Well with Arielle Lorre - 15: BRANDIN COHEN - On a Mission to Change the World

Episode Date: July 24, 2019

Brandin Cohen "On a Mission to Change the World" on The Blonde Files with Arielle Lorre Podcast #115 In this episode Arielle talks to Brandin Cohen, founder of Liquid I.V., about entrepreneurship, helping others and doing good in the world. On the entrepreneurship end, Brandin has incredible insight on what it takes to take an idea from concept to product, how to persevere through the myriad challenges of starting a business, and navigating rapid growth and success while staying true to core values. On the philanthropy side, his passion for not only hydrating but educating people all over the world is palpable. This episode will leave you inspired! Here's the link to Liquid I.V. Follow Brandin Cohen on Instagram The Blonde Files Podcast on Instagram     Follow Arielle here on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ariellelorre/ And catch up with Arielle here on YouTubeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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I'm your host, Ariel Lori. Today, I am talking to Brandon Cohen. So Brandon is the founder and CEO of Liquid IV. He has an incredible story of entrepreneurship and he is on a mission to change the world. So it's a really inspiring talk. I'll tell you a little bit about the product because I've been using it ever since we recorded this episode and I've been loving it. So it's a hydration multiplier. I will let him explain the science behind it. But basically it's a powder that you pour into your water and it can hydrate you two to three times faster and more efficiently than water alone. It also tastes delicious. So I've been adding it to my water. I feel more hydrated. My skin looks

better. They also have a sleep product, which is, again, a powder that you add to your water. It has things like melatonin, valerian root, and the ingredients get delivered rapidly into your bloodstream, and I have been falling asleep so much faster than I normally do since I've been using it. So if you guys want to check out Liquid IV, make sure you go to the episode notes or the description. I will have a link to their website and their social media. But aside from having a great product, Liquid Ivy and Brandon have, have a mission. Their mission is to help people, but on a macro level, they want to change the world. So for every purchase of liquid IV, they donate a serving to someone in need around the world.

So far, they have donated over 1.5 million servings, which is astounding. And they don't only want to hydrate people in underserved populations, but they want to educate them too. So you'll hear Brandon talking about his mission changed the world. So without further ado, Brandon Cohen. Okay, so welcome Brandon. Thank you. I'm excited to be here. Thank you so much for coming. We got to speak on a panel together a couple weeks ago. So I heard a little bit about your story, but for the listeners, why don't you talk a little bit about your company, Liquid IV and your personal story? Yeah, absolutely. So I was an athlete my whole life. I played a couple sports in high school. I thought I was going to be a pro golfer my whole life.

And in college, I got a college golf scholarship. And my senior year, I had a really bad shoulder injury. And it kind of, like, put a damper on all my dreams to be a professional golfer. And so I went to the entrepreneurship program, and I sort of begged my way into the program. And the dean of the business school eventually let me in. And he said, you know, I'll let you in, but don't let me down. And long story short, it was 2010. it was the Haiti earthquake that hit.

And I was fortunate enough to bring a group of like 10 students together. And we got over 20,000 meals donated to the people of Haiti. In like a month-long period, we got a ton of press. We got all over TV. And it was like my first taste of business and helping people at the same time. And I just loved it. I was just like, all of a sudden, I was like, wow, I can do something else with my life besides play sports. And so I actually went entrepreneur the year, my senior year at L.

you and I wasn't even in the program. So I was sort of my first taste of it. I still didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, but I wanted to stay involved in sports, was my idea at first. I moved to Arizona, went to go work for the Arizona Diamondbacks, the pro baseball team out there. And I was friends with a lot of the guys on the team, and they were all drinking pediolite, which, as you probably know, is like the baby hydration drink.

The hangover cure. There you go. So I thought it was silly that, like, the best athletes in the world were drinking a drink that was designed for little kids. The trainers had them doing it. And then on the side, I saw my young professional friends, you know, partying and also drinking it for hangovers. And so I was like, there's something wrong with this picture. Like all these adults are drinking something that's not designed for them.

I wasn't a scientist or anything like that. I was just a business guy. You know, I was out selling tickets and marketing. And I started doing a bunch of research. And I was really intrigued by the science of oral rehydration therapy, which was in this baby drink. When you mix sodium, glucose, and potassium at a specific ratio, clinically proven help. water absorber in your bloodstream faster. So how did you find out about oral rehydration therapy or oral hydration therapy?

Yeah, really just like digging in and researching, like learning all. It was the World Health Organization invented it. And it was just over the internet, you know, like, and then I started like getting intrigued and asking like doctors and scientists and beverage scientists about it. And it was basically this untapped science that, you know, you put an IV in your arm if you get really sick and dehydrated because it's the only way to get the nutrients into your bloodstream. Well, in these underdeveloped countries in the 70s and 80s, you know, women and children mostly were dying for these exotic diseases like cholera. Their digestive systems would get totally racked out and they couldn't absorb nutrients.

And so this really simple solution, sodium glucose potassium with water, was clinically proven to like just get about three times the hydration in your body. So the easiest way to think about it for us is like when you drink a bottle of water, your body can only absorb maybe 20 to 25% of the bottle. and that's why you always hear the saying you need to drink eight glasses of water a day. Well, it's because your body's not absorbing all the water. You go to the bathroom a lot. It gets wasted. And with the solution, you're absorbing 75 to 80 percent of it and it's happening within 15 minutes. And so my original idea was what if you could take the science, make it way healthy or take all the preservatives, all the artificial flavors, all the crap that's in it.

And market it for adults and make a cool adult lifestyle brand. And so got into one whole foods in 2015. no one really bought into what we were doing. Like, you know, I had my, you know, friends and other people tell me there was no way we could do this. Like Gatorade's already doing it. Why are you going to do this? We sold sticks, talked to customers, and after about three months, we came the top selling item in that whole buddy department. And we realized there was really a market for people looking for an alternative to traditional sports drinks.

And also, like, just was hard to drink enough water every day. And so it turned in from one whole foods to two whole foods before we knew we were in 100 stores in Southern California. And that was at the end of 2015. We got one investor to give us money and we went from 100 stores independently distributed two of us to 10,000 stores across the country and all the top retailers, you know, GNC, CVS, right aid, Whole Foods, Costco to 20,000 stores by the end of 2017. And all of a sudden we had a real business and people loved our product and our brand. And I won't ramble anymore, but the story kind of fast forward's till now. So I have so many questions.

I want to rewind back to when you were in Arizona and you first kind of realized, I mean, did you realize that you were tapping into like a niche that or like a void in the market? Did you know early on that this was something that other people hadn't really tapped into yet? I think the like the idea that people were drinking something that wasn't made for them. Like why are we going to the baby aisle? when there's all these other products that should be helping. So are you always health conscious? Very, yeah.

So my mom growing up was like, my mom was at the event the other day, by the way. My mom, back then it was like fat free was everything. So we drank like fat free milk with our cereal. And then now as things have progressed and changed like, yeah, like keto. Yeah. So she's like into everything. And I'll get a little into my personal health. I'm very like into health and just like high performance.

So yeah, I was always into that. But I never was that into it. I just did it kind of because my mom made me. And then obviously now with this, I've become like obsessed with health and nutrition and wellness. And really just helping like, you know, we talked about this too, but just like helping yourself and other people live better lives. Right. So when you had the idea and you were learning about oral rehydration therapy and you were kind of looking into the science behind it, how did you find people to help you? I mean, what was that process like to take it from that concept kind of in your head?

start to execute an actual product. Great question. And it's honestly not like a really a pretty answer. It was brutal. Like you can't Google like, how do I make a drink and what ingredients do I get? And so, you know, I think the best thing to do is to find people who have done it and really smart people and just keep asking questions and don't be afraid of, you know, people laughing at you or not being at the right place or asking stupid questions or going to the wrong thing.

I just kept going and going until finally found a really, really good, well-renowned sort of beverage nutritionist who wasn't this, he didn't work for some huge company that we couldn't afford. And we started just making, we made samples and we made versions and we tweaked and we got it tested. And after six months, we finally had something that it tasted terrible. But it really, really worked. And that was, we always wanted to be rooted in science and functionality. And we figured, we actually didn't even figure. We just knew that taste could come after.

And so I think that was kind of at the core of what we did is like, this seems to work for people. And like, we'll figure out how to make it taste good later. I would imagine that you kind of had to evolve, right? Like you have to be really flexible to be in that kind of environment. Yeah, I think there's a lot of aspects too. But I think it all comes down to the consumer. So, like, I can think the product is as amazing. The branding's great.

The packaging's great. it just boils down to like what the consumer thinks right so we put something out there i'll give you an example we started as a liquid bottled form and the we thought it was so cool and awesome and that was what we were going to do we were going to be this bottle on the shelf and this sexy awesome branding thing and the first problem was people were buying it but it was so expensive to ship that we didn't have that business um and so then we shifted to this like these portable stick packs and so um i think just in general like listening to the market and listening to what they have to say is a way that you can really be adapted.

Like if you're adapting only based on what you think, then you're missing the game. The game is like it's about them. They're the ones having to pull out their credit card, believe in you, believe in your brand enough to spend their hard earned money, right? And so I always sort of fall back like if all else says and things get too complex. Like, hold on. What's our consumer saying? Because like they're the ones who make our business go.

But something about you that I really like is that you're really passionate about your mission. So how do you stay true to your mission and also be like consumer-centric, kind of like you're saying? Good news is I think especially now, but that's kind of merged into one, right? So like most people want to be buying something where they not only believe in how the product's going to help them, but what it's doing for other people. And so it's just at my core where it was sort of a non-negotiable. you know, we had investors who wanted to make money right away. And we had consumers who wanted a cheaper product or different packaging or whatever the things may be.

And for me, it's like I just knew, once I realized that I loved helping other people, like truly at my core, what I wanted to do is help other people. Like gives me happiness and fulfillment. There's the commercial side where we sell product and that's what it does. And then it just totally like without that platform of people buying our product, we couldn't give back. And so we eventually turned our mission from just sending product to places that need it to then connecting it to our consumer where now when they buy, when they purchase our product, we donate a serving to someone in need. And again, I think to answer the question, the long and short of it is I think they're connected. And if you're true to your brand, and you talked about this on the panel, if you're true to what you believe in and authentic to that, you're going to draw the right people to your business. And I think I've been confident enough in what we've built and in the brand to just be us and let the right people come.

And I think it's the community connects to that. And when I don't know if you find this, but I know for me, like we're in very different businesses, I guess. But when I deviate from what I feel my purposes, I feel like at my core, my purpose is to help other people to use my experiences and what I've gone through. to help other people on like a micro and a macro level. And when I deviate from that and start making money the goal or, you know, any kind of external, it's like everything stops flowing, right? The momentum just stops. Is that something that you experienced too?

Absolutely. I mean, it happens when things start to get too complex. And I always just like take a second. I'm getting better at catching those moments. It used to go on longer, but it takes it and go. wait, who are we? That's not us. This is us.

Let's stick to it. Part of it is I think like blocking out like at some at some regard it's this weird balance of listening to the consumer but also blocking out the noise. There's like a very fine line. You know what I mean? Like it's got to listen to everything they want. But at the same time sticking true to what you believe. And if people are naysayers, then just it's just part of it.

You know, especially as you grow. I'm sure you've experienced this as your brand. growing like if people aren't if people aren't hating on you're probably doing something wrong. Yeah you want haters right I agree I know okay so you founded the company in 2012 is that correct yeah wow how long from when you had the idea to to when you had the actual product took a while so that's we you know founded that was like you know in some record book somewhere I don't know I don't know how you found that somewhere online do my research yeah good job that's deep You know, I was, I was a couple years after graduating school.

I didn't know what I wanted to do. I had worked for the professional baseball team and I was like, I want to go get my MBA. I want to live in a new city. I want to meet new people. I don't really know what I want to do with my business career. And that's when this all started coming together. So we were working on it, but I was applying to business schools. I got accepted in 2013 to go to NYU and BU.

And then it was right when we started to get a little bit momentum. And like my dad really wanted me to go because he's like this awesome big business guy. and he wanted me to get that experience and that edge. And my mom was more a little more like entrepreneurial and was like, you should keep running this, but we didn't really have much momentum yet. So I deferred for a year. And it kind of gave me an excuse to really go all in and I had to like get things going. So by 2014 came and I was like, I got to make heads or tails on what we're going to do.

And so we got an investor to give us at the time. I think it was like a couple hundred thousand bucks. And he basically said, I love what you guys are doing, but you need to quit your job to the other founders. and Brandon, you can't go to business school. Like my plan was, I'm going to go for two years and work on this on the side. And he was like, that's not how this works. Like, I give you money.

You pay your bills with it, but like you've got to run this thing full time. And it was great. I had to make head or tails. And we just went for it. And I think I've gotten my MBA and more, which is great. Yeah, sounds like it. Can you talk a little bit about your philanthropy? Because, you know, you have this product and it's really successful, but you've also

been doing so much more with it lately. Yeah. So it started like I told you helping other people. I knew we wanted to have a mission, but we couldn't have that until we actually had a platform to do so, right? So it was first about selling product. It started really simple. It was like, we sent 100 sticks to a homeless shelter in L.A. And that was in like 2015. We're like, hey, we got to start. Let's get them product. Let's see how we can help. And I felt super sort of hopeless and helpless because it wasn't enough. But we started. And I think it's a theme that I kind of reiterate a lot is like you got to start somewhere. So we started with that.

In 2016, we took a trip to Haiti with a group that we partnered with. We had sent like 28,000 sticks, which at the time was a lot of product. Still, it was like getting this product into people who were dehydrated and didn't have clean water, which was incredible, but I still knew there was sort of more. And our mission is just really progressed. It then turned into a one for one where a community could get involved. And then recently in May, I went on a trip to Nepal, which was, just absolutely life-changing.

I was able to bring the team with us, and it was like on the other side of the earth, and it's kind of cliche, but it's just like, you just realize how fortunate we are that we were born here with what we have, and like they literally have nothing. They're still happy, though.

And when I realized, like, how our product was helping there, to go from 100 sticks at a homeless shelter in 2015 to now have donated over 1.5 million servings of our product around the world, we just we have this video i was just looking at today that that's cool i'll share with you guys but uh sent to a few people and people are like they're literally like responding that they're crying from this video and so to to sort of bring it full circle um it was always like getting product

of people was how we were going to help which was fantastic but what i started to realize when i was there is that there was just a greater opportunity and um we call it change the world it's like this bigger mission. I have this tattoo, CTW. It's kind of our saying at work, like, we want a CTW and change the world and help people live better lives. And so we're focusing a little bit more, not only on donating sticks, but also bringing higher education to these people. I realized how powerful education was. They don't know about washing their hands. They don't know about drinking clean water. Like, they just don't have any, they don't have these, they don't have these phones. Like, they don't have any access to knowledge. And so we want to build this, a live foundation and a

school in Nepal to start. And just like we were in one store in Santa Monica in 2015 and now there's 20,000 going on 25,000 stores, like I want to do the exact same thing. And now I sort of have a framework and I always had a belief, but now I have like some proof behind it that that like we can do that. So I'm like really focused on that part of our business now. It's been incredible to go from two people to 20 plus people here in El Segundo where I have a lot of support on the business side. And I like, I want to continue growing this mission side, which I think, in turn help the business too. So yeah, I'm extremely passionate about it right now. Yeah. And with with so much success so quickly, I guess I kind of have like a two-part question.

What do you attribute that success to? I think probably just absolute relentlessness. I could go into business strategies that have been pretty cool that we've come up with that other people haven't. And we've also had other business strategies that were like terrible and but we learned fast that they were lame and so we moved on. Did you hear a lot of no in the beginning? Man, like when my roommate, he listens to some of these, but sorry, but, my roommate when I was, I got accepted to those business schools, he really wanted to go. And so the day I came up and said, hey, I'm not going to go.

I'm going to focus on liquid IV. He laughed and like I'll never forget the laugh. I still like, it kind of motivates me still. And he was just like, who like. That's like a healthy resentment. Yeah. He laughed and he was like, wait, you're going to do that drink thing instead of go to get your MBA? And I was like, and I kind of laughed and I was like, and so for a while, that just like drove me waking up at five and just like, okay, got it.

And the cool, I mean, it wasn't any knock against him. He was like seriously just didn't like he he was probably trying to look out for me even, right? But, you know, he's a supporter now and it's all good. But that's just one example. I mean, over and over and over again. retailers saying no like and and you have to have such belief in yourself because um and now you know it just happened so quickly we've gone from a couple hundred thousand stales to like basically a hundred million in revenue in like a really short amount of time and so it happens quick you got

to believe like you're just not you're just not that far away like everyone but you got to keep pushing like just be relentless okay I like that relentless got that Kennedy okay so my other part of that question is with so much success so quickly, how do you yourself stay like humble and grounded and like rooted in your mission? And because I would imagine that you can like get way off in the weeds. Yeah. I think a couple things. I think, um, I think that once you go to a place like that and you see what people have, you realize how we just have, we barely touched anything in terms of who we're helping.

I think that's part of it. I think it's just such a large mission to try and solve. I think my upbringing, my parents are just my absolute like mentors and idols. They're divorced. Very different people. My dad grew up on the streets in New York, carried a gun when he was 13, was supposed to take over his dad's dairy shop. His dad got sick when he was 20.

He told him, you don't have to take over the family business. Moved to L.A. with a thousand bucks in his pocket. loved art and architecture, started at this company called Gensler with 150 people, now the CEO of a 6,300 person company worldwide. So his work ethic and just like the chip he put on my shoulder growing up,

there's no way I can get rid of that, right? And the funny part is what you're doing when you're selling a few thousand dollars in sales to what you're doing now, it's the same. Like people don't, they don't really realize that, but like same strategies,

same like emotion, And same, you're scared, you're nervous, you're excited, you go through all those same things. And so I think what I've been really drawn to is the process. So I've never really had a problem with getting like out too far out. I think because what I really realize I love is not the result. It's fine, but it's like just that, excuse me, the struggle, the grind of trying to get there. And then on top of that too, it's like, you know, we're in this type of business where we're, even though it's really big, there's still.

still so much more to do that. That's just what I think about. I just keep thinking about what's next, you know? I don't know, that's my best answer for you. Yeah, no, it seems like, especially with this other part of like your mission, right, with giving back and the philanthropy, like, you're just tapping into that now. And it's such like a vast landscape. I'm just learning about it too, like the business when we started, I didn't know much,

like about ORS, or rehydration and retail and online. I feel like, you know, we've been able to be, you know, do. pretty good there and getting the product to the people who need it. Now there's this next phase where it's like, wow, there's a new challenge. Like how do we get product to people who need it? How do we build a school somewhere? And so I just, I sort of relish in that opportunity. Was it hard to go from being like, oh, I'm assuming a one man kind of business to having a bunch of people that you're managing? Major challenge. I think for me, in the beginning I was willing to do things that people weren't, but I think I always sort of naturally, I loved bringing people together.

So growing up and I look back now, I didn't know this then, but like on a basketball team of 12, like, or I mean, you know, a basketball team of whatever, eight, 10, whatever, like, I always ended up kind of leading that. And I love the idea of like bringing people together for a greater cause and like everyone has their own thing that makes them tick on a team. And like what, like, how are we going to tap into that and then make it like the sum of the part. parts greater than the whole greater than the sum of the parts. And so I think I had that in me. But there is this weird transition when you go from doing to having to like manage the people

who are doing. And challenging, but I have like loved it. That's one of my favorite parts actually, like being able to build a team and build a culture and stuff like that. I've loved that. It can be hard though, right, to like delegate in the beginning especially and trust people when it's your baby. Really, really.

Now that's more of a challenge for me. Are you type A? I'm very type A and I like to be in control. And so, but what I've learned is when I get great people and they prove what they can do, it's really easy for me to let go. When I get people and they continue to make mistakes, I grab on even more. And so it's a challenge I face, but I think the real thing is just finding great people. Yeah, like you want to hire people that are better than you, right?

Like find people that are better than you at certain things. Totally. people that aren't like you're just going to be doing more work. A's higher A's, B's higher C's. Wait, say that again. A's higher A's. Okay. B's higher C's. Okay. I like that. I like that. Yeah. Okay. So let's talk about like the life of an entrepreneur. How do you, what's like your morning routine? How do you kind of set yourself up for the day? Because I would imagine you have eight million things going on getting pulled in all kinds of directions. Yeah. So for me, my routine is like my whole life.

Like if I get out of my routine, I really struggle, and it's because there are so many uncontrollables throughout the day for me, like flying at me that when I get my into my routine in the morning, I feel like I've like checked one thing off for myself. So I get it pretty early.

I get up before six most days. I'm beginning up even earlier than that lately. I always, we have some East Coast partners. So by the time I wake up, I already have my inbox is kind of full, and I get a little anxious if I don't clear it out. So I like to get them going on stuff.

And then I also like to get things going for my team here. Because what that does for me, like, even just like 15, 20 minutes of like, I try and keep, I'm not allowed to send an email over one sentence because I'm like a perfectionist and I used to be like more of a writer. I can't send an email more than one sentence. It's a goal, brevity. Yeah. On my iPhone message, it says, please excuse brevity. That word.

Yeah, I'll send you and you'll see. I'll be like, wow. I want that. You know what people say sent from iPhone? Yeah, yeah. It says, please excuse brevity. That's amazing. Because it forces me to be really sharp with it.

And so, yeah. Just get to the point. It's easier. That's easier said than done for me too. But anyway, if I get a couple emails out in the morning, it frees me up to go take care of myself for a little. And so I will, I'll normally meditate for like 10 minutes. I don't even, I used to make fun of that.

I don't really know what meditation was or is, but I started doing it three years ago. And it's just like I did guided meditations. And then I've really gotten into it. It's like one of these things where I kind of made fun of my mom for telling me to do it. And now like I really, it's like, it's like, this centering thing. It sets my intention. I clear my head. Sometimes it's really hard. Sometimes I can't even do it. Other days I'm like really good at it. Right. So I do that and then I always go work out. So that's always changing what my routine is. Right now I'm like into Barry's boot camp three days a

week. And then I do yoga, hot yoga one or two days a week. And then like I'll just do like, you know, a run or something like that. So I'm big into it. It used to be I worked out for physical reasons. Now it's purely a mental thing. Like I'm not worried about how I look. I just love working now because it's like this crazy rush my shoulders relax and I'm able to focus so um yeah if I can get that done by like uh before seven um normally uh get get into work by like eight I have this hour before everyone gets there where um because at nine it turns into with our team now it's just back to back to back to back to back stuff so I get my hour to like kind of get settled and get my day together and then I'm just in stacked meetings calls lunches the one cool thing I'm really into right now which

do right after this is I go to cryo every day at lunch so I was getting really bad vertigo I think because I stressed too much and I wasn't in my routine so cryo has been incredible it's three minutes like negative 200 degrees it's helpless like inflammation throughout my whole body and so it's literally like a coffee high for me I get so fired up after and every day I'm like I have a very extreme personality and so like I will literally I could I used to work like 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. and I didn't stop and I was fine when I was younger and I got to this point where I've just sort of overworked myself. But now I realize in order for the biggest output, I have to do these

other things. And so like cryo is just hard for me every day, but I've been like, I'm like 60 days in now and I pretty much do it five days a week. Yeah. How's your sleep? Amazing. Because cryo really helps with your sleep, right? That's my sleep. I'm really bad sleeper, but the best it's ever been and plug liquid ivy sleep helps too. Yeah, I was just going to say, don't you have a product for that? Really good. Yeah. So I think the combo, the combo, I do the cryo at 3 p.m. or 2 p.m. and then I take a sleep when I get home and it sort of helps chill me out. And the last piece of it is I'll still send emails

and be on my phone. I'm like, one of those people who puts my phone down, which is probably not great, but fire off emails when I get home. And then I do a meditation again. And I do like a 10 minute thing and it chills me out. And it's really easy just for,

I'm not like an expert at this, but it's so easy to get out of it. And it's just like what I've learned is like you're going to have days where you can't do it all. But if I can just get back to it as soon as possible, it's just everything for me. Mm-hmm.

I like a lot of things that you just said, but the idea of like getting up and getting some emails and stuff out of the way before you even meditate. Like I feel like people are so rigid. Like you have to get up and don't like put your phone in the other room and don't even look at it and have your coffee and meditate and do this and that. And then you can go look at it. And I'm the same way as you. Like I can't. I wake up the first thing. The first place my brain goes is work and email.

And I just have to like check everything before I can actually like settle in. And I like the idea of like kind of bookending your day with meditation too. Totally. So powerful. Do you do a certain kind of meditation or you just do your own kind of thing? I've gotten to the point now where I can do it without anything. I still use like I'll use like the call map sometimes. I found this one random girl on YouTube.

So I still like those sometimes when it's harder for me. I can just like turn my brain off. But yeah, I think what you said earlier, it's like I don't think there's one way. So like if someone can't look at their phone away, they wake up. and that works for them, like, great. Like, for me, like, my whole life is on there and I just want to check in on it. It's kind of, I think, to each is own

and whatever you can stay as consistent as possible with, I think is really key. Yeah, yeah, be flexible and be, like, kind to yourself and not try to, you know, I find that like I'm type A and I, like, impose these rules on myself, right? And I have to, like, be very rigid. And whenever I do that, it just goes to shit. Yeah.

Why don't you talk about your sleep product? I need to hear about this. Yeah, so it started with hydration, obviously. The science was about nutrient delivery. So it actually wasn't just hydration. It was sodium, glucose, potassium, have the ability to help water and other nutrients absorb in your bloodstreamingly efficiently. And so the idea was, what if you could take other functional payloads,

like an ingredient that helps you and get it into your bloodstream more efficiently? And so we started testing and learning. And, you know, when you take a melatonin pill, you can only absorb maybe a third of that. And so the rest of all the melatonin is not going to end your bloodstream. And it takes 45 minutes to an hour. And so the idea is what if you could take some cool sleep ingredients like melatonin or elthianine or valerian root, which are all on our product. And this is just going to get it into your bloodstream within 15 minutes. So we ran a clinical study and we did a bunch of the backup to see if sort of this theory was going to actually work.

and we got some really smart doctors and scientists involved, and it was like it was pretty cool to see the result. So people are loving it where it's still really early, but the cool thing is we're working on an energy product too. Same science where you can get, it's going to be like a green drink, but it's going to have some really sort of more cutting edge energy stuff in it, super healthy, like organic, non-gium, all the same stuff.

But again, you could have less caffeine, like natural caffeine, but get more of it into your bloodstream. So you're going to have the energy. It's going to last longer. And then you're also not going to have the come down that you would have with like a cup of coffee. Where do you? So you have a few products in the pipeline. Where do you want to see your change the world mission going?

Yeah, I think the one for one is still huge. I mean, that's the number one where our community gets connected to that. I think the idea to help bring education on top. top of hydration. So there's hydration and clean water, but I've just learned so much about what education really means. Like here, it's not valued nearly as much as it is in these places because it's just, it's knowledge is power. And so when you bring that knowledge to people, they have the ability to help themselves even when we're not there. So that's first CTW school that we want to build into Paul's going to be the start. And I don't have much more from there because

that's a big new project, but I do know it's going to continue to expand. And hopefully we have CTW schools all around the world in addition to donating millions and millions of sticks of liquid IV. What is the best piece of advice you ever got? That's a good one. I think my dad just always instilled in me that if you set your mind to something, you can accomplish whatever you want and so it again it sounds so like yeah obviously you know like people say that all the time but he would have me repeat it to him like every day all the time and i was like

dad i get it enough but i think it lit it was this mantra where i like in my soul i actually believe that there's anything i can i can set my mind to something i can make it happen and so i now i used to think it almost blindly and now with what's going on with our business i truly do believe it. And so I'm really into the power of like writing things down. I have these huge vision boards that we draw out in my office like two times a year. And it's so powerful because it's just so empowering to know that, and especially if you believe that, like you really believe it at your core. Like anything's achievable, you know. So my next question was going to be, what is one piece of advice you could give to other entrepreneurs?

I think we've hit on a couple. It's going to be a little repetitive, but being relentless is just, I could give you examples of different things that have happened, but there are so many times where, like, I just kept pushing and pushing, and it wasn't going to work out. And then because you just kept going, it did. And I still have stuff like that happen all the time, but especially in the early days when you just have really almost like blind belief, maybe. But like you just keep going and to be honest with you, I just don't know what the alternative is. So it sounds maybe hard, but it also is like, what am I going to give up? No, we're going to keep going. And so I think the cool part is now. I really feel that, but like building a culture around that, you know, seeing a team develop of 20, 30 people who have that same mindset and making sure to be like very disciplined in bringing people on like that is really cool. Was there ever a point where you almost gave up? Yeah, yeah, a couple. More than one. A couple times, yeah.

I think probably most people have that feeling. I think I deep, deep down, didn't think I was going to, but there were like two times I can think of where I was really close. And how did you get through that, just that relentlessness that you were talking about? I think that was in there. I think really great people around me that I could rely on. And then you kind of get to this point of almost surrender, which is the opposite of like being relentless where you're like, I've given this everything I got. If it's meant to be, it's going to work out.

I'm just going to keep pushing as hard as I can and see where we end up. And you kind of let go a little bit, which that word even gives me anxiety, let go. But there's so much power in surrendering, right? Big time. It's just, again, it's just a balance of knowing if you set your mind to you do you accomplish it with, you know, letting go in the right times. What is the biggest lesson that you've encountered so far in your journey? I go back to my sort of my cores, which is just like continuing to push through and

believing in yourself. And I think this new, add a little twist to it, just like this new thing of helping others, it's like a personal life act. I've never thought like that. One of my employees told me that the other day that like she was really struggling and she went on this trip and it's changed her life because she was. realized that she was so stuck in her own head about stuff. And when she started helping other people, she suddenly figured out how this service was helping her so much. And so that was an interesting one.

Like it's almost like if you want to think of it selfishly, it's the opposite of that. But like, if you're struggling, like help someone else. And watch how makes you feel. Totally. I think I shared on the panel that I've been sober for like five and a half years. And that was something that was like, it's grilled into me from the beginning was that. in order for me to like get my self-value or my self-worth or to stop thinking about myself, which, you know, all of like anxiety and resentment and all of that stuff lies in thinking about myself is to turn my attention to other people and help them. I think it also comes down to like finding, really finding your purpose.

And it sounds like you know at your core that your purpose is to help other people. And that's something that I've been thinking a lot about lately too. And I know people who like follow me and we've been kind of talking about that. And I think that's just so important. Like if people are feeling like they're lost and they don't know what to do or if they have a business or anything like that, just kind of like get down to the root of what your purpose is, right, and your mission and kind of let that guide the way. Totally. I think that's a, that's, I don't know if there's a better place to start.

It's sometimes hard with real life and bills and money and family stuff and all the challenges. But if you can sort of dig deep and find that, it's the most freeing. thing. It's just so freeing. I heard somebody before I came here. He said that like if you put money, property and prestige first, I can't remember what he said would happen. But he said if you put your, if you put your purpose and if you put helping other people first, money, property and prestige just follow. It just happens. Totally. That's perfectly said. Usually I have listeners send in questions, but I didn't do that. But I'll, I'll do my audience a favor and I'll ask you the question that they would have asked.

Okay. Are you single? I am, I'm single, yeah, I'm single. You guys heard it here first. Hit the girls up and you can send them through.

Slide in his DMs. There you go. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. I need it. I'm very, thank you.

Just preface. I'm busy, so I got a lot going on. But yeah, I need someone to lead this life with. Love it. I'm feeling inspired. Me too.

too. Thank you guys for having me. I really appreciate it. Yeah. Where can everybody find you? At Liquid Ivy on social media. We have some really cool stuff coming up. So we have our, we're calling it in Nepal week, which is just a week long of all the content. And we just finished a really cool short like sort of film on the trip that we went on, which I've been obviously talking about a lot, which was life changing for me. And every day we're going to be posting a bunch of that. So that's the week of 7-8. I think this won't air until after that. So, and then the following week was really exciting we had we just closed a strategic round of funding with um some really cool like

celebrities and athletes and so think about i mean now you guys heard my story like from selling a stick at a time at a whole foods to like now having people like kevin heart and demi lavato and kendall jennar and jennel jennar and jennel jennar and i i just can't even name them all like 20 people they're all going to be joining in um on our mission ctw mission it was called the ctw round and they all loved it which was really cool. So that's going to be getting announced the like the week of July 15th, probably later in the week. So that'll be awesome. Hopefully everyone's hearing about it a ton then. And yeah, you can see. Oh, and then you can find me personally at Brandon underscore Cullen. For those DMs. Yeah. Bring them. All right. Thank you so much. Yeah, thanks for having you.

It was awesome. Thank you. Okay. I hope you enjoyed that conversation. As always, Thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing. Please, if you haven't done so already, rate, review, subscribe, share it with your friends, share it on social media. I love seeing when you guys are listening. And I will be back next week with a new episode.