Meet Lynn Rollé | CEO and Co-Founder of Boku Superfood

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lynn Rollé and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lynn, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
We have a positive impact on the world in a variety of ways. Directly, anybody who incorporates our pure products into their lifestyle will undoubtedly enjoy a higher level of nutritional intake and feeling of overall well-being. Our pure and potent powders pave the way for us to bring one of our core missions to life; that is to improve the health of people all over the world with our potent superfood powders. The importance of feeling your best and leading a healthy life cannot be overstated, and we are humbly grateful to be able to positively affect a small portion of the world’s population with our superfood products.

We pride ourselves on our authenticity in a sea of “greenwashed” brands, and have been sustainably operating our business by working directly with small farmers around the world for 15 years. Our ingredients are simply harvested fresh, gently dried and low temperatures and then powdered. This simple process not only locks in nutrition but essentially removes perishability, so the shelf life of our superfood ingredients goes from days to years. The environmental impact of this simple process is not insignificant as it’s estimated nearly 60% of fresh produce cultivated in North America is wasted.

Beyond the benefits of our superfood products that are incorporated into every meal in the café, the way we operate also holds a positive social impact.

The café footprint is intentionally small and hyper efficient. The same environmentally sound process that makes our superfood powders so incredibly healthy and delicious, also drastically reduces waste and the need for excessive square footage. A key feature of our café that we are very proud of is our EV charging stations – allowing patrons to fuel their bodies and cars in a clean and sustainable way, all in one stop.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
It’s true what they say: When you love what you do, it doesn’t really feel like work! I LOVE my “work” and am very hands on. I love speaking to my customers directly, many times even on the phone. Many of them have been with me since inception in 2007. Without them, there wouldn’t be a Boku! I treasure them all and know their honest feedback has innumerable value.

In the early days of Boku I would not leave to go home until I clicked on every order I got that day online. I would say the persons name aloud & thank them for their business. It was my daily ritual that I still try to do on occasion. My husband suggested I started thanking them as a group so I can get home at a reasonable hour for family time. 🙂 However, Boku is an extension of my family; it’s hard to leave at night sometimes.

Each day I have about a million things (or so it feels like) to accomplish. I feel like I have a pretty good way of getting through it all: I go through my daily list that I divide into 4-6 sections vertically. I plan my attack for the next day, it’s so rewarding to check things off my list!

I could honestly say I could not do what I do wearing many hats without my “Basecamp” project manager. I could be a poster child for Basecamp. I have such distain for e-mails. You can easily get lost & loose focus on projects without one system for everyone to follow. At this point in my life if you don’t follow my Basecamp your not part of my team! 😉

I am most proud of Cafe Boku. It is 15 years of my life all wrapped into one where I can get time away from my desk actually talking to my customers & hearing their excitement when they visit. When they taste the menu that is all plant based comfort food & drinks- all infused with our Boku Superfoods it sends me over the moon!

I’m extremely proud of my family and my staff many have been with me for over 8 years. When you work at Boku you really get a taste of a true American born & bred family business. My team is also part of my family!

Lessons learned: I wished I completed more than 1 year of college. Luckily I have great common sense & a strong intuition. I rely on that more & more these days. If it seems too good to be true it probably is! Nothing in life worth doing is easy. No shortcuts, you must do the work and learn the lessons before the universe lets you move up! I often recall my dad’s advise and smile. He sure had a way to tell you what you NEED to hear not what you wanted to hear!

How Boku was born:

Our story, like most stories, is wrapped up in layers — chapters of upheaval and chapters of astonishing beauty. In 1995 my husband and I discovered superfoods while searching incessantly for an alternative to prescription drugs to help our son, who was having a difficult time focusing in school. Our kitchen became a bit of an experimental lab full of superfood concoctions. We found the most potent foods on Earth, but it turned out a lot of them were less than tasty.

Fast forward to one night at 3:00 am living now in Ojai California. I woke my husband so excited! I told him I know the name of the business & what the logo looks like. The name BOKU came to me very strongly! The design I saw in my dream was a B inspired by the om sign with yellow for (sun), green ( plants) , blue ( water) and brown was (soil).

I found a girl in Texas Brandy Beasly of Mindflash- I explained to her my vision & her FIRST attempt was the logo in my dream. From that day on I knew it was meant to be & magical.

This is how Boku was born, to create superfoods that not only fueled and nourished the body but tasted delicious. The change we saw occur in our amazing child left us in awe. We fell into the world of plants, of learning about all the medicine our Earth had to offer.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I don’t go down much but I have to say when visitors come we like to rent bikes in Santa Monica & ride down to Venice Beach to check out the sights!

As a true Philly girl living in Southern California I’m always looking for great Pizza and an occasional Philly Cheese Steak sandwich at the Venice Whaler Bar & Grill.

The owner flies in the famous Amorosa rolls, a Philadelphia bakery since 1904. Its a “must” when ordering an authentic cheese steak in my opinion.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Hmm: My first thought is my husband. For 38 years he has given me “pep talks” to keep going thru so many ups & downs as an entrepreneur. His vision & drive is big, quite the “out of the box” thinker.

Website: www.bokusuperfood.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/bokusuperfood

Other: I would love to also list the website and social for the cafe: www.cafeboku.com www.instagram.com/cafebokuojai