30 at 30: Daniel Jetton

Executive MBA – Strategic Leadership Class of 2017

Chief Executive Officer at SMNutrition

Children of a single mother, Daniel Jetton’s brother Adam was a father figure to him growing up. A talented athlete, Jetton recalls his brother cheering him on from the stands of wrestling matches and cross country meets, as well as during major milestones throughout his life.

“Adam was my father figure, a leader, and in so much of life, my protector,” Jetton said. “There’s always been this bond between the two of us.”

Shortly after Jetton graduated with his BA in pastoral studies from Trevecca Nazarene University, Adam, who had recently earned a Master’s in Exercise Science, reached out with a business proposal.

“When we graduated, Adam approached me about starting a supplement company,” he explained. “During that time, I was a working as a resident director at Trevecca, so I was living in a dorm room while we launched the supplement company.”

Growing the Business Fund

The brothers worked tirelessly to save every penny over the next six months. Jetton still has the “Business Fund” jar they used to save their first thousand dollars of startup money for the company, SMNutrition.

Launching the company was a leap of faith for the brothers, both of whom were new to entrepreneurship. With clearly defined core principles, however, the company began to develop a strong reputation for its products and customer service, and their sales climbed month over month.

“I had no business background,” Jetton explained. “But I knew to treat people well and do things the right way. We learned through the process, and it began to grow.”

In their first year, SMNutrition did $22,000 in sales. Jetton wrote personalized thank you notes for each order, creating long lines at the post office when he would mail new batches.

In their second year, Jetton leveraged his eCommerce experience from selling storage units and school textbooks on eBay and Amazon to transition the company’s supplement sales to Amazon. That transition paid huge dividends for the company, and their sales skyrocketed to $200,000.

A Whole-Person Approach to Learning

Jetton realized it was time to pursue an MBA when he found himself, for the first time, writing a check for a $100,000 purchase order. He began researching different business schools and settled on the University of Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business after speaking with recruiter Kitty Cornett.

Cornett’s genuine interest in his values and goals was paramount to Jetton, as he was seeking a school that would help him grow academically and as a leader.

“I’d figured out the technical side of running a business, but I didn’t have a background on the financial side,” Jetton said. “I realized I needed a base. I called and spoke with Kitty. Immediately, she made me feel like I mattered, and that she cared about who I was, and what I wanted to do.”

At first, Jetton was intimidated by the concept of joining a cohort of seasoned, corporate professionals. He was concerned that the profit-focused world of business might clash with SMNutrition’s service- and community-oriented culture.

However, as subjects like accounting and finance began to click, he saw opportunities to integrate the Executive MBA – Strategic Leadership (EMBA-SL) business principles with his company’s core values. Today, he even incorporates some of his EMBA-SL class materials into the SMNutrition hiring process.

For example, Jetton uses The Goal, a book that Mandyam “Srini” Srinivasan, Professor Emeritus in Business Analytics & Statistics, introduced to the cohort.

“Every person that we hire is recommended to read it,” he said. “The only reason I know some of the concepts that have allowed us to scale is because of the EMBA-SL program.”

Leading With IntegrityJetton’s results speak for themselves. When he enrolled in UT’s EMBA-SL program, SMNutrition was earning $3 million in revenue. At the time of his 30@30 interview, the company had grown to $25 million.

Throughout SMNutrition’s journey of growth, Jetton has maintained a values-first leadership style. His continued emphasis on nurturing his customers and employees, all while continuing to scale, earned SMNutrition the Better Business Bureau’s Torch Award in 2022. This award recognizes them as among the most ethical company in Tennessee and Kentucky.

“It was such a special honor,” Jetton said. “And it was so affirming. It felt like, ‘We’re doing something right.’”

EMBA Words of Wisdom

For up-and-coming leaders, Jetton referenced Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” quote, the key message of which is that credit and honor belong to those who choose to take risks, even when they may face failures and challenges.

“If you have character, and you’re living a good life, you often think of decisions as ‘good vs bad,’ but the majority are really ‘good vs good,’” Jetton explained. “The only way you know what you’re passionate about, and what you’re good at, is to take the step.”