Founder's Story - Why Most Celebrity Brands Fail and How I Built High Level Science Instead | Ep. 389 with Ashley Parker Angel Co-founder of High Level Science

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

Ashley Parker Angel Co-founder of High Level Science opens up about the highs of becoming famous overnight and the hidden downside no one trains you for. He describes how entertainment can wrap your identity around external validation, how contracts and industry politics can leave artists far less wealthy than the public assumes, and why he reached a point where he wanted real control over his life. From there, he shares his health transformation, his obsession with learning what actually works, and the decision to build a medical grade supplement company with credibility at the center, not hype. Key Discussion Points Ashley breaks down the benefits of fame, including instant recognition, doors opening fast, and surreal moments like performing at Madison Square Garden. He explains the dark side, including being taken advantage of through contracts, manipulation behind the scenes, and the psychological crash when attention fades. He shares the turning point where he realized he had no control, felt burned out from living out of a suitcase, and chose stability through Broadway’s grind of eight shows a week. Ashley tells the story of being excommunicated from the Jehovah’s Witness community at 17, losing his support system, and how that rejection built a level of resilience that makes business stress feel smaller. He reveals why he built High Level Science from the ground up instead of licensing his name, and why partnering with Dr. David Rizik was about credibility, science, and long term trust. Ashley explains the GNC full circle moment, from getting rejected for a job at 15 to cold calling the CEO and landing in over 1,000 stores with the “Making the Brand” tour. Takeaways Fame is a performance amplifier, not a life plan, and without ownership of the business side, the money and control often go to everyone else. If your identity depends on external success, losing momentum can feel like losing yourself, so resilience requires building an internal foundation that survives the spotlight. Obsession can be an advantage when it is aimed at mastery, because excellence comes from leaving it all on the mat, not coasting on reputation. The celebrity brand era is shifting, and trust now comes from real expertise, real results, and partners with undeniable credibility. The biggest unlock is mindset training, because Ashley’s “unlimited possibility” moment started with belief before the evidence showed up. Closing Thoughts Ashley Parker Angel’s story is a reminder that success can be loud on the outside and fragile on the inside if you do not own your identity and your health. This episode is about turning pain into resilience, turning attention into a platform, and turning a health wake up call into a real business built on science. If you are chasing the next win, Ashley offers a better question: are you building something you actually control and something that lasts beyond the spotlight. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

So Ashley Parker Angel O-Town. I lived in Orlando for 10 years and I was there in the height of this time. And I got to say, Orlando is way underrated. I loved Orlando though. But Liquid Dreams O-Town, who can't forget. And now obviously entrepreneur doing amazing things. But I really need to understand something, Ashley. I want to know what is the price of fame? What was the benefit of fame? But then also, how is fame negative for you. That's such a good question, Dan, really. I don't think I've ever actually been asked that question before. I mean, we'll start with a positive. There are awesome things about becoming famous. You don't get an instruction manual for it. And so I think especially when it happens young, like I was a young teenager at the time. I mean, I just graduated high school. You know, it's obviously super cool to have your own song on the radio. You've got a number one song Now, at the time for our millennial generation, we rushed home to watch MTV, TRL. You got your video pumping.

You're on the airwaves. You know, you're kind of like, everybody's recognizing you sort of literally overnight because it happened for us on a TV show making the band, which was like so experimental. It was before American Idol, before the voice. And I would say, even though we signed the worst recording contract in music history, it's something as a young performer to get your name and your likeness out there in such a major way, you know, that is a huge benefit because it's going to open a lot of doors moving forward. We literally had our lawyer sit us down and say, this is the worst music contract that I've ever

seen. You know, we, obviously we signed with Lou Perlman. People know he ended up being a con man. I just did a HBO Max ID documentary that's launching in two weeks about this. whole backstory of like all these bands like in sync backstreet and o'town and lfo and the lou proleman connection and he turns out to be a con man and embezzled 300 million dollars so there was this underbelly of it that i would say uh as i went through it getting recognized having your name out there hoping it leads to more opportunity in the future you know as a young person i think people see this with child stars a lot your whole identity can get wrapped up in this external success and people love you and, you know, the entertainment is so peaks in valleys. You can be hot one minute

and not the next. And that's just sort of the nature of the entertainment industry. And so I think you, you can think of the people that have been most famous, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, you know, Britney Spears, like a lot of these people crash and burn in really public ways. And I would say, for me, it wasn't just the O-Town thing lasted four years of my life. I got a spin-off TV series. on MTV. It did my own show about going solo from O-Town, which was also an awesome opportunity. But like doing that even in the reality world, you realize so much of that is like fake and manipulated from behind the scenes. And you have producers and managers and agents and everybody's like, you know, trying to curate this image for you. And like some of that starts to feel

inauthentic. And I think, you know, selling 10 million albums, something on the positive side I'm super grateful for. But a lot of people don't realize, like, especially in the world I came from people think you're set for life. Like you must just be, you know, a multi, multi-millionaire. And it's like, no, that's actually not the case for most artists. I mean, you see this even with actors and singers and people that have been famous. They're not necessarily going to be able to ride that wave for the rest of their life. And a lot of times financially, it's not turning into something that would, you know, really in the documentary, I explained, like, through O-Town, the amount of money we made, it could have been like working at Starbucks.

I mean, it's kind of unbelievable how much millions we generated for other people. So on the positive side, you get your name out there. You hope you can pivot, leapfrog to the next opportunity. On the negative side, if your whole identity gets wrapped up and that external success, when it goes away, it can be like, you know, pulling the rug out from underneath of you psychologically. And I think that's why you see, and I've been friends with a lot of peers in the industry that were famous as child's stars that turn to drugs and alcohol to cope with the pressure of trying to keep up with that level of fame that happens at a young age. And so I would say on the negative side, they don't give you a lot of training for what that is going to be. Does that make sense? Yeah, we see it. Like you're saying,

somebody passes away and then they need to create a GoFundMe and you're like, whoa, they've been acting for 30 years and now they need this. Or homeless people, we've seen in LA, I've seen it. I've seen countless videos of people who were homeless and you're like, oh, that was like a child actor. I saw that one time in L.A. I was walking. I was like, that's a child actor. He's homeless. Like, holy cow, it's obviously it's hard when you're not in the industry. What was a moment like, though, when you realize like, this is it for me. I don't want to do this anymore. It was two phases. For me, the first 10 years of my entertainment career, I was a singer and an actor, and I pivoted out of Bowtown to have a solo album, sold 10 million albums, had to be a,

multiple hits, had two hit TV shows. And then at the end of this solo album, I just realized I have no control. I have literally no control over my life. I signed another recording contract that was absolutely terrible in terms of what I was getting out of it other than all this attention that I was getting. And I realized like, okay, on the business side, you have to own the business. It show business, right? And a lot of young stars are taking advantage of. And, you know, when you're kid from a small town like I was. I grew up in Redding, California. You know, I don't know of anybody that really made it into entertainment from where I'm from. You take these opportunities and you roll, but for 10 years, at the end of that, I was burnt out. I'd been living out of a

suitcase for years on the road. I've got a lot of amazing experiences, you know, played Madison Square Gardens, like, you know, these unbelievable. What was the feeling? And by the way, congrats on diamonds selling. That's incredible. Thank you. Can you remember? I'm sure you can remember. What is the feeling like right before you go out and then when you stand on there and you're a Madison Square Garden looking at tens of thousands of people? It's so surreal because you grow up watching these legendary performers perform at this venue. You know, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, you know, and you're like you're there. And on some level actually as a performer, it's easier to perform in front of a crowd of 30, 40,000 people than it is 20 people. because it's just so dark and it's just a sea of people. But the actual experience, you're pinching yourself. You're like, I can't believe like I'm here in my life and that this is what I'm doing.

But now, I have to say it took its toll on me. I definitely felt like I was, you know, I was someone that was really identifying with that external success. And in the industry, they say you're only as good as your last hit song. You're only as good as your last hit movie. And it can turn into this rat race where you're like, like a hamster on a wheel, just chasing the next thing and chasing the next thing. You've actually seen more in our generation, a lot of people pivot out of it and choose to have

a quote, more normal life, realizing that that can take its toll on a mental health level, on an emotional health level. And so I was looking for something to pivot into that would be steady. And I'd always loved Broadway musicals. I came to the attention of this casting director that was like, you'd be perfect for hairspray. and I got the lead role in Hairspray the musical and it ended up being two years of my life and I loved it and then I pivoted out of that

and did Wicked the musical starring role Prince Fierro that was like an amazing experience did it on tour around the country then did it in New York on Broadway did over 2,000 performances on Broadway alone and did some TV, did some film was part of a lot of pilots

that didn't get picked up, screen tested for a lot of things that I didn't end up getting. You're just really, riding this wave and there's just like no rhyme or reason to navigating an entertainment. That is so interesting that it seems curated from the outside, not knowing what's really put into it on the inside. And I can imagine how much of an emotional toll that puts on you when you, like you're saying, you're the hottest thing and then you're not the hottest thing.

And then you get a roll and then you try and you don't get a roll. It's got to, it's got to be intense for your motion. So something besides living in Orlando at some point of our lives, you and I have something else in common. I applied for GNC when I was 18. I didn't get the job. You applied for GNC at 15, and you didn't get the job. So maybe that tells us that GNC needs to look at their hiring process. Yes. They need a better system for scouting talent, right? They need a system for scouting talent. Exactly. I think there's something there. But you're now the co-founder. of high-level science, which has picked up the product in over a thousand stores and you're doing a tour at GNC. So what is that like? Well, all through the Broadway years, I started getting really

deep into fitness, health and wellness. You know, Broadway is the most grueling schedule, like even more than being a pop star or rock star where you're playing a show in a city, you get on a bus, you got a couple days off. Broadway, you do eight shows a week. And so also learning that I needed other ways to sort of cope with the stresses of the entertainment industry and the pressure that that is to keep up with that level of success. I was hiring the best in fitness coaches and nutritionists and peak performance coaches. And so I really learned a thing or two about how to start taking care of myself with proper supplementation and nutrition, all these things. And so I really had it in my mind, even when I was in Wicked that when I would finish that contract, I would really

step away from the entertainment industry and I would launch my own company. And that led to me to launching high-level science. It's a medical-grade supplement company. I partnered with a world-renowned cardiologist, a doctor and a scientist that I'm so grateful to be partnered with, a guy that'll tell you most supplements are overly hyped and way overly marketed. He only wants to offer supplements that have years of medical research behind them. And it was a relatively new launch. And we cold-called the CEO of GNC, full circle moment. I didn't get hired, but here I am in a meeting with the CEO. And I told him, I said, I think there's a lot of confusion in the supplement space.

Here's my backstory. I became a fitness, wellness advocate for a few years through COVID when the world shut down. I became a certified peak performance coach. I launched this company, learned a lot about the body and the mind and partnered with this doctor. He loved the story. They picked this up.

And now we've launched in a thousand stores in GNC. And we're doing a riff off of making the band. And we're doing what we call the Making the Brand Tour. And we're going 90s on it. I call it going 90s because I feel like people are actually craving real world experiences again, getting off, getting offline, going into the store. And especially in the supplement world, the truth is, man, like, if you buy stuff online, a lot of times you just do not know what you're getting.

And so GNC is like the gold standard of supplement stores. I'm just super grateful to partner with that. A lot to break down there. I love the 90s nostalgia. Look at this whole like, this is, hey, mom or dad, what were you like in the 90s? Watching those things, I've cried a few times because I'm like, man, am I getting old? Like, holy crap, we're getting old. Like, I remember those days.

Me too. I'm an old person. Now, like, shoot, I want to watch your video, your 90s video. So I like this marketing strategy of the 90s is like getting people to go back to stores and back to malls. like what have you seen so far? Are people like, oh, I love nostalgia. I want to go back to the mall. Are they hesitant?

What are you seeing? I think there's a couple ingredients that are working here. Our generation understands a lot more about being healthy. And I think the easiest way to kickstart that because I actually became a certified coach and I started working with people one on one. And the easiest way to get people feeling better is to replace vital nutrients that are missing, that through the aging process, through the stress. through the stresses of light, even if you eat a, quote, perfectly healthy diet, there's just

things that you don't get. So having things like omega-3s, CO-10, vitamin E, like simple things, every doctor will tell you these things will help you revitalize your brain aging, your cardiovascular health, your blood flow, your sleep, your recovery. I think people want to feel good. And so people want to learn more and more about this more so than they did maybe years ago. Like, we're aging differently than our parents and grandparents. were, right? We know a lot more now. So people, one, are all about healthy aging. And two,

what I've seen is in terms of the pop culture background I have, nobody's really come from pop culture in my background of having the pop music following and all of this and gone so hard into health and wellness. And so I didn't slap my name on this. This isn't like something that I just got sponsored with a company. Like a lot of people, I built this company from the ground up. I spent years learning about this and teaching myself these things. And so I want to help people look and feel their best in every decade. And then to be able to meet me at a GNC store where you get a free consultation from a coach, I will say, and I, you know, again, they're my partner, but I have to say genuinely,

authentically, there's no other supplement store like GNC. People don't realize you'll get a free consultation from someone that has years of experience in nutrition. And I always tell people, a lot of people don't know, Amazon took off. 30% of their supplements recently because they started testing them and realizing they did not have the ingredients they said they did. So there's just a, it's oversaturated and overcomplicated. Every day you open up social media or you watch a TV commercial, they're telling you to take this and take that and people are navigating a lot of confusion about what to take.

We're really trying to simplify it for people. And it's been amazing because people are coming into the stores, which a lot of them are in malls. And that mall culture that we all remember, I mean, we grew up going to the malls. That's where a lot of these GNCs are. I just think a lot of people are burnt out in just being in the social media bubble all the time. I think people are craving more like real life, real world experiences. And so we're really tapping into that with this making the brand GNC road trip to where I'm on. And it's been going great. I like that. Making the brand. And you're right about licensing and name or just putting your name onto something and then getting some sort of equity but not really

doing much work we see this a lot most of these celebrity brands die off some are successful and i think the ones they're successful are like look at this person sold for a billion dollars not realizing there was a hundred other ones that died out or went to zero with you though is there something that you took or a few things this knowledge of the fame part obviously it's through many different, through a few different decades, which not so much social media was coming out. When you first got in, it was all MTV, traditional TV cable. Then obviously social media has played a huge role now in fame and attention. What have you taken from all of this that you brought into being an entrepreneur? Speaking of those celebrity endorsed brands that

you just mentioned, I've seen a lot of them die out. And I am not someone that ever wanted to just rely on a following or a quote, you know, being a public figure, having celebrity behind me, it's not enough anymore. In fact, I think we're seeing this in politics. Like, you know, celebrities are coming out and they're sharing their politics. It's not really moving the needle. Like, just being a celebrity is not enough anymore. And part of the reason why I launched this company with Dr. David Rizek, this world-renowned doctors, because I also realized that I wanted someone at the highest level of credibility to partner with me. That was super important. And he's won three Emmy Awards. He's a he's a doctor that has reinvented medicine. He's reinvented surgical

procedures, invented new medical devices. He's an incredible. So he's the scientist and doctor. I needed someone that was going to add that legitimacy to it. And then as a as an entrepreneur, starting a new company, like how do you differentiate yourself? Well, it's been amazing to have this following. But it wasn't something I was just going to rely on. It's like, my name on a product and hoped it worked. And the other thing is like, I'm actually someone, I would say I'm America's guinea pig at this point. I've tried so many things. I've taken every single supplement that gets marketed. Honestly, there's only a handful of supplements that are actually backed by years and decades even of real research and science. So I improved really high

cholesterol. I was a guy that was working out all the time. I was eating healthy. I thought it was eating perfectly. And I had really high blood pressure, really high cholesterol. And a doctor that before I met Dr. Isaac said, I should take statin drugs. And I'm like, I'm so young. I'm in my early 40s. And so it's part of the reason why my own health journey, I wanted to find a like global heart expert. And when I met him, he's like, here's the ingredients you need to be taking naturally so that you don't have to go on statin drugs, developed a relationship with him. And I said, hey, I happen to have this supplement company. Would you want to partner? together. That took years, you know, so this is something, this has been years in the making.

As are most, quote, overnight successes, you don't see all the work that goes into it beforehand. And we're teaching people like our product, heart, body, and mind is the best thing you can be taking for your heart, body, and mind. And it's three simple medical grade ingredients. It's medical grade omega-3s, which are incredible for brain aging. Look at all the research and mood and mental health. CoQ10, which revitalizes your cellular energy and repairs your mitochondrial health. And then vitamin E, which is the most powerful antioxidant you can have and incredible for skin, hair and nails and all these things and helps all those ingredients absorb into your system. I've been on that for a year. All my cardiovascular numbers have improved. And so we get real

testimonials from people all the time. Like, I wake up with energy now. I feel I feel like I did years ago. That's really exciting for me. But years before, it was like, I love listening to your music. I love your albums. I love, now it's like, thank you so much for introducing me to these products that are actually backed by science. And part of the reason why GNC picked this up this early on is because we have, again, we have this world-renowned doctor.

And that's something most supplement companies just, they just don't have. Yeah, I can, I love the passion that you have. You found a problem and you realize that you can help solve. that problem, which I think is like, is like that always the case of business successes. You got to find the problem. You got to find the solve. But I think the, what I've seen to be so important talking to so many people and my personal experiences, how passionate are you about solving that problem will make you want to go through the ups and downs. And talking about ups and downs, I've heard that you said that if you can survive losing your family at 17, you can survive a business challenge. that's a very heavy statement. What experience, what did that do to you that now, you know, carries over into being a founder? Well, I appreciate you asking that because I've more recently opened up about parts of my past that I hadn't talked about for years. And one of those things was that I was raised in the Jehovah's Witness religion.

And I'm no longer a part of that. And my story was that I left that religion as a teenager, actually like a junior in high school. But because I was baptized into that religion and they practice excommunication, that means that all your family and friends that are also Jehovah's Witnesses have to excommunicate you. And basically you're blackballed and they cut you off. And so at 17 years old, I was a disfellowship Jehovah's Witness. And because they practice excommunication and no longer really had a strong relationship with any of my family, all that support of my family and my friends, which was really my whole world.

because anybody that's ever grown up in that type of environment knows they don't really want you hanging out with people that aren't part of the religion. It's very, you're in a bubble. And everybody you know, and everybody you spend time with is also Jehovah's Witness. And when you leave, you're exed out. I mean, they don't even say hi to you. If they see you at the grocery store or out and about, they won't talk to you. And that happened to me at 17. And that happened a year before making the band in O-Town. And I moved out of my house. And I moved in with a friend down the street. And like that gave me a mental resilience. And that's why I say like, if I could lose my family support and that connection of family at 17 and I could get through

that, that type of rejection made almost any type of business challenge just pale in comparison. I'm curious. What scares you now? It's a really good question. I think as I'm turning 45 this year, I'm really concerned about not giving it my all. And I think a lot of people think they're giving their best at something. But deep down inside, you know there's more that you could be doing. I'm someone that's extremely driven and passionate, almost, I would say, at an obsessive level. I think it's part of the reason why I pivoted out of O-Town and had a solo album in a solo career and then pivoted out of that into Broadway where you're beating out thousands of

other performers for the most coveted roles and you have to be so obsessive about giving your best. I think it's something that what keeps me up awake at night is like, did I, did I crush the day completely? Did I leave it all on the mat? Because as you also launch a business and they say out of 100 businesses, 99 of the 99 businesses won't be successful. One out of every 100 businesses that starts is actually successful. It requires an absolute obsessive, relentless focus I'm trying to strive towards excellence. And so if I don't feel like I brought my best, it really bothers me.

Do you ever think of legacy? And if you do think of legacy, do you ever think, okay, if you're 90 years old and somebody, you have an autobiography or somebody thinks about you, do you want them to think about a certain part of your life or a certain person of who you are at a certain moment? You know, I do think about legacy because I have a son. I have a 20-year-old son, which blows my mind.

And I often think about, you know, I'm really into stoic wisdom. And there's some really interesting mindset exercises. And one of them is like, you know, basically like, if you were to imagine that you passed away, like, what would people say at your funeral? That's something I've thought about a lot in terms of the people that I've had an impact on in my life, you know, I don't know if I'll have more kids, but I definitely have the son. I might have grandkids someday.

And yeah, I think, I think that if you think that far ahead and you think about like, what would people actually say at your funeral gives you a completely different perspective on like how you're living in your life and what kind of legacy you're going to leave behind. I wrote this book here, Unlimited Possibilities with my wife. And it was about unlimited possibilities is essentially breaking through a goal or a moment, breaking through something that you never thought was. possible that that is your unlimited possibility. What was an unlimited possibility moment for you? When you broke through something, you're like, holy crap, obviously, I mean, I can name 10 things

that I could guess for you. But what for you, though, was something that really stands out as that moment? I think it was the first launch out of Redding and being a small kid when I had no evidence that I would be able to achieve success and entertainment from this very small town. There was no evidence there for it. So it was the first example for me of like, I was always speaking these things affirmatively. Like, I'm going to, I have videotapes of me doing skits where I pretended to have an MTV show. You know, and I was always into like, I read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill when I was 14 years old and started getting into like new thought and like this idea of like affirmations and positive and positive creative visualization. And I had a grandma that kind of taught me a lot of. of these things. And so when that actually happened, and I literally ended up, you know,

a few months after graduating high school being on a number one TV series and having a number one song on the radio a few months later, that was the breakthrough where I was like, okay, like, okay, if I can do that, that's the real world evidence that I can continue to use those same techniques. I'm sure you probably talk a lot about that in unlimited possibility. I love that. What a great example of an unlimited possibility, because I imagine that is the moment that not only does it change trajectory of your life, but it changes your mindset completely around like what even is possible. Because as we see like what differentiates somebody that does one thing versus another, right? Being able to climb a mountain versus be

able to run three marathons, it's like the mindset is what everyone always says. It's the mindset that needs to change. So that sounds like that changed for you. Do you have a schedule or where are you going to be next? Where can people find you next? Well, I would say to find out about the GNC making the brand tour all across the country, make sure you're following me on socials. Just type in my name, Ashley Parker Angel. You can also go to our website, which is livehighlevel.com, livehighlevel.com, where we're also posting the itinerary to find out more about like this high level science launch and everything.

And I love that you brought that up because I'm going to go pick up unlimited possibilities because I'm someone that's obsessed with reading motivational material, and it sounds to me like you're so big on mindset too. I think people, we talked a little about fitness before we started recording the pod, and people think about training their physical body. I so believe, I call it the mental dojo. People don't think about training their mindset, and the way you do that is by reading books like unlimited possibilities.

And fueling, again, fueling your mindset. It is so important to success. and every successful person I've ever met is absolutely training their mindset constantly. I think every peak performance coach I know has said that success in life is 90% plus a mental game. I love your passion and obsession. Co-founder of high-level science.

I need to get these supplements. I'm going to start you some. I will use them right now. In the next five minutes, I need them. I love co-Q10. I haven't used it in a while, but Ashley Parker Angel, great to catch up. Never what I thought, I'd be in Orlando watching you on TV, that I'd be here

now talking to you. How wild does this, this world is amazing. But thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, man. I'm super grateful for you. Thanks for having me on.