still winging it. He also makes the case that relationships have seasons, that you strengthen a bridge instead of burning it, and that a brand, much like a kid, has to be given room to become what it wants.

Then they get into the craft. Ash explains why great creative always starts with strategy, how the Allstate Mayhem campaign won by turning a raccoon in your ceiling into a genuine villain, and why a $4 million Park City condo and a local med spa are selling the exact same thing: a story. Coby counters with his own framework. Nobody buys products or services. They buy the story they tell themselves about them. And if you can shape that story, you can add a zero.

Plus, Ash shares his sweet take on AI, and why the future belongs to the originals. He watches AI videos add fake film grain and thinks, buddy, that's just a darkroom. The bar is higher now, which is precisely why this is the best possible time to make something real. Also worth noting: while everyone else stares at Silicon Slopes, he's betting on blue collar.

And of course, no Sweet Takes episode is complete without a stop at Protein Foundry for a PB Edge that tastes like a 90s lunchbox and a Lush that hides its avocado a little too well.

🥤 Grab a treat and tune in!

🎧 New episodes of Sweet Takes drop every other Thursday. Follow, rate, and share to join the conversation.

Your circle might be shaping your future more than you realize.

On the road to Thirst, Dan sits down with Josh Bennett of Mountain America Credit Union to talk about the power of mentorship, trusting your gut, and the people who help us become better versions of ourselves.

Josh shares how a strong impression led him to move to Utah with no clear plan, how that decision shaped his career, and why surrounding yourself with the right people can change the trajectory of your life. He opens up about the mentors who challenged him, the lessons he learned from his dad, and why the best relationships are built on authenticity, vulnerability, and a genuine desire to help others grow.

Plus, Josh shares his sweet take on AI, and why the future of technology isn’t about replacing people, it’s about creating more space for the human connection that machines can’t replicate. AI can analyze data and uncover trends, but people are still needed to understand context, tell the full story, and recognize potential.

And of course, no Sweet Takes episode is complete without a stop at Thirst for a Pisces, a Dr. McCree, and Nutella-filled beignets that might just steal the show.

🥤 Grab a drink and tune in!
🎧 New episodes of Sweet Takes drop every other Thursday. Follow, rate, and share to join the conversation.

Your newest customer might not be a person at all! On the road to Thirst, Dan sits down with Preston Melle of Scrunch to talk about how AI is completely changing the way people search, and what it means for your business.

As more people turn to ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude for instant answers, they're visiting fewer websites directly. Preston's big idea? Your new VIP user is an AI bot, and if your content isn't built for bots to digest, they'll hand your competitors the win. Along the way, Preston shares how AI has crept into his own life (garden makeovers and the hunt for the perfect travel backpack included), breaks down how Scrunch helps brands see exactly where they show up in AI search, and explains how to optimize your site for the bots shaping tomorrow's search.

Plus, a stop at Thirst for a Dew Pow Wow, lemon cookies, and a little love for local business. Grab a drink and tune in!

🎧 New episodes of Sweet Takes drop regularly. Follow, rate, and share!

Jenny Groberg plays the long game. As founder and CEO of BookSmarts Accounting and Utah's 2024 CEO of the Year, she's built a team of more than 30 women by betting on patience, people, and the slow compounding power of showing up every day.

In this episode of Sweet Takes, Jenny sits down with Coby over frozen custard at Nielsen's to talk about what that philosophy looks like in practice: thinking bigger, giving back before you've "made it," and choosing progress over perfection. She shares why she invested heavily in training and hiring talent through BYU Pathway across three continents, how playing the long game is fueling her company's next phase of growth, and her "Final Five" method for making business decisions based on numbers instead of emotion.

It's a candid conversation about resilience, generosity, and the quiet discipline of small gains, with a little ice cream along the way.

Sweet Takes brings you behind-the-scenes, honest business conversations over your favorite treats. Hosted by Big Leap leaders, exploring leadership, brand, and marketing, one sweet run at a time. New episodes every other week.

What does it take to stay genuinely healthy in a world full of supplement hype, fad diets, and conflicting fitness advice? According to one coach, the answer is simpler than you think: eat real food and get some sleep.

In this episode of Sweet Takes, Coby and Natalie Peterson, owner, coach, and competitor at Saratoga Springs CrossFit head over to grab some salmon sushi from Smith's to talk about what actually moves the needle on health and fitness. Natalie has trained consistently for over 15 years, made the CrossFit semifinals in her age division, and built a thriving gym community along the way, all on the back of habits she swears anyone can build.

Her big idea? The workout isn't the hard part. Most people stall because they neglect everything that happens outside the gym, the nutrition, the sleep, and the recovery that actually let the body change and grow.

Along the way, Natalie shares:

• Why nutrition is the base of the fitness pyramid and the biggest driver of visible results
• How she sticks to a 4 a.m. routine through structure, not willpower
• Why she spends twice as much time on recovery as she does working out
• The truth about CrossFit injuries and why most trace back to ego
• How the gym transforms people's mental health, not just their bodies

If you're an athlete, a beginner, or anyone trying to build habits that actually last, this conversation is full of practical wisdom and a little tough love.

Grab a sweet treat and settle in. There's plenty of sweetness ahead.

What do a billion-dollar mattress company, a hands-free shoe brand Nike invested in, and a smart-oven meal service all have in common? One marketer: Alex McArthur.

In this episode of Sweet Takes, fractional CMO Alex McArthur sits down with Dan over fresh-baked focaccia from a Lehi bakery called F'kosh to talk about what really drives brand growth. Alex has helped build and scale some of Utah's most recognizable brands, from Purple (concept to public) to Kizik to Tovala, and now works with companies like Just Ingredients.

His big idea? Most brands stall because they're afraid of their own customers. They get so locked into rigid brand guidelines that they never experiment, never take a point of view, and never find the "tension" that separates a real brand from a commodity.

Along the way, Alex shares:

• Why Purple ran funny mattress ads for four years despite pressure to "get serious," and grew like crazy doing it
• How Kizik stumbled into an unexpected breakthrough with nurses during Covid
• What "fixed and flexible" branding actually means, and why it matters
• The difference between executives who want to grow and those who just want money
• Why your customers are far more forgiving than you think

If you're a marketer, founder, or anyone trying to build something people genuinely connect with, this conversation is full of practical wisdom and a few good laughs.

Grab a sweet treat and settle in. There's plenty of sweetness ahead.

Learn more: bigleap.com/sweet-story