Brothers Troy and Alfonzo Bolden grew up on a plantation in Louisiana in the 1970s. Standing on their mother’s porch, there was nothing but sugarcane as far as the eye could see. Well, apart from the old sugarcane tractors.
It might have been hard for the siblings to see beyond the horizon, but that didn’t stop the youngsters from dreaming big. The boys knew that the world was their oyster – and this self-belief was all down to their mother.
“Our mother gave us the biggest gift; she gave us freedom,” explains Troy.
“She gave us the freedom to think that we could do everything. As we got older, we just kept that freedom and it’s that freedom that keeps pushing us.”
So, what became of those two young boys? They’re now the co-CEOs of their own company: Cajun Nation. Its signature product is a low-sodium seasoning that boasts a highly enticing Cajun flavour.
These days you can also find a range of other goodies on offer from the brand. This includes hot sauces under the brand of Cajun Heat; Cajun Coasts for fans of seafood; and the upcoming Cajun Sugar, which pays homage to their plantation roots.
You can already find their products in over 300 stores. However, for those who haven’t seen the products on the shelves near them just yet, it’s more than possible that you’ll have heard of the brand. After all, it has a rather impressive web and social media presence, as well as having picked up wider media attention on television.
Cajun Nation has quickly set itself apart in the market with the two ambitious brothers at the helm. Generally, Troy handles the business side of the venture while Alfonzo is in charge of operations. It’s not hard to see that this is proving to be a winning formula.
Cajun Nation, however, isn’t the first venture that the pair has pursued together. Instead, their flair for fashion first allowed them to dabble in the world of entrepreneurship when they launched a clothing line in their younger years. This line featured designs that paid tribute to the south – and it didn’t take long to catch the eye of investors who wanted a piece of the action.
In fact, at one point, the duo received an offer from the CEO of a billion-dollar company. While the brothers didn’t sell at that time, they still gained a life-long mentor in the early stages of their business careers.
“He’s one of our mentors,” reveals Alfonzo. “Every now and then, I’ll call this man, who makes $5 million a year. And he goes, ‘Zo, how you doing? Let me know how the sauce is doing.”
The clothing line eventually fell to the wayside when Troy and Alfonzo began to turn their attention to Cajun Nation. The idea was actually born out of an upsetting set of circumstances when Alfonzo’s wife fell ill. It was discovered that she had a blood clot in her lung and it was determined that she would need to have her thyroid removed.
The diagnosis and subsequent operation meant that she had to go on to a low-sodium diet. Rather than mince her words, Alfonzo’s wife instructed her husband and his brother to make a low-sodium seasoning. And they did.
“We started to doing some research and we came up with the perfect blend,” recalls Alfonzo. “The only problem was that we didn’t have a name.”
Cajun Nation, in many ways, was the ideal fit. The brothers already had the name trademarked and were proud to have grown up in a community with plenty of Cajun influence. Despite this, the product that you can enjoy today actually has more to do with how they relate to being Creole.
“We ain’t Cajun,” says Troy. “We grew up in the culture, but our culture is Creole. Like I said, Cajun with Creole seasoning, we’re Creole with Cajun seasoning.”
Troy adds: “We didn’t build it off their culture. We built it off ours. We’re Creole guys with Cajun seasoning because that’s what we cook with.”
It’s a subject that the pair is passionate about. Creole culture is very important to them, even if it isn’t represented in the name of their company. In the simplest terms, Troy explains: “We’re Creole, but we’re making Cajun seasoning.”
Troy and Alfonzo can trace their Creole roots back to their mother’s side of the family. Their grandparents relocated to find work in the sugarcane industry and ended up living in Glencoe, Louisiana. For many years this was where the brothers called home.
Through their mother, Troy and Alfonzo grew up living, seeing and even hearing Creole culture as part of everyday life.
Alfonzo recalls: “Our family is Creole, French-speaking Creole. It’s just that we didn’t pick that up. My grandmother and aunt would speak it, but we never learned it.”
Food and family – along with music – are arguably the true staples of Creole culture. Due to this, it’s hardly surprising to hear that these aspects were – and still are – such a large part of the brothers’ lives.
Now, however, the seasoning that they enjoy alongside their relatives is much better known across the state.
“We still have family reunions in the backyard, but we just bring this low-sodium Cajun seasoning into the party,” says Troy.
Alfonzo adds: “It’s all about family, food and fun.”
In many ways, family is such an integral part of the Cajun Nation. It’s not just that the two self-starters behind it are brothers. There’s also the fact that the whole endeavour seems designed for familial gatherings – the same familial gatherings that were such a significant part of their upbringing.
Then there are the other siblings. Troy and Alfonzo have another brother and three sisters, who – while not an official part of the company – all give it their backing by helping to promote it. Word of mouth can, of course, be very powerful.
You could put a lot of Cajun Nation’s attention down to the chatter surrounding the brand, the enthusiasm of its two co-CEOs or even the notable web presence it’s gained. A simple social media search will see that it’s attracted a loyal fan base, with more than 10,000 followers alone on Facebook.
This figure only gets bigger when you factor in platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
Cyberspace is just one of the ways that people are having their heads turned by Cajun Nation. The other, however, comes down to a form of more old school marketing: packaging.
Cajun Nation seasoning can be found in a distinctive red can featuring its name in white font and the proud declaration that it’s a ‘product of Louisiana’. It’s eye-catching to say the least, with a lot of thought going into making the design pop.
“We started off with the can,” reveals Troy. “We chose the colour because it has the longest wavelength. There is a science to the can.”
Troy further explains: “When you walk down an aisle in the store, and you look down the shelves, red is the first colour you see.”
You’d be forgiven for thinking that it looks familiar. After all, when creating the packaging, the brothers were inspired by the world-famous Coca-Cola Company. They admit that they studied the philosophy behind the corporation’s marketing and used this as a springboard for Cajun Nation.
Much like Coca-Cola, they’re looking to make their own range of products healthier – and as a result, more diverse – to attract a larger customer base.
Alfonzo reveals: “We’re going to have variations of it. We’re going to have no salt, but it will still be with the healthier aspect of it.”
This is sure to lead to even more people being given the opportunity to enjoy the distinctive taste of the Cajun Nation. It’s all part of a larger marketing plan that sees them highlight the two other unique traits of the company: the first being that it’s 100% minority-owned, and the second being that – thanks to the brothers’ time in the National Guard – the company is 100% veteran owned.
It all bodes well for the long-term prospects of the Cajun Nation. In fact, Troy and Alfonzo envision the day when it will become a national brand.
What could this mean for these two go-getters from Louisiana? The first is the possibility of ‘generational wealth’ in which their children – and even their children – can benefit from their hard work and determination.
“I’ll be the cornerstone for my lineage, able to do things for the world,” says Alfonzo. “That’s kind of what we are trying to do right now.”
You shouldn’t expect success, fame, and fortune to change these two down-to-earth siblings, though. When asked about the message they’d like others to take from their inspiring story, people should always have pride in themselves and remember that it’s ‘not where you started, but where you finish’.
Troy says: “I’m just a black guy. Be proud of who and what you are.”
There’s no doubt that the brothers are right to be proud of who they are and, of course, proud of what they’ve created in Cajun Nation.
