Founder's Story - The Billion-Dollar Energy Drink No One Saw Coming | Ep. 446 with Scott Frohman Founder and CEO of Odyssey Functional Energy

Episode Date: September 21, 2026

Scott begins by reflecting on his years working on Wall Street, where long hours, coffee, and traditional energy drinks became part of his daily routine. Eventually, the constant stimulation left him questioning whether that lifestyle was sustainable, leading him to search for a healthier way to maintain focus and energy. His discovery of functional mushrooms became the catalyst for what would eventually become Odyssey Functional Energy.The conversation traces Scott's entrepreneurial evolution—from building successful businesses in vaping and CBD to launching Odyssey during the pandemic. Along the way, he explains why listening to customers is more important than protecting your original idea, how multiple pivots transformed Odyssey into a leading functional energy brand, and why he believes entrepreneurs should obsess over building products people genuinely love before spending heavily on marketing.Scott also shares one of his biggest business failures, explains how he learned when to pivot instead of forcing an idea to succeed, and outlines his vision for the future of the energy beverage industry.Key Discussion PointsWhy years on Wall Street pushed Scott to search for healthier, longer-lasting energy and ultimately inspired Odyssey Functional Energy. How Scott successfully built, scaled, and exited businesses in vaping and CBD before entering the functional beverage market. The importance of listening to customers, pivoting quickly, and refining products instead of becoming emotionally attached to the original vision. Why Odyssey abandoned coffee and tea to focus entirely on functional energy drinks after customer demand made the opportunity clear. The lessons Scott learned from launching products that failed—and why knowing when to stop can be just as important as knowing when to persist. How Odyssey built strong retail momentum through product quality and customer referrals before investing in influencer marketing and creator partnerships. TakeawaysBuild the product before building the hype. Scott intentionally delayed major marketing efforts until he knew customers genuinely loved the product and repeatedly came back to buy it.Customer feedback should drive your business—not your ego. Several of Odyssey's biggest successes came after Scott changed packaging, product positioning, flavors, caffeine levels, and branding based on retailer and consumer feedback.Not every good idea becomes a good business. Scott openly discusses PhoneGuard, a texting-and-driving prevention app backed by Justin Bieber that ultimately failed, teaching him when to recognize that an idea isn't gaining traction.Entrepreneurship requires constant adaptation. Odyssey began as mushroom coffee before evolving into teas and eventually becoming a functional energy drink company focused on a much larger market opportunity.Winning starts with solving a real problem. Rather than creating another highly caffeinated beverage, Scott focused on sustained energy, improved focus, and eliminating the crash that many consumers experience from traditional energy drinks.Long-term businesses are built through purpose. Scott believes founders perform at their best when they genuinely believe their products improve people's lives, making purpose the foundation of sustainable growth.Closing ThoughtsScott Frohman's entrepreneurial journey demonstrates that successful founders rarely follow a straight path. From Wall Street burnout to multiple exits, failed ventures, and continuous reinvention, he shows that building an enduring company often means letting customers shape the product, embracing pivots, and staying focused on creating genuine value. 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Justin Bieber became my spokesperson. Guess what? I lost it. This is Scott Froman. He started with a drink nobody understood. Today, Odyssey is the number one natural energy brand in America, stocked in 17,000 doors and fueling the offices of SpaceX and Citadel. I built this whole thing with no marketing, no social media, zero.

This whole thing happened because I've found. focus on building. What did building Odyssey cost you? One thing you didn't cost me was right. So Scott, you were a burnt out Wall Street guy. What did that world do to you? Look, you know, I spent a lot of years on Wall Street and I was, you know, coffees moved to Florida, got into Cuban coffees that I really like. And, you know, I was always kind of like wiring out. And then, you know, energy drinks, you know, came about and I got really into, oh, okay, here's another thing to stimulate myself in the afternoon. We got a bunch of energy drinks and, you know, things like that.

But it really, it moved me to kind of like say, okay, this existence that I have going on here, I didn't feel like it was going to get me to where and how I wanted to live long term. So I said, I think I had to make some changes and change it up a little bit. From what I read, you wanted energy without the crash. You were testing with putting mushrooms in, but it tasted terrible. Yeah. So as the evolutionate kind of developed in my life, I saw it getting very entrepreneurial. I got to start to look at doing, you know, other things outside of Wall Street.

And I got involved in, in products. You know, I got really into products. Like, my background is I got into health and fitness and Pilates and I got sciatica and, you know, and Alison, the Pilates helped me. And I started getting into doing triathlons. And so I got into using these kind of functional mushrooms, you know, kind of utilizing like why is made for focus and clarity and supportive steps. were really good for endurance and go to max.

And I saw it adding him for my coffee in the morning. And I said, wow, I really liked how I was showing up. I was showing up. I had this clarity. I felt that I was, you know, the way I was managing with people, my creativity. I didn't feel like I needed that extra cup of coffee for that extra caffeine as I went. I felt I had this longer lasting energy. And I just felt this better existence.

So, you know, that was what was going on as to how I got into these, you know, functional mushrooms in the first place. So you went from vaping to CBD to now mushrooms. Would you say that you're chasing trends or do you see things before everyone else? You look, the vaping, I just looked at it like it was a better alternative than smoking cigarettes. And then, you know, I was like, I thought like I looked at it like and now I'm not going to go through the debate whether it is or it isn't. Okay. But I really think that, you know, and I saw a trend of getting from, you know, because I was into the vape early before there's even vape stores. And I saw the trend of like getting into those little e-liquid bottles because it was,

originally it was, you know, rechargeables and electronic cigarettes and moved to these little bottles. And then the bottles turned into the premium bottles. And I got into that. I ended up owning vape stores. I went public with my deal. I had worldwide distribution selling vape premium e-liquid bottles and stuff like that. And that was really cool.

And I built that and sold that. And what happened was when I sold that, I had a non-compete. I couldn't do anything with Naked Team. But I liked the whole thing, movement of what was happening with Canvas. I really liked the whole thing with CBD. Because I looked at CBD, it was like, wow, this can really help people with anxiety and, like, you know, inflammation and, you know,

sleep and, you know, just better existence. And I, and I like CBD without the THC because, you know, I thought that this would be good for a lot of people. So I got the CBD and I built that relatively fast because I had all that distrific. from vape smoking head shops. I was able to plug right into, you know, all that obscure place in the back of a shopping center would take CBD in early days before people really fully understood. And I got involved in that early and I built a big business on the CBD. But I, yeah, I like, I like getting involved in things that I see helping people. And, you know, at cons when I feel

like the market is ready for those products. I tried to do some stuff with CBD maybe 10 years ago, but the regulation changes and everything, it freaked me out and I got out of it. And maybe that was a big mistake. What kept you into these? Yeah, CBD was clearly gray, you know what I mean? And especially when I got in because I got it to CBD in 2015 and I built that company really fast.

And but people like the products. You know, we had the creams, you know, it helped people with like, you know, like all kinds of, you know, know, it was fantastic, you know, a lot of cool tinctures and, you know, some, some bait products. Look, I think it was, I got, I sold the company 2018 to Harrison, which is a big cannabis, M-S-O that are like the biggest operators like New Jersey and Pennsylvania. I wasn't looking to sell the company. Actually, funny enough, I was making good money with the business.

I, it was a private company. And I said, well, this market is about to change. A lot of people. I'm getting at the CBD. I'm getting a CBD. The regulations were about to change. And I said, wow, I said, I really want to be positioned. So I wanted to, you know, actually raise money and have a war chest of money to, you know, manage throughout this.

As it was, they wanted to buy the company and sold a company that was great. And then I spent the year of worth of the integration. And now it's like, you know, January 2020. And I left the company and I now sitting at home and I'm by myself with my wife. I got two kids. And actually, my one kid was born January 4th, 2020. So I had this moment that I was able to like just take a break. It was a lot.

There was a lot of activity going from the V to the CBD and then the CBD to sell in the company and then the integration. You know, there's a lot that goes on with that a little bit. You know what I mean? And I was glad to take a moment to take a breather. So now that you started Odyssey, what learnings did you have from the other two companies? It's going to enable you not only to have a successful company with Odyssey. It's a great question. So, look, one of the things I think I've learned is really being more sensitive to what's working and what's not working and really being real with the consumer.

The end of the day, what does the consumer really want? Look, I had, you know, I come up with these products and then, you know, but like, which are the products that are really resonating with them? What's really the product that did? I always say, people say, what's the best workout? I see, you know what the best work that is? It's the workout you're willing to do. Well, guess what? You know, with the products, it's the, what's the best product?

You know, it's also if I be willing to, you want to engage with on a regular basis. So I think that I've been very more sensitive to what's working, what's not, doubling down on what's working and things like that. And where I think this is different about exiting and then the other companies, you know, like, it res. Look, my friend started the bait business and they asked me to come in and run it. You know what I mean? And I justified it as a better alternative smoking cigarettes. and stuff like that. But like the CBD, I like CBD a lot.

But this was something that I really built that resonated and aligned with me. I built this from scratch. I came up with the name. I came up with the formulation. I came up with how I wanted it to exist. You know, I was using the, the mushrooms in my coffee, and it was mudding up the coffee. So I didn't really love how I love the coffee.

So that's why I was also thinking, like I think I could do something to me. You know, a product that, you know, would be great. But this is something I'm really excited about going distance with it. Because I really think that this is like, there's been no innovation in energy beverages since the inception of the last 30 years from Red Ball, Monster, Rockstar, now Celsius. I mean, by and large, it's the same type of mosh pit of caffeine with tourine, you know, other, you know, stimulants. Repackaged, essentially. You know, Sweden with superlokes.

you know what I mean or sugar like you know there really hasn't been in like but like look at us as consumers and look at us as people today we're different people today than we were you know five 10 15 20 years ago our needs and our desires of how we want to show up we didn't talk about alignment 20 years ago as much as what it is today being centered you know what i mean being present you know what i mean and and i really think that it's very exciting when you think about energy what is energy you know what i mean is energy just about being up here or is it about like you know what i mean energy about like how you're how you're existing you know what i mean how you're exercising how you're showing work and how you're thinking and how you're

spiritually feeling you know what i mean you know plus i think it's really interesting to think about what so i love this project not for just today or to quit through an exit i'm really about you know what i'm really about building this thing long term. I think that this is the, you know, the future of what, you know, what people are looking for longer term. And I'm really excited to be part of it. So, yeah, so functional mushrooms are definitely picking up. I'm starting to see them more and more.

However, I imagine it required a lot of education in the beginning. How do you sell something that requires you to explain it when people don't understand it? It's a great question. So look, when you really look at this, I really think that defunctional mushrooms have really developed in the last, let's say, 10, 20 years ago, in the last five years especially. And why? Football is finally back and prize picks is bringing out their best offer yet. New users who sign up get $150 in lineups if you win your first $5 lineup. And now prize picks is available nationwide.

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they get the focus and clarity. They really work. And that's why this isn't about what's happened last decade or two. This is what's going on for thousands of years. This started thousands of years in New York. They knew they were recognized this, okay? Long, long, long time ago. And the reason this isn't happened because of some celebrity endorsement people

that got behind functional mushrooms. This has happened organically because one person tried this. They said, well, I really like this and said, oh. And then they shared it with somebody else. I shared it with somebody to share it with somebody else. and now it's become what it's become. So fortunately enough for me, I didn't really have to, if I had to go, I have to go educate everybody on this.

I don't think I would have done the project. I think that Lions Main and some of the functional mushrooms were already like in the limelight, and I was able to kind of like jump on to say that I'm going to give you a product that's going to taste great, that's going to help you to function great, it's going to be more approachable, you talk more about that. But I don't think that it was really about me having to come out to educate because I've had to educate, I think the lift would have been way too hard.

And then I think what it really is about is putting out a product when people drink the product that they say, wow, I love the way this product makes me feel. Like going into this, I didn't think about the cost to what it's going to cost me to make the most amazing product of all time. I said, I said, I want the highest polency of wines. I want the highest policy of course of. I want the highest policy of Eltheny. I want to do this product. and I don't want to think about the cost. Let me build the greatest product, and then I'll back it out and say,

what do I have to sell it for? Is it going to, is a consumer willing to pay that price? As it was, I was able to build a product for the mushroom manufacturer teamed up with me. They came in. I got a lot of people that came in with me from ingredients. Then they were excited about the project. And I was able to get pricing in a ways, and now we're doing big production. So I was able to get the pricing good so I could really compete.

you know and not have to be so as it is it worked out but i want to build the greatest part and then as it is because it works so well people come back and buy it again i'll repeat customers basis wildly high and then the best part is they're sharing it with their friends people are saying hey my god you got to try this problem like we you try the spot and then people trying the product though oh my god i can't believe how i feel like this product is like i'm like running at a whole different level. Like I have an itch when I treat this product and how I'm how I'm how I'm operating. This is awesome. And I think, you know, that's what that's what's going on to get us to where we are. A lot of people would require a tremendous amount of time to launch your product because they

want it to be perfect. The packaging, for example. And then what I find is it nothing ever happens. Right. Like they took too much time. They spent too much money. I like to see when people similar to yourself, you launch it, it's not perfect. And as you go, you change the name. You slightly change the logos. Do you have the original can? Yeah. So, you know, funny enough, it's a great point

what you're bringing up, by the way. And, you know, funny enough, I think if I would have, if I would have known more of what it took to do this, I don't know if I even would have started in the first place. But I'm willing to try things. You know what I mean? I, look, I did it with so many different.

things before all I think the other ones were a little less competitive I didn't realize what it took to compete in beverage this is a one other world you know CBD I had an edge you know the babe I got in early you know what I mean you know they're fine my ways you know what I mean a lot of hustle a lot of grind a lot of shows that I showed up for but look I'll actually show you okay it's really interesting so it's just thing enough and I don't really like usually take this out too much, but I'm glad to do it here. So this was the original coffee drink. You see, it was Odyssey, mushroom elixir. We called it the, what do you call it, functional mushroom brew. So I was talking about functional, you know, back 2021 here, you know what I mean? This product was like

focused energy, the lions made, the cordyceps. It was a French roast old latte is what it was. And this over here is sacred geometry and Metatron Cube. And I called it. it the, you know, the mushroom elixir. So I was all about functionality, you know, from back, from back when. And then I launched this. But what happened was when I launched this, I said, wow, it came out so good. I thought to myself, you know what? This can be like a forward-thinking energy drink. Because what happened was it was a delay in getting the production during COVID, getting the production done. So because of the delay, I was playing with some coffees. And During COVID, everything was about immunity.

So I made a white tea with elderberry, and I put in like five different types of mushrooms, like turkey tail, shataki, chaga. I went crazy, okay? And I made this like, you know, white tea with elderberry, you know, and I pulled it immunity. And, you know, and then so now because of that, if that didn't happen, I don't know if I would have gotten to where I'm about to go with this, because what happened is now I had the coffees and I had the tea. So I watched coffee some teas.

And I went out to stores and I started going. And I remember I went out to California with Air One. The first day I took this coffee drink and I'm like, I like to get this product into your store. And they said, sure, you would like to get your product in the store of just like everybody else in this world. So good luck, you know what I mean? In a good way. In a good way. The guys were awesome.

And you're really sweet. I said, oh, let me see what you got. And they tried it. And they were like, this is really good. and they said, you know what, let me tell you how you could look to maybe get into Air 1. And as it wasn't worked out. But what happened was because the cheese came out so clean. See, I thought I had to mask the mushrooms.

The cheese came out so clean. I thought, wow, maybe I can make this and go forward. And the way this drink hit, I say, maybe I can make this into a forward to a energy drink. So then I came up with. You know how it goes. Travel picks up. The calendar is getting crazy. And suddenly, if you're like me, you're eating whatever fastest,

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roof. Way better than the coffees and the teeth. Well, the coffees were really good. And then I thought to myself, then I saw it gone and going. So I started saying, okay, I'm playing right now three different categories. Coffee, tea, and energy drink now. And that's where it started. So this started with, you know, 80 as it is, this drink over here, you know, morphed into the Odyssey, you know, we'll get back into this, you know, functional energy here. And this is what the drink is today. But that was impetus. You know, I thought to myself, I think I can make sense to do a forward thinking energy drink. And I pivoted away. I got ready to coffee and teas. I decided to to hold down on where I was getting the best velocity and the best result. And I was selling this in

and stores were taking it in. I was getting into thousands of stores and all of a sudden the repeat business came and people were loving it. A lot of pioneer people were like, oh, I love the design. I like the whole sacred geometry. It resonated with people and it got me a launch. But it wasn't really getting me to where I wanted to go. How are you finding the difference nowadays between going into stores and different types of stores, like you said, there's Aeroint to Walmart, Target, to, you know, mom and pop, other ones, versus selling online. And when I say online, it could be TikTok, shop, social media live,

or, you know, a website like Shopify. Look, you know, I think a lot of companies, they start online, right? Or they start with a big community and they build up their community with the online and stuff like that. interestingly enough, I focused more on brick and water. I focused more on distribution. And I focused on getting into more stores. I was always very comfortable. And winning in this game,

just winning online doesn't mean you're going to win it on the show. And beverage needs to be won on show. And I recognized that early days. I was a study of Micropoleal. I was a study of Celsius stories, bang energy. you know, following Bloom a lot. You know what I mean?

I'm just really a study of like who's winning and how they're winning. And you have to win, you know, on the shelf. So I guess what happened was that I realized that where I started, which was a lot of like natural stores, very granola, you know, a lot of like cool little stores and, you know, great areas and stuff like that throughout the United States of America. And those people, which I can't say, think enough help to get this product going. And those are thousands of stores and tens of thousands

of consumers that were like, I love this product. Thank you for putting out a product. And then what happened was I started talking to some of the bigger groups. And I was categorized as functional. And they said, look, at that point, I actually had a no caffeine, but revive. I had the low caffeine, the 85. I had the higher caffeine in the two, two, two. I didn't even have the high caffeine in. And then we can talk about that next. But I realized that I was getting. Um, yeah, a lot of the bigger groups are like, it's, it's kind of nichey. And you got like, you know, a lot of different options here. So I got rid of the revive and no caffeine.

And I also launched the high caffeine because I found a lot of people were buying a drink. This says 85 milligrams of caffeine with high paltonezene, which is an altheneate. But what I realized is, is that a lot of people were buying our drink as we got into more convenience stores, they were buying our drink with either a Celsius or a bang energy. because they also wanted the caffeine. And this only had the 85 milligrams of caffeine. So most every energy drink is caffeine and tourmein and sweetened with superlose. Basically spike you up, crash you down, hard to come back.

With Odyssey and even the Odyssey 2-222, which is 222 milligrams of caffeine, and you put in the Lthenanine, it rounds out the caffeine. So you get a longer sustainable energy without the crash from the jitters, but you're getting this focus and clarity. You basically get this overall better existence. Yet the drink tastes great because we use real fruit juice concentrate. Like this break right here, pineapple mango, legitimately tastes like pineapple, sweetened, and rounded out with the mango.

And that's why this drink is legitimately, you know, and our higher caffeine has become the lead rate sources. So while I started with 85s and I thought to myself, oh, I'm going to give people a lower caffeine, but give them more on this functionality, I realize that those velocities have been good and that got me started. But then I listened to the consumer, I said, I want also the higher caffeine too. And now the velocity on this is considerably higher than we have on the lower caffeine. So I did pivot along the way.

And that's kind of like how part of that, you know, some of that is kind of come about. So you said that you've lost, you had lost your balance chasing this. What did building Odyssey cost you? So one thing it didn't cost me was my family. You know, I got a beautiful wife, I got two kids. And I said, winning, you know, winning is like, is winning at all. You know what I mean? Like, I found ways to continue.

Look, I'm not doing triathlons lately. I'm not trained for that. I don't have the time to do it. But I run. I cycle, I peloton, I build the same gym in the office that I have at home. I got a little tone machine, you know, I just make sure I stay in the game correctly. You know, like my health's got to be right. If I'm not right, nothing's right.

My spirituality, I meditate, take care of myself, make sure I take care of my family. So I made sure that, you know what, I was going to win at this business and then see myself. Because fortunately enough, I had a lot of, you know, other things. I've done in my life. So fortunately, if I didn't have those experiences going into this, I think this would have, you know, it's not, it hasn't been easy,

but, you know, I think it would have been very different. And I've also come in with an attitude. So what did it cost? You know, it costs, you know, I really love what I do. Yeah, I come in here every day. We got a team and we've had, you know, ups and downs all around, you know. But, you know, you know,

There's been a real investment into the deal. We have over $30 million invested in the deal between my money and other people's money. You know, I have friends and other people I had, you know, investments in with me in the past and all the deals. And, you know, and when I came and got started, I put all my own money in, by the way. And I said, if it's going to work, then great. And if it's going to not work, then I'll take my own hickey. And I'm not wanting to bring all the people's money into that. But then it started to really work and we started getting all these sales.

but there was a lot of pivots. You know, we started with coffees and teas. We started with the 85 milligram of caffeine, but then that wasn't enough to really win bigger. We started with the Metatron Cube, sacred geometry, but then that had to pivot to functional energy. We went to figure out we needed to hire caffeine. I lost stores along the way.

I gained stores along the way. And the pivot from functional to end, those costs all along the way. and I had you know and I just kept down and then dialing in all the flavors you know I had to keep dialing getting the flavors right

not easy competing with surplus with the top shirt you know what that sweetness is and I had to get it to my product so that it was like it you know it hit right tasted right we always had the functionality

so I think you know there was been a lot there's been trial and tribulation to get to where where we are today, and it was a cost to that. And I continued on because I saw the velocity, and now our velocities are so strong, especially with the two-two-twos and even the 85s, you know, have really found their place. So I think that, and then we pivoted out of functional and most recal classified and categorized as energy, and now we've been well received. So now,

while we're in 10,000, 12,000 doors, 50,000 points of distribution and doing very well, where we are in natural and now expanding into grocery. Now I really feel that, you know, we have the foundation of what should do this. And that brings on to the marketing, which we can talk about. And then that's really going to grow us. Like I see how allie pop and pop, it kind of started in natural and then built into grocery. And we, I believe that we have the likes to go into convenience and, you know, go the full distance.

And that's why I'm excited about what I'm doing, you know. You can't beat a billion dollar exit, right? That seems fees. Look, I think the opportunity is a billion plus dollars in sales. I think we can potentially, you know, I'll sell Celsius. I think that this can be the able, this would be, I believe this is the evolution out there. I think that has headwinds because, you know, that is formulation or formulation that stems back to the original energy drinks. And, you know, what we're bringing out is, you know, more of the forward thinking innovation of what people are really looking for.

Not so much about the ingredients, but about that it's functional energy, that it gives you that sustained energy. It doesn't give you the crash. It gives you this better existence that when you show up at work, we're crushing it in micro markets. We're one of the biggest selling product in micro markets. Some of the biggest companies, whether it's Uber and, you know, Citadel now and, you know, SpaceX and, you know, like so many. And we're winning so big time, you know, why?

Because when people come to work, they want to have an edge. They want to compete. They want to, you know, they want to have something that's going to help them to function really well and a good way. And they love the drink. And your drink helps. And that's, we have purpose. You know, our purpose was that I like the way these ingredients work for me.

I wanted to bring these ingredients out to other people. That was the idea that I felt like I could do good by bringing something that I felt could really help people. and that was the invas. So, you know, that's why I wake up every day and just so I don't slow down, matter of fact, I just keep going better and better. So that, and then it's the working out.

You know, it's like, you know, I cycle. I get on my bike. I drink the drink. I'm like, I'm in the zone. You know, I'm playing tennis. I feel like I'm more in the game. And or maybe it's just about paying with my kids and going about my day

or maybe it's for a housewife that we're not housewife for if she works and she's got kids. husband, kids, all everybody. You know, I mean, for whatever you're doing throughout the day, or maybe even using it at night as an alternative to alcohol. And, you know, okay, a little bit of caffeine with the, with the lines made and the port-asept, feels refreshing and good. And you feel, you know, elevated a bit.

And it's like, it's nice as an, you know, instead of drinking, you know, alcohol. I'm not knocking anything. Look, on here, Odyssey is a spiritual journey. I look at it like this. It's your life. I'm not telling you to tell you. you have to live in life. I'm just helping to try and help support you and help to give you something

that's going to help you to live your life even a tad bit better than anything else that can help you. You know, because no matter what you want to do. What would you say is the biggest lie or misconception right now in the wellness industry? You know, I just think that everyone's just better for you. I don't ever say it. You know what I mean? Like, oh, is it better for you or, you know, is it better? I don't know. know, I mean, some are, some aren't, you know what I mean? I just, you know, I, I think that, I think you got to listen to you body. I think you got to, like, listen to what is your body need and, you know what I mean, but fruits, vegetables, proteins, you know what I mean? Like, how this quantity, size is, you know, frequency, I don't know. I just think that, you know,

everyone says, oh, I'm better for you, I'm better for you. I think not everybody is better for you, you know what I mean and I you know I think that or customized to the individual versus saying everyone's going to get better if they do X but maybe they better if they do Y because you've been at so many you've done things before other people really caught on you're a visionary

was there something that happened though in any of these three companies that you've been referencing that almost broke you and said you know what I was wrong look there was a year before this deal that I had done. It was called phone guard. It was an anti-text thing

when driving software. It started off as and a lot of people back in the days of Blackberries and androids were like and there was a lot of kids that were texting and driving at the early days of Blackberries and

and iPhones when and you know this is like the earlier or days and goes, kids are going to jail. People were going to jail. Mansloor texting and driving. People crashing. Terrible things going on.

Mothers against texting and driving. And this is a big thing. And I was like, oh, I'm going to put out this product that when the phone move faster than 10 miles an hour, it's going to basically prevent you from getting text messages. It's going to send out water reply saying that I'm currently driving when I reach my destination up, boy back. I said, oh, what a good thing. This is such a good thing.

Wow, everyone's going to love this. It's a save lives. Going to help people. Guess why? Nobody wanted it from nobody. Nobody. Guess what? You want to see?

Let's show you something. You know? Yeah. I'll share. Forget it. I don't know. Justin Bieber became my spokesperson. The real story.

Okay. You can look at a phone guard. You could look up through videos. Justin Bieber, phone guard, you know? And Justin Bieber is like, look, you know, I want to get behind something to help people and who better than Justin Bieber back in those days and the teens when, you know, to attract feet. Make it cool. Make it cool. Not to text and drive. Make it cool. We're on Morning America. We're on like today show like viral. Guess what? Bill.

Come get people to put it on your phone. Go and put it on the phone. mothers I hear them on the phone give me that phone no mom don't take my phone not putting it on your phone no good luck good luck trying to fucking make that one I was like I failed I lost okay I lost

I didn't have to quit I went way too far with that did put way too much money into that way I didn't know how to quit everything I did in my entire life always were I'm Hercules I'm I got Roman. I can't make it work. Stop now. Best sell lesson I've ever learned. That's why when I said earlier about the skews,

calm down. Something's not working so well. Listen, if it's not coming off the shells that easy, pay attention. If people aren't, and the buyers aren't taking the product in, it's reason. They're not all wrong. These people are smart. When the buyers came to me and I tried to get,

get into some of the biggest retailers now. We're in conversations with the biggest retailers. It doesn't make a difference who they are. Every one of the major retailers, we're in reviews, we're in communication. And it's a very different conversation today. It's not a mushroom. It's not a nitri. It's not a metatron cube. It's functional energy. It's, I'm going to give you more sustained energy. I'm not going to give you a crash with yours. I'm going to give bullets and clarity. I'm going to give you a product that's going to taste great people going to come back and buy it again. I'm going to basically help bring new consumers that would not have maybe bought things in your store that are now coming to buy this product in your store and I'm grateful to have the ability to get it there. And the retailers, one product that people, the consumers want.

It's a win-win for everyone. So I listened to what the retailers would tell me, and I did it. So I just think that I've taken a lot of things that I've done in my life. And I think that the mushrooms that I drink and the alliance main, you know, that I have on a regular basis has helped develop the creativity to have come up with this in the first place. Coming up with the name or the sensitivity to say this isn't working, we need to make some adjustments. What do we need to adjust to make it so that it's more approachable on the shelf? Because we won this whole thing with no marketing or advertising. I didn't pay not one dollar to out one influencer up until recently, which we can talk about what I'm doing now.

very different now, but I didn't pay, I didn't do any marketing. I built this whole thing with no marketing, no social media, nothing is zero. This whole thing happened because I focused on building a great product and when people tried the product, they came back and boarded again and shared it with their friends. It was more important to develop the right products. I don't think people care so much about the hype. That's about the market because you always hear like marketing, great marketing bad product beats great product bad marketing but you you took a different approach how are you leveraging content creators now so now what we're doing is is now is the time for us to create the awareness why because we know the product is right we know that people come back we know

that 80% of people try our product come back and buy it again we know the average consumer online's buying two cases every single month religiously like we know that the velocities, it's right. And I didn't want to go and market until I had it right. You know what I mean? And it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. So now what we're doing is we're doing deals on TikTok where we're paying out, you know, significant payouts,

legitimately 50% payouts to content creators on TikTok so that they can go. And we're giving you a discount codes, 20% discount codes for them to share because we know this is about trial. We know when people try the product, they're going to like the product to conduct and get into product again. We know where we're at right now. And it's worth it because we know that, you know, while we're going to take a little Higgy on the first order at the beginning, we know that we're going to wind up having a customer that's going to come to us. And look, we're winning in, you know, not only the micro market, we're winning in colleges too,

we're running a lot of places. So we know that we have consumers that we feel, you know, we're the first ones out of the game. here you know we're really down the racetrack here you know what i mean no one really in a rear mirror and no one in front of us you know with what we're doing and we want to just keep on with that lead now and extend that out and there'll be other so we'll come and i think all highs will rise but that's what we're doing on tic-tok and we have some of the greatest content creators on ticot that we've sent out samples to and now on instagram so we sent out a few hundred you know we could reach up some really great people on instagram and tic-tok

and say, we want to share this product with you. We sent out sample boxes, beautiful. They try the product. Oh, my God. This is amazing. I love this product. And we love this because it's not, we want to discoverable products that we could bring to the market, not products that everybody knows about, you know, like, you

know, that are typical, that people familiar. We need to find things that are new so that we could be like, hey, look what I uncovered. And it's true. They're now coming to the market and saying, look what we uncovered. Look what I found. I found this, okay, Odyssey, you know, functional, it coming to the market and they're saying, look, I found this product, okay? And it's true, they did, they found this product.

Odyssey, functional energy. It can give you more focus, clarity, no craft, no jitters, and the product tastes absolutely fantastic. And they're excited to bring out to their, to their winning pool, to their network, a product that they could stand behind. because they're drinking the drink and they're saying, wow, not only is it functioned so great, it tastes phenomenal. I love this product.

And guess what? The company is supporting me because, hey, I make a living. I have family. I have, you know, wants, desires, things I want to bring in to my life. And they're paying me out handsomely to go out at 50% or 35% that we're doing on Instagram and stuff like that to share the product. And now all of a sudden, out of nowhere, in hundreds and now soon to be thousands of content creators that are like, and I'm hosting virtual meetings with them, having sometimes 25 at a clip soon to be a whole lot more. And I'm explaining to them what the product is really all about. What's our purpose?

What's the product? Why it's special? And, you know, in different opportunities of how they could look to present it. And they're grateful to have this, you know, meet the founder kind of thing. Here we go. No pun intended. And, you do. And, you know, to be able to share it, share it.

So that's what we're doing. We're doing that on Instagram. We're doing that on TikTok now. And I think that creating all that awareness and all that life around the social and now podcasts, too. I'm looking to do advertisements, by the way. There's an opportunity. It's a podcast. I'm interested in that, too.

But, you know, I think it'll be great. I think the kind of people that listen to your podcast would love to know, honestly. You know, it attracts a very achiever. type of person a person that really wants to, you know, really achieve and really get ahead. And it's really taking, you know, look, I'm not saying not going to have a great, you can be a cheever and achieve having a good time too at Coachella, by the way, okay? You know what I mean? A chief having a good time jumping out of a plane.

Like, so we're all about that. And I just think it's, that's how we're doing it with social media. So now what we're doing is we're paying out high payout, you know, and we're getting a lot of people in it. They're getting the product. They're trying it. I'm running the offer. I'm ready.

They're saying, I love the fact that I got something I can stand behind more than practically I have ever done before because I absolutely love the problem. And then the feedback they're getting from their, from their audience is fantastic. They're like, oh my God, like, thank you for sharing this. And it's just, it's just a, it's all good. So now, so you're going to see a lot more about us right now. We're not, we're not being like this great restaurant that nobody knows about. We're, we're here to let everybody know that, you know, what, what's,

going on with this right now. So it's really fun. I'm really looking forward to this part of it. I'm glad you brought the part because I think you had no ego when you needed to pivot. You know, the company was failing previously. You got out of that. People would have probably stayed and drained every single dime that they had. Instead, you got out and you went to the next thing. You knew when to cut your ties. You know when to put the gas pedal. And it seems like you're in an incredible upward trend right now. You got a lot going on. But, founder and CEO of Odyssey. I love the packaging. The website's great, the branding. I can tell that you are super passionate about this. And I think just your love for it is coming through just here.

It's my absolute pleasure. You know, I really, I love seeing people be well. And thank you very much for having me on your show. I greatly appreciate it.