Alicia Sable Hunt, known to all as Sable, grew up in the Hamptons in the 1980’s during the height of materialism, big money, and a recreational drug culture that was rampant in this affluent east coast community. She benefitted from the very strong grounding of a religious household and ended up in nursing school, an anomaly in her group of friends, most of whom pursued high profile and high paying corporate careers. Sable attributes her passion for helping people to her mother who instilled strong values in her at a young age.
A Nurse in the Kitchen
Always comfortable in her own skin when working with patients, Sable experienced a variety of settings in the medical field from bedside nursing to intensive care, and outpatient clinics. But, she developed a love for oncology care working with cancer patients. With 15+ years under her belt as an oncology nurse, Sable understood the immense struggle of those fighting cancer and the nutritional challenges they uniquely face. Proper nutrition is paramount during cancer treatment but many patients suffer from loss of appetite and taste preventing them from receiving the nourishment they need. Sable feels strongly that patients should be able to thrive while continuing with their daily lives during cancer treatment and recovery. Championing the cause in 2006, she stepped into her kitchen and began baking up a solution, and Sable’s Foods was born.
Knowing that cancer patients needed food that met specific nutritional requirements as well as flavors and textures that would be appealing and easily digestible, Sable started experimenting in her kitchen. She also wanted something portable so patients could maintain a sense of normalcy and an active lifestyle while in treatment. Sable developed the first iterations of a nutritional bar that was baked like a brownie and bursting with flavor and nutritional empowerment – Sable’s slogan and branding platform.
The Proof is in the Pudding…or the Nutritional Bar
Sable introduced her bars to her patients to get constructive feedback and the ultimate taste test. They gave very helpful suggestions about flavor and content. For example, she discovered that consuming granola and whole nuts, like in a traditional health bar, caused digestive problems in her patients. She was on a quest to develop the balance of flavor, texture, and nutrition that would make her bars unique and beneficial for her patients.
It was time to call in the experts and Sable consulted with nutritional and oncology specialists as well as an executive chef and food product consultant to develop the ultimate version of the bars that are now on the market. The bars are widely sought after by cancer patients and athletes, as well as others in search of nutritional empowerment.
The journey doesn’t end with Sable’s great tasting and nutritionally sound bars. She is dedicated to keeping the ultimate goal of curing cancer in sight. To that end, a portion of her profits from product sales are donated to non-profit organizations actively pursuing solutions to cancer care issues, including prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and symptom management. In her words, “A bite of every bar is donated to cancer research.”
A Labor of Love and Experience
It may sound like Sable just waltzed into her kitchen and created her empowerment bars over night channeling her inner Betty Crocker, but the reality is that it was a long and intense journey from conception to product development and eventually, sales. The business officially launched in 2009 as Sable worked 80+ hours a week as a consultant to pay the bills in order to bring Sable’s Foods to life during the evening and weekend hours.
In addition to being a Registered Nurse, Sable also earned her MBA so she would have a full understanding of the business world. She founded the Edwards-Hunt Group, LLC to facilitate basic and clinical research by implementing contemporary solutions for today’s translational medicine challenges. She provides multi-level consulting services to the non-profit arena, commercial bio-repositories, and technology companies. This is a fabulous illustration of how she tapped into her transferable skills and maintained an active consulting practice while growing her new business.
Sable admits that the empowerment bar business idea was a leap of faith. She is a linear thinker, a cerebral person, and she found it difficult to work with the artists and product consultant experts she sought out to develop her website, marketing materials, and company brand. But she believes that “Every time a door closes, a window opens.” And she believes that Sable’s Foods was meant to be.
Her Patients are the Inspiration
She advises others interested in starting a new business to “Write a business plan and let someone else challenge your assumptions.” It’s a brutal test but an important part of building your brand and a viable product or service. Sable learned early on to check her ego at the door and believes that she tapped into her woman’s sense of survival to make her business and consulting firm happen. She has no fear and realized that if she doesn’t work, she doesn’t get paid.
Sable has a favorite mug that says: “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” This has become a mantra and helped her forge ahead with unbridled energy and enthusiasm. Ultimately, Sable is still inspired by her patients and created Sable’s Foods to help others. She is proud to nurture herself and her loved ones with her nutrition bars and is responding to increased patient demand to develop new flavors and additional products.
Sable’s Advice and Action Steps
- Have the guts and confidence to take a risk.
- Interview people in-the-know in your particular line of work and tap into their expertise.
- Define what you don’t know and then find experts that do!
Mantra “Why not!” Sable
Resources
Sable’s Foods www.sablesfoods.com
Savor the Success www.savorthesuccess.com
Edwards Hunt Group, LLC www.edwardshunt.com
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