Barbell Shrugged - FITAID Co-Founder and President Aaron Hinde w/ Anders Varner, Doug Larson, Travis Mash and Dan Garner Barbell Shrugged #650

Episode Date: July 13, 2022

A fitness enthusiast and former chiropractor with a passion for making the world a healthier place, Dr. Aaron Hinde saw a genuine need for cleaner, more functional products in the beverage landscape, over a decade ago.    After assisting more than 5,000 individuals on the road to recovery in his chiropractic practice, Hinde envisioned a way to help the masses get off sugary drinks and improve their overall health, one sip at a time.    In 2011, he co-founded LIFEAID Beverage Company, dedicated to providing individuals with active lifestyles with a functional beverage made with ‘only the good stuff, none of the junk.’    LIFEAID products are specially formulated, packed with high-quality vitamins and supplements in both low- calorie and zero-sugar options which never contain any artificial flavors or sweeteners.    Each blend has its own custom ingredients, providing a range of benefits—from optimizing post-workout recovery to aiding in mental clarity and boosting your natural energy.    Hinde’s background in nutrition and his unique eye for entrepreneurship, paired with his wit and charisma, have made him an enticing choice for a variety of media appearances.   In today’s episode of Barbell Shrugged we cover:     Overcoming the adversity after having your house burn down and losing everything Building a community through culture How FITAID competes and succeeds against giants in their industry How FITAID commits to their employees and builds culture in the organization New products, focus, and fulfilling on promises to their clients     To learn more, please go to https://rapidhealthreport.com   Connect with our guests:   Anders Varner on Instagram   Doug Larson on Instagram   Coach Travis Mash on Instagram   Dan Garner on Instagram   ————————————————    Please Support Our Sponsors   Eight Sleep - Save $150 on the Pod Pro and Pod Pro Cover   Organifi - Save 20% using code: “Shrugged” at organifi.com/shrugged BiOptimizers Probitotics - Save 10% at bioptimizers.com/shrugged

Shrugged family, this week on Barbell Shrugged, our good friend Aaron Hine is back. Since the last time we had him on the show, it's really crazy since it was pre-pandemic. We used to hang out with the FitAid crew on the road almost on a monthly basis. He has had some crazy life changes. His entire house and property burned down in one of the California fires. And really had to go remove his family, his parents, everyone that kind of lived on the property and find new housing. And it's a really cool story to see how the community, all of his employees and the community of Santa Cruz really rallied behind him, raised a bunch

of money, helped his parents out, helped him out, how they've gotten back on their feet, and still continued to commit everything to the employees, the culture, and the products over at LifeAid. Aaron's been a great friend over the years. We've had dinner at his house. His family is amazing. And anytime we can get him on the show and reconnect, since now we are all on different coasts, it's a real, real pleasure. I'm a huge fan of everything that Aaron and Orion have built over at FitAid. How welcoming they have been to all things Barbell Shrugged over the years. And it's a friendship that I'm very proud of. Hope you enjoy the show. Before we get into it, I want to thank our sponsors.

This episode is brought to you by our good friends over at Eight Sleep Friends. You heard Mateo on the show. Before we get into it, I want to thank our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by our good friends over at Eight Sleep. Friends, you heard Mateo on the show. I am a couple weeks into using my Eight Sleep Pod Pro cover right now, and let me tell you, as a busy father of two children under four years old, my sleep is like the most precious thing in the world to me. And when I get in bed, the last thing I want to do is lay there, watch my brain spin around, worry about all the things and everything that I need to do on my life. I just want to go to sleep. And if I can get some sleep that is very deep and I get some REM sleep, my life is so much better the next day. I'm better at work. I'm better in the gym. I'm better as a father, better as a husband, all the important things. Sleep is the most important thing and it takes discipline to get really good sleep. That is why we are working with 8Sleep to bring you the thing that you need, which is amazing sleep.

When you get in, your bed is going to be nice and cool. It's going to help you fall asleep immediately. And you're going to increase your sleep by at least 30%, which is incredible. The way that you can go and get this this and they have a special deal going on for july 4th right now coming to you early only at barbell shrug you can head over to eightsleep.com forward slash shrug to redeem exclusive fourth of july savings and start sleeping cool this summer eight sleep currently ships within the usa canada and uk Select countries in the EU and Australia. Get over to 8sleep.com forward slash shrug.

You're going to save even more money than you normally do. Head over there for their 4th of July sales. Right now, 8sleep.com forward slash shrug. Today's episode is brought to you by our good friends over at Organifi. Five years running of supporting the show and all of you fitness freaks out there that love listening to us make sure you get over to organifi.com forward slash shrug if you like to stay active play a sport or just want to be fit there's one thing you probably notice about your workout routine you don't always feel like it that little voice in your head says just skip leg day

tomorrow or you can do a double day tomorrow to skip today sometimes the voice even tells you to give up altogether why does this happen well part of the reason is mental fortitude. Another reason, however, is biological. See, if you're active in the gym, it's not just enough to hit your macros. It's not just enough to hit your protein, fats, and carbs. Your body, even more so than the average American, is starving for micronutrients. Think about it. You're doing cardio, lifting weights, calisthenics. All this is breaking down your muscle fibers, forcing them to rebuild stronger and more efficiently. This is incredibly demanding on the body. It forces your cells to rob other parts of your body for the appropriate vitamins and minerals to build more muscle. That's why if you don't

want to feel absolutely destroyed after your workout, it's time to pay more attention to superfoods. Organified Green Juice is a 100% certified organic superfood blend packed with adaptogens and other elements designed to promote healing and recovery in the body. It's only 25 calories with just one gram of natural sugar, so it's the perfect pairing for your workouts and won't throw you off your diet. Plus, tastes absolutely delicious,

and in both the mint flavor and new crisp apple flavor that you can get your hands on by heading over to Organifi.com forward slash shrugged. Organifi.com forward slash shrugged. That is where you're going to save 20%. Today's episode is brought to you by our good friends and four-year partners over at Barbell Shrugged, Bioptimizers. Listen up. I've got some great news for you. My friends over at Bioptimizers have put together a truly irresistible offer that is only good while stock lasts.

Here's the deal. You're going to get a free bottle of their best-selling enzyme supplement called Mass Science. You get a free copy of their book, From Sick to Superhuman. You get a free copy of the Ultimate Carnivore Cookbook. And you'll get a free copy of Plant Based Superfood Delights. This bundle has a total value of $81 but they'll send it to you for free if you fill out a short form and cover a small shipping fee.

Trust me guys, this is a very real deal. So why should you take advantage of this free bundle offer besides the fact that it's free? Well Masszymes is a powerful best in class enzyme supplement that improves digestion, reduces gas and bloating, and provides relief from constipation. You'll want to take this supplement daily even if you eat only healthy organic food. Why? Because your body produces fewer enzymes as you age, so it becomes harder to quickly digest and assimilate food. Taking Masszymes daily can help fill these gaps. After you start taking Masszymes, you may notice that you no longer feel bloated after meals and that your belly feels flatter. If you have a leaky gut, Masszymes could reduce the gut irritation and help you absorb more

nutrients. Like I said, this free bundle offer, which includes a bottle of Masszymes plus 3 free ebooks, is only available while stock lasts. So you'll want to go to the exclusive link to take advantage of it. Masszymes.com forward slash shrugged free. M-A-S-S-Z-Y-M-E-S dot com forward slash shrugged free. Masszymes.com forward slash shrugged free. Oh, and in case you're wondering, there are no strings attached to this offer. There are no automatic subscriptions or renewals, so there's nothing to cancel. So just go to masszymes.com forward slash shrugged free now to get your

exclusive free products. Let's get into the show. Welcome to Barbell Shrug. Anders Warner, Doug Larson, Aaron Hyde back on Barbell Shrug. Dude, you want to know what happens when the pandemic hits People are like oh I really like hanging out In my house guess what I didn't get to see you for like three years Now almost It's been a while

I know and we were on the Event circuit together It was constant We were on tour together And then they took it from us We were all ahead of the Arnold And the whole thing blew up. That's right.

I think Spartan and maybe Olympia were the last time we hung out, I want to say. 2019. That would be right. All my road friends. I haven't seen them all for a couple of years. CrossFit Games, Olympia,

and then Arnold was, we were on deck to go to the Arnold and then, say no more. Yeah. Tell me everything, man. I would say not only did the pandemic come through and do life to you on the business side, shutting all the gyms down and all that,

but your house, your entire property burned down. Was it in the middle of it that it all happened? Yeah, yeah. August 2020. Yeah. August 2020, the CZU lightning fires here in Santa Cruz. Jeez, man. Yeah, took it all.

From bad to worse. Yeah, I'd love to hear just because i think everybody i mean we as barbell shrugged um have been in just a massive over the last call it 13 14 months of rebuilding the business refocusing on everything that we're doing um i'd love to hear about it kind of your personal journey on through it i mean this really is like the first time i've ever had or been able to talk to you in depth about it of like just what happened the rebuilding process and just kind of like you guys had an entire like estate up there that you would build basically with your hands that is no longer tree

house like the whole works and you had 20 years of you know taking raw land that was just a deer trail with nothing on it and and you had 20 years of you know taking raw land that was just a deer trail with nothing on it and and you know making your your mark and fully off grid and multiple homes and uh solar our own well we had just finished a 150 000 gorgeous tree house uh 50 feet up two redwood trees with you know abalone lined bathroom and full kitchen milled from wood from the property. It was, it was amazing. You know, dance floors, outdoor kitchens. It was quite a property. But, you know, Doug mentioned, you know, pandemic bad and fire worse. And, you know, I really don't,

I can't look at it through those lenses. I don't even, I really am working to not look at it through those lenses i don't i really am working to not look at things like this is bad this is good this is happening you know to me and in that type of a of a negative way i i look at it like it it was necessary uh for you know for what i needed in my personal evolution at that point in time. And, you know, as challenging as things are, as hard as things are, you know, you either believe your own dogma or it's complete bullshit. And it's easy to say, oh, well, I do my morning cold plunges and fill out my five-minute journal and start the day all fired up until you

get, you know, punched in the face. And it's like, well, is that stuff total bullshit? Or is it there for a reason? You know, it, you actually, you know, it's easy to do all these things and say all these things when things are going quote unquote well, but when they really go sideways, that's when you get challenged and it's like, okay, do I really believe it or do I not? And I had to really step back and say, okay, I do believe this. I've seen these type of things manifest in my own life. So if that is a reality, then I realize that this situation is happening for me, that it's here for a reason, that there's lessons to be learned. And I did, you know, as I had time to reflect on it, I've learned some mass major lessons from it. Not that it's any easier. I mean, I still

am emotionally attached to that property was part of my identity. But, you know, there's an opportunity now to, to rebuild and do version two. So, yeah, I think a really interesting piece of I'm cutting you off, Doug. See that? That's a followup question. Um, uh, but you own a business, you've owned multiple businesses, you've gone broke, you've done all these things. So you kind of have been kicked before and this is just kind of maybe maybe the largest um maybe the largest kick that one could possibly have in losing a home and all the memories and families and all that um how did your kids handle it

it was challenging you know two teenagers uh they're they're they have their kind of sanctuary is is their room right it's set up how they want it and you know it's kind of their their space um and you know they neither of them got to go home at all um you know so they didn't literally didn't take anything i mean i was able to grab them maybe one pair of jeans and underwear yeah t-shirts each you know that was it and so that you know they lost everything and when you're that young it's it's kind of challenging to have everything taken away from you and in process side but ultimately the lesson that they learned is invaluable because they learned it a lot younger than I learned. And that lesson, as far as I can see right now, is that there's a fallacy of permanence that we

all subscribe to. I think both with our own bodies and our own mortality. And, you know, for me that when I'm out there and, you know, digging holes with the tractor and I'm laying these massive bricks and I'm building these structures and doing these things that this will have this generational permanence. Like I'm building this, I'm going to build this. So, you know, I would always tell my kids, hey, you to decide but you both have places here permanently like you can pick one you can pick one you can raise your kids here you can live here you're not gonna have to go in debt for you know some ridiculous house in California like this

is the family compound I'm gonna be buried over there your mom's gonna be buried there your grandparents are buried there. Like, this is it. Like, this is for you guys. You guys, you know, we'll be able to continue this on. And that was inaccurate thinking, you know, all things, all material things by definition have a beginning and an end, you know, they all burn, they all crumble, you know, the, you know, mother nature always reclaims. And, you know, this desk that I'm sitting at right now, this microphone, it may seem like, oh, yeah, this is well built. It'll be around forever.

No. At some point in time, this too will be dust. It'll be returned to the dirt. And that reminder of, you know, that impermanence that exists in all things material was a wake- up call for me. You know, it was really a wake up call. And also, you know, all the shit that we accumulate as human beings, it's just mind boggling, you know, and to be removed of all that and go, wow, I literally only have, you know, my vehicle and, and a suitcase that I was able to throw in here. And like,

that's it. Like, those are my, the entirety of my worldly possessions right now was, it was interesting. But then I also really started going kind of deep diving on, okay, that's kind of a, you know, morbid way to look at things a little bit. What's the, you know, what's the opposite? You know, how do I look at this? What is permanent? What is permanent? This, I, you know, I really started questioning, well, what, what is permanent? And, and I think things that, that we have historically discounted, especially when we're younger, have the most permanence, the, the thoughts that we allow into our mind and that we release

to the universe, the words that come out of our mouth, our actions for sure. We can't unthink something. We can't unsay something. We can't undo something, right? We could say we're sorry, or we can try to make amends or whatever, but you can never undo that. You can never undo those thoughts and be very conscious of, you know, what I'm allowing into my mind, what I'm dwelling on, you know, am I truly an abundance thinker or am I continuing to allow my ego and scarcity and all this other bullshit, you know, attack my mind and not allowing my mind to be hijacked by the news and, you know, the radio and all of this garbage and being right in the middle of COVID too, and just watching everybody be hijacked by,

you know, the fear, the fear mongering and the taking of sides, the polarization, the, you know, between right and left, Republican and Democrat. And I'm like, wow, this is just, you know, bizarre stuff going on right now. And just, you know, it was just a really good reminder that we all have to guard, you know, the sanctum of the mind. And it's just so important and, you know, and how that relates to the soul and just, you know, what our whole purpose is here on life and what does it mean after we die? And like, you know, what, where is this permanence? You know, this trajectory is really what it is. I feel like life,

the whole point of us being on this planet is we're establishing a trajectory for our soul that goes on for eternity. You know? Yeah. You know, as far as, as far as the business was going during that time, like how are you able to stay focused and be productive? Like your house burns down, like your life is in many ways in shambles. Like you have a lot of work to do to go clean things up, find a place to live, you know, console your family.

You have many responsibilities that all of a sudden just kind of appeared out of nowhere. But you still have a big company to run and people are relying on you and you have many roles to fill. Like did the company come together and support you in a handful of ways that way while you were taking care of taking care of your family and trying to remedy this crazy situation that you found yourself in? They yeah, they really did. It was, it was pretty amazing.

The outreach from, from life aid employees, you know, gift cards for food and, and, you know, a shipment just showing up with like socks or underwear or toothpaste. I mean, things you wouldn't even think of, right? You know, all of our community, you know, coming together to help out, it was so humbling, so humbling. And I'm never have been a person to, you know, want people to do stuff for me or to take things, you know, it's just not comfortable for me to be in that position. And I was forced in that position. And, you know, the outreach was just amazing.

You know, my parents went through the same thing. They were living on the property and, you know, lost several vehicles. Just, you know, everything. This is unfortunately the second fire that they've gone through in the last six years and they lost everything the first time around so you know going through this again my mom's late stage alzheimer's disease so the worst thing for an alzheimer's patient is is being displaced right because they have some familiarity with with their routine in their environment and so they're going through this whole thing too. And I mean, my,

sorry, I choked me up thinking about it. My friends pooled together money to, and basically donated and they were able to, you know, buy a little you know like bought him a bought him a new car so it was like pretty uh yeah pretty amazing just the community that you know that um i have the opportunity to to be a part of you know here in the bay the Bay Area and Santa Cruz and San Francisco and, you know, just all of our friends. It's just, it's true friendship. You know, it's what, you know, people that are there for you in the hardest and most challenging times in your life. And they just really stepped up in a massive way.

Shrug family, I want to take a quick break. If you are enjoying today's conversation, I want to invite you to come over to rapidhealthreport.com. When you get to rapidhealthreport.com, you will see an area for you to opt in, in which you can see Dan Garner read through my lab work. Now, you know that we've been working at Rapid Health Optimization on programs for optimizing health. Now, what does that actually mean? It means in three parts, we're going to be doing a ton of deep dive into your labs. That means the inside out approach. So we're not going to be guessing your macros. We're not going to be guessing the total calories that you need. We're actually going to be doing all the work to uncover everything that you have going on inside you. Nutrition, supplementation, sleep. Then we're going to go through and analyze your lifestyle. Dr. Andy Galpin is going to build

out a lifestyle protocol based on the severity of your concerns, and then we're going to also build out all the programs that go into that based on the most severe things first. This truly is a world-class program, and we invite you to see step one of this process by going over to rapidhealthreport.com. You can see Dan reading my labs, the nutrition and supplementation that he has recommended that has radically shifted the way that I sleep, the energy that I have during the day, my total testosterone level, and just my ability to trust and have confidence in my health going forward. I really, really hope that you're able to go over to rapidhealthreport.com, watch the video of my labs and see what is possible.

And if it is something that you are interested in, please schedule a call with me on that page. Once again, it's rapidhealthreport.com and let's get back to the show. Also, you have a, you have a Raleigh group of friends out here too. I get to hang out with your buddy Sean every once in a while. Yeah, that's right. That Bay Area extends out east here. Totally. Forget about us. I love Sean.

Yeah, I actually would love to dig on kind of like where LifeAid's at right now. I know you guys just launched some new products, but something that, that i mean we've all kind of like seen the growth over the years and in pieces how how is keeping that culture like i think many times you don't understand what the culture is of your your business it's like well i have these values and i hope everybody underneath me has them too because i talk about them all the time or i'm i'm showing them all the time. I'm being this person that I want everyone in the company to be. But you don't actually know until kind of something like that happens. How difficult, or not even difficult, but do you guys have like a

process of how you've built that culture so that when something really bad happens, like you've got an entire company behind you that is going and doing very nice things, taking care of your family. Like I would, I would assume many companies that go through a growth period like you guys have been in and continue to do that culture gets lost way, way down kind of at lower ends of the employee and very rarely would filter all to all the way to the top where somebody's actually going out and like um you know helping out there the the owner of the company to go help his parents and are there really is there like a systematic way of creating

culture that you guys have thought about yeah we're very intentional about it. We have been since day one. Culture develops whether you put intention behind it or not, right? Totally. I think most people do it not great, especially in the last growth periods. It's hard. It can be challenging, especially when you're onboarding a lot of people at once or you're a lot of hiring. We talk about a lot of concepts and those concepts get continually recycled and refined over time from our core values to the tools that we give our team members to, you know, our retreats to our forward-looking vision statements to, you know, training people in vocabulary and really communication skills.

Basically, you know, I've been a guinea pig for, you know, my entire adult life. I've spent over $250,000 on quote-unquote personal development and that type of stuff. So I've tried everything. Actually, I'm sure both of you have. You just try everything there is to try. And you find out what works for you, right? And you incorporate it into your life.

So when I find things that work for me or Ryan finds something what works for you, right? And you incorporate it into your life. So, when I find things that work for me, or Ryan finds something that works for him, we share that with the team. And it's like, look, I'm not expecting all of you to do this on a daily basis. It may not work for you, but at least try it once, you know, at least get exposure to it. So, we give every new team member a five-minute journal. We give them, you know, a notebook with our core values in it. We talk, we do an on, we do an onboarding and teach them about Wim Hof breathing and morning routines and exercise and, you know, intermittent fasting and that type of thing. You know, we obviously give them an education on what are we doing as a company?

What are our products all about? I mean, I always talk about the three Ps. You know, the products is the obvious part. You know, the people and presentation. How do we show up in the world? You know, how we do anything is how we do everything. And just being very conscious of that. Not, you know, what are you doing

when no one else is looking? That's a true representation of your character, right? You know, it's easy to do all the right things when the spotlight's on you, but what are you doing when no one's looking, you know? And really focusing on that and making sure that we're hiring quality human beings that might be a little rough around the edges and we can help give them the tools to excel. And people, you know, we've got some of our leadership teams started out at the most entry level positions here at this company and have just really worked their way up all the way to being part of the management team over the years and because they were quality human beings you know from the get

go and i i'm super stoked that you know all of our people here you know we've got 100 employees now globally they're all great people yeah it starts with that um being in the fitness and you guys obviously have been a massive piece of the crossfit space but we went to wadapalooza and i didn't see anybody from life aid inside that building you guys were outside um what is like this this um i i actually the only reason i bring it up is i never thought there'd be a day where i didn't see fit aid at wadapalooza. What's going on in the fitness space right now that you guys see as kind of the next big wave coming through?

I'm not saying that you guys have checked out of CrossFit by any means. You're still a massive player in that space, but what do you guys see coming through that is really the next I don't want to say the next CrossFit, but the next something that is really catching your eye in that space. Well, I mean, CrossFit has changed the landscape,

as you guys know, even Globo gyms. I mean, you know, look at like, uh, 45s on the rise right now and a lot of success around, you know, their kind of functional fitness regimens. And we are by no means checked out of crossfit i mean what what we've done and you know backing up you know pre-pandemic and really just looking at this thing and going look things are getting more expensive to activate you know you've got massive corporate sponsors now coming into the let's talk about the CrossFit space. You've got Monster in there, you've got truck companies, you know? So, does it make sense for us to continue to try to go dollar for dollar with Monster that's got a, you know, tens of billion dollar market cap? We can't spend that kind of money. So, why don't we take that money, you know, and check our ego aside so we're not the, you know, title sponsor, but we can invest that back into the gyms. We can invest that more into,000 spend make sense? Or would we rather invest that

into the affiliate network and, you know, support our gyms and that kind of thing? So, you know, we're not going anywhere. We're just, you know, we're just always going, okay, where are things at and where are they going? And how do we stay a step ahead of the game? You know, a lot of the companies that have been copying us the whole time are now committed into these sponsorship deals that are hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. They're not even considering how much it costs to activate these things. Let's take the games, for example. We're a game sponsor. We're talking about a multi-hundred thousand dollars contract for owning the recovery beverage, which is a very thin category,

which now we're conflicted out because we have, you know, fit and energy. So we're conflicted out by monster anyway, but let's just say we weren't, we're there. So we've got this massive sponsorship package. Then we have the activation. Well, you guys know from the game, you know, the games, those act outdoor boosts, I mean these massive trust systems and everything, you can easily spend $100,000 just on the booth activation. Then we have an indoor activation.

We have all our staff, housing. So we could be into this one event. Let's just say $150,000 all into this event. Maybe it's $160,000. There's 8,000 people there at the games. Let's just do the math right now, right? That's $200 for every man, woman, and child to activate an event. Tell me how that makes any sense whatsoever, right? It may make sense if I'm a monster because it doesn't matter. I'm just

going to like, I'm going to force my way into the space and I'm going to pay whatever it takes to make sure that everyone in CrossFit knows my name. Well, we still run things from a very small business perspective. We need, you know, something called return on investment and that kind of thing. So, you know, I'm glad that there's more money in the space and that people are able to be full-time CrossFit athletes and actually, you know, have a livelihood off of that and that type of thing now. It's just, you know, have a livelihood off of that and that type of thing now. It's just, you know, we are not at the level where we can spend indiscriminately and we never, I don't, as long as I'm at the helm, we'll never do that. You know, that's just not part of our DNA. We come from small business backgrounds, both Orion and myself, and that's

how we'll always run this business. And so, you know, we're not abandoning space at all. We're just being a lot smarter about our investments in the space. I think it's actually, Doug and I were walking around this year. I actually, I got COVID down there so I had to leave a day early and my whole family got it back at home.

So it was like just a minefield. I couldn't believe. You dirty boy. I know. You're walking around Miami and like the first month of the world being open, you're like, oh, the whole, right in the world being open. You're like, Oh, the whole,

right in the middle of like Omicron rolling through the country. It's like, there isn't a person here. That's not going to be sick over the next three weeks. Uh, but it was, it was super interesting, uh,

walking through the vendor village and like, I don't know. I've been to four to six water paloozas, something like that. And just like trying to look at each one and remember like were you here five years ago were you here three years ago like how there doesn't seem to be um there's a a longevity to it which is honestly like why i wanted to hear your opinion on it because the you guys have stayed in this road, many waves and, and been able to like objectively kind of step back. Like you don't

have the ego attached to being the number one brand in CrossFit specific. It's, it's making good business decisions, um, which I think is something. How many brands have stayed relevant in the space for over a decade? You know, you can count them on one hand, you know, you can count them on one hand. And to do that, you have to be very strategic. How many of those booths at Guadalupalooza, there's probably, what, 60 vendors there, literally took their entire marketing budget for the year and said, this is going to put us on the map. This is going to make us relevant in the space. And they go there and they spend all this money and all this activation. And then at the end of the day, they're adding up the receipts and like, holy shit, we only made two grand all weekend. And we just spent, you know,

the entirety of our marketing budget. Yeah, you're dropping a six-figure number to be there and selling a $20, $30 product. They just don't have any concept of, you know, the overall all in expense. And, you know, we've done this for so long and we've made so many stupid investments and not necessarily in the CrossFit space. In the early days of the CrossFit space, these kinds of things made a lot of sense and you could actually get an ROI, but those days are gone. Things change. We're all in, you know uh do e-com and digital marketing remember facebook 10 years ago you could run a ten dollar ad and make a thousand dollars off of it those days are gone they are never returning so someone just oh yeah i'm gonna get into e-commerce i'm gonna

do facebook marketing good luck buddy good luck you know yeah exactly. You better be willing to lose your ass and playing the long game and know what your lifetime value is and go negative heavily on the front end. If you're going to have an e-com business today,, the low hanging fruit has been picked. You know, if you want to go there and get, you know, brand building and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, God bless you. But you'd have to be living under a rock to not, to be avid in the CrossFit space and not know who FitAid is. So what, you know, it doesn't make sense for me to spend that kind of money indiscriminately. It's actually one of the things I love going back to those events now is seeing, um, who the new

people are, who the, who has been there for four or five years. Um, and then seeing who's actually still alive and like, and killing it. Because if you didn't go to Waterpalooza and you didn't see this year, you're like, wonder where they're at. You't have to worry it's it's in the fridge at the gym that you're going to that's why or outside renegading this is my favorite move ever uh hit them before they show up you know certainly the industry has changed a lot since uh we first ran across you guys in 2014 or so like how has your role changed along the way as well? Like the company's much different than it used to be. It's certainly,

certainly bigger. You're in, you're in many different markets. You have many product lines. You just came up with your fit day to energy stuff. Like, well along the way, like how,

how has your specific role changed and, and how have you had to, um, to better yourself? You know, you just say you spent a quarter million dollars on self-improvement type stuff. Like how have you had to evolve as a person in order to stay at the helm and to be able to lead

a company that has a hundred employees? Yeah. I mean, having the faith and support of our board and our investors and, you know, that, you know, they invested in, in not only the business, but Orion and myself and knew that we had the gumption to kind of, you know, figure it out. And that's a lot of it is just trial by fire. You know, for me personally, it was like involved in every single aspect and then really having to let the check the ego and start relegating things and, and really focusing on my area of unique ability.

And then where the cycle is gone is, you know, I had let go of the reins almost too much and had too much faith in certain people in certain positions that I had hired for. And once kind of getting back in the weeds a little bit going, oh, wow, it was it's's almost like you guys read the book. I think it's Danny Strepper, I think is his name, Setting the Table. He's that big restaurateur. He's got multiple chains, whatever. Anyway, he's got this example in the book. It's talking to him training a new employee. And he goes, the salt belongs perfectly in the middle of the table, not an inch to the right, not an inch to the left, not perfectly in the middle.

And he sets it there, and he's sitting down with the employee, and then he kind of bumps it an inch away, and he's just looking at the employee, and he puts it back in the middle. And anyway, and the point is, if you're not paying attention to that fucking salt shaker constantly and making sure that it's perfectly in the middle, it's easier for it to drift off. And it looks okay over there.

And then it drifts a little. It looks fine there. And the analogy is sometimes you've got to just be deep in the weeds of the business because you'll see things and you'll hear things. Or you'll hear somebody's pitch. Or you're seeing how they're communicating or what they're doing or not doing. It could be death by a thousand cuts. So, you know, recently I, you know, let my VP of sales go, you know, we let them go, made some significant changes. And I have personally gotten back into buyer meetings. I am personally back in the weeds working, you know, with my lieutenants at the company where that had been relegated more to a general. And we have gotten things, you know,

that salt shaker back at the center of the table. And it has been refreshing. And God, thank God, it happened right when it happened. Because if we would have let it go even another week, who knows? We might not even be here. Like, it's that critical to, you know, as the owner to make sure that you understand everything that's going on from the development of the products to how your customer success team is interacting with, with, with your customers, all the challenges that are going on, you know, feedback from your customer base, how the communication is being handled. Like there's a thousand things need to align perfectly for success in business. And one of those can sink the ship, just one thing, you know,

and it's challenging, it's frustrating, it's exciting, it's terrifying all at once. But, you know, I tend to do my best in Excel when, you know, shit is going a thousand miles an hour and my back's against the wall. And I got 15 things that are, you know, going Richter all at once. And it's like, okay, I can handle this, you know. And that's why it's like okay I can handle this you know and that's why it's like oh COVID and the fire and the business and all that it's like as stressful as all this is and was I don't know that there's any I know that I'm the most qualified person to to handle that situation and it's just in my DNA and it's weird and it's kind of sick in a lot of ways.

A lot of people just, it's not, they're not built for it. But for me personally, it's like, that's where I thrive when fucking shit's the most chaotic. Yeah. Um,

kind of going along the lines of being focused and being very specific and intentional about what you're doing. Um, you guys just launched a brand new product line, which for a business that's doing well, succeeding, it would kind of make sense to stay in your lane and keep going with the current product lines and not expanding in another direction or creating a new piece of the business, a new product line. What goes into that process? I know you guys have

done it many times, so it's obviously a much easier process now than the very first time you did it. But what are some of the kind of just balancing like the fears of having a new product line, launching the new product line? There's probably more things saying, hey, don't do this. Let's just stay in our lane and keep going. But then actually making that decision to go and launch this new line that you guys put out. Yeah, lots of challenges. I mean, it sucks up resources, you know, time, financial capital. I mean, think of just, you know, how much money you have to invest into, you know, creating a new product and holding physical inventory. And I know you guys like with your, with your Walmart stuff now,

and like going through that process. And there's so many things to think about from, you know, margins and making sure that you're delivering the goods on time and all of these all of these potential reasons not to do something. And a lot of times the right answer is don't deviate, don't do anything. No, but for us, we have been always very big on surveying our core audience, you know, our direct to consumer business and our direct to gym business. You know, if you're on our list, you get surveys from us, you know, usually once or twice a year we'll survey. And one of the

surveys is like, what products do you guys want to see from us you know where should we go next you know and the feedback that we got consistently was look we love fit aid we love you know maybe some of the other products that kind of thing that i still drink c4 i still drink celsius i still drink bang i still drink monster you know i still drink something for you know this pick me up or a pre-workout like you guys aren't really a caffeine platform and i and i deviate from you know your products because we've always asked people to really trade vitamins for caffeine is kind of the the the trade-off we've asked them to make yeah and and so i was always resistant to it because

i'm not an energy drink drinker personally. And I'm like, they're just not healthy. No one's drinking an energy drink for health reasons. Like you can pull a hundred people that drink Monster and say, why do you drink this? Well, I drink it because it jacks me up. It wakes me up. It makes me alert. They're not drinking it because, oh, it lowers my blood pressure.

I hope they're not. I hope they're not. I hope they're not. But the more I looked at it, you know, the more I recognized that, hey, we could do this better. We could create something that we can actually stand behind. And we worked with a mutual friend of ours, Dr. Allison Brager, who, as you guys know, does a lot of the, you know, caffeine and sleep studies for the army on like, okay, what is the optimal caffeine level? That's not going to jack you up, but actually gives you, you know, the best in terms of performance. What kind of source would we use? You know, how can we do this? Like, if you look at the evolution of the energy drink market, it's really interesting to me because you had energy 1.0 that we all know, starting out with Red Bull, then Monster Rockstar, right? Then you had energy 2.0,

and that started with Bang. And then you had Celsius and C4 and Alani Noon. Well, energy 2.0 birthed what I call performance energy, this performance energy category. It's like energy with benefits, right? And there's a perceived, I call it perceived health halo around energy 2.0. Because if you look at these cans, they still use deceiving and bullshit marketing. You look at it and it says naturally flavored on the front, or it says plant-based, but you turn around the back of the can and it says two servings per container, which doubles the sugar content that they're claiming. Or it's sweetened with sucralose, which we know destroys your gut microbiome, or it's sweetened with ACE-K or aspartame. So all of energy 2.0, you lump them all together, they all have that same thing in common.

They're still using two servings per container. They're still artificially sweetened. They still use a ton of sodium because they know it makes you more thirsty and you're going to drink more of the product, right? I mean, the lawsuit just came out with Bang that they just lost it. They don't even have any creatine in the product. The whole, the whole, the single ingredient that they stake the entire company on. It doesn't even exist in the product. It's not measurable. Zero, zero creatine, right? They just lost a big lawsuit against Monster regarding this. It came out like two weeks ago. So how do we create the evolution of the energy drink market?

How do we create energy 3.0? You know, synthetic caffeine is derived from urea all these companies still use synthetic caffeine from urea you know they're using artificial sweeteners so can we create something that's efficacious that's clean doesn't have any of the artificial colors flavors or sweeteners that has a natural caffeine source and that's where you know know, FIDAID Energy came. So it was able to meet our own personal criteria and our, you know, and stick with our values as a brand and give our consumers something that they were looking for in a better way than anyone else is out on the market right now. Yeah.

When you guys are looking to the future of FIDAID, how long are you guys going to be in this game for? Like, where's this company? Where are you guys are looking to the future of FitAid, how long are you guys going to be in this game for? Where's this company? Where are you guys going? My intention is for the brand to be in the game indefinitely, for the long haul. I mean, you look at the legacy soda companies, they've been around for over 100 years.

Yeah. So there's no reason why we cannot be a pillar that redefines people's expectations when it comes to beverage you know and it's already happening it's already happening i mean you guys remember the early days of crossfit right who was there in the crossfit space it was drink companies, us and our friends over on the East Coast, you know, Kill Cliff, right? Kill Cliff, if you recall, was sweetened with sucralose. And we made such a big deal about sucralose early on,

before people really knew about it, that they changed their formulation for most of their SKUs to remove sucralose. I think there's still a couple with it, but most of the new ones don't have it anymore. So if we can create and continue to create more awareness about what you put in your body has a direct reflect reflection, how you show up in the world, like what you put in food and beverage, how you sleep, all of these things literally have an effect on your performance and your performance dictates your relationships. It dictates how much money you're going to make. All of these things are tied to, you know, how I show up that we can move the needle and then start eliminating high sugar, artificially sweetened, artificial colorings,

you know, all of this marketing gimmicks, all of this stuff and make these companies change for the better. And we're seeing it happen in real time right before our eyes. Yeah. It's like the David versus Goliath. You guys just stay David and keep attacking and knocking people out. It's fantastic. That's what we're doing. You know, that's what we're doing. And just going to keep moving forward and, you know,

cans in hands, convert and, you know, getting converts, you know, one can at a time. I know. I'm just handing those cans out, man. Where are you? Where can people find you? What events are you going to be at coming up? You guys going to the games?

Yeah, we'll be at the games. We've got, you know, a booth in Vendor Village. Getting scrappy again, to the games? Yeah, we'll be at the games. We've got a booth in Vendor Village. Getting scrappy again, a little 10x20. We'll be at the games. We are throwing in the after party, so we're going to do that. We're going to throw a killer party. What are you doing for the CrossFit Games, bud? Me?

I'm not going to be there, unfortunately. One of these years, I'll be back at the games. I haven't been there in a while. I'm visiting my family in the Northwest. The last time we were there was with you. And then I don't think we were even able to have one for the last two years. It's still a great event, you know?

Yeah. Um, it's fantastic. It feels like, it feels like reunion. Every time I go back, I'm like, Oh my gosh,

Guido actually just hit me up this week. It was like, dude, you want to lift some weights in Madison? She's still in such great shape. Isn't he? That guy's biceps. Such a good dude.

I feel like a competitive advantage in life is having biceps like Guido. Oh, totally. You get it into at least like five more awesome places in life at least. I've been writing down some of your like dad bod workouts. You got to, right? What I realized is just my motivation level to train as hard as I used to, it's just not there. And part of it is because I've gone through so many injuries, you know,

that I just – it's more of a fear or an aversion to being injured than to lift heavy. It's not that I don't want to lift heavy. It's like, but I just feel better when I'm really sticking with lifting, you know, really around my body weight and not going over that and doing a lot of body weight exercises and incorporating way more yoga. You know, there's still no better way to get someone in shape. You could take the biggest fat fuck there is totally out of shape. And if you commit them to hardcore, there's two ways, commit them to hardcore CrossFit or join the Marine Corps, right? Like if you want a three month program to get the worst shape person in the best shape, those are the two best ways to do it.

But for me, I'm almost 50 years old. Like, you know, I still love to go in our CrossFit gym right here at HQ and do some of the workouts, but there's no way that I'm setting a clock and I'm like, okay, I'm going to, you know, beat my best time ever. I'm going to PR and go heavy. And it's like, no, I just want to be healthy and feel good, you know, and look decent. I actually really struggle mentally sometimes with the what do i need first and and like expanding capacity and then the narrow capacity that i currently live in when it comes to fitness um like in my if i if i had nothing going on which is never going to happen uh it's like i'd love to wake up and do some yoga in the morning and then go for a run and sprints and do some sort of this and then add that. And, uh, but really I just do a lot of basic stuff and the capacity. But I also struggle with the limited capacity that I feel like I'm creating

by not doing a lot of modalities. Right. And the easy thing to do is the easy thing to do, right? So if you're not pushing, it's somewhat – that's why I love like watching an athlete like Hunter McIntyre. It's like, okay, you know, the guy OCR gave a shot at CrossFit. Now he goes out and he's cycling with like competitive cycles. Like, he's like, let's go. Like, I don't give a shit. Like the ability to go out and compete at that

level. Like, I love that. Like I want to go out and I'll surf, I'll play racquetball. Let's go hike, climb. Like I'm not a great athlete, but I'm good enough to like, at least not be a complete idiot when I'm out there doing all these various things. But the, and that's one thing that CrossFit has done so well is like that different combinations of things and different varieties. And that translates over into life. Tell us all the socials and all things LifeAid brother um you know for life aid always our website life aid bebco aid life aid bebco.com our most uh active social handles at fit aid on instagram or tiktok and for me i'm always uh just my name aaron hind h-i-n-d-e instagram linkedin uh where's aaron on soundcloud if you want to hear some tight beats?

There you go. That's a good one right there. Doug Larson. Right on. On Instagram, Doug Larson. No TikTok. Not doing TikTok yet. Not yet.

I posted a few times, but I have not picked it up. I told Doug to get on TikTok one time. We had a two and a half hour road trip together, and it took him two and a half hours to make his first video. We said no words to each other. He was just totally locked in.

Like, you know, I haven't seen you in like two months. Next thing you know, you're making a frigging music video over there on your phone and zero people will see it. That algorithm is incredible to get you sucked in. They do it better than anyone. Yeah, that's why I go on there for about a month, and then I immediately delete it and go, we went too far too fast. Yeah, totally.

I'm Anders Varner at Anders Varner. We are Barbell Shrugged at barbell underscore shrug. Make sure you get over to rapidhealthreport.com. That is where you can see Dan Garner, the maestro of blood work, functional medicine. You can see him reading my labs and schedule a call with me so we can get you healthy. RapidHealthReport.com. Friends, we'll see you guys next week.