Meet Chad + Hanna

There was a lot going on at the start of it all – so much so it’s often hard to find the right words to begin. We launched our flagship product, Peanut Butter Bliss, in January of 2019. But it’s all the stuff leading up to that moment, and after, that we think you should know.

Chad's first career began in 2011 as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Owner of Nashdog Barbell. It was an underground barbell club located in the heart of Youngstown, Ohio (also where he and Hanna first met). Nashdog grew to become a renowned training facility for athletes of all levels, traveling near and far just to train with Coach Chad.

In August of 2014, Hanna decided to create a blog just before leaving for her first year in college. Her goal was to share her favorite healthy recipes and thoughts on wellness with the world, while managing life as a full-time student. Rightfully it was titled, Keg Stands & Kettlebells, and it became the most important part of her story. 

Chad meets Hanna and the rest is history. Just kidding – the rest is the important part!

Over the next five years Nashdog continued to expand into the greater Youngstown area. Chad had the opportunity to work with athletes, first responders, and became the official physical training consultant for the local SWAT Team. Hanna graduated with a degree in Nutrition, while continuing to grow her blog, The Healthiest Me (the name had to grow up, too). In the summer of 2018, she decided to bring her blog to life, sharing homemade all-natural protein balls with the Youngstown community.

Hanna had zero experience running a business, but she loved two things: feeding people and helping people. Chad had a lot of experience with running a business and he also loved two things: feeding people and helping people. It really was this light bulb - perfect storm - kind of moment.

We knew we could make this something special if we could do it together.

In January of 2019, we developed our first recipe in our small apartment kitchen for Peanut Butter Bliss. Our goal was to create an all-natural protein bar made with simple ingredients, 20 grams of quality protein and free from artificial ingredients or sweeteners, gluten, soy and dairy.

We were always on the go and searching for clean, high protein options but felt they always fell short. If a bar was high in protein, the ingredient label looked like another language and our bodies did not thank us later. If they were entirely natural, the amount of protein landed below 12 grams, leaving us hungry and unsatisfied. Flavor and texture were also important to us – we wanted soft, sweet and salty. Enjoyable to eat and easy to digest. We just weren’t getting that from anything on the market.

With our recipe in hand and food processor on the counter, we gave it a go! We created our “packaging” out of clear bags and stickers, ordered flyers and used mailing boxes as our product boxes. Our goal was to sell just ten boxes a month – a side project to put something good into the world. We sold sixty boxes within the first few hours of launching and instantly knew that the Nash Bar would be here to stay.  

Our apartment quickly became filled with pails of honey, jars of peanut butter, product boxes and shipping supplies. It wasn’t long before we needed to find a space of our own. We moved into a tiny space in Youngstown, where we spent the next two years creating new flavors, perfecting our recipes, and growing the Nash Bar Company.   

Whew! And now we’re here! 

After nearly three years in our hometown, we decided to move our kitchen facility to one of our favorite cities – Columbus, Ohio! We are still a team of two with one food processor and a dream. Or as Chad would say, “Just two kids just having fun.”

It has been the most challenging, exciting and rewarding thing either of us have done. We have learned so much about ourselves and what we value as a company (of two). The support we’ve received is unlike anything we could’ve imagined. We still pinch ourselves from time to time just to make sure this is all real.

As we approach our fifth year in business, we just want to say thank you. Whether you’ve been there with us from the start or stumbling upon our shop today, we truly couldn’t do it without you.

Thank you for sharing the love of natural, healthy and delicious food with us and thank you for believing in our vision. We’re beyond excited to see where the rest of the story takes us!