Next Level Pros - #30: Ryan Gardner: The Founder Of Bucked Up, Affiliate Genius, Serial Entrepreneur

Episode Date: September 1, 2023

Welcome to another episode of The Founder Podcast! I'm your host, Chris Lee, and today I have the pleasure of chatting with Ryan Gardner, the mastermind behind Bucked Up, a powerhouse in the supplement and energy drink industry. Ryan takes us back to the beginning when Bucked Up started with just a thousand bottles of their pre-workout supplement. Fast forward to now, and they're raking in hundreds of millions in revenue. They've cracked the energy drink market, going from 4 million cans sold to an incredible projection of 55 million cans this year. We delve into the world's fascination with caffeine, with Ryan humorously calling it the most abused drug globally. Bucked Up's approach to caffeine content offers options for various preferences, from the gym enthusiasts to the everyday caffeine seeker. Join us for an episode packed with entrepreneurial insights, growth strategies, and a dash of caffeine wisdom as we uncover Ryan Gardner's journey and the remarkable rise of Bucked Up. HIGHLIGHTS “So we're in over 25,000 retail locations including convenience stores to GNC Vitamin Shoppe, Walmart's, you know, we're in all of those types of brands." "We say caffeine is the most abused drug in the world... You know, there's a lot of caffeinated people out there. They're either drinking coffee or they're drinking energy drinks." "I bet you if the FDA had it over again, they would never approve caffeine... Caffeine gives a caged animal a feeling of freedom, a feeling of like, it's like that quick little high, quick little energy burners will hit." TIMESTAMPS 00:00: Introduction,  02:10: The Founder Of Bucked Up 06:34: Power Of Caffeine  08:47: Strategic Partners 13:59: Importance of Sales Marketing 17:37: Your Start 23:46: Social Media 26:56: The Energy Drink Market 33:52: What Motivates You Everyday? 36:53: Using Money To Make Investments 46:34: Giving Back 🚀 Join my community - Founder Acceleration https://www.founderacceleration.com 🤯 Apply for our next Mastermind https://www.thefoundermastermind.com ⛳️ Golf with Chris https://www.golfwithchris.com 🎤 Watch my latest Podcast Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-founder-podcast/id1687030281 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1e0cL2vI1JAtQrojSOA7D2?si=dc252f8540ee4b05 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@thefounderspodcast

We were like 16, 17, 18 years old at the time and we were working the stores. Like we were helping deliver product, deliver stuff to the stores. And then we got that entrepreneurial spirit going, man, this is what we need to do. What's up, Founder Nation? Hey, I just wanted to first and foremost, before we jump into this episode, just thank you so much for all the many listeners, all the many downloads. I cannot believe the response to this podcast. When I launched this thing two and a half months ago, I had no idea the momentum that this thing would create from the incredible guests to

so many listeners. I've had so many of you guys reach out to me directly and thank me and give me so many great testimonials of what you've been able to take from this podcast. First and foremost, thank you for being such a loyal listener. Thank you guys for bringing so much value into my life because the reality is the reason I do this is for you to hear the feedback. So if you aren't following me already on Instagram, it's at Chris Lee QB, like quarterback at Chris Lee QB. Make sure you go ahead and give me a follow. You're going to see all my different posts there. You're going to be able to see the little short clips from different episodes.

So be sure to be giving me a follow there. Also, October 17th, 18th and 19th, I am going to be hosting a remarkable mastermind right here at my house, right here at the Founder Studio. This is where SoulGen was launched, where it was nurtured and created for two and a half years before finally we left and eventually had a nine-figure exit. So we're going to be doing this mastermind. We're keeping it to 10 people. Right now, I actually already have six seats filled. I have so many people that have been reaching out to me. If you are interested in knowing more and what a mastermind like this would look like, go ahead and just message me directly on Instagram, the word mastermind at Chris Lee QB, and we'll be happy to give you a little bit more information.

So let's go ahead and dive into this episode. Yo, yo, yo, yo. Welcome to another episode of the Founder Podcast. Today, I am joined by Mr. Ryan Gardner. I'm here in Utah shooting in person, super excited. Ryan is the founder of Bucked Up. They do supplements, energy drinks. What I know them most for is their energy drinks, but I know you guys are in all kinds of different spaces as far as a supplement. Ryan's been involved in affiliate marketing, just a serial entrepreneur for many years. Welcome to the show. Yeah, appreciate you having me on. Great to meet you. Yeah. So Ryan, tell us a little bit. So right now you built Bucked Up. How big are we? So Bucked Up has continued to grow. We actually launched in 2016 and we continue to double our growth each year. And now it's getting into

hundreds of millions of dollars. Yes. So yeah, it's definitely growing. Obviously the bigger it gets, the harder it is to double, but we've been able to do very, very well because we do both supplements and energy drinks. We're getting into doing energy shots. So buckshot and then also buck bars. So a protein bar. Very cool. Very cool. So started in 2016, you've doubled, you've seen this just rocket fuel growth. I've experienced the same thing. So I, my business launched in 2017 and we experienced anywhere from 100 to 300% growth every single year. Right. You know, we were, I think the sixth fastest growing company according to financial time. So I, I've, I've been in your shoes. I know exactly what you're experiencing right now. So how

many employees are you sitting at right now? So right now we have about 165 full-time employees, and then we're over 200 if you add the part-time people. So that's amazing, doing hundreds of millions with only 160 employees. Yeah. That's phenomenal. Obviously, you're using distribution channels, retailers, all those type of relationships. How many retail locations are you in now? So we're in over 25,000 retail locations, from convenience you know, from convenience stores to GNC, vitamin shop, Walmarts, you know, we're, we're in all of those type of brands. Yeah. I think I was first introduced to your brand. It was like two or

three years ago. I was down here in Utah at my brother's office and he's like, Oh, you got to try this energy drink. I was like, bucked up. Oh, that's good. Funny play on words. And, uh, it's our, our Mormon way of swearing. And so I'm like, Oh, that's a funny play on words. Yep. It's our Mormon way of swearing, is what we call it. And so I'm like, oh, that's a funny play on words. I take a drink. I'm like, man, this stuff's pretty good. In fact, I got one of your beverages on here today. And then started to see it kind of in a few spots. And when I knew that you guys were really growing was I was up at my lake house. And this place is kind of off the beaten path. There's like one little grocery store. It's called the Tamrac. It's like a convenience slash grocery

slash like, you know, get your souvenirs type stuff. And I walk in and there's a huge display of Bucked Up and I'm like, wow. They made it. Oh man, man. Bucked Up is going places. So that's actually when I was like, okay, okay, these guys aren't just some small potato. Yeah, what ended up happening is we were really, really strong in supplements, and then we decided to release energy drinks. And in order to get energy drinks out there, you really need to know what you're doing. We ended up in 2021, we hired the former CEO of Dr. Pepper Snapple, Gil Kassan. And he actually came in and said, hey, I will help you build out a distribution network. And right now we're about 85 to 90% coverage throughout the

United States because he's been able to come in and help us build out that distribution network. In 2001- What year was that? 2001. And in 2001, we only sold 4 million energy drinks. He came in at the end of 2021. Oh, it was 21. You said 2001. All right. Oh, sorry. 2021. Yeah. Yeah, that's- 2016 is when we started. So 2021 is when Gil came in, and we had sold about 4 million cans that year. The next year, we did over 20. And this year, we're on pace to do roughly 55 million cans. Wow. So would you say that your energy drink has been just this way to get your name out?

I mean, why the focus on the energy drink? Is it great margins? No. I mean, why the focus on the energy drink? Is it great margins? No, I mean, I think the multiples are there behind energy drinks just because the audience and the funnel is so much wider than just supplements. You know what I mean? Yep. Everybody drinks energy drinks. You know, there's a lot of caffeinated people out there.

They're either drinking coffee or they're drinking energy drinks. So, you know, especially like even construction workers, you go to the, a job site, they have, I mean, I saw a guy walk out of Maverick the other day with four energy drinks. And I'm like, don't tell me you drink all those in one day. He goes every day. Oh man. I'm like, bro, you need to take a break. Right. This is the CEO of an energy drink company saying like, dude, pump the brakes. Yeah. Yeah. You know, they've done studies and they say, hey, for an adult, you know, 400 milligrams

of caffeine in a day is plenty. Like too much? No, that's where they say after that there's diminishing returns. So it's not necessarily good to go over 400 mil, but you're pretty safe at 400 milligrams a day. So usually like me, I take a pre-workout in the morning when I go work out. And then later on in the day, I'll take a low stem, like a, like a big game energy or one of our low stem, 100 milligrams of caffeine, uh, drinks, you know, just for a little kick to finish out the day. Yeah, dude, that's, that's so cool. You know, I'm a, unfortunately a big

energy drink drinker. Are you? Yes. I I've, I've been, uh, so up until, I don't know, six or seven years ago, I wasn't really drinking much caffeine. And then I started drinking them and like, and once you start, Oh my goodness. It's a, it's a drug. It's a drug that I've tried getting off or whatnot. So definitely a good industry to be in. Yeah. We say caffeine is the most abused drug in the world. I bet you if the FDA had it over again, they would never approve caffeine. I heard it one way. It's the only drug that they allow prisoners to partake of. Really? Oh, okay. So they do. Because they give them caffeine. Yeah. And they say, you know, caffeine gives a caged animal a feeling of freedom, a feeling of like, it's like

that quick little high, quick little energy burst. Little hit. Yep. But man, so you built this incredible business. You went, well, in energy drinks, I that's phenomenal four million to 20 million that's a five x growth in one year so actually walk us through so you you get this ceo gill is his name yeah coo he's our ceo now okay sorry sorry not ceo ceo gill how did you attract that guy like walk us through like the process of did you have a headhunter? Did you get referred to him? How did you make that happen? Well, here's what's happened is we've had a few people interested in buying in to Bucked Up and becoming part of Bucked Up. And it happened to be a PE firm, and we are totally against PE firms.

We're like, look, we're okay with strategic partners. And my advice to anybody is make sure that you're working with a strategic partner, somebody that can help you get to the next level. Whereas like with us, when the PE firm came in, we were like, Hey, we're not interested. We're looking for someone to help us get to the next level. And they go, well, we actually have somebody that could help you get to the next level. And that's really what happened is they said, hey, we have this guy named Gil. He was the former CEO. You're now just getting into energy drinks. Let us come in and show you how to get distribution.

And we knew that that was just a natural fit for us. And they became a really good strategic partner. And we brought Gil in to be that guy to help us build out our distribution network. Awesome. So was it something that they were just trying to serve you with so that they could future do a deal with you? Yeah, they did. They go, hey, this is the guy we want to bring along if you let us in. And we happen to be really, really fortunate, Jeff and I. So we do have a little secret weapon, is that I have an identical twin brother. Just think if you had two of you. Yeah, it'd be amazing.

And it's almost like we're two CEOs, even though I'm really the CEO and Jeff is our CXO over ambassadors in international distribution. But we have two of us. There's two people running Bucked up in the company and you know when we brought gill in he was a natural fit to help with the distribution of the energy drinks we were we bootstrap bucked up from the very beginning so we've never taken on money we've never done anything so we're talking credit cards i mean you did you get a bunch of at the first jeff and i had other things going on at the time. I focused on Bucked Up because we knew this was a long-term play.

And Jeff still worked on our social media. So we ran tons of people's accounts doing social media. We were helping them build their Instagram accounts, Facebook accounts, Twitter accounts. We had run ads from their accounts. That's what we were used to doing. We were marketers, right? And we just sat down and we finally said, Ryan, you focus on Bucked Up. Jeff, you focus on our social media, which at the time was called iBoom Media. You know what I mean? So that's kind of how that went. And then we've been fortunate that we had the money to be able

to grow. And, and, you know, we started out with a thousand bottles of Bucked Up in January of 2016 at the, at the LA Fit Expo. We went down there with a thousand bottles, sold all 1000 bottles in one weekend. And we were like, man, we might be onto something. Bucked Up's catchy. The formula that we came up with is really good so was this an energy drink a supplement this was just a pre-workout pre-workout bucked up pre-workout blood raz only and it was already like mixed up or no it was an it's in a powder it has 30 servings it's in a bottle and they take a pre-workout about 20 to 30 minutes before you go work out and you had a thousand of those sold out of them, sold out of them, came back and you know, we had the money and we just kept using

the money that we had made and putting into that. We were raised really, really strict. So like, Hey, you can't buy it. If you can't afford it, you never put anything on. So like early on, we had houses paid off. All of our cars paid off, everything, because that's just how we were. And we were running the bucked up and running our supplement company the same way. We didn't ever do anything unless we had the money to do it. So before this big expo that you go and sell a thousand, like how much research development, how much money did you sunk in? Like what was the experience up until that point? Well, so up to that point, we were driving traffic with our affiliate network and my dad happened to be taking a

product called L-Arginine Plus. And we were like, he goes, boys, this product works really well. And I know the owner and he, and he came by and I told him he needs to meet with you. Cause you guys could drive a lot of traffic. Cause this product for my high blood pressure works really, really well. And so my dad's on high blood prep was on high blood pressure medication. He started taking L-arginine and L-arginine is a vasodilator and it allows the blood vessels to open up and allows blood to flow really easy. So it helps with like headaches and those type of things. Yeah, like just anything to do with... Blood flow. Blood flow.

Yeah, makes sense. Even, and this is part of the story, even erectile dysfunction and things like that too, right? So we ended up meeting with this guy named Dave and he owned LRG9+. By the time he walked out of our office, we were 50-50 partners with him. And we said, hey, we'll drive all the traffic. You just make sure that you have enough product. Because

we looked at his stuff and we were like, dude, we'll change up the website. We'll do a few things. It's easy. Like this one could be easy and it gets tons of searches. It gets tons of volume. And so what we did- So the guy had no idea how to market, how to like- No, but he was still doing about $500 to $700 a day. Incredible products, no marketing, just goes to show you how important good sales and marketing is. Okay. In fact, there was some multi-level marketing companies out there like Herbalife that sold Nightworks, like Synergy that sells a pro-arginine, And they were all based around this L-arginine, L-citrulline. And what we did is, all we did is just say, hey, we can go and get all of those people. And they're

doing $100 million just on pro-arginine. So we're like, we'll get all of those people to buy L-arginine because it's half the price. So we ended up teaming up with him. And like I said, he was doing about $500 to $700 a day. Within three or four weeks, we were doing over $3,000 a day. Oh, that's awesome. So we were just able to take advantage. We got the website up and running. We started driving traffic.

We started doing a lot of pay-per-click. Well, one day we looked up the domain name because domain names were getting really, really popular. Absolutely. And Google gave you, at the the time exact match domain authority. So if you bought the exact match domain, you would immediately pop to the top on the search engine because it was exactly what somebody was looking for. So we ended up looking for lrjaninecom. And it was a guy who owned it over in, he was over in the UK. And what I did is I ended up contacting him and say, hey, how much for LRG9.com? He goes, it's $35,000. And I'm like, for the domain name? Are you kidding? He goes, no.

What year is this? This is 2013. Okay. 2012, 2012. So, you know, we contacted him and we said, Hey, we, you know, we want to buy this. And we negotiated and we ended up buying it for $25,000. And at the time we were like, you're like, what? This is crazy. Are you sure we should do this? But we were like, Hey, we rank number one. It would be worth it because it's free and we'd make back pay for it in a day, two days. Yeah, it pays for itself. So we ended up buying it for 25 grand. And just about a month or two later, Google shuts off all pay-per-click. All pay-per-click and we're ranking number one. Oh my gosh, that's awesome. So the reason why they ranked it number one, the reason why they cut off all the pay-per-click is because people were

going after erectile dysfunction. They were going nitric oxide boost, all this stuff, right? And Big Pharma's like, hey, they can't do that. So they shut them all off, and we happened to be ranking number one. We ended up doing about three to four, well, four to five million dollars a year. Eventually, it got to four to five million dollars a year just on LR John, and just on one single product, supplement. And we were like, man, supplements is where it's at. We need to do more of this. We ended up- And this is the first time that you're actually in the product game, right? Up until this point- That we're in the product game.

Up until this, you're just driving affiliate marketing. People are coming to us with a product and service or service and say, Hey, can you drive traffic? We're like, of course it'll cost you this much. We turn around and give it to our affiliate network and say, this is how much we'll pay you per lead or per sale. Okay. Timeout. We got to back, back way up. All right. So first of all, how old are you? So I'm about 28 at the time. Okay. You're 28 at that time. How did you get your start in business? Like what got you into being an entrepreneur, into being an affiliate marketer? Give me a little bit of your backstory, maybe where you grew up, kind of some things that led to this.

Well, so we were born and raised on a farm. Okay. Where at? And, you know, in Clearfield, Utah, just by Layton, Utah. We had a very strict father. What kind of farm? So we had everything from chickens, horses, cows. How many acres? Were you working for someone else? No, we were on my dad's. My dad was a big farmer here in Utah. At one time, he owned probably more farmland than most people. Really? Anybody in Utah at the time. So you were on tractors.

Yeah, tractors. They were everything to do with a big, big farm. Very cool. That's similar how I grew up. My dad was a school teacher, but I was in a farm town. Whereabouts? Up in eastern Washington. Oh, eastern Washington.

So eastern Washington is full of farm. Yep. I mean, that's where all your apples come from, tons of potatoes, corn, all that stuff. And so I know exactly the lifestyle in which we grew up. So then my dad had a farm partner, and the farm partner ended up ripping my dad off. So that got shut down, and then my mom went to work, and she worked at a jewelry place, carting earrings, and then she became a salesperson and started selling jewelry at these shows. And this was when I was 15 years old, 16 years old, and my mom started going to work where my

dad was just hauling hay for money, right? Going up to Millat, Idaho, bringing hay down and selling hay to farmers, you know what I mean? Brokering hay. Brokering hay, basically. And so my mom got so good at doing sales that that business started taking off really, really well. And my dad ended up going eventually with my mom, and they took over the business and bought the other partners. Oh, wow. Eventually. Farming to jewelry. To jewelry. And they owned eight jewelry stores along the Wasatch Front. Awesome. So they were piercing ears, selling hair bows, clips. And we saw, hey, that's actually a pretty good way to make money is own your own business. Right. And we were involved in the business the whole time.

We were going to the stores, doing sidewalks. You and your twin brother. Yeah. Well, our whole family was. How many kids? There's eight kids. Wow. Cool. And so we were working the business with our parents. And Jeff and I were third and fourth, so we were right in the middle. Right. So we were like 16, 17, 18 years old at the time, and we were working the stores. We were

helping deliver product, deliver stuff to the stores. And then we got that entrepreneurial spirit going, man, this is what we need to do. Did you go to school at all? No. So we went on our missions, and we came back, and one of the stores was at University Mall here in Orem. And we were like, man, if we're gonna go to school, let's go down here, because there's a lot of girls, there's a lot of college-aged kids. So we ended up coming down, and we actually went to UVU for a year. Jeff ended up getting married, but I... Anyway, I went and worked on a sales floor. And on this sales floor, they were giving

us leads of people who attended a seminar. So what... Was this Prosper? This was... Yeah. So it was PMI before, and then we went to prosper later. But the story goes, I went to, I went and worked there and a guy was providing leads. I asked, I said, you know what? The guy who's making all the money is the guy producing the lead. So believe it or not, the lead provider came in and I said, Hey, you're making good money. On the side, I do cars. I go up to the dealer and buy cars through the dealer auction. And I said, you need a car. And he goes, OK, I would like to buy a new Mercedes. So I took him to the auction. And

while we're there, I'm like, hey, I don't want to be on the sales floor forever. I want to learn how to produce leads. And he goes, you know what? I don't know what I'm doing. I would love for you to come down and help. So I ended up moving down to St. George and over a year or two period, two year period, I learned how to drive traffic online. So you, you mentored under who? His name was Jeremy Johnson in St. George, Utah. And so he ended up, he didn't really know what he was doing either. I didn't know what we were doing. We learned it together. Yeah. And we figured it out. And then we started driving all the traffic. And then I said, hey, I feel like

I'm kind of out of ceiling here. I need to go out and do my own. His was more like, hey, eBay and government grant type traffic and offers. And I wanted to do everything from weight loss to insurance leads to all these other leads. So I came back up and we started a company called bigpayout.com. And this is you and your brother? Me and my twin brother. I came up and I said, Jeff. What was he doing along the same time? He was now on a sales floor. So he was working for my parents running a lot of the – he ran all eight jewelry stores.

And I called him one day and I was on the sales floor and I was like, hey, how much money did you make this week? And he goes, well, I made about $1,600 for the month. And I'm like, I made $2,200 this week on the sales floor. He's like, where do I sign up? So he came down. So he went there. So really just been following. He's writing my co-tells this whole time. You're leading, he's following.

All right. I'm a little more aggressive than he is. So let's just say that. But yeah. So on that sales floor is where I asked and I learned how to drive traffic. And then we came and started producing traffic and leads for Prosper. So Prosper went from doing $100,000 a week on their sales floor to over $1.5 million a week on their sales floor a year later because we were all driving the traffic and the sales. So I'm actually interviewing Randy Garn later today. Oh, are you? Yeah.

Ask him if he knows the twins. Yeah, awesome. Randy's awesome. Randy him if he knows the twins. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Randy's awesome. Randy and Ethan were great guys to work with. Very, very cool. So, so you're doing this, you're, and then you go and you figure out how to drive leads and then you go and you start your own, your own business and you're feeding, are you feeding like Prosper and all these other guys? Yeah, we're feeding, we're feeding a lot of different sales floors because we can drive traffic. Right. Right right and coaching and mentoring were really big at the time right so we were driving a lot of those those leads to those different sales floors very cool then we started getting into social media and social media was hot and we saw that it was coming on really hot that people were like

doing really well on social media if they knew how to do it. And organic. Organic. This was pre-paid, right? All organic. This was amazing. I remember that run, man. That was a fun one. It was really good.

So believe it or not, Jeff and I, we went out to find the best social media guy. And we tried a whole bunch of groups. And then there was this one guy that came in and said, hey, I can do this. And when he started within three weeks, he had done more than all the previous social media companies prior to. And we were like, what are you doing? He was from Florida. We said, hey, come out and visit us. We flew him out. And we said, hey, we want to start a business around you because so many people want to increase their social media at the time. And so what we did is we hired the guy and we started a company called iBoom Media that helps companies get really good

on social media. Well, we asked him, what is it that you're doing? And he was using these tools to help people follow and unfollow on just a bunch of black hats. Yes, a lot of black hat. And we were like like but why doesn't the program do this this and this and he's like hey if it could be done it could be done and we were like no so we ended up starting our own tool that helped people get really popular on instagram and all we did is apply the that software that we developed right we helped all of our ambassadors grow that way and that's why we would go to an expo with Bucked Up and they go, where did you guys come from? And they didn't

know we were using the same strategy to grow other people's accounts. We have a saying, it's not how much, it's not what you say about your company, it's what everybody else says about your company. So we weren't really interested in growing Bucked Up's account. We were just interested in growing all of these other people that talk about Bucked Up and their accounts. I think you're bringing up a very important point for anyone that's looking at starting a business, whatever, an entrepreneur that wants to go and grow. A lot of times people go out and the very first thing they do is focus on the product.

They want to make it perfect and they want to make it just, you know, and then they go and try offering it instead of focusing on like marketing and sales is really the driver of everything, right? Like you can, you can refine the product as you go, but unless you have the marketing sales figured out, it doesn't matter. And I've been trying to teach my son this. My, my son's a 14 year old. He just turned 15. Bustling entrepreneur, wants to go and build stuff. And him and his buddy, they want to do like a supplement. And I'm like, before you perfect the supplement, figure out whether or not people even want the supplement. Right? Like go and do this. And it's just so hard for them to comprehend. They're like, no, we need this like perfect

tasting, perfect everything. And I'm just like, no, like there, it doesn't matter if there's no demand. And, and, and to be honest, people don't realize that it has to fit in this box in a certain box. We have people all the time coming and go, Hey, I can make a totally way better product than bucked up. And we're like, yeah, but no, one's going to buy it for $99. Right. You know, I could make a better product than Bucked Up. And, and, but it's not even feasible that somebody is going to spend the money to buy that. Yep. You know what I mean? So it has to fit in this box, which most people don't even realize. And we're just, through our experience, we know what we need to sell it for in order to market it, have margins to market, have money to be able to pay ambassadors a commission,

give a discount on our product through our ambassadors. And so we had to make it work in this box. And you know, like, I can spend this much money to develop a great product, right? And if it doesn't fit in there, then it's not feasible. It's not even feasible. And people are like, oh, I could do this. I'm like, no, you can't.

I can make Bucked Up, but I can make it cheaper. I'm like, you won't have money to spend to market it. So you will be stuck just with product. You know, that's a great question. So, you know, I go into a gas station, right? And I spend anywhere from on a good deal, two for four. On a bad deal, I'm spending $3.50 for an energy drink. That's right.

Right? And so it's like, dude, there's got to be a ton of margin in this thing. These guys are crushing it. Like walk us through, like how much money are you really making on a drink that I buy for $3? Well, you know, the energy drink market is interesting because it's so wide and so big that people just want to get market space and market, you know, they just want to be part of that market because it's so big that people just want to get market space and market. They just want to be part of that market because it's so big. Energy drinks, believe it or not, it can be cheap, but they can also be expensive. Like for us, we put real ingredients to help with energy and focus

that we're spending a little bit more on those really trademarked registered trademarked ingredients that make our drinks cost more than somebody else's, you know, but it also costs a lot to ship. They're very heavy. We send out, um, you know, their pallets of about 160 cases per pallet and it weighs over two, you know, 2000 pounds. So it's over a ton, right. Right? And you can only ship so much on a, you can ship about 11 pallets on a truck. But the thing is, is you then sell it to a distributor who sells it to a store who sells it to a customer. So there's money that has to be able to be made in each one of those. So like, for instance, if we make this can for 60 cents and we're selling it for $1.20 and then we have to ship it to them and get it to them. I mean, these cans eventually

per drink costs us close to a dollar. So we're making about 20 to 30 cents a can on these drinks. But you also have to participate in their promos. If they go, hey, we want to offer a two- We're talking 20, 30 cents gross margin, right? Right. That's before covering overhead, before covering additional marketing, all these different things. But there's so many sold every single day. Yeah. Right?

If you can sell millions and millions every day, why not? Right. You know what I mean? So, and it's just the market share that you're going after. You know, the issue you guys are up against is very similar. I have a buddy. His name is Xavier. He, uh, he, uh, used to own, he's now sold completely out of the largest book, uh, distributorship in, in the nation. And so, you know, the issue that he was

up is like, these things weigh so much, right? So he launched it. He was, he was top of Amazon in 2001, right? He was when they first started doing the FBA or whatever else. And so what he ended up having to do, he actually built out a shipping network. Like it was the only way that he could make margin in how heavy these books are and everything. So yeah, it's such a unique thing that the consumer just doesn't think about. Like this thing weighs so much. Yeah, but not just that. The energy drink space is so competitive.

Oh, yeah. Now you have to get brand awareness on your brand. Right. So now you have to go and sign a guy for a million dollars to represent you. So you have to get brand awareness. Like we're trying to get like a Morgan Wall in. We're trying to get like – What's your largest affiliate deal that you've signed?

So- Or marketing deal like that. We're working with the Cavender Twins, Bryce Hall, just some influencers like a Logan Paul or a Jake Paul. Obviously they're doing well because they are very, very popular on social media. We're trying to do the same thing. Now we're trying to get out in front of everyone. We ended up sponsoring and doing a big deal with BKFC. It's Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship. Is it through Dan Caldwell, by the way? Do you know Dan? I know him. Oh, dude, I love Dan. Me and him are good buds. Oh, are you? Yeah. He's on my podcast and I've known him for a few years. Yeah. So the BKFC guys, they had a big, huge social media guy fighting,

and we were like, oh, he's going to get killed. His name is Bryce Hall, and he's fighting G. G. Perez, who was 3-0 in bare knuckle, and we're like, he's a really good fighter. I've gone and saw him fight, and he's fighting Bryce Hall, who is this big social media influencer like Logan Paul. Yeah, yeah. And we ended up sponsoring BKFC, so we're all over the map. And then we ended up sponsoring the fighter, and Bryce Hall actually won.

And, I mean, we got billions of eyeballs on our brand. That's amazing. Overnight, billions of eyeballs. How much did that deal cost you? So the deal with BKFC, over a million dollars. Over a million bucks. Over a million dollars to be the title sponsor. Now, how do you measure the ROI on that? That's the hard thing, right? It's all branding, brand awareness or whatnot. It's coming down to velocity. So the velocity of your drinks and

everything. So we were already in Walmart and now our velocity has picked up because we're seeing that those energy drinkers, energy drink people, they are watching BKFC, WWE, USC. That's why Monster's all over. Monster prevents us from doing anything with like a UFC or a power slap. They don't want us anywhere around it. So they prevent us from doing those. So BKFC just happened to be available, and that was one that was starting to take off. We did the deal with them. It was like a $1.5 million deal. We

did the deal with... Two weeks later, Conor McGregor shows up at the one of the fights to watch Eddie Alvarez and Chad Mendes fight. And there was a bunch of UFC, Luke Rockhold. They were all fighting, and Conor McGregor shows up, and it got another billion views, billions of views. Oh, my goodness. That's amazing. So we just, right time, right space, got lucky. You know, stars are aligning for us, so it's good.

Wow, that's amazing. So, yeah, I mean, obviously, yeah, the margins aren't huge, but, yeah, billions of billion or millions of sales everything like that we don't even think that we make money because we're doing these big initiatives and deals with these other things we're not really making money on energy drinks until later right so you're just trying to get it out there and send money and marketing and everything else so then it takes off for you so right now i mean obviously company's doing well that you have great trajectory you're growing 100%.

What motivates you and gets you out of bed every morning right now? Well, I think the biggest thing is that the industry is a really fun industry, and I have a lot of passion for it. I think that's first and foremost. I mean, look, when these PE firms came in, they were like, hey, we need to keep the money in. And we're like, uh-uh, you're buying equity. Right. And we just happened to be in a good spot where we never took on debt. We had great EBITDA. So we said, hey, when that money comes in, we're taking it off the table. And they're like, wait, you're going to take it all off the table? What are we going to tell the people who are putting money

into the fund? And we're like, that sounds like a you problem, not a me problem. So we ended up taking a lot off the table for 20%. Um, they came in for 20% and we took a lot of money, a good amount of money, over 50 million. So, you know, so, so, um, we took a lot of money off the table right now. I mean, I could pretty much do anything someone else can do. But really, I want to see this grow. I want to see it grow. I want to sell for billions of dollars. Why not? Yeah, you love the story.

You love the passion, the drive. Awesome. And it's fun. I mean, you're dealing with fitness people. You're dealing with energy drinks. It's just a fun market. Yeah. So tell me about some of the culture that you create within the company. Like what are, what are some things that you feel that are like unique to

Bucked Up as an organization? Well, um, you know, we're more, we feel like we're more of a family. So I have a bunch of brothers and sisters that all work for us. Right. But it's more of a family type environment. We're very relatable. We're just regular people. You know, we're not like, Hey, we're these big top gurus. And we're like, no, we're just trying to figure this out as we go. And we're just trying our best, um, to make it happen. You know? And I think people, um, you know, like employees, we try to build a culture where, Hey, look, everybody respects everybody. We're, we're honest people. You know, we, we, we just want everyone to be successful and happy. And that's what we try to do now. Obviously, you know, it still comes down to, Hey, I always want to get paid more. Everybody wants to get paid more. Right. And so you try to do things that

help them feel like they're part of the team. You know what I mean? So you took some money off the table. What are some cool things that you bought with the money? So Jeff and I did really, really well before. And so we've used that money to make investments. So even before, even when we were running our affiliate network, we had four of us. We had me, my twin brother, my little brother, Daniel, that just got off his mission, and my brother-in-law that just married my sister. With four of us, we were doing over $20 million a year. That's amazing. And so just driving traffic with our affiliate

network. And we used a has offers for tracking, and we knew how to track, but we made really good money before Bucked Up. And then we got into social media. So Bucked Up has really just been a passion project. Well, it's been a passion, but we definitely, we saw the potential of the growth in that type of industry. Yeah. You know, it's interesting. This type of story really speaks to the principle of like, when you aren't necessarily working for money right that you like you identify something that you really like or whatnot and you don't need the money right right the money chases you even faster that's right you know it's it's crazy it's crazy

how the universe works that way yeah and you know like now i'm like hey whatever happens happens right right and you know if if you continue to work hard, I think we build a good work ethic. Being born and raised on a farm, we aren't afraid of a little hard work, you know what I mean? And so we were like, hey, we'll just outwork everybody. And then just happens to be that opportunities get placed in front of you that you can either take and say, Hey, it just weird how the universe works. It says, Hey, the harder you work, the luckier you get. Right. Right. Right. So, you know, that's what we do is we, we just work really hard and when opportunities place themselves before us, we can make a good decision on it. Right. So, and we feel like we were on path or on the trajectory

to be a really, really big company. Awesome, awesome. So you've had this initial exit with the private equity, and you're on an incredible trajectory. So what's next for Bucked Up? Where would you like to see it through? Are you going to be with Bucked Up 10 years from now? What are your goals? You know, our goal is to build it.

Jeff and I kind of said $2 billion or bust at this point. So we just said, but if somebody comes to us and makes us an offer we can't refuse, then we obviously have to take it. But we're not in any hurry. I mean, we both love what we do. And we're like, hey, this is a great business. We love it. But like I said, if an opportunity comes up that says somebody backs up the truck full of gold and drops it off, I think.

Let's go. You know, you can't take. So what are some of your passions outside of business? Well, we enjoy. So we have a few helicopters. Nice. And we have a cabin. And we like razor riding, side-by-side riding. Where's your

cabinet uh down by Bryce Canyon okay so those are the things that we enjoy doing is all being together like with our families and how many kids yeah both Jeff and I both have four he has four daughters I have two boys and two girls very cool you know but um what ages yeah So Jeff's run from 23 down to 12 and or 13. And then, um, my kids are 14, 16, 19 and 21. Very cool. Very cool. But yeah, we, we enjoy doing stuff like that. Like, uh, my, my 21 year old's getting his pilot's license for flying helicopters right now. And it's fun. Nice. Just fun stuff. So when are you writing a book? I mean, you've been through a lot as an entrepreneur, a lot as a, you know.

Believe it or not, I have my manuscript that was almost close to being finished. I was working with script.com. They went out of business right when my manuscript that I was working with the author on. So I was working with the author on. So I was working with a ghostwriter that was doing it. And we were right about finished with the manuscript. And they said, hey, we're going out of business. So did you get the file at least? I got the file.

So I'm looking. Do you have any insights on who to do a book with? I have a few good ghostwriters that we could talk about. I want to talk to you because I'm pretty much finished with my manuals. Now figuring out how to get it published and how to get it out there. Yeah, there's a handful. Actually, I just interviewed a guy named Richie Norton. He's a world-renowned author.

He's written three best-selling books through publishers. Wow. I mean, if you could help me get in the right. Because I'm kind of stuck. I'm just telling you. I've already written out the whole story of Bucked Up kind of like this. You got it. You know, I've gone through the path of when we're from start to where we want to see Bucked Up go. But another thing with Bucked Up, there's so many possibilities with Bucked Up. Bucked Up

can cross over into different genres that other people can't. Like we're getting into the country, western, the hunting market, fitness market, energy drinks. We can appeal to everybody. So many different directions you can go. And we could do our own retail stores. We could do our own Bucked Up Fitness gyms. There's so many things that we could do. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And the sky's the limit. Awesome. So let's call it 10 years from now. You've sold bucked up for $2 billion, right? You're out of the day-to-day. You maybe have a little piece of equity or something, right? What are you going to be doing? My wife says I can't sit still.

So I'll probably take a break for two weeks, four weeks maybe, maybe a month. Right. But I already have a lot of other ideas that I want to do. I have already some really great domain names. I have some really good plans for doing other businesses and maybe even consulting with people a little bit. But for the most part, I just wanna enjoy life.

My wife and I will probably serve a mission for our church and that type of thing. Little mission present or something. Well, I don't know about mission present, but no, maybe. So do something, like serve. You know, I wanna give back a lot now. Even go, we had one really good experience where we went to Mexico for Christmas and we basically built a whole house while we were there over Christmas break. And not build a whole house,

but help reorganize the house, build a bathroom onto the house and do a lot of things that they needed. And it was just good. And all of my kids and other families that we went that they needed. And it was just good. And all of my kids and other families that we went with went down. It was in Porta Penasco. So give us some more background on that. So how long were you there? How did you get it set up? We were there for a week and we did basically a full two days of work while we were there.

And then we celebrated Christmas while we were there. But, you know, it was a guy said, hey, there's this family that needs some assistance and help. They need a bathroom. You know, they were using an outhouse before, and we actually helped put in sink, running water sink, everything, and got... It was a mess. Like, it was... A dump trailer's full of stuff. But it was just crazy to see that they were living on dirt floors. I mean, we picked up a mattress and there's all these spiders under this mattress, and we were like, this is crazy that people actually live like... My kids, wide open eye, like, are they actually living in this place? But it's just a different life. Such a good experience for your kids to be able to realize what life is for other people, especially growing up in a privileged home and everything else.

And we had two girls from Nepal live with us. Oh, wow. From Nepal. Their dads were guides that took people up to base camp in Mount Everest and stuff like that. And, you know, it's just a completely different lifestyle outside of Utah. And what we've been, you know, what I've raised my kids with, they've been able to have whatever they want. But I would like to give back and see people and help them with business and help them. You know, the Nepali girls, I'm like, hey, so what do you do over there? Like, what could we do that could make money? Could I buy you 100 chickens and you sell eggs?

What could you do? And their mentality is just not designed. They're like, well, my parents pay for everything. What are you talking about? And I'm like, wait. It's just a different way of thinking outside of being here in Utah and always wanting to figure out ways to make money. Right, right.

Yeah, going and experiencing these third world experiences. So I actually have been in Nepal. We did a service project for 10 days over there. Oh, did you? So I've been amongst those people. You've been in Nepal? Yeah. And it's the poorest country in the Eastern Hemisphere.

So poor. So poor. I can't remember what the average income there, but it's like nothing. Dirt floors, outhouses. This village that we were in had just only received electricity three years prior and we hiked up to a village that never seen white people yeah you know like crazy i mean just crazy stuff but like it gives you such a a unique set of grat like perspective and gratitude for like what you have yeah and the

fact that your kids have been able to experience that or even have these Nepalese kids live with them? They came for... They went to American Heritage, and they just needed some place. They weren't Mormon, but this is like a very religious school, American Heritage, by the Tipinogos Temple up here. But they knew nothing about the Book of Mormon, Jesus, nothing really, period. And so when they came here, they needed a place to live, and we offered our home for them to live in, and that's essentially what happened. And they got to experience it during their whole high school career.

You speak of giving back and serving and whatnot, and I think the secret sauce to that, for people that haven't been able to participate in a lot of that, it's one of the most selfish things you can do. You don't even realize, but at least for me, when I go and I'm charitable and I serve and whatnot, it's the best feeling in the world. And it's like, man, I feel so selfish because I feel like I'm getting more out of this than the people that I'm serving, the people that I'm giving to. But it's, it's the coolest, I think it's the ultimate life hack. If you can figure out how to serve, how to give back, because it's like this continuous,

just cycle, they just circle that everybody's served in it. And it's, it's remarkable. I a hundred percent agree. I think giving back is where eventually it all happens, you know, where life is really rewarding. You feel a sense of accomplishment. But I like to build a company, have the money to be able to go and do these things that I can give back. Right. So it's been great. Yeah. I mean, that's the power of money, right? Like that it gives you the leverage to be able to go and do incredible things and it enhances who you really are. So appreciate that. So, um, last couple of questions. So someone, someone that's young, they're thinking about going and starting the first thing. They haven't taken the leap or maybe to young Ryan, what advice do you give to that person?

Honestly, I'd say go out and get experience. I mean, people, it's very rare that there's going to be these people who overnight become an overnight sensation, but I'm telling you with Bucked Up, it was all those experiences of the affiliate marketing, driving traffic, you know, LR Janine, deer antler spray, all led up to Bucked Up and what it is today. All those experiences, they were all stepping stones to get where I am today. So my advice to them is say, hey, don't be in a hurry. Go out and get the experience. Go and learn from somebody.

Have a mentor, somebody that can actually guide you through the do's and do not do's, you know, and don'ts of business. And that's what I'd say. Yeah. And my, the, the thing, the term I love to use, my audience has heard me use a million times is aggressively patient, right? Like you're, you're in the moment, get as much as you possibly can, but be patient. Don't be like such a hurry to go and start the business. Don't be like, like, Oh, I'm falling behind. I actually had a really close friend that was doing really, really well selling taxes and he was crushing it. I mean, he was, he was, he was going to make a couple hundred grand a year. And he's like, you know what? I'm going to do this on my own. I'm like, no, not yet. He ended up doing it on his own and met and felt. And, and

he ended up getting into addiction and everything else because he went through this really hard. If he would have just been aggressively patient, the time would have come where he had everything dialed in instead of having to really struggle and battle and then eventually fell at the business. But you know, businesses fail. Yeah. You know what I mean? And to your point, like everybody has a different timeline too, right? Like that's right. Your, your definition of success is completely different than mine. And my pathway is going to be completely different. Like do not compare yourself against anybody else, right? Right. Live your path, take the proper actions, be aggressively patient and doors will open if you're looking for it.

And there's several times where I've been asked to make investments in things. And I'm like, looking back, I'm like, dang, I should have done that investment. And now I'm going, you know what? It's all perspective. Maybe I wasn't ready for that. Maybe I wasn't ready to go down that path at that moment in that time. And so it's just perspective and how you look at it. So, but it's been, it's been a heck of a ride. So, well, thank you for sharing for, uh,

with us, your experiences. So last couple of things, maybe some best practices that you do in your personal life, uh, best books, you know, some, some along those lines. So I do believe in balance. So I do believe in setting goals physically, spiritually, and mentally or emotionally or whatever. So I do believe in having a balanced life. I don't believe in being fanatical one way or the other. And how do you go about that? Well, I think it's coming up with the goals and then just keeping those in mind.

And then the other one is always staying positive. There's books out there all about positivity. My wife, it was funny, my wife read a book all about being positive in life and everything. And next thing you know, we got positivity stickers all over our mirrors that we have to repeat seven times. You know, I am enthusiastic and successful. Little affirmations. Little affirmations. Little affirmations. All about being positive. And I'm telling you, positivity goes a long, long, long,

long ways. Couldn't agree more. Well, Ryan, I appreciate your time today. Where is the best place to follow you on social or learn a little bit more about you? Bucked up CEO, um, on Instagram, you know, um, you know, uh, TikTok, those types of things. And then also, um, you can go to bucked up.com and read all about our story and everything else. Awesome. Very good. And just so you guys know, even though I have a drink out here, I'm not getting paid by bucked up to, to be able to promote this. I just think it's a phenomenal, phenomenal drink, phenomenal story from our little business. Appreciate you so much for your time today. Thanks for all your support and thanks for having me on.

All right, until next time.