What is Success?

Congratulations to Steve Palmer, the 2022 Professional Achievement Award Recipient in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business.
Palmer is the CEO and founder of Thrive Life, a food freeze-drying company he started with fellow Aggie Jason Budge, a friend from USU. Earlier this year, the company—which currently employs about 700 people—acquired Mercer Foods and received backing from two private equity firms. Thrive Life is now on track to become the world’s largest freeze-dry manufacturer by the end of next year.

But the company narrative hasn’t always been so impressive.
“We call it the Dark November,” Palmer says as he recounts a time when he wasn’t sure if the company would survive. 

Thrive Life had been selling pantry shelves and dried foods produced by other manufacturers. After a few years of falling sales, the company needed to pivot. “We decided that the best option was to double down on our manufacturing capabilities and enter into freeze drying,” Palmer says. 

Before their new freeze-drying plant was complete, the food storage and emergency preparedness markets headed into decline. “For the first time in 11 years of being in business,” Palmer remembers, “I felt some hopelessness that this might be the end.”
Palmer didn’t have a solution, but he did something that changed both him and his business.

He found a mentor. 

“It was this one decision that changed everything, to find Mark Harvey,” says Palmer. Harvey had 20 years of experience in the freeze-drying business. After touring the new plant, Harvey recommended Thrive Life add probiotics to its product line. Within a year, they had long-term commitments and contracts with multiple companies.

Mentorship has defined Palmer’s career, whether he’s being mentored or doing the mentoring. 

After the Dark November, Palmer reached out to two of his USU professors, Chad Mano and Jim Davis. He asked them what he could do personally to be a better leader for his company. They took him to lunch and encouraged him to get more education. 
Palmer now has an MBA from Notre Dame and has completed the Owner/President Management program at Harvard Business School. 

For the past year, Palmer has been serving as the USU Alumni President and on the USU Board of Trustees alongside Lucas Stevens, the student body president. Stevens, who graduated last year, came to him and said, “What can I do to be a business leader? I’m interested in becoming an entrepreneur.”

“I said, do you have a job?” Palmer recounts. “Let me give you a couple of years. After two years, you will definitely know if you want to be a business owner.” Stevens now works at Thrive Life as Palmer’s shadow and right-hand man.  

Palmer’s definition of success has evolved. “In some years success was just hanging on and not giving up. Now I would say success is learning about who you are, what you can accomplish, and what you can become—challenging yourself in ways you didn’t know you could stretch.” 

His advice for how to achieve this type of success? “Surround yourself with successful people that have the qualities you’re looking to possess. Say to yourself, ‘What am I not good at?’ and then go find the people who can help you become better.”