#113 | From UK to USA: AN Supps |

Welcome to Episode #113 of Rizzology, where we dive deep into the heart of the sports nutrition industry with some of its most passionate advocates. Join our host Nicky Rizzles as he welcomes our esteemed guests, Darin Decker and Nick Karalekas, from the powerhouse brand Applied Nutrition (branded as "AN" in the U.S.).

In this episode, Darin and Nick Karalekas share an exciting reveal of their upcoming supplement lines and discuss the dynamic strategies that have propelled their brand to dominate the UK market and eye significant expansion into the U.S. They provide insider insights into their versatile product lines designed for specific niche consumers, emphasizing their unique capability to market, sell, and manufacture products including innovative chewable and liquid creatine.

Our guests reflect on Applied Nutrition's success in the UK, their methodical U.S. expansion strategy, and their impactful presence in expos and sales meetings.

Nick and Darin praise Spencer for his contributions, camaraderie, and military service, adding a heartfelt layer to the dialogue. They also express genuine gratitude for their team's achievements and the support shown at events like the Olympia, notably marked by heavy security and diverse interactions with bodybuilding enthusiasts.

Prepare for a conversation filled with laughter, strategic insights, and a showcase of the company’s commitment to building a community of athletes and collaborators. Darin emphasizes the importance of listener feedback and support for the products discussed, enhancing the engagement.

Expect a revealing look at marketing innovations, flavor-forward product lines, and upcoming high-profile partnerships that promise to make a 'tsunami' impact in the market. As always, humor and candid moments punctuate the discussion, making for an educational yet entertaining episode.

https://www.instagram.com/anperformanceusa/
https://www.instagram.com/nick.karalekas/
https://www.instagram.com/legendarin01/

Chapters

• 0:00 Cool vibes as a spectator at expo.
• 4:42 Confusion over attire leads to friendly exchange.
• 7:30 Noticing more.
• 11:12 All black everything: top-selling UK pre-workout.
• 15:48 Few brands handle marketing, production, trendsetting effectively.
• 19:43 Pioneering sports nutrition through UK-US collaboration.
• 22:41 Internal and external teams vital for branding.
• 27:07 New US-specific line based on market needs.
• 28:35 Focus on cognition and energy for athletes.
• 32:46 Flavor is crucial for product success.
• 35:23 Product enhances athletic performance and longevity.
• 41:00 Nick Karalekas: Excited about upcoming projects, Instagram.
• 41:50 Grateful for the amazing team's collective efforts.

Transcript

0:02

I'm everywhere is me. Is me drinking this gonna be a problem? Never sip away. Oh, he's rolling right now. Yeah, I'm rolling. Oh. Oh, that's gonna. Holy Santa Claus shit. Let's go. Yeah, that's right. All right. Well, gentlemen, in the Las Vegas Trump hotel. Trump Tower. Trump Tower. Yep. In Trump Tower, we got. I think it's episode like, 113 114 of Rizology. That's a lot of episodes. That's a lot of episodes. It's a lot of talking. It's a lot of yammering sometimes, and just like, you know, just. I get it. Just hanging out with. With good people. So welcome. We had an eventful morning, everybody. We had an eventful morning. We had a great morning. Good vibes. Good vibes. Excellent vibes. Yes. Little stress for a second. It was a little road bump. This is completely my fault in terms of the stress and anxiety, because Darren decided to stir the pot and rush me and Nick, and I then gave Nick shit. I will say exactly what happened as well, but I will also say I did tell Nick before we received a text from Darren, don't let people steal your energy. And he let people steal his energy. He stole all of it. Yes, he did allow that. So it's okay. I'm gonna get him on a pliability routine and a breath work type of a workout when we get back. It's good. Breathing exercises are good. So essentially what happened this morning, we're doing a little bit of a scramble right now because we're gonna go walk the expo floor at the Olympia. We're at the 60th Olympia. It's kinda cool. It's pretty cool. I haven't been into the expo yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Cause there's some cool brands. People in this space are doing some interesting stuff. It's nice. It's nice to see. It's always fun to see, like, the mutants that are out there too. Yeah, right. Well, the mutants are what put asses in seats. That's right. You know, nobody wants to see, like, string beans, you know what I'm saying? Like, they don't want to see the string bean walk out. They want to see the dude that weighs 400 pounds and is bone shredded. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So it's. The vibes are cool at the expo. Expo's always been cool. Being that I was usually not on the sales side of the expo and the supplement side, it's kind of cool to be able to go there as a spectator fan, to actually go witness the expo and not be like, oh, we got this appearance. We got this, we got this, we got that. So it's actually kind of, in some ways, relaxing to not have to be on that side and be on the more meaning side, because applied nutrition is actually ramping up, doing their thing. And, I mean, there's a lot to talk about on that side. But let me get to the morning. The morning we got last night, we came back to the hotel. Security everywhere. Everywhere. Smacked, frankly, everywhere. Frankly, everywhere. It was crazy. And then, obviously, you start putting two and two together, Trump's probably in town, which is pretty crazy, because we were not, obviously, expecting it. We're here for the mutants. Yeah. Zero understanding that Donnie would be in the building now. Crazy. Yeah, it's crazy when you think about it. It is. So we came in. They had a field day with me, with all my camera gear. Yes. The dude took that lens cover off of the sensor, and I just went, oh. I was like. He saw me cringing. I just went, oh, please don't have your thumb slip in and touch the sensor. And he goes, how long did it. Take you to get through? Oh, it took at least ten minutes. Yeah, at least to get through the sole. Check your. My personal. Yeah, because I got wanded. They just, like, I took everything out of my pockets. I got wanded. I went through the metal detector. And then on top of that, they had to take out every single piece of equipment out of my gear bag. And then not only did they take out every single piece of equipment, they opened up every camera and every lens. Lens to look through and make sure that there's not anything through it. You had an anxiety attack. Yo. Listen, I get it. Yeah, I get it. Oh, yeah, of course. Listen, I get it. And even when I. Even when I'm at the airport and I travel internationally or I travel even domestically, they stop me a lot of the times. Cause they're just like, fuck, you got all these batteries, bro? Like, what's this? What's all these batteries? Why? What, do you work for Duracell? Like, what's up with this? So I definitely. I definitely get it. It's a security thing. And listen, people 3d print guns. Like, it's. You can get through with no metal showing and still have something that can be fatal to somebody else, so totally get it. So we're doing all that, whatever. So we all dispersed last night, and then obviously, we were destined to meet this morning for our podcast. Now, I went downstairs. Cause I wanted to go get a coffee. It's actually pretty ironic I went to the little barista right by the elevator, and then she didn't have iced coffee. So then I went around to the bar, to the restaurant, I got iced coffee from them, and then I walked back and, you know, listen, secret service, bro, they're watching everybody. They're looking around, that's their job. Like, I get it. So, like, they're just watching me. And I walk back to the little barista that's by the elevator, and I just went, you know what, she's only got like danishes and shit. I should go, like, get some actual food. I was like, and so now I'm thinking in my head, like, do I. Look sus, going back and forth between the restaurant? Yeah, like, what fucks this kid? And I'm wearing the same hoodie and the same shoes and similar shorts to last night, so they're probably like, fuck, is this dude still dressed the same way? Like walking back and forth? Like, what's up with this guy? So I go, I start walking back to the, to the dining area, and the guy goes, oh, making the rounds, huh? And I went, ah, I said, listen, man wanted iced coffee. She didn't have it. I had to go back and forth. I said, then I said, I'm here for the Olympia. Yeah. I said, I'm here for the Olympia. I said, so I can't just have a Danish, I gotta get like some real food. He's like, he starts laughing, joking around. And then I ate, and then as I came back, I said, you know what I'm thinking? We got a lot of cases of drinks. Obviously, Spencer wanted to get rid of those shaker cups. We gotta get rid of them. He wanted to get rid of those shaker cups. So I said, you know what, man? You got. I know that. I was talking to the guy, just friendly, just having a conversation. I said, hey, man, I don't know if I can, I gotta check with my guys. I said, but I think we have a couple of cases of drinks and this and that. And he just goes, bro, we would love that because we got twelve hour shifts coming up and this and that. So I said, okay. So we ran over there, but then there's checkpoints, and then trying to get the same uber, and then you're stressing Nick out. Guess what? So our Uber named Nick, yeah, named Nick. And we had him twice. Nick to the third. Nick, Nick, Nick, nick to the third. Dang. Okay, so, yeah, so then we got back, and here we are. That was the story. That was the story. I mean, I think that's a pretty good story. We have the Secret Service hopped up. It was on Aberry, and I'm hoping Don gets. You guys got just. We got a couple of cases of, like, the blue lagoon. Case of each? Yeah. Did you give him a case of each? Yes. All right, cool. Case of each. And a bag of shakers. That was on him. Bag of shakers. Okay. And pre workouts. Dude, that kid, that was. I challenge anyone to challenge any of these guys in fights downstairs hopped up on caffeine. Oh, it's over. No, no, it's a wrap. Try it. Seriously? I guess I didn't realize that they're all pulling twelve hour shifts, like. Yeah, you can. A lot of those guys I saw last night. Yeah. They were pulling 12 hours, man. That's crazy. Yeah. The. The amount of security downstairs was. Washington was palpable. Yeah. Right. Like, it was felt. Yes, it was felt. Yes. Very much so. Both present sense and figuratively. For sure. But necessary during these. These times. Yeah, man. But listen, any political can. These times. I just broke the fourth wall. That's okay. Yeah. You gotta make eye contact every now and then. Let em know that you're still there. Hey, I just. Hey, I. The kid that was asking us about one of the athletes from Bev's, he goes to Bev's. That kid, he lives in Garden City. That's why. Oh. He goes, do you know Sadiq? I'm like, oh, I know. Yeah, we know him. We're familiar. Yeah, yeah, Sadiq. And that's why he's. And that's why he. He was just like, oh, I live in Garden City. I go to Bev's. I'm like, oh, shit, look at that. That's interesting. Yeah, right? All the way. So then definitely knows Abe. And if he didn't. Now he does. He does now he does now. I mean, all black. Everything's taking over. I think he's gonna. He's gonna see it. He'll recognize it. And then when he's back home, he's gonna see it all the time. You know how you see that? You're like, oh, yeah, I'm interested in, like, a new, you know, Toyota Tacoma. Right. And then every truck you see is basically a Toyota. Obviously, your phone's listening to you, so now you're gonna get hit with all my ads, so you're welcome. Exactly. I do want a Toyota, so I want to get rid of my BMW so bad. That's actually one of the things I gotta do when I get back. I gotta fix that car. See that skit where the guy's like your phone's listening to and he's like millions of dollars? Yes, yes. Winning on the slot machines. Winning on the slot machines. Darren, what are you playing? You're gonna try to play a hand of poker? You know I've been here for big roulette two full days that I said, and I haven't gambled yet. I do anticipate probably playing at least some blackjack. I like playing blackjack when I'm here. But I know you said roulette. I just said it cuz it's easy. He judged the hell out of me. When I said, you know when someone says I come to Mama's and I love roulette, it means to me, and this is not a slide of you. It's like, I don't understand gambling. I knew he was gonna say something like unsophisticated. I was gonna say it. I don't wanna cut him. Dumb shit. Some dumb shit. I don't understand gambling. Cause it's hillbilly. Hillbilly roulette is the worst odds in Vegas. And so is it. It's like 50 50. No, it's actually, it's not. If I put it all on red or black, isn't that just 50 50? Because you could have green and then you fucking lost. Oh, you're right, you're right. I totally forgot about green 50 50. So what if I put one on green and one on black? Then you break even every time. Or you could lose both of them on fuck. All right, so I'm just not gambling at all. So it's. Blackjack is typically where you want to stay. Cause your odds are higher in blackjack. I lose every time I play in blackjack. Maybe. Yeah. I don't know. I've taught my six year old daughter how to play blackjack. She has her own dealer corner. Well, I created like a house, a house tab for her. So she builds up cash over time. And I have poker chips. So if she makes like 150 poker chips, she can take money out of her house account to go like get ice cream or like if she gets like 2000, she can get a new toy. But yeah, that's how I am raising my daughter. What if she starts owing you money because the house always wins? I'm pretty nice, so she usually beats the house, to be honest. If she runs out of money, it's like, oh, here's, here's, here's a couple more chips. At what age do we swipe that? We swap that and now she's, like, forced to realize that the house usually wins. I would say probably around ten. Yeah. When she starts asking for more expensive items, probably ice cream isn't the only thing on the table. Yeah. Once the little plastic toys kind of go away, and it's more like, give me a Nintendo DS or like, you know, those big, expensive Christmas items, that's when it. Well, now that you said it. And how much are we dealing out today? Starts fucking dealing. Real hands. That'd be awesome. Actually, on the topic of that kid being in Garden city, saying now he knows Abe, we need to learn who Abe is. We've been doing a little bit of education with people about what it is, what the brand is. Now, I'll be honest, when Nick brought me on and I saw Abe, I didn't really know the brand. I wasn't really too familiar with it. But obviously, then you start looking into applied nutrition, start looking into the parent company, what they have going on. And then obviously, the push that we have in the coming months of just new products, new flavors, new. I mean, I guess you could say companies or sub companies, whatever you want to call it. But I mean, listen, you guys are the. You guys are in, you know, you guys are integrated into the actual funnel of what it is. So take it away. Please, educate us. Yeah, no. So all black everything. Not Abe, by the way. Abe's a person that nobody knows. And a former president, frankly. Tremendous president. Tremendous president. But all black everything in the UK is the number one selling pre workout in all of Europe. So applied nutrition is what, maybe one of four nine figure businesses in sports nutrition, if that. So. Absolute behemoth of a business over there. They make everything from pre workout to pump, to protein to protein, porridge, cream of rice, oats, every certain category, convention, delivery method you could think of, gels, dissolvable tablets. I'm running out of breath. Like, it just keeps going. And it's just one of those things where it's an absolute beast of a company. And then applied nutrition brought their ab Eline over to the states. So I said, ab line, it's in the UK, a product in the States. Two years ago now, Abe. All black everything. So wei ISO. All black everything. All black everything pump. All black everything. Creatine. Some really fantastic placement, as the head of sales will tell you. But in terms of brand visibility, messaging, shelf placement, how we stand out on shelf, and also messaging, social marketing standpoint, it wasn't where we thought it should be. So our new CEO, Aaron Hybright, who brought us all in. Thank God. Also be jobless. Love you, Aaron. Shout out, Aaron. All praise the Lord. And Aaron. Hey, Aaron. Hey, Aaron. You're the man. Yeah. So we just rebranded the all black everything pre workout and repositioned it to what it originally is. And that is a singular product. All black everything is a pre workout, tried and true. Punches you right in the mouth. 350 milligrams of caffeine and then the kitchen sink of performance ingredients on top of that. And then with that, though, we're repositioning the. What I like to call the black brand in a different sort of way, which we can't divulge right now, but that, let's call it skin of the product, will be consistent across the pump, the energy drink, the protein, the creatine, and a few other exciting products, too. Yeah, no, I mean, that's exactly what we're doing. I think a lot of what the team did in the past, right, was the reason that Abe became a line even in the US, or became a brand in the US, was because we can't use the name applied nutrition. Someone else owns that right to that name. In the States? In the States or else. Of course, we would have leaned on that UK naming convention to enter into the states, but someone else owns it and apparently didn't want to give it up for cheap. So, that said, we are now this current us team are operating under the brand name of an. Right. So just an by itself. And so what you'll be seeing from us and what we actually announced yesterday on LinkedIn and social media is another line extension outside of our current kind of. I would call this our black series internally, an. An performance. And then really next week, we're going to be announcing our exclusive specialty retail partnership that we are launching this performance line with, which we are extremely excited about. These are the things that this team has really been heads down working on since we got hired on in March and just been next level in brand story development. Understanding the consumer, understanding the pricing, understanding the category, and positioning us to really leverage the applied nutrition team in the UK and bring some of their expertise over in a way that fits with the us market. And so all of us have been really, from the leadership level all the way down to, you know, pretty much everywhere in the entirety of the organization, are people from within this industry that have an absolute passion for sports nutrition. And there's tons. There's tons of knowledge in the space. So we're ahead. We're excited for the team that we put together. We're excited the direction, the strategy. We shared some of that with some of our partners this week, and everyone's, everyone's aligned. So just kind of building, building the momentum is really our story for from now until, you know, next, next fiscal year. And one of the things I forgot to mention, too, and Aaron likes to make this point, and I think it's extremely important to talk about, is one of the reasons why Aaron decided to take this job as CEO of applied nutrition, or an USA, as we call it, a, is just one of the larger factors, is we're vertically integrated. We make our own stuff. We own our entire process from start to finish, from sourcing raw materials to labeling, to bottling, to manufacturing, to flavoring everything. And out of curiosity, just to stop you there, how many other companies do that? Very few. Very few. When I say prominent brands, the majority of them do not have that capability whatsoever. We are one of very few who can not only market the hell out of products, sell products, but we can also make those. So having the ability to do all of these things and all of these capabilities and really having a strong suit of finding trends and having the unique skillset of just jumping on a trend and a snap of a finger and being able to make chewable creatine, being able to make the first ever liquid Creole flow creatine that we have the sole rights to and created ourselves. So having these skills and this talent of a business that is just such a huge upside and a huge tool for us to not only take advantage and continue to dominate over the water pond, whatever the fucking phrase is, but now in the states to where it's like, hey, we find an unserved market here in the states, we're going to dominate from an athlete standpoint, very confident in that. Not only are we going to dominate in a license standpoint, flavor, collaboration, but also from a sales standpoint, we're very confident in our sales staff, and Darren can speak to that. I'm just a marketing guy, but just the team that Aaron and Darren have put together here, Spencer, who's sitting on the floor right here, who is an absolute. Guys can't see him, man. He's handsome, absolute machine. And just like, just again, talent on all levels and just the excitement that I've seen from, and again, I've been in marketing for quite some time, and I've been running expos and I've been in the sales meetings. This is the first time in my twelve year career in sports nutrition where I saw people come in and say, holy shit, everyone's talking about you guys the first time. And I've been with a lot of cool brands and with a lot of hype around it, not to this level. So it was really gratifying to me. And I wish Aaron was here to kind of share that because we had a lot of people come in and genuinely be like, holy shit, dude, you guys are gonna fucking blow up. And that's not one of those things where it's like, I hope we do. I'm very confident and I think everyone else is. And just so people know, and I wanna let you say what you're gonna say, darren, but just so people know, like, when we say that the company's gonna blow up and they're gonna. You guys are gonna do some amazing things. You guys have already been doing that in the UK for a while now, over a decade. Yeah, so it's, you know, which I wasn't familiar with, obviously. So it's like the UK market has been dominated by applied nutrition and now making the push for the US is going to be a whole nother beast for them to just come in and kill. Yeah, and like, one last note, like, to make this perfectly clear, like, I'm not talking out of my ass like these. All the things that I'm saying, like, are validated over a decade of success. And not just like, Thomas started a supplement store and he started critical mass in that product and it just took off from there. And the UK team has done an amazing job of building such an amazing workflow and a platform for us to try and make this business a success, which we're very confident that it will be. And we're partnering up with quite hell of a retail partner exclusively, which will be announced next week, which we're very excited about. They've really given us a nice padding to really make that jump and we're all super excited about it. Yeah, and to be completely transparent, like, we've all talked about this too, which is, no one's really done this before. And when I say no one's done this before, I mean, there hasn't been a crazy success story of really strong UK or foreign brands coming back into the US to be successful. There's been us brands that drive the market and then go global and are successful, but nothing's really happened that way. In the reverse order, almost reverse order. And so we are taking a lot of pride and a lot of thoughts around how can we be one of the first teams to do this in the history of sports nutrition? Like, that is. That is something that we have dialogue on, which is people have tried this before. What can we look at to see what they did wrong? What can we look at to see what they actually had some success with? And how can we, knowing this industry specifically in the US, be able to leverage the UK manufacturing chops with our marketing chops, our partnership chops, and be able to drive, drive this home? And a lot of it has to do with the UK kind of giving us some leash, right? Having, having, understanding that, okay, how you are successful in the UK or even on a global scale is different than how you can be successful in the US. US is a lot of branding. Us is a lot of marketing. US has a different level of formulation chops in a lot of specialty retailers, relationships, pricing models. The great news is this team has experience across the board, from specialty grocers, whole food grocers, to FDM, big mass retailers, digital, Amazon, all omnichannel kind of vision. And we've all kind of done it before. And so that's what gives me a lot of confidence in that. What we're bringing to market these various lines that we've been working on have the opportunity to be successful. And so that's, that's exciting. The one thing, too is like, that's, it's like, holy shit. When you take a step back and I think you can attest to it too, is like, we're like, oh, we're talking about applied nutrition. He said lines. It's plural. This isn't just like a product line that we've been, you know, kicking rocks and like, oh, we have a launch. Day, we have our pre workout and we have our protein. No, no, there's, it's deep. And the thing is, is like each of these lines, right, is geared specific toward a specific niche consumer. This isn't just like a 6 grams of citrulline and 200 milligrams of caffeine. Like, everything is specifically, everything is deliberate, from the formulation, to the labeling, to the design, to the marketing, to the audiences, to the podcast that we're doing, our licensing partners, the bottles that we use, the feel of the product, the messaging, every product and category has a specific message and purpose. And that's what I think gets lost in this space, is that everyone's just throwing shit against the wall and nothing's done deliberately to serve to specific markets and people. So if you can do that, if you can separate yourself in that matter and that headset, I don't see why someone or some team with a backing like applied nutrition partnering up with the right retail partners and digitally just, I, it's, it's, it's a really good recipe for success. And that's, that's just, that's the piece of it of, like, even just like the internal team, the external partners that we've also brought on that are helping us do this are also, like, extremely critical. I want to shout out to, like, Nutri media, who has been, I mean, most people that follow the industry, Abe, or even follow the industry or follow our, our look and our change. Like, they, along with our internal designers, both here domestically, in the US and in the UK, helped create. So we had three teams help create kind of the new look of the Abe on shelf for Walmart to give it that pop, to give it that modernness, to have easy flavor, call outs, to bring forward our informed sports certification, because that's a standard on every line that we're going to create in the US. That's just who we are as individuals. And so, like, they are, we're instrumental on that and various things that you'll be seeing in the future coming from an, in the us market. And so, like, again, we are bringing our friends along for the ride. And some of our, I would say our, our messaging right within am performance is we want to build a community, but we don't want to build, like, a community of just athletes that enjoy taking our products. We want the type of individuals that, like, lead and then grab their friend and take them with them. Right? We want the individual that's not gonna, like, you know, you know, the, the guy that's, that looks good and gets let into the bar, he gets the clip of the velvet rope, but then he just, like, leaves his friend and fuck that guy. We want the guy that's like, no, no, I'm not going in unless my buddy goes like, that's, that's the group that we want to surround ourselves with. And that's really what we built. Ben and Mike from price plow, like I called them, with some crazy ideas on the AM performance line, and we just dove in deep. I had wish lists. They said, yeah, here, this could be interesting. We had great conversations. And am performance, which we're going to announce more detail on in the coming weeks, is, I think, some of the best formulated performance products. I'm an ex athlete. Most of us are ex athlete. This line speaks to the forever athlete. This is a line that I feel comfortable giving to. I'm a high school track coach, too. It's a line that I feel comfortable giving to like my high school kids. Cause it's not cracked out. Like, a lot of stuff you see on the market is literally for output and performance. And so these. These types of things that we're doing, we're extremely passionate about. And, you know, I. I'm uniquely in a position here where I haven't been in other organizations I've worked for in the past, where I'm helping formulation, I'm helping taste. I mean, I think you guys saw me in my element yesterday when it came to taste profiles. I care so much about every single skew tasting as great as it possibly can to match whatever flavor I'm trying to go for to give you that experience. Yeah, we had v one, we had v two, and we were mixing them and trying both and seeing what you can bring up in the profile to make it taste different or better, what makes it worse. And we don't want that. And that's another change. Right? Like, we are working with us flavor houses for us branded products that we're launching here in the past. Something that we've seen from UK brands that come here is they use their flavor systems that were successful in other countries in the US. And that doesn't always necessarily work. And I know you've mentioned this to me, but why doesn't that always work? The us flavor palette demands relatively more sweetness. For someone to consistently enjoy the product they're taking, you have to match what's on the shelf. Right. And what they're used to if you're going to win that customer over. And I think. I think we've done that with a lot of the new products that we're bringing to the market. We're retooling some of the old ones in the market to fit the pallet needs. And so again, it's just, it's a labor of love. At the end of the day, we all love this industry and what we're doing, and we're just trying to showcase, showcase that more as we continue on this journey. And so I know you said from coming from, obviously, applied nutrition, there are some products that are coming from their line over here that you just have to reformulate. And what is that process been like to have you hit every skew to make sure that each one is reimagined for this market? Yeah. So for the most part, like, when it comes to this new line, that performance that we announced, all of that is specific to the us market. Like, we really formulated that based off the needs and based off of what we see in specialty and where we think that line will fit Abe is a line that really already existed on the black series. Will we retool that in the future? Potentially. But right now, we have specific retails that we sell into. And anytime you make a formula change, you change UPC's, you have to reset up, they have to re put in their system. It's a whole cascade. So anything net new? Yeah, we're heavily involved with, with changing over, but right now, it's, it's really just the stuff that's currently in market is the, are the current skus and the current formulations, those aren't changing. We're just giving them the facelift that they really need, correcting the branding on it. But a lot of the net new stuff is where a lot of the innovation and fun us specific, uh, I guess, expertise are coming in. You had mentioned a couple, like the formulation, like the specific ingredients that you guys are excited about that are going to be going into some of the new formulas. Anything that you can disclose, if you can. It's okay. I'm not looking for. I'm not looking. Is there, is there any, is there any ingredient? Cause I know we have talked about a couple, and I don't want to. Say any out loud without, I'm happy to say, some, some, some skews. And it's not even skewed. I'm not even looking for that. I'm looking for some of the ingredients that you guys are excited that you haven't seen done, maybe. I mean, in terms of performance. Like, we, we know that as x athletes, focus and cellular energy are very, two very important caveats to products that would be successful in someone that's demanding performance, endurance, and output. So we love cognizant as a c to choline product. You'll be seeing that featured in a lot of the AM performance line. Peak ATP is another ingredient that drives ATP within the system, like exogenous ATP. That's another one that I would call out. But again, every one of these products is made for sport or gym. And so it's very much a versatile experience for, I would say the forever athlete. Or I guess a lot of the term these days is like the hybrid type style athlete. Someone that wants to be able to be functional, run, but also wants to train and build that, that muscular resistance training for longevity and the performance that they need in whatever sport they do. Right. And so that's really the type of individual that we focus on for the AM performance line specifically. And so you have AM performance, Abe, and then is there another one? There will be. There is a line that we're developing, undisclosed, but that, that line is one that's going to be kind of a fun, a fun flavor forward line. I think that's all I can probably say about that line right now. But, yeah, there'll be three separate lines of based off channel, based off customer need that we are focused on accelerating in the new year for sure. So we have an performance hybrid base. Athletes, high rocks, lifting, jiu jitsu, all that life. We have Abe. Yeah, I would say that's your more hardcore, high caffeine tolerant individual. I like to call them the dopamine chasers. Right? The guys that love that dopamine, that want to feel it in the gym. That's really where that Abe or all black kind of line is really resonating. Um, that's a specialty play for us. That's, that's gym, um, play for us. And so a lot of the upgrades and label look and feel and the straightforwardness of what that means to individuals is, is what we're going to work on defining here in the, in the very near future. And that's tried, and that's tried and true because it's been out. It's been around. Yeah. So, like, and that's another thing, too, is, like, we talk a lot about the in performance line that's coming out. And I don't want any of the bodybuilders watching this. Like, the category of pre workout was created, built off the backs of bodybuilders. Pre workout protein creatine bodybuilders. But there's an underserved market with actual performance athletes. Now, with the and performance line, like you said, extremely versatile. This pre workout can do both. Just like your best girlfriend. So, like, hey, ig girl, that can do both. Exactly. So. But my point being though, like he said, we have that versatility within that line. And that goes across the board on the black series. And the black line, like, this is for the hardcore bodybuilder, the hardcore lifter that wants pre workout pump creatine. That's the industry's roots. Whey protein isolate. Like an isolate. Pure form of protein. Yeah. And we're not afraid to. We're not shying away from that whatsoever. Like, our foot is firmly on the pedal. Still there. Yeah. There's just an uncapped air. Yeah. And there's a substantial amount of other things that we're doing. But rest assured that, like, hardcore category, that's a big play for us as well. It'll always be taken care of a thousand percent. And then the third line that we mentioned is just really that. That is the an. Don't say it's okay. Don't even say it. No, no. Don't even say it. It's okay. Leave it as a mystery. But, yeah, but that one's another one. We're really excited about the flavor forward line and that, but for that customer base that we're targeting is really that entry. When you say flavor forward, what does that mean? Tons of different flavors. I would say we're going to have tons of different licenses within that set too, that we've been working on behind. The scenes on tons. Tons, honestly. And this is before we even have products in market. We've secured a lot of license for this line, which is going to drive a lot of excitement for us as well. You say it's a yes. Yes. Also too, also too. Like, the one thing that I will say, just from a high level, holistic viewpoint is that I think people, when they dive deep into creating product lines and formulations, they over engineer or they dive too deep. And I think sometimes just keep it simple, stupid. And I think when it comes to making a good product line and a good family of products, flavor matters first and foremost. That's what gets them in the door. That's what makes them stay. So if you have really great branding, you have really great labels, you have really great placement, really great relationships, that's great. If your product tastes like shit, they're not buying it. No one's, no one's buying another. They might buy an initial tub, but they're not buying a second, but. Exactly. And you're not in this to just have a one hit. Yeah. So, like, not, not talking playbook here, but like, if you can get them in the door with sick branding and marketing, if the product tastes fucking amazing, if they have a sense of community and belonging, you have a really long road of success. And that's really from a high level what the thought process is there. What are your guys favorite? And before you could talk about the. And performance, like the actual stuff, but not the. Obviously not the third mystery line, but what are your favorite products that are, you know, that you guys would utilize on a daily basis? Yeah, within that line, there's gonna be, there's a lot of stuff coming within that line. But I'm a yemenite. I'm someone that really enjoys pre workout. This is a guy that has had probably 15 servings of pre workout each day. We've been to the Olympia not since we've been here each day. I have a high caffeine tolerance dead inside. He needs to be studied. He needs to be studied. However, I would say the pre workout, for me is the formulation that I'm one most proud of. And two, the flavors that we developed for these are great, and they. And they hit a lot of. We have a lot of different skus kind of launching all at the same time, which people will see in the coming weeks when it comes to flavor options for you. Yeah, we'll go ahead with that. Oh, damn. Housekeeper's gonna hate that. What did mister Rizzo do in here? Because of also the. I would say that the other reason I, like, love this product is because not just because of the flavor or the formulation, but because of how we made it, which is for someone that enjoys running, that likes to go play pick up games of basketball, that. If I had more friends in Boise, Idaho, I'd love to be on a softball league. I'm not moving. Right? I'm not moving. We're not moving. I moved to Long Island. I don't know, but there's a. But, like, those. Those are types of things that I like to do. Like, I like to be athletes, and I created a product that I don't have to be stemmed out of my mind, but I can get the athletic benefits from, let's say, one scoop of the product, and then if I want to go train, which I also really love, resistance training, I can take two scoops and still get that pump blood flow, focus, endurance performance that I really need. And so they support each other. Right. In my forever athlete quest, to be able to tie my shoes when I'm, you know, 85, that's kind of the goal. How are you on that path so far? Every time I tie my shoes, I feel like my hamstrings are gonna pop. So that's where I'm currently at. But, you know, yoga is in my future. There you go. There you go. Yeah. I think in terms of my favorite, I think, I mean, secrets out. We're making a pre workout shocker. Yeah. But to make it perfectly clear, like, that one, two. One scoop. Two scoop thing, like, I don't want anyone to, like, misunderstand here. That one scoop is. It's a good feel. It's great. That two scoop, like, when I tell you, dialed in tunnel vision, I think I texted you and Ben and Aaron on multiple occasions, like, and to the point where, like, dude, we get it. It's great. But, like, I can't tell you how I've never been so dialed in. I'm not just saying that because I work for the company and I love my job. I mean that genuinely. I've even formulated my own pre workout, and it was pretty kick ass. It's not even close. Like, the performance and the focus and just the tunnel vision that I have when I take this product, it's tremendous, clean. Like, and I've. And, like, every. Every brand likes to say, no crush, no jitters. Whatever, bro. I'm like, I mean it. I mean it genuinely. Yeah. Like, there's no. It doesn't taper off. Like, it doesn't crash. It's just like, you're amplifying your training on such a high level and it tastes so good. Like, I can't. Like, it's ridiculous. But really excited about the pre workout. And then we have other categories that we're playing into that move very well. I don't think it's a shocker if we. I mean, say protein. Yeah, protein. But yeah. No, the one thing that I can say here without saying too much is really leaning in on flavor in a very unique way that no one really has ever tried to do or has done yet. And telling those flavor stories is very important to us, not just from. And performance, but from the black brand to whatever other brand brands we try to come up with and do launch. Leaning in on flavor. And again, just from a marketing standpoint, not to dive too deep, the communities within those brands, too, that's really important to us. And I would say, like, just. Just to draw a distinction of, like, how we view the business, too. You know, I think there's. There's a lot. There's a lot of talk about collab. Collab. Collab in the market. Right? Like, we. They did a collab with this. We did a collab with this. We. We are very straight shooters. We love flavor. We are doing flavor licenses. Right? That's what we're doing. We are understanding the license that we are partnering with. We are diving in deep to that flavor, and we are doing everything to make it taste like that flavor we are licensing. That's. That's where we are drawing that distinction. And I think that some of the ways that we're going about this are unique to the industry that really haven't been done yet. But I'll leave that for future marketing efforts to explain some of the fun stuff behind the scenes. So, speaking of marketing, we have, obviously, next week is a big week for the announcement. Very big week. Yeah, big week for the announcement. And then, obviously, bringing on athletes, influencers, celebrities. Just, like, a lot of different people that are going to be talking about the brand in the coming. Let's just say six months. Yeah. Within the next six months, I can say confidently, you'll see. I don't even want to call them, like, splashes. It's more of, like, what's the word I'm looking for? Tsunamis. Like, it's. It could get quite sensitive to Japan. It's crazy. Sorry. How do you guys. How do you guys do, like, Joe Rogan? Piss breaks. I got a piece. So fucking. I mean, we're. Truth be told, I think we're almost done. We're gonna go. It's. It's 937. So, like, let's wrap on this. Honestly, it's 937. We could always do another podcast. All right, it's 937. We gotta go walk the show floor. We gotta get back over there. We gotta get back through security. But now they're all, you know, gonna. Get my shit upstairs. Yeah, we gotta pack up in here, but. Okay, so let's go around the horn, starting with Nick. How can people follow you? How can people get in touch with you guys and, like, follow the journey and then obviously end with Darren? Why you got. I'm gonna start because I gotta piss super hard. All right, go. All right. I literally drank so many energy drinks already today, I'm about to piss my pants today. It's 930. Yeah, I know. I said, like, three, Spence. All right, so my name's Darren Decker. You can find me on social media grinder. Usually just the. I'm. I'll age myself. I'm just on Instagram. I'm not on TikTok. But it's loves LinkedIn, though. Legendaren. Zero one is where I'm at on Instagram. LinkedIn. I love LinkedIn. I knew he loved LinkedIn. Like, I don't do a lot of business advice, but I try and repost as much business stuff as possible, and it's a great. It's a great tool. But, yeah, those are. That's really where you can find me. And did you say your title with svps? I would say commercialization at this point, yeah. Oh, Nick Carlikas, director of marketing. You can find me at Nick Carolikis on Instagram and mic drop. But, yeah, we're super excited about everything we have going on. A lot of things in the works that we can't talk about. But one thing I can say is that. And Spencer kind of said this when we had the team in Texas for the first time is like. And this isn't like a cocky thing. This isn't like, oh, my God. Yeah. Like, it's. We're not just here to play. We're here to win, and we want to do that in a big way. Um, and we're confident we can do that. We. We have such a great team. And, uh, the brief shout out to the UK team, by the way, um, just the leadership and the flexibility, the understanding and the willingness to. To let us do our thing and to have Aaron, you know, give us the confidence to bring in people like Darren. That. That gave opportunities to me, Spencer, to shout out to DDP, shout out to Matt, shout out to Fernanda, the glue that holds that place together. Meg, everyone. Jordan, that we just hired on board, Bryant, who just did an amazing job with all the labels, and he's been really kicking ass, and just everyone that's doing such an amazing job and just really, really happy to be part of the team and we couldn't be more excited. So shout out to the team, first and foremost. Yeah. And obviously, to scale something like that and bring it up to fruition out there and have the push now for the US market is. It's. It's something that's commendable, man. It's tough. It's a tough business. You got competitors everywhere you look. So to make yourself actually stand out from the pack and continue to scale. Hey, baby. Welcome back. Yeah. Yes. It's okay. Yes. Okay. No, I was just. Okay. I was just laughing at myself because I peed for so long, and then I realized, like, how bad I'm pitting out in this shirt. Oh, you're okay? It's okay. Like, it's like, that's, like, me level. That's like, I've never. I don't. I don't think. I don't pit out that much. Yo, D. No. I appreciate the nervousness for rosalogy, but we're just hanging out. You know what it is? What is it? Tell me. It's the shirt that you're wearing. Yeah. It's not great, and it's not winning. It's not. Yeah, that's true. It's not breathable. It's not breathable. I mean, guys, the apparel is. It's coming. Hint, hint. Yeah. Hint, hint. So, yeah. All right, let's wrap on this because we're gonna. We're gonna care. Wow. You're just showing everybody now? That's crazy. That's gonna be. That's gonna be the thumbnail. That's wild. Applied nutrition team. Nervous. Why? Disgusting. Yo, I can't change my shirt, bro. Yo, I appreciate you boys. We're gonna do more. We're gonna do some more in depth ones. I'd love to get. Obviously, you come by the office. I want to get some in depth on your background, what you've gone through, done, experienced. I'm a psycho, bro. It'll be good. It'll be awesome. Obviously, you two. Spence, I appreciate you just being here, hanging out with us. Shout out to Spencer. Hold on. Really quick. No, no, seriously, I'm not kidding here. No, I'm being serious. He's waving it off. Don't wave me off. First of all, veteran, thank you for your service. Two. Yes. The man is an absolute machine and does such an amazing job building relationships and uplifting his team and just being there for his teammates. So shout out to Spencer for doing such a killer job. Shout out to Spencer. Doesn't get enough credit. The most mission ready person I've ever met in my fucking life. Yes. And I swear to God, if any. Of you freaked me out this morning because I didn't invite him, if any. Of you try to spot him when he's grinding a rep out, it's over for you. Yeah, that was me. That was me. And again, just shout out to the team. Everyone's done such an amazing job and has been very. Just understanding and such team players just across the board, so. And one. Sorry. It's like a fucking Grammy speech. Shout out to Aaron. So, this. The guy's done a lot for all of us, and, again, doesn't get enough credit, so thank you. Dude. Definitely going to get Aaron on the show. What a bootlicker. Sorry, I'm just trying to do the right thing. I was going to shout out the rest of our team because there's. We. We're doing so much as you. Sorry. Double shouts. I love it. Yeah, we need to shout out to the team because there's. There's not many of us in the US, right? And so we're doing all these things. We're doing so much. There was a team in place before we got here, and we just kind of came in like a wrecking ball. Right? And that's. That's always hard. Fernanda, who oversees, she's our head of operations. She's the glue that holds everything together. Fabiano, Meg, all at the office. Bryant, our designer, DDP, who's overseeing our international business right now. Like, he is. He is a driving force off of what's really allowing our business to continue to to build like this because he's driving a lot of revenue for us. Yeah. We just have a whole bunch of people on the team. On my team, specifically, I have grace on the MPD side of the business that's been helping me, guide me and set up a lot of these meetings and these ingredients. And she helps communicate with the UK. So it's, it's a whole operation over here that's been, um, pretty amazing. Spencer, we already shouted out. Right. He got everybody. Yeah, I got. Yeah. While you were peeing. I already did that, just so you know. Did he really? Oh, yeah, he did that. Exactly. Basically what you just did. Damn. See, not so much of a bootlicker, am I now? I just said double shout out. So you're good. Yeah. And I thanked you, by the way. Did I thank him? I always touch different parts of it. Wow. On that note, breaking the fourth wall again. Yeah, you gotta stare at them. All right. On that note, we gotta go. We gotta get over to the expo. We gotta. Jim Halpert, you do the Jim Halpert, you're breaking the fourth. On that note, we gotta wrap it up. We do got to wrap it up, frankly. Tremendous episode 113 results sitting down with the applied nutrition boys and performance Abe all black, everything secret 3rd, 3rd line. We are just an. That's who we are. So we got the A n boys hanging out. Darren, Nick, Spence. I appreciate you guys for hanging out, talking it up. Thanks for having us on rizology. My. Absolutely. My absolute pleasure. Appreciate all you guys. Please follow them. Please go support and try out the products. We'd like real feedback, you know, just try the drinks out, see which flavors you like. Let us know if there's something that you may not like. But, I mean, the flavors are pretty kick ass. Everything's spot on. And I've been enjoying working with them on the obviously content video side of things and then just getting to know everybody. I knew Nick for a long time, but getting to know the rest of the team more, that's a wild story. Isn't that crazy? We could definitely tell that another time. Holy shit. That's an hour podcast all in itself. But my bros. Come on. I appreciate everybody for hanging out with us, but for now, peace. Peace.