In 11 questions and 11 minutes, Kiss the Ground CEO Evan Harrison interviews leaders pioneering Regeneration as they work towards advancing a viable solution for human and planetary health.
Family camping trips and high school science class ignited Kyle Bliffert’s lifelong passion for the outdoors and human wellness.
Guided by those early experiences, Bliffert professionally dove into the vitamin and supplement industry. For the past 33 years, he has been at the forefront of the holistic health movement, leading brands like Pure Encapsulations and Nestle Health Science.
Now as the CEO of Gaia Herbs®, a trailblazing herbal supplement company operating on a nearly 270-acre Regenerative Organic Certified® farm, Bliffert is connecting consumers with the next wave of wellness: Regeneration.
We sat down with him for 11 rapid-fire questions—no geek speak, just real talk.
I was born in Wisconsin and lived there until I was 11. Wisconsin is a very healthy and outdoor-oriented place. My family was pretty active, so I always spent a lot of time outdoors.
One of my earliest memories was on trails, hiking and camping. There’s a park there called High Cliff State Park up near Lake Winnebago. It’s an escarpment, so you get a great view over the lake.
When I was about 11, we moved to Arizona. That was pretty different for me culturally, but fun in a lot of different ways. I really enjoyed Arizona, and I’m still very connected to both places.
My primary home is now in Bend, OR. Bend is a very nature-oriented place. From growing up in Wisconsin, moving to Arizona, college in Colorado, 10 years in San Diego, and Oregon since 1993, the thread that goes through them all is that I connected to the outdoors. The mountains in Boulder, beaches in San Diego, and spending a lot of time out in nature in Oregon are key to my overall health and wellness.
My wife and I have a mantra. We have to do something active everyday! Whether it is a walk, time in the gym or whatever, we have to keep the motor running and stay connected to nature.
“The mountains in Boulder, beaches in San Diego, and spending a lot of time out in nature in Oregon are key to my overall health and wellness.”
I have always had an interest in medicine. When I was in high school, my science teacher recognized my interest and asked if I would like to participate in an American Heart Association scholarship program. One senior from each high school in the Phoenix area was invited to go to Arizona State University for a working session sponsored by the American Heart Association. They would pick 2 of the kids to receive a scholarship to go to medical school.
I was honored by the nomination and accepted it. I went to ASU on a Saturday morning as a senior in high school. The first weekend I realized that the kids there were sons of physicians and daughters of health professionals. I realized that I had zero chance of winning this scholarship. Nonetheless, I stuck it out for the entire session and learned a lot about how medicine and academia played together.
I put myself through college and couldn’t afford the time or the investment to become a physician. I’m glad I didn’t because it would have been down the conventional, practitioner route. That’s not where my true interest lies.
I graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with a business degree in finance and real estate. I also studied health, nutrition, and biology.
After college, I went to San Diego and got into commercial real estate. I was selling and leasing industrial buildings. One of the very first business owners that contacted me was a guy moving his vitamin supplement business to San Diego—a startup company called Metabolic Maintenance®.
I think the universe aligned and we became friends and started doing some work together. In 1993, I partnered with him and made an investment in his business. I left the real estate business and went into the vitamin business—mainly because it was a path that I was much more interested in for the long run. It was health and science oriented. It was manufacturing and being able to produce products that could positively impact people’s lives.
Metabolic was a business that was making products for health care professionals. Many people didn’t even know that health care professionals were buying supplements and reselling them to their patients.
Before DSHEA (Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994), there was some question and risk about what was going to happen to the vitamin industry. Metabolic sold products to practitioners, naturopathic doctors, and early functional medicine doctors who were looking at medicine in a different way than I’d ever heard.
Early in that cycle, I met a gentleman named Jeffrey Bland. I went to the second annual Institute for Functional Medicine Conference in Palm Springs. I listened to Jeff speak and was amazed by his positioning around functional medicine and how medicine should work from a whole body standpoint. I was hooked and built my career around it. It’s been 33 years now.
I’ve had the pleasure to work with some amazing brands, right? I told you about Metabolic, and I enjoyed helping Nordic Naturals® build their healthcare professional business. I was recruited to go join Pure Encapsulations® and was involved with the Atrium Innovations brands like Garden of Life®. I ended my career as the CEO of Nestlé Health Science®.
I happily retired for two years, and then, I joined the board of Gaia Herbs®. I decided that I wasn’t quite finished yet—maybe I had one more go around left in me. I’ve been with Gaia Herbs® now as a board member since spring of ‘22 and as the CEO since February of ‘24. It’s been a really cool and interesting journey.
I would say we were at the tip of the iceberg in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s. Some hypoallergenic and high potency antioxidants were being used for medical purposes, but they were an outlier.
I went to Expo West in Anaheim in 1990. This was back when it was in one exhibit hall with two supplement companies there. Twinlab®, the 800-pound gorilla of the supplement industry at the time, and Joe Weider. The Joe Weider booth was all muscle-building guys who looked like they were on steroids, wearing thin tank tops and lifting weights to sell protein powder. Twinlab®, on the other hand, was selling fairly basic multivitamins.
Now, the supplement industry has become extremely sophisticated. Originally, healthcare practitioners, especially naturopaths and functional medicine doctors, were at the leading edge of the medical application of how supplements could help folks from a whole body perspective. I think the rest of the industry has really come along for that ride.
I think the number when I started in the supplement industry was at maybe $5 billion total revenue. Today, in the U.S., it’s well over $60 billion. It hasn’t been that long, but we’ve seen exponential growth. It’s been growing every single year for 30 years at 6-9%. Wellness in general is certainly a consistent, growth industry.
I’ve had the good fortune of watching the industry evolve, and I saw a time when omega-3 fatty acids were really in the spotlight and really boomed. I think herbs are in that same place now. They are having their moment. All of the bigger supplement companies are adding herbs to their formulas.
Over the next 10 years, there will be a ton of opportunities for folks investing in their health to leverage the benefits of high-quality, pure, and regenerative herbs. I think it’s going to be a great 10-year run for herbs, and the whole industry will continue to evolve and grow as well.
“Over the next 10 years, there will be a ton of opportunities for folks investing in their health to leverage the benefits of high-quality, pure, and regenerative herbs. “
I genuinely love our Ashwagandha formula as part of my nightly routine. It supports a healthy stress response, which can make it easier to unwind and support more restorative-feeling sleep.* And I’m especially proud that our recently accepted, clinically published study adds meaningful validation for ashwagandha’s role in supporting everyday resilience.*
When I travel to Mexico right after the rainy season and everything is especially green, I like to bring along our Turmeric Supreme® Sinus Support. This formula includes quercetin, which is known for supporting respiratory health and healthy breathing during seasonal challenges.*
A brand new product that I’ve been using lately, which I’m really excited about, is Berberine & Milk Thistle. We use two branded ingredients. One’s called HIMABERB®, a branded berberine ingredient. The other is Organic Silactive® Milk Thistle. For me, those two ingredients, along with a little bit of ginger, makes this a great product for digestive support.* We’re really excited about this new innovation.
Those are the three products I’d highlight.
When I grew up, my father was sort of in the music business. He was an early pioneer in stereo and hi-fi. He graduated from college in the ‘50s and started a business called “Hi-Fi Fo-Fum” selling “hi-fi” equipment and speakers. As a kid, I was always around music. I still love all kinds of music.
I think it would be a dinner where we’d want to have a really robust discussion and conversation starting with light and background classical music. I like Chopin and some of the other more classical artists. I think that just sets a tone for people to engage, share a little wine, and be able to converse in an intelligent way. After dinner, we might go into the Rolling Stones, Lenny Kravitz or something that would be a bit more fun.
The purpose of the dinner would be to discuss how Kiss the Ground can succeed and win, and how we can most successfully talk about regenerative farming. I would invite John Adams, our 2nd President, because he was a huge force behind the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. He was a bit unsung, but he was committed to his purpose. It would be great to pick his brain about fighting uphill. The statistics you use, 7% of folks are aware of regenerative farming right now, well, that means we got 93% more to go. We need somebody with the mentality of putting your head down and keep walking through the challenges.
My second guest would be the Dalai Lama. I had the amazing fortune to see the Dalai Lama speak live in Denver. I went by myself without a ticket. It was sold out, but of course, you’re going to end up with a ticket when you go to see the Dalai Lama.
When the Dalai Lama spoke, his compassion, love, joy, and message was so powerful and uniting. He would be a great person to be able to have at dinner and talk about the best way to take Kiss the Ground forward.
The last one is a competitor whose life ended too early. He was at the top of his game, untouchable in certain moments, and almost at an ethereal level. This was a Formula 1 race car driver named Ayrton Senna. Senna was able to channel something that nobody else could. He was able to compete at the highest level. Sometimes, he was vilified for that. Other times, people really respected him, and I think he was misunderstood more than anything. He had a gift and skill. The people of Brazil literally thought that his gift was handed down directly from God.
So, a leader, a philosopher and a competitor. That would make for an interesting conversation and certainly provide unique insight into how Kiss the Ground could push its mission and vision forward.
Written by: Luli Harrison
*These statements have not been evaluated by the food and drug administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
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