Owner, Dirtbean Ohana
By Jennifer Nugent
“I believe everyone and every situation is unique and therefore must find their own path to success.”
Kristy Lanier, the owner of Dirtbean Ohana in Marlinton, West Virginia, is one who lives by this belief.
Early on, Lanier knew she didn’t want to have the typical 9 to 5 job where she had to answer to a boss. “When I was young, I didn’t know what I wanted to be, only that I wanted to be self-employed.” Her older brother, Keith, acted as the adult male figure in her life, and during motorbike adventures with him on the trails behind their home in Virginia, he encouraged her to find her own way in life. Over the years, she utilized her love for bikes to pay the bills and eventually began her own business, realizing her goal of being her own boss.
Her passion for sports began at an early age, and she turned to professional bike racing after high school. “I was looking for an athletic outlet after high school and found mountain biking,” she remembers. Her two most memorable professional races are the Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships in France and the Xterra World where she placed 9th in 2003 and 11th in 2008. Racing has taught Lanier patience and persistence and has allowed her to explore her physical and mental strengths.
A visit to Hawaii was the path that changed her future. “After a visit there, I knew it was ‘home.’ Physically, I grew up in Virginia, but mentally, emotionally and spiritually, I grew up in Honolulu.” Lanier attended the University of Hawaii, Manoa, and during her studies, she was employed by various bike shops. Faye Saiki, the owner of Bike Shop Hawaii, acted as a mentor to Lanier. “I worked for her for many years, off and on, and when I opened my own shop in Marlinton, she provided me inspiration.”
Lanier found a second home in Marlinton, near Snowshoe Resort, where she says life is slower and the bike trails are great. When she realized that the small town lacked services that were important to visiting outdoor adventurists and locals alike, she decided to open the Dirtbean. The shop offers a variety of services that include coffee, food items, bike accessories and repairs, spinning classes, personal coaching for cycling and triathlons, nutritional counseling, reflexology and special order bikes. The fact that Marlinton is the only town that sits on the Rail Trails was the selling point for locating the Dirtbean there. The characteristics that have been vital to her success as a business owner have been persistence, patience, intuition and being able to recognize when it is time to change in order to grow personally or professionally. Motivation for her comes from customers who truly appreciate her services—that, and being around bikes and good coffee.
In her spare time, Lanier enjoys hiking with her dogs Puna, Ellie, Lu and Squeeky, following University of Hawaii sports and reading books on Ayurveda. Her future plans include building a cabin on her property in Hilo, Hawaii so she can split her time between Hawaii and West Virginia and continuing her studies in Ayurveda. “I became interested in Ayurveda after breaking ribs and struggling with stomach issues as a result of the injury,” she says, explaining that Ayurveda is based on a diet and lifestyle balance meant to promote health.
Lanier has remained true to her instincts and has lived by the advice her older brother gave her many years ago—to find her own path. “I don’t know where I am now, but wherever that is has required determination, patience, long hours at work, learning to let go and sometimes letting the road guide me.” Fortunately for West Virginians, that road was a dirt bike trail that led yet one more successful entrepreneur to set up shop in the Mountain State.
