← The Code To Winning
The Code To Winning
BUCKED UP THE #1 PRE-WORKOUT BRAND: 9 FIGURE EMPIRE IN 10 YEARS || RYAN GARDNER || EPISODE 084
00:49:48
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A
Essentially, we were born and raised on a farm in Clearfield, Utah. So going from a farm to running a multi hundred million dollar company, you know, it's been quite the journey. But you know, we did everything from sales floors. We learned how to produce leads, drive traffic online. We had our own affiliate network, you know, where we had, you know, a thousand publishers driving traffic for different products or services and then off to the races with doing our own thing. And that's what's led us to Bucked Up. Nice to meet you. I'm Ryan, the CEO for Bucked Up. We just wanted to call you, tell you how much we appreciate you because
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it's our mission to give you the absolute best pre workout out there.
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A
Let's go.
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B
Ryan Gardner founded bucked up in 2016 and has been the managing partner, partner
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A
and CEO ever since.
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Under his supervision, Buck Duck has gone from a local supplement brand to the number one best selling pre worker, available in over 100, 000 stores worldwide.
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A
And then we started going to expos and we saw that pre workouts were really popular. And we were like, well, what is a pre workout?
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B
We didn't even know.
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A
So but we are marketers, right? So and we were consulting and telling people how to, to run their business and kind of how a website should look and how the branding should look. So we just applied what we had learned in the past and applied it to coming out with a pre workout, sticking with a deer theme and call it Bucked up. And we had the vision in mind to grow a full line of supplements. Not just pre workout, but everything from protein. You know, now we have energy drinks, protein drinks, creatine, creatine candy, all those different products. So we have a full line of supplements.
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B
Now people don't really understand the back office of how these things kind of work. Like when you sign a person because sometimes they sell something and they get a commission.
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A
Yeah.
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B
With partnerships. How does that actually work in terms of.
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A
Yeah. So right now we have over a hundred thousand ambassadors.
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B
Wow.
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A
And they get paid, like you said, when they drive a cell or they somebody uses their code or they have a unique link that we're able to track and it comes back to them. They get paid a commission. But with a sponsored athlete. Sponsored athlete, Sponsored.
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B
What's your mindset when it comes to risk and creativity in branding?
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A
Well, look, our forte is marketing. We came from a marketing background. Online driving traffic, building out funnels, call them click funnels now. But we were doing these landing pages a long time ago and optimizing the Data as it comes in. But you know, we were always big on marketing and our companies revolved around marketing. We actually hired the former CEO of Dr. Pepper, his name is Gil. And we hired him to help us build out our distribution network. And because he knew the network from working at Dr. Pepper and other places, he knew how to build that network and had relationships with those people. We got our drinks into a lot of different places with Gil. Gil was the most expensive employee that we hired. But look at us now. I mean, we, we're on pace to sell 60 plus million energy drinks and protein drinks. So it's been amazing to have a guy like him in our organization.
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B
The code to winning insights, you need today to seize the world tomorrow. With an amazing guest right here, Utah's very own talk about, like Ryan Gardner's journey as well. Bucked up, which started in 2016, used to be just a local supplement company. It's now the number one pre selling workout in 20,000 stores worldwide. I've been excited to get this interview going. I've been trying my best. Without further ado, the man, the myth, the very legend himself, Ryan Gardner.
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A
Hey, well, thanks for having me on. Appreciate. Thanks for having me on.
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B
Appreciate that. Appreciate that. No, and I've always, like I said, when we started off, I, I was just very impressed with the journey that you guys have accomplished in the short space of nine years. I want to just talk a bit more just about like, you know, Ryan Gardner, like, how did this all begin for you, sir?
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A
Well, you know, I've told this story a bunch of times on different podcasts, but essentially we were born and raised on a farm in Clearfield, Utah. So going from a farm to running a multi hundred million dollar company, you know, it's been quite the journey. But you know, we did everything from, you know, we were on sales floors, we learned how to produce leads, drive traffic online. We had our own affiliate network, you know, where we had, you know, a thousand publishers driving traffic for different products or services. And then off to the races with doing our own thing and doing our own products and services. And that's what's led us to Bucked Up.
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B
Okay, and so was that always the vision, the beginning when you and you, you and your brother Jeff, like started, was that always the vision, the beginning or no?
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A
No, you know, everything just happens. And you know, at the very first we're just driving traffic for people. And then we said, man, why are we, why do we keep building everybody else's business? Why don't we do our own you know, and then the next guy that came in saying, hey, I want you to drive traffic by, you know, within an hour or two, we own 50% of the company.
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B
Wow.
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A
So we just said, hey, we're only going to drive traffic for our own products. And he goes, well, let's be partners then. And so we did. And that kind of started down the road of owning our own stuff, right. And driving traffic to our own products. And then we bought a domain name deer antlerspray.com and we read an article in Sports Illustrated that says deer antler spray is banned in Major League Baseball because they've. It gives an athlete an edge, and they don't want to have anything that gives an athlete an edge they shouldn't be taking.
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B
Right?
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So, you know, we bought deer antlerspray.com and, you know, a couple months later, Ray Lewis got accused of taking it right before the Super Bowl. And then we were off to the races. GNC called us within, you know, three days of that whole debacle and said, how fast can you fulfill 30,000 bottles? So we were selling thousands and thousands of bottles a month later at gncs.
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B
Wow.
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A
And then we started going to expos, and we saw that pre workouts were really popular. And we were like, well, what is a pre workout? We didn't even know, but we were marketers, right? So, and we were consulting and telling people how to run their business and kind of how a website should look and how the branding should look. So we just applied what we had learned in the past and applied it to coming out with a pre workout, sticking with a deer theme and call it bucked up. And we had the vision in mind to grow a full line of supplements, not just pre workout, but everything from protein, you know, to, you know, now we have energy drinks, protein drinks, we have creatine, creatine candy, you know, all those different products. So we have a full line of supplements now. So.
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B
No, that's. That's amazing. And I think one of the most amazing thing about that, it's not just the fact that it's built a brand. It's almost like a household name. Everywhere you go, wherever you see bucked up, you know, you're associated with pre workout. But it's more than just that as you just touched on.
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A
Right? Yeah, exactly. You know, what was funny is BYU said, oh, when we first started, we went to BYU and said, hey, we want to do a sponsorship. And they're like, now bucked up will never be at BYU just because of the Name. And now that we're more of a household name now, they're like, okay, hey, we want you to sponsor. And we're like, I thought we would never belong at byu. So, you know, but that's where we are now. So it's now become more of a household name. You know, even when we started Bucked up and we came up with the name Bucked up, my parents didn't even like it. You know, we're from Utah here and, you know, we're raised very religious and so we couldn't say anything with the F word, like freak and fetch and flip, you know, like stuff that would mean a different word. But so, you know, even the name Bucked up was really hard for a little while. But now that we're more mainstream, it's, you know, we've, we've kind of passed those things. You know what I mean?
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B
No, I love that. And I think another big thing that you guys have been very good at, it's not just the partnership, it's the collaboration. In your opinion or like, in. What do you think most people overlook in terms of, like, collaboration or whether it's athletes, retailers, influencers that people don't know about?
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A
Yeah, like, look, we've, we've gone through the school of hard knocks on this, and you got to figure out how to activate with that athlete or that person or that sponsored athlete, collaboration, whatever it is, you've got to figure out how to do something that helps the whole picture. Because, like, for instance, you can just give a guy money for nil, but what is that going to get you in return? Right, but you know, like things like, like a Bryson DeChambeau, for instance. Right. We're going to be coming out with some drinks with Bryson DeChambeau with his name on it, and they're going to be a really awesome hydration drink this next year. And that's how we're going to be able to monetize working with or collabing with a celebrity or a sponsored athlete. That's how, that's how we do it. You know what I mean? And so, you know, his name will get us into doors. Like, for instance, Dick's Sporting Goods says, yeah, we'll bring it into all 800 stores as soon as it's available. So, you know, those are the different types of collaborations. But, you know, like, when you're working with an nil person, how do you make that work?
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Exactly.
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You know what I mean? So that's what you got to think about. You know, we've, we've done some partnerships with people, but we're like, how are we going to make this work? You know, fighters, We've done just influencers, you know, social media influencers. But how do you make that work? You know, like with Bryce hall, we did a flavor collab with him, and that worked out for us because, you know, we were able to get it into gnc. He came to GNC openings and stores and, you know, we did a lot of activation with them and it was great. So that's. That's kind of how that worked out.
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B
No, I like that. And I. Obviously, with influencers and affiliates, it's a little different compared to when you do a bigger partnership, like, approaches as well. Right?
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Yeah.
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Can you walk us through, like, what determines the right brand or athlete to kind of fit your ecosystem as well?
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A
Well, we're kind of edgy, right? Even our names kind of edgy. So we need somebody that's a little edgy as well. We did do a sponsorship with Conor McGregor.
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B
I was going to get to that.
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And the thing is, is he was maybe a little too edgy, and he made some comments. And so we had to kind of discontinue that on his Twitter, that we had to discontinue the relationship because we had, you know, big companies saying, hey, we're not going to touch you if you have Conor McGregor. So that's kind of how that one kind of ended because he made some comments and they didn't want to get canceled, you know, so to be fair, they.
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B
That one was signed, sealed and delivered, wasn't it?
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A
Oh, yeah, yeah. It was signed, sealed, delivered. We had been working with him. We came out with a flavor. He came to Utah, did a production day, a meet and greet. We took him to, you know, Temple Square. We took him to family search. We took him to the BYU game. It was. It was pretty big news. So it, you know, we got a lot of eyeballs. The issue is that he was maybe a little too edgy, but, like, someone like Bryson DeChambeau, where he's edgy, he's really good at social media and getting eyeballs. That's what we're looking for.
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B
Okay, now that makes perfect sense because I remember, I think when you were doing that tour with Conor McGregor, my friend texted me, he's like, I think Conor McGregor in and out. Like, as we were at in and out. And he's like, he came with the bucked up, like, car and everything. I'm like, whoa, this is real.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And so I think everyone was anticipating that. So I think it's amazing how far you've come in terms of just the brand that it's. You've built and the people that you've attracted that. The fact that you're big enough to even say, no, we're not going to continue this relationship.
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A
Yeah, it was a tough thing to do because Connor was awesome. He stayed at my house for four days. It was great. He's. He's an awesome guy. I wouldn't say anything bad. He is who he is, and he. He goes with it. You know what I mean? And there's, you know, you got to respect that, too. You know what I mean? But when it came to a business decision, I mean, personally, I love the guy, but when it comes to a, A, a business decision, we had to make a really tough call there. So.
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B
No, I love that. And then when I said walk us through the, the process. When you end up, like, signing, is that usually, like, a payment that's made to people? People don't fully understand the back office of how these things kind of work. Like, when you sign a person, because sometimes with affiliates, you. They sell something and they get a commission.
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Yeah.
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B
With partnerships, how does that actually work in terms of.
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Yeah. So we have. Right now, we have over 100,000ambassadors.
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B
Wow.
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And they get paid, like you said, when they drive a cell or they. Somebody uses their code or they have a unique link that we're able to track, and it comes back to them. They get paid a commission. But with a sponsored athlete. Yeah. There's a pretty big upfront chunk, and then it's paid out over time as he does his deliverables. So what we do is we get them to agree to a certain amount of deliverables. Like, hey, we need this many production days. You know, like, Conor McGregor came into town because it was a production day. We needed it for ads. We needed it for, you know, you know, we want to be able to do, you know, end caps with his face on it, you know, to help build the momentum there. And, you know, so. So there is an upfront chunk, and then there's a monthly payment that's made as long as he's doing his deliverables. So that's how that works.
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B
And I think when I. When we started the. The podcast, I told you where I'm from, and usually, like, outside America, soccer is a religion.
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A
Oh, yeah. Soccer is huge.
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B
World Cups coming next year.
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A
Yeah.
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B
I don't want you to give anything away, but with some of the superstars coming, are we seeing any Potential.
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We have a few opening. We have a few in mind, but we have some other people in mind that we think would do a little bit better.
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B
Okay.
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Not just in the soccer realm, but we do have some things. Like for instance, we are the official sponsor, the official energy drink at SoFi Stadium, which the FIFA cup and everything will be at sofi stadium playing in that stadium. So, you know, that's, you know, know will be the only energy drink sold there at that stadium.
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B
Wow.
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So during the, the FIFA Cup. So there's some things that we've done that help with that. You know what I mean? So.
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B
But yeah, because, I mean, I saw Ronaldo with President Donald Trump yesterday, so I assume you come to Utah and meet. Right.
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He should. Why not call him up and have him come over?
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B
I love that so much. All right, so bucked up success also relies heavily on marketing innovation. From gym partnerships to massive online presence. What's your mindset when it comes to risk and creativity in branding?
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A
Well, look, our forte is marketing. We came from a marketing background. Online driving traffic, building out funnels. You know, they call them click funnels now. But we were doing these landing pages a long time ago and optimizing the data as it comes in. But, you know, we were always big on marketing and our companies revolved around marketing. Right. And social media. So that's what we're, we feel like we're very strong. And so when we're working with people and working with different, you know, or, or coming up with a different product, we feel like we can get the eyeballs to get the, you know, to get it out there. Like for instance, we launched our, we launched our lightly carbonated protein drinks. Is 25 grams of clear isolate whey protein caffeine free. They taste great. They almost taste like an energy drink really. And you know, we said, hey, I think we'll do about $2 million this first year on it. We're already sitting about 14 million. But that's because we launched on TikTok and we got a lot of eyeballs on the brand. And then everybody was contacting us because they were hearing about it and they were requesting it from us. So now we feel like we have this machine. Whatever we stick into this machine, it works and it goes. And so now it's just a matter of picking the right product. And most of the time it's just going with the gut.
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B
I love that. So, and I mean, nine years to about like a nine figure company. Do you feel that bucked up is like growing too fast? Or in your opinion?
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A
No, no. Look, like we've, we've done steps, right? But at the end of the day, we have a great team. My responsibility is to get everybody rowing hard in the right direction and not just have people with their oars in the water or drilling holes in the boat, but going as hard as possible. And that's really my role and responsibility as a CEO is to make sure that everybody's focused and going in the right direction. As far as too big, are you too big? I mean, look, it could always, you could always do more, right? So. And we just keep pushing. So.
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B
Okay, now I love that. And then, you know, scaling company as fast as you did, what systems or principles helped you stay grounded as a leader?
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A
I mean, that's a tough question, but staying grounded, it's really who the person is.
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B
Exactly.
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A
I mean, I don't, I don't think, I mean, I'm just a regular person. Like I said, I was born and raised on a farm. I didn't go to school. I went to school at UVU or it was called UVSC at the time, but I didn't graduate. I didn't do anything. I didn't, you know, school wasn't for me. I'm just a regular person that got taught how to work hard and figure things out. And we feel like, you know, me and my twin brother run the company. We're both the founders and we both run the company on the day to day basis. I mean, I'm in work every single day still as a CEO, I'm still an operator and that's not generally what a CEO does, but I'm into the day to day and I keep my pulse on things. I'm operating as just a regular person trying my best to do what's best for the company.
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B
And I think just to add up on that as well, and when you said everyone has to kind of like grow at the same pace, it's so hard as a leader. And how do you keep people grounded, motivated to continue to not be passengers, but actually continue to roll the same direction as well?
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A
Well, we have some things in place, like certain bonus structures and things in place that what's great is when you set up those processes and bonuses, it gets everybody. Hey, if you're not pulling your weight, we want this guy off the team, right? So everybody's actually rowing really, really hard to get and accomplish those, those bonuses. So you know, at the end of the day, people are, are holding their own team responsible, not necessarily me. So that's the Best thing, it doesn't put a lot of pressure on me. But if you set it up right, you know, the team itself will kick the, the person who's drilling holes in the boat. They'll, they'll kick them off.
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No.
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And, and say, hey, this guy's not pulling his weight. Let's get them off. We need someone that's better. So, you know, and, and it's worked for us.
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B
No, I love that. And you know, just speaking about this whole thing, so one of the I've done because obviously BYU and you know, just schooling here, lds, mission, all that kind of stuff. Naturally when you end up becoming acquainted, that door to door is a big thing over here. So.
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A
Right.
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B
People end up picking up sales, picking up the, you know, basic skills, learning that kind of stuff. So I've done door to door for like five years, like pest.
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A
And did you go pest control and solar.
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And pest control and solar. Three years pest, three years, solar, yeah.
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A
And so I mean you sold religion door to door. Selling those things are nothing, right?
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B
Absolutely. And it's the best form of skill set.
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A
But it is a good skill. Yeah, for sure.
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B
And so I've always learned, but I always had that, that networking ability like within me. So when I did like my internship in New York with Bloomberg, I was one of only 40 interns to actually meet Michael Bloomberg. But I ended up using few channels to try and like network from the next person, the next person before starting this thing. So networking, I've realized the importance of it and obviously you've seen my persistence.
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A
Yes, very persistent. Very persistent. And so, hey, no, but guess what? That's somewhat what it takes. Right? You know, I kind of blew you off a few times. I thought, you know, I'm like, he didn't get the hint. But he really wanted, he really wanted the interview. So I'm like, man, this guy's good.
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B
So. Which I want to kind of segue to that as well. How important has that been? Because right now I'm looking at bucked up at 2017 when I first came here to what it is right now. You can't drive. I was at 7:11 to get like a drink. There was a bucked up, it was a new drink was there before, you know, for bucked up. And it's everywhere. And it's not just Utah. Like you travel idle, you travel anywhere bucked up. It's not just become grown so much. But how important has like networking being to try and like leverage those networks to get you where you are.
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A
Right. Networking is really important. You know, we actually hired the former CEO of Dr. Pepper. His name is Gil, and we hired him to help us build out our distribution network. And because he knew the network from working at Dr. Pepper and other places, he knew how to build that network and had relationships with those people. And so we got our drinks into a lot of different places just because of networking and knowing who he was and everything else. So it's. It's really important. Networking is, you know, and, you know, just associating with other people. Like Eva here in Utah. We have a pretty good network of people that like to get together, and, you know, it's great getting to know all the other CEOs and everything here in Utah. So it's been great.
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B
And have you ever struggled with one thing where you feel like, I mean, you and your brother are very good at one thing, but have you ever struggled in trying to delegate responsibilities because, you know you're working?
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A
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like, at the first, you know, really what was holding our company back from growth was ourselves. We tried to wear multiple hats throughout the business because we wanted the controlling. We wanted to run it lean and keep it mean. And the thing is, is sometimes you need to bring in those experienced people in those positions because, you know, I was trying to be the cmo, the cfo, and also the CEO all at the same time, and that's just not going to work. And in order to grow, you got to have the right people in the right places to make it work.
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B
Awesome stuff. No, that's. That makes a lot of sense, because I feel like when you read the cash flow quadrant, you start seeing small business in employee, then you start seeing that when you in big business and also an investor, that's when things are just flowing as well. And the fact that you're also in the forefront, when people start seeing their leader literally doing everything, the operational stuff, always working, it shows, like, the level of motivation. If he is doing that, then let me also do my end of the stick as well. So I think it's.
- [24:06]
A
Yeah, there's been a couple. It's been like two or three years now before we'd go in during Black Friday and fulfill all the orders. Even as the CEO, I'd be in there filling orders, people's orders, and I'm like, man, this is amazing. This is crazy because we had so many orders coming in and we want. I wanted a really great customer experience that I was in there packing orders along with the rest of them. Now, sometimes that's good, and sometimes that's bad because I'm like, why aren't we doing this? Why aren't we do. And it's like, hey, just let go. They'll get it out. And it's working really, really well.
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B
And speaking about that, I've seen a lot of leaders micromanage too much. You don't allow people to actually, like, thrive as well.
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A
That's the importance of hiring the right people, though. You know, you've got to be able to say, hey, I hired the right person and I'm going to trust that they're going to do it and just let go. Because that is a really hard thing for most people and CEOs because we're, you know, we want to control things and we want to. I mean, that's why we run our own business, right? We don't want to be told what to do. We want to do it and tell people this is how we would like it to be done. But hiring the right person is really, really crucial in order for success. And sometimes, you know, in the past we actually said, man, that guy's really, really expensive. But if he can bring 10 times or 15 times his value, it's worth it all day long. And so like with Gil, Gil was the most expensive employee that we hired. But look at us now. I mean, we're on pace to sell 60 plus million energy drinks and protein drinks. So it's been amazing to have a guy like him in our organization.
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B
And apart from Gil, what would you say is the biggest risk that you've taken that's actually paid off in the nine years of running the company?
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A
The biggest risk is doing energy drinks. At first we wanted to go out with energy drinks, and we made about 200,000 cans of energy drinks. Like 155 or something like that. 155,000 or 200,000 energy drinks. And when we got them, they didn't taste like the samples at the end, so we drank them. And at the end there was this really bitter taste that we didn't notice when we were doing the samples. So we had to destroy all of them. We had to destroy all of these things. And we're like, man, that was quite risky to not work. And this was pretty fresh, you know, this was 2020. And we were like, man, I don't know how we're going to do this if we don't, you know, to. To do energy drinks, it's a pretty big expense. And to ship liquid across the states, they're very, very heavy, you know, and so, but you know, we, we took the risk to continue to do that. And you know, like I said, we, we hired Gil, which was a big risk that we thought because super expensive employee, but it's obviously panned out.
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B
And then speaking of that as well, just another follow up on terms of that. If you look back, obviously I've, from all the entrepreneurs, CEOs, leaders and so forth as well that I've interviewed, there's always a failure or a setback that may have occurred within their life that they're actually grateful for. If you look back in your experience, what would you say that was for you?
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A
Yeah, I mean, energy drinks was just one of those examples. We've done buck bars that failed. I mean, there's, there's lots of things, but what we are quick to do is quick to adjust and go on to the next thing. And we also have pretty, you know, we, we just made a few mistakes along the way, but we're quick to adjust and move on. And that's, that's really, that's really what it is.
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B
That's been the biggest thing for me because every time I, when I do the code 20 and I ask people questions, it's always inspiring to always see that people are willing to admit their setbacks, but they're also grateful for them. Because in your situation, you quickly adjusted it.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Rather than holding on to a losing stock, you're like, let's quickly place a sell, let's buy something else again. Let's try to move. And I think it's very important in business as well. Now, just to make it very interesting, what are some of the strengths that you have and what are the strengths that your brother has? If you compare the two, what would you say?
- [28:31]
A
We're, you know, we're identical twins and it's almost like we're Ying and Yang. So we complement each other really well because one of us is a little more aggressive and the other one's not, and then vice versa. There's certain things that he does that I compliment him as well. But you know, like, I'm really great at starting things and Jeff's really detail oriented and he can, he helps manipulate it to where it actually goes from A to Z too. You know what I mean? But it's great. I mean, just think if he had two of you, you know, it's like you would get twice as much, three times as much done. Right. And that's the way it works with me and my twin brother. It's been very complimentary and, and we both have our Strengths. We both have our weaknesses and you know, we're able to complement each other because of that. So it's been great. No, it's, it's like having two CEOs that bucked up actually. So it's great.
- [29:27]
B
And especially with two different skill sets and strengths as well, you know, because I think sometimes you overlook your weaknesses, focusing a lot on your strength. But like when you have somebody in a different partner, especially an idea identical twin partner, you know, like you've grown up, you know each other inside out from the day you guys were born. Makes a massive difference, eh?
- [29:44]
A
Yes, for sure. And then, you know, you know, with processes and everything, he's really good at, at figuring it out and, and having the process streamlined and worked really well. So it's been great. The whole thing's been good.
- [29:59]
B
So what role does intuition play in decision making, especially as a founder and a CEO?
- [30:07]
A
Oh, yeah, it's, it's, it's huge. You know, like I said with, you know, we, we, we, we said, hey, we, we're not very strong with protein and protein has super, super low margins. What are we going to do that's different? And our intuition was it has to be completely different than what's out on the market. And we were trying all of these protein drinks. We had them all on the desk in the conference room. And then we saw one, we had one that said, hey, you want to try this? This has carbonation in it. And once we tried that, we threw all the other ones away. We're like, this is what we're going to go with. And it was something that was really unique on the market and nobody was doing it. And so we were one of the first people to release lightly carbonated protein drink. And honestly, it tastes just like an energy drink to me. And you know, my, the, the amount of energy drinks that I drink throughout a day is a lot less now for sure. And my protein intake has definitely gone up. So.
- [31:09]
B
No, that's good. I, I, I've tried a lot of your, your, your bucked up products. I haven't tried the energy drink. So the reason why I have not, when I did pest in, in 2019, I was relying a lot on energy drinks. So it was so bad you took a break? I had to take a break. So we were in, in New Jersey, it was pr and as we're in Princeton, we were doing sales. Matter of fact, you probably mightn't even know my manager is now the owner of the Grit. Probably know him. John Taylor.
- [31:38]
A
Yeah. Yeah, Yep.
- [31:39]
B
Super it was a relentless. He's one of the best sales. Yeah, he was a great guy and a good person too. We were down in Princeton, but like, around the time I was just. That morning, I think I had eggs and I probably had three Red Bulls. Stupid decision. Absolutely stupid. So I'm out there pitching a customer, and my heart's just like pounding like crazy. And the customer called an ambulance. I end up in.
- [32:00]
A
Oh, wow.
- [32:01]
B
It was a disaster. But it was an acid reflux reaction because of drinking.
- [32:04]
A
Well, all that. Yeah.
- [32:06]
B
And still acid. Yeah. So that's why I haven't tried. It was a good thing because sometimes you have that scare moment in life and you're like, I can't do this again. Yeah, that was it for me. So that's probably why I haven't tried your energy drink. So nothing against you.
- [32:18]
A
I mean, you know, there's. There's, you know, people are definitely over caffeinated for sure. You know what I mean? So, you know, we tried to. I always try to limit the amount of caffeine, and most of the stuff that I take is very low caffeinated and stuff. And we also have drinks that are lower caffeine as well, like 100 milligrams of caffeine, not 300. So we have. We have something pretty much for everyone. And we even have some products that have zero caffeine in them. You know, like some of our pre workouts don't have any caffeine. So stimulant free, non stimulant. Yeah, that type of thing.
- [32:52]
B
What's the vision for bucked up moving forward? The first nine years, absolute success the next 11 years. When you look back at 2036, what do you envision bucked up to be?
- [33:05]
A
Well, you know, we want to become a household name like a monster or a Red Bull that's recognized throughout the world, not just in our local area here. And. And I think we're doing a pretty good job on that, you know, and, you know, really, you know, doing these big things like Sofi Stadium, where the Rams and the Chargers play, you know, those are the things that we need to continue to do to build brand awareness and education about our brand, you know, so. And what we provide. But, you know, our ultimate goal and vision is, you know, we want to be the NBA, you know, not. Not the NFL. NFL. They. People can't really see behind a mat, a face mask, but the NBA. You can ask a ton of people, hey, do you know who LeBron James is? And everybody's like, yeah, and I can recognize him, you know, and that's what we want to do. We want to be like a LeBron James or a Steph Curry that's recognized, you know, as, as one of the leaders in energy drinks, pre workouts, supplements. You know, we have some awesome innovation that's going to be coming out this next year. We already have the whole year lined out. It's going to be good. So next year is going to be even better.
- [34:18]
B
No, I love that. And obviously I look at like the story of Nike, I look at the story of Adidas and Puma and all that kind of stuff. When, when, right now, when people associate Adidas, I think of like Leo Messi. When they associate Nike, outside America they think of Cristiano Ronaldo. Inside America, they think of LeBron James and Michael Jordan.
- [34:39]
A
Michael Jordan, yeah, exactly.
- [34:41]
B
Who is bucked up's next? LeBron James.
- [34:45]
A
I know the tough question, I don't know, I don't know who that person is. I do have a couple things that we're working on. I don't want to kind of spoil it, say who we're going at, but you know, there is, you know, we have the Bucked Up LA bowl, which is a bowl game, an NCAA football bowl game.
- [35:06]
B
December 13th, right?
- [35:07]
A
Yeah, December 13th. Bucked up LA bowl. And it's hosted by Rob Gronkowski and he's a great guy. And so we, we, we might tend to lean a little bit towards Rob because he's very credible, very liked, he's really good at social media. He's a good dude. So hopefully we can do something like that. That'd be great. And then there's other people that are even more popular than that that we're working on.
- [35:33]
B
I see. It's funny, you don't want to give it away just yet. I saw you and Ryan Garcia at Sofi Stadium, like I think a month or two ago.
- [35:42]
A
Yeah. You know, we ended up doing a survey, right. And this is how we kinda, we work with this group that does these surveys and they survey like 2,500 random people, right. And they go out and survey them and you know, we gave a list of like 10 people's name. They tell us how credible they are, how liked they are and how good that they would do for our brand.
- [36:07]
B
Okay.
- [36:08]
A
And if they've recognized Bucked up, you know, so we did, we asked a bunch of questions, but you know, like a Ryan Garcia, he's just, it wasn't, it wasn't quite the person for Bucked up. You know what I mean, there was. There was like three or four other people on there, on this list that we had, Rob Gronkowski being one of them that scored way, way higher. And, and, you know, for credibility, for likeness, for, you know, do you follow him on social media, that type of thing. It was just, you know, we made a decision to pass on Ryan Garcia, even though he's a great guy. I wanted to do Ryan Garcia just because I like watching his social media, his fights. I like. I like Ryan Garcia.
- [36:52]
B
No, no. The reason I'm saying that you remind me of, and this the biggest compliment I can ever give you remind me of the Real Madrid president. What he does. He. The reason why Real Madrid are the biggest. I'm a Manchester United fan, but Real Madrid is the biggest sports team outside.
- [37:09]
A
Yeah, yeah.
- [37:10]
B
Because they've won champions leagues. It's like a brand. Like, it is a branded. You know, there is standard. However, the president, or what he always did, he always believed, listen, brand is so important. So you. He always says the best player, and he doesn't. It doesn't matter what it is, you know, but you also make sure that they fit the standards and the brand of Real Madrid. So as much as. So he's like, okay, well, we need to get Cristiano Ronaldo. Like, how are we going to get him? He's the best player in 2008 with benches that, like, it doesn't matter. We need to get him there. At that time, they hadn't won, like, the Champions League in forever. They got Ronaldo, they signed Kaka, they signed, like, the top two of the three best players outside Messi. And from then, it's people that just were ambassadors outside because we have. Ronaldo's great, but he's also very good at just being focused, not being controversial, avoiding political stuff, all these different things.
- [38:03]
A
Great for the brand.
- [38:03]
B
Great for the brand.
- [38:04]
A
Yeah.
- [38:05]
B
And so.
- [38:05]
A
And that's what we're looking for.
- [38:06]
B
Yeah.
- [38:07]
A
Who. Yeah. You know, and you may be able to suggest, who do you think would be great for the brand for Bucked Up? You know, and you run across lots of people. You tell us, who do you think would be great for Bucked Up?
- [38:19]
B
You asking me right now?
- [38:20]
A
Yeah, sure.
- [38:20]
B
Okay. I personally.
- [38:22]
A
What would you. Who would you say if you. If you go, hey, of all the celebrities or all the athletes, who do you think we should go after?
- [38:29]
B
I'll be honest. I'm a big. Are you talking upcoming or just in general?
- [38:33]
A
Any. Any upcoming is even better because we can get them cheaper than they're Upcoming.
- [38:40]
B
That's a very good question. So people, a person I interviewed, he. A mentee of his. People, like a Terence Crawford.
- [38:50]
A
Yeah. And we've been in talks with Terence Crawford.
- [38:53]
B
He is such a humble, talk about an athlete, good person, but also his upbringing, like, what he's been through, like, and he's such a role model in. In the sense where people, like, look up to him. I remember, like, in having people in his team, like, they seem as like a. A leader. He engages the people that are even like, in. In the lower tiers and stuff. Terence Crawford is one.
- [39:12]
A
I went to the Canelo Crawford fight, so it was awesome. It was awesome. And he. He ended up winning. And we were in discussions with him prior to that, but, you know, we just didn't, you know, we had certain limits on budgets and things like that. But, you know, this next year, maybe we can go after him. Now that he's, you know, beat Canelo, it might be up. He might be a little more expensive, but he's a great athlete. Just. Just unreal.
- [39:37]
B
And I think. I think that's the only thing. The reason I felt like it was also good. He doesn't necessarily have the brand of Floyd, doesn't necessarily even have, like, the. The brand of Canelo, but all his stuff has just been hard work and grit. So he doesn't have the PR team to kind of push the stuff the way. So I felt like it was the perfect thing for Bucked up because he's one of those people that's just raw, gifted, and he's.
- [39:58]
A
Now, how do you. How do you implement with a Terence Crawford? Do we come out with a flavor with Terence Crawford? Do we. You know, like, that's what we got to start thinking about, hey, maybe on his next fight, we say, hey, if he wins on his. He wins his next fight. 40% off our website for. For 24 hours. Exactly. Or something like that. That's how we have to implement, and that's how we got to start thinking is, how am I going to implement with this athlete?
- [40:25]
B
Exactly.
- [40:26]
A
Terence Crawford's a great one. Yep.
- [40:28]
B
Terence Crawford's a great one. And then I'd look for people very similar to, like a Steph Curry kind of thing. It's just. I'm a big LeBron James fan, but because of somet having a political stand, it may be controversial, especially in Utah. Like, I've noticed, like, he's not, like, he's liked by. By a lot of people, but also disliked by a lot of people where Steph Curry, I'm not a Steph Curry
- [40:50]
A
fan, but still, everybody likes him, right? And you know, that was. I don't know if you saw this, but on the Break 50 with Bryson, he's also a great golfer too. You know what I mean? He did the break 50s. He did the break 50 with Bryson, you know, and break 50 with Bryson DeChambeau. They. They golf from the front tees, right? And they tried to do 18 holes under 50 strokes and they were able to do that with, with Steph Curry. He's just a pure athlete. And you know, I really like Steph Curry and we may be working on that too.
- [41:26]
B
No, that's why.
- [41:27]
A
And that's why he got introduced to Bucked up through Bryce and DeChambeau. So.
- [41:30]
B
No, there is. That's why I'm trying to say because I don't want to do like my favorites. I don't want to. I try to always look for ambassadors that can actually carry out a thing because you'll never see Steph Curry doing anything controversial like on. On a Twitter. You won't see. He's just a good family man and he's just liked by like in Team usa, even people that weren't like Golden's the people like, oh, Curry, Curry, Curry. Yes. I'm a big LeBron James fan. I'll always be because I watched basketball because of him when I came up in South Africa and stuff. But let me try and think of upcoming. There's. I watch a lot of March Madness, but I'm trying to see those.
- [42:02]
A
Yeah, a lot of March Madness. There's. Yeah, but you may know a lot more soccer because you're a bigger soccer fan maybe. I mean, is there any soccer players out there that we should go after?
- [42:14]
B
So for the. Obviously it's going to be big for the World Cup. There's. I'm trying to see. There is so many young talent right now. There's a 18 year old in Barcelona. He's probably. He finished second in the thing. But there's even people that are not as big in terms of he's their brand name that are just as good that are coming for the World cup next year.
- [42:35]
A
Well, you'll maybe have to send me an email. Right. So we can start looking into them and going after them. So.
- [42:41]
B
No. And, and the thing about that, one thing I want to also touch on is American brands are so big outside there that if somebody's associated with the American brand, it's also a bigger kind of platform as well. So yeah, there's many. I'll Share with you that are both in like South America that are upcoming. I want you to look out for this is going to be the next big player.
- [43:00]
A
Okay.
- [43:01]
B
He's, I think only 18 years old, plays for Chelsea. His name.
- [43:05]
A
Like a Neymar. Like a Neymar.
- [43:07]
B
He's going to be the next Neymar and. Okay, he's named.
- [43:09]
A
Get him now.
- [43:10]
B
Estar. Esther, I'll send you a text. He's like, he's. He's going to be the next Neymar. They. They just. Everything's around him right now and he's
- [43:18]
A
18 playing amongst men. Right.
- [43:20]
B
PR is not even that good just yet. So that's a good.
- [43:22]
A
Well, that's a good thing. That's a good thing.
- [43:25]
B
No, that's.
- [43:26]
A
Yeah.
- [43:27]
B
What else? No, those are good names that I actually like that approach as well. But yeah, that could be the next Esteva. Could be the.
- [43:34]
A
Yeah, well, and soccer is just so big worldwide and we. We're now starting to expand internationally, so it could be a really good play with him for sure. Is. Is he pretty recognizable? Like. Like as far as worldwide, he's really recognizable.
- [43:49]
B
So right now it's. He's recognizable in South America and Europe. He's only upcoming, so he's going to become a bigger name as well. So it's one of those.
- [43:56]
A
Especially during this fif.
- [43:58]
B
Exactly. So what he did in the. Recently Brazil was playing a friendly actually in England, and he took the, like the penalty kick, the winning goal for his team. But my point, the fact that they put that responsibility right now and in Brazil, it's always hierarchy because it's, it's. It's heritage. Because they won five World Cups. They wanted the favorites for next year.
- [44:17]
A
They want the best of the best.
- [44:18]
B
Exactly. But the fact that he did that, everyone's. Everyone's now thinking they trying to push him to be the next big thing as well. So he's become. He plays for Chelsea. They signed him like two years prior in, in Brazil, before he went to Europe. Nobody even knew him. I only learned about him like this
- [44:31]
A
season and they had signed them way, way early.
- [44:33]
B
Yeah.
- [44:33]
A
Yes. They're now signing kids 10 years old. You know, it's crazy.
- [44:39]
B
Yeah.
- [44:39]
A
Awesome.
- [44:39]
B
So that's my, that's my only suggestion. Try and go into soccer. Because right now soccer is a religion
- [44:44]
A
and it's getting more and more popular every, every year here in the U.S. yeah. You know.
- [44:49]
B
Yeah.
- [44:50]
A
Especially with. With Messi coming to, you know, Miami and all that. So.
- [44:54]
B
And not just that, they're also doing Like FIFA club world cups, they do FIFA big world, they're doing all the stuff. And Manchester United, my team, they always come here for a U S tour. They've come here for the last.
- [45:04]
A
Oh, and they play a bunch of the U.S. team.
- [45:05]
B
Exactly. So they play a bunch of the U.S. teams. They do a pre friendly but because the, the fan bases of English premier leagues are growing so much, they come over here and they love American fans because the economy is so big. They're in invest in terms of like buying shirts, sales and all this stuff. So the American market is so big, even though soccer is like so big.
- [45:25]
A
And we're all consumers here, man. We just, just consume, we just consume everything. So, so.
- [45:31]
B
No, I appreciate that. Yeah, let's go back to the questions.
- [45:34]
A
Yeah, sure.
- [45:35]
B
Many CEOs focus on revenue and forget the long term brand equity. How do you make decisions that protect the brand five or ten years from now?
- [45:45]
A
Well, that's a, that's a very, very good and tough question to answer. But you know, like for us, we've always ran it as hey, we're not just going after revenue. We, we want to make sure that the customer experience with bucked up is really good. Not only that, we want to make sure that we have really great tasting products and products that really work. And as long as we stick to our mantra or to our pillars that make us great, we feel like that will make it to where it lasts forever. So you know, a lot of people, you know, they just go in and say hey, I'm going to do this. But it's really great to establish what makes you different and what's going to make you last for a long time. And I think that's, you know, we, we like to innovate. We like to come out with the best, latest and greatest products. We like to make sure that they taste great, they, they're really effective and making sure that the customer has a great experience with us. So you know, it, that's part of the flywheel that makes this thing spin so fast, you know, and delivering product on time, you know, just making sure that we, we, you know, really at the end of the day it's about the customer, you know what I mean? And making sure that they have a good experience.
- [47:03]
B
Love that. It's more. Now the last and final question. I always ask this to all the athletes, CEOs, business leaders, successful founders like yourself. Yeah, because it's the coat. Winning. Winning means different definitions for every single person I've interviewed. You know, for Ryan Gardner, as A founder CEO of like, you know, the number one pre workout supplement company, literally nationwide and arguably the world as well. What is your definition of winning?
- [47:30]
A
You know, a lot of people may see that things are easy on the outside, but it does take hard work. And I think that if people are willing to work and work hard, they're going to be successful in whatever they do. You know, obviously through hard work comes a lot of opportunities, right? We're fortunate enough to be in this situation that our hard work is paying off and now opportunities come our way. Right? So like for instance, an ingredient. A person who's coming up with a brand new ingredient that's new on the market, that never been done before, guess who they're approaching? They're approaching us because of all of our hard work. They know, hey, if we can get a product in with Bucked up, everybody else will start using it as well. So I do think when it comes down to it, I think the code to winning is work hard and never give up. That's what I think. You know, obviously work smart, hire the right people, all these different things apply to it. But if you're working hard, those things will come.
- [48:36]
B
No, no. I love that so much. Well, Ryan, if you could let people that want to become like affiliates or they want to try and qualify or apply to become an affiliate, if you could let them know where to get a hold of that.
- [48:47]
A
Yeah, you can, you can go to our website. Apply at the bottom of our website where it says become an ambassador. Right now we get about 200 to 250 people a day that apply. There's a few requirements. But you know, the best thing about us is we're looking for anyone and everyone that meets these requirements. You don't have to be in like the greatest shape. We feel like we're a very relatable company. So we'd love to have you on the team. And it's better to have a whole army of people than just one person. So we'd love to have you on the team.
- [49:22]
B
Awesome stuff. Well, the link will be right up below as well where you guys can go to the Bucked up link which will be in the description section. So yes, the code twinning. If you want to learn a bit more about how founders have built a successful nine figure business, this is the episode for you. The code winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. Ryan Gardner. Great. Honestly.
- [49:41]
A
Thank you kg. Thanks for having me on, man.