Welcome And Why Neuro Works

George Blitch 0:14

Hello, Kent. Welcome to Son of a Bleach Podcast. How you doing today, man? We finally made it happen.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

We are here.

George Blitch 0:21

We did. We did. Well, you know, I reached out to you uh a while back, all the things you got going on with Neuro, the going mints, man. I was super impressed. Uh, and you sent me a wonderful package, and that's something that I take before every single podcast. So you guys aren't sponsoring, but you kind of are, because you got me going every single time before we get on to the uh interviews, man. And it's something that I I take almost daily. I'd absolutely love your products. And so I'd reached out, I was like, I want to get you on, and you're a busy dude. So we are finally here, and I'm uh I'm honored to have you on the show, man.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Oh no, thanks for the patience. And um, yeah, it's just been a little bit crazy. I'm having a kid in three months, also. So yeah, congrats. Um, so you know, there's a lot I have to pack in before my time gets taken up fully by him.

George Blitch 1:06

Sure, absolutely, man. Well, congratulations on that. Um,

Origins In Neuroscience And Martial Arts

George Blitch 1:10

you know, I I think for people who may maybe don't know about neuro, you let's go ahead and kind of trace it back to the origins of you and Ryan starting this out, you know, many 20 plus years ago, whatever it was that you guys first launched this and this idea. And why don't you kind of take me back to that? And you know, when it when the I know you've told the story a lot, so we don't spend a ton of time, but I'd love to kind of give people a little bit of background and then we'll kind of jump into what you got kicking these days.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

You know, mid-2000s, which is a very, very long time ago, 2007, 2008. I was training very seriously in martial arts, like uh right after high school. And during that time, I was studying neuroscience um at UC San Diego and then mixing supplements in my room because I didn't want to take the energy drinks that no one in the athletic world takes, by the way. You know, it's funny when you look at the UFC, people have monster cans, there's water in there. In the NBA, there's water in there. And um, in the same light, like it's something that I knew I wanted. I wanted energy, I wanted focus, but I didn't want to put the crap in my body. So I delved into the world of nootropics, which was a very uh new, emerging field at the time. And the supplements I was mixing that I was researching and using for myself were very effective in what I wanted to accomplish, balancing school and this life outside of school with martial arts. Um, especially because I was traveling to Japan, training with the Olympic team out there in judo. I was flying to Thailand, I was fighting in Muay Thai, you know, with Sityo Tong and at Pataya Stadium. And uh it's something I've been doing since I was five years old, but I began taking it a lot more seriously. I met Ryan my sophomore year of college. He was an incredible track athlete with connection on athletics, he was captured in his cross-country team, um, running like four 20-minute miles, you know, like unbelievable stuff. But then his sophomore year, he got in a snowboarding accident that uh that would that was like a life in the past because he lost the use of his legs. He was paralyzed from the waist down. And so these supplements I was mixing was something that helped him so much get back into school, get that focus back and that energy back. And after college on a scuba diving trip that we went on together, we both realized that there was an opportunity to make these things that we were mixing much more accessible in general. We know caffeine works, of course it does. Everyone drinks a cup of it in the morning. Um, we know L-theanine works, it's in green tea. There's cultures built around L-theanine. If we combine those two things together with the B vitamins and then put it into a format that's accessible, fits in your pocket, and works for your brain, it just made all the all the sense in the world to us. And we decided to launch in uh a decade ago, 2015, um, to great success on Reddit, Indiegogo. Dr. Roz contacted us before he was a politician and you know, uh talked about us on his uh show, and that was the start of it all. And since then, you know, we've been on like T-Pain show, we've been on Shark Tank twice, the only company to not get a deal the first time and go back on Shark Tank again to get a deal. Um, we have partnerships with people like Mr. Beast, Yuki Tsunoda, Andrew Schultz, um Gotham Chess, the the biggest YouTuber, chess YouTuber in the world. Um, and it's been an incredible journey to see you. We it's an incredible journey to see all these people that uh you know have used our product to optimize their life in the way that we hoped they would. And not in a way that's pretentious, but in a way that's accessible, that they could take with them anywhere, and that they could share with anyone.

From Ziploc Pills To Gum

George Blitch 4:41

Well, you know, you when you first launched this out and you were kind of creating this on your own and kind of finding out what's that magic ingredient mix there. I was kind of curious because obviously you went into, you know, the gum and the mints, but when you were first doing this, was this something you were kind of putting in capsules? Like what did that first iteration look like? And then how did you guys transition from that into the idea of going into spaces that maybe were kind of difficult to access because of the kind of major brands kind of own that space?

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Oh, yeah. I mean, great question. It was all in pill form. I was buying supplements from basically bulk supplement websites, mixing the combinations. You know, I was part of like I think it was like 90,000. It's a pretty big subreddit, but I was part of a pretty big subreddit of nootropics users that were talking about what ingredients work, how they did clinic. And with my background in neuroscience, I knew how to do the clinical um trials basically on myself. And it it it was all in pill forms in a Ziploc bag. So it was very obviously something that you don't take across the border, you know. Um, but in that moment we realized you know, gum and mints, something everyone wants in school, is an industry that hasn't been innovated on in forever. And there's functionality that you could bring to this thing that like we all take. And it just made all the sense in the world to try to put into that format. I mean, the first 20-something iterations tasted terrible, but then we got the flavor right, we got like a chemist involved, we got you know an RD cycle in place, and we were able to create this product that tasted just like a gum in a mint, like anyone would take, but it has all the added benefits, so there's no reason to carry regular gum and mints around, really, in that sense, right? So it was a great, yeah, it it was uh it was a long journey, I would say, but it was a great one. And you know, the thing with gum and mints is it's all owned by we try to find manufacturers, um, and the majority of the gum market is owned by conglomerates, whether it's Mondelee's Mars Rigley, and we realized those are people that are not going to give us the MOQs, the minimum order quantities that we want, like and the flexibility on that. And very gratefully, we found a mom and pop manufacturer that was willing to take us on. We are now their biggest client by far, and we were able to grow together. So it's uh it's a great, yeah, it's it's it's been a great journey with uh people that we love working with.

George Blitch 7:13

That's amazing, and it's great to find a mom and pop because those bigs, man, they can kind of put you out of business, they'll take your idea, shift it around and be like, okay, just push you out, because that's just kind of how that works. So to be able to find a group that you can be able to do that and have that kind of manufacturing, it that's that's amazing. You know, trust yes, trust is huge, right? And that's everything. Yeah, you guys have obviously been working with them for a long time. So um, you know, that's that's amazing that you've you've had that partnership.

Building SKUs With Real Research

George Blitch 7:39

And you you've I wanted to kind of talk about this idea of like, you know, you got your first skew, but then you guys have really kind of expanded, um, not just in flavors, but in like the idea of you got your energy focus, you got extra strength and energy, you got your memory in focus, calm and clarity, sleep and recharge. Talk to me about the kind of rollout of those different ideas because you mean your whole idea was to try to create things that will be the most beneficial for people, and without all those crappy additives and sugar and all the different things that are just, you know, lies in a can that we see, right? So, like this is something that I'd love to talk about, the different SKUs and how those, you know, the evolution of that idea of creating spaces for, you know, morning to night.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

We are science-backed at our core. That is one of our principles. Uh, do we look at the research, do we look at the data, and does it apply to a product? We don't come up with random proprietary blends like a lot of these supplement companies do to make you assume that it does something. Uh, we don't give you a massive mixture of random supplements to like an all-in-one that's supposed to promise you something either. With our energy and focus, we put in, and also we have a limitation where we can't do that. It has to taste good and it has to fit in a piece of gum or a mint. Uh that's very hard to do. So, given those limitations and given the fact that we want to be science-backed, we have to be very specific in the ingredients that we choose and the functions that we go into. And it all has to have a cognitive benefit that is also a through line, accessible cognitive performance. So, when we realized that energy and focus was a great product, getting traction. The pair, the something that works alongside great energy while you're awake is great sleep, so you have great energy the next day. So it made perfect sense for us to create um our sleep and recharge product, which is a combination of botanicals that have always been used in sleep, alongside melatonin, but at a dose that makes sense. Not like the gummies where you get like 10, 15, 20 milligrams. That's outrageous. Yeah. All you need is a little bit of melatonin and it works effectively. And there is even research uh where athletes take melatonin and it helps reduce the inflammation and it increases recovery. It's actually incredible. Memory and focus with uh cereburce ginseng, a little bit more expensive, but there's a clinical trial that shows that it improves working memory without the need for caffeine. Our common clarity, which we are reformulating actually, because we found that Ashwagon is a little bit more effective than GABA. So we are coming out with a new product that's reformulated there and something we're not afraid to do. Um and uh yeah, continue to develop that way. We have we have a whole innovation pipeline.

George Blitch 10:21

Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure. No, and these things

Retail Growth Into Walmart And Costco

George Blitch 10:23

are rolling out. I mean, it the other thing I've seen that's rolling out too is like the retail stores. I mean, because this is something that it's just continuing to span. You talked about, you know, the Reddit, you know, kind of the nootropics, and then all of a sudden you guys go to Indiegogo, and then there's the Shark Tank, and then obviously there's all the organic mentions, and you know, the whether it's Joe Rogan or Katy Perry or you know, Kardashians, whatever that is, but and and Andrew Schultz who who came along too, and we'll get back to him in a minute, but all the different folks who have found this, and then you you start to see this scale of retail. I mean, you guys did you know Walmart and Costco, and there's all this you've already in all the other you know major stores and and health food chains there. I mean, I've see them you you know when you walk into the checkout, right? It's such a cool thing to see the expansion. Um, why don't you talk to me a little bit about that growth? Because there has been some substantial leaps in that and you know in this last year here.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Yeah, everything was about accessibility for us, um, like I mentioned. And you know, e-commerce is one thing, but having someone pay $20 something dollars for a pack of gum uh or like a six-pack of gum is still 54p. It's a lot of gum, yeah, is a friction point, especially when gum is historically an impulse purchase. So we realized, hey, if we could get into these stores, price ourselves at the same more or less the same price as regular gum or an energy drink for that matter, and get it to a place where shoppers are shopping, like are, you know, it would make sense. And buyers obviously love the success we've had on e-commerce. They love the partners we've had. And in the last four years, three, four years, um, I went out and hired an incredible team of commercial leaders, sales leaders, marketing leaders that were able to activate in all these stores that we wanted to go, where the people shop, whether it's the convenience stores where people historically buy gum and mints and energy drinks, um, Walmart, which is the biggest retailer in the United States, and then obviously Costco, which is like one of the most productive uh even like stock market tickers in the world, but you know, once one of the most productive retailers in the world. So it's been uh it's been exciting to say the least, but we're jobs not finished, you know. Uh as Kobe said, we still have a lot more to go and a lot more retailers to make sure that we get the best form of energy in front of

Giving Back As A Business Principle

SPEAKER_00 12:38

people.

George Blitch 12:38

It's wonderful, man. And I and I also love you know the philanthropic side of what you guys are doing too, because not only are you helping to make people better in their day-to-day lives and enhance that in such a clean fashion, you're also giving back to a lot of causes that are near and dear to your hearts and collaborating with folks like Mr. Beast and and Andrew Schultz and doing things to really give back and make that impact, which I think is, you know, not everyone thinks about those things, but it it whenever you're able to create the ripples of effect on people's lives and be able to help in all sorts of other avenues, or you know, like we were talking about before we started recording in in our habitat and our you know wildlife and just beyond there too, um, it it makes an impact. And it's not just uh a product, man. It's it's it's a brand, it's a social awareness, and it's a movement that I see that you guys are are part of. And I'd love to kind of, you know, we can kind of jump through those there too, but I'd I'd love for you to talk about your personal idea of giving back and and what that means to you and what's important about that aspect for you.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

So I was just with Mr. Beast in North Carolina, literally two days ago, um, working on his philanthropy side, and we went to Ghana together because he builds villages and things like that. And you know, yes, he's a massive influencer, like the biggest YouTuber in the world, but what at the core, and I was just I I literally said this same thing. The core of our business has always been to be good people. Like Ryan and I are friends, and we are still friends, and we have an immense amount of trust in each other. And since that is the foundation for how the business has been built, that is the foundation for how we want other people to treat each other and the way we want them to look at our business. When we saw the impact that Jimmy can do, given his reach, it just made all the sense to partner with him, not on the main channel side, but on the philanthropy side to be like, hey, although it doesn't get as much impact, we want to support everything you're doing. We believe in what you are doing on the cacao side with chocolate, the child labor that's there, and especially because it's a CPG business like ours, and the impact we can make against big conglomerates like the Hershey's that are going and using child labor, sourcing their chocolate in the weirdest places. Like the chocolate is used in a way with chemical compounds and amolin, so it doesn't even melt. Like, that's not what we should be putting into our bodies. So we connected on that, and we were able to really make this awesome partnership work with them. Um, scuba diving. The first people we uh the the first time we came up with the idea of New Orgon't was scuba diving. We love the ocean, ocean conservation. We were talking about spearfishing, one of my favorite activities to do. We were the largest donors to patio ware for ocean conservation last year. You know, we helped get the whale shark um and many other shark species on the CITES uh endangered species list for the first time. Those are things that go beyond the business. And with what we've been able to do, it only made sense to give back to all these things that inspired us and influenced us. And we continue to do that. Like Andrew Schultz, I'm having a kid soon. You know, he went through IVF to have a child. And a lot of people don't have that opportunity to be able to have children, although they want to. It makes a lot of sense to give back to something like that. Um, so all these things are deeply tied to our personal, like what we personally feel is right, um, based on our own lives, obviously. And I know we could probably make a bigger impact in the future, but as it stands now, these are the things that make the most sense to us, align with our vision for the business, and know that we could use both of our platforms to continue to expand good.

George Blitch 16:17

Well, and and for people who are are wondering like how they can go and support that, why don't you tell them about like because it's on the site, you can go ahead and buy these tins. Why don't you tell them a little bit about that and where that money goes? And I mean, because it's it's the full project through the Mystery Beast, but I know there's other things too that you guys have done, but maybe just kind of walk through uh people, you know, how they can go ahead and support that.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Definitely. I mean, I wish I had some tins here, but uh, you know, I design I'm also a muralist by trade, so uh and an artist and have painted over a hundred murals around the world. But you know, I designed the tins for patioware. We sold them. All the money made on those tins went to basically supporting uh Patty. Like we we take no money from them, including the bulk bag profits. Beast philanthropy, you buy the tins, all the profit, not not just the profits, revenue, everything. Like every dollar that we get from those tins for the beast philanthropy tins, go back to supporting building walls and villages in Ghana. Um and we continue to do, you know, there's also a roundup program. You can round up your order, similar to what if you go to a grocery store, and we match that up to five dollars for every single order that amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars a month for us. But you know, it's it's worth it. Um we continue it really like I feel like every single part of our sales pipeline has some element of, and you can't do it in retail as easily, but every single element of our e-commerce pipeline has some element of giving back to it.

George Blitch 17:50

That's wonderful, man. I love that you're doing that, and it speaks to like who you guys are as founders and as you know, just generous, great humans, man, in creating this amazing product. I'm I'm I'm just floored at all the continued success and all the great things you guys are doing along the

Ghana Trip And Ethical Supply Chains

George Blitch 18:06

way. Um, when you mentioned your Ghana trip, I was gonna ask you, what was that like for you going there? Was that your first time there? And what was the experience like when what were you guys were doing while you were there? I saw some some you know clips online and stuff, but I'd I'd love to have you uh share that a little bit with the audience too.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

Yeah, I mean, I've been to I mean, I've been to Africa before. You know, I did I uh taught uh martial arts in Kibera, which is the largest slum in Kenya, about like 20 years ago, um, which was a very surreal experience also, but um, which, you know, we had to actually get out of there because a child got murdered right in front of us. Like it was that intense, right? Um, but this trip going back to Ghana was not as intense as that. But you could tell that there is uh obviously like a disparity between the life we live and the life that they live. And it's all relative economically. So, you know, more so than that, it is seeing these people have zero opportunity of getting out because systemically, the again, uh if you talk about Hershey's or any of these big companies coming in, building the cacao trade, forcing the villagers and the people to be dependent on that for literally pennies daily, um, to help their families to provide cheap cacao to the rest of the world. It's like that's how you continue to build that disparity. But when you switch the model on its head a little bit, this is what Jimmy's doing at Feastables giving them a good living wage, making sure children in a very like they're chopping cacao with machetes like this, making sure that the children are not being involved in the business like that, um, until they get an education, until they get um an opportunity to re decide what they want to do. That's when you're not controlling, you're not trying to control their narrative, you're allowing them to have a freedom of choice while also helping the make an impact in that community. And I think uh that's where we try to approach things to. We'll give money to patioware, but we're not telling them where the money should necessarily go, but uh we know it should go to ocean conservation. When we give to Ivy, we know it's going to baby quest. And Ivy, like there's like a I know that doesn't answer the Ghana side of things, but it it is really just like when you see the disparity and when you see how other charities give, and I saw this in Kenya and it was heartbreaking. Uh uh so much of it is driven by fundraising, and I need to make money to keep running the fundraiser, but then you don't see any of it going back into making real change in the community. But when you change the system, when you give people opportunity to break out and not become dependent on just giving them money, that's when transformation happens. And it's awesome to see that.

George Blitch 20:55

Absolutely. I mean, this is something I've seen when I used to travel around interviewing indigenous elders, my buddy from National Geographic, and we would go to you know, these areas, their rural countries, or even here in the reservations, you're the Native American Indians here, and seeing the disparities, and also these big companies that would come around and they're mining for this, or they're you know, the oil companies in in South America and these villages that had been you know untouched for millennia in that sense, and seeing how everything changes. And you know, some people raise money for them, and and and it's like you can maybe help, you know, buy water. It's like it's like the old like, you know, teach person the fish. I have friends that have gone into some of these places and they've helped develop businesses and educational platforms to be able to teach skill sets for the kids and then eventually have jobs where it's autonomous and they can run it. And that's where a different level of change happens and momentum, other than just like handing them something that you know is okay, great. And now what? That doesn't change their life. It feels good to give, but you got to know what you're given to, and I think that's important where people have to find the right causes to support such. The ones that you guys are involved. So I love when I hear you talking about this and I see the thread of connections on your website and through your socials, of that the impact you guys are doing is really raising awareness and making a true change generationally.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

And we try to be thoughtful about it too, you know, because we see other companies being like, oh, we have a charity arm and all they're doing is just throwing money at something and just like, look, we did that. And like that's it's it's careless, you know. I'll say like it's a PR thing, right?

George Blitch 22:32

It's for PR for them.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

It's like exactly. So it's like it's okay to have that PR benefit. I think you know, to have incentives across the board is we're a business at the end of the day. And but then on the flip side, if those intensives tie back into the the philanthropy component and we give even more, like that's a win. That that's a win, a flywheel win.

George Blitch 22:55

Yes, absolutely, man. Well, um, a couple other things I wanted to touch on today.

Watermelon Launch And Lifestyle Shift

George Blitch 23:00

Uh, you know, you got the new flavor. Uh see the dancing watermelon on the website. Talk a little bit about that. When did that come into play?

SPEAKER_00 23:06

Do I have it in my bag right here? No, I have the Costco pack. Actually, let me go grab the Costco.

George Blitch 23:09

Yeah, go for it.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

I don't have watermelon. I think it's on the other one. Um Costco pack. You can't I don't know if you can see it because of the blur, but uh you know, the best deal you could get anywhere $18.99 for 12 packs. So, I mean, that's the price of gum. Why would you buy gum? Sure. Unless it's real gum. Unless it's real gum. Yeah. Uh watermelon. Oh my god, so good. We did a launch again with a fill a philanthropy component with Andrew Schultz at Paddle House Dumbo. Amazing people there, uh doing a massive tournament. And you know, brought all of our partners in. Andrew Schultz, Levy, uh from Gotham Chess, uh, you know, uh a few big gamers. Um, and it was it was very cool to uh like we're elevating ourselves this year from being a functional company to being more of a lifestyle company. And the way we do that, first and foremost, is coming out with fun flavors, and watermelon was like the first fun flavor, and we have some other fun flavors coming out at the end of the year that we're really excited about.

George Blitch 24:21

Okay, so that'll be Q4 of 2026. Yeah, Q3, Q3. Okay, sooner than yeah. Well, maybe we can have you back on when it's time for the announcement. We'll do that.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

I mean, I'll definitely send you some, yeah.

George Blitch 24:32

Yeah, well, thank you. Appreciate it, man. Well, I'm I'm super excited to to hear that. I know the watermelon, you know, is is it's a it's it's very exciting, man. Just anything you're you're adding to this. And I know that you know, you guys have such a a crazy amount of repeat customers that are coming through, whether it's e-commerce or ever, or I mean, obviously you guys blew up on TikTok, and that was kind of like and it's kind of like a the the new QVC kind of thing, right? It's like yeah, that's it's it was something that uh just to see that viral success and continued uh success was huge. But you guys have great numbers on returns. I mean, there's some people that have been fine with you guys for all 10 years, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:08

It's pretty awesome to see. Like it was funny because when we posted about Costco, um this this lady Denise Santos, she was one of our very first customers, and she was still posting about like, yes, neurogoving Costco. I'm so excited for you. And like, there's people that have been on the journey the entire time, you know, and chewing the entire time. Yeah. And uh I think it's one attestment to the product, and uh just well, you know, we don't try to take ourselves seriously, but it's a product that's supposed to fit in with your life at the end of the day. And if we do that, we're doing our job well.

George Blitch 25:42

Well, every single person, like I'll I'll take these tins out of the gum, and whether it's at the ranch or any events that I'm at, I'm laying them out, I'm handing them out to friends and stuff, and they all love them and they've all bought them. And it's cool that you know that I'll have friends who'll send me pictures, they'll be like, check it out, man. I was in Whole Foods or wherever it is, and they've gone it. Like, so it's like it's neat, and I'm I should probably

Steady Energy And Avoiding The Crash

George Blitch 26:01

share more of those. But that's a neat thing to see the availability of that and to see how many people connect to that because so many folks were just I can't tell you how many people, especially when I was on tour with band, how a monster or you know, this heavy caffeinated, you know, quadruple espresso or something would kind of get me from one town to another driving, but about halfway there, I'm like trying to fall asleep. And when you know, I it it took me a while to realize what you need to actually put into your body, and now it's like I have these in all of our cars in our home, you know, and like it's they're just everywhere, you know.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

You just need that little bit, and like that's the thing. American culture is all about maximalism, so you don't need 200 something milligrams of caffeine in one go to get you going, right? You know, of course you're gonna crash. Yes, absolutely. For us, it's a steady state throughout the day when you need it, get that energy back, but also maintain your homeostasis with yourself.

George Blitch 26:51

Yes, absolutely. No, it's it's uh it's it's a great balance you guys have created, and then obviously there's the science-backed nature of it as well. So I encourage everyone to go check out your website and socials to learn more and uh you know place your order and/or go to the retail shop. So why don't you tell people a little bit about you know your your just the website, the socials, where they can follow you.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Yeah, neurogum.com is the easiest place to find everything, although we are on Amazon, Costco.com, Walmart.com, all those other places as well. Um our socials are all also the same at Neurogum across the board. It's pretty simple. Uh that's where we started. At Neuro was a little, I don't think we got the name, or we could get the name. It was a little too broad. So we ended up going back to uh Neurogum and um you can find us anywhere online.

George Blitch 27:36

Yeah, you really can. Uh, I'll have all the the notes below and and direct links in the show notes. So I encourage everyone to go to that.

Legacy Thinking And Becoming A Dad

George Blitch 27:43

You know, one of my last questions I've asked just about a lot of people is this idea of legacy. So you've created a legacy product, but you've also done a lot of legacy work and what you're giving back to uh, you know, all across the board with your philanthropy and um all these amazing causes that you're uh you know a part of now and the brand. And so I was just kind of curious about how you know what do you think of? I mean, we're still young men here, but whenever we're you're thinking about this idea of creating something that lasts in this legacy and how you want your work and this brand to be remembered, is that something that comes into play on a day-to-day? Is it something that you've kind of spent some time uh reflecting on and maybe meditating on? And and just give me your thoughts about that idea.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

You know, it it's crazy because it evolves every few years. With Neurogum, obviously, we want to be in what we always say this, but in how uh Red Bull changed the energy scene, and then Five Hour Energy took that and made it more uh of a shop format and more accessible in every storefront. We want to take it to another level and be reinventing categories, and we're here to stay in that front or legacy front. But not being while Five Hour Energy was more of a sales-led brand, we want to be more of a brand-led brand. Like we want to stand out, be part of people's daily lives, you know, and not just a purely functional product, but something that people could depend on. For myself, you know, with this child that's coming in a few months, and being around my friends who are also great parents, there's a side of me that of course I want the legacy of being known as uh a certain type of entrepreneur and you know, having made a dent in human history by creating some product with great people like my co-founder and the team we have. Like, yeah, that's important to me. But you know, it's funny when you become when you've I don't know if you're a dad or you're a parent. Dad of two girls, yep. Like, that's the most important thing in the world. 100% to be a great parent and making sure that your two daughters, my son, and whatever future children I have are set up in the right way to continue making an impact in the world. And so um, you know, my idea of legacy has shifted to just be as good of a person as I can be, and I will do that through but uh being a good parent.

George Blitch 30:08

I love it, Kent. Well said. Thank you for answering that. No, uh, and you know, thank you again once once again for all the things that you guys are are doing for creating such an amazing product. Um, I mean, I've I've got them all here, right? They're everywhere. But uh I don't I don't use the sleeper.

Music Roots And Steve Aoki Connection

SPEAKER_00 30:23

One of my favorite books.

George Blitch 30:24

Yeah, what's that? Which one? Rick Rubin book. Yes. Well, that you you spent some time in a Sony recording studio for a couple years. Is that correct too?

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Uh I worked at a Sony, like it was basically like an affiliate of Sony for like two years making music for film and television.

George Blitch 30:40

Okay. So what what what are your primary instruments? Do you do you are you?

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Uh yeah, guitar, piano. Um, yeah, guitar and piano are like my two instruments. You know, I mean if someone is like, okay, I need you to play bass for me, like I'll play bass and I could like fill in and stuff. Um, I suck at drums, although I I could play, I'm terrible at it. But I yeah, I I played music for a very long time.

George Blitch 31:01

Oh, that this book was something that I I absolutely loved. And the other one was uh The War of Art. Are you familiar with that? Steven Pressfield? Those those two came in at right around the same time, and I was just like, and that's when I started reaching out to more musicians and kind of getting back into that, uh, you know, some from my touring days. I was like, all right, let's revisit that and talk about it. What did you play again? I played drums. It was in a group called Dead PA. We were like live programmable audio, live live PA live is what we were calling it, but it was like live drum and bass or or break beats. Um, so yeah, we were kind of like a live band that would play at all these electronic music festivals and and venues and stuff too. So yeah, um, I I know you guys do some work uh with Steve Aoki, and you know, there's yeah, we didn't play the same same stage, but some of the same like venues and towns when there was like you know, the the winter music conference and stuff in Miami. So yeah, big fan of him and all he's doing there too. It's cool that you guys and just real quick, how does that how did that link up happened?

SPEAKER_00 31:56

So this is a pretty crazy story. One of our old board members and partners met Steve Aoki's manager somewhere and was like, Steve's really into biohacking, you should go meet him. And it was before we even had our product, so we came in with like ziploc bags of neurogum and shared it with Steve. He literally, and he was just like, Oh, this is interesting. And we're like, You should invest in us. And he was like, You guys don't even have a product. A few years later, we find out he's still taking neurogum and like loves it. And then, you know, by that time we're big enough where he's like, God, I like I want in. Like that there's a product I love, like it makes all the sense of the world to

Where To Buy And Final Sendoff

SPEAKER_00 32:34

me.

George Blitch 32:34

So that's awesome. Well, and you've gotten so many great people that that you've had investors, and it's really a family that you built to people who have like-minded nature, and it's not I feel like you're like one of the the brands that it's it's the people over profit and not the other way around of what you see a lot of times, but obviously you're profitable, but you guys are giving back, and so um, again, just my my my hats off to you and all the success. And I'd I couldn't be more happy for you to to join me today, man. It this has really been an enjoyable experience. I really appreciate your time and efforts.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

Yeah, we finally made it happen again. Like uh, I appreciate it, man. It's it's it's always great to have good conversations with good people.

George Blitch 33:08

Indeed, man. Well, we'll do it again. Uh, you know, next flavor launch. We'll we'll be on there sometime in two, three. And even if it's a short one, man, anytime you you want to come on and maybe on the ranch. Yes, absolutely. No, let's let's go take care of some of these invasive species and have some delicious meals together. I love it. Let's do it. Sounds good, Kent. Well, thank you so much. And uh everyone check out the show notes below. Uh follow all the links, follow the socials, all the newsletters, and make sure you place your order for neurogum and neuroments today.