1 00:00:07,589 --> 00:00:10,139 Unknown: Hey, everybody, and welcome back to quantum revenue 2 00:00:10,139 --> 00:00:13,649 expansion where you turn your annual income into your monthly 3 00:00:13,649 --> 00:00:18,269 income, super excited to be hanging out with my guest. Hold 4 00:00:18,269 --> 00:00:22,619 on. Hey, everybody, and welcome back to quantum revenue 5 00:00:22,619 --> 00:00:25,289 expansion where you turn your annual income into your monthly 6 00:00:25,289 --> 00:00:29,489 income, super excited to be hanging out with my guest today, 7 00:00:29,579 --> 00:00:32,639 will NITSA because we're gonna be talking about revenue growth 8 00:00:33,209 --> 00:00:37,169 is downstream of operational excellence. And in this time, 9 00:00:37,199 --> 00:00:40,349 it's still a very interesting time as we're recording this, we 10 00:00:40,349 --> 00:00:45,299 are in November of 2021, over like 19 months into the 11 00:00:45,299 --> 00:00:48,359 pandemic, there are supply chain issues, there's a lot happening 12 00:00:48,359 --> 00:00:50,189 in the world, things that are definitely affecting wills 13 00:00:50,189 --> 00:00:52,139 company and might be affecting you as well. So we're going to 14 00:00:52,139 --> 00:00:55,319 talk about all of those things, and how you can still continue 15 00:00:55,319 --> 00:00:58,409 to grow your company in this interesting time. So we'll just 16 00:00:58,409 --> 00:01:01,109 wanna say hello, and welcome to quantum revenue expansion. 17 00:01:01,770 --> 00:01:02,760 Thanks for having me. 18 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:05,250 Yeah, excited to hang out for a little bit, hear all about your 19 00:01:05,250 --> 00:01:08,130 business and inspire our listeners. Before we do that a 20 00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:12,150 couple of things. If you haven't yet go to Ursula inc.co. We have 21 00:01:12,150 --> 00:01:16,320 quantum revenue expansion, the masterclass where I break down 22 00:01:16,320 --> 00:01:19,170 three areas for you to grow your business number one, how to 23 00:01:19,170 --> 00:01:22,410 create an exponential quantum revenue container. Another word 24 00:01:22,410 --> 00:01:24,660 for that is just like to x or 10x, or sales, where do you want 25 00:01:24,660 --> 00:01:28,380 to go next, we also talk about how to uplevel your pricing your 26 00:01:28,380 --> 00:01:30,690 packages and your marketing, which has been a huge 27 00:01:30,690 --> 00:01:33,720 conversation at the CEO table the last few months and our 28 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:36,900 clients really talking about what it takes to, you know, 29 00:01:36,960 --> 00:01:40,560 increase pricing increase, you know what they know their worth, 30 00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:44,370 so they can get to that next level, but also really honoring 31 00:01:44,370 --> 00:01:46,980 their clients and customers at the highest point. And then 32 00:01:46,980 --> 00:01:48,780 finally, we talked about how to collapse time to reach your 33 00:01:48,780 --> 00:01:51,480 quantum revenue goals even faster. And there's a few ways 34 00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:54,990 to do that. And you definitely want to listen in to find out. 35 00:01:54,990 --> 00:01:58,560 So go to Ursula ink.co. And I mean, it's so easy, just go to 36 00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:00,780 the you guys know this, like go to the homepage, it's sitting 37 00:02:00,780 --> 00:02:03,930 right there, you'll find it and you can get that course. Also, 38 00:02:03,930 --> 00:02:08,370 if you want to come out and hang with us on Zoom. We're all 39 00:02:08,370 --> 00:02:12,210 hanging out these days. And really focus on to x and your 40 00:02:12,210 --> 00:02:15,510 revenue, you can come to the 2x intensive. If you're interested, 41 00:02:15,510 --> 00:02:18,720 just go to Ursula inc.co. Forward slash applies and 42 00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:22,110 dispute your details, and my team will get you all the stuff 43 00:02:22,140 --> 00:02:25,080 about the 2x intensive when it's coming up next, and how you can 44 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:29,130 come and play. Alright, with that. It's my pleasure to 45 00:02:29,130 --> 00:02:31,530 introduce you to wil Nizza, who I've just gotten to know because 46 00:02:31,530 --> 00:02:33,570 I'm on his team reached out to us to be on quantum revenue 47 00:02:33,570 --> 00:02:36,540 expansion, I'm super picky. Well, like I have is like, we're 48 00:02:36,540 --> 00:02:39,120 researching. Yeah, I want to know about what you're up to. 49 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:42,660 And we haven't had anyone on the show who is in the space of 50 00:02:42,660 --> 00:02:45,810 health foods I think is really interesting. Will is the founder 51 00:02:45,810 --> 00:02:49,020 and CEO of IQ bar, a Boston based brain and body nutrition 52 00:02:49,020 --> 00:02:51,960 company, after studying psychology as an undergrad at 53 00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:54,570 Harvard will became fascinated with the human brain and how it 54 00:02:54,570 --> 00:02:57,840 functions. And we're super interested in that as well here. 55 00:02:58,110 --> 00:03:00,720 Then, in his mid 20s, he experienced chronic failings 56 00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:03,960 with his own brain, including daily headaches that he traced 57 00:03:03,960 --> 00:03:07,440 back to his high carb diet. By limiting staples like bread and 58 00:03:07,440 --> 00:03:12,360 pasta from his regimen, he staged an astounding cognitive 59 00:03:12,360 --> 00:03:14,940 recovery, which I'm sure he's going to tell us about so. So 60 00:03:14,940 --> 00:03:18,240 Bill, let's, let's start there. And that's a pretty interesting 61 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:20,370 problem that you had to solve for yourself, which led you to 62 00:03:20,700 --> 00:03:23,700 launch this company. So tell us your story, if you would. 63 00:03:24,570 --> 00:03:30,510 Sure. Sure. So I did not want to know what I wanted to do at all 64 00:03:30,510 --> 00:03:35,220 in college. But I got really, really interested in psychology 65 00:03:35,220 --> 00:03:39,330 and neuroscience. And I wanted to do something in those fields 66 00:03:39,330 --> 00:03:44,010 professionally. But I was also obsessed with startups in 67 00:03:44,010 --> 00:03:51,960 business. That was, you know, in the early 20, teens, and just 68 00:03:51,960 --> 00:03:55,530 when startups were becoming, you know, quote, unquote, cool or 69 00:03:55,650 --> 00:04:02,040 cooler. And so I didn't really know how to like, meld those two 70 00:04:02,040 --> 00:04:05,160 things together. And effectively, I couldn't figure 71 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:08,370 out a way to do that. So I took a job in software, selling and 72 00:04:08,370 --> 00:04:12,090 marketing software right out of college, and was working really 73 00:04:12,090 --> 00:04:16,260 long hours, and just started feeling terrible, terribly, 74 00:04:16,530 --> 00:04:21,510 physically. And a lot of it was due to my diet. I soon learned, 75 00:04:22,350 --> 00:04:24,990 you know, also sleeping exercise, but a huge chunk was 76 00:04:24,990 --> 00:04:30,120 diet. And so I became obsessed with with diet and not really 77 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:35,490 diet, insofar as I was trying to lose weight, or like get buff or 78 00:04:35,490 --> 00:04:38,160 whatever. While while a lot of people focus on diet, I wasn't 79 00:04:38,460 --> 00:04:43,080 exclusively interested in it, due to the way it made me think 80 00:04:43,110 --> 00:04:45,270 about both positively or negatively in that case, 81 00:04:45,300 --> 00:04:48,630 negatively. I read a couple books that this one book called 82 00:04:48,630 --> 00:04:52,110 Green brain was the one that like totally blew my mind which 83 00:04:52,740 --> 00:04:57,150 effectively, David Perlmutter is saying, if you eat a high carb 84 00:04:57,150 --> 00:05:01,650 diet over 10s of years stuff just starts going wrong, you 85 00:05:01,650 --> 00:05:07,350 know you on on the high end, you might just think slower and have 86 00:05:07,350 --> 00:05:10,440 more headaches and have a more inflamed brain and on the on the 87 00:05:10,440 --> 00:05:13,650 worst end you might get at neurodegenerative disease. So I 88 00:05:13,650 --> 00:05:17,670 became obsessed with this idea that a brain food like why is no 89 00:05:17,670 --> 00:05:23,550 one creating a quote unquote ready to eat brain food that 90 00:05:23,550 --> 00:05:27,630 someone can buy off a store shelf? And so yeah, I started 91 00:05:27,630 --> 00:05:31,710 tinkering in my, my kitchen at nights and on weekends. And that 92 00:05:31,710 --> 00:05:33,510 was what, what kicked it all off. 93 00:05:34,290 --> 00:05:38,190 Got it? Excellent. And so and when was that, how long ago was 94 00:05:38,190 --> 00:05:38,520 that? 95 00:05:40,050 --> 00:05:47,940 I really started doing that tinkering. In 2016 2017. The we 96 00:05:47,940 --> 00:05:50,910 launched the culmination of that was launching a crowdfunding 97 00:05:50,910 --> 00:05:57,810 campaign in December, December 17, to Jan 18. So that was and 98 00:05:57,810 --> 00:06:00,420 then we didn't fulfill our first order it really when the company 99 00:06:00,420 --> 00:06:05,280 began was when we fulfill their first order in mid 2018. Have 100 00:06:05,280 --> 00:06:06,900 it? So 101 00:06:08,160 --> 00:06:11,070 you've had the business for not for very long for a few years, 102 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:16,560 and then the pandemic arrived, which I'm guessing has either in 103 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:20,370 some ways, really helped your business, as we're at home 104 00:06:20,370 --> 00:06:23,400 ordering food, or, you know, really looking at improving 105 00:06:23,430 --> 00:06:26,040 ourselves in this interesting time that we're in. So tell us 106 00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:27,990 about that. So what's happened the last few years in terms of 107 00:06:27,990 --> 00:06:31,200 the business growth? And how has the pandemic impacted your 108 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:31,740 company? 109 00:06:33,540 --> 00:06:37,860 Yeah, sure. I mean, it's, like I, the way I phrase it is like, 110 00:06:38,040 --> 00:06:40,890 there's a spectrum of ways companies got hit by the 111 00:06:40,890 --> 00:06:45,240 pandemic, there's like the worst situation, which is like a 112 00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:47,640 restaurant, right. And then there's the best situation, 113 00:06:47,640 --> 00:06:52,590 which is like, zoom, or really any, like, tech company or 114 00:06:52,590 --> 00:06:55,410 company that centers on you being in your living room on a 115 00:06:55,410 --> 00:06:59,100 computer. And then there's everything in between. And so 116 00:06:59,100 --> 00:07:02,790 I'd say we're in between, I mean, there's, there are certain 117 00:07:02,820 --> 00:07:09,150 not great dynamics, like for example, bar sales in brick and 118 00:07:09,150 --> 00:07:14,160 mortar stores really stagnated. People went towards, you know, 119 00:07:14,160 --> 00:07:19,980 more bulk items and different categories. But ecommerce, 120 00:07:20,190 --> 00:07:22,950 conversely, like exploded because everyone's ordering 121 00:07:22,950 --> 00:07:24,870 everything online, and everyone's not going to 122 00:07:24,870 --> 00:07:28,770 restaurants, and everyone's just buying packaged food. So it was 123 00:07:28,770 --> 00:07:33,060 a mixed bag, but on net net, it was it was a positive for us. 124 00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:34,380 Yeah. 125 00:07:34,649 --> 00:07:37,649 And on the front end, before we jumped on you, you hinted at 126 00:07:37,679 --> 00:07:41,579 sort of supply chain situation, is that, how's that affecting 127 00:07:41,580 --> 00:07:46,830 you? I mean, that's honestly the biggest impact, certainly a very 128 00:07:46,830 --> 00:07:51,720 negative impact on really anyone that makes any thing, anything 129 00:07:51,720 --> 00:07:56,460 tangible. You know, obviously, it's in the news every day about 130 00:07:56,460 --> 00:08:00,780 like, microchips being so short that we can't buy cars and I 131 00:08:00,780 --> 00:08:05,910 mean, it's affected everything we we buy something like 43 132 00:08:05,910 --> 00:08:09,360 inputs into our all of our skews. And so all it takes is 133 00:08:09,360 --> 00:08:12,930 one of those inputs to fail the supply chain for it to fail, and 134 00:08:13,410 --> 00:08:18,510 the whole thing blows up. And so, you know, one small anecdote 135 00:08:18,570 --> 00:08:24,090 is like, we imported rappers, and this was in May, and our 136 00:08:24,090 --> 00:08:32,040 rappers were sitting at a rail yard in Chicago since late May, 137 00:08:32,100 --> 00:08:34,980 and we just caught him last week. So if you know of rappers 138 00:08:34,980 --> 00:08:39,750 you can't rap product, obviously. And so it's just 139 00:08:39,750 --> 00:08:44,340 created like constant fires like that, that you just have to come 140 00:08:44,340 --> 00:08:48,360 up with creative solutions to so what was your creative solution 141 00:08:48,360 --> 00:08:54,210 before the rapper showed up? Or did you have I, you know, found 142 00:08:54,210 --> 00:08:56,850 someone else make wrappers basically, but it's like that 143 00:08:56,850 --> 00:08:59,250 the tricky thing about my world is everything has a long lead 144 00:08:59,250 --> 00:09:01,710 time. So and especially now, because you're getting it's kind 145 00:09:01,710 --> 00:09:06,090 of a double whammy, you have supply chains are all busted, 146 00:09:06,090 --> 00:09:10,950 because the ports are all busted. And, and then you have a 147 00:09:10,980 --> 00:09:16,200 labor crisis, right? So like, nobody can find labor right now. 148 00:09:16,230 --> 00:09:20,430 Also, I'm sure listeners have heard that in the news, but or 149 00:09:20,430 --> 00:09:25,230 experienced it personally. But so it's like, you're getting hit 150 00:09:25,230 --> 00:09:31,080 by both of those forces. And unfortunately, there's no end in 151 00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:34,980 sight. So it's just like, you know, you can fix a problem. But 152 00:09:34,980 --> 00:09:38,070 then there's like a four week lead time for that problem 153 00:09:38,070 --> 00:09:40,350 actually, to be fixed. So it's like, oh, we don't have wrappers 154 00:09:40,350 --> 00:09:44,280 like scramble, and do all these things to make this other vendor 155 00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:47,400 make it and then sit on your hands for four weeks because 156 00:09:47,430 --> 00:09:49,140 this is what it is. 157 00:09:50,880 --> 00:09:55,620 Yeah, well, I feel your pain on that. So how, I mean, it sounds 158 00:09:55,620 --> 00:09:58,590 like the company has still been able to grow, you've gotten into 159 00:09:58,710 --> 00:10:02,370 some amazing Retail, you want to talk about that? How you how 160 00:10:02,370 --> 00:10:03,630 you've expanded in that way? 161 00:10:04,559 --> 00:10:07,499 Sure. Yeah. I mean, we were born on ecommerce. And we're still 162 00:10:07,499 --> 00:10:11,489 most of our business is still ecommerce, but we're definitely 163 00:10:11,609 --> 00:10:18,299 an omni channel business. So we, you know, so in retailers like 164 00:10:18,329 --> 00:10:24,749 WalMart Kroger, Rite Aid Wegmans, and others sprouts 165 00:10:24,749 --> 00:10:28,829 market. So we have a pretty big footprint across across the 166 00:10:28,829 --> 00:10:33,899 country in a brick and mortar context. But again, most of our 167 00:10:33,899 --> 00:10:38,519 businesses still is still ecommerce. So it's almost like 168 00:10:38,519 --> 00:10:42,119 running two different companies, there's competing in a totally 169 00:10:42,119 --> 00:10:47,699 different p&l, as you know, brick and mortar revenue comes 170 00:10:47,699 --> 00:10:51,719 in chunks, whereas ecommerce is like a more reliable, like 171 00:10:51,749 --> 00:10:56,219 trickle that you can increase. It really is, like two different 172 00:10:56,219 --> 00:11:00,389 businesses, but to truly scale, and have both of them be 173 00:11:00,389 --> 00:11:04,649 synergistic with the other. You know, we found it to be helpful 174 00:11:04,649 --> 00:11:05,969 to be omni channel. 175 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:09,780 Yeah, got it. Got Well, congratulations on all of those 176 00:11:09,810 --> 00:11:12,780 those retailers. And the I hear you on yeah, having a steady 177 00:11:12,780 --> 00:11:16,650 stream of income from your online part of your business. So 178 00:11:16,770 --> 00:11:19,260 obviously, we're talking about revenue growth being downstream 179 00:11:19,290 --> 00:11:22,260 of operational excellence, how does that show up in your 180 00:11:22,260 --> 00:11:22,800 company? 181 00:11:25,200 --> 00:11:31,950 It's a, it's a, it's a pretty simple way. If you, if you it's 182 00:11:31,950 --> 00:11:34,920 simple, I guess at a high level and complex when you get into 183 00:11:34,920 --> 00:11:38,940 the details. So simply put, if you don't make things and have 184 00:11:38,940 --> 00:11:44,040 things, you can't sell things, and it's been very hard to make 185 00:11:44,040 --> 00:11:50,310 things and, and get people to send things to dovetail with my 186 00:11:50,310 --> 00:11:56,550 earlier comments. And so just being like, excellent. The, you 187 00:11:56,550 --> 00:12:00,750 could have a wider margin for error and operations and supply 188 00:12:00,750 --> 00:12:03,990 chain excellence two years ago, then you can today, I guess, is 189 00:12:03,990 --> 00:12:09,030 a succinct way of saying it. You need to be truly excellent at 190 00:12:09,060 --> 00:12:13,830 micro pivoting, operationally speaking on a weekly or even 191 00:12:13,830 --> 00:12:18,330 daily basis, just to make the things you need to make. Yeah. 192 00:12:18,330 --> 00:12:20,760 And so from the outside in, you're like, Well, why can't you 193 00:12:20,760 --> 00:12:23,850 just just make more of something? And it's like, well, 194 00:12:23,850 --> 00:12:28,410 if I showed you the like, the the tree, the supply chain tree 195 00:12:28,410 --> 00:12:32,160 that culminated and that thing and a package at the end, and 196 00:12:32,160 --> 00:12:36,990 how every branch of that tree is like, fraught with risk right 197 00:12:36,990 --> 00:12:42,870 now. You don't you'd get it. And so we've just had to have, you 198 00:12:42,870 --> 00:12:47,550 know, a really excellent people in ops and supply chain, and 199 00:12:47,550 --> 00:12:51,270 just be like, on it like, like, better planning better 200 00:12:51,270 --> 00:12:57,750 organization. Buying stuff earlier, making more sub buying 201 00:12:57,750 --> 00:13:04,740 more inventory. Having buffers, so it's just being on top of all 202 00:13:04,740 --> 00:13:08,970 of that is the only way to continue, you know, growing 203 00:13:08,970 --> 00:13:11,790 revenue in this time. Yeah, you. 204 00:13:12,030 --> 00:13:15,510 I think you hinted at, I think you said an operational manager 205 00:13:15,510 --> 00:13:20,580 and Ops Manager, team, right. I mean, there's the supplies. But 206 00:13:20,580 --> 00:13:22,320 then there's also the people that have to lead this and make 207 00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:24,750 it happen. And we're in what some people call the Great 208 00:13:24,750 --> 00:13:26,400 resignation. And then you mentioned that as well. Like, 209 00:13:26,400 --> 00:13:29,970 it's tough time to find stuff time to find team find great 210 00:13:29,970 --> 00:13:32,070 people. So how are you leading in this time? How are you 211 00:13:32,070 --> 00:13:36,030 inspiring people to stay? To want to be in what's probably a 212 00:13:36,030 --> 00:13:38,310 really challenging time inside of your business? 213 00:13:41,160 --> 00:13:45,210 Yeah, yeah, it's an interesting topic. It's like the, I think 214 00:13:45,210 --> 00:13:48,840 we've come full circle from like, the, you know, ping pong 215 00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:55,620 table and, you know, nap pod era. And we're now in the like, 216 00:13:55,650 --> 00:13:58,410 you know, remote work, like people just care about different 217 00:13:58,410 --> 00:14:02,400 stuff. And, and, and at its core, it seems like the themes 218 00:14:02,400 --> 00:14:06,570 in the great Brexit resignation is people want a couple things 219 00:14:06,570 --> 00:14:10,290 they want. Many of them want to be remote. Like they like being 220 00:14:10,290 --> 00:14:14,340 remote. They want to live in Boise, Idaho or whatever, 221 00:14:14,340 --> 00:14:18,750 instead of like Manhattan. And that that's a big one, 222 00:14:18,750 --> 00:14:21,840 obviously, but probably even bigger is like fulfillment. I 223 00:14:21,840 --> 00:14:25,950 mean, it seems most people are just kind of like a buzzword. 224 00:14:25,950 --> 00:14:31,170 But you know, people want to feel like they're progressing 225 00:14:31,170 --> 00:14:37,050 their career knowledge, base fulfillment, happiness. They 226 00:14:37,050 --> 00:14:41,190 just don't want to dread going to work on Monday. And so for 227 00:14:41,190 --> 00:14:45,120 me, like I've never found that you, you make someone not dread 228 00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:51,330 going to work by like, you know, silly perks, but honestly, like, 229 00:14:51,330 --> 00:14:54,630 I think it has to be woven into the mission of what you're doing 230 00:14:54,630 --> 00:14:58,080 like air inherent to the mission of what you're doing. And I 231 00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:01,050 think part of that is like hiring people who inherently are 232 00:15:01,740 --> 00:15:04,800 wanting to do that and are interested in it. So like, if I 233 00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:08,370 run a health food company, like, you probably want to hire people 234 00:15:08,370 --> 00:15:12,960 who care about health food, you know, at its core, right? Like 235 00:15:12,960 --> 00:15:17,370 your odds of that person caring about business Ops is higher, if 236 00:15:17,370 --> 00:15:24,930 that is true, but also like, give people responsibility and 237 00:15:25,830 --> 00:15:33,120 let them run with things. And because it's like, you know, 238 00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:37,830 we're a small business, we can't if someone's not inherently 239 00:15:37,830 --> 00:15:41,070 interested in what are what we're doing, yeah, it's really 240 00:15:41,070 --> 00:15:44,460 hard to just like ticky tacky, add incentives here and there 241 00:15:44,460 --> 00:15:48,600 and to keep them around like, so I think a lot of that is just 242 00:15:48,600 --> 00:15:54,240 like good hiring. But, yeah, 243 00:15:54,840 --> 00:15:57,660 I think you nailed it when you talk about mission I. So one 244 00:15:57,660 --> 00:16:00,870 thing I'm hearing over and over again, is from our clients and 245 00:16:00,870 --> 00:16:03,360 our colleagues is if if people don't buy into your mission, 246 00:16:03,360 --> 00:16:05,670 they're not going to stay like it's, we're in a time of, like, 247 00:16:05,670 --> 00:16:08,550 people want to know that you're up to something. And that's 248 00:16:08,550 --> 00:16:10,170 important mission, that you actually care about what you're 249 00:16:10,170 --> 00:16:12,420 up to, so that they can be part of that. And if they think you 250 00:16:12,420 --> 00:16:16,290 don't care, they're, they're probably gone, which is an in 251 00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:18,480 like, it's a it's a massive shift, because I think people 252 00:16:18,480 --> 00:16:21,270 are way more confident right now than ever before that they can 253 00:16:21,360 --> 00:16:23,820 find the next opportunity, whatever that might be for them. 254 00:16:24,030 --> 00:16:28,110 So let's shift gears a little bit, talking about money. What, 255 00:16:29,220 --> 00:16:33,150 like, when you, you had the mission for the company, you 256 00:16:33,150 --> 00:16:36,870 wanted to give people brain food, easy access to bring food 257 00:16:38,010 --> 00:16:43,110 in it showed up in the IQ bar? So how has the revenue growth or 258 00:16:43,140 --> 00:16:46,710 just money played into you growing this company? Like, did 259 00:16:46,710 --> 00:16:48,420 you have clear goals when you said like, I'm gonna, you know, 260 00:16:48,420 --> 00:16:51,240 we're gonna hit our first six figures, seven figures, 261 00:16:51,300 --> 00:16:52,950 whatever. How's that 262 00:16:53,490 --> 00:16:58,290 challenge for you? I wish I had a more elegant response to that. 263 00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:06,120 I had no idea. I had no response. At the early outset, 264 00:17:06,120 --> 00:17:08,730 certainly I've no idea because it's just an idea. And you're 265 00:17:08,730 --> 00:17:12,060 like it, you don't even know if the idea is validated. Right? So 266 00:17:12,060 --> 00:17:16,650 we did. And you just you get better at predicting stuff as 267 00:17:16,710 --> 00:17:20,130 you get more data points. So you know, with the crowdfunding 268 00:17:20,130 --> 00:17:24,150 campaign, we sold between Kickstarter and Indiegogo, about 269 00:17:24,150 --> 00:17:28,320 $90,000 worth of product and service. Okay. You know, that's 270 00:17:28,320 --> 00:17:32,670 like almost six figures. We did that a couple months ago. Okay, 271 00:17:32,670 --> 00:17:36,720 we could, if we really executed, we could be like a seven figure 272 00:17:36,750 --> 00:17:41,910 a year business, like pretty quickly. And, and then, you 273 00:17:41,910 --> 00:17:45,450 know, once we in our first full year, which was 2019, we did 274 00:17:45,600 --> 00:17:50,970 just over 2 million in revenue, and right, okay. 2 million in 275 00:17:50,970 --> 00:17:54,510 revenue, here's our footprint, we've only exploited this 276 00:17:54,510 --> 00:17:57,630 percentage of the market. You know, we're resonating in these 277 00:17:57,630 --> 00:18:01,440 areas, like how much bigger can we be in those areas like, and 278 00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:05,610 effectively, it's that but also critically on the cash front, 279 00:18:05,640 --> 00:18:09,630 it's like, we live in a, I operate in a cash intensive 280 00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:14,820 business and inventory intensive business. So you know, bit, you 281 00:18:14,820 --> 00:18:18,600 have to bake in like, your cash on hand, all of all of those 282 00:18:18,690 --> 00:18:23,160 desires and projections and whatnot. And so it's, it's the 283 00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:25,560 coupling of like, what could we do? And then like, what do we 284 00:18:25,560 --> 00:18:30,960 have the cash to do? And that's become more and more and more 285 00:18:30,960 --> 00:18:35,700 and more important, because, again, in a tough supply chain 286 00:18:35,730 --> 00:18:40,200 context, you're buying more stuff earlier. And so you're 287 00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:44,430 outlaying more cash earlier, and every production run we do is 288 00:18:44,430 --> 00:18:49,020 the biggest one we've ever done. And so, and you're not living 289 00:18:49,020 --> 00:18:51,660 in, we're not a jewelry company, right? We don't have 90% 290 00:18:51,660 --> 00:18:55,650 margins. So if you're in like a 3040 50% margin game, and 291 00:18:55,650 --> 00:18:58,530 you're, you're buying tons and tons of tons of inventory, and 292 00:18:58,560 --> 00:19:02,340 every inventory buys the biggest you've ever done. Yeah, you 293 00:19:02,340 --> 00:19:06,000 start needing to get really creative in terms of financing. 294 00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:11,040 So, so yeah, so I mean, our rough goal is to double every 295 00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:16,200 year, top line, and so are quit and you know, that's partially 296 00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:20,760 arbitrary, partially based on just what we've been able to do. 297 00:19:22,770 --> 00:19:28,320 And, and so the question again, then becomes how do you do that? 298 00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:31,620 And more specifically, how do you finance that growth? 299 00:19:33,570 --> 00:19:35,850 Yeah, that's a great question. I'd love to know the answer to 300 00:19:35,850 --> 00:19:37,830 that, because we have listeners and some of our clients who are 301 00:19:37,830 --> 00:19:40,200 in the same boat right now. I mean, is it a combination of 302 00:19:40,560 --> 00:19:45,330 working with your working with your banks, working with Angel 303 00:19:45,330 --> 00:19:49,470 investors working with? Cool, what's worked for you? 304 00:19:50,070 --> 00:19:53,700 I mean, so at the outset, it's it's certainly investors so you 305 00:19:53,700 --> 00:19:58,050 know, we we've we raised money from angel investors, and I 306 00:19:58,050 --> 00:20:02,790 would look The closest you can get to like bootstrapping, if 307 00:20:02,790 --> 00:20:06,930 that's even a real thing, the better. And so what's like, 308 00:20:06,930 --> 00:20:10,830 right adjacent to bootstrapping, it's angel investing. And so 309 00:20:10,830 --> 00:20:13,170 Okay, find people who have money, you can write 310 00:20:13,170 --> 00:20:17,190 1020 $30,000 checks, that's like phase one of the business and 311 00:20:17,190 --> 00:20:22,080 then scale until you get enough revenue. Where I mean, honestly, 312 00:20:22,080 --> 00:20:27,630 I would say, raise from angels as, as, take that as far as you 313 00:20:27,630 --> 00:20:31,020 can and down your company's lifecycle. Eventually, though, 314 00:20:31,020 --> 00:20:34,230 your, at least in my type of business, you're going to need, 315 00:20:35,010 --> 00:20:40,740 call it 234 $5 million. But my sort of thinking has always been 316 00:20:40,740 --> 00:20:43,590 raised as little as possible to get us to the next milestone 317 00:20:43,590 --> 00:20:47,670 because you're obviously your valuation step change, you want 318 00:20:47,670 --> 00:20:50,940 to keep going up. And so each time you raise money, I'm gonna 319 00:20:50,940 --> 00:20:56,520 raise the cheapest money quote unquote, possible. But 320 00:20:56,520 --> 00:21:01,230 eventually, you get to a certain scale such that you can start 321 00:21:01,230 --> 00:21:04,590 getting more creative with with financing and non dilutive ways. 322 00:21:04,590 --> 00:21:10,860 So there's a whole boom of non dilutive financing companies 323 00:21:10,890 --> 00:21:14,010 happening right now there's like clear coat, which is formerly 324 00:21:14,010 --> 00:21:19,380 known as clearbank, wave flyer. I mean, I get an email from one 325 00:21:19,380 --> 00:21:22,260 of them every day, right? It's like this booming market people 326 00:21:22,260 --> 00:21:25,170 trying to give money to people like me, but you have to get a 327 00:21:25,170 --> 00:21:28,440 certain scale to where they'll give you the money, and they'll 328 00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:33,150 give you enough enough money. And then so it's a combination 329 00:21:33,150 --> 00:21:36,900 of like, ret, that's generally termed revenue based financing. 330 00:21:37,110 --> 00:21:39,810 So basically, they take a cut of your revenue on a weekly or 331 00:21:39,810 --> 00:21:43,200 monthly basis, and you pay down that principal of cash that they 332 00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:46,920 gave you. And then there's more traditional stuff like, you 333 00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:50,730 know, Small Business Administration loans, SBA loans, 334 00:21:51,510 --> 00:21:58,860 a bank line of credit. Those are all really tough to get as a if 335 00:21:58,860 --> 00:22:02,280 you're a company, that's if you go to Bank of America, and you 336 00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:05,430 say, hey, I want a $2 million line of credit. They'll say, 337 00:22:05,430 --> 00:22:09,270 Great, show me too profitable tax returns. And of course, he 338 00:22:09,270 --> 00:22:11,820 said, Why don't have that? And they said, well, great, take a 339 00:22:11,820 --> 00:22:20,070 hike. And so it's very hard to get traditional lending. But you 340 00:22:20,070 --> 00:22:23,220 can, if you're smart about it, you can cobble together a number 341 00:22:23,220 --> 00:22:26,310 of different other funding sources. Yeah. 342 00:22:26,430 --> 00:22:29,430 Cool. Thank you, that was really helpful I'm sure for for a lot 343 00:22:29,430 --> 00:22:36,030 of our listeners. So coming back to money. Um, when you look back 344 00:22:36,030 --> 00:22:39,300 at the trajectory of the growth of your business, did you hit 345 00:22:39,330 --> 00:22:42,120 Did you hit some income ceilings where you kind of plateaued for 346 00:22:42,120 --> 00:22:45,540 a while, or looking back, like any tips that you have on how to 347 00:22:45,540 --> 00:22:48,180 move through a plateau or an income ceiling? 348 00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:57,510 You know, we haven't really hit income ceiling, I mean, 349 00:22:57,660 --> 00:23:01,440 certainly you can hit, I wouldn't even call it a ceiling, 350 00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:04,560 because that I think there's still a lot of room to go, but 351 00:23:04,890 --> 00:23:09,540 you can sort of start hitting a ceiling in a channel. But 352 00:23:09,540 --> 00:23:12,300 there's, there's a zillion ways to grow your top line, right? So 353 00:23:12,300 --> 00:23:17,280 one way is, okay, I'm gonna make a one one form factor thing. So 354 00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:21,000 maybe I'm RX bar, and I'm just going to go all in on bars. And 355 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:23,520 I'm going to go all in on grocery and so I'm going to sell 356 00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:26,820 the whole foods and Kroger and yada, yada, yada, right? And 357 00:23:26,820 --> 00:23:29,190 you're gonna hit a ceiling there, you're gonna saturate 358 00:23:29,190 --> 00:23:32,910 that vertical. But there's 50 other verticals, right. And so, 359 00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:37,020 now you've saturated grocery go to big box, Walmart and Target 360 00:23:37,020 --> 00:23:41,880 and Costco. Okay, we we did that. Okay, let's go to 361 00:23:41,910 --> 00:23:47,280 independence, like 10s of 1000s of independence, right? So, you 362 00:23:47,280 --> 00:23:52,290 know, in my experience, you know, what, you can saturate 363 00:23:52,290 --> 00:23:56,100 certain channels or come close to saturating or even not even, 364 00:23:56,340 --> 00:23:59,730 like coming close, saturate your growth just slows, right? If you 365 00:23:59,730 --> 00:24:02,520 want to keep a certain growth rate, you need to supplement 366 00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:05,610 that in some way. So, there's really two ways to do that. Go 367 00:24:05,610 --> 00:24:10,410 into new verticals, or introduce new form factors, or that's how 368 00:24:10,410 --> 00:24:13,260 I think of things you might say, just introduce a new product 369 00:24:13,260 --> 00:24:17,460 type and attack that same vertical, right? Or you can do 370 00:24:17,460 --> 00:24:22,500 both at the same time, right? So for us, it's, it's, it's 371 00:24:22,500 --> 00:24:24,510 actually we are kind of doing both at the same time. So we 372 00:24:24,510 --> 00:24:27,750 started in bars right now we're moving into hydration stick 373 00:24:27,750 --> 00:24:31,500 packs. And so you can go back to the well, let's say the well is 374 00:24:31,500 --> 00:24:34,710 Amazon, that's your vertical you're talking about. We'll just 375 00:24:34,710 --> 00:24:38,430 run back the same playbook with a new form factor and a new 376 00:24:38,430 --> 00:24:41,850 offering. Of course, it has to be coherent and your umbrella of 377 00:24:41,850 --> 00:24:45,030 products or services or whatever has to be coherent and make 378 00:24:45,030 --> 00:24:49,560 sense together. But if it's non cannibalizing, for example, you 379 00:24:49,560 --> 00:24:53,490 never drink a hydration drink instead of a protein bar. It's 380 00:24:53,490 --> 00:24:58,500 it's, it's all it's additive. So if it's not Whereas you might 381 00:24:58,530 --> 00:25:01,320 eat a bag of chips instead of running All right, so that's 382 00:25:01,530 --> 00:25:05,310 partially at least partially cannibalized. So our sort of 383 00:25:05,310 --> 00:25:09,630 thinking is introduce new non cannibalizing foreign factors 384 00:25:09,690 --> 00:25:14,820 and run back the same strategy in the same channels. And you 385 00:25:14,820 --> 00:25:17,310 can go pretty damn pretty damn far by doing that. 386 00:25:17,730 --> 00:25:22,470 Yeah, thanks a lot of sentience. So what? So, in the next two 387 00:25:22,470 --> 00:25:25,980 years, how many products do you want to release, so you have the 388 00:25:25,980 --> 00:25:29,130 bar you have now it's hydration, what comes next, any. 389 00:25:30,570 --> 00:25:35,850 Um, so we're trying to be like a brain and body platform platform 390 00:25:35,850 --> 00:25:42,060 is the buzzword in that context. So again, we want to create 391 00:25:42,060 --> 00:25:46,920 things that are non cannibalizing, they are ship 392 00:25:47,670 --> 00:25:53,430 friendly, they're not cold, change the shelf stable. They 393 00:25:53,430 --> 00:25:57,600 are long shelf life, minimum of one year shelf life. So we have 394 00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:02,280 a whole checklist of things. And so a third example might be for 395 00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:06,060 instance, instant coffee, right? So you never eat a bar instead 396 00:26:06,060 --> 00:26:08,580 of drinking coffee, and you never drink a hydration next, 397 00:26:08,580 --> 00:26:12,960 instead of drink of coffee. And so the goal is how do you attack 398 00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:17,040 different parts of a person's day and saturate their day? So 399 00:26:17,100 --> 00:26:19,590 when people wake up, they drink coffee. And then when they need 400 00:26:19,590 --> 00:26:23,820 a snack, let's say they eat a bar. And when they go for their 401 00:26:23,820 --> 00:26:26,400 afternoon run, they need a hydration next, right? So how do 402 00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:32,580 you kind of wedge yourself in to their whole day? And so and then 403 00:26:32,580 --> 00:26:36,240 there's like sleep, right? So like, so many people now, like 404 00:26:36,270 --> 00:26:39,360 have a sleep strategies that will take melatonin until they 405 00:26:39,360 --> 00:26:42,300 take bedtime tea? Or that they'll do something to prepare 406 00:26:42,300 --> 00:26:46,260 for, for sleep? So that's a whole other category we're 407 00:26:46,260 --> 00:26:46,950 interested in. 408 00:26:47,309 --> 00:26:50,759 Gotcha. Yeah. Got it makes sense. And I'm asking, you know, 409 00:26:50,759 --> 00:26:52,739 for our listeners to really think about, you know, how they 410 00:26:52,739 --> 00:26:55,499 expand because I think people can get Superstock really 411 00:26:55,499 --> 00:26:58,139 quickly. And I love what you said, the platform like, what's 412 00:26:58,139 --> 00:27:00,779 the platform? So for you the overall platform, it's really 413 00:27:00,929 --> 00:27:03,569 the overall health of someone and following them throughout 414 00:27:03,569 --> 00:27:05,399 their entire days. That's a great way to say it. All right. 415 00:27:05,399 --> 00:27:11,669 So final say we have CEOs from all over, right all over the 416 00:27:11,669 --> 00:27:14,579 world, and in many different stages of business, and some 417 00:27:14,579 --> 00:27:17,009 have been listening for a long time, what's your best piece of 418 00:27:17,009 --> 00:27:19,949 advice for them in this? I would say interesting time, we're 419 00:27:19,949 --> 00:27:20,519 still in 420 00:27:23,850 --> 00:27:29,190 my best piece of advice for CEOs, I mean, I get it's a 421 00:27:29,190 --> 00:27:31,680 little bit trite. And it's a little bit over simplified, but 422 00:27:32,010 --> 00:27:37,170 be product obsessed, like everything. We're talking about 423 00:27:37,230 --> 00:27:41,400 revenue being downstream of offs, everything is downstream 424 00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:46,350 of the products. So the I'm obsessed with this new concept 425 00:27:46,350 --> 00:27:49,920 of product lead growth, which is like a company like Slack, 426 00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:52,950 right? You use Slack, and then tell your friend, you're like, 427 00:27:52,950 --> 00:27:55,110 Hey, are you using this new thing? Slack, it makes 428 00:27:55,320 --> 00:27:58,440 communicating at work so much easier, or Calendly? Send them a 429 00:27:58,440 --> 00:28:01,350 Calendly. And they're like, Well, that was really easy. I'm 430 00:28:01,350 --> 00:28:04,500 going to start using, like, the product is so good that it's 431 00:28:04,500 --> 00:28:08,100 inherently viral. And people inherently want to promote it 432 00:28:08,100 --> 00:28:12,600 themselves. So I live in a world of the standard world of 433 00:28:12,900 --> 00:28:16,260 customer acquisition cost versus lifetime value, the cheapest way 434 00:28:16,260 --> 00:28:22,560 to acquire customers, is to keep them and have them like the 435 00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:25,500 thing you sold them and talk about the thing you sold them. 436 00:28:25,500 --> 00:28:29,940 And so if you're looking at places to invest time and money, 437 00:28:29,970 --> 00:28:36,090 it's like, almost always product product product is like is where 438 00:28:36,150 --> 00:28:40,620 my mind goes because everything is downstream of that. 439 00:28:41,850 --> 00:28:45,090 Yeah, that makes so much sense. A really, yeah, product centric, 440 00:28:45,090 --> 00:28:48,420 really focusing on on where it's gonna go next. I mean, it sounds 441 00:28:48,420 --> 00:28:51,930 like you know, you have a brilliant, no pun intended, 442 00:28:51,930 --> 00:28:54,960 you're a brilliant IQ bar. And it's, I can't wait to see what 443 00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:57,540 happens for you in terms of expansion. I just made the as I 444 00:28:57,630 --> 00:28:59,820 in terms of other podcasts, I think that would love to have 445 00:28:59,820 --> 00:29:03,930 you. So just where can we get it? So and I think it's 446 00:29:03,930 --> 00:29:06,540 something special for listeners if they want to get an IQ bar 447 00:29:06,540 --> 00:29:07,080 and try it 448 00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:12,900 out. Totally, totally. So our website is eat IQ bar.com ea T 449 00:29:12,900 --> 00:29:20,490 IQ var calm. And so yeah, we made quantum 25 is a discount 450 00:29:20,490 --> 00:29:25,050 code that that listeners can use to get 25% off. And we're also 451 00:29:25,050 --> 00:29:28,890 on Amazon, if you prefer to shop on Amazon, if you're near a 452 00:29:28,890 --> 00:29:33,180 Walmart or Kroger or sprouts are Rite Aid pop in there. But the 453 00:29:33,180 --> 00:29:37,440 best part is definitely our website and quantum 25 be a 454 00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:39,060 discount for you. Cool, we'll 455 00:29:39,060 --> 00:29:43,650 put that in the show notes. So go to eat, eat IQ bar.com 456 00:29:43,830 --> 00:29:47,220 Quantum 25 to get 25% off. Awesome. Well, thanks for 457 00:29:47,220 --> 00:29:49,710 hanging out with us and sharing your wisdom, your knowledge and 458 00:29:49,710 --> 00:29:54,750 we wish you an incredible rest of 2021 into 2022 and beyond. 459 00:29:54,750 --> 00:29:56,700 And we'll look for the bar out there. So thanks for being here. 460 00:29:57,510 --> 00:29:58,680 Likewise, thanks for having me. 461 00:29:59,430 --> 00:30:01,920 And to our listeners. There's everywhere we appreciate you 462 00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:04,470 thanks for hanging out if you have a guest that you'd like me 463 00:30:04,470 --> 00:30:09,000 to interview send them our way at Ursula Ursula inc.co and or 464 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:11,460 if you have topics you'd like me to talk about alright everybody 465 00:30:11,460 --> 00:30:15,120 that's it for this week make this your most epic month yet 466 00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:15,960 bye guys