The Nick Bare Podcast - 055: Can You Do Your Job?

Episode Date: February 26, 2024

In this week's solo episode, I'm recapping life updates, the Austin Marathon, and what it means to do your job. Doing your job isn't only about the overall tasks but also how you execute and show up in this moment. It is about where your feet are right now, whether you need to show up as a boss, employee, spouse, parent, or friend. It's about doing the tough things and finishing well, making the hard choices that will lead to long-term gain. So the question today is, can you do your job? Save 10% at BPN Supps: https://bit.ly/nickbare10audio Follow for more:  IG: https://www.instagram.com/nickbarefitness/ YT: https://www.youtube.com/@nickbarefitness Topics: 0:00 Intro 0:51 Welcome 2:27 Baby boy Bare 11:57 Austin Marathon weekend 13:55 My history of the Austin Marathon 17:00 The future of BPN in Austin 24:08 Can you do your job?  32:58 Doing my job as CEO 36:43 Getting the brand back on track 41:34 Our key initiatives 51:19 Who you surround yourself with 56:32 Three different types of people 59:49 How I’m approaching CEO differently

In this episode of the podcast, I am challenging you with a question, can you do your job? That is the question that I asked 19,000 runners at the Austin Marathon this past weekend and delivered that speech seconds before the gun went off, which is full circle because six years prior, I signed up for my first marathon, that same race, months after saying, I would never run a day in my life again. And that decision changed the entire trajectory of my life. So I want to ask you the question as we go into this episode. Can you do your job? So we are coming off of a huge weekend.

We just spent the weekend in Austin, Texas for the 2024 Austin Marathon. BPN was a nutrition sponsor this year. as well as last year. And I want to talk about what that entire race weekend meant for the big BPN team. But also, Steph and I announced something a few days prior to the race. And that is that we are pregnant. Steph is pregnant with baby number two. Baby boy, which we just announced today, the gender, baby boy bear,

is due at the end of August, 2014, and Charlie will be just over two years old. So Charlie's birthday is July 15th. My birthday is August 1st, and then this baby boy's birthday will be sometime mid to late August. So the bear family is growing. Steph is, I believe, about 13 weeks pregnant right now.

and it's exciting. It's a little intimidating, but extremely grateful. I'm extremely grateful and proud and just happy with what we're about to experience. But I will say I have a little story around that, how we found out and stuff was pregnant. So it took us about a year to, for example, for a year, for a few. for Steph to get pregnant with Charlie. We were trying for about a year and then she got pregnant.

We had Charlie. So we assumed that this next baby was going to take just as long. We were anticipating that it was going to take a year, at least a year of trying because of the process we went through with Steph getting pregnant, like I said, for Charlie. One time.

It took one time. I've learned a lot about women and cycles and the way the female hormone system works. And Steph does a really good job at tracking her cycle. So she knows at what days during her cycle she is ovulating. She is most fertile. So I get the call sign when we're trying. and it's that day or those two days of, hey, this is an intentional and deliberate move to make sure that we're getting pregnant. So just so you know, today, tonight, it's game time.

So Steph does a really good job at tracking her cycle. So we know when we got to do it to do it. and took one time to get pregnant with this baby boy. So we were in New York City. We went to New York City about, I think it was a week after the California International Marathon. And we planned this New York City trip midway through the marathon prep because we wanted something to look forward to. But also, when I go into these preps, I'm all in. I'm very focused, committed, dedicated to the process.

So we wanted to relax a little bit after doing CIM. So we planned this trip. It was me, Steph, Jordan, Michaela, Ian. Ian's sister came along. And we're just bouncing around the city, trying different food, having some good cocktails, and just exploring the sites. And we were at Joe's Pizza getting a slice in Manhattan. this one day. Right after we went, we saw the 9-11 memorial, which was absolutely amazing.

I mean, extremely heavy and emotional and real and raw. One of the best memorials that I've ever seen in my life, the best memorial I've ever seen in my life. And we spent the morning there, then we went into Manhattan, got a slice of pizza at Joe's, which was one of the best pieces of pizza that I've personally ever had. And across the street from Joe's was a CVS. And Steph told me that she was late. Her period was late. So we decided to go over into CVS after having our slice of pizza at Joe's.

And we got a pregnancy test. Did not take it at CVS, luckily. But we went back to the hotel. And she was in no rush to take this test. Because we just assumed, like I said, it was going to take a year to get pregnant. So we did not think it was going to happen this quickly. That night we had a reservation for an amicasse sushi dinner experience,

which I booked ahead of time, put a large deposit, large non-refundable deposit down. And an amicose, which I've really never had an amicose experience, It's a table. It's about 12 seats in this table. There's a preset menu that they make for that evening. And they pretty much bring you, you know, for the sushi experience, like one piece of a negiri at a time.

And it's paired with some sort of drink, cocktail, alcohol. It is truly an experience. And that's what I love about dining and restaurants and food. I love the experience. So we were all psyched up. getting ready for this amacase experience. Come back to the hotel. We're getting ready.

Steph is in no rush to take the test. Literally minutes, probably five minutes before we went out for sushi. She takes the test. I'm laying on the bed, just chilling out. She walks in and says, I'm pregnant. I could not believe it. Both of us could not believe it. We were in shock.

I was truly in shock. I was overwhelmed. Didn't know what was a deal. But it was a blessing. And it is a blessing. That's how we found out. And then at the time, Charlie was actually staying with Steph's parents in Michigan. So we flew from New York City to Michigan to pick up Charlie. We stayed in Michigan for a night. And we surprised Steph's family that next day. And the way we did it is I just set up a, or I set up my phone on the table. It's like, hey, let's get a family photo. We don't have any family photos as of recently together. Let me just set up my phone, put it on a 10 second timer, and then we'll just get a photo together. So everyone's going along with it. No one thought

anything of this because they just didn't. And I set up the phone. We're all on the other side of it. I say, okay, everyone on the count of three, say Steph's pregnant. One, two, three, Steph's pregnant. And no one really reacted. And then I looked over at Steph's mom's face because at this moment in time, to give you some context, I was a little overwhelmed finding out that we were pregnant with baby number two just because I wasn't mentally prepared to go into this season of life.

so quickly. I was telling myself it was going to take a year. So I was forward thinking backwards planning, putting all these things in the calendar and planning for the future.

So I was overwhelmed. But I told myself, okay, when Steph's family finds out, they will reassure me that everything is okay. And when we announced and we surprised Steph's family, I looked at her mom,

Kim, was just as overwhelmed and surprised as mine was. So I was hoping and waiting for reassurance, but that didn't come. So fear was faced with fear, and that made me more scared. But it all ended up working out. It's all good.

Truly a blessing. And we're really excited for baby number two. Like I said, it's a boy. So Charlie will be a big sister. to a baby brother and that's where we're at right now. The bear family, like I said, is growing.

I get the pass down the bear name and it's cool. It's super cool. So I'm sure lots of stories to come and content to be produced. It's funny because you know, I experienced this with

Steph when she was pregnant with Charlie there's all these things that happen that I want to talk about I want to share because they're funny, they're interesting, they're applicable to why and what we're doing in life but I couldn't for the longest time because we were waiting to announce like right now Steph has a meat inversion. Her diet changes significantly when she's pregnant.

She has cravings, They're weird cravings. Like right now, she's been craving chicken nuggets and like macaroni and cheese, but she has a meat a version. She had this when she was pregnant with Charlie, where if I'm cooking a steak or I'm cooking ground beef or chicken, the smell, the look, the taste absolutely disgusts her. So I'll be prepping some ground beef at 9 p.m. at night before we go to bed

in preparation for the next couple days. And she has to leave the room, sometimes even leave the house. Because of the smell of the meats. I've actually been prepping a lot of my ground beef on the trigger. I make my ground beef into patties and I make burgers on the grill and then I chop up the burgers for my meal preped ground beef. So Steph's pregnant. Baby bear number two.

On the way. We announced that a few days before getting to Austin. Actually, as we were on our way to Austin, we announced that Steph's pregnant. And today, like I said, we just announced that it's a baby boy. For the Austin Marathon weekend, let me tell you, that was one of, it was just this past weekend. That was probably the best weekend we've had for the BPN team in the last four years, four or five years. The energy was electric. It was kinetic.

There is so much momentum around the brand right now, so much energy. And I've been thinking about the word momentum a lot lately. And the way that I like to think about momentum, it's when vision is amplified with action. And when vision is amplified with action, it creates momentum, especially when that action is very intentional and purposeful. That momentum starts building and building and building. and it is like a snowball. It is powerful. And I can feel that momentum behind BPN right now.

I have felt it before. I have definitely felt it before. I haven't felt it for a little bit, if I'm being honest. But I can feel it right now. I mean, the energy is electric. You can feel it in the air. You can feel it in the environment at BPNHQ. Steph and I are getting ready to move the family.

and the team here in Nashville from Tennessee back to Texas. We just sold our house here in Tennessee and we're looking for a spot in Texas to move the family now. But I'm excited to get back to HQ and be around that energy and create that energy. It was such a powerful weekend for myself, the team, the brand. And the weekend as a whole is, is and was pretty full circle.

You know, when I left the military in 2017, and I told this story many times before, but I made a vlog. I made a vlog, and I remember looking into the camera saying, I will never run a day in my life again. And we all know how that ended up,

based off where I'm at right now and what I'm doing with my time. After I record this podcast, actually, I'm about to go, logs and miles. So I said that in 2017 when I transitioned out of the Army. And then in 2018, I ran my first marathon, which was the Austin, Texas Marathon. Didn't know what to expect. Didn't know how to train. I really didn't train. It's all that I trained, really didn't. It was humbling. It kicked my ass. I've told the story many times before. I ran that first

marathon, three hours, 57 minutes. It was a soup sandwich. I struggled tremendously through the back half. And in the next year, I did the Austin Marathon again, ran slower, four hours, 15 minutes this time. But it's something about that race, like the, the energy, the route, you see all these different parts of the city, the people of the city come out and, and, The community, the people, the atmosphere is unlike any other race I've done. Truly, the Austin Marathon is where I attempted my first sub three-hour marathon, and I failed. I ran three hours 24 minutes.

Big fail, big miss. Austin, Texas is where we built and grew BPN after I left the Army. After my brother moved down from Pennsylvania, the city itself has so much meaning and story and history for us as a team, as a family, as a business. It's where I found my love and passion for running, logging hundreds, if not thousands of miles, downtown around Lady Bird Lake Loop,

also known as Town Lake. Loop, I fell in love with the lifestyle of running. That's where I started hybrid athlete training, fell in love with the sport, the community, the people. Every part of running, that's where I found it in that city. It changed the trajectory of my life and the trajectory of BPN as a whole. It's where everything started. It started when I signed up for that race in 2018.

Now, fast forward six years later, 2004, just a few days ago, I was awarded the opportunity to give the pre-race speech. Seconds before the gun went off, I said my last words. my last words that speech before 19,000 runners, 19,000 runners doing either the 5K, the half marathon, or the full marathon, took off after towing the line to put out this massive effort and challenge themselves. That for me is surreal. That is full circle, going from where I fell in love with,

this sport, this activity, this lifestyle, which then evolved to what it is today for me and the brand to delivering the speech at the Austin Marathon in 2024. Huge. Huge for me and the team. Like big win. In the last two years, we were a nutrition, including this year, a nutrition sponsor of the race.

And we want to, or we wanted to do and be more, but we couldn't because of existing contracts that would give us the ability to unlock more capacity in terms of sponsorship with the Austin Marathon. But that's changing. Some of the older historical contracts that were locked in or ending in the next couple years, our goal for 2025 is to be the gel in hydration space,

sponsor of the Austin Marathon and Argel's and electrolytes and I guess potentially G1M Sport to be the product's own course. That's our goal for 2025 based off of some of the contracts that are ending with the Austin Marathon next year. It opens up that ability. In 2006, another opportunity exists where an existing contract is ending. We want to be the title sponsor of the Austin Marathon starting in 2006. That's our goal. We want it to be the BPN Austin, Texas Marathon of 2006 and moving forward. Now, I'm putting that into existence right now.

I'm manifesting that. I hope it works out. I really do. We have a great relationship with the Austin Marathon, the race director, and the organization, and the team. but that would be even more full circle. That is the vision for how we want to show up for Austin, Texas. Part of me moving back to Austin with my family,

with a team that's here in Nashville, is because our team, our family, our people are in Central Texas. It's where HQ is at. And if you listen to the previous podcast episode, I put out before this one, it talks all about what 2020, was for me. From stepping down from the CEO role

to moving into a founder and chief creative officer role, moving my family to Nashville with a small creative team for brand amplification opportunities where I thought I was actually going to bring on a private equity minority investment partner which didn't end up happening.

And now here we are moving back to Austin, Texas. I'm back in the CEO seat. Like I said, if you didn't listen to that podcast, highly recommend the episode before this one. It provides a lot of context into where I'm at right now in my life personally and professionally and what's going on with BPN moving forward. And that's part of the reason there's so much energy

and electricity and momentum behind the brand right now. In my honest opinion. But that's what I see. for the future of BPN in Austin, Texas, owning the endurance space and being the supplement brand of Central Texas and eventually Texas in general.

But man, this past weekend, beautiful from like the shakeout run. We had a shakeout run Friday morning. We had about 1,000 people show up. some people flew in from out of state there were people

that flew in from out of the country it was wild we were you know we were handing out hats and shirts and product

after the race and we went out and did our run so there was a five mile shakeout there was a three mile shakeout

I led the five mile shake out and like I said there were probably a thousand people that showed up this event. It was wild in the Seahom district of downtown by Fleetfeet. And the shakeout run went out onto the trail and ended up in the same spot we started. And when we got back

and I went out pretty fast on that shakeout run because I wanted to get back as fast as possible because I knew we were handing stuff out. We had the BPN red go on more gooey truck. We popped open the back doors and we were handing. out hats and shirts and product. And it was just this swarm of people around the truck. I get nervous for a second because you know when you you hear about concerts or events and things go wrong where they rush the stage or they rush a group of people or a vehicle or a truck and people get stomped on and tripped over, I started feeling the wave of momentum

from the crowd, from the people pushing towards the van where we were handing stuff out. I actually started getting nervous that something like that was going to happen. It was that many people. It was like a stampede, a sea of people. And man, it just felt so right. It felt so good. We just kept saying all weekend, BPN's back. BPN's back.

Unapologetically, BPN, we're back. baby. We're here. So we had the shakeout run Friday. We had the expo Friday and Saturday. And the race was Sunday. And as I was prepping for my speech that I delivered right before the gun went off and racers ran the 19,000 people that towed the line on South Congress right in front of the Capitol building, I got to deliver that speech. And as I was prepared, for it, there was so much that I wanted to get across. I wanted to talk about the concept of finish the race, suffer well, go on more, and can you do your job? And can you do your job is what I want to really get across in this episode that I'm recording right now. Because I think it's

really powerful concept. And I have fully adopted it. And I heard about it from Pastor Lyle Phillips. So when Pastor Lyle Phillips, who is the pastor of Legacy Church here in East Nashville, when he was on a podcast a few weeks ago, we talked about this. And as I was preparing for this speech

to give at the All Samarathon, I sent Pastor Lyle a voice note. I was like, hey man, I'm just thinking about using this concept for the speech. And I just don't want to steal it from you. I don't want you to think that I'm stealing your words, your thoughts, your opinions. So I just wanted to first off get your permission to talk about this during the speech at the marathon, but also to give you heads up so you're not blindsided. I have his response written down here.

He said, you're not stealing nada, bro. It's all from the Holy Spirit who lives in both of us. It's like, all right. Thanks, man. I appreciate you. But my whole speech, which I planned for probably like this five-minute speech, and I wanted to say a lot,

I wanted to get a lot across, I wanted to motivate people, but as I was looking out into the sea of runners, first off I went on with like a minute until the gun was supposed to go off and the race was supposed to begin so I had to

make some cuts in my speech based off of how much time I was actually allocated but then I thought what do people really want to hear and what will actually leave impact that people will remember for the next 3.1 miles, 13.1, 26.2

for the next 30 minutes to six hours, depending on how fast and how far you're running. And I was looking out into the sea of people when I realized it was cold. Most people didn't want to hear me talk at that point. They just wanted to run. So I took it as a sign to be concise And one of the things my wife always tells me, she says, get the point across and then wrap it up.

Because she knows I can be long-winded and I can recircle and come back and touch on multiple topics again and again and again. Because I think they're important topics to talk about and I want to really drive that message home. But I kept this one short. And what I really wanted people to remember, I'm not going to be able to say it. word for word, but I'll summarize. I said that later on in this day, people are going to ask you, how was the race? And a lot of people were going to respond with,

it was hard. And my response to that is, good. It should be. It should be hard. It is supposed to be hard. hard is what forges us to experience growth. And today, we have a job to do. That job is to finish the race.

Just like in life, you may not finish strong in everything that you sit down to do. And that's okay. But we can, in the absence of finishing strong, we can still finish well. And the question for you today is, can you do your job? Can you do your job? And your job today is to finish the race. Finish well. See, I love that. I loved when Pastor Lyle Phillips shared those messages with me, those stories, because it put a lot of things into perspective. It's really easy to get caught up in what our job actually is overall. We have a job to do for our family.

We have a job to do for our faith. We have a job to do for financial security and freedom. We have a job to do to maintain a healthy body, a healthy life. healthy diet. We have all these different jobs to do. But what is your job right now? Based off where my feet are at in this moment. For me, as I'm talking to you guys,

I'm in my podcast studio in Nashville, Tennessee. I'm the only one in this room. I'm surrounded by walls, lights, cameras, microphones. My job right now in this moment, is to deliver a message and be as intentional and impactful as possible to provide clarity, direction, and purpose behind my words so that the message is delivered in the right way. Also in a way that I don't waste your time or my time. That's my job right now.

When I'm done recording this episode, I'm going to walk out of this room and my job changes based off of where my feet are at. My next job after this podcast is to go log some miles. That is going to be my job for the time being. And then after that, my job will be to get home and spend time with my wife and my daughter. And we're going to make dinner together. That is my job. And then my job after that is to give my daughter a bath.

And we're going to put her down and get her ready for bed. and then I'm going to get back to doing some work and that's going to be my job. Can you do your job in that moment of time where your feet are at and what's important and necessary right then and right there? You can say that you're doing your job

and I'll be honest, I'm guilty for what I'm about to say right now. I am not perfect at this. I'm probably not, even good at this, but I need to, and I'm trying to improve at this right here we're about to explain. I'll put a lot of time and energy into my work. A lot. Put a lot of time and energy into BPN and creating content and motivating people and building and leading a team. And that is

tiring. It is exhausting, but it's not an excuse for when I go home. after work and I don't show up as the best father or husband possible. That's me failing to do my job. My job when I get home from the office is to be a father and a husband. I then have to do that job for where my feet are in that moment in time. You can say it's being present, but it's being present in the job that you are. expected and required to do. So now that I'm back in the CEO seat of BPN, part of my job that I want to and need to do

is to document the rebuild of BPN as we go into this next chapter. I want to share this full entrepreneurial journey. And a few weeks ago, probably two days after I stepped into the CEO, seat, stepped back into it. I had a conversation with an advisor of ours. And we were just talking about where the business was at, things that we want to work on, things we want to and need to do for this next chapter

of restructuring, rebuilding. And one of the things he told me to do was, you know, you guys are probably focused on too much right now. You're trying to do too many things. When you're trying to do too many things well, you nothing right, which is so true. So we first took accountability, inventory, and did an audit of everything that we were working on in the business, all the different projects, all the different initiatives, just everything, from new product innovation to new flavors to moving to natural sweeteners to new fulfillment automation systems.

to all these things. There are a lot of projects. And we refined, based off of the guidance of this advisor and mentor that I work with and have a relationship with, and he said, choose three to five things. Just three to five things as the key initiatives for BPN for the foreseeable future. You should focus on these things as the CEO. everyone in the business should focus and know of these things as team members as employees, so we're all rowing the boat in the same direction. And as I've talked about a lot recently, I've been obsessed with Dr. Henry Cloud's work as an author.

And I've read Trust by Dr. Henry Cloud, and I just finished up necessary endings. which I'll probably talk about a little bit here in this episode that I'm recording right now. And I can't remember which book it was in, but he uses an example of a tool that a CEO or an executive implemented that worked really well. It was called the six by six. Every six weeks, this executive had six key initiatives. And once those six weeks were over, he will. would reevaluate and reassess if those six needed to continue or if some were accomplished and you could add more to ensure there were six full key initiatives for those next six weeks,

the six by six. I found that really interesting and potentially useful. But right now, after this conversation with his advisor, we chose five key initiatives that we're going to be working on at BPN. And I'm going to share those with you guys. I'm going to share all the things we're doing in the business, what we're working on, what we're struggling with to document the journey and just share my entrepreneurial experience from where I'm at right now and where we're heading in the future. So our five key initiatives, one, get the brand back on track and have continuity with performance marketing. Now I could talk about this one for the next four hours.

This is probably a podcast on its own, but high level. The BPN brand fell off track like I talked about in this previous episode that I recorded. And a lot of that is because as I stepped out of a CEO and operating role in the business, I failed to continue to provide vision for the organization, especially the brand team. And when I stopped providing vision, it's hard to create or take action

in the absence of vision and direction because there's no clarity, there's no purpose, there's no intent behind your work. I failed the team in that sense. So right now we're getting the brand, back on track, bringing back that gritty, raw, humble, authentic look and feel that BPN has always had and that we really leaned into in the past that we lost for a period of time, but we're bringing

back this past weekend is an example of how we can show up authentically BPN and disrupt an entire industry. So the first key initiative is getting the brand back on track and cleaning up our performance marketing. As a direct consumer, e-commerce, consumer brand, we participate in advertising, on meta, on these social media platforms, on Google, SEO. And a lot of our performance advertising and marketing started to look and feel completely different from the BPN brand because we started running brand and marketing as independent departments

when in reality it's the last thing you should be doing brand and marketing should be working together so that there is cohesiveness and continuity between what's going out on social and what's being created for either a brand awareness or conversion ad. so we're making sure there's continuity between those two departments again. That's key initiative number one. Brand on track, continuity with performance marketing. With that, yesterday we just did a really beneficial and enlightening workshop with a copywriter. Her name is Jess.

Jess came from Adidas. She's worked with Nike. So talented. We did a workshop with Just to create a tone of voice brand guide that will be created over these next couple weeks. So we can truly understand what is the BPN voice, what is the tone, how do we speak, how do we write captions, how do we write copy, how do we talk about going more? How do we not talk about going more? Having that brand guide is going to be so beneficial for the foundation of the company as we grow. and bring on more people.

Because if you don't have that, you don't have a voice. And we're also these next three days doing a website redesign workshop. We just hired Brian Athe as our, he's a contractor for us. He's working with us for the next 90 days as our web designer. So we're going to redesign our entire website. We're going to do a workshop here in Nashville, the next three days of exploration and discovery. and then he'll go design alongside of us, and then we will build that

into the back end of our website over these next couple months. So the goal in the next six months is that brands back on track, we have continuity with performance marketing to align with brand, we have a tone of voice, and we have, that is consistent,

and we have a new website that is launched, that matches the look and feel of who BPN really is. So that's key initiative number one. Number two is to build a winning culture. Building a culture of people who want to win. And that's all based off of people. People are everything in a business, which we will get to.

Shortly, we are in the people business. But key initiative number two, build a winning culture. That requires the right. people. Key initiative number three is finalize our current and long-term office solution. So in Round Rock, Texas, that's where HQ is at. It's right outside of Austin. It's just north of the city. We operate in just about 50,000 square feet right now. But it is a collection of different offices and warehouse spaces in a business park. So we have. of our ops and customer service team in one office.

And in that same part of the business park is some of our fulfillment and some of our warehousing. Our current leadership team is in another part of the business park in a different suite that has no warehousing. And then there is another couple suites in another part of the business park that is, our brand team, our gym, podcast studio, creative kitchen, some fulfillment in a warehouse. That's just been like the part of growing. As we've grown, we've grabbed more space here, there, everywhere we can find it to bridge gaps. So part of the key initiatives right now is to

get those offices back to high high high. functioning, fun, creatively driven environments. We have some murals going in right now. We have some painting being done. I have some pergolas being built within the offices, which we'll be documenting this entire thing. But we really just need to add some energy to the office spaces to bridge us between now and when our future HQ is built.

So the long-term office solution we have is we're working with our landlord and we've done a lot of forecasting into the future to determine based off of products we have now, products we will have in the future, retail demand, velocities of how fast we sell product, and the amount of inventory we can place at a time given lead times. we know how much warehouse space we're going to need.

So the landlord is working with us to build out our future HQ, which you can see from our current HQ. And he has been great to work with. His name's Ken Wheeler. He's been great to work with these last couple years. He actually signed us our first warehouse lease in 2016. When I was still in Korea, and Preston moved from Pennsylvania down to Texas.

And that first warehouse was 6,000 square feet, I believe. 2590, Ogmont Drive, Suite 420, Round Rock, Texas, 78665. And he's working with us to build out our next headquarters, which will be one large building. It's going to be about 80,000 square feet. It'll be 15,000 square feet of consolidated office. and that is where all the offices will be.

There will be separation. Some of it is open concept. Some is closed off office spaces. That's where our leadership team, our brand team, ops and customer service will be. About 15,000 square feet of office. That is to facilitate now and into the future

based off of our growth model. We'll have about 53,000 square feet of warehouse with the ability to flex into new spaces as needed, or more space, I should say. And then there's a gym, creative suite, locker rooms, which is about 10,000 square feet.

So that's rough ballpark of the breakdown. That is going to break ground here very soon. I'm working with the landlord and an architect to build that out. We're going to get some nice T.I. expense money to build out in the offices. And the plan is that those are going to be done May, June of 2025, which is not far off.

I mean, right now it's almost March, so March, April, May, 15, 16 months from now, our future HQ should be done, which is going to be super exciting. So that's key initiative number three that we're working towards. Key initiative number four is that the opera is at 50% of our fulfillment. So we've shown this on social media and I've talked about it a little bit here and there, but we built out this order fulfillment automation to assist our warehouse and ops team

to maximize efficiency and outman. put in the warehouse. So we're still packing some orders manually. And we build out this thing called the opera, which is order fulfillment automation. Essentially, what you do is you put the products on this belt. The machine moves the products down the belt. It builds a box around the product. And then it applies the shipping label to that box, continues pushing it down, and then it

sorts it based off of what carrier is sending that product out. When you use the opera, when it's running well, I mean, it's a beast. It can pump out orders like left and right, left and right. Right now, I think the opera is being used at about 20% of order volume. So about 20% of our orders are going through the opera. the remaining 80% are being packed manually by hand. Now as we grow, as we scale, and as more orders come in, we want to be able to utilize the opera more.

So one of our initiatives is getting the opera to 50% of our fulfillment so that our team can manually pack and fulfill the other 50% and as we think about growth of the company, there's like three different areas we're going to grow in. One of those is ecom, our direct-to-consumer website, BPNSupps.com. The second is Amazon, another direct-to-consumer route, and the third is wholesale retail,

exploring the accounts we're currently in and then new accounts. So right now, wholesale retail, We're in vitamin shop, Shields, H.E.B. Central Market, Wegmans. We're exploring some new retail wholesale accounts, more so nationwide as opposed to just regionally. So those are the three parts of the business that we're focused on in terms of growth right now, which brings me to my fifth and final key initiative for BPN. right now is an initial launch in the UK. So we get a lot of questions. There's a lot of demand from the EU-UK market for BPN products.

The regulations for products, ingredients, and shipments in the UK and EU is a little different than the U.S. So we are planning on, and we've been working on this for the last year plus. of due diligence in terms of label reviews and compliance, working with a UK legal team to ensure that we are doing things by the book, crossing our T's, dotting our eyes, making sure we have effective fulfillment operations to handle and manage UK distribution.

And one of our manufacturing partners actually has a manufacturing facility in the UK, So we'll be able to manufacture some of our products over in the UK, which will save us money from shipping product over there for distribution. So our plan is to initially launch in the UK on Amazon with a few skews, not the entire product line, but a few skews that we've locked in. And then we'll do a slow rollout until we can get majority of the BPN line into the UK. but we're really close to initially launching on Amazon in the UK. So those are the five key initiatives that the brand is working on right now. As you guys know, I am a big reader. I'm a big fan of reading.

I almost feel like I'm cheating when I say I do read because I listen to audiobooks when I run or when I drive. So I'm not actually reading the books. I'm listening to the books. So I guess I'm more of a, I'm an audiobook guy. I'm an avid audiobooker. And two of the best books I've read the past couple years, one that I just finished up, like I previously mentioned by Dr. Henry Cloud,

necessary endings, highly recommend. And another one is the courage to be disliked. We are in the business of people. people. Everyone is in the business of people. And one of my favorite lines from the courage to be disliked is that, and this is true if you think about it, all problems are interpersonal relationship problems. If there were nobody else in the world, our problems as we know them wouldn't exist. all of our problems have the touch of other peoples in one way or another. All of the problems we experience are interpersonal relationship problems, people problems.

People are tough. People are hard to lead, manage, understand. We all come from different backgrounds, experiences. trauma, opinions, thoughts, beliefs. And when you join a congregation, you join a community, you join a tribe, you typically join based off of a shared belief network or values, thoughts, opinions. That's how you create friendships, groups of friends. You hang out with people.

You're attracted to people who like the same things as you like, who believe in the same things that you believe in. Yes, there are interpersonal relationship issues there from time to time. It's natural. But there's even greater interpersonal relationship issues between groups of people or people who don't have shared beliefs, values, thoughts, and opinions. And that's a lot to think about. Like, how do we solve the problems of the world? We have to start with people. We have to start with behaviors and relationships and understanding where other people are coming from, having empathy towards other people's actions and thoughts and feelings. That is a key characteristic, a key trait empathy is, for strong and effective leadership.

And I've been thinking a lot about this recently in terms of this next challenge. chapter of BPN and where we're coming from and where we're going. I've grown significantly as a person personally and professionally this last year. I'd say for the better. I'd hope for the better. I would say that at least. And a few nights ago I was rewatching the Leadville 100 doc we created in 2021. Myself and the BPN team went out to Leadville, Colorado.

we completed the Leadville 100 there were about 17 of us there epic experience I mean that was the last like great great great weekend of BPN that I can remember

that was close to the energy and electricity compared to the Austin marathon this past weekend but in that doc one thing we said was if you want to go go fast, go alone.

If you want to go far, go together, which I still believe in. I do. But as I've read more of Dr. Henry Cloud stuff, as I reread the courage to be disliked, I think there's a caveat to that. And yes, if you want to go fast, go alone,

if you want to go far, go together. But you can only go far together is if you have the right people alongside of and with you. If you have the wrong people with you, you will not go further at all. You will actually regress. You could go backwards.

You could become a cynic. You could become distasteful. You can be angry and resentful. And ultimately, you can become evil. One of the things that Dr. Henry Cloud talks about in necessary endings is there's three different types of people. I found this so interesting. There's the wise, the foolish, and the evil.

The wise will receive feedback, not take it personal, and take that as a learning lesson and experience and try to grow from constructive criticism or feedback. They want to learn how to get better. And they take ownership of their failures, of their actions of the consequences that result from what they did or did not do. That is the wise person.

The foolish person will take the completely different approach where something happens to them and it's not because of anything they did. They refuse to take action and they find someone or something else to blame for why something didn't work, why it failed, why it failed. why it fell apart. They can't take feedback well. They don't take constructive criticism well at all. The Foolish will never take ownership.

Extreme ownership like Jocko talks about is so important. It is so important to take ownership for your failures, for your mistakes, for things you didn't do and should have done. The Foolish won't accept that ownership. and then there's the evil and the evil will not take feedback

and they won't blame something or someone else but they will make a mission to bring you down and destroy you whether that's you as a person your family your job your career your business your sport

an evil person has this thing built into their soul, into their DNA, where all they want to do is destroy. And they get joy and they get purpose and they get passion out of bringing other people down and destroying what other people have, had or could have in the future. I've experienced the wise. I've experienced the foolish and I've experienced the evil. and sometimes I've met people who I thought were the wise ended up then being the foolish and turned into the evil which is the craziest thing to experience

so that's very high level something from Dr. Henry Cloud but I wanted to share the three types of people that he shares in necessary endings because I think it's very applicable to building relationships and how important interpersonal relationships are because all the problems we experience in life

that could prevent us from doing our job could be, it might be, people problems. Now that I'm back as CEO, I'm approaching this role differently. As I've talked about, I've learned a lot through the experience of these last, two years of life in business and becoming a father and a husband and leaning into my faith and building relationships and burning some relationships being burned by people,

experiencing the wise, the foolish, and the evil. And moving into this next chapter, I'm moving into it with the approach of my job is to make hard choices. My job is to make hard choices that are the right choices for myself, my family,

my team, and the people involved. And sometimes the hard choices don't go over very well with a lot of people, and that's okay. If you're struggling with that, two books you should read right now,

the courage to be disliked, because when you do have and you find the courage to be disliked, you have freedom. Read that book and then follow up with necessary endings. Necessary endings talks all about making hard choices and how it's our job to make hard choices. It talks about pruning in this book. Sometimes you have to prune your life, like gardening. and the way they describe pruning in the book,

and I've heard multiple different books describe it this way, think of a rose bush. As a rose bush grows, it has thorns that come out, it has roses that bloom and then die, there's all these extra stems, and if you let a rose bush just keep growing and growing and growing, it eventually self-destructs and dies.

It is too full. It can't self-sustain and self-support. There's dead flowers and roses. There's too many branches. There's too many thorns. There's too many stems. It needs pruned. In order for it to thrive and survive and grow and flourish,

it has to be pruned. The dead roses need to be cut off. the extra stems need to be trimmed. Some of the thorns need to be pulled back. And when you prune a rose bush, it looks bare, it looks empty, it looks like you killed it. But in reality, you're giving it the opportunity to grow. And what happens after weeks and months is the new roses grow back and it's fuller and it's more colorful and it's healthier than ever before.

but if you didn't understand that process, that'd be a really hard decision. Well, I got to take one step back to take two steps forward. I got to prune in order to allow room to grow, to flourish. That is a gardener's job. Can you do your job to make room and make hard choices and decisions to facilitate growth? That's where I'm at right now in my life. I'm pruning. I'm eliminating a lot of things.

I'm getting rid of some things and systems and people in my life that aren't allowing me or my business to flourish and grow. And those are hard decisions. Those are not easy. Especially approaching it with empathy. and feelings, you know, letting certain people go in your business, for example, ending relationships in your personal life, for example, stopping things that you used to do that you loved or enjoyed because they just don't add or make sense to the life that you are trying to facilitate and make work in the future.

We have to prune. and pruning is hard, it's challenging, it's difficult, but it allows us to take one step back to take two steps forward. I'm going to leave you with this. I'm telling myself the same thing. It is our responsibility to do our job. And part of doing our job is making hard choices and decisions that facilitate growth.

And in the moment where your feet are right now, making that decision, doing your job, choosing hard things and making hard choices might hurt, it might sting, not only you, but people in your life and around you, but you know it's the best thing for everyone involved in the future, whether they know it or not. I would encourage you to remove emotion and do your job. Have the conviction, have the courage, take action, make the hard choices, and do your job.

Can you do your job?