Exploring Life & Business with Evan Summers of Now Schmear This!
- Evan Summers
- Sep 25
- 6 min read
Today we’d like to introduce you to Evan Summers, founder of Now Schmear This.
Hi Evan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Growing up in an entrepreneurial household means that you understand that nothing in life comes easy. Struggles come daily; whether it is finding ways to break into a new market, becoming innovative when competition around you slows your income, or pivoting to new opportunities when you need a fresh start. The upside to growing up in a family of entrepreneurs means that you are always working within your passion and loving the “job” you have because you developed it for yourself. I consider myself deeply fortunate to have had parents who created, developed, and operated multiple businesses during my formative years, all the while, ensuring that our needs, as a family, were the first priority. That living mentorship provided a blueprint for my life, inspiring not only my work as an entrepreneur, but also my passion to use my experience and wisdom to mentor others.
Prior to launching Now Schmear This (our new business), I trained and operated a business over the last 8 years as a functional aromatherapist, studying how the aromatic chemicals and essential oils interact in the human body. The education that I received in aromatherapy was integral in learning how different flavors work together to create crave-able combinations. The secondary benefit (and one that was fully unexpected) was how aromatherapy training also heightened my palate to better taste and identify varied flavors.
In 2023, after a lot of deep reflection, I had to accept the fact that the aromatherapy business, while something I was deeply passionate about, was simply not providing the kind of income needed to grow and support our expenses. It was then that, with the support of my family, I took a leap of faith, and started to develop the concept, inspiration, and strategy for Now Schmear This!.
We started with a plan to upend the industry with a focus on incredibly deep flavors, even with the “standards” that everyone is familiar with. From there, we branched into innovative flavor combinations that both delight and surprise the palate. It was that simple original idea that breathes life into our mission:
“At Now Schmear This!, we want to use our unique ingredient combinations to inspire families to come together in the kitchen and reimagine a life filled with flavor.”
When we develop new flavors, we always seek to take your tastebuds on a journey and you will find that many of our flavors actually take 15-30 seconds to fully experience. One flavor in particular, our December 2024 flavor of the month, Cranberry Orange Jalapeno, hit your palate 3 times over a 30 second period, often starting with the tartness of cranberry, followed by the heat of jalapeno, and lastly, cooled down with the sweetness of real mandarin oranges.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Every business, including this one has it’s challenges and stressors. Reflecting on the struggles that I have overcome to this point would have to start with the prior business (8 years ago) and a series of severe medical issues that made it impossible to hold a “traditional” job. Facing the reality of repeated surgeries, physical therapy, body weakness, long recovery times. and all of the uncertainty that comes with it, the financial burden of operating a business in the health field became increasingly more challenging. When you factor in the physical strain that comes with setting up at a local farmer’s market or festival, it was apparent that a new business model, one that was more financially stable, was necessary, when I was finally physically able to do so.
2023 was my transition year. My latest major surgery occurred in June of that year and, in order to ensure the best possible chance for long-term recovery, I took the remainder of the year off in order to focus my efforts on recovering successfully from this procedure. While focusing on my physical recovery and strengthening, my wife and I started developing the outline and goals for Now Schmear This!. Using my past experience operating a vendor space at local events provided a level of comfort, knowing what to expect once the business was officially launched. Being in a new industry (food), creating a perishable product (cream cheese), and uncertainty around my physical capabilities added a greater level of stress than I never expected. I spent months researching every license, certification, and ingredient in order to be better prepared. I tried to anticipate all of the possible hurdles that may come our way, including developing a custom-made set of coolers that help protect our product during the blistering Summer heat in Georgia.
We developed our initial list of flavors (most of which are still part of our inventory today), identified the festivals and farmer’s markets where we felt we “needed” to be, and started amassing the supplies needed to “play” with our product. Each time we developed new flavors, we leaned on a group of trusted friends to taste and provide feedback for each one.
Luckily, despite the stress and uncertainty, we have successfully managed to navigate the rough waters of the first year in business and continue to innovate with new flavors and new ideas on how to stand apart from anyone else in this industry. We actively reflect upon our experience in order to remain focused on our path and use that reflection to look to the future with a strong sense of optimism.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Now Schmear This!?
We created Now Schmear This! in an effort to rid the world of boring butter and common cream cheese by creating super flavorful, small batch, artisan butters and flavored cream cheese blends from our ever-growing list of premium mix-ins. We currently stock 15 flavors of butter and 15 flavors of cream cheese at all times in our inventory. In addition to our “stock flavors”, we also create a limited-edition flavor every month. Ever since our launch, our customers rave about our unique flavors, proudly introducing us to friends and family members whenever they come to visit. It brings great joy when our customers literally drag their friends or family to our vendor space and introduce us as, “This is the (cream cheese or butter) guy I keep telling you about.”
On our website, we even offer the opportunity to create a completely personal flavor combination, exactly to our customer’s specifications. We currently have an inventory of over 50 ingredients you can select from, including local honey, sriracha, dill pickle, bacon, cheddar cheese, etc. We also gladly create exclusive flavor combinations for chefs, cafe’s, and catering companies. We even created a “Fruity Pebbles cream cheese” for a local restaurateur who wanted to experiment with something for the kids.
In our first year in business, we were both humbled and honored that our customers nominated us for GBJ’s Best of Georgia Award, an award we were thrilled to win Honorable Mention for (in the bagel category). At the beginning of 2025, our signature flavor (Honey Garlic Jalapeño) was named a finalist for the Flavor of Georgia contest, presented by Georgia Grown.
We were also featured on Atlanta News First in August, 2024 when we introduced our Loaded Baked Potato cream cheese to the community. That feature can be found at:
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
As someone deeply rooted in a creative mindset, I tend to lose focus very quickly when trying to read inspirational books or listen to podcasts. That fact often surprises people who have experienced their own entrepreneurial journey. A lot of business coaches won’t work with a business owner who doesn’t devote time, daily, to reading books and structured personal development. I do, however, thrive on the personal relationships I develop in the business community by networking with business groups throughout Cobb County. I am a frequent attendee of events with the Marietta Business Association as well as West Cobb, Smyrna, Kennesaw, and Acworth Business Associations as well. I love networking! The inspiration I gain from these other entrepreneurs has been nothing short of miraculous. I actively celebrate the success of every business owner I meet because I know their struggles to get where they are today. These other entrepreneurs are my role models… and most of them don’t even know it.
Running your own business, especially one that you start from an idea, is a difficult, lonely, rollercoaster of a journey. It can be emotionally devastating to fail or even to be afraid to fail, when things don’t go as planned. I have found it to be a good personal practice for myself to be self-aware enough to know when I need to take a break. That break can be an hour, a few hours, a day, or a week. The demands of the business will still be there upon my return, but my mind may be in a better, more secure place to manage it after allowing myself some time to “play” outside of the task at hand.
Pricing:
4oz Size- $5.00 – $6.00
8oz Size- $9.00 – $10.00
Contact Info:
Website: https://www.MySchmear.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/now_schmear_this
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/myschmear
This article originally published by Voyage ATL Magazine on May 15, 2025 https://voyageatl.com/interview/exploring-life-business-with-evan-summers-of-now-schmear-this/
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