Things Are About to Get a Little Granarly

MORGAN POTTS, A LOUISIANA TECH UNIVERSITY ALUMNI, IS A YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR WHOSE QUEST TO “GO AGAINST THE GRAIN” HELPED LAUNCH HER COMPANY, GRANARLY.

ARTICLE BY VANELIS RIVERA AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARTIN G MEYERS

YOU’D BE SURPRISED AT WHAT A DOUBLE-HEADED LLAMA, whiskey and a food truck named Oatis have in common. Morgan Potts, foodie, young entrepreneur and overall visionary has managed to find the common thread through her food-venture Granarly, a food company handcrafting the gnarliest granola blends for those who desire to “go against the grain.”

This Georgia girl chose her father’s home state for college as a shot in the dark. She didn’t expect to last longer than a year at Louisiana Tech University, but she soon found out a place sometimes chooses you. Falling in love with Ruston, she embedded her social life in the university through her membership with the Kappa Delta sorority. Earning a degree in animal science, she was set on pursuing veterinary school for her postgraduate studies and even got accepted to the St. George’s University School of Veterinary Medicine in Grenada.
Then she had a dream. Not the whimsical kind that most extraordinary people credit their success to, but an actual dream, the prophetic kind. In the dream, Potts put whiskey in granola and called it ‘granarly.’ When she woke, she thought of it only as a divinely orchestrated power snack, so she made up the recipe on the spot, added the whiskey, threw in some cinnamon, and took the mix on a ski trip in the mountains with Kappa Delta. When she shared her trail mix with a friend, the response was, “you’re onto something here,” which emboldened her to put some of her mix in jewelry bags and pass them out to people in Colorado, just to see what they thought. Though she humorously recalls that the mini packets looked liked drug bags, these series of events were to be Granarly’s origin story.

Awakened by her sudden savvy in granola mixing, but still set on veterinary school, she moved to Shreveport, Louisiana in 2015 to fill the interval before her post-graduate semester would start. In Shreveport, she opened up Patton’s, originally a store from Ruston where she worked during college. There, she was able to sell her granola blends. In the middle of “adulting” she became interested in 318LIVE, the city’s young adult ministry. At an internship meeting, she began to discuss her business undertaking with the interviewer. Overhearing the conversation and intrigued, Daniel Maddry, young adult pastor, offered his support because he had a degree in marketing. He further confirmed that perhaps Granarly was her purpose in life. “This may be a dream from the Lord,” Potts remembers him saying. Still skeptical, she would need one more push.

On October 2015 Potts, accompanied by her father, Frank Potts, visited Granada to make a final decision on veterinary school. On the island, all she could focus on was the abundance of island spices, the likes of which she used in her granola mixes, like cinnamon and nutmeg. When she decided to tour the island for spices, her father, intending to support his daughter’s decision, revealed to her “Morgan, your heart is in Granarly. It’s not in vet school.” Since then, she has not looked back, and has amplified her “living against the grain” motto.
After Granada, she was ready to make things happen. Maddry helped her with marketing, and she was soon introduced to Allison Shelton, owner of Oak Alley Farms, a peanut company, who would become the mass producer of Granarly bags. By January 2016, Potts was finding her footing, and then two months later Shark Tank called her out of the blue. They ‘wanted in’ on Granarly. At that point, Potts was still giving bags to her friends for free and her labels were handwritten. While she sent the Shark Tank producers the stuff they needed, she decided to go against the grain and not go on the show. Thanks to the show’s interest in her product her trust was solidified– Granarly was what she was called to do.

At the beginning of 2017, Potts and Shelton decided they should do some markets. They passed through Atlanta, Denver, and ended up in Hawaii where Potts was inspired by açaí bowls. It was the perfect canvas for her grains. During the spring of 2017, she launched her bowl bar at Ruston’s Railway Festival. The mere experience of making fresh bowls drove her to consider a food truck. She began by just looking at campers to see what was out there. One day she was sitting in a coffee shop in Shreveport and came across Austin’s Texas Trucklandia Fest. Without hesitation, she applied even though didn’t have a food truck, which forced her to expedite her search. With the help of an investor, she found Oatis, her renovated white and periwinkle 1968 Scotsman currently located at 2201 South 1st Street in Austin, Texas. Oatis launched in Trucklandia on October 2017, cementing Potts’ place in Texas’ capital.

Potts’ menu is whimsical, but also straight-to-the-point. She has two bowls. The Açaí, Dude, which begins with a non-diluted gourmet açaí base, topped with strawberries, blueberries, bananas, and your choice of her now multiple Granarly blends, coconut flakes, honey or agave. The Greek Geek bowl is her Greek yogurt version of the Açaí, Dude. Also, the açaí bowl can be turned into a smoothie, known as Açaí Me Slurpin’, which uses her açaí blend and almond milk. An inventive toast entry is called the Taco Toast– two pieces of toast topped with vegan cream cheese spread, strawberries, your choice of Granarly, coconut flakes, honey or agave. If you’re tempted by the grain, but not planning a trip to Austin any time soon, you’ll want to discover Potts’ granola bags on her website. She currently has four, just as inventively titled as the items on her menu. The OG blend is her original recipe of raisins, cranberries, and whiskey. The Cliff Notes is made with dark chocolate, espresso, and whiskey. The Throw Me Something Gnarly, an ode to Louisiana, is her king cake blend, made with cinnamon, cream cheese and whiskey. And her best seller is her Skinny Jeans, an all vegan blend made with chia seeds and agave.

Sure, Potts admits, her ideas are “kinda’ crazy.” She even went through a rut thinking her ideas were stupid. “Not everyone is going to love what you do or have,” Potts says. She’s learned to be confident in what she’s doing, especially since she funded Granarly with her own money. It’s a brand that has a story and heart, which is the type of thinking that has motivated her to dream beyond her dream. She knows it’s meant to inspire because she doesn’t see herself as having a business; instead, she has a calling. Granarly is a company that honors passion and perseverance. Through her experience and success, Potts wants to start a movement that encourages others, in whatever area of life their passion may be, to “keep on going against the grain.” Granarly Guru is a phrase coined by Potts that is meant to describe the face of Granarly – a person who is adventurous, passionate, and inspiring.” This social media ambassador program is simple– “Eat Granarly, wear Granarly products, take pictures of Granarly, share Granarly” and most importantly, “just be your amazing self.” Interested parties need only visit the Granarly website, fill out the Granarly Guru form and “wait patiently” to receive an acceptance email. Already, Granarly Gurus are being established all over the states.Another feature of the Granarly beyond-the-grain movement is Potts’ #granarlygoes, a fun opportunity for Granarly lovers to be featured on her business’ Instagram page.

Morgan Potts is about to be 25 years old on March 11th, and she is on the cusp of a granola empire. “Through this process, I’ve learned who I am,” she says, specifically crediting her grandmother, Ruston native Ruth Potts, “my angel,” for being encouraging and pushing Potts to always “keep the happy spirit.” Adopting her “grans” mantra, Potts plans to not only keep the “happy,” but also share it– “I like to encourage people to not give up. If you are passionate, keep going.”

Austin may have become her home, but Northeast Louisiana will always be her launch pad, the place that gave her all she needed in order to grow wherever she landed. She’s traveled all over the world, to places like Madagascar and Peru, but every time she leaves, she always ends up thinking, “I’m so grateful for where I came from.”