Getting Your First Sales: How To Launch A Lifestyle Brand (ft. MLB Pitcher Nick Hagadone) #FreedomFastLane

As a baseball player, the reason that I was able to make it to the big leagues because I was pretty much a no name, like high school and most of my college career, I was not known at all. I wasn't that good to begin with. But the reason why I was able to progress and actually pitch in the big leagues is because I was able to figure out a daily process that I could repeat that would enable me to optimize my performance and then keep on adjusting that and keep getting better and better. So with that being said, like, I was wondering if there is now that you kind of have some more familiarity with our business, what are like two to three most important things that we can focus on for the next six months?

Build a business, invest the profits. I'm Ryan Daniel Moran and this is Freedom Fast lane.

What's up fastlaners? Ryan here. And this is a dream come true. Today I am going to be speaking with Nick Hagedon. Nick and I got connected on social media about a year ago when he started listening to my work after leaving a 10 year career as a professional baseball player. And when I saw that Nick Haged on followed me on Twitter, I said, Nick Haged on the pitcher for the Cleveland Indians. And so I reached out, we connected, and I have occasionally offered advice on Nick's brand from time to time. He sent me a bag of his coffee beans recently, which we're going to talk about today. And so I invited Nick onto the podcast to just do a dive into his business and see how I could help. And Nick has a lot of really cool connections and in my opinion, he was overlooking some of the opportunities that he could maximize. And aren't we all? So Nick came on the show and told me a little bit about his business and we helped him craft a launch strategy that would help him create sustainable growth for his brand. Now this is a bit of a new series that we're doing here on the show where I am speaking with you, you are bringing what's going on in your business and we're talking about where you want to go. And I'm helping you navigate the challenges around where you are, between where you are and where you want to go. So if you want to be on the show and communicate with me in this format, you can fill out the form over@capitalism.com fflpodcast and right now we're opening this up to everybody in time. It will just be for people who are going through one of our trainings, specifically going through million dollar brands. So after they have Complet completed their intake form at Million Dollar Brands. It'll be people bringing on their challenges and me helping them navigate that. But right now, as a test, we're just doing this for everybody. So you can fill out that form@capitalism.com fflpodcast in this episode with Nick Hagedon, Man, I'm on with a player for the Cleveland Indians. How cool. We talk a little bit about using influencers. We talk about crafting a launch plan. We talk about what your follow up should be, we talk about what habits you should practice in order to get daily sales. And we talk about how to get momentum on your path to building something that has a really, really big vision. So if you have products in the marketplace or you're thinking about building one but you're not yet seeing the results that you want, you're going to get a lot of value out of this episode. Enjoy.

Nick Haged on Welcome to Freedom Fastlane. How you doing, bud?

I'm doing well. Thank you so much for having me on today.

Well, dude, you are already a hero to me, so how can I be a hero to you today?

Well, you know, as we kind of spoke off camera and as you know.

I am coming off of a baseball career where I spent 10 years playing professionally. I pitched for the Indians and that's kind of where I kind of. We kind of have a little bit of a connection because I know that it's your goal to purchase the Indians one day. And so when I heard that, I really got kind of engaged in your podcast and what you're doing and it led me to start my own physical products brand called Launch Coffee Company. And we are within the last like four or five months is when we started. We're at the very beginning stages and just kind of to give you some context, what we do is at the simplest level is we deliver small batch roasted coffee directly to your doorstep on your schedule. So we have a subscription service. We have a couple different. We have one roast, but it's available in ground and whole bean. So the biggest thing that I would be hopeful to get out of this today is kind of for you to help me set the groundwork for so that I can build a solid foundation to grow this brand on.

Yeah, great, man. When. If you had told me when I started this podcast back in 2013 that somebody on the Indians would hear my podcast and be inspired to start a brand, I would cry. So you might make me emotional, Nick. So why don't you tell me a little bit about the business and what you're hoping to accomplish with it.

Okay. Yeah. So let me start out kind of with our, like our big picture goal. So what we would like to do right now, our only product is coffee. I think when I think five to ten years down the road, my goal is to build this into more of a lifestyle brand. So if you think of maybe like Black Rifle Coffee or Caffeine and Kilos, those brands that their main driver is coffee, but they also have apparel, they have accessories.

And they really market more to a person. And that's kind of. So for me, like coming into it, coffee. Coffee is so commoditized that I knew that going in and talking about, you know, where our beans are from and all that, that kind of details of it was not going to get us very far. So I wanted to come in and really market to a specific person and talk about a lifestyle that we've actually nicknamed it Live Caffeinated. So basically we are looking to connect with people who love coffee, but they also love to get outside, be active and that they use the coffee as more of a fuel for their active lifestyle.

Yeah, that makes, that makes total sense. And my understanding is you took your first sale just a few months ago and you have the vision and a product you're really proud of, but you're looking to get that momentum of initial sales, is that right?

Exactly. Yep. So we took our first sale end of February. We've grown steadily over the, you know, the past six months, obviously on a smaller scale because we're not doing paid ads right now. We've done a little bit of sponsored posts with micro influencers on Instagram, but just kind of looking to figure out the best way to move forward. Really great.

So first of all, I really like the name Launch Coffee and I think it is a good groundwork for what you're trying to accomplish. I'm missing a piece and that piece is who that person is. So I know a little bit about, I have some ideas of what you're saying of it being somebody who's using the coffee to fuel the next step. But to your ideal person, what is that next step?

There's a few little subgroups within that that we've kind of identified. So that could be somebody who is really passionate about hiking, runners, cyclists. It could even go as niche as like garage gym, power lifters. I've talked to a few people and there's actually a really tight knit community around that. I've talked to a few people there, you know, so there's a lot of different subgroups. And that was actually going to be one of my questions. Is.

The group of just people who love to get out and live an active lifestyle, Is that too broad? Like, does it need to be more of a smaller subgroup to kind of help us get this thing moving forward and off the ground?

The direct and indirect answer to your question is probably, but not necessarily. Here's why.

The reason why we pick a person is to narrow in on the messaging and the purpose of the coffee or the messaging of the product. And choosing a very specific person is a really good proxy and a really good hack for making that easy. So in the example of the Clif Bar is kind of my classic example where Clif Bar's messaging is. I couldn't take another bite of a power bar when I was riding my bike on the way to climb a mountain and it's got a guy climbing on the package. But it doesn't necessarily isolate women and it doesn't necessarily isolate the vegan community, because it's big in the vegan community. It is more the messaging is to a specific person and that group takes it to the rest of the world. So one of the routes you could take and Black Rifle Coffee does this really well is their branding and their messaging is different depending on the type of person. So they have ads that are just all about guns and it doesn't matter what the product is. And yet that sells a lot of coffee. They advertise very heavily on podcasts like the Ben Shapiro podcast, and that message is a little bit custom tailored to that audience, but it's still selling coffee. I think for you, it would be helpful at the very beginning to choose a small raving crowd. But I don't know, you know who that is yet. And you probably need to just make some mistakes and see who takes to one of them so that you can narrow in on that a little bit more specifically. Does it make sense when I say it that way?

Absolutely. And I think you're right on. And that was it kind of leads right into kind of something I was going to ask you is like, what. So what do you think is the best way to kind of test that? I mean, so. Right. Just to give you a little bit of an example, what we're doing right now is on our Instagram, which is our main way that we're kind of getting our brand out there, is we will post. We started out by asking people for photos. We're getting to the point now where people will send us photos of them going out on we just call them adventures. So either people, when they get to the end of their hike and they're at the top of a mountain peak, or they're going on a mountain bike trail and they just send us really cool photos. And so we have different days. So we'll do hiking one day, we'll do mountain biking another day. We'll do running another day. Um, and so that. That kind of is like, we. We kind of target those groups that way. But we needed. I feel like we need a better way to actually test that and test more response. So the two. The two things that I can kind of see is either doing sponsored posts with. With other influencers, micro influencers on Instagram in those specific groups, or doing something with Facebook and more paid advertising. I would. I'd love to hear kind of your opinion on that.

Sure. I think both of those are good ideas. Later. I think that there are some simpler things that will get you some faster results. Right now.

I wouldn't even call it a mistake. One temptation I see a lot of new brand owners make is they're trying to scale before they have liftoff or before they have launch, if you will.

Yeah.

So there is. There's like this temptation to go from nothing to 100 or 200 sales a day rather than going out and getting the first 25.

And.

And the reality is getting to getting to 100 or 200 sales a day is really hard if you're skipping 25 more, pursuing home runs rather than. There's. I honestly did not mean to use a baseball analogy there. Forgive me, but they're swinging for the fences rather than hitting base hits. So the result is they strike out a lot.

I think a more effective strategy in the short term for someone like you is to document the growth of the brand, to work in some story. It's not like the story of the brand is about.

Nick's 10 years as a professional baseball player.

It is more about your relationship with the product line. Because people will not necessarily relate to you being a professional athlete. They will relate to your work ethic. They will relate to you waking up in the morning and doing the work. They will wake up. They will relate to you waking up and going into the garage doing the workout. And you can color that context with, you know, there were lots of days when I didn't want to throw those 50 pitches or I didn't want to practice the curve ball. I didn't want to do this, but I did it anyway.

There's a relatable story to that now It's a little bit different if Nick doesn't want to be the face of it, which very few entrepreneurs do, but they think they have to be because Gary Vee is. So you don't have to be the face of it, but the brand needs that type of a personality. It needs that type of a messaging. Even if it's not coming from your face, it can be coming in the form of text saluting the type of people who have that mindset and that grinding work ethic. And that means that as you're going throughout the journey of this business, you're documenting the grunt work and the grind that it requires to build this business. Like.

You'Re showing the hard work that it takes to ship these out, the hard work that it takes to fulfill your obligation to the customer, the agonizing work it takes to ensure that the roast is just right. And I'm making this up because I'm not in the coffee business. The story that is being created is that you and the brand represent the customer. Who is that person who wakes up in the morning, has their cup of coffee and goes and gets it done. And that's, I'm assuming this based on what you're telling me about the person. So how is this landing so far?

It's right on. So after you said that, the first part about documenting, I'm thinking back to probably the last like three weeks of our Instagram feed. And we've done the things that I described earlier, but we've also had a couple posts. So one of them was we did an in person event at a running at a half marathon a couple weeks ago and we posted about it and just kind of describe the event and how cool it was to get out and meet people and kind of, you know, introduce them to our brand in person. And we got so much response, tons of comments and people really engaged with that. And then I also had, I'd written a blog post about, you know, maybe two, three days ago, kind of about our story. And it kind of weaved in my a little bit of my backstory of playing. But then it went into, you know, why we decided to start, why we decided to go into coffee, why it's called Launch, why did we call it the Caffeinate and Conquer Medium Roast? And kind of just shared the whole journey of the brand up to this point. And those have been by far the biggest or the best post that we've done. So, I mean, it makes sense.

Yeah, that's great. And that's the right angle for you to continue. And step two for you, I think is, am I right to assume that you still have connections with other athletes and other semi well recognized people that would connect with your audience? Is that a fair assumption?

Yes.

So your step two is, if they're okay with it.

Have them try the coffee, include them as a sub character in the brand story. Include them as.

You know, as cameos. You don't necessarily need to go and sponsor the micro influencer as much as you need to start working in some cameos that will help give the brand some life. So a silly analogy is coming to me. But in the pilot episode of Family Matters. Do you remember Family Matters?

Oh, yeah.

Okay. So in the pilot episode there was a cameo from Jaleel White. Steven Q. Urkel was supposed to be a one time character, but the audience loved him so much that they brought him back a few more times and then they made him a recurring character and eventually the star of the show in the final episode married Laura. So he became the kind of the spark, the influencer, if you will, of the show because he was such a compelling character. But he wasn't supposed to be, he was supposed to be a one time character. And the example that we do in brands in today's world is you don't need to go find your hero influencer right now or even a lot of micro influencers at this point point you just need some cameos. And that looks a lot like sending your product to people who represent what you want to be in the world, who speak to that idea of grinding, of waking up in the morning and doing the work.

Your job right now is to get buy in from the people who lead that message so they can bring their tribe with them. Because ultimately the coffee is a proxy for them to express that message. And they will. The more they express that, the more people that will come and find your coffee. You following so far?

I am, yeah. That sounds. I love it. I think that's great. It's a great strategy and I think it's a really good way to kind of use some of the connections and the relationships that are already pre existing. Yeah. So I love it.

Yeah. We tend to overlook the assets that are in front of us because they're easy for us. I'm the same way. I mean, I forget sometimes that people enjoy it when I speak in front of a microphone because I just enjoy it so much. So we all kind of overlook the assets that are in front of us, but if we double down on those, it's usually a good sign. Now let me ask you something because I do see one hole in your overall strategy and that's I don't know what the follow up products might be after coffee. So would you walk me through how you see the brand unfolding once the coffee is doing 100 sales a day, how else might your customers relate to the brand?

Yeah, absolutely. So for me like when we get to that level I would say we, we'll have up to three rows just because you know certain people like light, medium or dark roast. So I see the brand having three main roasts and then once that is up and running and it has the sales and everything is coming to it, I would say that the next piece is either accessories or apparel. So like workout type T shirts or apparel based around. So if it was the T shirts kind of based around that live caffeinated kind of that, that name that we've given it and then if it's accessories, you know, mugs or other things that kind of go with the coffee. So mugs or maybe coffee containers or you know, a line of three to five different things that could go with it that way.

Okay. Are there any other mainstay products besides coffee that you'd be excited to launch or do you really want this to be a coffee first coffee specific brand?

So I would be open to having it be like in an ideal world it's more like it moves away from just coffee and it's just more of like a lifestyle type brand. So it does not have to be coffee. I like the reason I pick coffee or one of the reasons is that it supports a subscription model so we can get a little bit of recurring revenue. We can also with that we can build a better relationship with our customers. So you know I. One of my strengths I feel is writing. So I like to communicate with our customers via email and I'm kind of building the foundation of that right now. It's not complete but we have, you know, different, different follow ups for different people depending on where they are in their journey with us. So I think you know, that was the reason copy came first. But I think you know, going forward and as we grow and progress, I'm pretty much open to anything that kind of relates to the person that we are looking to communicate with.

So where I am, what I'm trying to solve in my brain is besides coffee, what might be some of those other products that would do that? Apparel is, you know, a nice, a nice expression of the brand, an expression of a person. But is there something besides coffee that is A customer acquisition product, like a front end product. And it's okay if there's not. I mean, Folgers is a multi billion dollar business with crappy coffee, so there's nothing wrong with it being coffee first. But when I hear lifestyle brand, I think something more than coffee. So what else might fit into that?

You know, I think supplements could possibly fit into it down the road. I think for me, like that would have to be maybe, maybe I'm wrong in thinking this, but that would have to be after we have a little bit more trust and sort of like an audience that we've actually spoken to and have a relationship with. Just because there's, I mean, as many coffee brands as there are, I feel like there's even more supplement brands. So. But I could definitely see that as part of it down the road.

Okay, great. So just like coffee, if there's a lot of competitors in supplements, it just means that there's money in it and it means that there's probably a group of people who are underserved in that market. So I wouldn't be afraid of saturated markets. It just means that your, your brand and your message needs to be louder than everyone else's. And I'm really encouraged by how you describe the person because you said at the top of our chat, you recognize that the brand couldn't be about the product, it couldn't be about.

How the beans were roasted. It had to be about the person and the brand and the lifestyle and the message. And that's true in all saturated markets. Specifically, if they're wide open, you can be more product specific. But saturated markets, you have to be much more brand focused. Okay, so supplements is a great kind of follow up example. I would start to play with what that might be. If you were given unlimited funding, unlimited audience, and you just were out to serve that person, what would it look like? And just play. And the reason I tell you this is because a lot of people starting out will go first product down rather than first product up. And an example of that would be if Dave Asprey had wanted to be a coffee company, his second product would have been a Dark Roast, but he wanted to be a biohacking company. So his second product was an MCT oil and then a modified MCT oil and then a C8 oil called Brain Octane. And then it became about mitochondrial support and then it became a $15,000 brain hacking retreat and then it became the Bulletproof Vibe and then it became cafes. And you obviously can't do that right now. Nor would you want to. But he knew where he wanted to go, which helped him frame the communication to the customer and create those raving fans rather than speaking about mold. Free coffee until kingdom come. That would have. That would have put him out of business. But instead, he's always thinking about how to innovate more and more and more. And in your case, that means how do we serve the person who gets up in the morning and does the work better every day? Every day. Every day. What might that look like? And right now we sell coffee.

Right. Okay. That's such a better way of looking at it. And I think just kind of to speak to that. Like, my wife and I kind of decided to. To try and communicate with that type of person, because that's who we are. So I think, you know, going forward, it will be, you know, it will help our message stay clear, but it will also, like, we can. We can kind of decide on, you know, what is best to come next. But I really love that idea of the supplements and that kind of thing. And the example of Bulletproof is. Is pretty much spot on. So. Thank you. Yeah. I was going to ask you before we kind of got away from it too much, you mentioned.

The cameos from some. Some of the relationships that I have from. From my past, and we kind of briefly talked about my story and whether or not I would like to be the face of it. I wanted to ask you your thoughts on down the road. If our goal right now is to build the foundation for something that we could possibly sell in the future. If my story is the face of it, does that hinder that in any way? Or is that something that can be kind of, I guess, transitioned out of later, or how does that work?

It absolutely can be transitioned out of. So when the Honest Company was starting, Jessica Alba did a big PR tour, and it was pretty much framed as Jessica Alba's mommy company, and she was the face of it. That was a huge asset at the beginning of the brand. Now no one really thinks about that, and now no one. It's not necessary. That story's been told. So the Honest Company is a very sellable brand at this point, so it does not hinder your ability to sell in the long term. If you wanted to flip this thing six months from now, it might. But what would probably be more likely is if you had a million Instagram followers and you launch it to your audience, you would probably attract the interest of investors who would want to give you a check and help you scale it and then make it Independent of your face and your brand. But I don't think there are any comments conflicts in the long term. Now, if you're building something like, I mean, I'm building capitalism dot com. I'm kind of the face of this. I have no interest in selling and if I wanted to, my valuation would be low because my face is everywhere. I have no interest in pivoting away from that. But that transition can absolutely be made. I don't think it's one that you need to worry about right now. That's. We're thinking about the home run at that point.

Right.

You can't sell this thing if you don't have sales. And I think you need to do what is necessary to create those initial sales. And I don't know if that means using your story in your face right now or not, but it might. And I wouldn't be opposed to doing that in the short term in order to get those initial quick wins.

Okay. Okay, that's great. That helps a lot. I think just being able to speak to that and write about it and kind of relate that to where we are in the brand and how we feel about it and how we connect with the customers. I think it will definitely help in the short term.

So for me, I guess if you have some time, I'd love to talk about a little bit more like a couple more tactical type questions.

Hit me.

You mentioned just on the coffee, like when it's time to. When the copy's at 100 sales a day and it's time to figure out that next product or to move on and launch that next product. I know that. I've heard you talk a lot about the numbers that it takes on Amazon with us being on Shopify and not having, you know, like the, like the 20 sales a day and 50 reviews on Amazon. What does that mean for a brand that is not on Amazon? Like what. When do we know that it's time to move on to that next product? Or what kind of metrics or what kind of things are you looking at to know when it's time?

Yeah, great, great question. So the answer is when you can comfortably handle another skew without detracting from what you're already doing.

Two sub points to this. I.

I would caution you to not be avoidant of Amazon. And that is not because I'm married or in love with Amazon. I say that because customers are comfortable ordering on Amazon and we should consider it a win when the product is in the customer's home, not when they give us the most amount of money through the channel we perform.

So however the customer is comfortable ordering, we should at least be sensitive to that. So I wouldn't avoid putting it on Amazon if you have the margins to be able to do that. Now.

The question about when you roll out the next sku.

One thing I want to note here is I would not consider a flavor iteration, a new product or a new sku. So if you roll out a decaf or a dark roast or a honey mustard blend or whatever, you know, whatever it is, you will still need to acquire the same customer. And that will help your existing customers buy more, but it won't necessarily amplify the number of customers that you attract. So I have found flavors or sizing changes to increase sales by like 20%, whereas a new product could increase sales by 200%.

So I would prioritize or think thought on the next innovative product. Unless you are set on building a coffee first brand. And that direction is up to you. But that, that's going to be the decision that you'll make once you're at that 25 to 50 sales a day and you can comfortably roll out that new product.

Okay. Okay. No, that's super helpful, I think. I guess I never looked at it that way. I always just assumed like, we have coffee, we got to have the three different roasts and we got to get every different taste profile that people are looking for. But I like the idea of going kind of coffee up like you mentioned earlier.

Yeah. And if it's not a coffee first brand, then you don't need to have all the different types of coffee. You're a person first brand. You're a lifestyle first brand. So in that case, it's more what are the first, first three things that that high performer does in the morning to launch their day?

Right.

That's more the question than let's ensure that they have their, their all their flavor profiles fixed.

That makes total sense.

Great. I think so. I have another. It's kind of.

It'S kind of. We're going to. Bouncing around a little bit. But I was. Yeah. So I was wondering. So I see our business like when I, when I look at it from the outside, at least on the coffee side of it. I see the main part that we've focused on right now is building the brand like we've talked about. I see another opportunity in providing coffee at higher volumes to like offices or businesses, local businesses. And I wanted to ask you, do you think. So, do you think that that is, is a worthwhile pursuit Number one. And number two, I think I see that option number two as more of like just a short term cash flow play because I don't see any brand loyalty coming from businesses that use our copy in their, in their offices.

I think you're gonna love me after this question. I'm so glad you asked me this. So here's how you can get a twofer, Nick. Only send the only solicit bulk orders from companies that serve the same person you do. So if you were selling bulk orders to the CrossFit headquarters and their employees are talking about it, that's a big win.

If you are.

If you are sending this to the headquarters of the Cleveland Indians and they're talking about it, that's a big win. If you are sending this to the headquarters of Dundal or Mifflin, probably not so much.

Right?

That is going to be the distraction versus if you send to the, the, the people who represent your ideal customer anyway, then it's, it's a double win. You get the bulk order, you get raving fans, and you get that amplification effect of them bringing their friends with them. So I go for it. But be strategic about who you solicit and who you, who you send that to. And I would start by just sending coffee to the teams that represent that just right. If you were gonna grind this, send a handwritten note, coffee in it, take a picture of it, post on Instagram, tell post why you're a fan of that company, send it to them, and then do it again. And 40 out of 50 people will be like, okay, thanks for the coffee. And 10 will be like, hot damn, it's good stuff. I like what you're up to. I checked out their social media. I like what they're up to. Hey, I remember this guy.

And that's what you're going for.

Okay, now that's great. So it sort of, it seems like it's a little bit of. When you talk about Cliff Bar, you know, their rating fans taking it to the masses, it's almost the same deal, except it would be the, the employees of the company that drink the coffee on a daily basis, taking it to the masses that way, it's kind of almost like the same effect.

That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And your reason for reaching out to those teams and those companies is because you respect their work and their message in the world. Not because you want a bulk order or because they think they'll like the coffee.

You resonate with their message. And that's when you start creating really synergistic relationships rather than transactional relationships.

Gotcha. Okay. It's more about the relationship than anything else.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Nice. Well, so I think one of the biggest questions that I was hoping to ask you, and I guess I want to give you a little bit of context first, so I'm not just throwing it at you, but. So as a, as a baseball player, the reason that I was able to make it to the big leagues because I was, I was pretty much a no name, like high school and most of my college career, like I was not known at all. I wasn't that good to begin with. But the reason why I was able to progress and actually pitch in the big leagues is because I was able to figure out a daily process that I could repeat that would enable me to optimize my performance and then keep on, you know, adjusting that and keep getting better and better. So with that being said, like, I was wondering if there is now that you kind of have some more familiarity with our business, what are like two to three most important things that we can focus on for the next six months? So I think we've covered a lot of, like, you've given me a lot of this. The first steps to take. Are there any higher level things that we can focus on, whether that's audience or different numbers or anything like that that I should be really directly focused on outside of what we talked about?

Yes, I'm gonna give you two that if you focus on over the next six months, I think we're having a very different conversation then. The first is every day or five days a week, make a list of five people, new people than the day before that came from, from referrals or people you saw on social media or athletes that you used to connect with, or new athletes that you're excited to connect with and reach out to them in some way. And that is sending them some coffee, sending them a dm, sending them a video endorsing their work on your social media, doing like planting the first seed seed in five relationships per day. Maybe two to three months from now. You've got enough relationships where it just becomes about watering those seeds. So we don't need.

800 new relationships at the end of six months. We are looking to plant seeds to have 30 good relationships at the end of six months. So every day reach out to five people with an attempt to serve or edify them in some way. That is point number one, because that is going to be the people who end up becoming raving fans. Influencers the buyer at the office that you want to buy in bulk, the athlete who talks about you, the manager who knows the buyer at Costco. It is just about planting seeds in five relationships a day or watering those seeds. Got that first part right?

Yeah, that makes total sense.

Cool. And then the second part is documenting and. Or speaking to the ideal person in a way that serves them, that has little or nothing to do with coffee. So that can be as simple as. Are you familiar with Jocko Willink?

Yes, I am. I've read his book to him regularly.

So you know what he posts every day at. What is it, 4am on Instagram. It's a picture of his watch.

Yes.

That has very little to do with his book, but it has everything to do with his brand.

Okay.

You know what he's doing, you know, like every day at 4am you're like, there it is again. Yep. And.

That is content. Because it speaks to the right person, to the wrong person. They go, why the hell is he getting up at 4am Sounds awful. To the right person, like, damn, duh, I got to do better. So your job is every day to speak to or to call out something to that person to edify their journey, to overcome their obstacles, to introduce them to new ideas, to show other products that might even be competitors of yours, because they serve the person. To show what you're eating, because you are a high performer, to show what this first baseman does, to warm up. That's a little bit different than everybody else. It is just seeding the audience with ways for them to say, that's me. And you're doing that at least once a day. So those are the two things that if you did for the next six months, I think we're having a different conversation from here. And that is going to get you those initial buyers and those initial fans, and it will give us something that we can scale six months from now.

Right. That is. That's huge. It gives me such a. A better way of looking at using social media to. To kind of get our brand out there rather than, you know, nobody wants to see a picture of our coffee and saying, you know, buy this. You know, buy this, buy this, buy this every couple days. Just people ignore that. So I love that. Speaking to the specific person in other ways outside of the.

A better way of doing what you're describing is like simply saying, what's your grind? Or what's your launch? What are you launching? And put it in the comments. Are you launching a new fitness plan? Are you launching a new journey as a parent, Are you launching a new career? Like, what are you. What are you launching right now? We want to support you on your journey. And then you randomly DM5 of those comments and you send them some coffee. Your. Your job is to. Is to be the lens through which other people see their journey, and you are supporting them on that journey. And in this case, it's them launching the new, new direction of their life and doing the daily work that it requires to fulfill their dreams. And you help them do that, and coffee is a proxy for them to do it. It's like, I'm having this idea right now where coffee is something you do every day. What is the other thing you do every day that sets you up for your goals? Some people drink it on the way to a workout. Some people drink it on the way to work. Some people drink it to get through the sleepless nights of being a new parent. It's like, I'm getting this idea, like, what are you launching? What's your launch? What's the habit that the coffee is fueling? I don't know where I want to go with that yet, but there's something in there around a social media campaign that I think would really serve your people.

Definitely. I love that idea. I think it's kind of for me to, you know, being able to clarify that what you just said and really what. That. What that idea is is something that could be a core message that would help us at least in the next, you know, six, seven months and onward from there. I love it. Yeah. So thank you for that. I have. So I guess, like, one of. One of the things that I wanted to ask you and I. I'll admit I stole it from the last podcast that I listened to where the girl asked you what she should not have asked or what she did not ask that should have. And I think so for me, like, two years ago, three years ago, maybe the Internet was something that you go to just buy things from. Like, I didn't have any concept of online business or business in general. It was pretty much baseball 100% of the time. So I feel like I'm fairly new. I've listened to a lot of stuff, I've done a lot of research, but I know that there's some things that I'm missing, and I would love to kind of ask you that. Like, what did I not ask you today that I should have asked you?

You should have asked me how to leverage more of the relationships that you have in order to amplify the message that you want to bring to the world. And you didn't ask me that because you don't know what it is just yet. Yet you're in grind mode. You're in. You're hustling a couple different things. You're still on your journey, and I think you're still finding the voice and the message that you want your brand and who Nick wants to be in the next stage of his life and career. And what you don't see yet is that if you share that.

It will expedite the journey because it will help other people who connect with where you are in their journey. So what I think, and I'm hallucinating a bit, but I hallucinate that you are a little bit hesitant to share your journey because you feel like you're either starting over or you're in the thick of it right now. And so you're waiting to be on the other side of it before you start speaking to your person.

Yeah.

But if you use the relationships that you have.

And you start documenting that journey of where you already are, you'll find it faster and you will create more of an impact because there are many, many, many people who feel like they are in transition and feel alone in their transition. Yours is going from professional athlete to the next stage of your life and career. That. That is much more relatable than being the. Than being Mike Trout.

Right.

It's much more relatable than being the hall of Famer. And so you have the ability right now to both discover that for yourself and help your people discover something about themselves through this journey. I just made some very bold assumptions about you, but that's my answer to your question.

That's a great. Honestly, you're right on. Um, I had, I think, kind of the stuff that we've been talking about this whole time as far as getting outside of just copy and sharing the journey. Like, I always was hesitant to do that because I didn't know if I wasn't talking about brand specific copy specific things that it applied, but kind of the whole shift that you've given me is that all of that, that whole entire journey, even outside the copy, it speaks to the person that we're trying to reach. So, I mean, that's huge. And I. I really appreciate that.

Well, consider this for a quick second.

I am just coming off of a transition in my career. It took me over two years to really find my footing after I went through my last acquisition. Transitions are hard. And you know what kind of got me through it Faster was the daily work. The daily work, in spite of my doubts, the daily work, in spite of my insecurities, the daily work, in spite of not knowing where I was going. And the daily work, not necessarily to.

Achieve something, but the daily work to keep me healthy, happy, present while the next area of my life just unfolded. And that's its own journey. And you can speak to that as its own journey. Transitions are their own journey. Being an athlete is its own journey. And I think you have the opportunity to speak to that in a unique way that not a lot of people would. That's a lifestyle brand, Nick.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. No, that makes complete sense. I think it's. I kind of relate to that exactly. Like just being able to have that work to fall back on when there's nothing else. And you have the process that you go through every day so that you still feel like you're progressing forward. I mean, that's kind of huge for anybody, I think.

Yeah. Well, my friend, I think if you document that and you show that, doing the daily work every day as an entrepreneur.

If you show that and you document it and you speak to it, I think we're having a very different conversation six months from now. So I am watching Nick in more ways than one. I'm already a fan in more ways than one. So I am rooting for you, my friend.

Thank you, Ryan. I appreciate it.

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